Multi-samplers need good sounds to be useful, and while the new Ableton Sampler looks like it’ll have the same drag-and-drop integration with Live as Simpler does, Live users are sure to want multi-sampled content in the new Sampler. So it comes as little surprise that Ableton is partnering with huge soundware house SONiVOX (formerly known […]

Multi-instrumentalists, Line6 must have you in mind. The equipment maker, known primarily for their guitar products, has plunked a keyboard on their multi-effects box / audio interface hybrid, TonePort. There are plenty of reasons to like the TonePort line: a broad approach to effects that caters to vocalists as well as guitarists, and cheaply-priced but […]

Ableton has been busy, and it looks like Live users could be very happy indeed when the beta starts, coming soon. (I expected we might see the beta at NAMM, but I’d rather wait if it means a more stable version.) Here are a few of the key features in the new release:

There’s virtually no new gear out of NAMM this year, it seems, but Roland does have one tiny, silver 4-track recorder (well, actually 2 track recorder, 4 track playback, with more “virtual tracks”): BOSS Micro-BR For those of you who like old-school multitracking to sketch out ideas but want to go digital, this could be […]

Processing is a tool we’ll be talking a lot about here on Create Digital Motion: it’s a fantastic, free environment with the ability to render visuals, 3D imagery, video, and (via extensions) multimedia and sound. It’s built entirely in Java, but while it’s a totally code-based environment, it’s designed to be friendly to non-programmers, and […]

Working with visuals means working with color, and if you spend a lot of time coding visuals in tools like Flash/ActionScript and Processing, keeping track of color and different color codes becomes even more vital. One of the first tools Mac users miss on Windows is the color palette. But I’ve become addicted to a […]

So, you decided to spring for that Intel Mac. And now you’ve got a plug-in that refuses to run, because it’s PowerPC-only, not a Universal Binary for Intel. Sorry, but only plug-ins that have been updated as Universal Binaries will run in a Universal audio host. Fortunately, there’s away around it, and it’s even fully […]

As we continue physical modeling month, here’s a free piece of software that lets you create music and sound (and visuals) using real-world physics: pmpd, free external for Pd Johan Strandell writes: It’s not physical modeling in the usual sense; pmpd simulates things like friction, acceleration/deacceleration etc.; i.e., more useful for control of parameters rather […]

Roland Stewart of Trinity Audio Devices writes in to clear up a number of the questions we had about their upcoming portable Linux-based audio recorder. While the device is a bit pricey, with a list expected at US$999, it will certainly do things other devices can’t: it’s a full-blown computer, but without the power consumption […]

The NAMM trade show brings together the biggest gathering of manufacturers of musical instruments and technology twice a year. Summer isn’t quite as big as the massive winter show in Anaheim, but you can still bet on plenty of new product announcements as the show rolls into sweltering Austin, Texas. I’ve decided not to go […]