It’s easy to miss stories among the various cool distractions on Matrixsynth, like videos of synth pioneers Laurie Spiegel and Suzanne Ciani. So, I can’t help but point to Matrix’s extended review of my book, along with some words from me about why I wrote it, even though self-promotion makes me feel funny. Why? Because […]

Max/MSP and Xcode, correction: Okay, while it might be handy to have a copy of CodeWarrior around, I’m happy to say I was wrong about developing externals. Despite what the PDF documentation says in the Max/MSP SDK, you can now develop Mac externals using Xcode. Check out the new documentation, posted by David Zicarelli. I’ll […]

Congratulations, digital musicians: you’re on the cutting edge. Your needs for performance, quiet, power-efficient systems, and reliability are well beyond the average PC user. For that reason, I asked custom audio PC maker Rain Recording for some thoughts on the new Intel Core architecture announced last week (which is also relevant to Mac users — […]

Did you opt for a laptop over a tablet when you bought your latest mobile PC? You can’t really be blamed. Tablets tend to offer less performance for the money, and hit the middle or worse overall on key audio benchmarks like processor speed, hard disk, and I/O. But you’ve also missed out: unlike a […]

Solving a problem none of us knew existed, Motorola has patented a method for entering notes into a cellphone via an “intuitive” method that emulates frets. Pay close attention, and see if you can make sense of this: . . . an input specifying a root note (FIG. 2) indicating a position on a neck […]

Apple continues to replace their products’ CPUs with new Intel processors, today unveiling Mac minis powered by the Intel Core Solo and Core Duo. (See product page, full specs from Apple.) Especially given the price, these look like they’ll be great machines for music production, at least once the software catches up. You won’t want […]

Being an electronic musician is doubly challenging — on top of learning musical skills, the technology is basically an instrument to be learned. Regular CDM tipster Michael Weeks has put together what has to be the most condensed guide to synthesizer programming I’ve ever seen. Beginners, if you aren’t quite ready to dive into a […]

It’s been a long, long time coming: AudioMulch has finally gone from “preview” to 1.0. That means a strong new candidate for your modular sound-making brainwaves might be ready for prime time. (And check out that “meta surface” interface, pictured!)

Looking for new wisdom and expertise on tools like the insanely deep Max/MSP/Jitter? (If you’re using Max, signs point to yes.) Cycling ’74 relaunched their site a couple of weeks ago, incorporating a variety of features that make this an indispensible resource for users of Max and other products. Since late last month, the new […]

I’ve been confused by a feature Gibson is touting on its new Digital Guitar: the ability to route each individual string to a separate surround speaker. Sounds a little like a nightmare surround mix to me. Leave it to the work of an interactive artist to “reinvent the guitar” in the reverse direction: who needs […]