Life is short. You find yourself having to absorb the work techniques of a lot of different software. And some of those divisions — between vector and pixels, 3D and 2D, motion and stills — look increasingly old-fashioned. Since the early 90s, we’ve seen a succession of software try to bridge those gaps. But for […]

Very often, computers and music gear greedily consume whole corners of the room. Here’s a tidy alternative, modest in space consumption as well as in cost. So, what’s so wonderful about DIY creations by our friend Sasa Djuric (aka fibra)? It isn’t just that his stands are recycled from monitor stand parts. It’s not just […]

People seem generally glum/cranky today for some reason, so I offer this (non-digital music) image: a Carnaval parade of guys in wooden, mustachioed masks ringing cowbells. More cowbell, indeed. Wearing wooden masks and cow bells strapped around their waists, Germans defied the freezing temperatures to participate in the traditional cow bell-ringing procession in Mittenwald, in […]

Let’s start out with the easy part: energyXT is awesome. This wildly underrated host runs on Linux as well as Windows and Mac, has an elegant, simplified interface that hides some powerful sequencing and semi-modular features, and runs incredibly fast. Think ridiculously quick load times and working methods. I’m doing a lot more work in […]

Can a software/hardware combination be as tactile as standalone gear like the MPC, but do, you know, computer-y things, too? That’s the question posed by Native Instruments’ new Maschine. My Maschine just arrived in the mail, but one look in my inbox and I find that the folks at AudioMIDI have beat me to shooting […]

A reminder – tonight in Brooklyn, it’s Handmade Music again, with the wonderful sounds of the Electric Junkyard Gamelan. After a couple of years of doing Handmade Music, this is actually the first featured performance by a whole-ly acoustic (if amplified) ensemble, which I think is too bad. I believe digital and electronic instruments are […]

Software is increasingly a medium for artists. That to me raises really deep questions about platforms, and whether you’ll have freedom with the platforms you use. A gig’s a gig, and there’s nothing wrong with using these tools to accomplish jobs. But on the other hand, for the same practical (not even philosophical) reasons, the […]

Software is increasingly a medium for artists. That to me raises really deep questions about platforms, and whether you’ll have freedom with the platforms you use. A gig’s a gig, and there’s nothing wrong with using these tools to accomplish jobs. But on the other hand, for the same practical (not even philosophical) reasons, the […]

Software is increasingly a medium for artists. That to me raises really deep questions about platforms, and whether you’ll have freedom with the platforms you use. A gig’s a gig, and there’s nothing wrong with using these tools to accomplish jobs. But on the other hand, for the same practical (not even philosophical) reasons, the […]

Compression Reel from David OReilly on Vimeo. 8-bit chip music went mainstream in the last few years. Well, now it’s video compression’s turn. What, you thought crunchy blippy glitch sounds were cool, but that video could only look crap when over-compressed digitally? Too late: even Kanye West is doing it now. First up: the best […]