Enough of the speculation: Propellerhead today has formally announced Reason 3 and posted full details. Here's what's new, boiled down: Combinator will let you build combination patches of multiple Reason instruments, as I and others had predicted. MClass mastering suite includes EQ, stereo imaging, compressor, and maximizer.  'Performance' features: better control surface support including motorized […]

You heard it here first. Tony Amendolare of ElektroKraft, creator of the Axe*Synth we covered here on CDM, writes today to tell us about his newest creation: the Space Box combination digital photo-theremin + effects. [Press release] It's a light theremin: Wave your hand above the photocell, and the box will respond to light and […]

M-Audio has released its USB-powered, 22-lb., 88-key semi-weighted keyboard, the Keystation88es; list US$299. What? You're as confused by M-Audio's revamped product names as I am? Here's the new lineup: Keystation es: Semi-weighted, no knobs; 49, 61, 88 keys Keystation Pro: One 88-key, fully weighted 'hammer action' keyboard with a control surface (knobs and faders) Radium […]

Propellerhead is now soliciting beta testers for version 3.0 of its wildly popular synth workstation software Reason. As reported on Music Thing, Propellerhead has been titillating its Reason users by leaving tiny fragmented images of a new module in the upcoming version, which forum members bravely sorted out and reconstructed into the 'Combinator' Device. Bizarre […]

MegaSeg 3, the OS X-only DJ package announced last month, was released today. The developer says there are more than 100 improvements, but here are some big ones: Redesigned hardware-style Dual-Deck Mixer Direct open/save to iTunes (with full support for AAC songs purchased from the iTunes music store!) Library and playlist printing, HTML logging, playlist […]

1980s, meet 2004: DLO (Digital Lifestyle Outfitters) is shipping their new iBoom iPod boombox. What makes it cool is that it runs on D batteries or plugs in, so it's a true portable solution, without having to bother with those annoyingly unreliable FM radio transmitters. Bonus: built-in FM radio with digital tuning and preset buttons. […]

This week's CDM Fine Reading Award goes to channelnewsasia.com for profiling an inventor we really care about: the inventor of karaoke, Daisuke Inoue. Aside from being the most horrendous case of "really should have patented that" ever, Inoue turns out to be an Ig Nobel Prize Winner (alongside the authors of published report The Effects […]

Delay Dots' Windows-first suite of plugins, the Sound designers | Spectral Suite, has made it to Mac OS X VST, with an AU version in progress. There's a nice line-up of effects here for sound creation: Spectral Morph, with convolution and vocoder modes Bass exciter (available in an optional pro version) Spectral pitch shifter Physical-modeled […]

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, […]