Sometimes the best interface for music is no interface at all. The international S.S.S. trio (Sensors Sonics Sights) has adopted three different gestural interfaces for their work: ultrasound, traditional Theremin, and EMG electrical 'bio-signals' that measure muscle contractions. None of these are unique in themselves, but seeing the visual artist, Theremin virtuoso, and electronic music […]

Okay, it's a stretch. Despite its name, the Wetronome covered yesterday by Gizmodo is intended for pacing strokes in swimming, not music. But given the innovations in portable music covered here alone, why couldn't your next instrument be — waterproof? The Wetronome is a model of aquatic design, completely sealed and programmed with a magnetic […]

Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack has a new rival for recording audio from any Mac app: Ambrosia has announced its new audio recording utility WireTap Pro (US$19). WireTap Pro boasts a one-button interface, direct AIFF, MP3, and AAC recording support, iCal integration for scheduled recording of radio, and even sharing of recording scheduling packages with other […]

As I speculated yesterday, Apple's lawsuit was most likely over the rumored Asteroid audio interface. Apple has subpoenaed AppleInsider, PowerPage, and Think Secret to try to determine the source of the leak, reports Engadget. It's not clear from Engadget's tip whether Apple is seeking a subpoena or has gotten one already. Since a subpoena is […]

Reuters reports that Apple sued "unnamed individuals" on December 13 over a recent product leak. Additional unnamed parties may be added to the suit once their identity is known, says Reuters. While Reuters notes flash iPod rumors have spread through the Web and some sites have speculated that Motorola-Apple phone stories could be behind the […]

Rosegarden, the flagship digital audio workstation for Linux (see an interview with the developers), has hit 1.0 PR1, making this the first release on the road to the final 1.0 release. This version is mostly bugfixes, but there's a significant addition: latency compensation for plugins, a feature Apple's Logic still lacks. Rosegarden is the most […]

Open source Linux drum machine Hydrogen has made its way to Mac OS X; Johnathan Dempsey has created binaries for easy installation (10.3 required). Hydrogen is still in development, but this is worth trying, and you can bet you'll see many more Linux audio tools on the Mac. Install Jack first if you haven't already, […]

It's not enough to run rough emulations of vintage Roland instruments on your Commodore 64 — you need a way of making Christmas Cards in a vintage Roland font, fast. Fonts.com to the rescue: download a very convincing-looking rip-off the Roland font on this monophonic synth and drum machine. Resumes look fantastic in the TB-303 […]

The highly-anticipated Nuendo 3 upgrade, Steinberg's would-be "Pro Tools killer", is now shipping worldwide. What's Nuendo? It's the high-end sibling to Cubase, and Steinberg's ultra-high-end media production software. This new release is big news for post production in particular, with AAF support, X-Send integration, Media Management tools, an a new Warp to Picture features, plus […]

Steinberg says they have a "Christmas gift for all of our Cubase SX3 customers": the free 3.01 update announced today includes a new RoomWorks reverb. It's surround-capable, "studio-class," includes 60+ presets, and scales CPU usage to your machine and project usage. Many minor updates, too, some that will make a big difference — the MIDI […]