The Web is buzzing about some sketchy details of a pre- pre- pre-production synth from a new company called Sonoric Instruments. There are some preliminary sound samples and lovely product renders: hey, if nothing else, these guys can make some attractive imaginary case designs.

This year is all about more bandwidth for audio production, and one of the buzzwords you’re likely to hear a lot more of is PCI Express (PCIe). We’re only just now seeing cards that use the cutting-edge bus, but over the coming months they should become more commonplace. Granted, if you’re like me and focused […]

We’re all for interface innovation and TC Electronic does fantastic audio processors. But their new “MINT” interface technology not only wins for silliest meaningless acronym since synth maker Kurzweil’s “V.A.S.T.”, it also looks like the interface panels from a Klingon warship in Star Trek III. What’s going on here? (Hint: it might actually be cool […]

My God, it’s full of knobs. The Audities Foundation is a not-for-profit we can all get behind: their preservation is the “preservation of electronic musical instruments and associated documentation for use in museums, recording studios, modern instrument research and new music/dance/film works.” (So they’re saving these things for us, right?) Most importantly, via Analogue Industries, […]

Solving a problem none of us knew existed, Motorola has patented a method for entering notes into a cellphone via an “intuitive” method that emulates frets. Pay close attention, and see if you can make sense of this: . . . an input specifying a root note (FIG. 2) indicating a position on a neck […]

Alesis has always managed to make good hardware synths at low prices, and the quality of their analog-modeling synths (see our review of the Micron) has been stunning. The Fusion is a particularly impressive deal, with multiple synthesis engines (sampled, physical modeling, virtual analog, and FM) and even a genuine-article Alesis HD 8-track hard disk […]

Over a hundred years ago, Thomas Edison first attempted to record sound and moving image in synchronization (a task that still challenges undergrad film students). The results were believed lost for many years, until the sound was recovered on a broken cylinder. Edison’s original experiment actually failed, but in the hands of legendary film and […]

Motion graphics and animation are everywhere you look, but an installation last week reached out to audiences with a simple device: old music boxes. Visitors to the elegant 18th-Century Norfolk House Music Round found several music boxes atop a table with projected visuals. Turn the crank, and varied scenes produced in Flash responded to the […]

This wins the comment of the week: velocipede (via AdamJay) points us to a thread benchmarking Ableton Live 5, in which the first Intel Mac benchmarks are coming in: Live 5 Performance Test [Info, downloadable benchmark at Ableton forums] Core Duo iMacs (scroll down and look for the words “Intel” and “Mac OS X” in […]

Apple continues to replace their products’ CPUs with new Intel processors, today unveiling Mac minis powered by the Intel Core Solo and Core Duo. (See product page, full specs from Apple.) Especially given the price, these look like they’ll be great machines for music production, at least once the software catches up. You won’t want […]