Linux for music is everywhere, from the power behind the Korg Oasys to new, more usable Linux desktop music software. CDM got a chance to talk to Chris Cannam of Fervent Software, developers of the Linux-based Studio-to-Go. Chris tells us a bit more about Studio-to-Go, as well as more generally the past, present, and future […]

Congratulations to this year's Grammy Winners (listed at soundgenerator.com). It was a banner year for high-profile Mac users from Black Eyed Peas to U2, and the iTunes Music Store is accordingly offering US$7.99 for the winning albums. Digitally-created music wasn't left out, either; traditional rockers dominated most categories but Basement Jaxx, electronic winner, had plenty […]

Dave's Imaginary Sound Space has an incredible compendium of links on the history of speech synthesis, complete with sound files, all the way back 50 years to the Sonovox, connected to a Masters' Thesis by Sami Lemmety. Inspired by Dave's links, CDM has decided to bring you more of the time-sucking power of fascinating speech […]

Antares' wildly popular automatic tuning plugin AutoTune is now available in Audio Unit form, meaning you're no longer reliant on Pro Tools to run it — Logic, DP, GarageBand, Live, etc. are all fair game on the Mac. (Antares has ensured compatibility with Apple's validators.) [via kvraudio] Great news for native audio, etc., etc. (I'm […]

The gang at Music Thing filling in for Tom while he's away have wisely pointed to the trailer for the superb Moog documentary. If you missed this in theaters in the fall, you've got another chance: Plexifilm tells CDM to expect the DVD sometime around May. We'll keep you posted here. And there's a poster […]

Want your notation software's orchestral playback to sound more realistic? The February Keyboard Magazine (US) includes a tutorial (available online) on how to make use of Garritan Personal Orchestra with Sibelius and Finale. The process is a little involved, partly because of the limitations of MIDI itself and the MIDI support built into the notation […]

Long known for its PCI and CardBus audio interfaces, Echo Audio has finally made the leap to FireWire with the AudioFire 8 and 12. Rather than put ourselves to sleep with more specs in this already-crowded category, what makes it cool: Looks: It's really, really pretty in its aluminum case Psychic powers: 2 inputs are […]

Sometimes, it's so nice to put away the blog and read paper. On the South by Southwest Interactive Festival blog, my reading endorsements get to sit next to craiglist founder Craig Newmark and Al Gore speechwriter Dan Pink, as well as my friends Fran Preve (Keyboard) and Chris Breen (Playlist, Macworld). Check it out — […]

As we've reported here before, circuit bender Noah Fleischman is a mad scientist of electronics destruction. We've seen software manglings like the Flash-powered software Speak & Spell, but Noah has continued . . . destroying things . . . from toy keyboards to a device created by grafting a cassette Walkman to a 5.25" floppy […]

Our free studio creation continues, with a terrific subtractive synth for Mac OS X. Generator had humble beginnings as the buggy and limited Buzzer, but the baby grew up. The latest release adds antialiased oscillators, a new filter and modulation engine, and an elegant new GUI. In fact, one advantage of this freeware in the […]