Cakewalk, one of the first music software manufacturers to achieve Windows Vista compatibility, just launched a musicians' resource site for the new OS. It explains the musical benefits, lists audio gear with Vista drivers, and features links to other sites with Vista music information. Speaking of which, be sure to check out O'Reilly's Vista site as well, where you'll find...

One of my clients, PassAlong Networks, offers a very robust platform for independent artists called Speakerheart. PassAlong is all about creating new digital media services that empower the connection between artists and their fans (can you tell why they're a client of mine? ;) ). While the major labels are working to figure out what comes next in their evolution,...

I made up this little chart to keep track of the various makers of modular/patchable analog synths (including modules,kits, PCBs and virtual synths) outside America, especially here in Australia. Pin matrixes are definitely a British/Australian phenomenon. ....

In the early '00s I had a company that developed P2P streaming software that powered Internet radio broadcasts. At that time, there was a big risk that Internet radio would get shut down. It didn't - but it was burdened with regulations that made it pay MORE fees than terrestrial or satellite radio. (Net radio has to pay composer...

If you haven't heard, Paul Davis and friends have just released the second version of Ardour - a free open-source multitrack recorder for Linux and now for OSX. The intro on the site gives a good summary: "Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-destructive editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a powerful mixer, unlimited tracks/busses/plugins, timecode synchronization, and hardware control...

In retrospect, it was so easy. Last week I got a mysterious e-mail saying, Our host just had a birthday (perhaps a BIG one, I'm not sure) and was "lamenting" according to [his wife], that there was no celebration. She asked us not to bring gifts, but Chris and I have an idea: when we all sing him the surprise...

Hello everyone! I'm new here, and I've decided to introduce myself by asking a pretty divisive question: How much does fancy gear really do for you?

Having finally recuperated from last month's visit to Musikmesse, I have created a Flickr set with more photos from the event, complementing the impressions from our Messe Report. Searching Flickr for the "Musikmesse 2007" tag will find many more photos from Frankfurt, providing you with quite a much broader view than my admittedly keyboard-centric perspective. Enjoy!...

O'Reilly recently snuck a wacky speech synthesizer into our blogs: Clicking the "listen" link above will play back these words with a robotic voice. As a speech synth enthusiast, I immediately started looking for phrases that would produce funny rhythms. I found the first in Peter Drescher's recent blog about the Game Developers Conference: I love the Game Developer's Conference!...

In the intro to my last podcast, I listed six popular songs that use the notorious E-mu Emulator II shakuhachi sound. For fun, here are two I couldn't fit into the show itself. Tangerine Dream: Yellowstone Park (540KB MP3) Sade: Stronger Than Pride (432KB MP3) Coincidentally, I came across a bucket of real shakuhachis last week at a camping lodge....