Defragmentation is still critical for peak disk performance for digital audio, even under new versions of OS X — even the Apple Logic documentation suggests it. Only problem is: there's not much on the Mac that's any good. Some utilities even require you to boot into OS 9. Which is why today's announcement of Drive […]

Montréal-based Applied Acoustics has announced a new physical modeling synth at NAMM, as expected. String Studio models the interaction of picks, bows, hammers, fingers, frets, dampers and soundboards for more realistic recreations of real instruments like guitars, basses, harps, clavinets, bowed sounds and percussion, as well as to create wild new sounds of imagined instruments […]

Cycling `74 has brought two of their popular Mac products to Windows users: Pluggo is a collection of over 100 effects and instruments developed in the Max/MSP environment. It's an old favorite on the Mac, and Windows users have waited a long five years for a native version. While the collection seems a bit dated […]

CDM has reported on the Star Trek-esque touchscreen interface Lemur before, and developer Jazz Mutant told CDM in the fall they expected to ship the unit this year. They've found a distributor: Cycling `74 will sell Jazz Mutant's Lemur for US$2495 (projected), with the first units expected in April 2005. The Lemur is a touchscreen […]

A report from the Los Angeles VJ party LAVA: VJ Fader introduced the video drum machine VDrum, as reported here earlier this week. (Windows now and OS X soon, free) Bizarre video screenings: Syncrosect and 4 Get Who U R Ableton Live (audio) and Isadora (video) controlled by a PlayStation 2 dance pad! Check out […]

near near future continues to bring fascinating alternative music controllers to our attention. This week they cover two objects that generate sound, cubes and jars: loopqoob builds further on the idea of playing with blocks, with cubes linked to computer algorithmic music / synthesis for people without the motor skills to play instruments. Piano Cubes […]

NASA's Cassini spacecraft was bomboarded with dust particles that make up Saturn's rings, and the sound against its high-gain antenna are included in a new video file. Meanwhile, as the ESA's Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument makes its descent to Titan, acoustic sensors pick up audio data posted by ESA as MP3s. Load up your iPod […]

'Twas the nights before NAMM, and all through the house, not a press release was stirring . . . well, no, that's not true. In fact, I have a huge stack of new releases, but they're all embargoed (meaning I can't tell you about them) until Thursday or Monday. So get ready. Lee Sherman, our […]

Repeat after me: you'll be running Logic on a faster PowerBook G4, not G5, in 2005. But that may not a bad thing. There's just no convincing some people. It's not enough that top Apple brass told financial analysts as recently as Wednesday 1/12 not to expect a PowerBook G5 in the near future. The […]

Exclusive! Returning to our regular programming of geeky stories that appeal to a tiny fraction of the population (PowerBook G5 rumors? What was it, sweeps week?) and ill-conceived puns (see above), I bring you: MetaSynth 4. MetaSynth is a graphic sound design and music creation environment that lets you paint with sound, using color imagery […]