Finally, vintage sounds we can afford (as opposed to the many, many we can’t). Zero-G has released a massive sound library called Nostalgia. 1.3 GB, with 1,300 patches running on Native Instruments’ Kompakt engine for Windows/Mac. Synth enthusiast Steve Howell is behind the design. Sure, part of the appeal behind vintage synths is their interface. […]

Real-time audio and MIDI collaboration, Mac and PC, video chat, exchanging big files, Web space — we all know what the wish list of features would look like for online musical collaboration. Back in April, Digitalmusician.net promised these features, with a public launch planned for August. Unfortunately, that beta was massively crowded, so many of […]

The beauty of musical instruments lies partly in their strangeness: odd objects that have mysterious sound-making powers. So really, why not a toilet? Toilet, Pooh, Pikachu: Cementimental’s “Optical Theremin Loo” packs an optical theremin (with a photoresistor, in other words) into a plastic toy toilet. (Tom at Music Thing should like this as it’s white, […]

As you experienced digital musicians know, digital audio is powerful stuff, not to be trifled with. The gang at TechDweeb (see today’s circuit bending link explosion have conceived a very terrifying new technology: Omnidyne Psychotronix Limited Brain Reconfigurator This device was evidently installed here in New York State at “the ‘Compostar Oculus’ spacehub and interstellar […]

Trained musicians can all read music notation. (Well, okay, insert favorite musician joke here.) But why can’t different computer notation programs share files? Wasn’t that part of the appeal of going digital in the first place? Recordare‘s products bridge the gap between notation software, thanks to the power of XML, with their format MusicXML. Finale […]

First vinyl, then 8-track, then tape, then CD, then MP3, now . . . Dashboard widget? Yes, you heard that right. Sexohol is releasing its album Enjoy as a Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X. It’s free, and includes pictures of the lovely couple in the band plus lyrics. Only downside is you have to […]

Leon Theremin would have been 109 today; Theremin World observes the date with a virtual birthday card signing. How will you spend the holiday? I’m thinking a screening of the brilliant Theremin documentary is in order here at CDM HQ. Or I could set off the building fire alarm with 109 candles.

There’s now not just one but two drum machines for the Sony PSP handheld game system. The new PSP Rhythm Composer is a simple drum machine with a Roland TR-style interface: PSP Rhythm Composer for PSP [ matrixsynth ] In the meantime, PSP Kick has a new Flash-based Website, though it’s more Flash, less substance. […]

No, not the better-known Arp 2600 — the bootyliciously-large Arp 2500 modular synth. And if you’ve got £ 5,000+ vat / US$ 9,000 / € 7,500 burning a hole in your pocke– er, briefcases — one of these beauties can be yours. Manuals and plenty of modules included. Go buy those lottery tickets now! Arp […]

Music videos with actual live video? That’s so expired. Wired: using Flash to create interactive visuals to listen to while you play a track. That’s exactly what our tech-savvy friends in Boston band Freezepop have done (the same folks who I noted have a PlayStation version of themselves and jam live with their PS2s: Fancy […]