Todd "Mobile Views" Ogasawara just tipped me off to Hobnox Audiotool, a free electronic music studio that runs online in Flash. My first thought was that it looked like Propellerhead ReBirth reborn in a Web browser. But Audiotool points the way to an interesting musical future. Hobnox Audiotool is an online electronic music studio based on emulations of Roland TR-808,...

Whoa. I typed Command-Option-Control-8 and my Mac's screen inverted. The inverted image didn't persist in the screenshot I took, so I had to invert it manually to produce this image, but this could be a timesaver. What wacky key commands have you discovered?...

The third annual Bay Area Maker Faire is this weekend, and looks to be a truly inspiring event. Maker Faire combines art, science, recycling, and entertainment in a hands-on setting that celebrates the inventive spirit. I was there last night for a pre-show gathering of exhibitors (my family and I will be performing our homemade Japanese storycard dramas throughout the...

Imagine what creative developers could do if Flash could transmit and respond gracefully to MIDI. Now an online petition is urging Adobe to do something about that.

The new TechSmith Jing screen-capture program is mighty slick — almost like Plasq Skitch with video. I've only begun to explore Jing, but even the installer impressed me. You can drag the app directly to an alias of your startup drive or double-click an AppleScript installer that moves the file for you and then ejects the disk image. It...

Art is disruptive.
Computers, strong but stubborn.
Let's show them who's boss.

It was late. Too late to record an acoustic flute to kick off a CD I was shipping in the morning. So I downloaded Kong Audio's free flute VSTi, tapped out a few notes, and hit sonic gold.

Everyone has a song inside. On March 22 and 24, Apple Stores around the country will show you how to get it out of your head and into an MP3 you can submit to American Idol. Apple promises, You don't have to know how to play an instrument, write a song, or even sing in tune. With GarageBand and...

I wonder if my Mac can read my mind. It often crashes late at night when it's time for both of us to go to sleep. Last night, it crashed just as I hit Command-S to save a big project I'd been working on. But this time, it wouldn't reboot. I popped in the usually miraculous DiskWarrior CD, booted from...

I got an interesting question from a student recently. She'd read my article about making surround-sound DVDs at home and wondered about one step, which apparently required the high-end BIAS Peak audio editor. I gave her this recipe, which should work in many programs.