From the commentary on historical music software interfaces prompted by the colored bars of the Music Animation Machine, you won’t want to miss this: The Apple IIGS Anachronistic Application Ring: Creative Aural Applications
Music
In Tbilisi, music is on pause because democracy is on the line
Music Stories October 25, 2024
In music video, Lebanese duo Rust captures emotions of “Diaspora”
Music October 11, 2024
Rack Rig: Pro Flight Case for G5 Tower, Good Enough for Sting
Sticking your desktop machine into a flight case doesn’t require a PC. You knew some high-end Mac audio customers would come up with something. Mike Salera writes us from the pro audio department at the legendary NYC Mac shop Tekserve. He’s got just the solution: We recommend the folks at Nashville Custom Cases, who offer […]
Cakewalk DAW Labs Tests High-End PCs (Racked, Laptop, and Otherwise)
Bless Cakewalk. While most of the music software business lags behind on the latest computer tech, these guys are out on the bleeding edge. They’re one of the first developers in any product category (not just music) to take advantage of the 64-bit edition of Windows. And they’ve been busily testing all the high-end PC […]
Moog Solar: Move Along, Nothing to See Here
Moog fever is now officially out of control. As anxious Moog fans wait for the announcement of — some new synth — March 29, they’ll take any tiny crumb suggesting details of the new instrument. Even when it’s wrong. Case in point: the Moog Solar, which sites like Gearjunkies have been declaring “the new Moog”. […]
Rack Rig: Rackable Cases for PCs + LCD = Dream Music Rig?
Wallace Winfrey follows up on last week’s story on rackable PCs for music with more tips for building your own PC case. Add a 64-bit AMD CPU and a PCIe audio interface, and you’ve got a serious performance beast for audio production. The case/power supply maker Antec has a couple of rack-mount enclosures targeted at […]
The Beatbox-Input Sampler/Remixer: sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! (Could You Build It?)
Blog haze: it’s the dimmed state of consciousness that comes from reading too many blog entries about such and such a remix creative commons resampled installation art piece about intellectual prop . . . there, see I’ve already fallen asleep. But wait, this is really, truly, incredibly cool. If you don’t believe me, just watch […]
Rack Rig Reader Report: Saved $, Took the Band on Tour
Reader Nat Slater, aka 601 (see band page and hear some tunes on his MySpace page) responds to our ongoing racked-PC rig series with tips from building his own rig: Love the blog; thought I would chip in on the current run of articles about rackmounting PCs. I have just done the same thing after […]
Analog/Digital Hybrid Box, EUR350, with VSTi Integration
It sounds perhaps too good to be true. The RealThing is an external analog/digital hardware device that connects to computer VST plug-ins. For true analog synthesis, the hardware is controlled via 14-bit MIDI data (rather than 0-127 MIDI messages which would produce stepped sweeps). The box includes both digital and analog oscillators, as well as […]
Music Realized as Colored Bars: Music Animation Machine
Old, but worth mentioning . . . if for no other reason that you’re thinking about color in new ways as you stare into your green beer for St. Patrick’s Day. (Or even a green river, a la Chicago.) The Music Animation Machine renders familiar music as series of colored bars, in still image or […]
New Ways of Playing Keyboards: Samchillian and Thummer Redux
The quest to reinvent the piano-style keyboard continues. Inventors have updated two efforts to design button-covered instruments with alternative pitch layouts. Is this a musical revolution — or just an attempt to play faster scales with less practice that will result in repetitive stress injuries?