Plug-ins are great, and they’re a nightmare. They’re great because you have access to literally tens of thousands of virtual sound making and processing devices, from costly works of art to bizarre free toys. They’re a nightmare because the plug-ins in the latter category — the odd free plug-in you just downloaded — can crash […]

Soundtrack Pro 1.03 finally feels about perfect. The software itself aside, here’s why it matters to me — and why its transition to Intel will be different from its pro brethren. Standalone audio editors can save tremendous amounts of time, preparing samples for instruments, batch processing recordings, fixing problematic audio, and generally letting you focus […]

If you’re an early adopter and bought an Intel iMac or MacBook Pro, and you have “a keen eye and a habit of breaking things,” Propellerhead Software would like to speak to you. They’re beta testing version 3.05 for Intel Macs only, starting some time next week: Reason for Intel Mac You don’t even need […]

A lot of audio interfaces have come and gone here. My favorite remains my trusted MOTU 828. Why? It has rock-solid drivers that have never caused trouble on Mac or PC, and it sounds terrific. Unfortunately, it’s also rather big and heavy as a full rack-space unit. That’s why I’m excited to see MOTU is […]

As great as the potential of advanced touchscreens may be, for music and other media applications, touchscreens aren’t much fun to touch. Close your eyes and remove visual feedback, and you’re basically running your finger along a piece of plastic. (You’d think we could figure out a way to at least texture it without losing […]

As great as the potential of advanced touchscreens may be, for music and other media applications, touchscreens aren’t much fun to touch. Close your eyes and remove visual feedback, and you’re basically running your finger along a piece of plastic. (You’d think we could figure out a way to at least texture it without losing […]

As great as the potential of advanced touchscreens may be, for music and other media applications, touchscreens aren’t much fun to touch. Close your eyes and remove visual feedback, and you’re basically running your finger along a piece of plastic. (You’d think we could figure out a way to at least texture it without losing […]

There was a time when skeptics thought mice would never catch on. “People will never give up their QWERTY keyboards,” they said. They were half right: now we take both for granted. Now, more experiments in multi-touch interfaces are appearing by the day. Aside from mysterious Apple patents, we have, via We Make Money Not […]

Children and young adults were everywhere at the NAMM show. They ranged from musically-inclined tots like the one shown here to teenage musical stars. And in addition to teaching musicianship and musical creativity, there’s a new emphasis on teaching them technology. Here’s a quick look at the latest efforts to bring music to a new […]

In the ongoing quest for sounds from the hearts of space for use as digital music sources, I give you NASA’s SuitSat. The crew of the International Space Station has equipped the Russian Orlan spacesuit with batteries, a radio transmitter, and sensors; it’ll transmit power and temperature info Earthward. To pick it up, you just […]