TROVARSI x ALX-106 deliver brutal techno fed by serious live chops

Nothing puts life back in the groove quite like playing live. In a pairing of two total legends, Trovarsi and ALX-106 team up to drop some hard-slapping techno in the classic mold out on DC-based Black Techno Matters. And it’s got all the animation of their live sets combined with pitch-perfect production. It’s top-quality techno right when we need it: no hype, no TikTok genres, just a devastating kick from the kick.

Here it is, a cover of Kendrick Lamar and more awesomeness for the Otamatone

What the world needs now is more unicorn chaser. And it’s hard to beat the adorable Japanese ribbon controller/squeezable mouth formant instrument, the CUBE Works/Maywa Denki Otamatone.

Universal Audio is giving away their 1176 compressor for Valentine’s Day

It’s a Valentine’s Day giveaway: UA is giving away their newest model plug-in, the UA 1176 Classic FET Compressor, today through February 28. This is the native plug-in that runs in any DAW.

Ableton Move 1.3: sample from USB-C, polyphonic expression over MIDI

Ableton quietly released an update to the Move mobile standalone instrument, and it’s got a surprise: you can now sample directly from the USB-C port.

Sonification Tools for Ableton Live now has a synth that plays data

Sonification Tools v2 from Manifest Audio and Noah Pred can now sonify text, images, video, and OSC – plus it’s got an all-new 8-voice polysynth that lets you play that data like an instrument. Noah also reflects on what sonifying data can mean.

Quick tutorials: Perlin Generator and LUTs in Resolume Wire

Let’s get irrationally excited about a Perlin noise-generating node in Wire, the visual patching environment inside live VJ software Resolume. All that, Resolume 7.22, and just a lot of noise:

Minimal Audio Wave Shifter hands-on: warped frequency modulator effect

Minimal Audio’s tasty Wave Shifter was one of the best upgrades in their Current 2.0 synth. The various stereo shifter/FM/AM/ring modulation tools make a lot of sense as a standalone effect plug-in, too – and now that’s just what we get. Here’s a look.

1982’s PPG Wave 2 arrives in reimagined Eurorack form

It’s been a long time since the PPG name graced hardware. That brand and its founder, Wolfgang Palm, laid the foundation for decades of wavetable synthesis. Now the PPG name is back via an officially authorized collaboration with Liquid Sky d-vices and Cornel Hecht (Hell Modular) – and authentic Wave 2 sounds are arriving in Eurorack.

Re-released Lemur app is now a one-time purchase, not subscription

After overwhelming feedback, the new developer of Lemur has announced the app will be a one-time $99 purchase, not a subscription. You can still try the app for free (with some functionality limitations). Here’s the statement.

Ableton Move is a hit for blind and low vision users; more like this, please

Ableton Move’s screen reader support is still getting rave reviews from blind and low-vision users, even though it’s not officially documented. Here’s more about how it works and more about what’s left to do – and an appeal to the entire industry to add more accessibility features.