64-bit Rack-mounted Music PC

Coyote R&D now has a 64-bit version of their 2-space, rack-mountable Two-Can PC. But what makes it really cool: Liquid-cooled (see image) 256 MIDI ports per machine with other PCs and Macs (OS 9/X), delivered over Ethernet 3700+ CPU speeds, up to 800 GB RAID-array storage Preinstalled options: Kontakt, GigaStudio, V-Stack Yep, that's a server-class […]

New Traktor DJ: FS2, Internet, Live Ins, Recording, OGG

When is a 2.6 release more like 3? When it comes from Native Instruments. Get a load of what's new in Traktor DJ Studio 2.6: Final Scratch 2 compatibility: Take advantage of Stanton's latest vinyl interface, complete with FireWire audio, HD sound, new hardware features — oh, just check out that, too. Broadcast live on […]

Film Review: David Holmes, Code 46

British sci-fi drama Code 46 has hit video shelves, and if you missed it on its first go-around, you'll want to pick it up if only for the score by DJ and composer David Holmes (aka Free Association, with Steve Hilton). With chilly but beautiful guitar textures droning over the supressed agony of the film's […]

Digidesign Ships Venue Live Digital Console

Won the lottery recently? Digidesign is shipping its US$55,000 digital console for live sound, the Venue — we've been seeing it since the fall, but now you can actually buy one, provided you have the dough. The Venue is something of a departure for Digi: it's not Pro Tools; while it supports TDM plugins software […]

Hamsters Play MIDI Music

Oh, sure. You're jaded. You're not even impressed by the sheer bizarreness of a MIDI sequencer run entirely by hamsters. But look closer: to make the music sound as musical as this, Cornell student Levy Lorenzo designed a sophisticated set of algorithms governing rhythmic durations and note choice, so this is really a generative algorithmic […]

USB 2.0 iPod Panic: Overblown

Mac users have been having fits about the unbundling of FireWire cables from this week's new iPods. Even CDM contributor Jason O'Grady says this is a sign of Apple abandoning Mac users. Um, huh? Sorry, but this is pure cost-cutting, nothing else, and streamlined costs have been part of iPod's explosive success. Apple doubled its […]

Video Sharing; Best Media CMS?

Video has come to blogging / media sharing, via vimeo — think flickr for photos. (The name embeds the word 'me' in the word 'video' for word geeks.) The most interesting feature is the service's ability to combine video clips into a single stream. It's blog TV. You can't upload yet as the site is […]

Wireless MIDI: MIDIjet Pro

You know you just can't be restricted by wires when you're jamming on your keytar. Now there's a solution: Classic MIDI Works' MIDIjet Pro not only does wireless, but gives you a full 500-ft. range running on just 2 AA batteries. (Non-pro MIDIjet gives you fifty feet.) It works via 2.4GHz range with low latency. […]

More Unreal “Game” Performances

Reader Andrew Barton sends us details of his own video/audio performances making use of the Unreal game engine: check out the Son of Science ensemble and Floating Point performance. Floating point lets 'players' move around game objects to produce sound. (Boy, I'd really like to see this with the physics in Half-Life 2.) How can […]

Mics for DJs and the Closet Trick

There's nothing I hate more than wading through industry hype, so what a pleasant surprise that Shure microphones has some of the most useful mic info anywhere — minimal marketing included. This week, Shure brings us "What DJs should know about microphones," a textbook-classic but friendly look at mics annotated by the Needelz Brothers. Nice […]