If you haven’t been paying much attention to the leading open source DAW, Ardour, now might be a good time to start. Not only is this software fully open source and freely available for Mac OS X and Linux, but as it nears a major upgrade, it’s getting some significant feature support — and the […]

The One Laptop Per Child initiative, aka “that $100 laptop” though it will initially cost more like $140, just got its first leg up. Nigeria has ordered one million of the custom Linux laptops. Now the big challenge will be whether the OLPC developers can deliver the machines on-budget and on time, given its wildly […]

Whether you’re composing for real orchestrations, scoring films or games, teaching, or just learning more about how the orchestra works, there’s never a time when you stop learning about orchestration. That’s why a new free, online version of a classic Russian orchestration guide, complete with new interactive examples, is good news. Sample designers Garritan Library, […]

From South by Southwest comes an interesting chat with DIY synth x0xb0x (and MIDIsense) creator Limor Fried: Open Source Physical Objects: Limor Fried and her x0xb0x Synthesizer As someone in comments notes, the idea of selling DIY kits for devices like synthesizers is an old one. But that idea has fallen by the wayside in […]

The 3D cards that power games are increasingly enabling new interfaces for music, merging the visual and aural realms. One of the most stunning experiments yet is the Fijuu, which just premiered in its second-generation form as a commission for Cybersonica sound art show in London. (Earlier versions have been seen around since 2004.) Fijuu […]

It’s got an incredibly ugly interface, and it ain’t Native Instruments FM7 by any stretch, but CuteVST has two things going for it: first, it’s an FM synth that’s open source, and second, it imports Yamaha DX7 sysex data. So think of the ugly interface as geek cred. It’s the real deal: classic 6-operator synthesis, […]

Chris at Pixelsumo points out that tonight on Resonance FM, London’s 24-hour art radio station, OpenLab is hosting a program on using free and open source software tools for music. Sounds like chat, discussion, and some live sets. 7 PM London time, but of course they’ve got MP3 and Real Audio streams, too, because the […]

Deja vu, anyone? The same day that plasq has released their solution for sending audio over a network, Wormhole2, the new Tiger-ready version of Jack is out. Unlike Wormhole, Jack is Open Source, though it’s also Mac- (and Linux-) only; no Windows. Mac users, you don’t have to choose between the two: Jack is great […]

Here’s even more open source code for creating new sound interfaces using free-moving blocks for control. We looked at Sonicforms, which is both intended as a project and a repository for information. Chris’ project uses a projector aimed at a tabletop for additional feedback, and IR lights for sensing. That adds cost to the system […]

“This new media stuff is great, but it’s like it’s never developed very far. It’s like it’s technology for its own sake. How do you make music?” How many times have you heard that? One of the major causes of the “technology for its own sake syndrome” is simple: smart people are spending so much […]