COLUMN: One of my great joys in life is loving a product made by a great company that stays in business year after year and perhaps decade by decade. I can count these types of …

COLUMN: In a somewhat stealthy mode, Open Labs has finally put up a page on their site promoting custom paint colors, bigger hard drive options, extreme motherboard upgrades, and various customization options for new and …

COLUMN: — When the word went out that Dave Smith was going to introduce something “new” at NAMM in January, many of us immediately presumed it would be a keyboard version of the highly popular …

COLUMN: — Avid/Digidesign announced this week the latest update to their DAW application, Pro Tools, with a notable update in version 8.03. This new version supports Apple Snow Leopard (OS X), and has a public …

COLUMN: I’m back with our “final” batch of super end of the year deals for musicians, most of which expire very soon, or by end of the month (Dec. 31). Some are “while supply lasts,” …

COLUMN: During their O-Live broadcast/webcast today, Open Labs revealed their newest music PC product, called SoundSlate, which has the Open Labs UI, and about 10,000 sounds built-in, with support for dual monitors. It’s a stand …

COLUMN: Hello again, and I hope some of you are finding these holiday music instrument and software count-down deals of interest. There are certainly more and more of them popping up in anticipation of black …

REVIEW: If you’re a long-time user of Propellerhead’s REASON application, or just coming back to it with the new version 4, as I am, then you are probably impressed by Reason’s new capabilities, and its …

COLUMN: Here I am again with a bunch of new music instrument deals. Couldn’t wait a week for these since many of them are only good for a short time, or only during November. If …

COLUMN: As many of you who know me already know, I’m a bit of a bargain hound, or deal hunter, or whatever you might call it. Every month I get a raft of “wow” deals …

COLUMN: This week Cakewalk announced the latest update to their venerable DAW platform, SONAR. While it’s been updated annually with full incremental versions, sometimes to the criticism by users (e.g., “why not fix all issues …

REVIEW: I’m a big fan of Open Labs’ music workstation instruments, so I was pretty excited when they announced the rebirth of their XXL model this spring, which was not available last October 2008 when …

COLUMN: Applemania 2009. In one of the most anticipated tech stories this week, Apple’s visionary leader Steve Jobs took to the stage at the Yerba Buena center in San Francisco. The initial announcements included a …

COLUMN: The kind folks at Best Service today offered our readers a free “demo” version of TITAN, their new virtual instrument which contains samples from over 200 classic synths and modern gear. Unlike most demo …

COLUMN: Access Music has announced that their latest non-beta OS for their Ti line of keyboards is available for download. They are also formally announcing their new website is live, however it’s still a bit …

COLUMN: Sonic Charge announced this week the update to their nifty “organic” virtual synth, Synplant. Version 1.0.1 fixes some minor things, including Cakewalk Sonar support (a problem I experienced, and which held up my review, …

COLUMN: Roland’s new “keytar” (guitar-like keyboard) is now shipping. The AX-Synth is a remote shoulder keyboard with onboard sound generator, ribbon controller, D Beam, modulation bar, and more. With specs similar to the current “Juno” …

Humble, Texas /Music Industry Newswire/ — It’s official! As rumored this past week, MySpace has entered into an agreement to acquire iLike. The folks at iLike, founders Ali and Hadi Partovi, have sent all registered …

COLUMN: Best Service has announced a new massive virtual instrument sample library containing over 200 classic and modern music instruments. Claimed to be the “biggest and most extensive synthesizer sound collection of all time,” it …

COLUMN: As a long time fan of Open Labs, I’ve been watching pretty closely the development of their new “MPC Killer” (they don’t use that term, but I do), since it’s a truly remarkable bit …

COLUMN: Well, I took the plunge this week and decided to upgrade about 50 or so albums in my iTunes library to the updated “DRM Free” option now offered by Apple for many popular albums/songs …

REVIEW: I would probably have liked this album more if it was comprised of personal friends, or the brother of my girlfriend, or fronted by the lads working part-time at the local Auto Club, but …

COLUMN: Inevitably there are those of us who seem perpetually busy and end up finding gifts at the last minute, regardless of any plan to start early. The holiday just creeps up, and time flies …

REVIEW: The concept of the so-called workstation keyboard is certainly not new; with a wide range of current such products on the market from big guns like Korg, Roland and Yamaha, stretching back in time …

REVIEW: I’ve been a fan of the late (and sadly missed) Bob Moog’s various sound creation inventions since the mid 1970s. I first saw one of his theremins at a Southern California museum and while …

COLUMN: Proving you can’t keep good analog down, venerable synth designer and “my name is my business” owner Dave Smith, has released a new one-voice analog sound box called “Mopho” (with emphasis on the Os). …