The connection between music education and technology has always been really significant to me. Aside from (sometimes) being a teacher myself and having spent a few years doing training for notation package Sibelius, to me learning and teaching are fundamental to musical activity even outside schools. I got to sit in as a guest on […]

So much of the visual inspiration for digital generative visuals — even those that never leave the computer — come directly from analog electronics. There’s something organic about the motion visuals this gear creates. Case in point: the latest, short video from Mat Jarvis, the pioneering ambient artist, via his label Microscopics. Good stuff, and […]

Apple has released another update to Leopard. So far, we hear some of you are blissfully happy, while others are still grumbling. (Ah, technology. So what else is new?) We suspected AirPort issues with both Leopard and Tiger; many of you reported the simple fix was to turn AirPort off. The latest update: “Addresses AirPort […]

A new version of Rock Band (for Wii) means still more ways to turn these game controllers into musical or visual performance instruments. Jordan Balagot writes with some hands-on experience using junXion, a wonderful tool for adapting game controllers to MIDI or OpenSoundControl. (junXion also works with Wiimotes and nunchucks, audio inputs and pitch sensors, […]

I’ve spent much of my VJ time this week mesmerized by feedback effects in the VJX16-4. Vixid Feedback Testing – Electroguy with Astronaut BBQ Party from Jaymis on Vimeo. I’ve been documenting the more interesting combinations I found, and have put together an initial VJX feedback overview video. Vixid Advanced: Feedback Setup and Demo from […]

Here’s a couple of links which were sent in by CDMo readers over the weekend: Zac pointed out the Frappr VJ Map, showing visualists from all around the planet. Kat sent through an email from Timon, who is working on a VJ publication entitled VisualJockey (and is looking for submissions). Finally, Mitchell is sending through […]

I’m sure this is one of those tools which almost everyone knows about, but it’s useful enough that I’d post it if only a single person benefited: Perian is a component for which adds native Quicktime support for, notably, FLV (and a bunch of other formats nobody really cares about). This means you can play […]

Omer Yosha has created a beautiful, elegant interface that uses infrared sensors to control music applications. Touch-free interfaces, of course, date back to the Theremin, but Omer is trying some new things here, creating an invisible matrix of controls in the air. And I love the way the physical object looks. He writes to tell […]

  Process Explorer is the essential portal to seeing what’s going on with CPU and memory activity on Windows. It was good enough that Microsoft bought the tool. Any computer – Mac, Windows, and Linux – can experience degraded audio experience pretty fast if a background task starts stealing CPU or a driver is misbehaving. […]