How do you build a new flagship synthesizer — and how do you make it live up to a beloved past name? That’s the question Roland has taken on once again with the Jupiter-80. Shown to a select few starting at NAMM, then (very) non-intentionally leaked in the past few days, there’s a good chance […]

A “greebled” cube, (CC-BY-SA) Gargaj / Conspiracy on Wikimedia. Ah, digital geometry: as if caught eternally in a sterile, detail-less vacuum, the problem with virtual models can be that they’re too perfect, too abstract. So, following on the use of model kitbashing techniques to make more convincing graphics in the game Hawken, as we saw […]

The question of how to build controls to fly today’s live laptop music sets – whether “DJ,” “live PA,” or something else – remains open. We’ve got an inside look at the newest entry, the most recent device to explore just what should be mapped and tactile, and what should be left behind. Amidst various […]

Kinect hackery is cool, and its principle advantage is in its ability to allow multi-user interaction in space. That is, it’s killer for installations. That would make it a natural for Burning Man-based interactive art. The only problem: fancy Kinect camera, meet desert sandstorm. Open-source Kinect hacker Matt Bell decided not to wait until getting […]

Music made by machines need not turn its back on traditional musical skill – least of all when you literally strap the machines on the back of a master musician. In a fusion of Brazilian tradition and modern wireless, wearable sensor technology, Kyle McDonald shares with us a project that makes drums into an interactive […]

The craft of photorealistic gaming has risen to astounding heights, but look-alike art direction can overshadow its technical achievement. Not so with an extraordinary-looking indie title called Hawken. The mech combat first-person shooter, built in the Unreal Engine, is crafted in a way that speaks to the possibilities of digital technique to spin imaginary worlds, […]

Capturing a work that’s designed to be generative is tricky, so think of this as a snapshot. Image (CC-BY) Dominic Alves. See the full set. Brian Eno’s ‘visual music’ paintings, 77 Million Paintings, are streaming live by way of a Berlin startup broadcaster called ikonoTV. That, in turn, makes a good excuse on a surprisingly-wintry […]

Capturing a work that’s designed to be generative is tricky, so think of this as a snapshot. Image (CC-BY) Dominic Alves. See the full set. Brian Eno’s ‘visual music’ paintings, 77 Million Paintings, are streaming live by way of a Berlin startup broadcaster called ikonoTV. That, in turn, makes a good excuse on a surprisingly-wintry […]

I think the first time I really understood handheld music making was when I first tried Nanoloop on Game Boy. While the more-popular LSDJ tracker is powerful, Nanoloop’s interface was unlike anything I’d seen before: aggressively minimal, it embodies in its interface design the feeling of a blank sheet of paper. Adding an idea feels […]

Photo (CC-BY) Chris M, of a Very Large Array. Number stations, making their appearance in the post-war radio landscape, were shortwave radio stations of streams of symbols, mysterious to their listeners and apparently code. Here, the idea of lost and indecipherable broadcasts inspires a wonderfully-varied collection of reflective artists, in a free, Creative-Commons licensed compilation […]