Winning the award this month for “Most Insane Project Mockup”, I give you the Plattabass. It’s a bass. It’s a record player. It has magnetic sensors embedded in the neck. And yes, that is a crossfader. Even crazier: Mobius (Ray Belden) plans to actually build this thing. We’ll be watching. Proposed specs, courtesy Ray: 2 […]

The Musini began its life as an award-winning toy. The product description is hilarious: A perfect gift for rambunctious toddlers, the Musini music box provides a constructive way for children to channel their physical and creative energy. While kids step, jump, turn, and tap, the Musini’s patented MusicSensor detects their every move and translates it […]

Could the Nintendo Wii remote liberate DJs from wired hardware, freeing them to wave their arms around and make embarrassing dance moves? DJ ! hopes so. DJ ! (read “DJ Shift 1”) has devoted himself entirely to the Wii controller for DJing, in what he calls WiiJing or “wireless DJing.” This “mashup DJ” says he […]

Today’s picks from the Interweb: if you read German, there’s a great review of M-Audio’s Conectiv and Torq DJ solution. If you don’t, look at the pictures and use your imagination. At the other end of the spectrum, and written in English by an Englishman, Music thing is back after a hiatus with some new […]

Roland has published a compatibility list for all its current relevant hardware, under the BOSS, Roland, and Edirol brands. Windows Vista Compatibility Release The table setup is a bit unusual. “Yes” means “will be compatible” in the future tense, but that apparently translates to “it works now”; links are included to 32-bit and 64-bit drivers. […]

The short answer is, if you’re using Ableton Live, you’ll want to wait to upgrade to Windows Vista, period. The long answer is, there are some specific incompatibilities in Live that Ableton will address in a future release. Today, Ableton posted official information on their forum: In principle, the latest Live 6 version (6.0.3) works […]

Game consoles as visualist tools? Sign me up! Nintendo doesn’t make it easy, as usual, but it looks possible to turn the Wii and perhaps even the GameCube into homebrew gaming, interactive visual, and video devices. My Wii is now on its way, so I look forward to giving Flash a try. Best resource so […]

I don’t know how I managed to miss the release of the CodaNova VMX VJ, but thanks to Grigori for bringing it to my attention: Now this is more like it. The NuVJ is on the right track, but without having had a go my initial impression is that it doesn’t have quite enough controls […]

I miss the days when we were this excited about synthesizers: Via the awesomely-named Brotherhood of the Octopus.

Metasonix continues to build one-of-a-kind effects with raunchy, make-your-parents-blush names. No nonsense about tubes providing warm, wonderful sounds. Take the first tube, a vintage model from devices like military radios: “We use it as a preamp—a BAD preamp. The SCROTUM knob controls input volume badly. No, you can’t turn it fully down. This is intentional […]