The Cupertino-Mushroom Kingdom gap has been closed: you can now mix and match DS and iPhone/iPod touch for wireless control of music and visuals. DSMI, the homebrew library that has enabled wireless and serial MIDI connections from the Nintendo DS, has come to iPod touch and iPhone. That means anyone building instruments and controllers on […]

For further proof that you can make footage in Blender, here’s an example whipped up by Troy James Sobotka. Troy’s approach is one familiar to a lot of us: grab the simplest camera possible, go shoot something, go make something. I think it’s part of what I find appealing about the world of live visualists […]

Life is short. You find yourself having to absorb the work techniques of a lot of different software. And some of those divisions — between vector and pixels, 3D and 2D, motion and stills — look increasingly old-fashioned. Since the early 90s, we’ve seen a succession of software try to bridge those gaps. But for […]

Compression Reel from David OReilly on Vimeo. 8-bit chip music went mainstream in the last few years. Well, now it’s video compression’s turn. What, you thought crunchy blippy glitch sounds were cool, but that video could only look crap when over-compressed digitally? Too late: even Kanye West is doing it now. First up: the best […]

Compression Reel from David OReilly on Vimeo. 8-bit chip music went mainstream in the last few years. Well, now it’s video compression’s turn. What, you thought crunchy blippy glitch sounds were cool, but that video could only look crap when over-compressed digitally? Too late: even Kanye West is doing it now. First up: the best […]

We love computers. But the idea of a piece of hardware capable of triggering clips has been tantalizing from the beginning. Grab a piece of gear that’s not big and pricey like a Pioneer DVJ, plug it in, and play some clips into your mixer and effects — sign me up! The only problem has […]

We love computers. But the idea of a piece of hardware capable of triggering clips has been tantalizing from the beginning. Grab a piece of gear that’s not big and pricey like a Pioneer DVJ, plug it in, and play some clips into your mixer and effects — sign me up! The only problem has […]

Patches serve as the glue for performing with open controllers like the monome. With proper version control, you can manage their evolution – and share your creative process more easily. Photo by me. If you’ve worked at all with patching your own creations for music, visuals, and control, this has probably happened to you: you’ve […]

Now, why would anyone imagine this wouldn’t have widespread commercial appeal? If you enjoy real analog insanity – crazy noises that challenge the ears – you’ll like these videos sent to us by Hans Tammen, the composer, “endangered guitar” artist, and director of NYC’s Harvestworks. He writes: you like analog stuff, as I know. Here […]

“Evacuate City-17 at once — if not sooner.” It’s started. Once the domain of big-budget productions, cheap computers (and even open-source tools) now offer more than enough power to enable indie productions to imagine special effects. The remaining gaps: talent and skill. That’s why people actually shouldn’t be surprised that it’s possible to make a […]