Mixed Up – Beat Blender and Mixmaster 1200 from Matti Niinimäki on Vimeo.

Ableton Live enthusiasts, you take very seriously what gear you plug into your laptop sets. We’ve seen painstakingly-created DIY controllers like the arcade button hardware below, and bizarre oddities like calculators and arcade cabinets and blenders and Osterizers (above). So, in celebration of New York installment of the Dubspot Ableton Live 8 Tour, Saturday, June 27, we’re going to get together in a fantastic space and have a little Live party. And we want to see what controllers you’ve made.

If you’re coming to town for the Live Tour or are in the New York area, we’d love for you to show some of your creations. Built or customized your own controller? Got your Wii remotes and webcams running your Live set? Built your own special Reaktor / Pd / Max / Python creation to customize your Live performance? Invented some hardware that works with Live? We’d love to see it. It’s a week that includes some of the most skilled Live minds in the planet presenting, plus celebrity appearances by the likes of Richie Hawtin, Scientist, and others. So we expect that even though this is last-minute, this could be a fun chance to get together.

If you’re interested, just sign up below or head directly to the Google Docs form. This is an informal, relaxed venue with drinks and finger foods. (Check out the recent New York Magazine write-up.) The idea is to bring along some headphones or small speakers and show things off in the catacomb-like former stables (and former sex club) nooks of this fantastic bar, meet up, relax, and get to know each other. We’ll also feature a live performance or two; if interested, let us know what your stuff sounds like.

The event will be open to the public; stay tuned for more details on this and the event itself.

And if you want to learn how to use controllers intelligently with Ableton Live – from the cheap and accessible to the weird – I’ll be teaching a workshop at Dubspot on Sunday 6/28.

Sign up, creative folks:

Our Handmade Music series continues this month on Thursday evening, 3/19, 7:30p at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. Projects are open as always. Bring hardware. Bring circuit-bent stuff. Bring code and patches. Bring works you want to perform. Bring works that don’t work yet. Just, if you can, give us a shout to know what to expect. We have a PA, a mixer, a projector, and some space. It’s a party / science fair-style atmosphere, a chance to have a few beers and celebrate sound and noise with fellow geeks and the musicurious.

I’m particularly interested this month to see if anyone has Java or Processing-based works you want to share, as Sun’s CommunityOne East is in town, meaning lots o’ Java programmers. (Generally, they’re doing serious, work stuff like … um … servers and things. But that doesn’t mean you can’t show off your own, more unusual creations.)

More details of the lineup soon.

Call for Works, Direct Link [Google Docs]
Embedded form below:

It’s the next New York’s DIY music tech party, presented by CDM with Etsy.com, Make, and XLR8R.com, and now sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon!

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.)

New for January 15’s event:

• Free beer, sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon, plus our usual refreshments
• DIY TV: Make Magazine screen music projects from their new Make: television, produced with Twin Cities Public Television and American Public Television, with a talk by Make’s Phil Torrone
• Better weather? (hopefully) no torrential freezing downpours like our debut last month (see, and you folks in other parts of the world were jealous…)

And we’re working on two projects for the online party: one is to be able to get those able to show off work around 8pm Eastern time (realizing that is a bit close to the middle of the night for Europe) to present via video chat. The other is to set up small shared labs for people to work together on new music and visual tech projects. Stay tuned.

For a glimpse of what these events look like, check out some of my photos from the December event at 3rd Ward. Video documentation coming soon (once I’m done editing!)

If you want to submit, we can use your info as soon as possible. Walk-ins with projects are always welcome, but if we know a little in advance, we can prepare and promote your project in our event info.

Form is embedded above, or skip to the form directly:

Call for Works @ Google Docs

Handmade Music, the regular series of DIY music tech parties CDM hosts with Etsy.com and Make Magazine in New York, is back. And it’s back in a big way: the event has a new home in Bushwick and will be held on an actual schedule monthly. The first event is next Thursday, December 11. After the December debut, it’ll be every third Thursday of the month, starting with January 15, 2009. We’ve got a spacious, new home at the hip galleries and workshops of 3rd Ward in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We want to see your projects, from simple first-time creations to advanced hacks, from software patches in Pd/Reaktor/Max etc. to hardware and electronics. See the call for works below.

RSVP + Event Details on Facebook

Bonus – Make Your Own Beep-It Optical Theremin. For the cost of parts (about $10), Mike Una is giving a workshop – no experience required, and you’ll leave with your own Beep-It. (Space is limited!)

Workshop RSVP

Double Bonus – You! We’re looking for hardware and software projects to share.

Call for Works Form [Google Docs]

Not in New York? Stay tuned – we’ll have some ways to join up live online with both the CDM community and the Etsy community.

If you are in New York:

Directions to the Space

Party: 7-10p, 12/11 (snacks/drinks + lots of sounds for everyone, from non-musicians to hardcore musical hackers!)

Make Your Own Beep-It Workshop: 7:30-8:30p (arrive promptly!)

Here’s what the event is about, as described by, well, me:

Part party, part mixer, part Science Fair, and part performance, this is an informal chance for geeksters and the geek-curious to come together, relax, and discover new sounds. The evening is a gathering of inventors of circuit-bent toys, custom software and patches, interactive digital & visual instruments, custom electronics, electricity-powered noisemakers, DIY robots and new acoustic instruments. And it’s open to everyone from hard-core hackers & newcomers to music lovers who want to learn about the DIY music scene.

And here’s a big bonus: if you liked Michael Una’s Beep-It DIY optical Theremin, as debuted here, you can make your own for the low, low price of parts: about ten bucks.

Michael Una will demonstrate his optical theremin synthesizer Beep-it and conduct a workshop wherein attendees will build their own optical theremin. The basics of analog synthesis will be discussed. No skill level is required- all tools and parts will be provided by the participation fee.

Pay for your parts by Wednesday 12/10, and reserve your spot at the workshop, at EventBrite:

http://beepit.eventbrite.com/

Beep-it from Michael Una on Vimeo.

Logo design by the amazing creator of the CDM logos and endless musical posters, Nat aka onetonnemusic.

See you next week, in New York or online!

We welcome people showing up with gear and creations at the last minute – bring cables, an extension cord, and (if you’ve got it) small speakers / headphones / PA (though we’ll do our best to provide some sound). But it does help to know who’s coming if you want to give us some advance warning, and we can help publicize your work in advance. Here’s the form: