Craig Anderton

With the restraining order from last year’s Anderton Awards still in effect (but c’mon—no one actually died from the food), this year the world’s only virtual awards show relied on a distinguished panel of judges, none of whom had...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Dec 1, 2017

Guitars are more likely to be associated with tubes and retro technology than cutting-edge software, but that’s changing in everything from recording to live sound. Although guitars aren’t total strangers to technology—MIDI guitar continues to maintain...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Nov 13, 2017

If you look at “new product” introductions at trade shows, often they’re more about reminding people of what was a new product a couple of trade shows ago. But as Yoda said, “Always in motion is the...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Oct 17, 2017

Recently, I ran across a family photo that was taken in 1890, affixed to a cardboard backing—and was as good as the day it was processed. Will anyone be able to view cell phone pictures 127 years...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Sep 21, 2017

Two recent events underscore changes in the world of digital audio. The first is the end of licensing for MP3 data compression (or more accurately, “data omission”), and the second is the news that Sony is installing six new...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Aug 14, 2017

Last month’s column covered the Windows Creators update, and although there was a fair amount of detail on the Surface Dial, I mentioned Pen support only in passing. However, now that a DAW has actually incorporated Microsoft Pen support,...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Jul 17, 2017

Although concerns about Apple’s commitment to pro-level creators are likely overblown—Apple probably has a few tricks up its sleeve for 2018—Microsoft is doing a carpe diem and targeting the creative market. In fact, its third major update to Windows...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Jun 23, 2017

Since its introduction, the Mac’s share of the pro audio market has been hugely disproportionate to its general market share. It upended the Amiga—at the time, a better choice for multimedia—and the Atari line, which promoted its musical chops....

By Craig Anderton ⋅ May 17, 2017

Although Apple wasn’t at NAMM, it chose that time slot to introduce Logic Pro X 10.3. And in typical Apple fashion, it embodied three of the trends that are making a lot of noise in our pro audio world:...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Apr 8, 2017

NAMM has been making an effort to get pro audio more involved in the show, and the 2017 NAMM convention had more bait than usual to reel in the professional crowd. The new generation of audio interfaces is all...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Mar 10, 2017

When plugins first appeared, the goal was often to provide virtual equivalents of hardware devices—similarly to how CGI originally reproduced reality less expensively. But just as CGI graduated to creating virtual environments that could exist only inside a computer,...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Feb 14, 2017

Let’s salute the unsung hero of modern recording software: test and measurement. In the days of tape, your test gear was VU meters that sorta indicated when something was happening, a volt-ohmmeter in case you had to fix a...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Jan 12, 2017

Here’s an interesting workforce statistic: Far more jobs are lost to robots than to companies sending jobs overseas. But of course, as recording engineers, we don’t have to worry about that; our expertise will always be required to mix...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Dec 14, 2016

It’s been said the only survivors of a nuclear war would be cockroaches and Cher’s career…but then there’s the Anderton Awards, "honoring" the best at this year's AES Convention. The class action lawsuit regarding the main course...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Nov 1, 2016

With a few exceptions, most recent DAW changes have been incremental: We haven’t seen huge breakthroughs like when Opcode’s Vision merged hard disk audio with MIDI to create StudioVision, Steinberg introduced Virtual Studio Technology, Sonic Foundry invented a new...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Sep 1, 2016

When multitrack tape recording progressed beyond a few tracks, a new phrase was added to the recording lexicon: “Fix it in the mix,�� with the implication being that if some issues cropped up while tracking, you ...

By Craig Anderton ⋅ Aug 12, 2016