Create Digital Music » announcements

CDM RSS Problem – Fixed

Peter Kirn — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:17:13 +0000

Thanks to those of you who reported a temporary issue with Create Digital Music’s RSS feed. I believe we’ve resolved this problem: you can blame an accidental edit to a configuration file. (WordPress users, if you ever happen to encounter this problem yourself, feedvalidator.org has a tip for you.)

We have traditionally used the Feedburner service for RSS; I even knew folks who worked there and were CDM readers prior to the Google acquisition. Since the Google acquisition, though, that service seems not to have evolved much, and we’ve grown, too – meaning we’re really happy to let you subscribe directly.

We suggest you point your RSS reader, if you haven’t already, to:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/feed/

If you ever have any issue with CDM or noisepages, do let us know. Thanks for your help.

Informal Live Broadcast Tonight from Brooklyn: Handmade Music

Peter Kirn — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:42:08 +0000

Our stream experiment worked – thanks for enduring it! So, we did get a very basic stream going and were able to successfully broadcast over 3rd Ward’s network. I imagine it was generally not so interesting if you tuned in (we had some equipment and camera placement issues). However, it functioned a proof of concept, and in future we can actually make it much more interesting, with videos of projects queued, more interaction, and camera + audio that actually brings you the event. So thanks for those of you who helped (who also clued us into making chat work on IRC as well as ustream), and looking forward to our first proper livecast!

This is entirely experimental, but I’ll be broadcasting live from Handmade Music tonight in Brooklyn. Drop by and have a look at what’s going on. 7:30pm Eastern (that’s GMT -4) is when the event begins. We may be able to switch on earlier than that, but I’ll at least try to have something up by then. Note that we may not be able to have someone live on chat through the evening, so you could get a fishtank experience, but I’ll try to get folks to come say hi through the evening.

We’ll use this first attempt to see how things go for the future.

And of course, if you’re in the New York area, you can just drop by yourselves and have free beer.

April Fool’s? Bah, Humbug!

Peter Kirn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:27:07 +0000

April Fool’s, San Francisco style – with a parade. Now that’s more fun than sitting in front of blogs. Photo: Patrick Boury.

Here’s a cruel joke for you: the first day of Frankfurt’s Musikmesse trade show? The date on which all the music tech press releases for the show have dated their embargo? April First.

Now, to me, the whole point of April Fool’s is surprise, or at least humor. April Fool’s has become so obligatory that everything from faux press releases to blog posts are dedicated to the topic whether they were inspired or not. So, you know what? No April Fool’s Day here. Anything covered on this site tomorrow will be – to the best of my knowledge, anyway – real. (Or as near reality as we ever get.)

Ironically, news in our world is so unsurprising, any interesting news is immediately suspected of being fake. Teenage Engineering’s Operator-1 is so cool looking that, aside from concerns it may not ship, some of you have gone so far to worry the whole thing is an elaborate April Fool’s prank. (One clue that that’s nonsense: it was announced on March 30. It even missed the Ides of March.)

But there you go: case in point. Reality actually can be cool. So we’ll stay away from the pranks this year, and any foolery will be of the technological kind. Enjoy.

From the Game Developer Conference

Peter Kirn — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:00:27 +0000

I’ve just finished my first full day of the Game Developer Conference. While this is not Create Digital Games, there are some real highlights here, from ideas in music and visual production and experimental interface design to the work to promote and codify interactive music at the Interactive Audio SIG. Between GDC and the usual cast of characters in San Francisco, there’s a remarkable roster of folks. Text is in drafts, so stay tuned. The fundamental contradiction of all writing is that of being and recording your being. But to me, beneath headlines about development products or new games, these things are never-repeated assemblages of interesting people – and they’re usually the ones with the stories. If you happen to be around, give a holler.

I’m also connecting with our friends at Boing Boing and Boing Boing Offworld, and we’ll have some joint coverage this week and next. They’re crazy enough to be doing a live video stream, so if it’s during the day West Coast time you can see what they’re up to:

For the Latest NAMM News, Follow Us on Twitter; News Release Schedule

Peter Kirn — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:02:53 +0000

I do promise that CDM will have up-to-the-second coverage of the stuff you care about (that is, when we’re not getting scooped by early print runs of Electronic Musician or the Akai website), but for those of you who are reloading our page every few moments, here’s an alternative:

I’ll post tidbits the moment I know them, and you’ll be the first to know when new stuff goes live here, I promise (including revisions/updates to stories).

At 3:30 pm (CUT/GMT -5 Eastern Time), we’ll carry Ableton and Cycling ‘74 news.
At 4:00 pm, we’ll have Native Instruments news.
Friday, we’ll have an exclusive from MOTU (not what you’ve heard about.)

But I do also expect some of the most interesting coverage to come the week after NAMM, as some of the questions (particularly regarding the Cycling announcement) are more technical and go beyond what’s been publicly released. We also have hands-on time planned both with the new Native Instruments and Akai hardware.

Now I feel like an ad on a cable network. Ahem. (Imagine James Earl Jones’ voice.) “For the latest news, stay tuned. This … is CDM.” What, you kids are too young to remember CNN in the 90s?

CDM Does Not Break NAMM Embargoes; Why That’s Good For You and When to Tune In

Peter Kirn — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:08:59 +0000

(Harry Potter book shipment.) Photo: Michael Henderson.

When should you tune in tomorrow to get the news? Thanks to the fact that some folks do send CDM press releases under embargo, some big announcements should happen at:

Thursday, 1:00pm Eastern Time: This is the opening of the NAMM show, so it’s when many embargoes are lifted. Any really big stories that deserve it will get immediately published then.
Thursday, 3:30pm Eastern Time: I have some specific stories that are held for this specific time that will definitely be published then.
Over the weekend and later: Because I want to actually cover less but do it in more detail, expect other news and analysis over the coming days.
The rest of 2009: Some announcements simply don’t make NAMM. We expect some news to come out of this year’s Messe conference in Germany. I expect in the near future trade shows in China will start breaking news. And most importantly, a lot of news doesn’t happen at trade shows. I’m personally excited by the stuff we’ll be seeing at things like our Handmade Music event coming from DIYers.

Some NAMM news is already leaking out today, and on top of that I’m watching as sites are posting press releases that are clearly under embargo. Now, that might seem a good way to get a jump on the news, except it’s not.

Some big stories aren’t leaking. This is pretty absurd – I’m seeing forums leaking information and then assuming that they know all there is to know. They don’t. Forums will always do this, and that’s fine – but you can still be realistic. Also, some of the websites that are breaking embargoes on press releases clearly don’t have all the press releases – maybe because press folks aren’t sending them out because they know they’ll get published immediately.
Press releases don’t tell you what you need to know. To be able to really cover a story, you need to understand what a press release says, not simply copy and paste. I love the 24-hour news cycle in the blogosphere, but we also need to be able to investigate and ask questions. So, you can either see stuff the minute it’s announced, or wait a little longer and get some analysis. And as you know, I ~~always get everything totally right~~ often get corrected by smart readers who know more than I do, which is the real point of Web publishing.
If we don’t break embargoes, we get advance information. CDM doesn’t break embargoes or leak stories – that’s the policy. For one thing, there’s not really much point. If Steinberg had assembled a puppy farm and was experimenting on them to create the next version of Cubase, that would be something that would require journalism that reported on the story immediately. But with new tools, we actually want to have more time with them, so that means respecting embargoes and privacy so that we can talk in more detail later and really understand the technology.

Incidentally, that’s not to say I don’t comment on rumors – I just only do it when I don’t know anything, and I label it as such.

Okay, enough of the rant.

Let us know if you hear anything you think we should care about, as we really do rely on you. And do stay tuned.

New Gear and Software: NAMM News Coming; Stay Tuned For…

Peter Kirn — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:03:00 +0000

Can we cover less, but get some deeper information? That’s my goal for CDM this year at NAMM, the music manufacturers’ US trade show. There’s plenty of new stuff that comes out annually at NAMM. From CDM’s New York City nerve center, I’ll be honing in on the stuff about which I think you’ll care most.

I can’t be in Anaheim for the show. That’s no loss to you, because trade shows floors aren’t necessarily conducive to the press. The main reason I go is to get to hang out with people I might not otherwise see. If you are there and think there’s something CDM should be covering, do drop me a line, especially if you make something that’s liable to be lost in the shuffle of industry news.

But I have been able to land some advance information, so starting Thursday and on through early next week as I can share information, I have plenty I want to talk about, and not just what’s in the press releases.

It’s already common knowledge that you can expect new things from Ableton, Cycling ‘74, Native Instruments, and Roland, just for starters. Cycling ‘74 has already let slip that they’ll be showing their collaboration with Ableton, and Ableton for their part has scheduled a press conference.

I do expect some nice news items for people making music with computers. Do stay tuned right here for the inside track.

Get the CDM Winter 2008 Guide Bound, Printed, Shipped by 12/24 Worldwide

Peter Kirn — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:17:05 +0000

Having been published the old-fashioned way, I’m really interested to see what on-demand printing will make possible in publishing and content – and, particularly, what it will mean for Web entities like CDM. (We need a new term: Web Treeware?)

On-demand isn’t as fast as a retail outlet with a book in stock, but they’re getting faster. Lulu can turn around our new CDM Winter 2008 guide in time for Christmas Eve. If you order by tomorrow, you’ll get the book custom-printed, bound (in a lovely, publisher-style) “Perfect Binding”, and shipped by 12/24:

Order deadline: Saturday 12/13 (note: US East Coast time)

US: Choose US Postal Priority, FedEx Ground

Canada, Latin America, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, rest of the world: Choose standard shipping

(faster shipping options are available, too)

Print Edition + Free PDF Download @ Lulu.com

And, of course, you get a DRM-free, Creative Commons-licensed PDF with your order, free. (For people charging for ebooks, I’m hoping Lulu adds the option to sell the bundle; CDM of course is giving away our PDF.)

This is just a first experiment for us, but I’m interested not only for CDM and Lulu but what this sort of thing means for content makers in general. (You’ll see a lot of self-published sheet music on Lulu, for instance.) It could make new things possible in publishing.

I’ve rush-ordered my print copy; I’ll take some photos when it gets here.

Also, we’ve just gotten a volunteer for a Spanish-language edition. (Imponente!)

Priority Mail Photo (CC) Harold Neal.

On Demand: CDM Winter 2008, with Gift Guide, Bending and Slicing Tutorials, More

Peter Kirn — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:39:56 +0000

“What if, instead of targeting Web content to a single day, you turned it into an object that would last a season? What would you want to save and savor?”

That’s the question I ask at the beginning of the Create Digital Music Winter 08 guide. We’ve filled it with good stuff we love, plus good stuff we hear that you love (via our survey of hundreds of readers for the holiday guide). Via Creative Commons-licensed images, you’ve shared your world of music, and so we share the whole guide as fully free work (it’s got a CC Attribution / ShareAlike license).

Here’s some of what’s inside – we wanted stories that you’d want to live with the whole winter season:

Circuit bending 101 with Michael Una
Imagining synths: reflections on the design of electronic instruments with Dan McPharlin, creator of wonderful miniature synths handmade from cardboard
Tutorial on slicing audio to MIDI in Ableton Live 7, with tips from Live guru Francis Preve plus a free accompanying CDM pack designed by Covert Operators at http://covops.org/cdm
Holiday Guide, with your favorite gear and software of the year, listening and reading suggestions, and ideas on open hardware from monome creator Brian Crabtree
Creative tips for surviving winter in Berlin, courtesy monolake (Robert Henke)
Images from the CDM community and beyond

With the help of graphic editor Nathanael Jeanneret, the results are designed to be an object on paper or read on high-resolution displays. The PDF is available free, with an on-demand print version from Lulu available worldwide (US$19.99 before shipping). I just ordered my print copy rush, so I’ll let you know what it looks like as this is the first time we’ve tried this.

Print Edition + Free PDF Download @ Lulu.com

A big thanks to our sponsors for making this possible:

Ableton Live, our premiere sponsor; now with an unlimited 14-day trial

Audiofile Engineering, makers of Wave Editor for Mac

Highly Liquid DIY MIDI electronics maker

Covert Operators, creators of Live Packs and video tutorials for Ableton Live

I’m really eager to hear what you think.

Reminder: Handmade Music Tonight, Live in Brooklyn, Online on Etsy

Peter Kirn — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:08:09 +0000

It’s Handmade Music Night here in New York! There’s still a couple of spaces in the optical Theremin Beep-It workshop with Mike Una – just pay on-site – and a number of really interesting projects from electronic glocks to bicycle turntables to networked and floating musical objects.

In Brooklyn:

7:30-10p tonight (Thursday)

3rd Ward gallery/artist space

195 Morgan Ave., at the corner of Stagg St., in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, near the Morgan L stop

Directions

Online:

Join the Virtual Lab in the Treehouse room (free Etsy registration required) and hang out with the crafters, around 1:30am GMT:

Virtual Lab @ Etsy.com

We’ll have plenty of documentation following the event, too, so for more on the projects and the Beep-It, stay tuned.