A crazy scheme in which you pay a monthly fee and get unlimited music, huh? Imagine that. Part of what was strange about flat fee advocate Jim Griffin’s new proposal for an ISP monthly fee for music is that subscription-based music lives already, from digital radio to music services. Amidst rumors that Apple might add […]

As mentioned last week, the OLPC project has provided some 8.5GB of Creative Commons-licensed sound. Unfortunately, in an all-too-familiar scenario, the servers didn’t stand up to its instant popularity. Good news — most of the content is available now via torrent, with additional content on the Internet Archive. We need a Few Good Seeds, so […]

If music technology has ever made you dream of autonomous musical robots, crawling around the floor making sound like a Juilliard of mechanical insect prodigies, I’ve got great news for you. While we’re on the subject of DIY electronics, here are some words of encouragement: the designer who made that fantastic drum machine robot making […]

The Atari Punk Console is one of DIY sonic electronics’ all-time greatest hits. Designed by Forrest M. Mims III — the brilliant electronics artist and engineer whose hand-drawn books were once promoted in Radio Shack — the “Stepped Tone Generator” as it was originally called is an excellent circuit for first-timers or those wanting something […]

Suggesting taxes in March makes Americans nervous — who knew? Photo: romanlily. Wait … crap. It’s almost April, isn’t it? It seems Warner exec Jim Griffin was unprepared for the rancor of the Interwebs, because he’s backpedaling on a proposal to create a blanket fee for ISPs on music. All of that was just part […]

Thanks to everyone who ran the system spec gauntlet and proudly entered our 3L Beta Giveaway. We’ll draw and announce the winners on Monday when ExiledSurfer and I have finished our respective travel itineraries. In the meantime, for those who would like to get a head start on the 3L interface, artificialeyes have released the […]

I’ll never fully understand technology bloggers when it comes to music policy. Here’s an obviously stupid idea: Warner Brothers, the label, comes up with a scheme to add a surcharge to ISP bills to allow, supposedly, “legal” use of music file sharing services. Stupid, yes. Here’s the response from Michael Arrington (Techcrunch): “It’s clearly good […]

Our friend Florian Grote is giving a workshop at STEIM in Amsterdam on Pure Data, the open source patching environment that’s a close cousin to Max/MSP. Florian tells us there are a couple of spots left for anyone near STEIM. The workshop is geared for composers, live performers who want to create their own instruments, […]

Tronby freres-hueon   Want to learn how to pull off graphics? Make it work with optical and real for real first. Tron may have been a pioneering moment in computer graphics, but a lot of its unique look came from unique optical effects on a scale not seen before or after. The glowing screen was […]

One curious note about the first-ever recording I mentioned today: you’re among the first to hear it, because at the time, the inventor had worked out how to record, but not how to play anything back. (No speakers — no sound.) It did make awfully nice pictures of sound, though, which in turn suggests an […]