Software alone is a painful way to VJ, without something to trigger and control clips and effects. Livid’s Tactic hardware had the right idea, with buttons for clips, faders and knobs for layering and effects, and even a built-in LCD — plus a lovely polished-wood case. (No cheap plastic here.) But it also had a […]

If you haven’t yet seen commentary on this at Music Thing or (originally) WWMNA, David Merrill of the MIT Media Lab has a project for controlling guitar effects with his face. (It’s not new, incidentally — dates to 2003, and you can look forward to more of this sort of thing at the annual New […]

It’s the Nintendo synth that never was: a music keyboard accessories for the NES built as part of a 1984 prototype called the Nintendo Advanced Video System (AVS). Best features: a space sound and rhumba button. The one and only model is here in NYC at Rockefeller Center’s Nintendo World Store, which features various one-of-a-kind […]

Remote is the two-way communication technology behind Reason 3’s control surface support. The idea is, rather than tediously setting up each control surface or keyboard manually to control your software, the software talks to your device and sets it up for you. You can even see visual feedback for which knob and button is which; […]

I’ll admit it: I didn’t expect to like the new Mighty Mouse from Apple. Obviously, Apple’s previous single-button mouse was lacking, but with so many excellent mice on the market, did we really need another one? But I was intrigued by the Scroll Ball, which promised to make breezing through music applications like Logic Pro. […]

People all-too-commonly imagine that electronic music is dominated entirely by men, when it simply isn’t the case. While the world of electronic music is certainly heavily tilted to the male side, part of the problem is that women too often get less attention, less credit, less PR, and less widespread dissemination of their music — […]

Our friend Tim points us to this ad, apparently in EQ Magazine, in which Digidesign promises version 7 of Pro Tools HD on October 7. (Notice it specifies HD, not LE, in the ad; LE and M-Powered are likely to lag a little.) This isn’t any huge surprise — if nothing else, Digi has run […]

The hunt for mobile recording solutions continues, and yesterday brings breaking news: flash memory has even found its way into a microphone: New HHB FlashMic Is World’s First Digital Recording Microphone [HHB PR] Fasinating, but not terribly useful to musicians: you’re limited to mono recording, since the mic is the recorder. Some interesting features, though: […]

Musicians continue to band together for the victims of Katrina in the New Orleans area and Mississippi. For just $25, you can get 100% of your money to Habitat for Humanity for rebuilding homes, and get an amazing library of drum loop samples from some of America’s drumming masters to lift your musical spirits: Spectrasonics […]

Another fundraiser for victims of Katrina, by way of our friend David Battino at O’Reilly Digital Media: CD Baby: 100% of Profits to Red Cross Thousands of artists are participating, and CD Baby is certainly an outfit I trust. We at CDM always advocate supporting independent music, so I certainly can’t resist pointing this one […]