AMD Ryzen Zen 5 CPUs break iLok plug-ins, but a fix is coming from AMD

Musicians updating to AMD’s latest-and-greatest Ryzen 9000 Series / Ryzen AI 300 Series CPUs have found they’re unable to use PACE’s iLok License Manager and plug-ins that use its copy protection scheme. Fortunately, a fix from AMD is inbound that should resolve the issue. Here are the details.

Lebanon’s cultural scene is responding with emergency crisis centers

Amid mass Israeli attacks on the people of Lebanon, musicians, artists, journalists, and cultural institutions are banding together to provide emergency mutual aid. That includes our friends at the Beirut Synthesizer Center and other spaces, which have turned their facilities into shelters and stores for urgently needed supplies. Today was another horrifying day to be […]

Ableton Move is coming October 8 (teaser)

Ableton has quietly teased that “Ableton Move is coming soon,” with an image showing October 8. There’s a signup for email notification.

Remembering Achim Szepanski, Mille Plateaux founder and dissident

We’ve just learned of the passing of Achim Szepanski, founder of Mille Plateaux and Force Inc. labels, icon of glitch, “Clicks + Cuts,” and a visionary beacon of experimentalism across Germany and internationally. And just as importantly, a dissident. Here is a collection of remembrances in English and German.

Roland JUNO-D is a feature-packed mobile keyboard starting at $899

Roland’s JUNO-D may not be flashy, but it runs off USB-C and has features from the company’s flagships – ZEN-Core engine, sequencer, and Wave Expansion support – at a fraction of the price, starting at $899. There’s even the hammer-action D8 at $1299.

Arturia AstroLab keyboard updates: more instruments, more presets

Arturia has quietly updated the AstroLab keyboard, their surprisingly economical stage piano that runs the V Collection. There are new presets, new artist tributes, and most importantly, some of the instruments you may have been missing.

Give Ableton Live 12 a new look with free Themes: Dark, Retro, Remixed

Ableton Live 12’s new Themes do look great, but is that enough choice for us obsessive DAW users, working on productions into the wee hours? Absolutely not! And so we’re grateful that Madeleine Bloom continues to do the great work of producing terrific themes, all available as free downloads.

Turmoil and Turbulence modules are all about disrupting your gates

Nervous Squirrel’s latest modules focus on adding unpredictability to gates, whether internally generated or external. And you have to love that big “disruption” knob.

Andrea Cichecki’s live “In Nature” series brings modular into open air

There’s no reason synthesizers have to always appear in dingy industrial spaces – love those spaces as we do. Musician Andrea Chichecki has just completed the release of a three-part outdoor series of live performances on modular, and you can expect the same feeling of calm you might get from going along yourself.

DivSkip: multimode rhythmic processor from DivKid, Making Sound Machines

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.