As a big fan of filtered/massaged randomness as a way of generating and organizing variety, I've always got my eyes peeled for interesting new plug-ins. Here’s a new one that I’ve been enjoying quite a bit: PicSeq from the folks at encoderaudio.
I started using the Doepfer Pocket Dial and Fader back around 2000, and I’ve had a fondness for a good external controller ever since. The Midi Fighter Twister from DJTechTools is a great and flexible knob-based controller available: a 4 x 4 grid of customizable multimodal knobs with great action and feel that can provide a meaningful range of feedback with the built-in LEDs.
Our "On the Road" features are often after-the-fact reports on something amazing. This time out, I'd like to look ahead to the Currents New Media Festival, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico - and maybe give you a chance to attend! It's one of my favorite media festivals in the world, and well worth your time.
When a package gets 4000 downloads, we know it’s hit a nerve. When it is something as serious as machine learning, we also know that it must provide a great interface to an interesting technology. Benjamin Day Smith has followed his initial ml.star release with an update that includes enhancements, bug fixes and a few new objects.
I love to share the books I find, and Whitechapel Gallery has produced a series of books that I think will speak to you. In this quick review, I check in on two books: Edward Shanken’s Systems collection, and Caleb Kelly’s Sound title.
Superbooth has become one of the most talked-about landing spots for music hackers, and the 2018 edition of the conference continued the tradition.
J. Anthony Allen has taken on a pretty interesting challenge: teaching music theory to people whose entire musical experience is within a DAW. Most music theory writing makes extensive use of standard notation, classical music examples and a traditional musical glossary. Dr. Allen breaks from this and focuses on modern software and the ubiquitous piano roll interface.
My MIDI days stretch back far enough that I remember trends and styles coming and going. That said, I’m always on the lookout for elegant and simple controllers with a lot of sliders/pots, plug & play and basically zero config. I ran across two recent boxes from Nakedboards – they’re a great, cost-effective solution for Max users looking for a trusty toolbox controller.
CNMAT Externals for Max hold a special place for many Max users - from OpenSoundControl and osc-route objects to the popular sinusoids~, oscillators~, harmonics~ and resonators~ objects that let you define a mass of sounds all in a single object. The latest release of this essential collection brings Windows 64-bit compatibility. and a massive help file and documentation overhaul.
While the early electronic and tape music eras have been adequately covered in other books, Joel Chadabe's "Electric Sound" is exhaustive in its coverage of the growth of computer-driven music - from academic research through early efforts at creating computer tools for personal computers. Though out of print, it's well worth searching for as a part of your own library.
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