NI Massive X synth sees first features, interface revealed

Native Instruments’ Massive synth defined a generation of soft synths and left a whole genre or two in its wake. But its sequel remains mysterious. Now the company is revealing some of what we can expect.

Visualize pitch like John Coltrane with this mystical image

Some musicians see Islamic mysticism; some the metaphysics of Einstein. But whether spiritual, theoretical, or both, even one John Coltrane pitch wheel is full of musical inspiration.

nanoloop reborn as standalone, Game Boy-inspired groovebox

nanoloop, beginning life as a Game Boy cartridge, helped ignite a craze in chip music by intuitively combining sequencing and sound. Now, its creator wants to make his own hardware.

Use Ableton Live faster with the free Live Enhancement Suite

Day in, day out, a lot of producers spend a lot of time editing in Ableton Live. Here’s a free tool that automates some common tasks so you can work more quickly – easing some FL Studio envy in the process.

Watch My Panda Shall Fly play KORG volcas with bits of metal

“Play your KORG volcas with bits of metal instead of your fingers” isn’t one of the Oblique Strategies, but maybe it ought to be.

Unique takes on delay and tremolo from K-Devices, now as plug-ins

K-Devices have brought alien interfaces and deep modulation to Max patches – now they’re doing plug-ins. And their approach to delay and tremolo isn’t quite like what you’ve seen before, a chance of break out of the usual patterns of how those work. Meet TTAP and WOV.

Mournful drone sounds of a repurposed HP test device

Hainbach continues to make beautiful sounds with esoteric or forgotten gear – this time, the “saddest drone machine,” a used HP 3782A Error Detector telco device.

Novation Circuit crams still more features: 1.8 update

There’s yet another firmware update for Novation’s Circuit, the inexpensive synth/drum groovebox. 1.8 adds new internal expression features like non-quantized recording, plus custom MIDI channels for use with external gear.

Design, meet music: gorgeous graphic scores from LETRA / TONE fest

Nine designers created graphics scores. Next, nine musicians will interpret them. LETRA / TONE festival is one of the more compelling experiments in festival programming – an adventure in crossing media. Here’s what it looks like.

SOMA’s Ether is a high-sensitivity ear for your electromagnetic world

Electronics are redefining what “sound” means – by remapping other signals into our audible spectrum. The latest is SOMA’s invention Ether, a “microphone” for electromagnetic fields. If that sounds familiar, this one’s a bit different than some EMF devices that came before.