It’s an arbitrary division of time. But watching the calendar tick is a chance to review what really matters. And ignore the naysayers: this is a wonderful time for music, in quality and diversity, not just quantity. So, let’s use the beginning of the new year to queue up the best music from the old. […]

Much can be said and felt with the human voice without words – and that’s where Robert AA Lowe comes in. With his solo drone/improvisational project Lichens, or lending his talents as a singer, synthesist, and instrumentalist to the likes of OM, Lowe has carved out a unique and powerful space as an artist with […]

Reaktor Blocks is already a lovely hybrid. It has the open-ended sound design possibilities and knob-tweaking delights of modular instruments, down to the look and feel of that gear. But it blends those design features with the sound-making capabilities of digital software – and you never run out of cables, space, or cash. Of course, […]

Urs Heckmann just combined “reverb” with “experimental, possibly sonically unstable plug-in with unpredictable results.” And it’s free. Urs – how did you know exactly what I wanted for Christmas?

In the past weeks, I’ve had the good fortune to talk to astronauts and aeronautical engineers, to artists in residence in space centers (with ESA) and aboard “vomet comet” airplane microgravity experiments (in Russia). A common theme has emerged. Just as images from space once transformed our perception, the next frontier is sound. From spatial sound […]

In an array of triangles forming trees and snowflakes, a festive holiday geometric pattern turns into a musical playset. It’s a free browser toy from Ableton, in celebration of the holidays, and a nice little diversion. Looks like someone had fun during a hackday or something. Of course, this is also momentous as we’ve never […]

Apple’s tablet has grown in popularity partly as a sketchpad for doing less, and focusing more. A clean slate for music, it’s also a clean slate for software design. Or, that’s its potential. But while the iPad has become a platform for extraordinary instruments and controllers, for many of us it hasn’t yet become a […]

Technology has done a strange thing to musicians: it’s turned us all into, well, loners. It didn’t used to be this way. Musicians on instruments ranging from folk ensembles to symphony orchestras are able to join up and keep time with one another. So why not do the same with tech? Ableton’s new Link technology promises […]

CDM quietly turned eleven years old this year (after humble beginnings). But it’s not where we’ve been I want to share – it’s where we’re going. And that begins with a new site design and server infrastructure. You’ve been absolutely extraordinary in your support as readers and, more than that, a community, as we’ve grown over the […]

IRCAM is Paris’ legendary research center. It’s the place where the original Max was born, and it’s still a hub for some of the brightest minds in sound in the world. IRCAMAX 2 is a new set of effects and instruments for Max for Live. And it does some amazing stuff – though maybe the […]