The novelty of the iPhone or [your favorite device here] may fade. But part of what matters in mobile design is thinking about how to create interfaces and uses that can scale to the size of your palm. That can mean embracing radical simplicity, and reducing an interactive, digital musical object down to its essential noise-making functions. In acoustic instrument design, that means economizing sound production in a form. In the digital world, it means finding the interactive role you’d want to bring with you onstage, in the length roughly equivalent your fingertips to your wrist.

I’m a few weeks overdue actually writing about it, but one design I really admire is Star6, developed by Jason Forrest and Agile Partners. There are no awkward, gimmicky emulations of hardware interfaces here; it’s clear this was an interface that was illustrated in two-dimensions. It has funky nerdster chic color combos, with neon pink atop wood grain. It demonstrates that, in the space of a grid, you can fit triangles. It makes use of computer wifi capability to easily load samples without mucking around with over-designed clients – or record right on the iPhone. And it’s – surprisingly – one of the few apps to make heavy use of the accelerometer, which means rather than looking like you’re trying to text message someone, you can move it around. There’s a “grain” mode so that you can randomize sounds and not have everything synced all the time. I also enjoy the “reset” button. These are all design decisions that could make sense in more commercial software – and our own home-brewed Max/Pd patches and such, too.

Apparently Agile Partners were also influenced by the brightly-colored, handheld fun of the Buddha Machine, too; see their interview with the creator.

Star6
A lovely lineup of free samples, including the Buddha Machine

It’s not a perfect app (no mobile app really can be – that’s the fun of it), and it doesn’t do everything, but I find Star6’s personality rather irresistible. The real test of all of this is whether you can use it in real music-making. And, while my inbox is full of cheezy bands trying to ride the iPhone wave, I love the offbeat Star6 music launch party from Berlin, as documented in the video below. It ranges from Jason’s own work to Warp Records artist Jackson and ex-Chicks on Speed Kiki Moorse. And there’s a crazy iPhone + banjo + accordion cover of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl.” There are even some genuinely experimental sounds – not the sort of thing you’d expect at a launch event, sadly. (I wish we could have more of that.)

An Evening With Star6 – Berlin (Compilation) from Star6 on Vimeo.

More on the artists, and some of Star6 creator Jason Forrest’s own unique work:

With Live 8 in the hands of Ableton fans, two big questions remain for a lot of aficionados: first, how the heck do you deal with this new warp marker interface, and second, how can you make controller mappings for hardware more effective? Thanks to some enterprising, expert users, we’ve got video solutions to each of those problems.

Warp: Engage

The new Warp Mode in Live may actually be friendlier to new users; it’s existing users, accustomed to the previous way of working, who seem thrown for a loop. (Erm… excuse the pun.) I’m at a bit of a disadvantage myself in that I tend not to do a lot of warping/remixing. But Medway Studios has a set of tutorials specifically geared for people wanting some tips on how to assimilate the new working method:

Part 2:

Let me get this straight.

Burial and Four Tet are working together on a record.

But there’s …

No artwork.

No promos.

An entirely … black cover?

And it’s vinyl only?

I’d believe the whole thing were an April Fool’s joke, if the folks at Bleep didn’t put out an email:

We was so excited about this one, we couldn’t wait till next week to tell you… A split release shrouded in darkness (hence the artwork; no sales notes, no audio, no promos). We have been told the artwork will be in a black cover with a black sleeve on good old fashioned black vinyl.

One disc, two sides crafted by two of the most insurrectionary, innovative producers of the last twenty years, Burial and Four Tet… Believe us, this will fly off the shelves. Now available on pre-order and ready to ship for the release date of May 4th. Do not get left out. "Essential Purchase" has never sounded so right.

Look, they even included a thumbnail image of the album art. (I’m not making this up, this is literally what was included in the email.)

Maybe it’s an image of Cleveland at Night.

These guys do know the “Smell the Glove” “Black Album” in Spinal Tap was a joke, right?

The really amazing thing is, black-on-black vinyl-only limited release with only two cuts can’t even distract from the news that Burial and Four Tet are doing an album together.

The release hits May 4 for US$8.99 as a limited-run 12” vinyl.

Is this the test pressing?

It’s Friday afternoon, so you have my official permission as Editor-in-Chief to quote random lines from that scene in comments. GO!

Official release page / preorder from Bleep

(Wait, ships 04.05? I’ve missed it already? Oh, yeah … the rest of you in the world aren’t American. Never mind.)

Update: will it go fast? Will it ever. It’s already sold out, in something like an hour.