If you don’t know the hyperfuturist post-anthropocene duo* MIRA新伝統 aka Honami Higuchi and Raphael Leray, you need to. But now for three bucks – $3!! – you can drop their absolutely addictive Max for Live mayhem into your Ableton Live set. Should you? You should.
Music
Funk music history and Black liberation in a full-length documentary, online
Hip hop, new wave, techno, and house are inseparable from funk history – and any discussion of funk in the 1970s demands a conversation about Black liberation. Emmy winner and MacArthur Fellow Stanley Nelson and Grammy-nominated producer Nicole London have produced a full-length history.
OXI Instruments’ grid sequencer is about to get a big MKII upgrade
OXI ONE MKII is inbound, with preorders about to start. OXI Instruments is taking their packed grid sequencer and adding more of everything, while keeping the compact size. (Missed opportunity not to call this the “one two,” though!)
Nasko’s completely free N-IRIS is a spectrum disperser – why that’s cool
Nasko, the prolific and imaginative software developer, is back with a new one – and it’s completely free, running in Plug Data (Pd) on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It’s a convolution-based spectrum disperser. Say what? Well, you get a powerful, precise, fairly rare method for generating impulse responses for convolution tools, like Kilohearts Convolution (now on sale), the one just added to Serum 2, and more. Or just play it live, because that also sounds kind of awesome.
IINA, open-source Swift media player, is what macOS has been missing
Built in Swift, now extensible with JavaScript plug-ins, IINA is the free media player that macOS needed. Hey, everybody: play with a fresh, minimalist player that handles local files, music, and streaming with aplomb. (Hey, old people: it’s like QuickTime Pro is back!)
DynaBunny, horrifying Easter bitcrusher plug-in and iOS app, is free now
Hey, kids, look, it’s the Easter Bunny! And listen to the way the beast helps your beautiful song to evolve! Okay, if the folks at Caelum Audio wanted to sell us on their new DynaBit plugin, this isn’t the worst way – especially as even this holiday freebie has some powerful features. They’ve got some other free downloads, too.
Knobula Monumatic, the 8-voice, multi-algorithm MPE polysynth in 12HP
Who says modular has to be all about monosynths? Certainly not Knobula, who followed up their Poly Cinematic with this 8-voice polysynth in just 12HP, packed with multiple oscillator and filter modes, built-in reverb, and full MPE support.
Benn Jordan’s AI poison pill and the weird world of adversarial noise
Benn Jordan’s latest video proposes a way to fight back when generative AI music services rip off music for their data sets. It’s not ready for prime time yet, but it does offer a window into the wild, wonderful world of adversarial noise poisoning attacks.
Vela reverb, now in open beta, opens up rich reverbs you can reshape
Vela, a new reverb from Sonic Academy’s Sonic Sounds line, is now in open beta. And yes, I’m here to tempt your RAS – Reverb Acquisition Syndrome again. The range of reverberation emulations here, combined with node-based editing, might mean you do need another reverb. (Sorry/not sorry.)
Intellijel Multigrain, a stereo morphing granular sampler module
It’s about time for a new granular dream module, and the Intellijel Multigrain could be a real contender. Available now, it packs stereo morphing granular powers into 20HP and US$479. (And yes, USA, you can import this from Canada!) I’ve had an advance look at the manual and I’m ready to wrap my granular brain around this one.