Percussa Modulor is a free new application for the AudioCubes hardware platform that turns them into musical Legos.

Modulor lets you record loops into cubes using your favourite MIDI controller, and then combine those loops simply by putting cubes together. Color coding can be used, for example to remember which loop is where or what key the loop is in.

Besides recording and playing back loops, it’s also possible to process MIDI data, from loops or from live input, for example, using arpeggiators, chord generators, transposition, echos, … each cube can have one MIDI effect, and by forming networks of cubes you can create processing chains for MIDI data.

The application is a VST instrument host, so you can run it all by itself, and load your favourite software instruments. The resulting MIDI can be recorded to disk as a MIDI file with multiple tracks, one for each software instrument, which lets you bring your project into your favorite DAW software.

The Spinner Synth is a prototype MIDI controller made with a piece of scrap wood, a webcam and some tape.

This is a circular controller for a synthesizer, using the openCV visualization library to analyze a series of points on a rotating wheel, and generate MIDI events.

Details here.

via Mahto:

Sunday Synth Jam: This video features a Reactable jam by Carles López at El Grial in Ibiza, as part of the Ibiza International Music Summit.

More Reactable jamming below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

via marcosalonso:

Musikmesse 2009: Some more German coverage, this time of the Reactable Systems Reactable. Audio demo section kicks in about halfway.

via musotalk

A short interview with Queens University PhD student Peter Bennett in the Sonic Arts Research Centre. The interview is focused on his BeatBearing drum sequencer.

More details on the BeatBearing sequencer are available in Make 17.

This short demo video explores the various ways the BricK Table tangible and multi-touch interface can be used for creating and composing music.

Brick Table was created by Jordan Hochenbaum and Owen Vallis. An open-ended interface, Brick Table has been used in both the installation settings as well as live performance.

The Graphite Sequencer is an art piece that explores turning a record player into a tangible interface for sequencing music:

Disc are coded with graphite, which conducts electricity. Two wires touch the paper discs as they spin.

The wires are connected to a simple tone generator.

When a line is drawn across the disk, connecting the two wires, a tone is heard. The quality of the line affects te sound. For example, if the line is thick, more current can pass over it, creating a lower tone.

Via Neural

The Tangible Sequencer is a simple musical instrument. There are 8 colored boxes each with a large triangular play button that lights up in time with music. Press play on any box and it will play a sound. Put boxes next to each other and they become aware of one another. The boxes take turns playing their sounds one after another just as you’ve laid them out.

Each box has a small computer inside. In the prototype shown, there’s a white box that acts as a hub connected to the computer via USB. You use software on your computer to drag and drop sounds into the boxes, like putting files in a folder on your computer:

When you press play on a box it signals to the computer over a low-power radio to play its sound. When the box is done playing its sound, it signals to any boxes next to it to play its sound using infra-red, the same technology in your television remote control. The boxes are each powered by their own small, coin cell battery. There’s no on/off switch, the boxes just work. Battery life is approximately 1-2 years depending on how much you use them.

This is a demo of the Tangible Sequencer:

A simple musical instrument. Colored blocks are associated with sounds. Pressing the play button plays a sound. Putting blocks next to each other plays back a sequence of sounds in the direction of the play arrows.

via traer