How did I miss this? The new Ecler NUO4 (“nuo” / 4), reported in a skratchworx exclusive (with no information available anywhere else — Ecler’s DJ division included) is a mixer-control surface hybrid. From what I can get from the photos and limited description, the four knobs in the center are MIDI-assignable, with some additional […]

CDM’s friends at the Fake Science Lab report have a new podcast up, featuring Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. As the creators point out, this is one small step for Nick, one giant leap for podcasting — Mason is the first industry figure to weigh in on an indie podcast. He talks about the book, […]

You the readers remain my best resource, so here goes: What are your favorite tools for recording audio from applications that don’t have a recording/render-to-disk facility? I’ve been stunned when I’ve seen Windows users suggest that you wire up a recorder, bounce out through the analog outs on the computer, and then re-record. Nonsense! On […]

Keeping up with acquisitions these days is darn near impossible. We wake up this morning, and Adobe has acquired Macromedia. A few humble suggestions from the digital music / interactivity / VJ side of things (and, no, one of them is NOT "bring back SoundEdit" — you'd be amazed how many times I hear that, […]

Pro Tools 6.9 is now available from Digidesign. As Apple focuses on integration with Final Cut Pro, Avid/Digidesign are counting on the loyalty of studios and video houses to the Avid system; 6.9's major new features have to do with Avid's high-end video products. If you don't have an Avid or ICON D-Command control surface, […]

As CDM continues its hunt for the ultimate studio furniture, here's my favorite reader tip yet: DUAL Furniture in San Francisco has gorgeous custom birchwood furniture designed to your specs. There's the usual DJ furniture — record cabinets and the like — but DUAL wins out for cool hunters with its floating coffins, suspended elegantly […]

Using piezo-electric sensors or specialized drum pads, you can turn acoustic drums into triggers, then convert that signal to MIDI. But why stop there, when your legs are just waiting to be slapped? To use your legs as a trigger, you’ll want a fairly sensitive sensor — standard drum triggers would require you to hit […]

The folks at Elektron have some incredible pattern-based synths/percussion generators (see full product line), if you can afford them (US$1350-1950 list). They’re working on a new Machinedrum, the SPS-1. It’s not a true sampler, but you can load samples onto it via MIDI and soon USB, so as the creators put it “finally you can […]

Easily topping the cool factor of the floating DJ turntable is the alien spaceship cockpit of DJ furniture: the DJ Kreemy Table. (Thanks to a reader for reminding of this!) Designed by Karim Rashid, this all-fiberglass, dual-deck+mixer design with integrated power and lighting will set you back (get ready for this) just under US$3000. So […]

Autechre’s new album Untilted is here from Warp Records, available for MP3 download or live streaming. Go enjoy! So what the heck does their name mean? The Words of Autechre explains this mystery (audio technology research? audio architecture?), as well as the words of their songs by disc. If you’d rather not know, stay away. […]