Mike from GarageSpin points us to a big story from Microsoft: they've launched a new community site "for the global electronic artist" called Crossfader.
It's in beta form, so there's not much there yet, though the focus is
clearly on DJs and electronica. There's a section called "The
Knowledge" that will eventually have information on production,
performance, and business. The descriptions get a little glib ("tips on
workin it"? "tweakin it"?), but there are some interesting features,
like built-in community blog features and in-line music player. I just
hope this developer is being ironic when he says "Cool. They made the UI look like Office 2003!"
While this site is a long way from replacing EM411 for me, they do have two cool stories up that you should check out:
- Our friend Dave Hill from Ableton (the Berlin developer's man about Brooklyn) has an overview of Live 4.0.
- DJ Spooky is up for a video interview talking about his collaboration with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Public Enemy's Chuck D, and of course Cakewalk SONAR
I just interviewed Spooky myself, though (as usual) we talked more
music than tools. I'll have that interview up soon; editing it now for
my upcoming book Real World Digital Audio.