Drums are a very important component of today's sound, and since they are also famously very difficult to record for the average home studio guy, many musicians prefer to use a drum machine, or drum samples within their audio/MIDI sequencers. Dedicated hardware drum machines are still being produced by several manufacturers, and the same goes for software: examples include ReDrum...

This is serendipitous: While searching for information on the history of GarageBand, I entered Acid/GarageBand programmer Chris Moulios’ name and found this intriguing patent application. Called “Method and Apparatus for Expanding Audio Data,” it offers a peek inside the conceptual process of warping audio: One method relies on crossfading pairs of segments of audio data while running one segment backward...

MicrosoftWatch.com reports: Microsoft is still pushing full-steam-ahead with a music-making program, code-named "Monaco," according to Microsoft partners who requested anonymity. Monaco would be very similar to Apple's GarageBand application, but would be optimized to take advantage of Windows Vista and the Aero user interface. The article doesn’t explain how Areo would benefit music; I’m guessing musicians will actually get better...

This is so cool. Back in 1995, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article for Keyboard magazine’s 20th anniversary issue called “20 Sounds That Must Die!” In it, I listed synthesizer presets that had been way overused in pop music, and added snarky comments. James Brown vocalizations and synthetic pan flute, two of the Top 20 overused sounds of 1995. Several readers...

The last time I started a blog with a quote from music technology guru Jim Aikin, it provoked an erudite uproar, which taught me a lot. So in honor of Jim’s latest feature for O’Reilly Digital Media, I thought I’d whack that beehive once more. Jim covers the Korg MS2000B and many more voice-twisting technologies in his article “How to...

As someone who has been in the digital media space for nearly two decades now (mostly focused on the music side, but really immersed in all facets of it), it's interesting to observe what goes on at some of the industry conferences -- where all of us at the convergence of entertainment and technology gather. One such gathering, Digital Hollywood...

My response to David Battino's post on dealing with USB dongles: Yeah! I suggest they stop using dongles! Seriously, I don't understand the recent resurgence of copy-protection dongles. While the nominal reason is to prevent copies, I feel that what dongles do is prevent many potential users from evaluating and purchasing the program. Let's face it: Not everyone can afford...

As I receive more high-end audio software for review, the copy-protection dongles have been multiplying annoyingly. Swapping them in and out as I launched various programs and plug-ins was becoming a hassle. In one case, a program crashed the computer when I inadvertently quit it while its dongle was unplugged. Thanks to a tiny USB hub I picked up at...

I've been listening to Moments From This Theater: Live, a wonderful album by the great Memphis/Muscle Shoals songwriters Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. It's just the two of them, accompanying themselves on acoustic guitar and electric piano, recorded at 1998 shows in Ireland and England. They play classics including "Dark End Of The Street", "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man",...

GDC, formerly known as the Computer Game Developers Conference, starts in earnest today, and there are scads of audio presentations. Although I’m not a gamer, I always come away from the conference with fascinating insights on the differences between “linear” and interactive music. For instance, in a game, the composer is often more akin to a sculptor than a painter,...