Ed. For this guest review, we welcome artist and musician christian.ryan. What started as a simple review of the Mimo UM-710 7″ USB LCD monitor becomes a reflection on deeper issues of how the design of objects can impact workflow. By the end of his usage journal, I come away with a sense that user […]

Photo (CC) Jay Vidheecharoen. The KORG nanoSERIES has a rabid following among many Ableton Live users, and with good reason. The nanoPAD and nanoKONTROL street for about US$60, provide basic knobs + faders + transport (KONTROL) and pads and X/Y control (PAD), plus a fully-featured, cross-platform editor, but still fit in a backpack. They’re small […]

A handsome shot of the Korg nanoSERIES pad and controller makes them look pricier than they are. Photo (CC) Jay Vidheecharoen. When software has “Live” as its name, you know control will be everything. So it’s great that many control surfaces will behave intelligently out of the box with Ableton Live, including devices like the […]

Still evaluating Live 8 – or want to learn more about how to use it? You can now read my review of Ableton Live 8 free on Keyboard Magazine’s site: Ableton Live 8 Review [Keyboard Magazine] See also (via comments) Nick Rothwell’s review for Sound on Sound June [subscription or US$1.49 fee required] Keyboard doesn’t […]

Photo (CC) s8, as seen on the CDM Flickr Pool. As I’m going through all the responses for the Propellerhead Record beta, I couldn’t help but notice this image, taken in Lima, Peru this month. Sure, you can claim that Propellerhead’s software looks too much like analog gear, that racking up lots of instruments and […]

Given the passion of the debate, it’s easy to forget that Propellerheads’ Record has been firing up discussion from many people who haven’t actually seen it. Record is to audio recording, mixing, and mastering what Reason is to synthesized sound, and for Reason lovers, it finally delivers that holy grail – multiple racks. Record is […]

Merce Cunningham has died at 90, having continued to work on innovative new choreography and digital choreography as recently as this year. His age makes that loss no less difficult artistically, and many of us are deeply indebted to his singular sense of time, as I discuss alongside electronic music connections on CDMusic. But he […]

Our friend Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing has had a sit-down with the folks from Apple to talk about the new Final Cut Studio, along with other videobloggers and Web producers. Yep, Apple is happily aware that video production isn’t only limited to big production houses. Xeni has a nice overview of the highlights to […]

If you’re looking for something fun to fiddle around with this weekend, this could be your ticket: we’re tipped off that iZotope have released a video game-themed expansion for their iPhone-iPod touch drum machine. As Timbaland would surely say, were he asked: T: It’s from a video game, idiot! [laughs] P: [laughs] T: Freaking jerk. […]

Pezzner plays the Savoy Room at MUTEK. Photo (CC) basic_sounds. Remix contests are all the rage lately, but quality is another thing altogether. I’m happy CDM is involved in a new contest with Dancetracks, however, because the ingredients of a contest that’s worth your time all all there. First off, Seattle-based [Dave] Pezzner on freefrange […]