Dance Wednesday continues, so get your dancing shoes on. You can trigger audio and video with a Dance Dance Revolution pad (or any USB game controller). Resources: You'll want some kind of PS2-to-USB converter so you can plug it into your computer, for starters (here's an example). Then check out software like STEIM's JunXion (Mac […]

Friday we looked at a big roundup of game controllers for music, courtesy Chris O'Shea. Ready to look like a cyborg when making music? Want to keep your entire budget under US$20? Here's where to get started (thanks to atariboy for some link pointers here): Get the hardware: Pick up a P5 virtual reality gaming […]

Is DJ Sasha's custom MAVEN controller, as plugged in promotions for the artist, built from a free open-source DIY kit? (Sasha uses this custom hardware to control Ableton Live on his iMac G5 during gigs.) MIDIbox users are speculating the MAVEN is based on the MIDIbox platform in a forum discussion. MIDIbox is a hardware […]

Eldorado — that's CDM's new correspondent, not to be confused with the Cadillac Eldorado — takes us on a ride into the frontier of digital DJing. If you're ready to blend the best of vinyl with the digital revolution and are looking for a place to get started, you'll want to stay tuned into this […]

'Asteroid' / Q97 is the leaked Apple audio interface that has started a firestorm over blogging, journalism, and privacy. A preliminary ruling today declared that bloggers aren't protected as journalists, and can't protect confidential sources (see BBC News) — potentially a major blow for online journalism and even traditional journalists using email, says the EFF. […]

Circuit-bending, the art of creating new instruments from old ones by creatively 'damaging' them with what would normally be no-nos (like short circuiting them), is spreading. Noah Fleischman of Roil Noise wrote in to talk about the resources that had been helpful to him getting started, a letter CDM published February 5. Circuit bender Reed […]

FreeFrame is an open-source, free, standard plugin format for video and VJs, an open means of developing your own real-time video effects. It's supported in a wide range of VJ and interactive video applications, and even in big-league applications like Director and After Effects via a wrapper. Even if you're not a programmer, check the […]

Rosegarden, the free Linux digital audio workstation with multitrack audio, MIDI, and notation features, is pre-release software no more. Version 1.0 has gone gold, available for download for Linux or as part of Fervent Software's Studio-to-Go CD, which will run on Windows PCs without installation. Fervent has helped support Rosegarden's accelerated development, and if you […]

As we've reported here before, circuit bender Noah Fleischman is a mad scientist of electronics destruction. We've seen software manglings like the Flash-powered software Speak & Spell, but Noah has continued . . . destroying things . . . from toy keyboards to a device created by grafting a cassette Walkman to a 5.25" floppy […]