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 […]

Fabienne from The Unofficial Apple Weblog has some suggestions on rack-mounting Power Mac G5s and other Macs. She points to the Redco Audio Vertical Rackmount Frame. Yes, this one is a vertical frame, but it’s designed to fit other hardware like the Digi HD hardware shown here. Looks like a better solution for studios than […]

No, not G5s with dual processors: think racks filled with two Power Mac G5s. Composer Justin McGrath tips us off that Nine Inch Nails’ current photolog has a rack-mounted Power Mac G5, as we’ve discussed today and earlier today: nine inch nails: current [nin.com] Apparently taken in a hotel room, Trent Reznor, Saul Williams, and […]

Who said all soft synths have to look, work, and sound the same? For better or worse, Gaugear’s interface is like nothing you’ve ever seen. Gaugear is one of the gems that appeared along with the 5.1 update to Native Instruments Reaktor. (“5.1” to most developers means a bug fix or two, but Native Instruments […]

Well, I was joking the other day that it’s too bad Silicon Alley, the popular name for New York as tech center, isn’t still thriving. Apparently, I’m wrong. The New York Times today reports Silicon Alley is again on the rise, fueled partly by the Web and blog publishing. So, clearly, that means upstart music […]

A lot of audio interfaces have come and gone here. My favorite remains my trusted MOTU 828. Why? It has rock-solid drivers that have never caused trouble on Mac or PC, and it sounds terrific. Unfortunately, it’s also rather big and heavy as a full rack-space unit. That’s why I’m excited to see MOTU is […]

I’m still partial to saving up cash for a full-featured, full-sized tablet, but in case you haven’t been watching discussion on my last story on the new Ultra-Mobile PC platform, there are some interesting musical uses for a portable tablet: Portable notation: This one’s the biggie. The UMPC is more than capable of running notation […]