Alvin Lucier, who saw sonic poetry in pencils and soundscapes everywhere, has died

An imaginative generation continues to pass away from us, now with the death of Alvin Lucier.

Here’s a free custom VCV Rack module controlling tempo and time in Ableton Live

Now that VCV Rack Pro 2 is here, Rack works properly as a plug-in. And here’s an advanced application for it – trying new ways of working with clock and time.

VCV Rack 2 arrives – standalone is still free, $99 intro gets plug-ins with VST right away – details

The anticipated VCV Rack 2 is here and out of beta. What will it support? What does the release mean for compatibility with modules? What will it cost if you opt for the ‘Pro’ version? All the details here – but yeah, you can finally run VCV Rack inside your DAW.

The Prince symbol has been salvaged from a 1993 floppy disk

Prince was way ahead of non-fungible tokens – with a symbol that was intended to make life a pain-in-the-a** for the record label. (Non-f***able totem?) And now Anil Dash and Limor Fried/Adafruit have brought back that image from a floppy.

Polyend and Cyclone Analogic have rare discounts on their hardware

Two last hardware deals for you in the Black Friday – Cyber Monday sales – Polyend and TR/TB clonemaker Cyclone Analogic have discounts on their excellent boutique hardware. Polyend has a 15% discount (“SALE15”) on everything they make – that includes two machines that have reached the end of their life, the beautiful Perc drumming […]

The best music and creative hardware deals for Cyber Monday from Amazon

Amazon has a surprising sale on Roland and Novation drum machines, among others. Here are some top picks. The big surprise comes from some of my favorite Roland boxes, if you’ve been following CDM this year. Heck, I don’t have the TR-06 and kinda want one thanks to its trigger ins, so I may cause […]

The best deals for creative and live visual software you can still get on Cyber Monday

Creative visual software doesn’t get as much action in Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales – but don’t tune out, because it’s the only week of the year some major VJ tools get discounted. It’s a good thing, too, because with more global lockdowns looming, Earth needs visuals. Resolume is the biggest story here, with […]

Freakshow Industries’ Black Friday plug-in anti-sale will charge you more, but you can also steal

Oh, they aren’t kidding when they say “anti-sale.” In honor of Black Friday, plug-in maker Freakshow Industries (“audio effects for the end-times”) has increased their prices. But you can also pirate the plug-ins directly from their site.

The best Black Friday deals for music software

Black Friday, Black month, Black November – whatever time span this now means, here are hand-picked examples of some of the best deals on music-making software.

Futility is a shortcut-packed answer to working faster in Ableton Live, and it’s just four bucks

Futility v4, developed in Max for Live, has just arrived. And it’s an incredible timesaver – get channel strip, mixing, arming, and device settings right under your fingertips, anywhere in Live, even in the Arrangement. Cost: 4EUR+.