Over a hundred years ago, Thomas Edison first attempted to record sound and moving image in synchronization (a task that still challenges undergrad film students). The results were believed lost for many years, until the sound was recovered on a broken cylinder. Edison’s original experiment actually failed, but in the hands of legendary film and […]

Audacity is a completely free / open source waveform audio editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux, with robust stereo recording and editing, effects support, and basic multichannel features. It’s a great little program getting more and more exposure; M-Audio has even added it to their podcast bundle. But it has a few rough edges, and […]

CDM has a special monthly feature in Computer Music, written by yours truly, “downsampling” the contents of the site into thematic subjects. Online, I’ll monthly post a companion piece full of links — get the coffee! -PK The theme of Downsampled #3 for Computer Music was one dear to my heart: building your own custom […]

Chris O’Shea is back from the ICMC . (That’s the International Computer Music Conference in Barcelona, not to be confused with the International Catholic Migration Commision.) It’s a huge summit for computer music gurus, with an emphasis this year on “free sound,” open source, and plenty of new experimental interfaces. Hope to have more from […]

Okay, Web gurus, weekend bloggers alike — it’s time to band together. Thanks to your support and contributions, I’ve got lots of ideas for where to take this site in the future. Only problem: we could use at least some light Mambo, PHP, and Web expertise to give the sight a new look, easier navigation, […]

The M-Audio MicroTrack portable recorder (prototypes were called FlashTracker) is now official. See the awkward press release (via Harmony Central; as usual M-Audio’s Website is lagging). Who’s writing this stuff? “Leaps in miniaturization technology”? (Sorry, a leap in tech would involve a $99 price.) “One of the secrets to the . . . compact size” […]

The wait’s been years long, but it’s over: SynthEdit is now officially out of beta. (via KVR) This US$50, Windows-only software lets you build your own instruments and effects via a modular environment — nothing new in and of itself, but wildly popular due to its simple design, low price, and easy ability to “save […]

It’s hard to get solid information, but a storm appears to be brewing on KVR Audio. The developer of Wusikstation is allegedly calling it quits — a combination of business and personal reasons, and sales lost to warez. That’s led to an unprecedented solution for some of the users: band together and try to acquire […]

I love synthesis, but there’s something just as appealing about creating sounds from other found sounds — especially if you can make the results unrecognizable. I’ve gradually built a series of tricks using some favorite Mac tools. First, the newcomers: Soundtrack Pro: The newest addition to my arsenal is Apple’s Soundtrack Pro, which arrived here […]

Chris O’Shea points us to Ben Hanbury’s project Recycle TV, which combines an old TV set (well, actually, he substituted a picture of one for ease), a Max/MSP patch, and Eric Singer’s real world-to-MIDI interface, the MidiTron. Via copyrighted and open source clips, you can mix together musical phrases constructed from miliseconds-long clips. The beats […]