My friend Francis Preve, tech author and electronica producer / remix artist, has a new title out on Backbeat Books assembling a broad range of production tips, tutorials, and anecdotes from artists. (He’s pictured here, though that’s not actually his pool.) You may know Fran’s writing from Keyboard; for The Remixer’s Bible, he’s assembled Keyboard’s […]

DJ Monday continues … CDM reader Corporation shares a number of tips, resources, and reviews of the new M-Audio DJ solution, involving the Conectiv hardware and Torq software. The basic downsides: bad documentation, and hardware that may not work for everyone. But on the upside, M-Audio has a solution that, at a fraction of the […]

For DJs like Manuela Krause, it’s the Traktor software, not the Stanton hardware, that makes digital DJing a draw. Now NI just has to figure out what hardware will be ideal for this market … perhaps a laptop-based cupholder for our cocktails? (I’d buy that, NI.) Native Instruments, maker of the leading Traktor DJ software […]

Correction: I incorrectly stated that Euphonix themselves collaborated with UA; instead it is Euphonix co-founders and veterans of the company Scott and Rob Silfvast. I apologize for the error. In a way, this is even better; they represent some of the individual design vision behind Euphonix. See Scott Silfvast’s ideas at the end. This weekend […]

For more on the Roland workstation line I’ve been talking about this week, check out the video clips at Keyboard’s recently-launched video site: Keyboard Magazine TV No direct links from the site, so you just click through to Hot Gear @ NAMM. You won’t see the E-80 workstation I was ranting about; instead, there’s the […]

Finally, the wait is over. As technology companies battle for the living room, Roland has built the ultimate convergence device. The VIMA concept keyboard addresses the need of the average home consumer to play organ and keyboard sounds, manage digital photos and videos, and perform karaoke using a single, integrated product. The days of having […]

Some more Processing updates for the faithful. Five new libraries have been added. Vector3D, which is part of Daniel Shiffman‘s “The Nature Of Code” course. public class Vector3D extends java.lang.Object: A class to describe a two or three dimensional vector. To animate an object in a virtual space, we need a way of storing information […]

Electric guitars with onboard USB and MIDI? How about guitars with built-in pressure sensors, light sensors, and faders for something a little different? Doug Theriault sends in his latest homemade instrument creations, a USB guitar and MIDI guitar with some unusual features: TSG1, TSG2 Project Page … the Sensor Guitar (TSG1) [is] equipped with two […]

Music-making in the age of ElectroPlankton: colliding organisms and physics may be just as likely on your plug-in interface as the usual fake-aluminum knobs. NuSofting’s Collide and Play. Johan Larsby points us to a developer contest at the mind-bogglingly comprehensive audio plug-in site, KVR Audio: KVR Audio Developer Challenge Developers are competing for a prize […]

The good folks at The Smoking Gun are infamous for breaking confidentiality rules and leaking the surreal world of major artist tour rider documents to the world. Hilarity ensues, such as when Christina Aguilera demands “Soy cheese and Oreos. Flintstones chewables and votive candles. Nesquick and dried cranberries.” and rival Britney Spears chows on Doritos […]