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 […]

If you’re wondering how your audio interface is performing on Windows with ASIO drivers, CEntrance has released a free utility that measures latency. Latency is the delay in transit as an audio signal performs a trip through your interface. Looks handy, and you know what this means: time to post some Windows driver/interface benchmarks! Measure […]

Ah, musical parrots. While I continue to obsess over Hatebeak, the heavy metal parrot, here’s a video that claims to show a beatboxing parrot: At first, I thought this might be faked, but it does appear to be the real thing, and having known a few parrots, these birds will do far stranger things vocally. […]

In our last episode, I was assembling my fantastic new portable Shuttle PC in glorious comic book form. I got as far as booting Ubuntu Linux off a CD, but obviously I wouldn’t want to stop there. Next steps: getting the onboard NVIDIA RAID working, and making a lean, livable Windows XP install I won’t […]

A lot of people now split their recording time between on-location and studios, which for many people means buying two separate audio interfaces. Also, despite the fact that their needs are simple, they often wind up with interfaces that either don’t do quite what they need or, at the opposite extreme, are complete overkill. That’s […]

It would be unfair to mention the free Magical 8-bit Plug-in without acknowledging who created it: the insanely talented Japanese chiptune band, YMCK: YMCK Official Site [English] YMCK Events [Japanese] YMCK @ Myspace And, most importantly: YMCK Music Videos @ YouTube Their style is a unique mash-up of the tightly-quantized, hyperactively cheery iconic Nintendo music […]