Mercurial Innovations Group's STC-1000 is two devices combined in one MIDI unit: it's an X-Y continuous touch controller, and a programmable multi-zone percussion-style MIDI trigger. In other words, you can use it like a sophisticated touchpad for controlling filters and synth parameters, or use its zones as drum/note triggers. Street price US$225. (Why not by […]

Linux for music is everywhere, from the power behind the Korg Oasys to new, more usable Linux desktop music software. CDM got a chance to talk to Chris Cannam of Fervent Software, developers of the Linux-based Studio-to-Go. Chris tells us a bit more about Studio-to-Go, as well as more generally the past, present, and future […]

Congratulations to this year's Grammy Winners (listed at soundgenerator.com). It was a banner year for high-profile Mac users from Black Eyed Peas to U2, and the iTunes Music Store is accordingly offering US$7.99 for the winning albums. Digitally-created music wasn't left out, either; traditional rockers dominated most categories but Basement Jaxx, electronic winner, had plenty […]

Mac OS X just hit 10.3.8, but I'm still having problems with changes introduced in 10.3.7: M-Audio interfaces' latest drivers appear to cause incompatibility with the new OS; my Duo and FireWire Solo both stopped receiving and sending audio signal (though they appear normally) after the update. With the Solo, rolling back to the previous […]

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 […]