I'm just back from my 14^th trip to Texas to participate in one of the Fat Man's amazing digital media conferences. This one was called Project Horseshoe, and dedicated to "solving game design's toughest problems." If history holds, this improbable but beloved conference will have far-reaching results.

For anyone immersed in the digital music space, the past couple of weeks have brought some shifts that are reasonably seismic in nature relative to the shifting balance of power from record labels to artists. Here's a summary of some the most recent (and significant) activities to highlight what's going on: Oct 1st -- Radiohead upsets the apple cart by...

Man, I wish I hadn't just snapped the mic off my pocket voice recorder. Today I got a hilarious call from a robotic telemarketer. Apparently hoping to add impact, the programmer set its speech synth to use a British accent. The greeting went something like this: Hello David. This is Ian from the university. If there's one thing holding you...

We were impressed with Edirol's R-09 handheld digital recorder when we reviewed it, and thanks to a free firmware update, it just got better. OS 1.30 adds support for 8GB SDHC memory cards, which by my quick calculation should boost the recording capacity to eight hours in 24-bit, 44.1kHz WAV format or more than 132 hours in 128kbps MP3. The...

There are two things that are really exciting me today. One: Game Development as an academic pursuit is finally being taken seriously. That means Game Audio is going to get a big boost in the halls of music departments and post-production programs across the campuses of the world. The vast amounts of dialogue recording sessions, multiple versions of music cues,...

At last week's Apple Expo Paris, music technology was pushed into a corner, and quite literally so! In the West corner of the expo hall, French music technology reseller, univers-sons.com, presented the "Music Performance" booth. Demoed by competent and friendly staff, visitors could take a close look at the latest products from major players in the industry like Steinberg, Mark...

Just a quick message to capture my enthusiasm for this new version of the Vocalist Live stomp box. I got mine today, and I feel like I've been given a gift that I've been longing for my whole musical life......

Darwin Chamber, whose "3D" soundscapes I recommended last year (see interview), is back with a new Halloween underscore. I just received his new album 3D Halloween Sound FX (Collectors' Edition) via iTunes gift certificate, which is a cool way to do promotion. (Now if only the e-mail were accompanied by the sound of the mail cart that used to set...

When I recently reviewed Sequel, Steinberg's entry-level music production software, I was seriously impressed by the quality of the musical content that ships with it. If you wish to try out Sequel yourself, you can do so now, as Steinberg is offering a downloadable trial version of the software. For obvious reasons, the trial version offers only a limited subset...

I'd like to officially announce my newest podcasting endeavor: The Puzzle Podcast. I'm co-hosting this short weekly show of brainteasers with David Leschinsky, the owner of Eureka Puzzles, a popular puzzle and game store in Brookline, Massachusetts. David is the show's "Puzzle Guy," while I'm the rube that has to answer the questions. The premise is simple: we pick a...