I frequently moderate panel sessions at digital music/media industry conferences. Many are regular annual (or semi-annual) events that have been going on for years. Every once in awhile, a new one pops onto the horizon. One such event is Play Digital, a one-day conference held at UC Berkeley (this year on SAT October 27th), focused on uniting forward-thinkers in digital...

Just in time for annual Talk Like a Pirate Day, I got this disturbing note from someone who read my "How to Stop Music Piracy" blog: I recently found an area manager of a store selling illegally produced CDs, mostly dance club mixes by Hex Hector and people like that. He offered ten songs per CD. He makes a...

A mysterious email arrived the other night. It said, "Please find enclosed two pictures of Midi Controllers. Do you know the make and model of this two units?" The top one looks like a commercial product; the bottom one looks more homemade, but I could be wrong. Any guesses? Please leave a link. I'm off to browse Analogue Haven....

The "Kings of Karaoke" Back in the early days of music technology, there came to pass the big divide between “fresh” live music and “canned” music. Of course what we are talking about is recorded music, which has been elevated to such a fine art in these digital days.  But the big divide still exists as to the difference...

At first blush, it may seem odd to learn that National Geographic is making a respectable push into music-related initiatives (as outlined in Digital Music News in early August). With the launch of a new division last summer focused on digital music, National Geographic Music and Radio, the goal is to "engage listeners with great talk and sound, and also...

Fourteen minutes into last week's Digital Media Insider podcast, "Secrets of the Demo Gods," I asked longtime reviewer Mark Nelson if any recent music-making gear had surprised him. Mark started praising the M-Audio Black Box, a digital guitar effect co-designed by Roger Linn, the drum-machine pioneer (and a fine guitarist himself). "It was just...inspiring. Amazing stuff would happen," Mark enthused....

In several discussions and talks with multimedia audio specialists, game composers, music technologists and the like… one of the startling conclusions that many have come to is that “game audio” is over. (!) Not to say that it no longer exists, or that all there is to listen to has been written; the general consensus was that we cannot...

Seasoned recording engineers often audition their mixes in mono to check for phasing problems that might occur on the mono speakers in TVs and PA systems. Collapsing a stereo signal to mono also gives you another perspective on how well sounds are blending. But because I run audio straight out of my computer into powered speakers or headphones, I've never...

Two weeks ago, Apple introduced iLife '08, the latest version of their multimedia software bundle - and that means a new version of the impressive GarageBand audio software. Of course, impressive is a strong term, but I would definitely apply it to a piece of software that gives you powerful and easy-to-use recording, mixing, and editing tools as one fifth...

It's the summer of 2007 and it's a bit daunting to pick a point in time to think back on. Where to begin a recap of my exposure to what had been referred to as multimedia? In particular, how did I get here from my original intent of being an electronic music composer? From the start, all things electronic were...