Sibelius 5’s Ideas Pad aims to change the way you track thoughts and compose in your notation software. Or you can cut and paste from its presets, bringing “presets” to scoring for the first time. Hopefully you’ll err on the side of original ideas, but the next time Don Music can’t think of a cadence […]

Photo courtesy Richard Lainhart and his dream studio. Electronic musicians are used to getting their gear on the cheap, and there’s something beautiful about that. But that doesn’t take away from some of the short-run, brilliant instruments out there. Topping the list: Buchla’s 200e, which continues the stories tradition of the Buchla modular synths, and […]

Yes, the Theremin can sound bluesy. In case you haven’t seen this, here’s a wonderfully-done rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, on Moog Etherwave Pro (recently discontinued, sadly, though maybe it’ll come back in some form), iZotope Trash for effects, Akai MPC1000, Moog Minimoog Voyager, and … actually, not sure about the keyboard. Got distracted by […]

No one uses Java any more, eh, Steve Jobs? Why, we use Java for … you know … useful stuff. Work stuff. (Shown: Snake on a Plane, built in Mobile Processing.) All rational arguments for development on mobile phones aside, some phone owners are driven by the irrational, purely personal need to tap into their […]

Apple made a controversial announcement at the World Wide Developers’ Conference, which went something like this: “We’ve got a new, innovative way of giving you developer access to our phone: we’re not.” (I’m paraphrasing; see the full quote below.) In less than 24 hours, this has devolved into an online debate between defensive “traditional” developers […]

Hello Internets! I’ve returned from gallivanting around the country and have a couple of weeks while we refuel and plan the next leg of the tour. One of the first tasks I’ve set myself is to get a better video camera, and was all set to pick up a Canon XH-A1 when I found out […]

UPDATED: That’s it, folks; this giveaway is done. We’ll have winners, some overall stats on who our readers are, and some of our favorite websites from around the world soon! For starters: Here are the winners If you’ve been waiting to enter the CDM Giveaway, this is your last chance: entries are closed as of […]

In a little while, Steve Jobs will be keynoting Apple’s developer conference. I doubt that anyone will be thinking about audio drivers. So in the remaining moments to do that, let’s go — because 10.5 looks like it’s yet another release from Apple that takes music production seriously. Most of us didn’t expect any major […]

Ardour running on Ubuntu Linux naysayers get mighty grumpy about all the Ubuntu hype. I can certainly imagine some Ubuntu fatigue, but Ubuntu is actually gaining some real traction in a way that previous attempts to be a “Linux for the rest of us” have not. For that reason, it’s significant that there’s an Ubuntu […]

We first heard about the Mawzer modular control surface over two years ago. In CDM time, that’s like the Bronze Age. The idea was appealing enough: assemble controller layouts by plugging in different modules in whatever combination you like, Lego-style. (See below for someone using actual Legos; that’s another story.) Building specialized music hardware from […]