MorphWiz is a both an expressive musical instrument and an exciting visual experience. Created by Jordan Rudess and Kevin Chartier, MorphWiz is enjoyable for beginners and seasoned musicians alike. It contains over 50 presets programmed by the wizard himself, Jordan Rudess, to allow for an instantly musical experience from the moment the application is first opened. For more experienced users, a wide array of synthesis, effects, and visual options allow the instrument to be precisely configured to the user's tastes.

Jordan plays "Over The Rainbow" with MorphWiz, his soon-to-be-released iPad music app. This arrangement was inspired by the great Jeff Beck and his version on his latest album "Emotion and Commotion. This app is the creation of Jordan Rudess and Kevin Chartier.

There are two common misconceptions regarding unsigned bands and music not sold in stores."
1) "The first is that the music has no value because it is given away for free, or because it is not commercially sold."
2) "...second misconception, that an unsigned artist is less of an artist. I am not signed, but I am still a recording artist."

These are just quotes from a very insightful bio written by Carl Sagan's Ghost founder and recording artist Daniel Davis.

Arduino is a community centered on people sharing their ideas, accomplishments in electronics, and of course source code. The official web home is http://arduino.org/
Savy musicians interested in programming may find the coding sections more to their liking. There are also many good ideas for designing your stage light show as shown below in this brief micro controller course video.

Few days ago I started thinking about how I could re-purpose the keyboard of the dismantled piano I keep in the garden, so I thought to build a new instrument by combining it with some other parts I had laying around. I ended up with this mechanical hybrid thing I thought to call "Bassoforte" (bass + pianoforte).

The neck is from a broken electric bass, as a bridge I used a cabinet handle, the pickups are from a guitar, and the part at the top where the strings are attached is a chimney cap, which works as resonator as well as percussive sound.

"The only aim of the Grid is the mutual promotion of its members by its members to the audience." The Austin Electronic Music Grid is a conglomeration of Austin-based electronic musicians including electronic and industrial bands, experimental electronic, and dj's. Though we all can't be in Austin we can listen and check out the many artists that are their members. Visit the Austin EM Grid at www.austinmusicgrid.org/insi...

Austin Grid artist's Carbon Theory performing at Union Park

SynthStation transforms iPhone or iPod touch into a portable music production studio for mobile music creation. SynthStation gives you three powerful synthesizers for creating and modifying sonic textures used for melodies, chords, and bass lines. Built around Akai Professional’s history in synthesis and drawing on the newest MINIAK synth, SynthStation sounds great and offers wide-ranging sonic flexibility with its virtual analog synthesis.

July 23, 2010 kicks off the Soundscapes Concert Series at the Nazareth Center for the Arts with local Philly artist Mikronesia. If your in the Philadelphia area or like to travel (Believe me there are many who are willing to travel far for good Electronic Music) the mark July 23, 2010 on your calandar.

The concert as always is FREE with a suggested donation of $10 for the artist and the Nazareth center to cover operating expenses.

The Seeq-It from http://www.unatronics.com is a very basic Square wave Synthesizer with a built in 8 step sequencer that is tunable for each step. LEDS in the middle of the front panel indicate the speed and position of the sequence. An important aspect to the sequencer as well is each step can be turned off thus creating rests. A second LFO is available to modulate the ouput of the pitch and giving more textural tones.

The Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics is offering a workshop for New Music Controllers (NMC). The CCRMA explains that the areas of ongoing interest for this workshop are:

Though the extreme white color of this instrument has received positive comments, the OP-1 synthesizer, sampler, and now audio recorder from Teenage Engineering website: www.teenageengineering.com/ still may qualify as more a gadget than an instrument. We will see as the product progresses into Beta testing.

You may not know Carolina Eyck, but you probably know Sting's music. Yea, nothing special until Carolina puts her art of playing the Theremin to work on the song "Fragile." Hear some of the smoothest beautifully expressive playing that takes this popular music to a new level.

This is a game/synthesizer called Bounce. It outputs MIDI data when balls collide with lines and blocks. Bounce isn't quite a game, and isn't quite a MIDI sequencer; it's somewhere in between. At its most basic, when a ball hits something, it makes a MIDI signal. The things it can hit can send the ball off at an angle, change the ball's note, create another ball, destroy the ball, and so on. The best way to learn is to play! Mac version available now. Expect a full release (on Windows and Linux, too) in a few months.

Here's a nice clip from the Modular Jam at Happy knobbing 2010. Check out Tronique working the knobs on an array of modular systems. Good stuff!

Visit their store at http://bleeplabs.com/thingam...

Calling all Comrades. In the states we always knew that there was some electronic music happening somewhere in the U.S.S.R. How could there not be? Check out this rare beast from the former Soviet Block! Jump in the game and own it http://cgi.ebay.com/FORMANTA...

Have a look a look at this handy little chart and see the signal flow of the unit and how it is structured.

The opening of the World's Fair in New York introduced the world to its first electric orchestra. It was the premiere of the New World Ensemble that played a Hammond Organ and four Novachords. Well ahead of it's time. The Novachord has excited more interest and curiosity over the years due to the fact that it allowed the player to completely change the character of its tones. What we know today as a sound synthesis. Watch this great bit of history that is accompanied by music made on the Novachord.

This is a first test with the Steampunk Doomsday Machine electronic effect. It can used as an effect after a guitar synthesizer or drum machine. The audio signal goes after some transformers through the burning lightbulbs and controlled by two l.d.r's. The whole thing gives a fuzz /compressor like effect. More at http://www.groenewoudnet.nl

4pockets.com now have the Aurora Sound Studio HD for iPad available for purchase. Also available for iPhone and iPod Touch.