Remembering Lilian Schwartz, digital artist who embraced humanity

We mark the loss of Lilian Schwartz this week at age 97. She’ll be remembered for her impact on the craft of artmaking with computers and her vision for how to push human skill in digital media. And you can dive deep into her work online; here’s a set of links.

Transit 2 from Baby Audio, Andrew Huang: more FX, “Motion Modes”

Billed at launch as a “transition designer,” it was clear from the start that Transit 2 was a multi-effects workstation. Now, the Baby Audio / Andrew Huang collab has delivered on that with new effects and Motion Modes, making this a “motion effects playground.”

Modor DR-2, Belgian beast of a drum machine, now does basslines, too

Modor’s DR-2 is a monster truck of digital drum machines. Apart from being massive physically, it’s got brutal sounds — aggressive filters, pounding kicks — and its developer keeps packing in more. The latest update now adds bass models to the many features lurking behind this panel.

In music video, Lebanese duo Rust captures emotions of “Diaspora”

From Beirut to their current home, Prague, Rust – the duo of Petra Hawi and Hany Manja – have created an anthem and reflection on life far away from home. The video came out this week, at a moment when I know many, many diasporas are watching crises unfolding in parallel across the world.

monome and RNBO now play together – with a free drum sampler patch

The iconic monome grid just got native support from Cycling ’74’s RNBO, the patching tool for exporting Max sounds on other hardware and software environments. There’s a fun, free example patch to get you started, too.

Ubuntu Studio 24.10 – the free Linux audiovisual workstation – is here

Fully free, completely open source, Ubuntu Studio can breathe life into old machines and give you powerful free toolsets on new ones. It’s one of the easiest ways to get creative with Linux, and this new release looks better, supports more audio configurations, and is simpler to install, as well as bringing the latest-and-greatest package support.

Ableton Live 12.1, Note 1.2 are here too – and $9 Note has Move features

You might have forgotten with the Move launch, but Ableton this week also shipped the release versions of Live 12.1 for Mac and Windows and Note 1.2 for iOS. So, to anyone complaining about Move’s cost, you can get Note on your iPhone for $8.99.

How Unreal Engine visualizes weather – and shows storm surge is serious

Storm surges—like those from Hurricane Milton, which will hit Florida tonight—can be devastating. But it took 3D xR visualization to translate what that means in real terms before it’s too late. Here’s how that technology has arrived in recent years in another job for Unreal Engine (a tool you can use for free).

Music Thing Modular Workshop System: patch, hack, code, mic, jack in

Tom Whitwell and Thonk have revealed their latest: a complete modular system ready to be tote in its own hard case. The Workshop System has all the modular, patchable goodness you’d expect—contact mics and guitar/stereo line inputs—but it’s also got a computer inside, with unique programmable cards.

Ableton Move review: “baby Push” is sampler, mobile Live hardware

Ableton Move is compact, standalone, battery-powered hardware. It’s got all the synth, drum machine, and effects functionality of Ableton Note, but without the iPhone. And it means you get an easily portable Ableton Live instrument, with built-in MIDI sequencing and sampling. Price: 449 EUR / USD.