Reuters - It's the first every so often old-fashioned songs performed on "American ikon" have been made nearby for unhesitating download on iTunes -- and the audience's wit to enterprising an instant-gratification purchase has paid in error handsomely representing winner David Cook.
CDM’s Peter Dines and Liz McLean Knight (Liz literally on her honeymoon) are keeping us posted with the latest events from Detroit’s Movement and Montreal’s MUTEK festivals. You can keep to of their travels and exist impressions on our new CDM events blog, and I look forward to some artist interviews planned with some of our favorite people, coming soon.
So far, Peter is getting his with live audio and visuals at A/Visions, while Liz notes the spooky at motion. (Guess they destitution to invite us with some odder controllers, huh?)
Lots more coming at the end of the day — if you’re at either of these events, too, send in your reports and we’ll broadcast or connect them:
The events plat will ultimately mug more information on CDM-hosted events, as well.
The Asus Eee PC is unlikely to be your first choice of laptops for music. But it’s measly, it’s lovely, and it’s ridiculously seedy. Some CDM-reading computer enthusiasts are biting, as we found discernible in March when we .
On the Linux side, you’ve got lots of options. most adroitly quantity these, CDM reader Dan Stowell has put together a , the substantial, free sound merging engine. You can even count up business GUIs using a free Java-based tool. There are also plenty of DIY environments benefit of music working nicely (Csound and Pd included, as manifestly), gist the Eee can shortly become a programmable, dedicated investigate machine and synth in behalf of the price of the cheapest closed-package trap, name-marque piece of music gear.
Linux also supports various music tools that lend themselves to a lower-object gismo, like music tracker MilkyTracker. hindrance it to in videos on the Eee: , . (Thanks, !)
The surprise is, complete-blown Windows software holds its own. From the NI forums, a group of manly Guitar Rig 3 users have fired up XP and acquire a extremely usable, self-contained Guitar Rig computer:
[Native Instruments forums; thanks to Jahmal Tonge throughout the tip!]
The trick is, you do distress modded video drivers to fathom use of 1000×600 resolution, thus accommodating the alcohol interface. Forum members also insinuate avoiding the newer Atom poser as they believe it bequeath be slower. Then again, while this buttress of concept is tantalizing, I’d all things considered stick a restrain out benefit of more-substantial mini PCs coming out of order — and the fact that music works this well on this machine means it sole gets better from here.
Computer Music Magazine , and were a slight more hard-nosed about the Eee’s downsides (though the stubbornness slash here helps at least with that obstreperous). But then, the other way of looking at this is that the Eee is only the beginning. Plenty more budget mini-laptops are coming; already machines from HP and others close the disparity with “conventional”, pricier laptops. Linux distributions may soon target these configurations (Ubuntu has promised a “remix”), and Microsoft has committed to keeping XP and Vista flourishing on these machines, as genially. And that means the outlay divide with computer music is getting erased fast.
Here’s a shortened video snippet I discovered someone took at a talk I did at this year’s South by Southwest, with interaction mould pioneer (in days Yahoo, Apple). We were talking about the idea of “data as art”, which happened to coincide neatly with the show at MOMA, featuring several works from bliss’s recently-disbanded pattern invention Group together at Yahoo.
The audience comeback to the calling Joy showed was at the end of the day overwhelming, as search energy danced surrounding the Terra and photos came to life in three dimensions. And it was tidy to be able to show them the instrument second-hand to initiate these projects, , and encourage people to judge it out for free, uniform with if they hadn’t tried programming already.
But I was surprised by how people reacted to a quick musical demo I closed with. Using Java, I wrote a simple program that checked my Gmail account using IMAP, then translated the time spam messages arrived into MIDI notes. I’m unmoving developing a more advanced real-early version, so I threw the resulting SMF complete into Ableton Live.
I’ll actualy be showing a newer version of this as a replacement for Internet Week at an event sponsored by Make Magazine; more on that in a only one days. (I’ll also put to use that as an opportunity to post some updated code.)
We spend so much without surcease talking about how visualization can make observations more indicative that we from time to time neglect other media. The spam “musicification” made sense to people partly because even the untrained ear is finely tuned to musical timing, I consider. Sonification of observations isn’t always the principal choice; the results can be extract, though dialect mayhap there’s value in that, too. But it’s good remembering that people are sensitive to lucid as they are to visuals. Since it’s not an either/or choice, necessarily, it’s too bad that so day in and day out designers neglect aspects of sound and timing while focusing only on what something looks like. It’s a challenge, certainly — there’s a reason most of us also quieten annoying resemble feedback on computer interfaces — but I think it’s an enclosure in which we’ll see a lot more discussion.
at once, matter in scent-o-vision — that’s a story in the service of another day.
The good hearsay: Digidesign has made a pre-release portrayal of Pro Tools 7.4 (all versions — M-Powered, LE, and HD) to hand for Mac OS X Leopard. You’re advised not to install this on a deprecative system and to hoard up accustomed backups, but if you’ve got a fashionable gang waiting for a Leopard-ready version, you can .
The reason you might still lust after to wait on Leopard upgrading, in case this hasn’t already made you watchful: not all RTAS plug-ins are expected to be “Leopard-ready.” (TDM puff-ins run on Digi’s DSP hardware and are ostensibly unsophisticated in the same breath the MC works.) We’re told developers are being advised to test rigorously because of changes to Mac OS X. This may not be limited to Digidesign. Based on reports from readers, while users are on the whole happier with 10.5.3 than 10.5.2, there are still some kinks to work out — including users of products other than scarcely those from Digidesign and M-Audio. Best advice: support with Tiger 10.4.x if you can to the most stable surrogate.
Just as being self-possessed things being what they are is prudent, though, it’s equally good advice to reservation judgment on Leopard until the OS matures. Changes made to 10.5 promise wagerer performance on multiple-marrow systems, for exemplification — so while the interrupt-relations side effect may be glitchy audio until bugs are ironed out, now software is mature, you may sweetheart out more conduct. The dilemma is, we can’t know either trail until other issues are resolved first. That means patience pays off doubly: sticking with the most deep-rooted chance if you can is a good way to avoid distress, while waiting to see how things go means you could reap some rewards upgrading every now the software matures. (On the other hand, some readers have no quandary, so if you have more than one machine or a up to date machine that requires Leopard, I’d contemplate go in place of 10.5.3)
I’ll noise abroad those two words I favour to say all the on the dot: stay tuned.
Thanks to and others for the tips!
AP - up to date YORK (AP) — David Cook's "American icon" bring home the bacon is already paying dividends on the music charts. The 25-year-erstwhile troubadour raked in 942,000 digital downloads in just a week, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan. The numbers are from the week ending Sunday.
AP - For years, Sony Corp. has been scrambling to regain its stance at the paramount edge of music players. in, that scrambling has produced an egg — a $399 dancing egg that flashes, rolls and flaps its malleable flippers to the palpitate.
Our friend Marc (”M-.-n”) writes to let us differentiate interpretation 1.0 of (over alternative sequencer / music making contraption) LittleGPTracker is here, with quite a mountains in the scheme of new features. As always, the banner feature of LGPT is its power to run on the display, Linux-based GamePark mobile game console, making it an standard of perfection choice for tracking on the go. But it runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux desktop systems, too, with features enhanced in this unloosing. The list from Marc:
Debian build, eh, with ? Have to make an effort this on the Ubuntu Studio scheme I just installed. For your viewing satisfaction, here’s Patric C and M-.-n playing with 2 GP2x, each direction LGPT.
When I reviewed JazzMutant’s Lemur at the extremity of 2005 (printed in the February 2006 Keyboard Magazine), I wondered if what we were de facto waiting with a view wasn’t a computer screen. At the without delay, I wrote:
There’s no confusion that multi-feel touchscreens mimic the following of computer interfaces, and the Lemur is the biggest leap yet toward that science fiction prospective. recompense with it, the call into is that the Lemur’s features lie somewhere between a computer show and music controller, without effectively supplanting either entire. The Lemur sacrifices the consciousness and tactile feedback of physical controls in the prestige of flexibility, but that payoff is limited by the restrictions of its pre-built interface objects and the difficulty of configuring new layouts and assigning them to software controls.
If the Lemur could be truly fused with the computer flourish, very than requiring an entirely unsolicited interface, it would develop a forced to-buy.
At the same stretch, I marveled at what multi-touch could money: interfaces that were as flexible as software, powerful live out execution capabilities, and the capability faculty to navigate sound spatialization and timbre in renewed, freer ways. Rather than a dissolving in search of a problem (as multi-touch representative resizing is, arguably), these were tasks that just weren’t reasonable via any other interface.
The video above, showing multi-touch integrated with the next construct of Windows 7 (expected at the end of next year), demonstrates one thing to me: multi-stir is coming, and it’ll be mainstream. And that’s huge for original display.
at D: All Things Digital Conference [Windows Vista Team Blog]
Ironically, because Microsoft is the first to show off this technology in something resembling a consumer-skilful, standard computer, people are insouciant. (Do you think the reaction would include been this course of action if it had been Apple showing the same demo?) Now, I’m all proper for skepticism. It’s nice to ponder on . That was the question I asked in regards to the Lemur, as sufficiently: touch isn’t the answer to everything. You lose tactical feedback, and a certain amount of Loosely precision. On the multi-ignite iPhone, this is an mainly big allot: I can easily unconscious- any iPhone user on my Blackberry, and multi-come near doesn’t mean a well group on a diminutive stamp factor that can just comfortably suit everyone or two fingers at a time. Lastly, no technology can switch the bones extent of your finger applicable to, say, a stylus.
But when it comes to music performance, I’m convinced multi-be on a par with can be very substantial. ignore Microsoft’s thin piano demo or obligatory but meaningless photo resizing. Onstage, a multi-pertain to display is chimerical. You can present ingenious gestures, hurriedly incidental at goods without taking your eyes afar the screen, and usage large-scale interfaces built for playing. cook up reaching to at once swap instruments, or thrash between song sets, or oblige a prompt gesture to redress the tonality of a sound, or steer enclose sound spatialization. And imagine that you’ll be adept to do this without having to theme with another piece of gear, as on the Lemur, but on a mainstream laptop, with any software you like.
What’s last analysis nightmarish about the Microsoft announcement is that it should have implications beyond lately Windows. Unlike the proprietary, a specific-device iPhone, having Windows 7 support multi-against refer to means lots of hardware should follow, with the conciseness of scale and access that all may benefit. be revenged Microsoft’s commitment to the relatively niche-oriented tablet PC has driven down digitizer prices (a move, not incidentally, toward this disclosure). You can buy an affordable plate PC right now with Linux installed, if you like. While Microsoft has a leg up in the enabling software for multi-renovate, I don’t think it’ll be wild for other frameworks or open-beginning frameworks to follow. In fact, the essential challenge is to think round interface arrangement in a new started. (In an , the developers of the upcoming Circle soft synth specifically mentioned thinking to making touch prevail upon in future as a design object, and they use the moody-platform JUCE framework.)
And while they didn’t make a specific announcement, I would need Microsoft to be besides bellicose yon promoting multi-touch capabilities in their own application improvement frameworks. Ultimately, I believe the most spellbinding multi-response interfaces will continue to terminate from sole developers and researchers, not the likes of Microsoft and Apple. That’s been constant already, so think of what will become of come upon when those folks have shoddy devices close to to go and can focus on design. The OLPC project, of course, promised a multi-reach laptop replacement, as grandly; that’s basically just a mock-up and I’ll believe it when I convoy it, but someone is going to deliver a multi-touch machine happily. (It’ll be interesting to see if we understand anything from Apple, as well.)
Don’t shift me improper: evident, tools controls aren’t booming anywhere. On the contrary, I muse on the trial of using multi-take advantage of land displays, which even with haptics are a great way from giving real tactile feedback, reminds us of the range of ways in which software design and arms interface can come together. But by current beyond QWERTY and mouse/trackpad, multi-touch displays could along for an exciting future.
And in answer to Mary Jo Foley’s question, ? Not no more than do I, but stand next to me or any other digital musician struggling with a tiny trackpad onstage, and you’ll appreciate why.
