Inside Mac Radio: iPod, Mac mini and Mac’s Future

My friend Scott Shepard has a great lineup for this week's Inside Mac Radio Show. There's a  theme: think iPod + Mac mini + OS X = bigger Mac market share. Apple's iPod Czar Stan Ng talks about the much-better battery life on last week's new iPod revision and how Apple plans total world domination […]

MadPlayer Handheld Music Maker, Other Toys

Just listening to music? Now that's a little dull. Kevin of prog-Celtic band The Nettles points us to the MadPlayer, a handheld music toy that features an algorithmic music generator – beat/groove generator, a mic/sampler, karaoke, and Internet access for sharing or connecting to your Mac or PC. Some pros have even picked it up […]

Jef Raskin, Macintosh Project Creator and Composer/Musician, Dies

We're saddened to learn of the passing of Jef Raskin, a multi-talented pioneer in computers and interface design who is best known for originating the Macintosh project at Apple. He died on Saturday. While the Macintosh was ultimately the result of contributions and vision from the large team that evolved, Raskin set out its original […]

Remix Hotel Miami March 2005

Apple is sponsoring Remix Hotel Miami, which happens next month during Winter Music Conference (WMC) at Eden Roc Resort March 24-26 and is being billed as Three Days of Total Technology Immersion. Admission is free. Daytime events include hands-on access via live demos, performances and discussions with top artists and experts on today's music production […]

Karnage: Ultimate Ugly Synth? (Free, Windows)

Kriminal, an English producer, today unveiled Karnage, a free Windows VSTi synth. (Kareful, Kriminal, or the use of all those K's could get you a Kall from Korg's legal department.) Kriminal says he wanted a "workhorse" specifically designed for sounds he liked. He got them — check out the demos for some fat analog ugliness […]

NeKo Keyboard Set on Fire, Beaten

Here at CDM, we've covered instruments powered by flames, but not necessarily instruments set aflame. This one is just too painful to watch. At a party hosted by Native Instruments, Windows-powered keyboard maker Open Labs encouraged DJ Richard Divine to destroy their NeKo keyboard, supposedly to demonstrate how rugged it is. So Rick D responded […]

64-bit Rack-mounted Music PC

Coyote R&D now has a 64-bit version of their 2-space, rack-mountable Two-Can PC. But what makes it really cool: Liquid-cooled (see image) 256 MIDI ports per machine with other PCs and Macs (OS 9/X), delivered over Ethernet 3700+ CPU speeds, up to 800 GB RAID-array storage Preinstalled options: Kontakt, GigaStudio, V-Stack Yep, that's a server-class […]

New Traktor DJ: FS2, Internet, Live Ins, Recording, OGG

When is a 2.6 release more like 3? When it comes from Native Instruments. Get a load of what's new in Traktor DJ Studio 2.6: Final Scratch 2 compatibility: Take advantage of Stanton's latest vinyl interface, complete with FireWire audio, HD sound, new hardware features — oh, just check out that, too. Broadcast live on […]

Film Review: David Holmes, Code 46

British sci-fi drama Code 46 has hit video shelves, and if you missed it on its first go-around, you'll want to pick it up if only for the score by DJ and composer David Holmes (aka Free Association, with Steve Hilton). With chilly but beautiful guitar textures droning over the supressed agony of the film's […]

Digidesign Ships Venue Live Digital Console

Won the lottery recently? Digidesign is shipping its US$55,000 digital console for live sound, the Venue — we've been seeing it since the fall, but now you can actually buy one, provided you have the dough. The Venue is something of a departure for Digi: it's not Pro Tools; while it supports TDM plugins software […]