The retro-pimping continues. While you’re tricking out your PC with vintage synth chips pillaged from a Commodore 64 (see last week’s report, why not add an integrated audio cassette deck? The PlusDeck (available from ThinkGeek) is a cassette audio deck (Windows-only software) that fits into the drive bay of your tower. It streams in both […]

A terrific, free audio tool is lurking in Mac OS X Tiger’s developer tools. AU Lab is intended for testing Audio Unit effects and instruments, but it’s feature-packed enough to be useful to end users, too. If you haven’t already, install Xcode Tools from your Tiger install disc. Then launch Developer > Applications > Audio […]

Here’s even more open source code for creating new sound interfaces using free-moving blocks for control. We looked at Sonicforms, which is both intended as a project and a repository for information. Chris’ project uses a projector aimed at a tabletop for additional feedback, and IR lights for sensing. That adds cost to the system […]

Linux audio must be making some headway: they’ve even got sequencer/DAW rivals. MusE is a full-blown DAW / MIDI sequencer / audio multitrack application for Linux, based on ALSA (audio framework), JACK (for interconnecting audio between apps), and LADSPA (open source Linux audio plugin format). It’s got an impressive feature list, with extensive MIDI controller […]

Okay, enough of using wooden blocks for music for a bit: let’s get back to the veritable DJ mixer. The Ecler NUO4 (that’s the letter “O”, 4, not “04”) DJ mixer claims to be the first DJ mixer to add full MIDI control. I’ve heard from the North American distributor for the NU04, Jon Ghoddoussi […]

A brand that eschews market trends to focus on pleasing a devoted audience of die-hard loyalists. System hardware with smart industrial design that some have accused of being “underpowered” and “just for kids.” A proprietary PowerPC-based platform with CPU chips supplied by IBM. Rumors of muliple-G5 systems in the near future. Apple? No, Nintendo. Nintendo […]

CDM Exclusive: Reflexaudio tells us that they’ll be manufacturing the HardSID Quattro PCI card, a PCI card featuring authentic vintage SID chips as used in the original Commodore 64. (European readers may be aware the HardSID product has been available over there for a while, but Reflex will bring manufacturing and broader North American distribution.) […]

Reflex Audio has just unveiled a collection of over 650 samples of vintage synths: The Analogue Collection. There are two dozen synths in there: ARP Odyssey, Chroma Polaris, Elka Synthex, EML ElectroComp 101, Kawai K3, Korg MS-20, MemoryMoog and Minimoog, Oberheim Matrix 12, OB-1, SEM, and Expander, Roland Juno 106, Roland Jupiter 8, Roland MC […]

We’ve got a slew of compatibility updates today for would-be Mac OS X 10.4 upgraders, including official upgrade advice from Native Instruments. As always, watch our Tiger Special Report for complete coverage (and a compatibility rundown based on all we know). Native Instruments: NI has a special page explaining 10.4 support and upgrading info. Updates […]

If you haven’t seen it yet, The History of Sampling by Jesse Kriss lets you interactively navigate the links between sampled songs and samplers. Jesse’s site pulls data from the-breaks, a huge collection of sampling rap music. The real story, though, is how this site, and many other nifty new sites making rounds on the […]