Music tech gear rarely surfaces in the mainstream. I never saw a Roland Juno and Cubase on Seinfeld. The Hercules DJ Controller did make it onto a recent episode of “24”, however, says CDM reader DJ Klachik: I was just watching the 5th season of “24” on DVD, and in chapter 21, I saw this […]

DIY Audio Projects has a selection of build-it-yourself tube amps, tube preamps, speakers and subwoofers, all using really cheap parts. If you’ve ever fancied constructing audio gear, this could be a good place to start. Via MAKE:blog and CDM’s designer onetonnemusic. We’ve covered DIY stuff before, but if you have your own resource for schematics […]

Lack the budget and space to collect vintage analog synths? Michel Le Stum is selling custom kits for creating your own, entirely out of paper: SDIYCUT: Synthesizer Do it Yourself, via synth fetish blog Matrixsynth (sorry, Matrix; I’m a couple of weeks behind but was getting ready for an exam that week!) 15 EUR each, […]

The 2007 way of promoting your VJing: giving away clips. So while we’re on the subject of legal, free clips to use in your next visual set (classic movies were the subject last week), this week: 68 Vintage Fairlight VJ Loops by VJzoo (2007) [Archive.org, from VJzoo.com Get ready for some grungy, glitchy 80s electro-style […]

Patching, programming visually by connecting virtual patch cords between onscreen objects, has generally been the domain of the few. Max/MSP/Jitter and Pd lovers and modular soft synth fans all patch regularly. But the mainstream audience? Now, Yahoo is letting you “remix” and “mash-up” RSS feeds from the Web, and guess what interface they’re using? Yahoo […]

The creators of Fruity Loops aka FL Studio (Image Line software) have just announced a new DJ application called DeckaDance, and this thing looks like the answers to our prayers. We here at CDM love applications that don’t tie you into a specific controller/hardware/control vinyl solution. DeckaDance seems to have everything we’ve ever wanted in […]

No official changelog yet, but Ableton has released a 6.0.5 update to Live. (See latest versions to download, provided you’re registered.) This version appears to resolve some of the bigger issues with Vista. Given good experience from some users with SONAR and FL Studio 7 and audio drivers, that could make it worth trying out […]

For bigger gigs I tend to include a DVD player running as a backup in case of a crash. I’ve never actually needed it yet, but it’s nice to have the safety net. Here’s a simple technique utilizing Adobe Encore to turn your AFX composition into an Autoplaying DVD, sans menus. It also uses Dynamic […]

In honor of post-Valentine’s Day weekend, the Love Philter. FL Studio, better known to PC musicians as “Fruity Loops”, is now available in its version 7 upgrade. (This release was announced last month but wasn’t immediately available.) FL Studio’s lifetime upgrades mean that, unlike your operating system, the upgrade is free if you’re a previous […]

In case you missed this in comments, CDM reader Trademark has rigged a quick demo of how scratching with the Nintendo Wii remote might work. To manipulate the audio, he’s using the open source Mac/Linux audio programming environment SuperCollier: If you think of this as a replacement for vinyl, you’ll naturally be disappointed. (The same […]