The world this week lost one of its great musical innovators, Bo Diddley. DIY instrument builders and anyone who enjoys abusing their guitar (or, perhaps, any instrument), you owe a great deal to "the originator." In the service of his unique and powerful expressive imagination, Bo Diddly hacked and attacked guitars, producing for the first […]

Liz and Peter Dines continue to send dispatches from the epic MUTEK festival in Montreal. Stay tuned to our events.createdigitalmusic.com page for the latest. Among the new reports: various Reaktor spottings among artists, insane turntable abuse, and even a discussion of how arts events can reduce their impact on the planet. (Oddly enough, that last […]

Here’s a lovely piece of animation and motion design (oh, and talking, if you’re in to that kind of thing): Here’s a wonderful film we sneaked in at the end of BUG 07 that I think withstood the crappy sound. It’s called ‘I Met The Walrus’ and although it isn’t strictly a music video it […]

It’s clear that the new world of music listening involves more — more music, listening in more places, with more styles of music from more places in the world. So, naturally, it makes sense that we won’t pay per-album fees for everything we hear; even if you were addicted to your indie college radio station […]

Despite my complaints about trying to run Processing in JavaScript in a browser, the recent port of Processing’s syntax to JavaScript has a lot of potential. Part of the underlying lesson here: platform-independence is cool. So where better to show that off than the iPhone/iPod Touch: a showpiece for Apple’s proprietary, platform-specific goodies. German user […]

Mac switchers from Windows, you know why this one matters. Bome MIDI Translator is one of Windows’ most essential utilities, with powerful tools for converting MIDI messages and keystrokes. I know folks (like the awesomely-talented beatboxer Kid Beyond) who sorely missed the tool after switching to the Mac. Happily, it’s on its way. The beta […]

Retraction: I reported earlier today that the x0xb0x has been “discontinued.” Actual status: the x0xb0x is still being made, but the waiting list is long enough that even some people already on the list may never see one, let alone new additions. Whatever happens, that means if you want a x0xb0x, you probably want to […]

Rechenzentrum at Mutek 2008 2 from Create Digital Media on Vimeo. Far from randomly throwing some VJs in the background with music, there are some cases in which musician and visualist build a real relationship — just the sort of thing we care about here. CDM writers Liz and Peter Dines have been roaming the […]

CDM has ongoing coverage from the Mutek festival; see more dispatches at events.createdigitalmusic.com. Liz talks to A/V duo Rechenzentrum for CDM — and there’s a bit of a revelation at the end of the interview. -Ed. Rechenzentrum, which means “data processing center” in German, is a Berlin-based duo who create live audio-visual performances by combining […]

The x0xb0x 303 clone has become somewhat legendary — a legend that’s likely to grow now that you can’t get one. Photo (CC) bdu. I need to start labeling my gear. The x0xb0x, the open-source Roland TB-303 clone by Limor “Lady Ada” Fried, has been officially discontinued edit: unofficially end-of-lifed? Made less than widely available? […]