Pop quiz: what instrument by pioneering “father of digital audio” (or, if you’d rather, “great-grandfather of Techno”) Max Mathews was featured on the cover of Playboy Magazine? If you guessed the IBM 704 mainframe, the computer on which Mathews generated the first computer music the world ever heard, you’d be — wrong! Would that we […]
Music
Go support these Lebanese releases on Bandcamp
Music October 4, 2024
Asheville and southeast USA, we’re thinking of you
Music Music tech September 30, 2024
Lebanon’s cultural scene is responding with emergency crisis centers
Music Stories September 27, 2024
Remembering Achim Szepanski, Mille Plateaux founder and dissident
Music September 25, 2024
Bob Moog: Movie Star, “Tour”, Action Figure
May is Moog month. Not only do we have a DVD version of the Moog documentary to look forward to, releasing May 31 complete with tons of extras from deleted scenes to a demo of Arturia software for Mac and PC to a vintage beer ad, but now Bob’s . . . an action figure? […]
Hot Rodding for Mastering: Loudness Competition
As the rest of us lament brick-wall limiting and other techniques for flattening dynamic range and making music louder (see Music Thing’s recent discussion), WWAYM is sponsoring a no-holds-barred, Monster Truck Ralley of audio engineering. The contest: make it as loud as you possibly can. The competition, sent to us by reader Adrian Anders, “must […]
Electronic Music History: Birth of the Drum Machine
Tom Whitwell at MusicThing points to an incredible eBay find — an original Wurlitzer Sideman, the first commercially-available drum machine, just as I’m editing an electronic music history chapter that mentions it. Ironically, the most important contribution in the history of the Sideman was probably ANNOYING future Korg co-founder Tadashi Osanai. To tell the story […]
GURU: Perfect Software Drum Machine?
Based on the spec list for GURU, due at the end of May, it sounds like the folks at FXpansion may have heard our drum machine wish list: Integrated, advanced step sequencer Automatically (or manually) slice and map audio to extract kick, snare, hat, etc. out of audio Full audio (WAV/AIFF/REX) and MIDI loop import […]
Cube 2 Morphing Synth
Virsyn’s Cube synth was already a far-out morphing additive synth instrument. (It’s called a “Cube” because you can morph between four different sounds using envelopes or live MIDI control.) With Cube 2, you can now directly access and draw filters on the spectrum, a la MetaSynth. Powerful new resynthesis techniques improve the sound quality and […]
Waiting for Logic 7.1, Tiger
Jeremy writes us to tell us Logic 7.1 may be delayed until as late as May 20; original estimates from the Apple Store had it shipping today (April 29). Take this with a grain of salt, though: Apple Store shipping reports have been known to be a little erratic from time to time. Here at […]
Pizza Synth for Windows (No, literally — pizza!)
Silliest. Interface. Ever. Well, sure, we’ve seen instrument interfaces with difficult-to-discern controls and labels — my favorite labeling being on the Buchla synth’s
Quantazelle: Producer-Designer-Musician Extraordinaire
I’m obviously getting too much sleep. Are you? Quantazelle (aka Liz McLean Knight of Chicago), designer and creator of MIDI jewelry as mentioned yesterday, must not be. She’s: a talented IDM musician/producer (take a listen — good stuff!) creator/editor of the electronic music zine Modsquare owner of the jewelry company Zella founder, manager, and designer […]
OS X Tiger + Music: SPECIAL REPORT
Keep checking this page! Constant updates! To keep up-to-date with new features, compatibility reports, and other news regarding Mac OS X Tiger 10.4, this report will updated continuously. Drop us a line if you’ve got a tip! Remember, a lot of class-compliant USB hardware should just plug-and-play. -PK Click ‘read more’ for the full report.