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 + […]

Magnus of Smartelectronix is apparently very excited by his new Mac Mini, because he says it's inspired him to port his plugins to Mac OS X! To get you started, try out NyquistEq, a gorgeous parametric EQ that can process treble right up to the Nyquist frequency — the highest frequency that can be represented […]

Well, it's another gripping poll going here at CDM headquarters. Here are the stats so far: Guitars are beating keyboards, 46% to 35%. None of you plays the kazoo as your primary instrument. This site has 26 readers. (meaning, based on our server logs, a sampler error margin of about 5,000%) Now, obviously, none of […]

One thing you probably didn't see last weekend at Miami's WMC: this DJ. (via audioserve) Call it world's cutest scratching. Netherlands-based Lejo specializes in this unique hand + props marionette theater. And the show tours — if you happen to be passing through, say, Segovia or Mechelen. What, you say? You don't think DJs are […]

Sit down on the spectrum analysis couch, and let's explain the subtext of this plug-in's name: Frequency: The Fre(a)koscope is a real-time spectral analyzer now in beta, a mod of Bram's S(m)exOscope designed to show the spectrum of a sound in real-time — so you can dig what's going down in your sound, you know, […]

The ThinAmp from AXL, introduced in January at NAMM, is a portable amp packed into the size of a laptop: only 2" thick and just 5 lbs. (!) You can literally fit it into a laptop bag — in fact, you can probably fit it and your laptop into a laptop bag. The amp is […]

Miami — The Remix Hotel event here this week during Winter Music Conference provides "hands-on access to the technology and equipment used to create today's electronic and urban music via artist presentations and demonstrations, workshops, clinics and discussion." Held at the Eden Roc Hotel in South beach and sponsored by Apple and Guitar Center the […]

Lyndsay Williams (an electronic pioneer herself, with early PC audio and gigs with Pioneer and the company that became Evolution) writes us to point out that New Scientist has a three-way interview with Bob Moog, Peter Vogel (of Fairlight fame) and Dave Smith. Much of this you've heard before, though you may not know: Bob […]