The most powerful impact anyone can have in music is not just to find their own voice but to help others find theirs. It means that song echoing across the hills. And across hardware and software, few have shared passion and understanding of DIY musical expression quite like Darwin Grosse.

Okay, creative pros or itinerant machine art producers or fugitive digital bohemian technomusicologists or whatever we call ourselves – a lot of news just dropped at WWDC, but here’s the stuff that likely matters most to you.

It’s time to become a visual escape artist. Houdini, the 3D procedural tool from SideFX, is vital secret sauce in visuals, including live and immersive AV. But what’s it about – either technically how to use this thing or why and how to get inspired? There are some great recent videos from the Houdini folks with just that in mind. Don’t forget, too – it’s free for Unreal and Unity use.

Sinevibes’ Artemiy Pavlov keeps working away in Ukraine. Stator is a tape wobble simulator, yes, but in typical Sinevibes fashion, the sound and interface take something familiar into a place that’s personal and unique.

Dave Smith was someone who brought all of us in electronic music instruments closer – and I don’t only mean through his contributions to MIDI. News reached us yesterday that the legendary engineer had died at age 72. I’m not at all surprised that it happened as he was doing what he loves, following up […]

Ableton Live 11.2 has hit public beta. You get AUv3 support – which means your iPad effects and instruments may have just gotten way more useful – and improvements to Reverb and more. Let’s dig in (and compare the 11.2 Reverb to the one available since the Cretaceous period).

Well, New York – city that once birthed CDM – I’m back this week. Come meet in person at 343 Labs on W 23rd St. Thursday night and I’ll talk about some experimental sound design techniques with modular and how they can fit techno, all using free tools. Free workshop, free software, no gear needed.

Analog Obsession is creating some beautiful free plug-ins. And for all the various analog EQ emulations out there, here’s a unique take – combine them into a single set of easy-access “best” bands.

It’s dubbed Ukrainian Music Forces, and it’s an online event you can watch from 6PM Kyiv time. Tim Exile and Endlesss have gone full online jam and full web3 with this one, down to NFTs that fund Ukraine’s Ministry of Health. And there’s a terrific lineup of underground Ukrainian artists to catch. Details:

What good is music and music technology in moments of crisis and trauma? Beirut Synthesizer Center co-founders talk about just that – and how much it has meant to those not specializing in music as well as those who do. Now as this project grows, they’ve also had a chance to learn how to make projects effective and sustainable – lessons worth sharing in your part of the world, too.