Alesis Micron Reviewed: Analog-Modeling Keyboard

What does a hardware synth have to do to compete with software these days? How about offer the same fantastic virtual analog sound for about the same price, for starters? The Alesis Micron is the kid brother to the Alesis Ion synth, with the exact same 8-voice, 4-part multitimbral VA engine. Each voice has 3 […]

New CDM Reviews Section

Long-promised, but now finally here — CDM's reviews section, launching with Lee Sherman's review of the Alesis Micron. We've got a bunch of stuff on the test table, too, so while the section is lonely now, don't expect it to be by the end of this month! Let us know if there are products you […]

DJ Sasha’s MAVEN Controller: Build it Yourself?

Is DJ Sasha's custom MAVEN controller, as plugged in promotions for the artist, built from a free open-source DIY kit? (Sasha uses this custom hardware to control Ableton Live on his iMac G5 during gigs.) MIDIbox users are speculating the MAVEN is based on the MIDIbox platform in a forum discussion. MIDIbox is a hardware […]

iPianos ’05: 5 Mac Grand Pianos, $55

Post Musical Instruments has won acclaim for its piano sampling banks; now US$55 buys you iPianos '05, five of its piano samples for use in Apple's GarageBand and Logic (Express and Pro) — a major upgrade from the instrument that comes in the box. That's PMI's Bosendorfer 290, Yamaha C7, Steinway D and the EMPEROR […]

OS X Tiger Coming; How’s Audio Doing? (and Windows?)

Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger should be out very soon; eWeek reports shipping is likely by mid-month or end-of-month at latest. So far, the only major application CDM knows to be compatible with Tiger is Ableton Live 4.11, which introduced compatibility tweaks versus 4.1. We're still waiting on a long-promised update to Apple Logic […]

Moog, Prophet Clones: From Software to Hardware

Our coverage of the new Creamware Moog/Prophecy-5 hardware continues with a look at the previous Creamware offering . . . You thought all hardware was going to be transitioning to software plug-in? Think again. By using hardware DSP chips, Creamware has been able to create perfect emulations of original Minimoog and Prophet-5 hardware. The original […]

Memory (Free): Sample and Loop with P5 Data Glove (Win)

Good news: White Noise Audio Software's free Memory plug-in lets you sample loops of audio in real-time, adjusting both loop length and filter cutoff for some crazy live loop-playing. Did I mention it's free? Insanely great news: You can control this mayhem using a $20-30 P5 Data Glove game controller. I leave it up to […]

NoteGraphica: Draw Your Own Waves (Win)

Boring bits: Windows VSTi, 8-voice polyphony, two oscillators plus one noise generator, eight envelopes, 1 filter, 2 LFOs, built-in delay/chorus FX — all important, but you've seen it before. Cool bits: You can drawn in your wave shapes, and it's free. Now has NoteGraphica got your attention?

Nintendo, Interactive Artists — Whither the Stylus?

Convincing people to embrace new control methods is hard. Just ask Nintendo. Sure, here at CDM we talk about making music with a graphic tablet input, sock puppets — you love that. But the gaming market is conservative; many still don't get the inclusion of a stylus on the Nintendo DS. And that, friends, has […]

Tabletop, Block-Based Music Making: The List

There's been an explosion of so-called "tangible interfaces" for music: the basic scenario is, there's a table, possibly with projections, and little blocks or objects or projected thingies you can play around with and move to produce sound. (Tangible = something physical you can move or touch, as opposed to an interface that's intangible, like […]