A 1970s Swedish modular you probably never heard of was meant for every music school

Meet the Dataton 3000. The creation of Sweden’s Björn Sandlund, it sports a unique, friendly modular designed for educational use – and at one point, was recommended to be used in every music school. That history was lost, but this teaching-friendly design might just have been ahead of its time.

Procedural visuals for everybody: Houdini is now free for Unreal and Unity

Visualists and audiovisualists, rejoice. A major rabbit hole of 3D eye candy is now free for both Unreal and Unity.

Teenage Engineering are going deeper into consumer design, with startup Nothing

It’s like something out of a William Gibson plotline. Nothing is headquartered in London and will make … something. And apart from tapping alumni of Apple, Twitch, Reddit, YouTube, and a CEO from OnePlus – they’re also bringing in Swedish designers Teenage Engineering.

Monster cheat sheet: what’s new in Ableton Live 11 and how to start using it

You’ve seen some feature lists – and this time Ableton is even doing a 90-day free trial. But how do you actually dig into what’s new in Live 11 and start working? Here’s a deep guide to all the essentials.

Ableton Live 11, Max 8.1.x, are both live now; ask anything

Live 11 is now available – not a beta, final release. And there’s a slightly different Max version out this week, too. Here’s the quick overview:

Behind the scenes of a sci-fi 3D music video, as Defasten takes us deep into Notch

Notch is the latest “it” real-time visual effects tool. So as motion maven Defasten produced a dazzling science fiction video for my latest release, I asked him to share how it all works. Enter the nodegraph.

Senyawa to infinity: Alkisah is a 44-label release, a decentralized festival, and more

From Beirut to Berlin, Perth to Orange County, Moscow to Nanjing, 42 labels are joining the Indonesian underground in imagining a decentralized musical future. Even as DIY duo Senyawa planted the seeds, Alkisah seems a movement as much as an album release. The idea might seem crazy at first – share all the materials for […]

These instruments work with MPE right away, for an expressive Ableton Live 11 launch

What is this MPE “polyphonic expression” about? Well, you can get your hands all over the vintage test tone goodness of Fundamental, and a bunch of synths will be easier to control in Ableton Live 11 out of the box. Let’s explain.

Beads is the new sequel to Mutable Instruments’ Clouds, and an instant classic – again

Mutable Instruments’ Clouds defined granular instruments even beyond the modular world. Beads – making a surprise debut today – is a brilliant-looking follow-up, retaining the design but improving almost every element.

Jockey could be the custom OSC controller we’ve been waiting for (iOS, macOS)

You’ve got an iPhone or an iPad, and you want to control …. a Max patch, a live visual or VJ app, Unreal Engine, a live-coding synth in Tidal/SuperCollider. Finally, there’s a worthy, fresh option for making it happen – one that makes making layouts uncommonly easy.