If you haven't already seen this then you HAVE to investigate. This has to be one of the best online music apps we've ever seen! Play with all the drum machines and synths in real-time and patch them together through the available Boss-esque effects – genius! If the magazine comes out late this month, we place all the blame on this online app!!!

www.hobnox.com

The heading might sound like a scam by a particularly cruel spam bot, but the cruelest thing in all of this is that it seems to be very true. Freecycle London was bombarded over the weekend when a particularly generous chap posted an ad to "get rid of quite a bit of equipment suitable for budding musicans who do not mind if the stuff is quite old. I'm not too sure if anyone wants this antiqueted stuff... quite bashed yamaha CS-80 (though in need of a bit of restoration it works)minimoog, which seems better preserved".

Apprently the response was "amazing" but it still had to go for free. Right now, there's some very jammy folk playing their Minimoog and CS-80s with a huge grin on their face. Watch Freecycle's registration skyrocket, but unless you're willing to sit through 900 emails a week about toasters looking for a good home, I'm going to go all out and claim that this is never going to happen again. Pick up your jaw from the floor and move on...arrrrg!

via music thing

We've just shipped off a shortlist to the mighty Freemasons so they can choose a winner of the remix competition for their album track Pacific we ran back in December 2007 (FM195). As you can see, listening to hundereds of versions of the same track can be a bit of a mind-fryer – but nothing a few coffees and Red Bull couldn't iron out.
Thanks to everyone one that entered. The selection was of such a high standard you didn't make our jobs any easier. Official winner announcement in FM203, August.

Here's a peek at our next issue
On Sale 6th June

Here at FM we've just got back from the incredible Springfestival in Graz, Austria. We managed to speak to some incredible people and cue up some exiciting stuff for the future issues of FM! Expect to see Arabian Prince aka Professor X, Egyptian Lover, Busy P (head of Ed Banger Records and Daft Punk's Manager!) DJ Mehdi, Discocaine aka Marflow, Josh Wink, Robert Owens, Punks Jump Up!, Roni Size, plus so many more!



It has to be said that a personal FM highlight wasn't artist related at all, as every day we headed over to the Synthesizer Park where we spent hours jamming on the collection of rare analogue synths! With so many beautiful sounding instruments to play on there just want enough hours in the day! Over 3000 people past through Graz's Kunsthaus to try these beauties! Expect to see more detail on this incredible collection in the next FM!

For now, here's a YouTube Preview from the guys at Austria's RadioFM4

MySpace and Mars Planets are on the search for aspiring radio presenters, as they launch a brand new radio show entitled MySpace Mars Planets Radio. But Best of all for us Music Making bods, it could be a chance to get some exposure for your tunes. The weekly, hour-long show will start from Thursday 12th June at 7pm and will be hosted by DJ and TV presenter Alex Zane plus a a co-presenter chosen from the deepest depths of MySpace.

Bands and musicians are also asked to submit tracks to be considered for the weekly playlist – with the potential of being heard by some of the 9-million registered users in the UK. The show will feature music from MySpace bands, the latest news on what’s happening on the site and lots of banter between Mr Zane and that week’s co-presenter. How well they do will be crucial because at the end of each show users will vote whether they should ‘stay’ or ‘go’. head over to uk.myspace.com/myspacemarsplanetsradio for more info.

We've previously pestered you to get involved with Digidesign's Pro Tools Music Creation events but here's one last shot to make sure you don't miss out. The London event (on Wednesday 28th May) is all booked up but there's still a few places free at the...

More fun from the Spectrasonics site where another in their series of 'behind the scenes' insights lays bear another aspect of their forthcoming übersynth Omnisphere. We're following this one very closely as – quite frankly – it sounds like no other...

Future Music's 200th issue is on sale today!

Time to get out the bi-centennial tootle-pipe and give Future Music a right royal parping. Yes, Britain's best-loved music technology magazine celebrates is second centenary today. For 200 issues Future Music has been bringing you behind the scenes access to the great and the good in modern music. Starting with issue one's face off with Gary Numan, through to issue 200's studio sessions with Joey Negro and Benga, Future Music has 'done' the lot. And in that time we've covered every new trend in music making and reviewed every piece of gear from the early dawn of sampling through to the latest cutting edge synths and software. Respect is due, obviously.

To celebrate this fact DVD Ed Will has dredged his archives and put together an ace video showing off just some of the stars who've graced our pages and free monthly cover-mounted DVD. Click below for a journey through time and be sure to check out issue 200 of Future Music for yourself. It's on sale today. Parp!

If you're a Future Music subscriber (if not, why not?) the chances are you received issue 200 of Future Music through your 'box this morning. Yes. Issue 200. Already. Expect more 200-related postage to follow on the blog very shortly but for now – as promised in our fabulous 'We Are 200' feature within Future Music 200 – here's a video reposting of one of our highest highs. Quite literally.

Back in issue 177 we took a whole band up in a hot air balloon and recorded a track. No, really. It was Guinness certified and everything. We held the world record for 'highest altitude for a musical recording' and 'highest gig' - we sold two tickets, y'see. We'd still hold them today if Jamiroquai hadn't got wind of it via their sponsors Focusrite and recorded a track on a private jet.

Which - let's face it – is clearly cheating.

Anyway, watch the above video for the full 20-minute movie of the event. Just in case you don't believe us.