NEW GEAR: Inventor and iOS app developer Alex Smith of Alkex Instruments is back with his latest foray into MIDI controllers, with his ‘Ball Beats’ MIDI step sequencer product. Unlike his somewhat failed stab at creating a wood and knobs controller for virtual instruments earlier this year, this new product looks polished, and has a boutique coolness…

COLUMN: Well, it began as what appeared to be yet another anti-Apple fanboy rant about Steve’s passing – he’s sick again, Apple is doomed, etc. — not unheard of in this era of fake news, junk news, and mis-read signals about celebrities and their antics. [...]

REVIEW: While the concept of a music keyboard with a computer inside isn’t entirely new, the folks at Austin, Texas start-up Music Computing think they might have invented the new sweet spot in bridging the gap between the notebook and controller crowd and the people [...]

Music Industry Newswire COLUMN: Yesterday, a new Austin, Texas, start-up opened its virtual and physical doors with a new line of music instruments, Intel-based PCs, and accessories for both Mac and Windows-based notebooks. Music Computing, Inc., headed by former Open Labs guru, Victor Wong, and [...]

Music Industry Newswire Update: As a long time supporter and customer of Open Labs (see my reviews of the Neko TSE and XXL models on this site), I was surprised, like many, to see the notice of auction for OL’s assets and IP announced July [...]

COLUMN: One of the more interesting tidbits I’ve run across this week, was the rumor of a new product from venerable synth builder Tom Oberheim. He apparently told a person that a new “Two-voice” model would be in the works for later this year, possibly [...]

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 companies on one hand as I settle into my 40′s, [...]

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 existing OL customers who buy one of OL’s keyboard or [...]

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 Mopho. And, lo and behold that’s what was revealed. Due [...]

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 “beta” for Windows 7 32-bit AND 64-bit support. Also, notably, [...]

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,” so jump on them while you can. Today I have [...]

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 alone music PC that fits in one standard rack mount [...]

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 friday (day after Thanksgiving in U.S.), and the general economy [...]

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 general ease of use. Reason is very cool because it’s [...]

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 you’re looking to buy yourself some gear for the holidays, [...]

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 on music gear, software, etc., and while I had started [...]

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 with current version before launching a new one?”), Cakewalk’s team [...]

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 I bought the NeKo TSE (previously reviewed for this magazine). [...]

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 new version of iTunes with Genius mixes, a cleaner look [...]

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 apps, the TITAN demo provides a full copy of the [...]

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 buggy as of today when I visited the English version. [...]

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, which will appear here around Labor Day weekend). According to [...]

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” keyboards, the AX is a long-awaited successor to Roland’s older [...]

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 users the following update: We’re sure you have a ton [...]

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 truly appears to be a step-up from past efforts like [...]

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 of kit, dubbed the DBeat. Officially it began shipping this [...]

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 found in their store. Unfortunately, this has turned into one [...]

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 coming in cold I found the album “The Butterfly Net” [...]

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 when least wanted. So, what do you get your friend(s) [...]

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 to the Korg M-1. These products seek to fill the [...]

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 the rest of my family perused the other modern art; [...]

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). Basically it’s a single voice of the new generation DSI [...]

COLUMN: As a long time user of Cakewalk’s (formerly Twelve Tone Systems) flagship DAW, SONAR, I’ve been anxious to see “what’s new” in this Fall’s iteration of the software. Yesterday, we discovered numerous new features to be found in Sonar Producer 8, including new synth [...]

COLUMN: I knew something was brewing when I went to my favorite online music store (Sweetwater) to see if they had the Tascam Gigastudio GVI 4 upgrade from GVI3 in stock yet, and noticed it had disappeared from the site entirely. Then going to some [...]

REVIEW: New Jersey based Phoenix Block’s new CD “Chemtrails” nicely combines ’80s flavored world alt-rock with modern rock and sits nicely in various places if you happen to like artists as varied as U2, Bon Jovi and Remy Zero. Once I got past the hand [...]

COLUMN: One of the most hilarious things I’ve seen online lately is at the online music store, Musicians Friend, which is selling a “mislabeled” version of the Tascam DP-02CF Portastudio, which has a mis-print on the actual recorder of “Portastud.”

COLUMN: CHAPTER TWO: Outline of Producing a Show — Choosing to create your own Podcast can be approached in several ways, which will vary depending on your goals. For the kinds of Podcasts we’re going to cover, it’s generally assumed you have a personal computer with an Internet connection, which would be the primary necessity for the typical form of Podcasting.

COLUMN: CHAPTER ONE: The Basics — If you’ve read the introduction to this series of articles, you may have an idea of what a Podcast is all about, but now we’re going to start getting into the details; the specifics of what, where and how to listen to or build a Podcast program.

COLUMN: INTRODUCTION — Podcasting is only the latest social and economic trend to be born on the Internet, which over the past decade has brought online shopping, auctions, dating, movie rentals, and blogs to individuals and businesses who need nothing more than a PC (personal computer) and a phone line to get access to this more-and-more interconnected global village.

INTERVIEW: In September 2006, Peter Frampton released his first all-instrumental album, called “Fingerprints.” For the project he was able to bring together not only many of his contemporaries and peers, but also a couple of his long time “heroes” and inspirations, Hank Marvin and Brian [...]

REVIEW: I was pretty excited to hear about the new disc “Fingerprints” (A&M/New Door/UMe) from Peter Frampton, a seminal guitar god from the ’70s who became enormously famous for his “Frampton Comes Alive” album and for his formant-tube guitar “talk box” sound on that record 30 years ago. I hadn’t really thought about him much lately except when my iTunes jukebox cycled around to his tunes. So, getting the new disc was like hearing from an old friend again.

Just when you think it’s safe to go shopping on eBay for used gear, like a vintage tube mic, or analog keyboard, the phishing artists have to ruin my day. Phishing, is the practice of trying to fool you into going to a website pretending to be a legitimate site, like a bank or eBay, or to contact somebody about a product or service through real looking email communications.