May, 2006 archive

Applied Acoustics Systems has announced the official release of Lounge Lizard Session for Mac OS X and Windows.
Based on the physical modeling synthesis engine of the award-winning Lounge Lizard EP-3, Session is a simple and straightforward instrument reproducing legendary electric pianos.

“Lounge Lizard is already the electric piano of choice for many of the world’s top [...]

The SpeckTone Retro is one of the few iPod accessories that has caught our eyes recently. The fifties look of the all-wood speaker cabinet is finished with a high-gloss lacquered piano finish, and is a surprisingly nice complement to the modern look of iPods.
“Until now, all the iPod speaker sets available looked very similar,” said [...]

There’s an interesting interview with Robert Rich in the SFGate:
“Harry Partch and Indonesian music are big influences,” Rich agrees. “A lot of the music comes from an analog modular synthesizer I’ve been building for the past few years, so I can create sounds that people have never heard before. I got into space music in [...]

Here’s an interesting video clip from Cybersonica, a two-week exhibition of contemporary sonic artworks:

The exhibition showcases a range of sonic and audiovisual works which move beyond the ’screen, keyboard, mouse scenario’ to explore new and exciting approaches to creative interactivity - responding to physical input, proximity, sound, kinetics, elapsed time and the surrounding environment. All [...]

MultiControl is a free application designed to let you use any standard game controller (or other Human Interface Device) as a multipurpose music controller. Built with Max/MSP/Jitter by Cycling ‘74.

Features

Easy to choose any general Human Interface Device (HID)
Automatically detects buttons, sliders, etc in use
Automatic scaling to 0.-1. (OSC) or 0-127 (MIDI)
Easy to choose desired output [...]

Have you ever thought about buying an expensive robotic vacuum cleaner and turning it into a cheap and tacky-sounding monosynth?
Tod E. Kurt did - he’s created RoombaMidi, a Mac OS X application that creates turns the iRobot Roomba roboti vacuum into a MIDI instrument for use by any Mac OS X MIDI sequencer, like Ableton [...]

Dash Signature has released the Eve 2 Synthesizer.
EVE 2 adds new features and improved sound quality to the original EVE design. The default preset bank and the A0S bank (now included as part of the main package) have been redesigned to take advantage of the new features EVE 2 has to offer. As special bonus [...]

Broadjam has announced the introduction of Broadjam Web Hosting 2.0, which offers users more flexibility, control, and customization than ever.
The company has expanded options for users, adding a brand new Do-It-Yourself (DIY) option, which allows users to simply host their existing website with Broadjam or to build a new one, and increased customization for its [...]

Retro-King, a maker of custom retro-styled amps, has introduced the 45 Watt Combo is a replica of the famed 1960’s Bluesbreaker 2×12 combo. Unlike the reissue, this amp is hand-wired point-to-point on a vintage style turret board and is built to the exact specs of the original (a 100 pico cap across the normal volume [...]

Griffin Technology has announced official 1.0 release status of Proxi, shortcut software for OS X, described as LEGOS for Your Mac.
Proxi is software that allows you to “teach” OS X to perform assigned tasks. Using Proxi’s graphical interface, anyone can perform complicated scripting tasks quickly and easily by connecting pre-built “blocks” called Triggers and Tasks. [...]