It’s exactly as you might expect: sample libraries are at the point of being able to convincingly recreate entire symphony orchestras, close to original recordings. Composer Simon Passmore has done that with Star Wars and Apple’s Logic Pro.

Novation’s Circuit Rhythm is back, and it suddenly makes a lot more sense. The effects are editable, you can make scenes, you can sample in time (with fixed length recording), and in a first for samplers, there’s an explicit feature intended to let you beat match.

Designed by Aphex Twin, Samplebrain takes a new approach to samples – chopping up audio into a “brain” of little bits, networked by similarity. You can play it in real-time, free for all platforms, including Apple M1/M2.

Korg’s drumlogue was long expected, but now that it’s here, it looks like one of the most capable boxes from KORG ever. And that ‘logue SDK means you can customize it to do even more.

It’s a stunningly powerful groovebox you can run in a browser tab – and now, not only is it improved, but there’s a new default open sample library. Of course, that means you’ve got open sounds and patterns for use in other projects, too.

It’s a way of going truly off the grid – MIDI Tape Recorder captures and recalls performances as sample-accurate, like tape. It’s free for Mac and iOS now, from developer Geert Bevin / Uwyn.

The chalk is underwater, screaming like a chattering alien. Or that’s how it sounds through a hydrophone. Enter the weird world of some of Richard Devine’s field recordings – then grab the sounds for your own Creative Commons-licensed creations.

Bitwig users get a bunch of goodies in the just-announced 4.1. There are tons of Note FX devices with various features for organic and musical and simulated physics-based playability, plus a really smart way of handling color palettes, chains that trigger when you release Sampler notes, and more. She’s like a rainbow If you’re on […]

The two user-requested features missing from Roland’s official editor/librarian are available via third-party tools. That means you can get a plug-in editor/librarian to store settings with DAW projects, and now you can even get started with drag-and-drop sample loading.

The buzz online makes it clear – plenty of people still want the immediacy of the Roland SP-404 sampler. An MKII has been long anticipated – not to mention leaked – so let’s get directly into what’s new, and find out what else you want to know.