ARCHIVE: Audio Recording Software

April 28, 2008

Happy Day! DAW Trials and Tribulations Ended??

Dropouts, crapouts, DAW patheticness, software upgrades gone wrong...my very own personal digital audio workstation Odyssey may finally have come to an end:An Abbreviated History of my DAW Trials and Tribulations:December 2007: After too many crapouts on my 5-year old Dell... Read More

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April 20, 2008

Free Library of Sounds, Audio Clips, and Loops

It's always nice to find decent free sound libraries that look good, work well, and don't present some kind of a "catch" to use the audio.SoundSnap is a new sound library that seems to fit the bill.  Over 30,000 audio... Read More

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October 22, 2007

A Propellerhead Reason 4.0 Free Giveaway

I have and love Reason 2.5.  I'd love to have Propellerhead's latest version, Reason 4.0 even more.  But alas, it's normally not free, and is more often than not about $399 in stores.  Yowza!Fortunately, for one lucky songwriter, audioMIDI is... Read More

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October 03, 2007

TrakAxPC, a Free, Downloadable Media Mixer for PC

The company HighAndes in Dublin just launched their new audio, video, and photo loop creation and mixing tool, TrakAxPC.  It sort of reminds me of online music mixing/mashup applications JamGlue and SpliceMusic, but with photo and video mixing included, without... Read More

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March 12, 2007

Kompoz, a New Collaboration Workspace for Musicians

Interesting.  Kompoz released a beta version of an online workspace for musicians to collaborate in the creation of new recordings.  Think Apple's GarageBand audio recording software meets MySpace Band pages, where the social network revolves around song projects.Basically, anyone can... Read More

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January 30, 2007

LightSpeed Audio Labs Launching at Less Than LightSpeed

What can I say, I'm impatient.  How can you not be excited about a technology that claims to enable real-time audio collaboration (not MIDI, which is what most real-time technologies offer...which is still pretty cool, mind you)?  In May of... Read More

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September 07, 2006

Cakewalk Sonar 6 Producer Edition Available

Man, I'm starting to feel a little behind the software times. Cakewalk just released the most recent version of its flagship product, Sonar 6 Producer Edition. I'm still using Sonar 3, and can't help but feel like I might be... Read More

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August 09, 2006

PSP Rhythm Song Contest

If you've got a Sony PSP, and you've downloaded the free drum machine software PSP Rhythm 6.0 for it, you can enter the new PSP Rhythm Song Contest.  Throw in effects, a bass line, and use the "Extended" mode to... Read More

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July 10, 2006

Free Sound Sample Packs

Awesome.  Who doesn't love free sounds?  Check out these Creative Commons licensed sound sources:ccMixter Sample Sound PacksFreeSound ProjectccMixter is doing a great job of partnering with sound libraries to expand their own database.  I posted about the FreeSound Project over a... Read More

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May 12, 2006

Sonar, Cubase, GarageBand, ProTools on Google Trends

Google Trends just launched this week -- how fun!  I compared keyword search traffic for "Sonar," "Cubase," "GarageBand," and "ProTools" for kicks, and here's what I found: Hooray!  Steve Rubel at Micropersuasion had some additional fun with Google Trends...nice. ... Read More

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May 11, 2006

LightSpeed Audio and Real-Time, Online Collaboration

A press release about Lightspeed Audio caught my attention last week.  The NJ-based company just got $1.25M in funding for their real-time, online collaboration solution.  Sounds pretty cool.  According to the article:The explosive growth of the Internet...has provided Lightspeed Audio... Read More

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March 30, 2006

PSP Rhythm, A Drum Machine For the PSP

I don't own a PlayStation Portable (PSP), but if I did, I'd be all over this little ditty.  PSP Rhythm is a home-grown, 16-step drum machine created by a couple brothers learning to code in C.  Awesome.The site has instructions... Read More

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February 10, 2006

WikiRecording, Free Audio Recording Guide

Jeff Einowski recently started WikiRecording, a free guide to audio recording based on the Wikipedia engine (and under the same GNU license Wikipedia uses -- anyone can edit it).It's only been up for two weeks, and already has about 50 articles... Read More

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January 23, 2006

GarageBand 3 Hits The Streets

I'm sure you've heard that Apple's GarageSpin 3, er, GarageBand 3 is out.  Many of the new features involve beefing up podcasting options.  Some of the new features include:Insert images/photosMore sound effects, instrumentsSpeech enhanceriWeb (web publishing)iChat (conference recording)iMovie scoring (sync... Read More

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December 23, 2005

Sonar vs. Cubase vs. Pro Tools vs. Acid

Digital Music Doctor, a site that sells 2-3 hour video courses for music product software packages, reviewed Sonar 5, Cubase 3, Pro Tools 7, and Acid Pro 5 to compare price, audio features, MIDI features, and special functions in an "Ultimate Shootout".Who won? ... Read More

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December 02, 2005

iZotope Vinyl Simulation Plug-In (it's free!)

iZotope is offering a free download of their iZotope Vinyl LP Simulation Effect Plug-In. The plugin creates authentic “vinyl” simulation using 64-bit processing and advanced filtering, modeling and resampling. Users can modify a ton of crazy parameters including mechanical noise,... Read More

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October 03, 2005

Project Studio: AES Workshop

If you happen to be in LA on November 19th, check out the Audio Engineering Society's (AES) one-day workshop entitled "Here Come The Hits! - Building A Project Studio." (Note, it's not free, but costs $30-50 depending on you membership... Read More

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September 12, 2005

MBox 2: Digidesign Launch

In case you missed it, Digidesign launched the MBox 2, complete with Pro Tools LE and a lot of new features. The best breakdown of the features offered that I've read was posted by, once again, Create Digital Music, with... Read More

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Sonar 5: Cakewalk To Launch in early October

Cakewalk is now allowing customers to pre-order Sonar 5 ahead of its scheduled early October release. According to the site: Version 5 adds an arsenal of responsive instruments, more effects, and powerful editing tools including Roland® V-Vocal™ VariPhrase technology. These... Read More

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August 21, 2005

eJamming Beta - Message From President

eJamming is an application that lets musicians jam online in real time. eJamming President, Alan Glueckman, updated me on the development of eJamming's beta version for the Mac: Just wanted to let you and your readers know that we put... Read More

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July 25, 2005

Cakewalk Sonar 4 Announcements

Cakewalk busted out a couple announcements while I was gone. First, was the release of both SONAR Home Studio Version 4 and SONAR Home Studio Version 4 XL. The cost will be $149 and $229 respectively. The premium XL version... Read More

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July 11, 2005

Make Music in Your Palm

I now officially want a Palm. And it's all because of this music editing software by ChocoPoolp. If you thought loud cell phone users were annoying, try standing next to a musician recording rock vocals while in line at... Read More

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June 29, 2005

Nine Inch Nails Releases Another GarageBand Track

NIN is releasing another track, "Only" on With Teeth, in several file formats, including GarageBand, ACID, Live, and Pro Tools. Trent explains: Well, the experiment of releasing The Hand That Feeds in GarageBand format was a resounding success. ... I've... Read More

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June 15, 2005

MacWorld Conference Focuses on Music - GarageBand, Apple Logic, DJs, Electronica...

If you're located in or near Boston, you should really check out the MacWorld Conference & Expo on July 11-14. This particular fiesta will be focusing on music. A quick glance at some of the sessions scheduled makes me green... Read More

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June 13, 2005

GarageBand "How To" For Creating a Podcast

C.K. Sample at The Unofficial Apple Weblog created his first podcast using GarageBand software, using a couple different methods. He describes the results, along with some of the technical difficulties he encountered. The comments contributed by readers provide equally valuable... Read More

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June 08, 2005

Jam Online With Ninjam, Skype For Musicians

Justin Frankel, creator of Winamp, innovates again. He announced a new project, Ninjam, that allows multiple musicians to jam online with actual audio (not MIDI). Pretty friggin' cool. Geographic constraints are no more. Sorta. "Streaming audio...wouldn't that create huge latency... Read More

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May 11, 2005

Mouse-Over Cymbal Crashes -- Woohoo!

At some point, we’ve all dreamed about ravaging a drum kit with caveman-like, reckless abandon. How about the next best thing? A point-and-click virtual drumkit – too fun! The keyboard option is useful for tricky Stewart Copeland drum solos. (Originally... Read More

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April 22, 2005

Nine Inch Nails Mixes It Up With GarageBand Track

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails generated a ton of buzz by offering a free download of their single "The Hand That Feeds" in GarageBand format. In the ReadMe file, Trent explains: "For quite some time I've been interested in... Read More

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April 19, 2005

Music Doctor's Loop Labs: Study of Cubase vs. Sonar vs. Acid

The loop composition software market has been growing ever since exploding onto the scene with Sonic Foundry's release of Acid (now owned by Sony) in 1998. Loop construction and manipulation tools give any PC ownder the ability to turn a... Read More

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March 17, 2005

Propellerhead's Reason 3.0 Released!

I don't have much time to post today, due to a longer-than-usual recording session. So I will simply say: I love Propellerhead's Reason. It is by far the best audio generator/synthesizer I have ever used, offering groove clips, sequencers, a... Read More

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March 15, 2005

Rosegarden, Linux Music Editing Tool, By Fervent

Roughly a month ago, I wrote about the open source home recording software Ardour that's currently in beta, but looking good. Another that is somewhat further along, and getting good reviews, is Rosegarden 1.0, which recently became available on February... Read More

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February 24, 2005

Cakewalk Sonar, M-Audio, Microsoft, Move To 64 Bit

Digital home recording studio technology improves every year, allowing musicians to create increasingly complex arrangements and recordings easily. At the recent NAMM Show, Cakewalk announced a 64-bit compatable version of Sonar. Meanwhile, Microsoft is close to having a 64-bit version... Read More

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February 20, 2005

Propellerhead Reason 3.0 To Launch in March

Propellerhead Reason 3.0 will hit the shelves March 10th. Home recording studio jocks rejoice! For anyone who is not familiar Reason, it's considered by most (including me) to be the best software synthesizer available. Here's a quick blurb from Propellerhead's... Read More

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February 07, 2005

Free, "Open Source" Audio Recording Software, Ardour

For all of you open source freaks out there, Ardour is a free, digital audio recording software programmed by members of an open source community. Its roughly-constructed home page states: Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-linear, non-destructive region based editing... Read More

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Cakewalk® Announces Free Maintenance Release SONAR™

Hey, all you Cakewalk Sonar users...get the free download!... Read More

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February 04, 2005

Digital Audio Recording Software: Sonar vs. Cubase

Of the big music editing software giants I mentioned earlier, Sonar 4 Producer Edition and Cubabse SX 3 are two of the biggest. DigitalMusicDoctor.com produced an excellent, detailed software comparison between the two. The comparison is a good benchmark to... Read More

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February 02, 2005

Digital Audio Home Recording Software

There are many music editing software companies putting out great digital audio recording products for home users. Some of the bigger names are: Cakewalk (Cakewalk, Sonar) Digidesign (ProTools) Steinberg (Cubase) Sony (Acid, Sound Forge) FASoft (N-Tracks) Apple (Garage Band) Adobe... Read More

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January 29, 2005

Online Music Editor Mixer, LoopLabs

Wow, this is cool. Looplabs has created a flash-based application that lets you record, edit, and burn mp3s. No music editing hardware or software is required! It's been featured in digital music promotions by Bacardi, Miller Brewing, Calvin Klein,... Read More

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