Peter Kirn
@pkirn.bsky.social
Music and music technology journalist, composer and electronic artist/dj. I make cdm.link, work on the meeblip.com synth, and cover creative technologies. Activist. Lebanese-American background, came from Kentucky, now in Berlin.
So, my problem with this is, it rules out improvisation with an instrument, which can also include inventing the instrument. I mean we don't always create in the way it works in the movie Amadeus. I mean just don't make *shopping* the main model for your creative vision, no argument there... ;)
November 25, 2025 at 12:18 PM
So, my problem with this is, it rules out improvisation with an instrument, which can also include inventing the instrument. I mean we don't always create in the way it works in the movie Amadeus. I mean just don't make *shopping* the main model for your creative vision, no argument there... ;)
Well, you're no fun. ;)
November 25, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Well, you're no fun. ;)
The new @sinevibes.bsky.social Cache sounds as terrific as the other Sinevibes plugs, but now it's *playable.* So you hook in a MIDI keyboard/pads, and all this massive buffer-mangling live effects power is right under your fingers. News/review: cdm.link/sinevibes-ca...
November 25, 2025 at 12:01 PM
The new @sinevibes.bsky.social Cache sounds as terrific as the other Sinevibes plugs, but now it's *playable.* So you hook in a MIDI keyboard/pads, and all this massive buffer-mangling live effects power is right under your fingers. News/review: cdm.link/sinevibes-ca...
Making some simple examples for the VCV Workshop with CAMP tomorrow... @vcvrack.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Making some simple examples for the VCV Workshop with CAMP tomorrow... @vcvrack.com
The punch cards were a royal PITA, actual generation was slow, cumbersome, and prone to failure... but the structure and design is so elegant, even by today's standards. It occurs to me that what I *should* be doing with students is having them make index cards for modules to help them learn.
November 22, 2025 at 4:49 PM
The punch cards were a royal PITA, actual generation was slow, cumbersome, and prone to failure... but the structure and design is so elegant, even by today's standards. It occurs to me that what I *should* be doing with students is having them make index cards for modules to help them learn.
The full MUSIC IV manual is online, by the way, which makes a great read!
archive.org/details/musi...
archive.org/details/musi...
Music IV Programmer's Manual : Max Mathews, Joan Miller : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
MUSIC IV was a computer music synthesis software package written by Max Mathews. The program was an expansion of earlier packages written by Mathews to...
archive.org
November 22, 2025 at 4:49 PM
The full MUSIC IV manual is online, by the way, which makes a great read!
archive.org/details/musi...
archive.org/details/musi...
Oddly enough, it appears one reason why may be that she wound up leaving AT&T/Bell to go work in real estate! (Hey, why not?)
www.zillow.com/profile/joan...
But what happened to her? What else was she working on at Bell? What was her contribution to this essential evolution in the software?
www.zillow.com/profile/joan...
But what happened to her? What else was she working on at Bell? What was her contribution to this essential evolution in the software?
www.zillow.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Oddly enough, it appears one reason why may be that she wound up leaving AT&T/Bell to go work in real estate! (Hey, why not?)
www.zillow.com/profile/joan...
But what happened to her? What else was she working on at Bell? What was her contribution to this essential evolution in the software?
www.zillow.com/profile/joan...
But what happened to her? What else was she working on at Bell? What was her contribution to this essential evolution in the software?
Okay, here's a question -- why do we all seem to know bupkis about Joan Miller, the co-author of Music IV (and Music V?) as well as the famous Daisy Bell demo? She seems to have had a fairly significant impact on the evolution of the Music environment.
November 22, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Okay, here's a question -- why do we all seem to know bupkis about Joan Miller, the co-author of Music IV (and Music V?) as well as the famous Daisy Bell demo? She seems to have had a fairly significant impact on the evolution of the Music environment.
While you're pimping your Live set, it's worth mentioning our friends over at @isotonikstudios.bsky.social have their Black Friday-season sale going on. So while I work on wrapping some other news/reviews from Max for Live land, feel free to peruse these gems, too!
Happy birthday, Isotonik: here are some of the best Ableton Live add-ons - CDM Create Digital Music
With Isotonik's Darren celebrating his birthday this week, we've got an Isotonik Studios shopping guide, with favorite Max for Live add-ons, CDM reviews, and sound demos. Now with a special CDM-exclus...
cdm.link
November 21, 2025 at 4:32 PM
While you're pimping your Live set, it's worth mentioning our friends over at @isotonikstudios.bsky.social have their Black Friday-season sale going on. So while I work on wrapping some other news/reviews from Max for Live land, feel free to peruse these gems, too!
Go ahead, stick that doodle into your set, and watch it vibe to your tunes.
And it's all backed by science. (well, maybe... links)
And it's all backed by science. (well, maybe... links)
Make doodles in Ableton Live, then animate them, with Klottra - CDM Create Digital Music
Were you the type to draw elaborate doodles in your math class margins? Well, great news: Science now says that letting your mind wander is good for you. And indie Swedish design studio Henrik & Sofia...
cdm.link
November 21, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Go ahead, stick that doodle into your set, and watch it vibe to your tunes.
And it's all backed by science. (well, maybe... links)
And it's all backed by science. (well, maybe... links)
I think you'll love this, then. It's different enough to be worth trying, but similar enough that it'll get to that same appeal...
November 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM
I think you'll love this, then. It's different enough to be worth trying, but similar enough that it'll get to that same appeal...
I mean, I can never get enough FM drum synths. But @brambosofficial.bsky.social Noir is great. It's 2-op ...similar spirit, its own character. Noir is your only choice on iOS of course...
cdm.link/noir-drum-sy...
I didn't find this as useful of a bass synth as Noir, either!
cdm.link/noir-drum-sy...
I didn't find this as useful of a bass synth as Noir, either!
Noir is part bass, part drum synth - a must-have iOS drum machine - CDM Create Digital Music
Dark, crunchy, synthetic sounds, grooves that morph somewhere in the shadows between bass line and percussion pattern - Ruismaker Noir is exactly the sort of drum machine you'd want with you at all ti...
cdm.link
November 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
I mean, I can never get enough FM drum synths. But @brambosofficial.bsky.social Noir is great. It's 2-op ...similar spirit, its own character. Noir is your only choice on iOS of course...
cdm.link/noir-drum-sy...
I didn't find this as useful of a bass synth as Noir, either!
cdm.link/noir-drum-sy...
I didn't find this as useful of a bass synth as Noir, either!
Motherly, sequencer percussion synth, is pure rhythmic happiness from @rainbowcircuit.bsky.social - just listen. Everything you love about the Mother/DFAM, but also really not a DFAM.
cdm.link/motherly-seq...
cdm.link/motherly-seq...
November 21, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Motherly, sequencer percussion synth, is pure rhythmic happiness from @rainbowcircuit.bsky.social - just listen. Everything you love about the Mother/DFAM, but also really not a DFAM.
cdm.link/motherly-seq...
cdm.link/motherly-seq...
Nothing against this platform but I dream of a BBS-style place where we just have *only* this, there's no tech anyone involved, we don't even say all that much, and we just enjoy each other's work!
November 21, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Nothing against this platform but I dream of a BBS-style place where we just have *only* this, there's no tech anyone involved, we don't even say all that much, and we just enjoy each other's work!
If you don't already, follow @dhlovelife.bsky.social and check the gorgeous sounding and looking stuff he's doing in Jitter (directly, not only with some m4l version -- we actually don't talk about the Jitter-direct workflow enough!)
@cycling74.bsky.social
@cycling74.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 11:29 AM
If you don't already, follow @dhlovelife.bsky.social and check the gorgeous sounding and looking stuff he's doing in Jitter (directly, not only with some m4l version -- we actually don't talk about the Jitter-direct workflow enough!)
@cycling74.bsky.social
@cycling74.bsky.social
Wow, epic. And end of an era. Big love to this from Berlin -- you better get there, London.
London ! I'll be playing at the last ever @algorave.com at Corsica Studios this Wednesday 26th Nov before they close the doors for good, amongst a top multi-generational line-up of live coders + co. Come down if you're nearby!
ra.co/events/2280905
ra.co/events/2280905
November 20, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Wow, epic. And end of an era. Big love to this from Berlin -- you better get there, London.
This is not granular. Gestural sample manipulation (Leap Motion!) all with other parameters!
Holy shrimp it's good (and check her other stuff):
Holy shrimp it's good (and check her other stuff):
Vara Osiria Belich is taking Phase Plant to gestural, mangled frontiers - CDM Create Digital Music
This is not granular. This is all sampler, unison. And so it sounds like things that even granular can't do. Vara Osiria Belich is this week's sound design inspiration, with her bonus gestural spell c...
cdm.link
November 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM
This is not granular. Gestural sample manipulation (Leap Motion!) all with other parameters!
Holy shrimp it's good (and check her other stuff):
Holy shrimp it's good (and check her other stuff):
Why MadMapper v6 is big news for mapping and live visual production, how cave painting and Rococo architecture and Wayang Kulit fit in, and some reflections on what the recent integration of AI into the tool may mean:
MadMapper, Queen of Mapping, adds timelines, clips, more in v6 - CDM Create Digital Music
How far MadMapper has come. The tool, built as a collaboration between Swiss GarageCube and French studio 1024 architecture, helped define projection mapping for a generation of visualists. It has mat...
cdm.link
November 19, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Why MadMapper v6 is big news for mapping and live visual production, how cave painting and Rococo architecture and Wayang Kulit fit in, and some reflections on what the recent integration of AI into the tool may mean:
See, that was the sign that I had to write about it, that point...
Chatting Doom Machinations
Chatting Doom Machinations
November 19, 2025 at 8:04 PM
See, that was the sign that I had to write about it, that point...
Chatting Doom Machinations
Chatting Doom Machinations
Survival *and* string arrangements, new music and reflections on bigger things, a music video, a teaser, some thoughts on Louisville arthouse cinema history...
Drew Daniel, aka The Soft Pink Truth, hits home talking strings and survival - CDM Create Digital Music
"Mere Survival is Not Enough." Professor Drew Daniel, you had us on the title on this one. The artist, known for being half of Matmos, and being all of Dr. Drew Daniel, and being all of the solo proje...
cdm.link
November 19, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Survival *and* string arrangements, new music and reflections on bigger things, a music video, a teaser, some thoughts on Louisville arthouse cinema history...
Hey, so the Winamp for macOS project I reported on, that then was gone, now is back.
There are some other efforts here, though, some that even have wmz support. (I dream of Headspace from MS WMP 7, running on Mac ARM. Does it make sense? Is it a good use of time? Ask not such questions.)
There are some other efforts here, though, some that even have wmz support. (I dream of Headspace from MS WMP 7, running on Mac ARM. Does it make sense? Is it a good use of time? Ask not such questions.)
A free Winamp clone, for macOS, with FLAC and Milkdrop visualizations - CDM Create Digital Music
It might be a funny intersection of interests. But developer Matt Greenwood built a macOS-native clone of the legendary Winamp in Swift, MIT-licensed, with MP3 and FLAC playback and Milkdrop visualiza...
cdm.link
November 19, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Hey, so the Winamp for macOS project I reported on, that then was gone, now is back.
There are some other efforts here, though, some that even have wmz support. (I dream of Headspace from MS WMP 7, running on Mac ARM. Does it make sense? Is it a good use of time? Ask not such questions.)
There are some other efforts here, though, some that even have wmz support. (I dream of Headspace from MS WMP 7, running on Mac ARM. Does it make sense? Is it a good use of time? Ask not such questions.)
I really love Arc. So, a funny thing happened: they put all their wild, wacky ideas into a new AI browser and switched Arc to maintenance updates and ... uh, that's perfect. It's gotten way more stable. Cleanest UI of any browser. (Firefox-based Zen is an alternative, but less mature.)
November 19, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I really love Arc. So, a funny thing happened: they put all their wild, wacky ideas into a new AI browser and switched Arc to maintenance updates and ... uh, that's perfect. It's gotten way more stable. Cleanest UI of any browser. (Firefox-based Zen is an alternative, but less mature.)
Yeah the VCV Rack module I mention has a 32-bit mode! heh cc @audiothing.net ... ;)
November 18, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Yeah the VCV Rack module I mention has a 32-bit mode! heh cc @audiothing.net ... ;)