My 14 yr old son seems to be developing into a reasonably talented musician...he seems to be able to make music come out of whatever instrument he picks up. He has been messing around with audacity...laying down tracks with multiple instruments using nothing more than a simple mic plugged into a laptop. My musical abilities are negative but I am reasonably technically competent. I would like to custom build a hardware/software solution that would only be used for his music and will really allow him to stretch and experiment. I have built a number of computers and I can make the hardware and software work. I just dont know what pieces I need. [more inside]
posted on Feb 15, 2008 - 18 answers

Alternative (to Itunes) music transfer service for the Ipod Classic that doesn't suck? [more inside]
posted on Jan 23, 2008 - 11 answers

Is everyone else having as much trouble with the iPod Classic 160 as me? What can be done? [more inside]
posted on Nov 7, 2007 - 11 answers

I think we're due for a new discussion about alternatives to iTunes for both iPod management and listening to music. [more inside]
posted on Jul 14, 2007 - 11 answers

Can someone with an Apple TV tell me something? When you listen to a music track on your Apple TV, does the play count of the song in the relevant iTunes library increase?
posted on May 14, 2007 - 4 answers

Help! Still trying to get my Xbox 360 to play nice with my PC [more inside]
posted on Dec 31, 2006 - 7 answers

What's the easiest way to network my Windows PC with my Xbox 360 to stream music from PC --> Xbox? [more inside]
posted on Dec 16, 2006 - 3 answers

Help using Amarok with a removable drive [more inside]
posted on Nov 12, 2006 - 2 answers

I just bought a new laptop for school. How do I transfer my music/video library from my old computer to my new one? [more inside]
posted on Aug 29, 2006 - 11 answers

Help me find the great Linux downloader for Emusic that I lost. [more inside]
posted on Jul 22, 2006 - 2 answers

media players (on winxp) play automatically when you populate the playlist window - help me stop them from doing so! I dont want them to play until I hit the play button. Am I the only one who wants this? [more inside]
posted on Jun 21, 2006 - 6 answers

Looking for a (preferably freeware) program that will scan multiple hard drives and return duplicate music files based on MD5 checksum or similar method. I am using Windows XP. [more inside]
posted on Jun 1, 2006 - 6 answers

New Mac glitch music making software? [more inside]
posted on Jan 11, 2006 - 2 answers

Audiofilter: What is the cheapest way to get pure digital sound from a computer 10~15 feet away from a surround sound system? [more inside]
posted on Aug 1, 2005 - 5 answers

ComputerMusicFilter: Is there a good piece of OS X software for learning to play the piano? I'd like to buy one of those inexpensive USB keyboards and noodle around in GarageBand, but my actualy musical skills are sorely out of practice, and I don't think they're going to just come back to me, either.
posted on Feb 16, 2005 - 3 answers

Remotely controlling iTunes / WinAmp on Win2000 with a PDA?
posted on Feb 10, 2005 - 4 answers

What software/hardware do you use in creating mashups?
posted on Dec 4, 2004 - 8 answers

I compute and play music in the same room, and recently I've been getting nagging notions that maybe all the excess vibrations caused my amplifiers and drums and all such as that may not be the best thing to have my computer around? what do you reckon? and I also have my actual tower on my desk next to a pretty sizable audio monitor...should I be worrying about the magnet inside of the speakers?
posted on Jul 2, 2004 - 5 answers

I just finished putting a computer together for my sister... a fresh install of Windows 2000 Pro. Every time iTunes or WinAmp accesses the drive (during playback), I can hear the crackly drive noise coming through the external speakers (left-side only in fact). As soon as I stop iTunes, the noise stops. Restart iTunes, the noise isn't there until it starts reading the drive again. This only happens when using either of those two pieces of software (meaning I haven't been able to reproduce the problem in any other way). What is the best way to go about troubleshooting this?
posted on May 10, 2004 - 6 answers

Music software reccomendation needed: I'm looking for a very simple VSTi host application for Windows. All it needs to do is load a VSTi plugin and send external MIDI input to it - no sequencing, no effect chains. And, it needs to work on Windows 95. (There seem to be a few of these available for MacOSX, but Google doesn't give me any for Windows) Any suggestions?
posted on May 9, 2004 - 7 answers

I've been playing around with the idea of using a genetic algorithm for automatic music composition, but I can't seem to find a decent introduction/reference on the subject -- the best I've seen is a few relatively high-level academic papers. Could anyone direct me to a good source, or even give a brief overview? Thanks!
posted on Apr 29, 2004 - 10 answers

I'm an amateur musician and since Multiple Sclerosis ate my hands, I can't play my guitar. So want to try to make music with my computer. I've got a fast Win XP machine, a SOundblaster card with midi and a midi keyboard, CoolEdit, Cakewalk and lots of ideas.

What I want to do is find a program that'll let me play my midi keyboard and record the music, allowing me to edit/ Quantize blah blah (Cakewalk allows me this). But I want those midi notes to trigger samples that I've got as . wavs, transposing them to correct note (so it plays the real sounds, not tinny midi stuff), and obviously allow me to multi-track to layer the stuff into the songs in my head.

Anyone recommend a program that's easy to get to grips with/ a way of saving the samples so I can do this/ a book or online resource to get me started?
posted on Jan 18, 2004 - 9 answers

What windows (2K) software do you prefer to rip CDs to mp3? (Aside from iTunes, which I had to uninstall after it totally hosed my machine.)
posted on Jan 12, 2004 - 10 answers

I'm looking for a gadget - essentially a low powered stereo FM transmitter I can plug into the sound output of my PC and broadcast the music on my harddrive to the various clock radios and stereos around my house. I guess a 30m range would be ample (although it does have to get through some pretty thick walls). So far the closest thing I've found are tiny battery-powered transmitters designed to plug into a CD-walkman and sit next to your car stereo while you drive - pretty useless for my purposes. Does anyone out there know of a suitable transmitter? And here's the crunch - do you think it would even be legal in Australia?
posted on Dec 13, 2003 - 8 answers

Is it possible to direct sound from my computer to multiple destinations? In other words, I'd like to listen to MP3s (Winamp) through speakers positioned various places in my home, but I also want users of the computer to be able to hear system sounds, game sounds, etc. (and have those sounds NOT output to the remote speakers). Can I use two sound cards for this, and assign various software to output to the appropriate card? I'm on XP pro and I like long walks on the beach.
posted on Dec 8, 2003 - 10 answers