Click here to view the embedded video.

This video, via drbleep, demos the new Bleep Labs Thingamagoop 2 analog synth robot.

Features:

• Analog VCO controlled by analog or digital signal from Arduino. (A separate Arduino board is not required)
• Sample and hold, Arpeggios, noise, and bit crush effects with open source code so you can program your own sounds!
• All the analog sounds of the original Thingamagoop.
• Controllable LEDacle – Ramp and random waveforms with rate control.
• New modulators – Square wave amplitude modulator and triangle wave pulse width modulator.
• Tough, stomp box type body with silk screened graphics in 3 different styles.
• Easy to access battery – No more screws!
• Much fuller and louder speaker.
• CV in and out.
• Arduino Programmer jack. Easily hook an Ardunio board up to the Thingamagoop 2.
• Kit now comes with a pre-drilled enclosure.
• Still assembled in Austin, Texas by Dr. Bleep and friends.

Thingamagoop 2 kits retail for $100; fully assembled for $160.

The Apple iPad is coming, at least in the US, April 3rd.

And it’s going to be hugely for music making – even if it strikes some people as “just a big iPod touch”.

One reason why the iPad is going to be important for musicians is that it will make a relatively inexpensive multi-touch control surface for music apps.

This is possible now, with apps like TouchOSC on the iPhone, but will really take off with the much larger iPad.

iPhone apps are limited by the device’s 3.5″ screen. The iPad’s 9.7″ screen not only offers a much higher screen resolution, but offers a lower pixel density (132 pixels/inch vs 163 pixels/inch), which should make adjusting controls less fiddly.

Here are five video demos that demonstrate some of the things you can do with an iPhone + TouchOSC right now. Give ‘em a look and let me know if you’re ready to try these things out on an iPad!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This first video, via max Min, demonstrates using TouchOSC with Ableton Live.

The next video demonstrates how autoflavour uses an iPod touch with his Novation 25SL Compact MIDI controller to add multi-touch control of Ableton Live and an Access Virus Snow:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Want to go further out?

How about tactile sound design with your iPhone and Native Instruments Reaktor?

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can use an iPhone + TouchOSC to control video as well as audio apps, as this VDMX video demonstrates:

Click here to view the embedded video.

While you’re at it, why not try touchscreen DJing?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Did we mention that TouchOSC is a $4.99 app?

Click here to view the embedded video.

GeLoFi has published an interesting interview with Eric Archer, an Austin, Texas creator of unique electronic instruments.

In the interview, Archer talk extensively about what inspires him and the thoughts behind his electronic instruments:

Pattern generators are amazing. You just have to build an LFSR (linear feedback shift register) and play with it to realize these things just spew out aesthetic information, of however much complexity you desire, up to the point that you catch a glimpse of the beautiful horizon between repetition and randomness. Of course it’s impossible to generate random information with logic, but with digital feedback the patterns can become so complex that they appear random to humans.

The digital algorithms I use are simplified versions of cryptographic key generators. An encryption key ideally looks like noise. But, take this same information and design a filter to reduce it’s complexity, and you gain access to its insanely detailed sub-structure.

I’ve made a number of experimental circuits that make aesthetic output from digital feedback. The MuseWave (2005) synthesizes complex waveforms directly. The Bird Box sequencer (2008) plays linear drum patterns. The Fibonacci Generator (2009) is my favorite so far. It creates note sequences and glide information to control a monophonic analog synth.

I also used the Fibonacci Generator to synthesize vector graphics for video, above. It creates unreal, twisting animated pseudo-3D knots.

We’ve featured Eric Archer and his creations previously, including the Mini Space Rockers drum machines. See the Devices page on his site for more examples of his work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a switched on arrangement of Bach’s Alle Menschen müssen Sterben (BWV643) for the Access Virus TI Snow and Clavia Nord Lead 2X synthesizers.

via syntesen:

This is a simplistic rendition of the beautiful “All men must die” chorale prelude for 4 voices, arranged for the Access Virus TI Snow and Clavia Nord Lead 2X synthesizers.

The constant octave leaps in the bass were used by Bach to signify the relation between heaven and earth. This truly was a man, who was absolutely certain he’d meet his maker after death.

parasitk posted a photo:

Shown with back removed for wiring access. Still need a power distro for Modcan part. Nothing is really wired up at this point - it's just a mock patch.