Budding Stevie Wonders with GarageBand, listen up: the superb but free Ticky Clav physical-modeled Hohner Clavinet synth is now on X, as the Apulsoft continues to bring the best VSTs to OS X's AU format. The instrument's physical modeling features allow it to "faithfully reproduce the strings vibration and the 2 pickups of the Clavinet […]

Forget limited-feature bundled apps or the now-defunct Pro Tools Free; Mackie's got your free general-purpose audio tool right here. Traktion is available free for a limited time, and rivals the flagship audio/MIDI workstations for functionality, with audio and MIDI recording and editing, VST plugin and instrument hosting and ReWire support, a built-in sampler and filters, […]

650 MB of instruments and loops is nothing to sneeze at, so even if you have to cough up the US$9.75 shipping cost, the new Soundsonline Instrument Sampler V1 sounds well worth it. You can use this library with virtually any PC or Mac host, and play with a healthy library of sampled instruments and […]

U&I Software tells createdigitalmusic.com that they expect to release the highly-anticipated Mac OS X version of MetaSynth by the end of the year (unofficially). MetaSynth, created by wonder-programmer Eric Wenger who brought us tools like Bryce and ArtMatic, was the one and only reason to run Classic in OS X for many of us who […]

Native Instruments, apparent coffee drinkers and update maniacs, are at it again with their Guitar Rig guitar effects and amp package. Here's what's new, among other things, in the free 1.2 update: Four new modules: Fuzz Ace (fuzz pedal based on Arbiter Fuzz Face), Big Fuzz (fuzz pedal based on Electro Harmonix Big Muff), Cat […]

Integrated synthesis and sequencing software FL Studio 5 has received a major new upgrade. Unlike most competitive products, FL Studio has lifetime free upgrades, so this is free for existing users. Lots of new features, many of which are related to time stretching and beat slicing (for some, this could even make FL Studio competitive […]

Those of you using Ableton Live 4 know how much fun the software's new Simpler and Impulse instruments are. Drag-and-drop sounds, and you've got an instant sampler or drum kit. Now if only Ableton had bothered to include a decent library of presets to get you started . . . If only . . . […]

The free soft synth Crystal has an incredible sound engine with deep control you'd expect out of a commercial product. As for looks, well, in that category it left a bit to be desired. Today, Green Oak delivered a new version of the software with a totally new look; watch out for brushed Aluminum, 3D […]

This week's time-annihilating Web discovery has to be Music Thing, a super-twisted Gizmodo-style site for music that I fully expect to scoop CDM on instrumental oddities. What's not to like about a site that has talks about roll-up MIDI keyboards and mobile phone sequencers, celebrates Fairlight week, and has links to DIY projects like digital […]

For my money, the Novation ReMote and X-Station are dream keyboards for digital music: fantastic synth-action keys, lots of knobs and faders, a touchpad and X-Y joystick for adjusting parameters, and optional built-in synthesis and audio I/O. But I've been waiting for 49-key and 61-key versions, and in the midst of an acquisition by London […]