The iPhone and iPod Touch are getting their share of metronomes, guitar tuners, sonic toys, and even one fairly full-featured sample-based drum machine / arrangement tool (BeatMaker). But what about live synthesis? Noise.io (short for Noise for iPhone) claims to be the “first” synth. (I believe, technically, that honor goes to Einar Andersson’s iPhone synth, […]

The making of: Nokia Friends, generative characters from postspectacular on Vimeo. Karsten Schmidt sends us a behind-the-scenes mini-movie that reveals how he created pudgy, bouncy animated characters using generative code in Processing. It’s fun to watch these cute creatures evolve through a process of iteration, from bare-bone physics to the finished product. The results are […]

DJ-1800 is a long-time favorite of gigging DJs on the Mac. It’s just gotten an update that adds more DJ controller support and the ability to play songs directly from an iPhone or iPod Touch. “DJing” for most readers of this site involves a strictly no-request policy (and, very often, all-glitch). But it does reveal […]

Paul Lansky, a titanic name in classical computer music, Princeton professor, and real-time algorithmic pioneer, has gone acoustic. He’s also known in more popular circles for having been musically quoted on Radiohead’s Kid A. The New York Times reports: After 35 years immersed in the world of computer music, the composer Paul Lansky talks with […]

I spent time with some digital luminaries over the weekend at X|Media|Lab Melbourne, and a criticism which came up a lot went along the lines of: “Where’s your mailing list?” “Umm, well…” “You don’t have a mailing list? How can you give your readers a weekly dose of CDM love to their inbox without a […]

If you’re hungry for some patch content, the download-rich PatchArena has you covered, with a massive library of free, user-created content: PatchArena Downloads There are particularly large sections for the all-in-one studios EnergyXT, FL Studio, and a number of others. (Correction: Intua BeatMaker for iPhone/iPod Touch is promised, as well, though I got my categories […]

The IR-909, a simple but lovely-looking Roland TR-909 drum machine clone, is now available for the iPhone. Description: IR-909 is a drum machine for the iPhone inspired by the Roland TR-909. IR-909 features a 16-step sequencer, 4 patterns and 8 different drum sounds. IR-909 includes individual pitch, attack and length controls for each sample. By […]

Ligeti – Artikulation by tonicadominante What does music look like? With new sounds and new technologies, the question is more apt than ever. Tom of Music thing points, via his Twitter feed, to this interesting post regarding Ligeti’s Artikulation: Visualizing Artikulation [Bad Assembly] Music notation takes on a different meaning in the age of computers. […]

Lo-fi Arduino Guitar Pedal from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo. CDM regular Kyle McDonald keeps cranking out wonderful projects. Following up on a tangible music sequencer powered by Skittles (taste the rainbow of fruity beats), and last week’s cheap-but-effective DIY 3D interface, he’s now put the popular DIY electronics platform Arduino to work as a lo-fi […]