Articles

Q. What’s the difference between a bagpipe and an onion?
A. No one cries when you chop up an bagpipe.
Glamorous MIDI controllers like the Tenori-On get all the press, but MIDI bagpipes are where the real action is.
There’s a significant amount of work being done in the area of bagpipe-style MIDI controllers. And it’s no surprise […]

Apple quietly introduced an update to Garageband that adds a cool new feature: iPhone ringtone creation. Anything you’ve got in Garageband, you can turn into a ringtone.
For some people, that may mean the end of getting double-charged for ringtones at iTunes. If you’re a musician, a sound designer or if you’ve got a podcast, you […]

What would the world of electronic music be like without the inventions of Bob Moog?
Bob Moog’s namesake analog synthesizers have affected popular music in ways he might not have expected back in 1954, when he began building theremins with his father. But 50 years later, Bob’s musical instruments have catapulted so many styles of music […]

Macintosh Universal Binary applications are ones that run natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Mac computers. These are sometimes referred to as Mactel versions, because they run and the Macintosh Intel-based machines.
Mactel Music Applications:

Airfoil
AudioExpress
AudioLeak -  an Leq (Long-Term Equivalent Level) analyzer for audio files.
CastAway - Wooden Brain Concepts
Crystal Synth
Boom Recorder
eJamming Station -  Real-time Internet-based music […]

by Jeff Tolbert
GarageBand ships with plenty of fantastic effects and several useful presets for those effects. But the wonderful thing about audio effects is the vast range of things you can do with them, many of which you probably wouldn’t stumble upon just by randomly moving sliders. This article will help you create three of […]

Apple’s GarageBand is one of the hottest new music applications in years, and it brings state-of-the-art music technology to a broader audience than ever before. It’s a fantastic tool for making music quickly and easily, and lets you do a lot using just your computer and the loops that come with the program. Other GarageBand […]

Electro-acoustic music is a term used to describe a broad range of modern classical electronic music. It often explores the interaction of natural and electronically generated sounds and effects.
The term electro-acoustic refers to a process that happens in any microphone or loudspeaker - sound is transformed into electrical signals, and then transformed from electrical form […]

Modular analog synthesizers may seem like dinosaurs in this age of virtual instruments and computer-based music. In reality, modular synthesis has experienced a renaissance in the last few years. The Internet has made possible communities of interest to build around modular synthesizer manufacturers, and connected manufacturers with willing buyers. As a result, a new golden […]

Bittorrent is a P2P file-sharing tool that is generating a lot of interest. Here is what you need to know to download and install the latest version of it.
Bittorrent is a P2P application designed to solve the problem of distributing large files over limited bandwidth. It communicates with other Bittorrent clients and works with them […]

This style grows out of the tradition of classical orchestral music and features synthesized orchestration. It often features melodies and harmonies that are neo-romantic in style.
The best orchestral electronica uses electronics as an important element in a wider palette of instruments, to create new types of orchestration that would be impossible using traditional instruments. It […]

Disco never really died.
Instead it mutated, and one of its mutant offshoots is House Music. House music retains much of the heavy regular beat of disco, but tends to be more electronic, with drum machine rhythms and synthesized basses. The music is song based, and draws on a variety of influences, including Latin, jazz, soul, […]

Dark ambient music explores the experimental fringes of ambient music, often using ambient sounds to create an unsettling or even scary soundscape. Dark ambient is rhythmless or uses minimal beats, and may include atonal synthesized washes and sample-based noise effects.
One of the earliest examples of what could be considered dark ambient was Brian Eno’s Ambient […]

In 1978, Brian Eno released an album of music titled Ambient 1: Music for Airports. It got little attention at the time, and many of those that listened to it were put off by the lack of any songs or melodies, and because the music didn’t seem to go anywhere.
In 1978, most people were listening […]

New age music is a category for music that tends to be spiritual and contemplative in nature. It is as much a functional category as a stylistic one. New age music is music for reflection, contemplation, stretching, resting, reading and thinking. Unlike “lite” or “easy listening” music, new age music is composed specifically for these […]

Ambient music is a style that focuses on sound and space rather than melody and form. It is music that is intentionally created to be used as both as background music and as music to listen to. It usually features slowly evolving sounds, repetition, and is relatively static.
In 1978, Brian Eno released Ambient 1: Music […]