After an afternoon of testing, NetLag is now going live, kicking off from Melbourne right now. Tune in at http://mogulus.com/netlag/ over the next 5 hours to see artists from Australia, Japan and the USA!

Update: Peter is on right now! To be followed by some new work from the LightRhythmVisuals AV Label.

Update 2: Net Lag is over, but you can watch the streams on demand. Ed.: Sound didn’t seem to work for me when I tried this, but let us know … we’ll have some archived video footage and more on how it went — and what you can learn for doing your own streaming events — very soon. And expect more events in future, as well. -PK

I’ll be in Los Angeles this week and very excited about everything going on. I’m playing the Air Conditioned Supper Lounge in Venice Wednesday night with my friend Steve Nalepa, hosted by the amazing electronic impersario and producer Irwin. (Event info: Facebook | venue) The night, delightfully named Irwin’s Conspiracy, promises to inject some new life into the live electronic music scene in LA, so it’s good stuff. I’ll be working with Kore and Ableton, Steve with Ableton, and hope to get some live iPod touch control action going. If you’re in the area and want to come say hi, just get in touch via Facebook or contact me directly and I’ll put you on the guest list. 9p-2a, $3 bucks.

Thursday night, Owen Vallis is the guest at the Ableton Live User Group Las Angeles, downtown at SAE. He’ll be talking multi-touch goodness, like the amazing Brick table he’s worked on with Jordan Hochenbaum, as well as the potential of the Arduino-Monome clone Arduinome project to which he’s contributing. I’ll be there. 8p, free; see the flyer.

There are also some non-public meetings going on while I’m there that should also bring good things your way, so stay tuned!

Chris Everest of Vinyl Project has some first hands-on impressions of Mixx, the open-source DJ software that recently added vinyl control (among other features). So far, he says he’s not sure it’s ready for prime-time: “There are definitely some things I could try to help the situation, but at this point I wasn’t convinced by the overall experience.”

Software Review: Mixxx Open Source DJ Software [Vinyl Project]
Previously: Mixxx, Open Source DJ Tool, Adds Vinyl Control

He does, however, wonder if a controlled operating environment would help. As it happens, I’m testing Mixxx on just such an environment, the custom-Linux UMPC Indamixx. Stay tuned.

The creator of iTouchMIDI — now iTM MidiLab — writes to let us know that Apple has approved his app. I know various iPhone and iPod touch owners were waiting to turn their device into a mobile, wireless MIDI controller, so this is good news.

See previously:
Unreleased iPhone – iPod Touch MIDI Controllers, Ready for Ableton Live and More

And this suggests, as we speculated, that the problem with Apple’s App Store is simply that it’s overclogged with apps. The other complaints still apply, of course:
iPhone Ups and Downs, Unhappy Developers, and the MIDI Controllers You Can’t Have Yet

We’ve gotten lots of feedback from readers in our mobile device poll. Basically, I’m aware some of you have use for this stuff, and some don’t — just as with any app that’s specific to one platform. And one message we got loud and clear is that Apple’s gadgets aren’t nearly as affordable in other countries. But we’ll, as always, work to keep a balance of a lot of stuff. The first wave of iPhone apps has now become available, so I expect things will die down a bit and we can see if we can do useful musical things with all this software now!

And yes, we have a lot of non-mobile stories in the pipeline if I can just finish the darn things. (I’m on the road; stay tuned!)

Intrigued by the Kaossilator, but annoyed by hearing two bars over and over and over and over…?

Our friend David Battino has the solution, and while it’s a simple trick, it wound up being the deal-maker for buying Korg’s cute little “dynamic phrase synth”:

What loosened my credit card was a secret hack Korg revealed during fact-check: If you power up the Kaossilator while holding down the Tap and Loop Rec buttons, the loop memory doubles from two bars to four. That may not sound like much, but it gives you time to set up tension and release; I find four-bar loops just breathe better.

Video and step-by-step instructions at O’Reilly Digital Media. Now, how can I do polyrhythms and larger phrase cycles? Hey, where’d everyone go?

Got other Kaossilator tricks? Let us know in comments.