As I'm at the Yaddo Colony working on a collaborative project with choreographer Christopher Williams, updates will be more sporadic in the month of January. I have a lineup of guest writers, particularly for the weeks of Macworld and NAMM (including writers at the show), and will write when I can. February 1 CDM will […]

Times have changed: some of the Macworld Expo rumor mill's hottest buzz is all about audio. Think Secret reports that the Mac shindig this month will be host to a new version of Apple GarageBand as well as a new orchestral loop and instrument library, Jam Pack 4. (What will orchestral loops sound like, though, […]

Stewart Copeland, drummer for The Police and leading film composer (Wall Street, Pecker, many others) as well composer for ballet and opera, talks to Inside Mac Radio's Scott Shepard in an interview posted today. [ Show notes and downloadable MP3 ] Copeland was a keynote speaker at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference, an appearance […]

Today on my weekly 'Economy of Scales' segment for Gizmodo, I take a closer look at Dave Smith's new analog/digital-hybrid keyboard. How did Dave earn the "pioneer" title? His background includes co-founding Sequential, makers of the classic Prophet synth, and a leading role in the creation of MIDI, as well as fathering the Korg Wavestation. […]

iPods curently record at only a 8kHz sampling rate, unsuitable even for clear dialog recordings. That's kept me on a MiniDisc as my primary recording medium for music and even interviews. However, Phillip Torrone points out at hack-a-day, you can get around this limitation by installing iPodLinux on your iPod. That's a little less scary […]

Reality television has finally come to DJing, with a new show on Spike TV called The Club, featuring DJ Paul Oakenfold. Oakenfold's spinning skills will be featured alongside the adventure of managing and marketing nightlife at Ice in Las Vegas. Shure is using the show as a chance to push their line of turntable cartridges […]

If you've been waiting to download a free copy of Mackie's incredible audio/MIDI application Tracktion discussed here on CDM, do it now: Tracktion is available free only until 12/31. After that, you're limited to downloading a demo version that introduces white noise after 2 weeks of use. (The free version is fully functional forever.) Mackie […]

Based on a poll of a few weeks ago, it's clear what CDM readers wanted under the tree Saturday. So I've decided to give it to you — virtually speaking, anyway — based on the top three winners. The Readers' Choice goes to: Fairlight CMI: The original ultimate digital synth/sampling workstation (shown); while it's not […]

'Twas the night before Christmas, that the folks at Dave Smith Instruments let their new 4-voice analog keyboard out of the bag. Like the Evolver rack, the keyboard coming at the NAMM show next month will have real analog circuitry, a MIDI-synced analog-style sequencer, and extensive effects and editing parameters. Of course, there are the […]

Carillon is a free Windows VST plugin from Tweakbench: analog-modeled bells and chimes plus chorusing and reverb. Sounds fantastic. Plenty of other free stuff over there for Windows users, so check it out! Yes, it's a bit late if you're ready for some Nutcracker or other Christmas bell ringing, but why not celebrate the 12 […]