A wintry afternoon sometimes calls for putting the work on hold and spending some time jamming. So, this week (in approximate celebration of Sinterklaas), I headed around the corner to the offices of Koma Elektronik, the boutique all-analog gear producer. Here’s a few minutes of combining digital with analog, each with its own timbres and […]

Knowledge on how to build dazzling new interfaces for music is spreading. And because musical performance depends on sharing knowledge and practice, that could have a transformative effect. Literally as I’m walking out the door to leave for a showcase of gestural performance in Berlin, I get a chance to look at this team from […]

At last, Edirol – now, make that Roland Systems Group – has a successor to the V-4 that works with HD inputs and outputs. The V-40HD is called “switcher,” but multi-format “mixer” would be just as apt. It handles resolutions up to 1080p, with a variety of inputs – including standard-def composite and component up […]

At last, Edirol – now, make that Roland Systems Group – has a successor to the V-4 that works with HD inputs and outputs. The V-40HD is called “switcher,” but multi-format “mixer” would be just as apt. It handles resolutions up to 1080p, with a variety of inputs – including standard-def composite and component up […]

She shocked the music business by revealing she wasn’t making money on Spotify – then shocked them again by revealing she was making money on our own. Now, CDM’s Matt Earp talks to cellist Zoe Keating about surviving as a creative musician, and keeping the music coming. Hint: “exposure” is not necessarily the key to […]

Chroma and Gris-Gris are a beautiful pairing, a performance-savvy sequencer and a “monster” monosynth. If the release of the OSC implementation we dreamed of in Reaktor wasn’t enough to make you dust off NI’s modular flagship, this will surely do the trick. It’s the work of Montreal-based Reaktor guru Peter Dines, veteran CDM contributor and […]

The Bottle from White Kanga on Vimeo. Part of the pleasure of writing daily is, while it may seem dangerously easy to become caught up in the moment, you get to watch as work iterates. Like those diaries they sell to proud parents, you can mark as a baby grows up. And the work of […]

Driven by musicians’ need to do a lot of the same things, and expecting certain ways of doing those things, DAWs have traditionally been mired in the same molds. Sensomusic Hollyhock, an upcoming DAW from the makers of Usine, promises to be genuinely different. Like Usine, it’s built around an entirely open-ended, modular environment – […]

“Open source hardware” has generally come to mean something for hobbyists, something involving soldering irons and code. MeeBlip is about something different: it’s about making a musical instrument anyone can play, right away – with or without soldering. It’s about making music. And that’s why I’ve been glad to have CDM involved in this project: […]

For some months, a lot of us have been using an overhauled SoundCloud interface. Playback works better, and everything is bigger, clearer, and more usable. A lot has changed, but I think the simplest endorsement is this: I haven’t wanted to go back to the old version, ever. Today, SoundCloud is launching that new UI […]