You can BBQ and think about synths. Memorial Day in the USA is bringing a bunch of music tech discounts – including some surprisingly steep ones. Here’s a guide.

How does the new Ableton Push perform as an instrument – with those new expressive pads? We invited artist Kyoka (Raster) to try out Push in live improvisation.

Start with a chemical process that grows crystals and silicon for semiconductors, build a multi-layered 6-7 voice drum machine around it, cover it with patch points and clusters of knobs and joysticks, and you get the Czochralski cells. It’s a complex drum machine rather unlike anything before it.

Bandcamp United announced late last week that Bandcamp workers had voted to unionize. In a year that’s bringing deep economic uncertainties and layoffs, there’s one more hopeful narrative for workers: the organizing movement is growing.

It’s been a long time coming, but Logic Pro’s leap to the iPad is an impressive one. You get a most of the editing, mixing, instruments, and effects that you have on desktop – provided you’ve got an iPad capable of running it. And it’s a killer environment for third-party iOS plug-ins, to boot. Here’s what’s inside.

The new Push represents a technical leap forward for Ableton, both in terms of its upgradeable, Intel-based standalone architecture and its new pad sensor tech. I got a chance to speak to the folks at Ableton about some of those details, and how the hardware evolved. We also have some early answers for those curious about connecting gear or developing in Max for Live.

Ableton today introduced their long-awaited third-generation Push hardware. The layout and functionality are familiar, but there’s new hardware including new pads, MPE support, and audio + CV + MIDI connectivity, plus standalone operation and upgradeability. CDM has talked to Ableton and tested the gear with prerelease software.

Sound recordist, producer, audiovisual producer, and modular experimentalist Behrooz Farahani is spinning deep ambient excursions live in modular. And sometimes there’s literal spinning.

Meanwhile, at Roland… Check your bingo cards, because I’ve got … “the 1980s…” … “digital” … “Roland rackmount digital delays” … “BOSS” … “floor pedal” and … “Eddie Van Halen.” Who has bingo?

In the midst of lots of splashy effects, Soundtoys’ latest is an exercise in subtlety and precision. These plates are as lush as you’d expect, but they stand apart in giving you detailed control over their results.