Production

After four and a half years of being an industry standard DSP platform, Universal Audio's UAD-1 system was getting a little long in the tooth. While there were multiple versions of the card for desktop users and the portable UAD-Xpander, they all used a single, aging SHARC DSP. Read More

December 13, 2007 Boeing has started production on its P-8A Poseidon fuselage, the anti-submarine test plane that will replace the P-3 Orion. The first fuselage components were loaded into a holding fixture on the factory floor of the Spirit AeroSystems’ Wichita facility, in a ceremony that included U.S. Navy Personnel. Read More

August 1, 2007 Xerox has developed a new, lighter business paper optimized for digital printing that saves on mailing costs and significantly reduces the impact on the environment by using half as many trees. The new High Yield Business Paper is made via a mechanical process that uses less water and chemicals and results in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75% according to Xerox. Read More

March 3, 2007 - Universal Audio launched the UAD-1 back in January 2004, and it quickly became the DSP system of choice for a staggering amount of music producers. It wasn't the fact the UAD-1 cards took the processing load off the CPU that made the system so essential - it was the Universal Audio plugins, meticulously modelled after vintage compressors and equalisers, that once heard, immediately justify the price tag, and once used in your own mixes, simply cannot be lived without. Obviously tired of seeing so many of their users spending big bucks on a Magma external PCI chassis in order to use their UAD-1 cards on the road, Universal Audio have finally released the UAD-Xpander - an external UAD-1 solution which connects via ExpressCard, the now ubiquitous laptop expansion bus that offers six times the bandwidth of FireWire 400. Read More

November 28, 2006 Music on the DS has just taken a giant leap beyond musical games like Electroplankton, thanks to the efforts of German programmer and musician Tob. Previously, using MIDI with the DS required getting geeky with a soldering iron - now the DS's internal WiFi card can be used to wirelessly send/receive MIDI to and from a "server" running on a PC. Read More

October 30, 2006 Reactable is a collaborative, tabletop, modular synthesizer developed at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. The team set out to develop an instrument that was intuitive enough for beginners to jump in without a manual, yet deep enough for musicians to use on stage. Ambitiously, they included the ability for multiple users to play the device simultaneously (both in person and remotely). The result just oozes the "I want one" factor, and has to be seen to be believed. The pictures simply cannot do this justice - check out the amazing videos of the device in use. Read More

September 21, 2006 Whether it's the pads, the swing, the workflow, or just the countless hours clocked up with one in a dark room, Akai's 'Music Production Center' (MPC) family holds a special place in the heart of beat makers and samplists the world over. The newest addition to the line up is the battery powered, ultra portable MPC-500. Combined with a microphone and a set of headphones it's a field recording and portable studio setup that fits in a backpack with room to spare - a dream come true for musicians on the go. Read More

March 2, 2006 Music producers in 2006 truly are spoilt. Apart from gamers, they're the only mob that has a healthy variety of computer input devices available to them. In a sea of competition, Novation's recent release of the ReMOTE SL looks like it has solved the problem of almost an entire market of increasingly inappropriate controllers for complex audio projects. They're calling it the first intelligent MIDI controller - and it's set to improve the workflow of anyone using current digital audio software, and liberate laptop musicians from their mice. Read More

January 26, 2006 Dance and music go together. Intuitively, we know they have common elements, and while we cannot even begin to understand what they are or how they so perfectly complement one another, it is clear that both are an expression of something deep and fundamental within all human beings. Both express things that words cannot – beyond intellect, they are perhaps two of the fundamental building blocks of human expression, common to the souls of all people. Which is why when we saw this machine which links the two, we knew there was something special brewing. The GypsyMIDI is a unique instrument for motion-capture midi control – a machine that enables a human being to become a musical instrument - well, a musical instrument controller to be exact, or a bunch of other things depending on your imagination. Most importantly, the entire package is commercially available with extensive customisation features so that you can decide what each movement triggers – a colour, a sound, or perhaps something else again – anything that can be controlled by a digital interface. The set-up and operation is simple, intuitive and quick and the possibilities for performance art and musical applications are … landmark. One arm costs UKP480 (US$855), the whole MIDI suit costs UKP940 (US$1675), and the whole shebang (MIDI Suit, Wireless Interface, Tripod Stand, interface software, Manuals & Videos CD) goes for UKP1240 (US$2210) … that’s the total price for beginning work in a new dimension. Like we said … landmark Read More