Computer / Software

As iPhone-mania continues to grip the world, developers have been releasing music-related applications, some of which offer a surprising level of sophistication. Forget the idea of a laptop studio — it's time for the pocket studio!

Digital Village enjoy an established reputation for their custom music PCs, and are clearly looking to build upon that with their new Synergy range...

If you're shopping for a new CPU, the number of processor cores it has may not be the most important factor in how well it runs your music software. Read on to find out why...

Audio MIDI Setup is the Mac OS X utility that allows you to set up audio and MIDI devices. This month we're going to delve into the MIDI Devices tab, in order to explain how applications work with the MIDI hardware you've connected to your Mac.

If you've switched to Vista, or are about to take the plunge, check out our guide to the Vista audio tweaks that work — and those that don't.

PC Notes explains the simple measures that can reduce PC power consumption and cut your electricity bills.

Knowing where OS X stores important files, such as plug-ins and musically-related drivers, can often be vital when dealing with a misbehaving Mac. This month we go on an expedition through the domains of the OS X filing system...

Where to now for Gigastudio users, following the news that Tascam have discontinued the software's development? PC Notes makes some suggestions.

This August represents the tenth anniversary of Apple shipping the original iMac, so we take the opportunity to sit back and reminisce on how Mac technology has changed for musicians over the last decade.

The vast majority of computer-based musicians will need an audio interface, but with so many on the market, it can feel like an impossible task to decide which to buy. You can narrow down the choices significantly with the help of our essential guide.

Online security, the difference between audio and MIDI latency, and a software world record attempt: all this and more in the latest instalment of PC Notes...

At the first Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to be billed as a joint event for both Mac and iPhone developers, the iPhone took centre-stage and Apple dropped some breadcrumbs of information regarding the next major version of Mac OS X: Snow Leopard.

Very low-cost PCs with apparently good spec are not hard to come by these days — you can even pick one up at the local supermarket. But not all computers will work well for music and audio, so how do you avoid making a big mistake?

Even if you pack your PC with a full 4GB of RAM, you may only be able to access between 3GB and 3.5GB of it, and a single application is normally limited to using just 2GB. We explain why, and what you may be able to do about it...

This month we consider the return of Power PC processor technology to Apple, and also investigate how adding Apple's RAID card to the latest Mac Pro can improve audio performance.

The newly released Service Pack 3 will be the last one ever issued for Windows XP — and XP itself is due to go 'off the market' at the end of June. Are there any implications for the thousands of XP-using musicians out there?

The current top-end Mac Pro offers so much power that some audio software is playing catch-up just to be able to make use of it all. But how much power? We run some tests to find out.

Clicks or pops in your audio? The cause may be hardware devices taking more than their share of interrupt time. Now there's a utility that checks for this, and a PC Notes survey amassing results that could help you track down the source of your problems.

There's no lack of new Apple products to discuss this month, with a revamp of the company's portable line of MacBooks and MacBook Pros, and the iPhone SDK that will enable developers to create applications for what Apple hope will become the next significant platform.

Long considered to be terminally un-hip, string machines are on the brink of a revival. Will Gforce's VSM advance their rehabilitation?

The focus this month is on checking and improving the performance of your PC, with a new benchmark test just released and news of a useful tool that could help you pin down the source of latency-related problems.