Carl writes us: Looking for a cheap, side-address, large-diaphragm, cardiod condenser mic for vocals.  Wondering if CDM readers/authors might have some advice.  Currently considering… $200 Audio Technica AT3035 Blue 8-Ball Rode NT1-A Studio Projects C1 $100 Audio Technica AT2020 Kel HM-1 Studio Projects B1 …I'm leaning toward the Studio Projects pieces, or perhaps the Kel. […]

Dave's Imaginary Sound Space has an incredible compendium of links on the history of speech synthesis, complete with sound files, all the way back 50 years to the Sonovox, connected to a Masters' Thesis by Sami Lemmety. Inspired by Dave's links, CDM has decided to bring you more of the time-sucking power of fascinating speech […]

Antares' wildly popular automatic tuning plugin AutoTune is now available in Audio Unit form, meaning you're no longer reliant on Pro Tools to run it — Logic, DP, GarageBand, Live, etc. are all fair game on the Mac. (Antares has ensured compatibility with Apple's validators.) [via kvraudio] Great news for native audio, etc., etc. (I'm […]

The gang at Music Thing filling in for Tom while he's away have wisely pointed to the trailer for the superb Moog documentary. If you missed this in theaters in the fall, you've got another chance: Plexifilm tells CDM to expect the DVD sometime around May. We'll keep you posted here. And there's a poster […]

When Cakewalk launched the first digital audio workstation that's natively 64-bit last month, everyone's question was — so what does that do for me, exactly? VP of Engineering Ron Kuper had to be converted, too, says Cakewalk, but extensive performance testing showed benefits that made 64-bit worthwhile. The company has just published a white paper […]

Want your notation software's orchestral playback to sound more realistic? The February Keyboard Magazine (US) includes a tutorial (available online) on how to make use of Garritan Personal Orchestra with Sibelius and Finale. The process is a little involved, partly because of the limitations of MIDI itself and the MIDI support built into the notation […]

Stop the presses! In the "news you already knew" category, a study by Martin Kretschmer in the peer-reviewed Internet journal First Monday says online distribution may not be revolutionizing professional, and most musicians in Germany can't live off royalty income. (via boing boing) [read more]

Long known for its PCI and CardBus audio interfaces, Echo Audio has finally made the leap to FireWire with the AudioFire 8 and 12. Rather than put ourselves to sleep with more specs in this already-crowded category, what makes it cool: Looks: It's really, really pretty in its aluminum case Psychic powers: 2 inputs are […]

Sometimes, it's so nice to put away the blog and read paper. On the South by Southwest Interactive Festival blog, my reading endorsements get to sit next to craiglist founder Craig Newmark and Al Gore speechwriter Dan Pink, as well as my friends Fran Preve (Keyboard) and Chris Breen (Playlist, Macworld). Check it out — […]

As we've reported here before, circuit bender Noah Fleischman is a mad scientist of electronics destruction. We've seen software manglings like the Flash-powered software Speak & Spell, but Noah has continued . . . destroying things . . . from toy keyboards to a device created by grafting a cassette Walkman to a 5.25" floppy […]