All about Mutable’s Marbles random sampler – and a clever, just-released update

Mutable Instruments’ modules seemed poised to live forever, in synth terms. A clever update this week is a good reminder of the coolness of the Marbles random sampler.

In Russia, vintage MeeBlips have custom clones, thanks to open source hardware

The original version of our MeeBlip synth project has found a quirky new iteration in St. Petersburg – and it’s making some terrific grooves.

German music tech events enter the age of COVID-19; Musikmesse postponed

Novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, meet the musical instruments and music tech business. Events in Germany are threatened, and more could be in store worldwide.

That time in 1965 when a teen Ray Kurzweil made a computer compose music and met LBJ

At age 17, Ray Kurzweil – he of the “singularity” – wrote a pioneering piece of “AI” music software, and showed it off on a TV show with Steve Allen.

Here are ten hours of infinite fractals and falling Shepard’s Tones

Yesterday was one of the stranger 24 hours in the 15+ year history of producing this site, as you may have heard. So here is a palette cleanser, then, in case you have a … wine hangover.

Celebrate MeeB-leap Day weekend with these great synth vids – or make your own

One extra day in the calendar is clearly a reason to spend one extra day playing with synths and making and sharing music. So we’ve decided to get MeeBlip in on that.

Gaze into the geometric sound and visual world of Alva Noto, with UNIEQAV

German music and media master Alva Noto, aka Carsten Nicolai, has released his full UNIEQAV audiovisual show online. In other words – get your sine wave on, ears and eyeballs, from the comfort of your own home.

Elektron’s Model:Cycles, revealed – so it’s Model:Samples, but FM

Elektron’s Model:Cycles is revealed, and – it’s exactly the structure, form factor, and UI of the Model:Samples, but with FM synthesis.

Polyend is teasing some new thing – and it seems really cool

Polish manufacturer Polyend, who have made everything from elaborate grid sequencers to polysynths to robotic percussion – have something new in store.

Wendy Carlos, pioneering composer, will finally get the biography she has earned

Wendy Carlos, a giant of electronic music composition, should at last get a complete, well-deserved biography. The book is set to be published next month. Michigan-based musicologist Amanda Sewell is set to profile the music legend in a debut title published by Oxford University Press, in a 264-page hardcover edition (and ebook) due on March […]