More Max for Live control for Push 3 standalone: OktoPush is born

The idea of a full-featured, dynamic, customizable performance template for Push 3 standalone continues to grow. Now, Darren from Isotonik is unveiling OktoPush Three, with dynamic chains, variations, and other improvements – and explains more of the Max for Live magic behind the scenes.

Early Black Friday: the best deals on synths, machines, and software

Black Friday, it seems, is not so much a day now as a state of mind. Whatever we’re calling it, we’ve got some terrific early deals from the KORG ARP 2600M at an all-time low price to stuff from Soundtoys, AAS, Plasmonic, Shaperbox, and some of the stores, and the big holiday week hasn’t even hit yet. Here are some hand-selected deals.

Captivate is a free, open source visual synth and DMX lighting tool

This live visual newcomer is off to a promising start: live DMX lighting, generative visuals (with video and photos), MIDI control, Ableton Link – and it’s free and open source. It’s coded in TypeScript, with downloads for macOS and Windows; Linux promised soon.

Roar, Ableton Live 12’s coloration-saturation effect, is a gem: video

Just when you thought you didn’t need another multi-stage distortion/coloration tool, along comes Roar. Live expert Madeleine Bloom (of Sonic Bloom) says it’s her favorite so far in Live 12, and she’s got a terrific in-depth video going through each feature. If you watch just one tutorial/feature before diving into the Live 12 beta when it arrives, this might be the one. Take a look:

Premiere: Vexillary’s “Animalic” 3D music video channels Alien, Venom

Your music video break begins now. From New York’s Vexillary and 3D artist Leo Andrade (genre: “Cyber Horror”) comes a music video channeling Alien and Venom to imagine a dark sci-fi world for this driving techno-pop anthem. Let’s watch:

Ableton Live 12: a guide to everything that’s new

Ableton has announced Live 12 today, with new tools for creating sounds, exploring musical ideas, and playing with the software as an instrument.

Black goo is the new oscilloscope: Love Hultén’s amazing ferrofluid synths

LEDs, cathode ray tubes, blinky lights – move over. Once you’ve seen dancing animated black goo frolicking in space to sound, you never go back. Love Hultén has been plus-ing their custom instruments with ferrofluids, and the results are simply magical.

Watch Videosync visuals in Ableton Live, plus Beam for lighting, Max

If you missed it earlier this fall, Tarik Barri has a great walkthrough of Videosync, the live visual software integrated with Ableton Live on the Mac. Bonus – from the same dev, Beam lets you perform live with lighting, and we can see that in action, too – plus there’s an early-bird edition just for Max.

Resolume 7.18: Finally, a Decks menu, plus a ton of tweaks

Okay, visualists and AV folks: Resolume is now on something like a two-month release cadence. This time, there’s everything from vertical text alignment and expanded OSC/MIDI monitoring to vibrance, and – about those Decks…

Roland FANTOM EX: Modeled analog, classic synths, new effects, more

Roland has updated the OS on their flagship FANTOM 6, 7, and 8 synths. It’s a major update, with everything from a shimmer reverb to Analog Circuit Behavior sounds, stage pianos to some classic synths. If you wanted just one keyboard to play everything Roland, the FANTOM is now that instrument.