Children and young adults were everywhere at the NAMM show. They ranged from musically-inclined tots like the one shown here to teenage musical stars. And in addition to teaching musicianship and musical creativity, there’s a new emphasis on teaching them technology. Here’s a quick look at the latest efforts to bring music to a new […]

Got too much time on your hands on this lazy Monday? Head over to Nintendo news-site 4 Color Rebellion: Super Mario Bros. Super Synth! And play with the Super Mario Bros. Super Synth! A collection of samples from the classic NES title, this will either make your office-mates laugh, cry, or go completely insane. Enjoy! […]

In the ongoing quest for sounds from the hearts of space for use as digital music sources, I give you NASA’s SuitSat. The crew of the International Space Station has equipped the Russian Orlan spacesuit with batteries, a radio transmitter, and sensors; it’ll transmit power and temperature info Earthward. To pick it up, you just […]

USB has arrived in the sound world. Just ask Neutrik. For those of you not in the know, Neutrik is the major manufacturer of sound connectors. Their brilliant XLR/TRS combination jack, finally allowing you to swap mic and guitar/line cables in a single jack, is so popular that most people call it simply a “Neutrik” […]

Finally, ultra-portable digital recording is catching on. Edirol got the party started with the R-1, a CompactFlash-based USB device packed with a decent built-in stereo mic, effects, a metronome, and tuner. The extras on the R-1 are nice, but the unit was big and boxy, so when M-Audio introduced their cuter, iPod like MicroTrack, also […]

Okay, wannabe cyborgs, you know you want it: no matter the price, you have to have a robotic armature on your body that sends MIDI data. The latest, via Engadget: the Gypsy MIDI controller. (Wait a second, the gypsy MIDI controller? Now, that doesn’t sound very cyborg. Marketing department, please?) It’ll cost you US$855 an […]

Updated: Fixed broken link (my fault). 7.1 surround sound organs? Check. Saxes painted with porcelain-skinned, Rococco women? Check. Laser beam metronomes? Guitar picks with faces that morph into skulls? Mic stands with drink holder attachments, or (my personal favorite) Pepsi bottles that double as mic stands? A guy playing his bass upside-down? Obscenely-painted and warped […]

The rumored polyphonic and low-cost Moog synths were no-shows at NAMM but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything to get excited about in the Moog booth. Owners of the Voyager Rack Mount edition are about to get their wish for more expansion capability in the form of the VX-352 CV input expander. The VX-352 turns […]

The other side of NAMM: For a different take on the latest in new music products from last week’s NAMM show, we welcome James Grahame of Retro Thing. James runs Reflex Audio Systems, so he’s able to bring us the perspective of an independent music maker on what goes on behind the scenes at music […]

And they say the PSP doesn’t have a killer app. PSP Rhythm, the homebrew drum machine software for Sony’s portable game console, is getting updated at an astounding rate. New in version 3.0: start/end points for drum samples (a critical feature), warped drum sounds with a reverse feature, and wave file output. Audio output is […]