Results for CDM

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Arduino Sine wave Generator using the DDS Method

From Lab3:

Here we describe how to generate sine waves with an Arduino board in a very accurate way . Almost no additional hardware is required. The frequency range reaches form zero to 16 KHz with a resolution of a millionth part of one Hertz ! Distortions can be kept less than one percent on frequencies up to 3 KHz. This technique is not only useful for music and sound generation another range of application is test equipment or measurement instrumentation. Also in telecommunication the DDS Method is useful for instance in frequency of phase modulation (FSK PSK).

# Schipmann Music out of business Via Matrixsynth

Dear customers!

We are finishing our business. These are the very last units of “ebbe und flut” ever!! We are thankful for all our satisfied customers. We will be there for you in support and service in that time after this sale.

Yours sincerely,
Carsten Schippmann (CEO)

Last ebbe und flut MKII units going for 999 EUR (normal price: 1498,21 EUR per unit) Tempting…

# 5 Years of CDM NYC Party: Beats + Baile + Open Bar + Laptops + Twitter Twister

Time flies when you’re having fun. Congratulations to Peter Kirn and CDM.

Pete writes:

Link love, chip love, software love, music love – Create Digital Music is celebrating five years, and it’s time to spread some of the love back to you here in New York City.

Wednesday night, we’ll be celebrating five years made possible by our incredible readers with a big party at Love Nightclub in Manhattan.

# little-scale Novation Launchpad – Sebastian uses Max/MSP to create a linear sequencer, ripple sequencer and waveform editor for the Novation Launchpad.

Today I made a simple ripple-based sequencer for the Novation Launchpad. The idea is simple. By pressing a grid button, a yellow, square ripple is created that emanates from the point that was touched. By holding down a modifier button and pressing a grid button, static, red points are created. Each red point represents a musical note. Whenever a given yellow ripple intersects (touches) a red point, the sequencer plays a note.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Awesome collection of DIY video-glitch hardware

From Make: Online:

The "tools" section of media artist Karl Klomp's website documents an impressive amount of bent, hacked and homebrew hardware for video manipulation. Devices such as the Failter (seen above) series go through a number of incarnations while Karl experiments with different hardware and uncovers its glitch-ability. The retro-simple feel of the enclosures give give it all a nicely 'scientific' almost medical feel.

# MPC2500 Gutted & Deconstructed (Vimeo) via Crate Kings

Hopefully most Akai owners will never have to witness their beloved music machine being gutted like this MPC2500 was. It’s not exactly pretty sight, but fascinating stuff for those that have been curious about the innards of a sampler/sequencer/drum machine.

# 279 / nanopedal via CDM

Marcus Fischer of dust breeding turned a Korg nanoKEY into a foot controller.

Marcus writes:

i’ve been wanting a compact usb midi foot pedal for a long time. i built one out of a usb number pad last year but it was less than ideal. tonight i popped all of the keys but five off of my korg nanokey in order to see how it would work as a pedal. it turned out that it worked really well. i cut some small pieces of plywood out to raise the key height and some scrap plexiglass to cover up the missing keys. a little spray paint and double stick tape and it was all finished.

i think it turned out pretty well. not bad for a cheap keyboard and scrap materials.

# Going Mobile: Nintendo DS-10 Comes to North America

Peter Kirn @ CDM writes:

Fans of the Nintendo DS in North America, the Korg DS-10 Plus synthesizer for Big N’s game system is now coming to your side of the Pacific Ocean. (That also bodes well, I think, for other parts of the world.) The DS-10 I think really deserves some credit for making a straight-up music title a hit on gaming platforms, and its success certainly surpassed my own expectations. It’s not a game, it’s not an interactive experience, it’s not a music game – it’s actually a synth and music workstation that happens to run on a game platform. The DS-10 Plus beefs up the original’s features, though it now has a commercially-available rival in the form of Rockstar’s Beaterator for PSP.

Create Digital Music has released Less Cowbell, a free patch for Ableton Operator by Francis Preve.

Peter Kirn writes:

The simple interface of Ableton’s Operator belies some truly lovely soundmaking capabilities. Our friend Francis Preve, a principle Ableton sound designer who has contributed hundreds of presets since 2004, has a new single out that makes use of some of those sonic possibilities, combining Operator with juicy spectral and granular effects in Live 7. As a gift to Ableton users on CDM, he’s giving us both the rack he used and some tips on squeezing noise out of the Ableton instrument.

You will need a copy of Operator (or demo version) to use this patch.

Visit Create Digital Music for more on Francis Preve and his Hasown / Less Cowbell EP.

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Call for Works, Mark Your Calendar: Handmade Music, 1/15 in Brooklyn, Beyond – The regular series of DIY music tech parties continues in 2009.

Peter Kirn writes:

Handmade Music is now a monthly affair at the wonderful 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, and increasingly, I want to work on adding an online, virtual component for the rest of the world to share. That means we’ll be looking for new works to share. The setup is this: for people in-person, we’re looking for installations, short performances, or projects you’d like to show off informally, science fair-style. Projects don’t have to be completed finished – in fact, this is a great way to get feedback on something you’re working on (and we certainly welcome repeat presentations as you make more progress, especially now that we’re monthly). We also welcome visual and audiovisual projects; we’ll have a projector onsite. (You’ll need to share if you can’t bring your own projector, but we can give you at least a few minutes of projection time.)

# MIDImplant – MIDImplant is the smallest MIDI to Control Voltage (MIDI2CV) converter ever made, and it's dual channel…

# Making Simple PVC Flutes

Instructables user Jnkyrdguy shows you how to make your own PCV flutes.

This flute design is a common one on the net, and for good reason. Not only is it simple to build, it's also relatively simple to learn and rewarding to play. It only took a month of on and of playing to be relatively proficient (meaning I could get a clean sound from the first two octaves without difficulty.) The flutes are keyed instruments and only play in one scale (without more complex fingerings) which is actually a plus when just noodling around since you can't easily hit a note outside of the major scale of that flutes key.

Last month Create Digital Music asked its readers to share what they would want to receive, give to newcomers, and what they would want to read.

Yesterday CDM presented the Winter 2008 guide, a wonderful publication (print edition + pdf download) including a Holiday Guide, Circuit bending 101, Dan McPharlin’s cardboard miniature synths, Ableton Live slicing tutorial (including freebie) and much more.

For digital musicians and lovers of sound, Create Digital Music Winter 2008 extends the popular website createdigitalmusic.com with a handbook of the best in products, how-to’s, and features.

In this issue, we explore the best products and gifts for beginners and advanced users, from synths to strange music controllers to software to books and listening. We learn how to slice up audio into powerful software drum machines in Ableton Live, with a free companion download at covops.org/cdm. Dan McPharlin shows us his intricate, imaginary synth designs, constructed by hand in cardboard. Sound artist Mike Una introduces circuit bending, which gives you the power to turn cheap toys into strange sonic wonders. Technologists reflect on the best in design, the potential of open source, and how to use music to survive Berlin’s drab, wet, and cold winters.

Unlike traditional editorial-only content, the CDM Winter guide is full of ideas and images from the createdigitalmusic community.

The CDM Winter 2008 guide is released under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. You can download the pdf version from lulu.com, free of charge — this publication is a true gift in itself!

Some interesting things I found recently:

# Califaudio: Open Reel Ensemble – Califaudio posts about the Open Reel Ensemble: scratching 4 reel-to-reel analog tape recorders to make some really cool music.

They hook up a keyboard, microphones, computers loaded with Max/MSP, USB interfaces, lights and solenoids to old-school reel-to-reel decks and mic the strange sounds of their voices, singing bowls and tabla.

# Partners In Rhyme – Free Drum Loops – A nice collection of free 16bit/44kHz .wav drum loops from Partners In Rhyme (hip hop, rock, techno, drum n bass and jungle drum loops)

# Wii Drum High

HE Zhao's open source Wii peripheral drum-kit project:

With Nintendo Wii remote, Nunchuk and Wii Balance Board, it is easy to produce drum kit sounds from programming of their acceleration, joystick and weight data. These data can be transmitted from Wii controllers via Bluetooth to PC or Mac without Wii consoles. Wii Drum High integrates all three kinds of Wii controllers to stimulate a complete drum set of Hi-hat, Snare, Base drum, Crash cymbal, Ride cymbal, Mid tom and Low tom. Up to 4 sets of Wii remote and nunchuk can be used at the same time. (one of my colleague succeeded in connecting 5 wiimotes to a PC, but I've never tried)

# SevenUpLive for the Monome 40h and 64 – a Java application that combines 8 different monome applications into one interface. With it, your monome communicates with Ableton Live 7 via MIDI and allows MLR-like functionality along with other goodies like sliders, sequencing melodies, creating patterns of beats, saving/loading/queueing your songs, and more.