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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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?

The one significant edge of the PC platform is the one it’s always had: wide-open hardware possibilities, whether it’s home-built PCs or the variety of PC makers. That means that when it comes to rack-mounting a PC, your options are quite broad.

Congratulations, digital musicians: you’re on the cutting edge. Your needs for performance, quiet, power-efficient systems, and reliability are well beyond the average PC user. For that reason, I asked custom audio PC maker Rain Recording for some thoughts on the new Intel Core architecture announced last week (which is also relevant to Mac users — […]

If you want an example of complex music technology, look no further than the symphony orchestra. This peculiar blend of instruments from different times and different cultures has to be the most musically complex entity in existence. But that hasn’t stopped the new music-centered American Composers Orchestra from asking how the orchestra could continue to […]

If you’re an early adopter and bought an Intel iMac or MacBook Pro, and you have “a keen eye and a habit of breaking things,” Propellerhead Software would like to speak to you. They’re beta testing version 3.05 for Intel Macs only, starting some time next week: Reason for Intel Mac You don’t even need […]

The Cybersonica 06 Music, Sound, Art, and Tech Fest in London is shaping up to be a fantastic event. Running in May and coinciding with some other major festivals in London around the same time, the festival goes beyond electronic music to explore fusions with sonic art and visuals. (More about the festival) And you […]

The anti-Origami: why go portable when you can get the maximum performance from a machine in a road-ready case? That’s the question I’ll be offering all week, with a first look at some of the options. First up, we’ll start with the platform that makes this a bit tricky: the Mac. Mac lovers adore their […]