Alien and unicorn music and a free picture-to-MIDI tool to download now

The Internet: it’s still doing crazy things with MIDI. Just in the last few days, we’ve seen MIDI musical inventions go freshly viral. And keep reading even if you’ve seen some of that, as we’ve got a little bonus for you to get in on the fun. It started with producer Aleksander Vinter, aka Savant […]

You can compose entire interactive game scores in Nuendo 8, more

There isn’t one music production tool that fits everybody. What’s special about Steinberg’s Nuendo is that it is uniquely poised for high end production workflows. And maybe more than any other developer, Steinberg seems to be catering to the needs of A-list game scores. That says something not only about Steinberg, but about the changing […]

Now you can sync Ableton Link to your Eurorack with this open gizmo

Ableton Link has become the de facto, configuration-free, seamless sync and jamming protocol for software – with or without Ableton Live itself. (Even VJ app CoGe just joined the party.) Now, it’s time for hardware to get in on the fun. Vincenzo Pacella has been in touch for a while as he hacks away at […]

European Space Agency just gave away a bunch of space media for use

Quick — think about the planet you live on. What does Earth look like from above? Probably, some very clear imagery just popped into your head – iconic Apollo-era photography, or perhaps the more contemporary view of the planet from the orbit of the International Space Station. But our generations – ours, our parents’ and […]

Visionary Tatsuya Takahashi leaves a huge legacy as he departs KORG

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Tatsuya Takahasi and his team at KORG has changed the face of the modern synth industry. And I can even say that literally. “Tats” has become a household name in the international synth community in a way no other Japanese engineer, designer, or leader has. (Compare, for instance, […]

This nearly 12 hour modular synth marathon is actually entertaining

You might think that rigging a giant rack of modular synths and burying them in a tangle of synth cords and then live streaming a performance jam on them for nearly twelve hours straight is self-indulgent and overkill. And you’d be right. But if you also thought it would be no fun to watch, that […]

Here’s a cool handheld drum machine you can build with Arduino

“I’m the operator with my pocket calculator…” — and now you’re the engineer/builder, too. This excellent, copiously documented project by Hamood Nizwan / Gabriel Valencia packs a capable drum machine into a handheld, calculator-like format, complete with LCD display and pad triggers. Assembly above and — here’s the result: It’s simple stuff, but really cool. […]

There’s a new wave editor for Mac and Windows, and it looks promising

Most hardware and software for music making has generally gotten better, but not the dedicated audio editor. This once-proud genre of music software has fallen on hard times. Tools have been acquired, discontinued, received too-few updates. Some of the better tools we’re left with look like they came from another decade. And that’s too bad. […]

This video show you how Maschine maps to external MIDI gear

There are some questions about just how Maschine 2.6 works with MIDI gear after our story yesterday. Well, the fine folks at ADSR tutorials have gone and made a really clear, step-by-step walkthrough – and they even chose our very own fire engine-red MeeBlip triode to use as a demo. (That’s an easy choice, as […]

Maschine now makes it easy to work with external gear, spice up patterns

There are those things in music making that are just pure joy. There’s finding a particularly nice groove or pattern, or getting that really juicy synth or effect parameter to morph just so. And there’s getting to use all those toys and external gear you really love. So, while Maschine 2.6 is just a “point” […]