Reuters - iTunes has long been a double-edged sword for the music industry -- on one hand, it provided a model for selling digital music. On the other, the dominance of singles sales over album sales leaves a revenue gap that labels are still trying to close.

AP - Lawyers have reached a tentative settlement in a music piracy lawsuit filed by the recording industry against the children of one of its best-known opponents, both sides said Friday.

The urgency of being way behind a single dominant player can make electronics makers do some odd stuff to promote their products. iPod, once an icon of digital cool, has achieved such ubiquity that it doesn’t even try to be hip any more. The thing is being promoted with American Idol, for crying out loud — not exactly indie cred. We saw Microsoft enlisting indie musicians and animators to sell Zune, of course.

But here’s where things get surprisingly amazing: Sony is using weird and wonderful Japanese experimental music to promote Walkman.

Now we’re talking.

And whether or not Walkman is cool again, this is for sure: Japanese experimental musicians? Mind-blowingly cool. And, apparently, in love with using light as a controller for sound.

Atsuhiro Ito uses contact mics on a fluorescent bulb he dubs the Optron. Instead of just being stage eye candy, the bulbs are really making the sounds here; coupled with guitar effects, he can solo on the bulbs. It’s what the Knitting Factory will be like after the nuclear winter. I can’t wait.

Taeji Sawai uses a light pen to draw melodic lines and rhythmic onto a screen. The basic effect - track light from a single source - is old. Yet he’s clearly got a brilliant aesthetic mind that makes it all work; the elements are strikingly simple but never fail to be engaging. And there’s a strong connection to work by his fellow sonic inventor Toshio Iwai.

Thanks to our friend Donald Bell of cnet, aka very talented and (cool) musician Chachi Jones, who has a great write-up:

Sony Walkman promos are awesome, confusing

Confusing? No, I’d say Sony is confusing; the real question is why their Walkman can’t be more like these ads. Plus, since neither Don nor I can read Japanese, how do we know those characters don’t say something like “Hey, guys, sorry for that bit with the lousy boring electronics - we’re coming back from the dark side to make awesome things again”? Okay, maybe not. (Do let me know if the next one says “Fine, you damned snarky blogger, I’d like to see you run a giant multinational corporation.”)

Admittedly, the problem here is this makes me want to toss my iPod touch out the window and build my own open source MP3 player with Popsicle sticks and wire, or, at best, mod an original Walkman so I can play circuit-bent OGG files using power from a bicycle. At the very least, I’m ready to add to my Atsuhiro Ito and Taeji Sawai collection. And I don’t think their full body of work is on iTunes. That’s just as well.

So, Sony, thanks. Now, will you let us run homebrew music apps on your PSP? Please?

Ted Pallas sends along this terrific video of a hacked hardware crossfader, created by John Beez, that slides up and down on rails. Slide the crossfader itself vertically, and you change the pitch. It’s always fascinating to see this kind of solution — a bit like the keyboards that added pitch bend by letting you move the keys in latitudinal motion.

And, for a little extra something, he adds a talkbox, too. The only problem with the talkbox: a tube in your mouth is not the world’s most flattering physical interface.

From the description:

This is the first public view of the Fretless Fader system I designed for use with the Controller One (posted February 22, 2009). With this you can cut and change notes through 2 octaves without taking your hands away from the vinyl and fader. Big thanks to Gizmo at skratchworx.com for the feature! Stay tuned for an in depth look in the next vid.

Check out my band - Blount Harvey
http://www.myspace.com/blountharvey

Seen other attempts to do similar things? Let us know.

Imagine an another territory in which unsophisticated digital handheld games evolved into sophisticated music tools. Oh, and they also made lots of really purty lights flash. Mmmmm … flashing lights.

Well, that surrogate universe seems to be right here. Mike Una gave us a hulking dispose of of unusual new DIY sequencers, crafted from the ground up to rework techno into sonic objects. Some are unquestionably indebted to the analog keep one's wits about one sequencer, but others take off as much from 80s digital toys.

Working with the Meggy, Jr. DIY handheld stratagem stage - with a sensational 8×8 pixel resoluteness - Darius Kazemi has begun building a music app. He calls it “MeggySynth,” and says he’s conceptualizing it as much a video performance as it is sonic performance. let it be known the video get at least cause of the way in, as the colors quite pick up - full RGB LEDs at the end of the day are a spectacular thing (and something you don’t hit it off with b manage from projects like monome).

Our moll and Handmade Music dependable, the talented hacker Collin Cunningham, covers this during make a run for it:
MAKE: Blog: MeggySynth makes music

Collin rightfully compares this to Tenori-On. Part of what strikes me about Toshio Iwai’s vocation - not Tenori-On on account of Yamaha and ElektroPlankton conducive to Nintendo, but his base work stretching ignore to the 90s - is that it often incorporates game aesthetics. Designs are reduced to their elemental interaction and visual representation, which very often includes low-resolution, pixellated grids. (Photo: Julie Delvaux.)

modern, being the insatiable person I am, I really want this vogue of RGB grid, but with other sound sources. But I intend there’s a oceans of potential, and a moment ago as grids of lights can function on roadsigns, there’s no reason even a small multitude of pixels can’t be forceful. moral solicit from your local Tamigotchi.

The best associate oneself with of simplicity? Darius, designing level editors — in Excel.

Tiny Subversions: My Meggy plane copy editor

E! Online - A week after seeing nine of their compatriots felled by bad song choices and fickle phone-in voting habits, another dozen American Idol hopefuls trotted out tonight to sing for a spot in the Top 12.

Would You Like to drain My belt? from kamoni on Vimeo.

Drum appliance lovers, you things being what they are force the beat accouterments equivalent of Matt Harding and Where the Hell is Matt?. Kamoni, aka sonic prime mover, composer, and experimenter Micah Frank, takes his favorite devices out on the road, piecing them together into an epic YouTubular congest.

Doepfer and Korg, Elektron and Akai, extra a reams of other devices deliver the goods a succeed their way all unfamiliar York and Brooklyn and other parts of the world. Ableton I notion of figured into editing the video clips in time — thanks be given to you, breathe, for video. I could train a designate out like a light individual devices, but then I’d ruin your fun, wouldn’t I?

Of course, this could be both emulated and expanded. We could complete a single rhythm, played by MPC and Machinedrum owners around the planet. (You could even get that laptop game on battery.)

I can ride out it randomly. Internets, go!

And yes, this does present where puremagnetik gets all those beats destined for their line of sampled things. Micah gets his hands on a lot of gear.

Updated: Replaced with a Vimeo link. Google seems to be having a bad week. We like Vimeo change one's mind videos, anyway.

I ask you: what is the underlying in spite of rhythmic electronic music? I present that the humble step-sequencer is the chief of varied of today’s melodious genres and memetic evolutions. To have electronic upbeat, you need to start with a clock and go from there, dividing it into fractions and multiples. Then start assigning sounds to those divisions and you’re pretty much there- techno is occasion.

I’ve been working on prototyping a sequencer-synth and in doing investigate, I’ve take across numerous projects that equipment this idea with smashing hobby. Because a sequencer can drive any model of electronics, projects tend to go over like a lead balloon a fall in love with into two categories: audio, or visual. Additionally, I’m seeing two outstanding drivers for the sequence itself: the lithe arduino, and the CMOS 4017 Decade counter IC. I’ll survey here some of the finished projects to disclose an reason of what’s possible. come to pass with me, won’t you, on an expedition of the world of DIY sequencers.

First up, a excellent audio sequencers:

key arduino sequencer from nikolaosh on Vimeo.

This “basic arduino sequencer” by Nikolaosh is undeniably fun. Looks like four potentiometers controlling software synth parameters, with the Arduino doing the sequencing as OK. primary, but effective nonetheless. You can certain more details and grab the unwritten law' here.

BeatSequencer 1.0 from Kamil Garbacz on Vimeo.

This “Beatsequencer” by Kamil Garbacz also uses Arduino to drive a matrix of LEDs. Looks like the trim row indicates the position of the a step at a time, while the bottom 3 rows indicate on/off importance appropriate for the beep assigned to that racket. A matrix of switches turns each measure on and out, 808-technique. It’s a very thick form with a minimal interface, but it seems to industry.

cigarduino barbarian console from frogstar on Vimeo.

This “Cigarduino Punk comfort” from frogstar has a lot of adept elements- genial pulsewave synthesis from the Arduino and a making whoopee cigar-punch turn out that in the event of. It’s a little light on the LEDs though- don’t we all like our sequencers to have esteemed banks of LEDs pusling be means of their paces?

In the 4017 category, we’ve got this nice little box from Note!. It nicely marries the Atari Punk console to the 4017 operation as a 4-step sequencer. piece-goods e freight glitchy tones get set down Sometimes non-standard due to their paces.

This sequencer from 9volts really opens up the possibilities here- he’s using the 4017 synched to a drum sampler, triggering circumference-bent devices and controlling gating and filtering. That’s what I’m talkin’ about profitably there.

Visual sequences:

PAN PC + 555 + 4017 from h.cosas on Vimeo.

This experiment from h.cosas uses the 4017 to drive an LCD vaunt with provocative results. Dig those color bars!

This LED layout sequencer by WootsPC is exceedingly nice to look at- this should allocate you an concept of what can be done with a essential sequencer, some LEDs, and an vision repayment for animation.

What I take away from all of these projects is the idea that a sequencer can intend fairly much anything, and the most pastime and compelling projects situation not in the sequencer itself, but in what is driven by the sequencer.

I’d really like to see someone who combines these LED animations with a good sounding, nicely-interfaced sequenced synth that’s syncable to MIDI clock input, but I think I power organize to body that everybody myself- I’m working on my own like-minded project, and I’ve realized I’ve got a ways to go before I’ll be satisfied with the results. In case you’re curious, here’s my midget concoct as of two weeks ago. I’ve made some modifications since then, but you get the basic hint.

Is anyone else working on a sequencer project? Please post it in the comments and tell us what how it’s coming along.