It morphs, it step sequences, it generates – it’s an incredibly deep, polymetric, polyrhythmic MIDI sequencer for macOS that works especially well as a Logic Pro MIDI FX. And it’s free. Meet XiixiiQ. My Yule log for 2023 is probably feeding this into Sculpture.

The latest pattern tool for Ableton Live and Max for Live is a source of complex rhythms, new ideas, and performance tools. And it all started with a good read about a real drummer.

Bram Bos have made some pretty cool apps and they keep adding new functionality. Now, both Ruismaker and Ruismaker FM get a series of new features that make these apps even cooler than before. Here’s what’s new: – AU plugins are universal and have upgraded sound engines under the hood – Built-in preset managers for […]

There are a lot of hugely powerful things you can do with an environment like Reaktor. But that doesn’t necessarily suggest where to begin. The best way to get into a deep tool is often to solve a simple problem. At the Native Sessions installment on Reaktor 6, Nadine Raihani showed us a simple example […]

Ready to make your Ableton Live pattern programming a bit more polyrhythmic with the power of math? In Monday’s reflections and round-up of cycles and circles, I mentioned Euclidean evenness and Godfried Toussaint’s research. The basic idea is that a mathematical algorithm for spacing pulses has a lot in common with traditional preferences for polyrhythms […]

Loopseque on the iPad. Courtesy the developer. We continue our 3.14 celebration with a round-up of circular logic. There’s no reason apart from the printed score to assume music has to be divided into grids laid on rectangles. Even the “piano roll” as a concept began as just that – a roll. Cycles the world […]

Elektron is here with (maybe) a reason to sell old Elektron gear and buy something new with Digitone II. That news comes right on the heels of a big 1.3 firmware update, if you’d rather make existing gear better.

Modor’s DR-2 is a monster truck of digital drum machines. Apart from being massive physically, it’s got brutal sounds — aggressive filters, pounding kicks — and its developer keeps packing in more. The latest update now adds bass models to the many features lurking behind this panel.

You’ve seen plenty of gate sequencers and Euclidean generators. DivSkip is something different: It takes four channels of triggers and transforms them via eight different musical, performative modes. It’s a do-everything rhythmic wunderkind.

Live 12 is here – so now what? Here are twelve other ideas to try out, from timesavers to inspiration sources.