What does a hardware synth have to do to compete with software these days? How about offer the same fantastic virtual analog sound for about the same price, for starters? The Alesis Micron is the kid brother to the Alesis Ion synth, with the exact same 8-voice, 4-part multitimbral VA engine. Each voice has 3 […]

Post Musical Instruments has won acclaim for its piano sampling banks; now US$55 buys you iPianos '05, five of its piano samples for use in Apple's GarageBand and Logic (Express and Pro) — a major upgrade from the instrument that comes in the box. That's PMI's Bosendorfer 290, Yamaha C7, Steinway D and the EMPEROR […]

Our coverage of the new Creamware Moog/Prophecy-5 hardware continues with a look at the previous Creamware offering . . . You thought all hardware was going to be transitioning to software plug-in? Think again. By using hardware DSP chips, Creamware has been able to create perfect emulations of original Minimoog and Prophet-5 hardware. The original […]

This isn't just a reverb plug-in. This is a hugely tricked-out ultimate convolution reverb with all the stops pulled. Altiverb first popularized the use of sampled spaces for software reverbs via a digital technique called convolution. As I reported here, Altiverb 5 brings plenty of new features, including new controls for where your audio is […]

Ableton Live is a brilliant piece of software, but aside from some great presets in the new Operator synth (sold separately), you'll find yourself very quickly starved for some usable effects presets, drum kits, instruments, and the like. (Oh, I know, SOME of you are synthesizing that using hand-built oscillators, but come on, haven't you […]

In support of his new CD, "Hotel", Moby gave an exclusive Q&A session for Winter Music Conference attendees. From his new album and musical tour, to his appearance on NBC's The Apprentice, Moby has been all over the place and in the musical limelight. It was a great opportunity to see Moby up close and […]

Well, it's another gripping poll going here at CDM headquarters. Here are the stats so far: Guitars are beating keyboards, 46% to 35%. None of you plays the kazoo as your primary instrument. This site has 26 readers. (meaning, based on our server logs, a sampler error margin of about 5,000%) Now, obviously, none of […]

Behind the scenes: Before the Moog analog synth allowed patching together music with knobs and telephone switchboard cables, Delia Derbyshire (shown) and assistant Dick Mills started with a simple score by Ron Grainer and pieced together one of the most recognizable TV tunes of all time using individual sound modules, razor blades, an enormous amount […]

If you're lucky, your portable audio player has some lousy recording capabilities. Or it may have none at all. So many people resort to MiniDisc recorders, which are decent, but employ lossy compression — and do you really want to be swapping tapes and manually copying to your computer in the year 2005? Edirol's R1 […]

Finally — a boatload of free stuff arrives on a Friday so I can alliterate my roundup. Simple pleasures. First, the Windows edition: Free mono synth with lots of routing: Club CC4 has released their Ridiculously Red monophonic hybrid instrument, which has a Ridiculously Butt-ugly interface but "experimental semi-modular routing" and lots of routing and […]