Tag Archives: music

EKS Otus DJ controller

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Joel Johnson

The EKS “Otus” is billed as the “World’s most comfortable DJ controller”, with a full complement of remappable knobs, buttons, and touch-sensitive sliders. It’s certainly not the ugliest bit of gear I’ve ever seen, although someone with any experience with … Continue reading →

Daft Tron

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Rob Beschizza

Daft Punk is to render the soundtrack for Tron 2. [MTV] I’m still disappointed that it won’t be called Troff.

Video: The Mentalists cover MGMT rather awkwardly on iPhones and iPod Touch

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Joel Johnson

Using Ocarina, Retro Synth, miniSynth, and DigiDrummer Lite, an all-girl UK band covers that one MGMT song about the family of trees. It sounds okay, but it seems like they’re slogging through it just so they can provide the background … Continue reading →

Software reveals drummers who used click tracks

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Rob Beschizza

Because it’s much easier to hack music that has a perfectly even tempo, drummers often use a click track to make life easy for producers and remixers. Coder and music technologist Paul Lamere developed a program that plots the deviations … Continue reading →

Datamoshing: Chairlift’s “Evident Utensil” and melting keyframes

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Joel Johnson

Chairlift’s video for “Evident Utensil” uses a video effect identified by Young Master Kottke as “datamoshing”, in which artifacts from video compression are purposefully used to add a melting, psychedelic patina and transitions. A higher resolution .MOV makes it even … Continue reading →

iShred, an iPhone guitar app that makes playing real songs possible

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Joel Johnson

iShred from Frontier Design is yet another guitar simulator for the iPhone, this time with an eye towards electrics, complete with stomp boxes and pedal effects. Unlike a lot of the other guitar apps out there, though, iShred looks fairly … Continue reading →

Video Exclusive: Tettix shows HOWTO make “Fake ‘n’ Bake” chiptunes with Reason

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Joel Johnson

One of our favorite musicians, Judson “Tettix” Cowan, has taken the time to show us how he makes “Fake ‘n’ Bake Chiptunes” in Propellerheads’ Reason. Which is awesome, because if I ever get off my ass and write that chiptune … Continue reading →

Art: Prefuse 73 “Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian” album cover

Posted on February 9, 2009 by Joel Johnson

Pitchfork has a leaked tracklist. I noticed a turntable in a hard case in the United lost luggage office at JFK last night that had three Prefuse 73 stickers on it. Guillermo Scott Herren, if you’ve lost a turntable, it’s … Continue reading →

Video: Tron + Depeche Mode

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Joel Johnson

[via bre bre bre bre bre bre bre bre bre bre bre bre]

BB Video: Inside Electro-Harmonix, guitar pedal engineers and vintage vacuum tubes

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Joel Johnson

After we noticed the Voice Box FX pedal from Electro-Harmonix, I noticed that they were based in Long Island City, just a short train ride away from my place in Brooklyn. Since I’m getting ready to move to Oregon—Hello, Eugene!—I … Continue reading →