A Dying Breed: Where to Find Surplus and DIY Electronic Parts

Circuit bending master and artist Reed Ghazala has some sobering thoughts on the state of surplus supply shops: “My deep connections in surplus tell me the whole thing is dying.” (See comments on Circuit Bending Tips: Resistance Substitution Wheel is Dead; How to Make Your Own. That’s sad, as the trend comes just as the […]

YouTube Roundup: Album Leaf, Lego Breakbeats, DJ with 45s, Museum of Techno

In celebration of Google’s acquisition of YouTube, CDM’s Adrian Anders has rounded up some of the best YouTube videos, from more Museum of Techno madness to mashups with legos, DJing with 45s, and behind the scenes of music production with Album Leaf. First, some musical inspiration: Anders: The Album Leaf – Making The Album “Into […]

Speed Up After Effects: Gridiron's Nucleo Pro Reviewed on CreativeCow

Nucleo is a plugin which speeds After Effects performance by using multiple processors or processor downtime to for preview and background rendering. From the Features: Fast (Nucleo) Render Supports rendering out to both sequences and movies in any format supported by After Effects. Fast (Nucleo) Preview Emulation Allows you to specify which type preview you […]

Speed Up After Effects: Gridiron’s Nucleo Pro Reviewed on CreativeCow

Nucleo is a plugin which speeds After Effects performance by using multiple processors or processor downtime to for preview and background rendering. From the Features: Fast (Nucleo) Render Supports rendering out to both sequences and movies in any format supported by After Effects. Fast (Nucleo) Preview Emulation Allows you to specify which type preview you […]

Reader Reviews Roland Handsonic HPD-10 Hand Percussion Controller; Tokyo Festival Report

Velocipede, our friend and inside man in Takarazuka, Japan, has been writing up a storm on the CDM forums, from providing hands-on impressions of Roland’s hand percussion pad to reporting back from Tokyo’s Music Instrument Festival. Not just for digital bongos: Roland’s hand controller could be just what you need for expressively playing software instruments. […]

Live 6 Tips: Lost Samples between Live 5 and Live 6; Rack and Drum Tricks

Those of you who’ve gotten your hands on Live 6 may have stumbled upon a nasty bug that makes Live lose track of some third-party samples and even some of the factory Simpler presets. The problem can be fixed, and should be addressed by a forthcoming update to the included sound library, but the easiest […]

Ableton Live 6 Crossfader Curves, and 100 Years of DJ History

The way it was: Philip LeBash in the early days of modern DJing; see the complete LeBash history, interview, and images at DJ’s Portal. Technology and music have always had dynamic, changing, intertwined histories. It’s easy to forget that we’re in the middle of that history, both in terms of the now ubiquitous practices of […]

Video Roundup: Digital Whiteboard Development Environment, WOFL, Stop Motion and Physical Sound Visualization

I’ve fallen behind. I apologise. These videos all deserve posts of their very own, but that will take mucho time, so instead I’ll just hang them out there and get on with whatever’s next: MIT Sketching Bugger the Jetpack, I want one of those! (via Wooster Collective) WOFL on Motionographer. Simple animation that creeps up […]

Arduino and Processing Beginner Links: LEDs, Physical Sensors, Lighting

I received my Arduino today, and in preparation I’ve been saving up some Arduino/Wiring/Processing links of interest to a newbie physical-computerer. If you haven’t Arduino’d before, here’s Todbot on why it’s a rocking little microcontroller. Tod also tells us how to make an Arduino Breadboard Shield, for quick circuit prototyping. You should probably familiarise yourself […]