The Special Edition Prophet 8 synth from Dave Smith features a hand-signed nameplate and glowing red pitch and mod wheels. Who says progress is bad? Synth designer Dave Smith’s Prophet ’08 synth is a new instrument inspired by his legendary Prophet series, but there are a number of clues that indicate it’s not 1978. First, […]

Data Is Nature brings to our attention the Valsuka Archive, an incredible trove of early video art history, exhibitions, work, designs and circuit diagrams. Paul describes it better than I: The Vasulka Archive is massive repository of documents from the pioneering days of electronic, computer and video art. Containing a staggering 27000 pages of scanned […]

I’m sad to report that Daniel Hansson, CEO and one of the founders of Elektron, passed away in a car accident August 19. He was best known to the world as the creator of unique and ingeniously-designed instruments like the boutique drum machine / pattern synth Machinedrum, the Monomachine tabletop synth, and the SIDStation (powered […]

If you didn’t follow the discussion thread on the story, we got some very interesting — and detailed — feedback regarding why hanging projectors vertically might be problematic (or not). Extremely narrow tolerances for heat and fragile bulbs are the culprit. The ultimate bottom line, though, is that the individual projector model and its internal […]

Visualists have a wide range of skills to cover. After you’re done figuring out how to create and edit content and turn it into a performance / live installation / whatever, then you have to deal with the technicalities of projectors? Basic calculations for throw distances are pretty straightforward: a 3:1 throw ratio, for instance, […]

There’s no shortage of ideas for how to make new instruments. And once upon a time, the MPC sampler (bottom right) was a new idea. While on the subject of Roger Linn, Roger also lets us know he’s put up a new page with reflections on instrument design and a round-up of alternative electronic interfaces […]

Even as software continues to flourish, there’s still a great argument for a hardware box that does what you need — especially when that box has extensive feature sets, MIDI support, comes from Roger Linn, and costs US$375. Roger himself writes to let us know about the release of the AdrenaLinn III: AndrenaLinn III Product […]

While on the subject of wonderful handmade musical instruments, Max (and Audrey) aka farnea have been posting some fantastic creations to Flickr over the past few months. They recently cropped up on the Create Digital Music Flickr Pool. The Sound Destruction Unit: DIY modular synth made putting together a lot of things I’ve built in […]

Peter’s post on projector orientation myths prodded my memory on an issue I encountered while picking up my shiny new camera. While finalizing the lease paperwork the sales guy went out of his way to bring my attention to a slice of A4 treeware contained within the box. The text printed on it prophesized a […]