One of the reasons to look beyond conventional controllers for music (like the ubiquitous, piano-style black-and-white keyboard) is that these controllers have a certain range of expression. But these constraints also impact people with different physical abilities. The piano assumes a certain kind of physical facility, and even as it makes playing easy for people […]

As noted last night — with some very witty responses from incredulous readers — the record industry is now pushing for DRM on all radio. It’s a bad idea to begin with, and they’re bringing it up in a context in which it doesn’t even belond, negotiations on royalty rates, at a bad time — […]

Deep in Tesla’s labs, Mark Twain discovers the awesome, destructive force of Windows Sound Recorder. Be afeared, intellectual property owners!) Act now, fellow musicians — before Sound Recorder destroys music! It’s amazing how complete and total crazies can suddenly wind up with the backing of organizations powerful enough to dictate the law. Witness the strange […]

If you’ve been staring at After Effects too long, you’ll really love this one: common motion effects, painstakingly recreated by real people — jumping on trampolines. There’s even a status bar and, my personal favorite touch, an I/O error and — okay, I won’t give it away. Directed by Roel Wouters a.k.a. Xelor. Here’s the […]

The GoDance! controller system, at left, and hardware assembly in progress, right, via creator Belmer Negrillo. There you are: the party is amazing. Beautiful people everywhere, dancing as though it’s their last night on Earth. Bodies in sweaty, packed mo– [screeching record sound] — erm, okay, actually, you’re stuck behind a computer / VJ gear. […]

Our friend Sofie shows off her very own Little Phatty. Now some welcome add-ons: a terrific expression pedal (for any of your Moog gear), an LP editor/librarian, and an LP OS update with [cavernous echo voice mode on] high-resolution MIDI mod. While on the subject of Moog Music, the good peoples of Moog have a […]

Our friends Chachi and Alan write in from San Francisco’s music tech haven, Robotspeak, to share a video giving the Moogerfooger FreqBox some hands-on time. Since the FreqBox needs some signal to do its magic, they turned to two great sources: Alan’s guitar, and Chachi’s Roland TB-303. We hope to have some more on the […]

This may stretch your definition of “good news” for webcasters, but the latest on the Internet Radio crisis runs something like this: Webcasters don’t yet have to pay new fees for their broadcast. But they’re still accruing debt — fast. Sort of like our credit card debt. Webcasters may get a small break on the […]

Yes. You can now VJ from your iPhone, controlling your Max/MSP/Jitter patch via Safari and the new aka.iphone object from Masayuki Akamatsu of aka.wiiremote fame. The aka.iphone object is a work in progress, but stay tuned, there’s much fun to be had. Can anyone say “pocket Lemur”?