There’s now not just one but two drum machines for the Sony PSP handheld game system. The new PSP Rhythm Composer is a simple drum machine with a Roland TR-style interface: PSP Rhythm Composer for PSP [ matrixsynth ] In the meantime, PSP Kick has a new Flash-based Website, though it’s more Flash, less substance. […]

Introducing Downsampled: in conjunction with Computer Music Magazine (UK), CDM will look monthly at an overview of a hot topic on the site. First up: next-generation gaming and music. Here’s a roundup of just some of the relevant stories on CDM. Nintendo markets music-making as game: Start your own Wi-Fi Nintendo Band with the Nintendo […]

There’s plenty of homebrew music software for the Game Boy and GBA (check out LSDJ and Nanoloop), but what about next-gen portables? MusicThing gets the scoop on PSP Kick, a sampled drum machine for PSP. PSP Kick is very simple — it’s just a 12-slot drum sampler with AIFF output — but it sounds like […]

While Apple goes Intel, let’s return to that machine with PowerPC guts — the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s new console has a controversial feature that requires developers to let users replace the game soundtrack with their own custom playlists. Some of you readers say that’s bad for game music, while others are looking forward to turning […]

Graphics, schmaphics. The future of gaming not only looks better — it sounds a lot better, too. Talk to any game composer or sound designer, and you’ll hear a lot of excitement about the amount of creativity they can exert with games. So how does the next generation compare? Amidst all the PS3 vs. Xbox […]

Games Week continues with the introduction of a new regular column by sound designer and game composer W. Brent Latta. First up, Brent introduces game music as an art form and ideas about how to listen to it. It’s fitting that Brent would launch his first column with a tribute to why the NES is […]

[Updated]For really retro chiptune music, you’ll want an original Game Boy. But the new Nintendo Game Boy could be the first since the original to really work well for portable music making: Same guts as the GBA SP, for full backwards compatibility (unlike the DS) — this is a new form factor, not a new […]

Mercurial Innovations Group's STC-1000 is two devices combined in one MIDI unit: it's an X-Y continuous touch controller, and a programmable multi-zone percussion-style MIDI trigger. In other words, you can use it like a sophisticated touchpad for controlling filters and synth parameters, or use its zones as drum/note triggers. Street price US$225. (Why not by […]

The Nintendo madness continues: MIDINES is a cartridge for the 8-bit NES system that allows you to control the NES' internal soundbank via a standard MIDI cable, so you can add your NES to the other gear in your studio. EM411 has a full review.

Nintendo has its own collaborative Wi-Fi Nintendo DS band, and we've seen solo Game Boy artists. But as for the first Game Boy ensemble, that honor appears to belong to the six-member Polish gameboyzz orchestra. (via we make money not art) Their goal is "to create irony in the electronic music scene with our low-tech […]