Massive Attack today pointed their email list to demonstrations protesting a renewed nuclear defense system in the UK. What’s unique about this particular movement is the number of high-profile British musicians expressing their position, including Thom Yorke, Damon Albarn, Ian Brown, Jarvis Cocker, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and Razorlight: Thom Yorke, Damon Albarn, Massive Attack, […]

For those of you who missed the fireworks, Native Instruments recently left its partner Stanton Magnetics (makers of Final Scratch) to pursue its own DJ strategy, which it unveiled at NAMM as (coincidentally named, I’m sure) Traktor Scratch. As with any breakup, that raised questions about support. Here’s where the first bad news hits: the […]

Okay, first imagine that you can control drums with sound. Not a new idea; audio-driven software has been around for a while. Now imagine that the software is intelligent enough to learn from the sound input it hears. Bang a desk, clap your hands, hit your head against the wall, slap someone you don’t like […]

We’ve talked a lot on CDM about the future of instrument design. Here’s one for you. It’s entirely wireless. It’s touchless, but it uses sophisticated gesture tracking to translate motions into sound. Incredibly, it’s able to track the exact position of your body, wherever you are. It requires no electricity. No matter your skill level […]

For those with hard drives stuffed full with samples, soundware, audio clips, field recordings, and whatnot, the Mac-only AudioFinder has long been a gem. But Mac users are likely all addicted to the preview pane in Finder. What if an application could fully integrate audio extras with the file system? Audio Ease showed off just […]

Echo are the maker of quite affordable, nice audio interfaces; they’re perhaps best known for their ultra-compact PC Card (CardBus) interfaces and, before that, PCI-based interfaces. They’ve gotten into FireWire, but initially in the 10×10 and 12×12 configurations, where there’s plenty of competition. There are far fewer FireWire interfaces that are smaller and less expensive, […]

I am currently in the midst of an awesome toys storm! This week has seen the arrival of a Macbook, Crumpler Backpack and I just picked up my M3 DS Simply from the post office. With a Numark AVM02 arriving tomorrow, I’m worried that I’ll become paralysed by the sheer weight of cool techy stuff. […]

“I would rather have a robot singing our songs than myself.” So explains the lead singer vocoder user for the electro-rock band Shout Out Out Out Out on a new feature on CBC Radio 3. The new program takes on gadget love among musicians. “Our resident gear-freak Tariq Hussain gets the skinny on some of […]

There are two basic ways to approach computer music making: work with a system that’s already built for you (think traditional sequencers), or build your own, modular, unique way of working. Both approaches can be valid, but for a small but dedicated band of hard-core computer musicians, only the latter will do. The Buzz project […]

Music tech gear rarely surfaces in the mainstream. I never saw a Roland Juno and Cubase on Seinfeld. The Hercules DJ Controller did make it onto a recent episode of “24”, however, says CDM reader DJ Klachik: I was just watching the 5th season of “24” on DVD, and in chapter 21, I saw this […]