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 […]

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 […]