Last year’s Moogfest was one of the hottest tickets of the year for lovers of analog synths. It’s back. Honoring Bob Moog and his amazing instruments, Moogfest is a massive musical mash featuring top keyboardists and synthesists led by musical director Jason Miles, the keyboardist – composer – producer who’s work can be heard on […]

One of the hottest pieces of hardware gear covered at CDM (at least according to our hit counts on CDM’s original report) is now shipping. M-Audio’s Trigger Finger, a USB/MIDI control surface with 16 pressure-sensitive drum pads, 4 faders, and 8 knobs, is in stock at major outlets. I’ve tried it, and it feels great. […]

In college, I had access to a studio (where I later taught for a year), with a crazy collection of vintage instruments: ARP, ElectroComp, Moog Modular, Buchla 100 Series, Minimoog, and Memory Moog. You could even cross-patch between Buchla and Moog. Did it help with music making? Er . . . sure. At least it […]

Graphics, schmaphics. The future of gaming not only looks better — it sounds a lot better, too. Talk to any game composer or sound designer, and you’ll hear a lot of excitement about the amount of creativity they can exert with games. So how does the next generation compare? Amidst all the PS3 vs. Xbox […]

Games Week continues with the introduction of a new regular column by sound designer and game composer W. Brent Latta. First up, Brent introduces game music as an art form and ideas about how to listen to it. It’s fitting that Brent would launch his first column with a tribute to why the NES is […]

Last month, we looked at M-Audio’s new hardware control surface for Apple GarageBand, iControl. (see iControl analysis and information on supported applications) So, where is it? Shipping “real soon now,” apparently; several merchants are showing it on back-order, shipping in 7-14 days, or simply unavailable. Music123 is taking iControl pre-orders for shipment estimated on June […]

[Updated] No, not t-shirts with band names on it. I’m talking about wearable, interactive clothing with integrated electronics that respond to or generate sound. Inspired by the latest picks from Regine at we make money not art, I’ve decided it’s time for a roundup: Musical Gloves: Perhaps the most ubiquitous form of wearable sonic accessory, […]

[Updated with Tiger widget!] As Pac Man turns 25 this week, there’s sadly no mention of the game’s signature sound and music. (And PLEASE don’t mention that awful song Pac Man Fever again!) Not only was Pac Man (aka Puckman in 1980; see the game’s history) the first game that inspired mainstream gaming, but it […]

[Updated]For really retro chiptune music, you’ll want an original Game Boy. But the new Nintendo Game Boy could be the first since the original to really work well for portable music making: Same guts as the GBA SP, for full backwards compatibility (unlike the DS) — this is a new form factor, not a new […]

Okay, by now anyone who cares I’m sure is reading all about the new Nintendo Revolution console on countless other sites reporting live. So why is it here on CDM? Simple: Nintendo has made the highly un-anticipated decision of releasing its back-catalog of games available for the new Revolution, back to N64, SNES, and original […]