Mac Shareware Gifts: Great, Giftable Music Apps

Having trouble keeping track of your song set? Minim might help. MacSanta has been making the Mac blog rounds by offering 20% off Mac shareware gems for the holidays. Look closely, and you’ll see a number of nice Mac music tools: Rogue Amoeba Audio Hijack Pro: At first, you might think this app is just […]

Vista and Music App Compatibility: Reason, ReCycle, REX, ReWire

All the major music software developers I’ve talked to have begun testing Vista, but Propellerheads has decided to go out on a limb and be the first to declare it “Works with Vista”, slapping on Microsoft’s official “approved” label: Propellerhead Software Vista Compatibility The flagship Reason, the original loop splicer-dicer app ReCycle, and the sample […]

Stripped-Down, Bootable Linux OS for Visual Performance, Installation?

pure:dyne is a new free, open source, Linux-based, bootable, low-latency, high-performance operating system with Pure Data (Pd) as its main emphasis. Pop a CD, USB key, or bootable hard drive into your PC or Intel Mac, and you’re ready to go. pure:dyne, the Art + Music Performance OS for PCs and Intel Macs [Create Digital […]

Adobe Soundbooth Beta 2: Now Easier, More Photoshop-y

Can sound editing be as intuitive as graphics editing in Photoshop? That’s the question Soundbooth, the new Adobe sound app, poses. Waiter! There’s a lasso tool in my audio editor! I’ll give Adobe this: they know their audience. First, they woo audio fans with this sweet-sounding phrase: “A brand new audio application in the spirit […]

pure:dyne, the Art + Music Performance OS for PCs and Intel Macs

If you’re into hard-core patching of custom live visuals and music, you now have a dedicated Linux-based OS you can run with all the tools you need — free. Ever wish you could leave your general-purpose operating system behind and boot into a pristine, low-latency, high-performance OS built for playing visuals and sound live? That’s […]

Moog News: Little Phatty Stage Edition and Weird (Unofficial) Ads

Moog unveils the limited edition Tribute’s successor. It’s the last call on the Moog Little Phatty Tribute Edition, the beautiful limited edition release of Moog Music’s latest synth. Moog Music president Mike Adams says, “We are completely sold out and my understanding is that only a few dealers have the Tribute Editions available.” I’m not […]

After Effects Expressions Blog: Want Some Programming With That Motion Design?

I’m always amazed when I meet After Effects users who don’t know about or utilize expressions. I’m no scripting guru, but the few expression tricks I know get used constantly. A couple of simple expressions are extremely useful for visualists, allowing you to quickly pump out incremental clips by just changing slider values. The creatively […]

Enough with Smart-Mouthed Mac Advocates on Vista! What We Really Want to Know…

I can’t take it any more. In one corner, we have PC pundits negatively reviewing Apple’s possibly-upcoming iPhone weeks before it’s announced — reviewing a product they know nothing about that may not even exist. (Incidentally, Microsoft’s new MadeUp Pro 2007 Edition — total crap. So is the new Imaginesoft NeverNeverLand iMadeUp Express.) And in […]

Gift Idea: $30 mi Jam Toy Scratch Mixer, Toy Interactive Sound Sculpture Beg to Be Abused

The problem with iPod DJ mixers? They’re generally pointless toys that are a poor substitute for real DJ gear. The wonderful thing about iPod DJ mixers that actually are intended as pointless toys that are a poor substitute for real DJ gear? For only US$30 or so (check Froogle for some last-minute deals), you can […]