I believe that coding is an essential skill for people making live digital visuals. At the same time, there’s no question that learning to code has been a big obstacle for visually creative people — especially as they have plenty of other things on their mind. You need somewhere to start, and you need to […]

London-based, French-born VJ and artist Pikilipita doesn’t touch laptops. He shows up at live visual gigs toting game systems. Having built mobile projects for the Game Boy Advanced and Linux-based GamePark GP2X, he’s now got a new machine: a Barbie-pink PlayStation 2. Novelty this may be, but don’t think that PS24VJ can’t hack it as […]

Worlds Will Shatter – The Unfold trailer from Nine Orders on Vimeo. A Swarm of Angels just announced they’ve released an “open source trailer” — that is, with a Creative Commons license for remixing — for their upcoming collaborative sci fi thriller film. The trailer already demonstrates some of the fruits of this collaborative effort […]

Sometimes, simple stuff matters. DJ mixers like Pioneer’s DJM-800 have simple, single-knob low- and high-pass filters. Laptop software often doesn’t. Enter FZero, with his free and open source Single Knob Filter to fill the gaps. (Windows-only, built in SynthEdit, but it’s open source and schematics of the basic signal processing are available, if anyone wants […]

Vectors. Generative vectors. Text, as made in Toolbox, by the software’s creator Simon Strandgaard. Something’s happening in software. Generative techniques have been around about as long as computers, but from Spore‘s game design, soundtrack and creature editors to new music software like Nodal and Noatikl, in 2008 we’re seeing those techniques more accessible than ever. […]

Yes, sometimes the greatest DIY projects are built not from scratch but from the cannibalized bits of other, less-brilliant controllers. Together, these pieces become greater as a whole, from bland and boring to bizarre and fantastic. Case in point: Devin aka “mzo” writes us with his Cyrillic-emblazoned custom controller creation for VJ control. The project […]

Ever dreamed of being able to program your own DSP hardware as easily as you can connect custom effects on your computer? Earlier this summer, we saw the open source OpenStomp effects pedal. Then, information was scant and we hadn’t seen an actual unit. Now, the box is going into production for North America at […]

Welcome to Reaperworld. It’s an alternative universe, in which a “2.4.5” update is huge. Released yesterday, it’s a new build for what might best be described as an “indie” DAW from the original creator of Winamp. Check out the full feature list, but here are some highlights: “Solo in front” for easier soloing Track folding […]