Making of Red Dead Redemption: Game Music Score as Interactive Collage

Sure, it’s a Spaghetti-Western-inspired soundtrack to the hit Rockstar game called jokingly by fans Grand Theft Horse. But to me, a richly-composed musical score for a blockbuster video game sums up a lot of where music production is at these days. Composed by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson, Red Dead Redemption gets a score that blends Western authenticity with more experimental [...]

Free Generative MIDI with Cellular Automata, Built in AIR

Cellular AutoMidi is a generative music making app, making use of a modified version of the ever-popular Cellular Automata algorithm – a simple evolutionary model on a grid that works nicely for sequencers. (See, among many others, Lazyfish’s legendary NEWSCHOOL for Reaktor, and Audio Damage’s Automaton .) Cellular Automata is nothing new, but here, you get to see it as an AIR/Flash app, which means a modular CA-based creation you can drop anywhere. [...]

Max Fuel, a Bundle of Max for Live Devices, Debuts

For those of you just joining us, Max for Live is an interactive environment that incorporates the full Max/MSP/Jitter inside Ableton Live, with the addition of hooks that allow it to integrate with and control Live, and to make Max creations look like Live devices. [...]

Ninja Tune is 20 – win and take the stage!

Ninja Tune is 20, and to celebrate they’ve hooked up with a number of companies to help you win an ultra special prize as part of their anniversary tour. And when I say part, I mean get up on stage in Paris alongside the likes of Amon Tobin, Coldcut and Kid [...]

Livid Block ME – the new block on the block

Livid make cool stuff. For them, it’s not about spewing out plastic controllers to the mass market, but very much about crafting wood and metal into objects of beauty and functionality. While they haven’t quite got the Apple resources to go unibody, they have taken their existing Block and streamlined its quirky screwiness – [...]

Inside New Komplete 7, New Instruments, Effects; Player Could Change Reaktor

When it comes to software sonic goodies, loads of virtualized gear you can add to the digital, computer-based studio, Komplete is one of the deepest boxes out there. Komplete 7, announced today, is the latest edition of Native Instruments’ bundle of virtual studio software. As always, that means a refresh of what’s in the box to recent upgrades of synths like Absynth, FM8, and Massive, plus drum instrument Battery, guitar effects and amp simulation Guitar Rig, and the modular creation powerhouse [...]

BMS-Chace, P&E Wing Preview Recording Metadata Collection Application

In 2007, the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing and BMS/Chace, a leading media data management firm, partnered with the Library of Congress to create both a standardized approach and a software model for gathering and managing metadata for recorded music. The resulting metadata standard, dubbed CCD (Content Creator Data), and accompanying studio collection application, were previewed June 14 and 15, 2010, in New York City at the DDEX (Digital Data Exchange, LLC) Plenary and NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Digital Task Force [...]

Warner Music Nashville Names Rod Riley President, CEO of Word Entertainment

Warner Music Nashville (WMN), the Nashville-based music operations of Warner Music Group Corp., announces that Rod Riley has been named president and CEO of Word Entertainment, WMG’s Christian music division. [...]

MOTU Releases DP Control App for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

MOTU has released DP Control, a free application that allows Digital Performer users to control DP over a Wi-Fi network using an iPhone, iPad or third-generation iPod Touch. Built specifically for use with Digital Performer Version 7.2 or later, DP Control gives users easy access to the most important transport and mixer functions for tracking, mixing and live [...]

Listen: Four Tet, Live and Remixed, Free on SoundCloud

Four Tet playing live. Photo ( CC-BY-ND ) Jonathan Fisher . Jon Hopkins – Vessel (Four Tet remix) by Four Tet Angel Echoes (Jon Hopkins remix) by Four Tet London-based Four Tet, aka Kieran Hebden, is a genre all his own, a maestro of electronic sounds and a superstar on Domino. [...]