Now off on my whirlwind travels, including a day in Boston at Macworld Expo. For a glimpse of bloggers complaining about how boring the show is, see TUAW. But say hi if you’re at my session! More on the iUke and other things if I can post . . . then boatloads of content stacked […]

Composer Gary Schyman has a rich, tongue-in-cheek score for the Xbox/PS2 game Destroy All Monsters; his homage to classic scores like The Day The Earth Stood Still earns him an interview on NPR: Schyman on Weekend Edition Plenty of tracks to download; via Theremin World, where you can find reviews, more links, and more sounds […]

Who doesn’t have a kink for vinyl? If you’re plugging in a turntable, you’re going to want to amplify it properly. Unless you want a $500 tube amp, something like the US$60 ART DJ Pre II should fit the bill. Aside from the new name (its predecessor was called the “Phono MicroPRE” but I guess […]

Could that Maxlite at your side be a musical instrument in disguise? With up to 9 audience participants, viewers of the RGB project can control sound and visuals using colored flashlights, in a performance installation by Tomas Dvorak (CZ), Alessandro Capozzo (IT) and Matous Godik (CZ). The team used the free PC-only software EyesWeb, passing […]

Want proof that you can’t keep on top of which DAW is best? Updates are now nearly round-the-clock, and point-one updates can bring serious features. Hot on the heels of MOTU’s free 4.6 upgrade to DP, Steinberg has over 50 new features in Cubase SL/SX 3.1, coming as a free download in August. Some of […]

Okay, aspiring VJs: not happy with the pre-coded solutions out there? Wish you could code your own stuff via a free tool? Check out Processing, a free cross-platform tool. The pay-off: how about 1680×1050 imagery, running at 20-40fps on a lowly PowerBook G4? Robert Hodgin is featured doing just that, armed with four silver USB […]

While we’re on the subject of visualizers, Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360 console will be preloaded with a trippy music visualizer game. Unlike the iTunes visualizer, it’ll be completely interactive, too. Inspired by the 1984 game Psychedelia, Neon is a visualizer for the year 2005. Check out the interview with creator Jeff Minter of UK developer […]

[Updated: More Details on iUke] I’ve had to delay my arrival at Macworld Expo until Thursday. Look what I’ve missed: a USB-enabled ukulele. iGuitar custom-built the instrument for Mac personality and notorious uke player Andy Ihnakto. (Thanks, TUAW!) I’m guessing the USB carries only audio, not control — the company’s iGuitar.USB uses USB for audio […]

Reason 3.03 is a maintenance update to Propellerhead Reason, but there’s reason (excuse the pun) to pay attention: Better performance: One of the things we like about Reason is that its code is rock-solid. Reason 3 added various performance enhancements; 3.03 adds more. TranzPort and Ozonic Support; SDK for Remote: Reason 3 has the kind […]

Edirol, the audio/video gear folks that are part of Roland Group, have a trio of announcements about new hardware. Let’s deal with them all at once, because Roland model numbers make my head hurt: New MIDI: Yes, new MIDI interface hardware. (MIDI will never die, folks.) What’s groovy about them? The US$89 UM-3EX has a […]