Could fifty bucks buy your band some serious exposure? Siren Systems tells the LA crowd at Music 2.0 it thinks the answer is yes, via new technologies that predict whether a listener will dig your new tune. Digital music distribution is clearly the wave of the future, but now the question is, will our music […]

Siren Systems fills us in on more details of today's announcement in a CDM interview. Check the press release, but the news boils down to this: US$50 buys you physical and online distribution plus promotion (just hope listeners dig your songs!), via CD Baby and its new flavors page and Soundflavor [see full CDM story] […]

Want to say hello to readers from Gizmodo as today we unveil my new weekly feature over there. I'll be rounding up the latest in music tech each week for Gizmodo, and doing my weekday coverage here. Feel free to contact me and let me know what you think of this site if you're new; […]

paintingbynumbers has a full tutorial on creating mash-ups, remixes that combine two songs. This is a 'beginners' guide' but it's quite intense: author Philip Meehan covers everything from isolating beats to removing vocals via phase cancellation. It's inspiring enough to make me want to mash some of my own tracks. Best of all, the entire […]

Sure, DJs could opt for products like Final Scratch that provide a traditional turntable interface for the computer, but why not . . . a punching bag? Version 2.0 of Max/MSP-powered SoundSlam lets you punch to trigger audio and even has a virtual trainer that coaches you as you go. Add a floor mat you […]

InTime Tempo Tracking software provides a flexible metronome that keeps time with your MIDI performance. Play fluidly with legato, and InTime syncs to your playing, for accurate transcriptions of real performances or to create flexible backing tracks that follow you. Sounds nifty, if it works; Windows users today got a 1.2 update while Mac OS […]

Breakfast: delicious. Drum machines: not so much. Until now. With contact mics hooked up to eggs (the kind that comes from birds, with various breeds represented), Los Angeles-based artists k.cain and b.crabtree have built an audio installation that's (insert egg pun here). A Mac LC sits behind the scenes doing the dirty work with custom […]

I get these kind of requests all the time. "Peter, thanks for the helpful coverage on the USB MIDI controllers, but when will someone finally release audio hardware I can really use, like a concrete block that plays algorithmic music for 30 years?" Yes, folks: it's a piece of concrete. With a DSP chip inside. […]

Apulsoft keeps porting plugins, and as I stock up on these new OS X versions, I'm finding some great Windows freeware in the process! The latest addition, Chip32, gives you old-school, graphically-edited wavetable synthesis. The instrument sounds great, and there's MIDI control of an ADSR envelope, a basic filter and a bitcrusher. If you're looking […]

Keyboards are getting to be a lot of fun, on the cheap. The latest mini-keyboards from Alesis feature X-Y joysticks, audio I/O, and the psuedo-photo-theremin Axys dome (wave your hands in the air above the dome!). That I knew — but I hadn't checked prices to realize how cheap these things are. Alesis appears to […]