Doepfer Vocoder module, as photographed by our friend stretta (Matthew Davidson). Sure, the vocoder may now be something of an electronic music cliché now, but it got its beginnings as a mechanism of encoding speech. It was one of the first electronic instruments. It helped inspire the conceptual model for all digital communication. And, those […]

Emusic added Telefon Tel Aviv’s new album, Immolate Yourself, which was released on the same week as the loss of Charlie Cooper, half of the duo. Cooper’s death has saddened electronic music lovers worldwide, and made the album title seem much bleaker. But I want to excerpt a couple of Charlie Cooper’s quotes to Emusic’s […]

Rain Recording make audio-ready notebooks – that is, they’re pre-tested to function well with audio software, with Windows tweaks, driver selection, and configuration all chosen and tested for music and visual production, and no crapware installed. They’re one of a handful of music-friendly vendors that does that (see also: PCAudioLabs, etc.). Given that the PC […]

Web based, international “unextinguishable tire fire, except in video. 40 rabbits on Nyquil who all think they can sing Country Road.” Wreck and Salvage will be going live soon with the first installment of Tricorn. Tricorn Borgnine Promotional Device from wreckandsalvage on Vimeo. The show will consist of live long-form collaborative remixing from Nelson (Netherlands), […]

The creator of the wonderful glitchDS, repeaterDS, and cellDS Nintendo homebrew music apps has turned his sights to the free and open coding-for-artists desktop tool Processing. The result: a drum machine that mutates and morphs in wonderful ways via a command-line interface. (I almost put the command line bit in the headline, but while I […]

As packed as the global calendar for digital events can be, there are certain spots where you just say, “damn, I wish I had been there” — and the Mapping Festival in Geneva, Switzerland fits on that list for us. The good news: there’s still time to mark your calendar for May in Switzerland, and […]

Jay Smith of Livid Instruments may be in the business of making controller hardware himself, but that doesn’t stop him from appreciate the knob-laden goodness of the NAMM show floor. Jay’s own gear reveals a not-so-secret love of knobs and buttons and faders, and if you’re into that sort of thing, this year’s NAMM music […]

We’ll Do it Live: How Real-Time is Changing Visuals View more presentations from peterkirn. (tags: motion graphics computer vision) Last Friday at MGFest Chicago, I gave a short talk on what real-time can mean for visuals. The crowd had a large contingent of traditional motion graphics designers – my own presentation was followed by a […]

Our friend and interactive hero Gustavo Bravetti must have been inspired by all the talk of hexagonal sequencers, because he’s come through with a brilliant prototype of a new interactive sequencer design. He writes: I just wanna share mi first very unfinished and at ultra alpha stage, hexagonal sequencer prototype! Between many things, I have […]

We get the “where do I go to learn this stuff” question a lot in the inbox. With Max for Live coming later this year, bringing the powers of Max to Ableton Live, I imagine the hunger for knowledge on that tool will be all the greater. (At the same time, I think the growing […]