Apple has a new pro app for audio production called Soundtrack Pro, unveiled with Final Cut Pro Studio 5. This isn't just a slightly beefed-up Soundtrack or a new app for video — it looks like it could be a whole different way of working. Here's an early look at some features I find interesting […]

DJs, VJs, and laptop musicians, Allen & Heath has your ultimate hardware, coming later this year: The Xone:3D integrates a full DJ mixer, a MIDI/USB control surface complete with scratch surface, and multichannel audio interface into a single box. Allen & Heath says it "allows the user to manipulate and manage any source – such […]

At home or on the gig, it's a problem: where do you put all your toys? Most clubs, from avant-garde to hip, don't seem to know what to do with performers who work with laptops and technology. And, then, at home, if you've managed not to alienate your significant other yet, he or she will […]

There's nothing quite like a 3-way. I reviewed Steinberg Cubase SX 3.01, Apple Logic Pro 7.01, and MOTU Digital Performer 4.52 for Macworld.com; read the complete review and conclusions. Of course, a really fair comparison of all-purpose DAW software would be more like Cubase vs. Logic vs. DP vs. Cakewalk SONAR vs. Ableton Live vs. […]

Want to go Sasha one better and customize your own modular control surface for all of your software? The Mawzer gives new meaning to the term plug and play. You start with a simple backplane and plug in various modules such as faders, buttons, and knobs, assign MIDI controls and you're good to go. Even […]

Sure, Edirol's fascinating new CG-8 video synthesizer, due in July, costs a whopping US$5295 — enough to make most of you (and us) to lose interest until we find a higher paying job (see our story and follow-up and more follow-up with sticker shock). That doesn't mean that: this gear isn't really cool to dream […]

How do you get a group of people in Milan to lounge atop, cuddle with, and hump a bunch of soft cone-shaped blobs? Easy: feed a channel of synthetically-generated music to each blob so, as they rock and move, soothing interactive music fills the air. The result, says visitors, ranges from "very comfortable" to "very […]

Sure, at MIT building interactive LED-powered disco dance floors is a good way to decorate your dorm and procrastinate. But, Chris O'Shea of pixelsumo reminds me, for the designers at Lightspace, it's serious business. Clearly, the MIT students' DIY project was directly inspired by the Lightspace team that's . . . wait a minute . […]

Following up on yesterday's report on using Dance Dance Revolution pads with your computer for music, we've got more on PSmaX from its creator. PSmaX is an applet developed in Max/MSP that lets you hook any PlayStation controller to your Mac or PC via USB. Here's Mike Chames: The input in PSmaX is handled through  […]

Details have leaked out about a prototype Numark DJ mixer that can mix two iPods. I know what you're thinking: Wow, what a scoop! Where are the lawyers? Is it a fake? In fact, in a gesture of spectacularly poor industrial secrecy, it seems Numark showed off an early prototype at the Musikmesse show in […]