Computer Music

Music-production software, an audio-editing suite, and an audio interface come together in Steinberg's new hardware / software bundle, the CI2+ Production Kit. In the kit, you'll get the CI2+ interface, Cubase AI 6, and WaveLab LE 7.  

Even more portable and compact than a laptop, the CyberStep KDJ-ONE is a DAW touchscreen smartbook featuring a synthesizer, sequencer, and multitrack audio editing tools, multi-touch screen, keypad, jog dial, and more.  

Patrick Postlewait admits that his Hartke HA3000 is not his dream amp. But for the price? It does sound like a dream. It is also versatile enough for a bassist who careens between straight up alterno-pop and hip hop.  

Get in the Fast Track recording lane with Avid Recording Studio, a new pack offering the M-Audio Fast Track audio interface and Avid Pro Tools SE music creation software.  

Make music with M-Audio Avid KeyStudio, a hardware and software pack that includes the 49-note, Velocity-sensitive M-Audio KeyStudio keyboard and Avid Pro Tools SE software.  

This one's hot: now through July 31st, Rain Recording and Cakewalk / Roland are offering two complete computer recording bundles, specially priced to get your mobile or home studio off the ground.  

With PowerFX's AudioLocker utility, you can easily move audio files from your desktop to your Soundation account online and vice versa, and store them online for a monthly or yearly term.  

For those who have dance music on brain all day long, Beatport has released its free Beatport iPhone app, which lets iPhone users access the online music store, preview tracks, purchase them, and more.  

If you think that Rock Band and Guitar Hero are yesterday's news and you need something different and more interactive, try out JamLegend. This music / game Web site lets you perform songs as you would in Rock Band, compete with others on the site, and hear new music as well.  

Source Elements Source-Zip lets you compress audio projects and then send and uncompress them, using lossy or lossless codecs, without losing important meta-data required by audio programs to quickly re-open sessions and start working. It's 100 percent automatic and transparent to any digital audio workstation, according to the company.  

Chicken Systems Instrument Manager does to your sample files what you wish it would do for your laundry: sort and organize everything in a super personalized way that only you would understand.  

The Internet makes a lot of things that used to be done by traveling be possible from the comfort of your home. TimeWarp Technologies Internet MIDI makes it possible for you to ask Lang Lang or Vitalij Kuprij to perform on your own MIDI piano without you or them having to do travel (if you can afford to pay them to perform for you, that is).  

It is disconcerting to think about copies of your meticulously mixed and mastered magnum opus falling short of your expectations. Hepling you sleep easier at night, Sonic Studio PreMaster CD 1.3.2 will be exhibited at the 127th AES Convention to demonstrate the importance of proper premastering.  

This new announcement could be that big break songwriters are looking for. The Cakewalk And Ourstage.Com "Your Music Anytime, Anyplace" Songwriting Contest gives the opportunity for both artists and fans to to go for more than 1,999.99 USD worth of prizes including some brand new laptops and audio interfaces.  

Keyboard Wizard is such a site that's fun to play with, mess around, and be shocked at what Jordan Rudess can do. Time for you to do your fair share of wizardry via the Keyboard Wizard Contest if you want to get an Asus Notebook and other goodies for free.  

Generative composition applications are interesting tools for composers looking for new sounds. Following the tradition of Csound, Flexatone h.f.p. AthenaCL presents a cost-free alternative tool for today's "serious" composer.  

Some people just love audio recordings that any means of preserving them, including digital rendering, have been explored. Analog to digital conversion, however, comes with some problems such as click and crackle from old vinyl records. You can eliminate those noises with Brian Davies ClickRepair and enjoy your vintage recordings in digital format.  

Audio loop and sample libraries sometimes are not enough and does not provide an adequate opportunity to put your signature sound into it. MIDI loops are the best way to go for fast production that incorporates your tonal personality. Equinox Sounds MIDI Keys Gold will get that going well for you.  

Making music for video games presents unique challenges to composers and producers, challenges that Rain Recording has addressed with the new Rain Solstice Dragon Edition Audio + Gaming Workstation computer. This beast can handle demanding 3d gaming graphics while simultaneously providing a stable digital audio production platform. It's a wonder they didn't call it the Double Dragon Edition.  

Just when dirty hums and clicks thought they were in the clear, BIAS SoundSoap is back, and this time, it's personal! This software wants to scrub your audio so clean that you'll be able to see your reflection in it when paired with LSD abuse.  

Even though TASCAM stopped production on GigaStudio, you still have all those orchestral libraries and no smart way to play them. Sound familiar? SoundLib G-Player might be the answer you've been waiting for.  

Aegis Sonix was cutting edge back in 1984, and it's even kind of neat now. But does it have Reversi?  

John Hodgman has one less thing to hold over Justin Long now that SM Pro Audio VFX is in Beta. It lets Mac users take advantage of VST plugins.  

If you've got discoDSP Discovery Pro, you should check out Caffeine by Status. This preset library brings you a wide load of multilayered presets, arpeggiators and melody lines as well as a buzz that'll keep you from getting to sleep at a reasonable hour.  

How much power is too much power? Until now, this was just a rhetorical question, the grist of academics and philosophers, but with the advent of the Rain Recording Quad-Core LiveBook, this question takes on a new and immediate consideration. God save us all.  

Why pay all that money for a Korg M3 or OASYS when you could settle for a Korg M50 and make it nearly as good for less money with Karma-Lab KARMA M50 software? Obviously because you've got too much money, that's why.  

Until now, you had to make serious money -- like top dollar internet gear news writing money -- to own a Maserati Collection. Now Waves offers the Tony Maserati Collection, which won't get you from point A to point B (where A is equal to my mansion and B is equal to the hottest club on the strip), unless we're talking audio engineering.  

With the recent release of Pro Tools 8 and Pro Tools 8 LE, users and potential users of the latter might be interested to learn that Digidesign brings out two new Pro Tools bundles. The 003 Rack Factory Complete and 003 Factory Complete make the LE status almost an insult.  

Steve Buscemi proved that jazz and mutants are two great tastes that go great together in Ghost World and JazzMutant backs him up with more cool ways to control your performance. They'll be showing Lemur V2 Software at Winter NAMM 2009  

It comes once a year. Winter NAMM. Much like your birthday, the weeks fly by and then suddenly it is upon you. The difference at NAMM, of course, is that you cannot purchase the presents yet. Also, the last time I had a birthday, I did not have to check in at the press booth and risk getting run over by a guy in an Elmo suit.