The synth renaissance has led to yet another interesting wrinkle: the limited edition celebrity synth. But before we get to that, apparently the first thing you need to know is that Giorgio Moroder really loves his Novation MiniNova. The little synth, with its vocoder and dial-up presets, has apparently followed him around on tour. Making […]

Ready for some poppy, retro Cocteau Twins feeling in your Mac or Windows plug-in collection? The aptly-named “Vintage Drum Elements” does the job for free. The sound source for the plug-in drum machine is the classic Yamaha RX5, with its distinctive, synthetic sound sets. And while this is advertised for your synthpop and chillwave 80s […]

Fraction by Sinevibes video demo from Sinevibes on Vimeo. Sinevibes has been on a roll lately. The one-man Mac plug-in shop keeps churning out elegant, attractive plug-ins with a consistent color-coded visual interface, variations on a theme that invariably include clever twists. And now, this. Fraction isn’t the first slice repeater plug-in. But it might […]

Motion will return to judge us all for our VJing. The time is nigh. Uh… significantly later than we said, but … like, totally pretty nigh. And enough of this “hey you run created digital music and mm…. that motion and noise or is there another one.” One CDM. Better visual coverage. Before was okay; […]

With users loyal to some great tools, how do you get attention as a different music production tool? Well, a $60 price, a solid free version, Linux support, and some cool features will definitely get you somewhere. So don’t overlook the lesser-known options yet – if they can make you happy and get your work […]

For me, Apollo is what changed the value equation and appeal of Universal Audio. Suddenly, we weren’t talking about buying hardware just to run some nice effects – which, good as those effects were, limited the audience for the UAD. With Apollo, the hardware splurge made sense. It was simply one of the better audio […]

Documentary MusicMakers Hacklab at CTM Festival 2015 from CDM on Vimeo. With computers and electricity or without it, musical performance has the potential to be expressive, powerful, immediate. Making music live in front of an audience demands spontaneous commitment. What technology can allow us to is to wire up that potential to other fields in […]

Blah, blah, the influence of the Roland drum machines, their musical/cultural significance… I’ve actually written those words before, so I’ll skip doing it this time. In case the YouTube subtitles aren’t working, let me translate the German from the making-of video below: “We decided to make a giant bit of pr0n for you because these […]

The challenge in making tools, as in making anything else, is really the making. It’s one thing for an idea to exist in your head, another to really get down to construction. And very often great engineering means testing, means building the idea and then refining it. So prototyping is everything. That could explain the […]

From small boxes, big sound, and enormous fun… Something has happened in the evolution of electronic music production. What was once so often a slow process has become a jam, what was carefully orchestrated on screens finds itself embodied in gear. And small and affordable “toys” can often deliver the greatest “switch-on-and-play” satisfaction. Helsinki’s Recue […]