Why we wish we were in Frankfurt right now? One word: Doepfer. This company is simply amazing. They manufacture keyboards, modular software-based digital organ systems (!), DIY kits for building your own MIDI controllers, and their own modular analog synthesizer. Buy pre-built stuff, or create your own perfect gear out of individual components. How many […]

Sometimes it's worth pulling something out of comments to make sure you don't miss it. Here, legendary innovator and engineer George Massenburg weighs in on Beatles producer Geoff Emerick (in response to Rian's extended piece on Massenburg, Emerick, and Scheiner last week): Thanks……to Rian Souleles for taking the time to show up and listen to […]

Chris O'Shea of Pixelsumo also points us to Brian Crabtree's untitled box / mlr. The interface uses a grid of LCDs to display samples. (see video) At first, it looks like he's triggering a zillion different samples, but in fact there are only as many samples as there are rows: the LEDs advance along the […]

Sleek, touch-able lines. Beautiful curves. Heartrate-pumping images. Oh, yeah, and the woman's not bad, either. (gallery) Yes, I can't say exactly why this photographer chose to photograph his vintage audio mixers and reel-to-reel decks with a scantily-clad tall blonde model (8 track cassette tapes lined up between her legs?), but I suppose it takes all […]

I wish my inbox were more like Tom's at Music Thing. The latest news from France via MT: a super-digital-modular synth control surface virtual instrument. As if that weren't weird enough, the thing looks like Don Buchla teamed with Playskool Toys, and this may be the only device on the planet that claims to be […]

Before the invention of radar, you'd need a large dish or horn to track sounds of your enemy. "Acoustic radar" (aka "acoustic locators" or "sound mirrors") captured sound via large dishes or walls, or steerable horns not unlike the cones on early record players. Douglas Self has a reference guide to this curious technology with […]

This is a first: it almost looks like a company just ripped off an imaginary mock-up made by a zealous Mac user. (Just coincidence?) While Apple's been busy intimidating website writers over its non-shipping Asteroid audio interface, M-Audio's been developing its own hardware for GarageBand. And while the Asteroid was rumored to be an audio […]

Make no mistake about it: M-Audio's new iControl is custom-tailored to GarageBand. From the fake-wood sides (very cute, M-Audio) to the knob and button layout, this box is perhaps the first economy control surface to be designed entirely around a single program's interface. (Meaning, regardless of the discussion MusicThing says they've been hearing, there's absolutely […]

Edirol reports the CG-8 video synth will be available in July and will cost (you may want to sit down) US$5295. So, yes, those of you who aren't living off an enormous trust fund or VJing in your spare time while you pull in six figures at your day job might want to go the […]

While we're looking at cool interfaces and video hardware this week, we can't miss Pioneer's DVJ-X1 digital video turntable. The DVJ-X1 has been out for about a year, but in case you missed it, this amazing virtual turntable spins high-quality video and audio simultaneously. DJ Eldorado got his hands on it at the Winter Music […]