Cat power. First of today’s evening diversions: Analog Industries discovers Nora the piano-playing cat. We don’t want to put Nora up on the main site, though, lest she scare the infinitely more talented Hatebeak the parrot. Conceptual albums. The folks at BornRich.org have a beautiful music tablet PC design up. (Thanks, Gizmodo.) Only problem: it’s […]

CAUTION: if you are still enjoying the EVO5 countdown, and don’t want to be tainted with any product details until the official announcement at Musikmesse in 15 days, STOP READING NOW! Preliminary specifications for the EVO5 digital mixer obtained by Create Digital Music reveal the folowing: It’s a 5-channel mixer with MIDI and effects. (Ok, […]

In June 2005, we first saw the Tenori-On, a futuristic music-making device covered in a grid of interactive, lit buttons, designed by the talented interactive artist Toshio Iwai as a prototype for Yamaha. Last week, Yamaha revealed some details about plans to make Iwai’s experimental device into a shipping product. (I missed this in preparations […]

Devotees of the SID sound chip in the Commodore 64 will love this. A new project called Shredz64 promises to create a working version of Guitar Hero with the C64’s vintage sounds, and will unlock the ability to use other PS2 controllers, as well. We’ve seen various hardware hacks to provide better I/O and simple […]

Hulk SMASH — now MIDI-compatible. By hacking a giant Hulk hands toy, AKA Media System has built a unique MIDI controller. Enough with wussy controllers, like waving around Wii remotes in the air: now you can hit stuff. Like your head. This wasn’t a plug-and-play job: it involved some soldering to adapt the inner workings […]

Studio Daily has an interview with 300’s VFX Art Director Grant Freckelton about the processes and ideas behind the look of Frank Miller’s 300 (Opened on the 9th, trailer on Apple.com). Like Sin City before it, this film is a visual feast, so it’s great to get a look at the processes and tools (Photoshop, […]

Studio Daily has an interview with 300’s VFX Art Director Grant Freckelton about the processes and ideas behind the look of Frank Miller’s 300 (Opened on the 9th, trailer on Apple.com). Like Sin City before it, this film is a visual feast, so it’s great to get a look at the processes and tools (Photoshop, […]

Joystick has a quick report from a GDC lecture presented by Jason Page and Michael Kelly from Sony, discussing the future of ‘next-generation audio’ on the PS3. What’s interesting about their take is that they believe that use of highly customized sample sets and MIDI can provide a much more interactive and adaptive approach to […]

You might notice it’s been less than a week synth my last “This Week In Synths” post. I’ll be shooting for Fridays moving forward. That said, this week we start with a video by Jexus of Syntezatory.pl. You might recognize the website from last week’s hi-top shot by polaranta. I’m guessing Jexus and polaranta are […]

The SciFi channel has released some chunky packs of footage, music and sound effects, and invited web users to remix and create videos. Ostensibly this is a competition, with the winning video airing on the channel during a future Battlestar episode… Which I’m sure will be lovely for whoever wins. I don’t really care though, […]