Fellow Keyboard contributor Francis Preve talks GarageBand in a MacJams interview. Francis has a great take on professionals using GarageBand; he himself is a virtuoso with Apple Loops, and the Apple mania has spread as far as Ed from Barenaked Ladies. You can open up the GB instruments and your GB files in Logic Express […]

Ableton Live, while brilliant for live performance and improvisation, bogs down when you're trying to control all your parameters with a mouse and QWERTY keyboard. Solutions like M-Audio's Evolution UC-33e are a big help, but many of us have dreamed of a controller designed specifically for Live. This could be it: the German-made FaderFox micromodul […]

No, Microsoft isn't giving away free songs made in Apple GarageBand — that's the other Garageband, as in Garageband.com, a site with peer-reviewed music from unsigned artists. CNet reports that MSN will distribute Garageband.com music. UPDATED: MP3.com redux: All of the free songs acquired when Garageband.com absorbed the defunct site MP3.com will go on MSN […]

Rogue Amoeba's must-have audio tool Audio Hijack lets you record audio from any Mac app; today's 2.2 release adds lots of new features for automatically handling recorded audio. You can now automatically add recorded audio to your iPod, or set a 'stop recording after' option for easy scheduling. The release also features better RealPlayer media […]

Turn your digital radio on for digital music coverage: BIAS' Jason Davies and Micromat's Christian Pickman were guests with our friend Scott Shepard's Inside Mac Radio show this weekend. Davies spoke about BIAS' new SoundSoap 2 audio cleaning product, due out later this month for US$99, while Pickman discussed Micromat's iPod disk utility PodLock. Sam's […]

Legendary plugin developer Bram of Smartelectronix has unveiled Cyanide 2.0, a major update to his audio-shaping / sound-poisoning effect. Improved filters and anti-aliasing make for better sound, there's real visual feedback for the shaper, OS X support has arrived, and much of the effect is MIDI-controllable (hurrah). While you're there, check out some of his […]

First a phonograph maker, now this — a theremin synth/guitar thingy called the ElectroKraft Axe*Synth — this week will set weird sound gadget lovers' hearts a-twitter. The Axe*Synth has to be seen to be appreciated (don't miss the video on the site!): imagine if aliens created an air guitar, and you'll start to get the […]

MOTU heard us: their 828 FireWire interface has been the long-time favorite external interface, but it's more luggable than portable. Today, MOTU has formally announced the Traveler and unveiled specs and availability. The interface is smaller and lighter than MOTU's 20×20 828mkII, at a svelte 3.8 lbs  / 14.75"x9"x1.7" (compared to the 6-lb 19"x7"x1.75" 828mkII). […]

Glaresoft's fun and easy drum machine for the Mac, iDrum, is now available as an RTAS for Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools TDM. iDrum is designed to work as a standalone instrument or as a plug-in. iDrum isn't the most sophisticated drum machine ever, a la Reason, but, well, that's a relief. For elegant, […]

Very Cool Things has a kit for building an Emile Berliner Gramophone knock-off; record audio by etching grooves into any firm surface, from Ramen lids to used CDs. (Wow — finally a use for those lousy promotional CDs I keep getting!) It's imported from Japan but fortunately includes English instructions. The only bad news is […]