Last week, the largest consumer technology show in the world descended on Las Vegas, CES. And what did we get? Well, basically, a lot of boring announcements, a few fairly cool portable media devices, lots of non-shipping Skype devices, and Bill Gates telling us things we already knew about Windows Vista. Afterwards, we had lots […]

A CDM Special Report, http://www.createdigitalmusic.com/intel/ In 2006, we’re compiling our own list of audio and music software, plug-ins, and drivers that have been updated as Universal — containing code that’s optimized both for PowerPC Macs and the new Macs with Intel processors. With this list, Mac musicians can keep track of which software will run […]

Full-size keyboards have one problem: they’re big. We’ve seen roll-up pianos, but limp pieces of vinyl with membrane action aren’t much fun to play. Ever looked at your keyboard and just wished you could fold it up? Inventor David Bubar thinks he’s got the answer. He’s patented a design for a fold-up keyboard, and has […]

Technology is great, but my favorite portable music creation device is still manuscript paper. Unfortunately, that’s usually meant giant notebooks and/or ungainly stacks of loose-leaf music paper. Reader Joshua Schnable brings good news: one of the best notebook and sketchbook makers in the business, the legendary Moleskine, has released a gorgeous 8-staff music notebook: Moleskine […]

Below: Podcasting in GarageBand. Can’t handle suspense? Here’s a hit: get ready to run Logic on your superfast Mac laptop, podcasting on GarageBand to your iLife Website by no later than March. Consider this story spoiled. CDM’s Lee Sherman is reporting to us live from inside the Macworld Expo. If Apple has anything of note […]

Macworld is always the highlight of the Mac year, and today was no exception. Apple’s keynote focused on the broad consumer market, but there was still plenty of good news for Mac musicians and audio pros. (Plus a few question marks, as usual.) Here’s CDM’s quick take:

Okay, benchmarking geeks, here’s a word problem for you: Apple’s iMac with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo is twice as fast as the old iMac with a 2.1 GHz G5. How does it compare to a Power Mac? Hard to say, especially since only some apps are native on the new chip, but here’s […]

Can catching a power cord on a laptop destroy it, by tugging your machine across the stage and crashing to the ground? You bet. I’ve had a few “tripping over my PowerBook cord” moments of my own, thankfully none of them resulting in major disasters. So it’s some comfort that, among Apple’s more hyped announcements, […]

Open Labs is slowly teasing out the specs of a new portable music device called the MiKo, promising a complete portable workstation for everything from DJing to music production to VJing and . . . podcasting? The company won’t make a full announcement until the NAMM trade show later this month in Anaheim; in the […]