The first Star Wars movie launched a golden age of cinematic design, but not just for visuals — it was sound design’s greatest moment, too. The technology that made all this possible? None other than the humble field recording. (By the way, this is on everyone’s mind — just as I was putting this together, […]

Artist Abinadi Meza has created a remixed composition of the “lighthearted” sounds of the movie Jaws (think drunken sailor sounds and off-key clarinet blasts), into a piece that wlll only be played underwater. To hear the output of the submerged speakers, you have to strip to your skivvies and float in the ocean. Title: Soft […]

Pro Tools TDM 6.9.2 adds compatibility for Mac OS X Tiger for those with Pro Tools|HD and HD accel systems. All Digidesign and Digidesign-distributed plug-ins will work once you’ve got the new Pro Tools; no plug-in updates are needed. Still incompatible with Tiger: Pro Tools LE 6.9, Pro Tools M-Powered 6.8, Digidesign CoreAudio Driver v6.9, […]

I love synthesis, but there’s something just as appealing about creating sounds from other found sounds — especially if you can make the results unrecognizable. I’ve gradually built a series of tricks using some favorite Mac tools. First, the newcomers: Soundtrack Pro: The newest addition to my arsenal is Apple’s Soundtrack Pro, which arrived here […]

Hear that sound? That’s the sound of stories piling up here. Yes, folks, I’m a bit bogged down getting ready for this show at The Flea, but rest assured, will get some stories out by mid-week and will be in full gear next week. Think of it as Memorial Day weekend. Only more than three […]

It’s games week part II — as I get ready to perform with Game Boy musician Bubblyfish (proving to me that it’s difficult to be a musician, VJ and blogger at the same time), Brent’s back with another gaming report. This time, it sounds like the NES could get a new lease on life. Again. […]

CDM has received several anonymous reports about the Music Player feature of Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360. In short, Microsoft’s new custom music feature is so aggressive, you can elect never to hear the music written for your game. Xbox Player is On All the Time The Music Player plays “gamer-initiated music,” streaming from a device […]

Sorry for the light news day, but I’ll be back next week with lots more coverage, shifting from game systems to how to use game hardware in your own music, more on interactive musical clothing, and other goodies! In the meantime, here’s my next project: -PK How does a musician go from classical pianist to […]

Microsoft is touting its upcoming game console, the Xbox 360, as a game console with media-sync extras. Microsoft won’t let the Xbox compete with Media Center PC platform; there’s no TV tuner, for instance, so apparently you’re supposed to spend another couple of grand on a Media Center PC. But the new game system will […]

Chris O’Shea points us to Ben Hanbury’s project Recycle TV, which combines an old TV set (well, actually, he substituted a picture of one for ease), a Max/MSP patch, and Eric Singer’s real world-to-MIDI interface, the MidiTron. Via copyrighted and open source clips, you can mix together musical phrases constructed from miliseconds-long clips. The beats […]