In Europe and jealous of the USA's Laptop Battles? Laptop-Jams is set for this summer in London, Brighton, Glastonbury, and even Denmark. Instead of going solo, up to three will jam simultaneously, but no more than three at a time (unlike New York's Share party, where jams are basically unlimited). The good news is, you […]

Click 'read more' for our full coverage from Miami's 2005 Winter Music Conference — a convergence of music and technology, covered live by CDM's DJ Eldorado and Liz Dreisacker. Links to stories plus three new image galleries follow.

No, you’re not just seeing things. We’re rotating banners around here at CDM; this contribution comes from Funnel of onetonmusic, a lovely music tech blog. (More of his design work at right.) It could be a glimpse of a future redesign of the CDM site. All things just keep getting better. Thanks, Funnel! (For previous […]

Still not jealous that you weren't at Miami for the WMC? This should do the trick — and here's the right way to record a concert: in HD 5.1! (Photo: DJ Eldorado — gallery coming soon.) Miami — Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an all-day outdoor festival that acts as the official closing ceremonies to […]

Is the real future of music interfacing directly with our brain? Jon Appleton, the composer and electronic musician who was on the team for the ground-breaking Synclavier keeps talking about how he thinks a 'brain cap' will be the interface of the future. Put it on, and it knows what music you're thinking. He talked […]

NPR Morning Edition's David Malakoff yesterday covered the Laptop Battle phenomenon: competitive laptop composition contests that are spreading across North America, thanks to fourthcity's LAPTOPBATTLE.ORG. NPR caught the recent Mid-Atlantic laptop battle. Players are given a time-limit and are actually forbidden from using external controllers. The music must be laptop-only. Then it's a slam — […]

Ableton Live is a brilliant piece of software, but aside from some great presets in the new Operator synth (sold separately), you'll find yourself very quickly starved for some usable effects presets, drum kits, instruments, and the like. (Oh, I know, SOME of you are synthesizing that using hand-built oscillators, but come on, haven't you […]

Ableton Live 4.1, which now includes the demo of Operator, has 145 presets. Yeah, whatever. Covert Operators Volume 1, a free download available on the Ableton forum, can boost that to a full 400. The Covert Operators team have powered up Ableton's brilliant FM/hybrid synth with more drums, synths, FX, pads, rhythms, and more. Still […]

In support of his new CD, "Hotel", Moby gave an exclusive Q&A session for Winter Music Conference attendees. From his new album and musical tour, to his appearance on NBC's The Apprentice, Moby has been all over the place and in the musical limelight. It was a great opportunity to see Moby up close and […]

Remember hardware? Seems this year is all about trying to cash in on budget virtual instruments. M-Audio has now "released" (I think that means shippin!) Key Rig and Drum and Bass Rig, as promised at NAMM. Think bread-and-butter virtual instruments. Key Rig: "Stage keyboards": grands, Wurlitzers, electric pianos, FMs, clavinets. Polyphonic synth Hammond organ + […]