CDM Stalwart bliss thinks that Wired’s article on Miya Masaoka’s Laser Koto is worthy of front page CDM status.

Well let’s have a look at the required aspects of a CDM article: Electronic Music? Check. Samples? Check. Lasers? Check. Midi? Check. Arduino? Check. Laptop? Check. Max/MSP? Check.

Yep, I think we can squeeze it in somewhere.

Masaoka was then able to play the instrument in its natural, acoustic state, use the gestural data supplied by motion sensors to generate and process sounds electronically, or do both at the same time. Toward the end of the Monster Koto’s life cycle, Masaoka installed laser arrays above and below the instrument’s body.

The Laser Koto was born when she decided to get rid of everything but the lasers.

Check out the rest of the article.

Other forum questions currently looking for answers include: Is buying Logic Pro 7 a bad idea? Is the Sonny Bono law going to go away? Can you capture live imagery from a Canon Powershot to G4 Powerbook? Does Zebranlogic make great looking effects boxen? Can people give Breathe advice on how to start making electronic music?

Russian DJ Artyom has built his own DJ audio hardware out of wood and electronics, complete with dual cassette playback boxes. The cassettes feature pitch control (fine and coarse), pitch bands, a motor off switch, and more, and he’s custom-built mixers, cross-faders, and EQ.

Then, he hooks these boxes up to his PC and relaxes — wait, no he doesn’t. His PC is packed with custom DJ patches built in Max/MSP.

Full hardware and software details at Artyom’s site, including downloadable Max patches, in English (see also Russian content — I’m sure someone out there speaks Russian):

Self-made DJ equipment
Max/MSP DJ Stuff

Via the rich electronic music blog, Filter27: How to DJ with an old cassette tapes

See also: KDE-Head photo on flickr with specs

Updated: Doh! Tom at Music thing beat me to this in 2005. Slight CDM lag there. ;) Nonetheless, maybe somebody will have a look at those Max patches and get some new ideas.

Man, these lazy newbie DJs, embracing a new-fangled playback medium like cassettes and Max/MSP patches. They’re nowhere near as authentic as the oldskool DJs playing … erm … CDs … at weddings. ;)

Another gorgeous shot of his brilliant hardware-building work after the jump (so you don’t have to wait through glacial load times):

Cycling ‘74 just updated darn near everything they make:

1. New Universal Binaries: Mode, Hipno, and UpMix are all Intel-native. But the big news is that Pluggo, the long-beloved C74 plug-in library, is available — meaning you should also be able to turn your Max compositions into Intel-native plug-ins.
2. Max/MSP 4.6.2 / Jitter 1.6.2: Max 4.6/Jitter 1.6 had already brought Intel Mac support, so other than some bugfixes for Mac users, the big news here is for the Windows side: the new features in Max 4.6 and (most significantly) Jitter 1.6 are now available to Windows users. I’m hoping this also means native uyvy video support, but I’ll save that discussion for Create Digital Motion.

If you’re on an old version of 4.5.x, it’s well worth upgrading. Cycling has put in some subtle but significant improvements over the last few “point” releases, and they’re free for anyone who owns Jitter 1.5 / Max 4.5. Cycling also wins points for providing Intel Native support absolutely free of charge; this is one of the only major application developers I can think of that did that with a flagship application.

I’m currently teaching MSP at Brooklyn College, and we get into the first meat of synthesis this week. I have to say, while I admire Pd, I’m happy to have Max so that we can take advantage of a friendlier interface and far more detailed documentation. The two products, however, commercial and open source, continue to benefit from the other’s existence, and I’m even seeing more people running both on the same machine. Mostly I need people to start trailing me with an espresso machine so I can keep up with all the software I’m using.

Everything’s coming up soundflowers over at Cycling ‘74:

1. Max/MSP/Jitter Free Upgrades, Now Universal: Max/MSP 4.6 and Jitter 1.6 are available as a free update for Max/MSP 4.5 and Jitter 1.5 users, respectively. (The beta is over; this is the final version.) In addition to various new features and fixes, the software is Mac Intel native. This makes it a must-download for Intel and PowerPC Mac users alike. Download for Max and Jitter, then check out a growing directory of Universal-native external objects.
2. Max/MSP/Jitter for Windows: There are many tasty little improvements in 4.6/1.6 aside from Intel Mac compatibility, so a lot of us are anxiously awaiting the Windows counterparts of these upgrades; Cycling says they’re coming “soon.” If we’re really lucky, they’ll do another public beta. Stay tuned.
3. Soundflower Now Works Right! Many of us — myself included — were disappointed to discover that an update to Cycling’s free Mac sound-routing utility Soundflower, including improved functionality and Intel Mac compatibility, didn’t actually work. Cycling has updated the software, and now it installs and works perfectly (so far; let us know if you experience something different). Go download it; it’s free.

Previously:

1. Re-Route Audio, Record Skype, iTunes on Cell Phones: Soundflower, Now on Intel Macs
2. Max/MSP/Jitter 4.6 Hits Beta, with Intel Native Support
3. Jamie Lidell on Max/MSP, Artists Talk Max Inspiration, Write Musical Odes to Max
4. What’s New and Cool in Jitter 1.6: OpenGL 3D and Video Goodies, More [Create Digital Motion, demonstrating why PowerPC Mac and Windows users should be excited, too]

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Cycling ‘74 has posted a fascinating set of videos of artists talking about how they use Max/MSP/Jitter. (Thanks, Kevin!)

Jamie Lidell talks about approaching Max as a vocalist and being a “one-man funk tornado.” It’s interesting to me that Max/MSP has made the transition with him from his classic IDM style to funk — solid proof that tools are what you make them.

AGF sings a song about a Max patch she made, which earns extra geek points for sure. (I could write songs about the mistakes I’m making learning JAVA programming, but that’s another story.)

Kevin Blechdom, who is actually female (just to warn you in advance, blokes), talks about the need to put something out there in live performance and not worry about whether it’s good enough. (Just sing / sing a song … I’m with you, Kevin. Something us obsessive perfectionists could probably stand hearing, so we just go play.)

OSU professor Matthew Lewis has students using video tracking to make music and connecting Max to MySpace. (And, I hope, makes CDM required reading — right?)

North Pitney builds giant mazes and tracks movement through them.

The one element in common in all these stories: the ability to experiment with new, custom ideas for making music, all while rapidly prototyping ideas. That definitely sums up the visual patching experience for me. I like the video inspiration; it’d be great to see users of other tools assemble something similar as a grassroots effort.