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Hi, everyone. I'm Chris, and I'm likely going to be talking about whatever I'm psyched about at the moment. It's going to be all over the map.

Today's topic: music. Specifically, interesting music tools I've seen pop up around the internets in the past few years.

I really enjoy playing with sound environments like Pure Data and sequencers like Renoise. They're excellent for experimentation and for generating interesting sounds and beats. Still, writing music with a computer is sort of a pain in the ass. I wish I could quickly bang my ideas out in real time, but a QWERTY keyboard and a mouse aren't specialized for the task. Real instruments are limiting in their own ways, but at least when your hands go on them, sound comes out.

A few years ago, I saw the first project that really blew my mind when it came to composing music quickly with a computer. It was Audiopad. Using a projector and some pucks, those smart kids at the MIT Media Lab (where all neato things are born, it seems) built a music mixing/composing system (think turntables) based on software, but was extremely tactile. Here's a video of Audiopad in use. Holy moly, right?

Last year, some bright folks in Barcelona showed everyone Reactable. It's essentially Audiopad evolved. If Audiopad's best analog is a set of turntables, Reactable is a synthesizer/sampler instrument. Here are some demos.