Hands-on with Akai’s new iMPC Pro for iPad: Mobile Beat Production

MPC-style editing – on the go. iMPC Pro samples other apps, and iTunes, and a big library of sounds, and then makes those sounds easy to play from your fingers (or special accessory hardware).

Elektron and KORG volca Jam, and Quick Thoughts on Why We Love Hardware

We’re not so much in the habit of posting jams on CDM, but this one is especially nice – even through the freak-out visuals. And it comes from friends – Nigel Mullaney, with recording and engineering by Ian Boddy. Seen in the film: Elektron Analog4 keys Elektron Octatrak Elektron Machinedrum KORG volca series Look closely […]

There’s an Unofficial Eurorack Version of MeeBlip anode

You can’t buy it – it’s a one-of-a-kind model – but someone was enough in love with the sound of MeeBlip anode that they built their own modular version.

British Synth Power: Modulus Music 002 Polysynth Now in Clearer Pictures, Sounds

The 002 is starting to look like another synth you won’t be able to afford, but will drool over – like the synth equivalent of watching an Aston Martin roll by. But boy, is it sounding fantastic. Everything we loved about the Monowave appears to be massively expanded in polyphonic form, a full-on, big budget […]

Squeezebox of the Future: Playing the Striso [Video]

It’s a beautiful, sunny day in London. A velveteen grassy green field calls out under pure blue skies and lazy clouds. And… you can’t see your laptop in the glare, you’re out of battery, and your music studio is underground. Not only will you be miserable, you’ll be playing alone. So, kudos to Striso, the […]

How to Add a Tuner and Other Guitar Essentials, Free, for Ableton Live and More

Computers – a category now very likely including the phone in your pocket – open up worlds of utility that previously required dedicated devices. Audio recorder? Metronome? Tuner? There’s really no reason that shouldn’t be right in the box. That said, our friend Marco Raaphorst was musing on the absence of a guitar tuner in […]

A New Lab Opens Music Making to People with Learning Disabilities

Let’s face it: the initial audience for the first version of music tech is often the developers. That impulse to build something for yourself is a perfectly reasonable one. But music technology is constantly producing new ways of creating music, and that means it has to learn quickly. Unlike, say, a guitar, it can’t build […]

M-Audio’s Trigger Finger Pro, in Videos: Think Three Devices in One

M-Audio’s first Trigger Finger might be the most ubiquitous controller in laptop music. Pads, faders, knobs. It was almost a stupidly simple equation, but it caught on. The Trigger Finger Pro is something different. It takes on three roles: 1. It’s a controller for included software. If you want hands-on control of software right away, […]

Apple is Still Going Pro, from Hardware to Pro App Updates [Editorial]

There’s an oft-repeated conventional wisdom about Apple that I think is just plain wrong, and it goes something like this: The success of the iPhone and iPad means that Apple is now a consumer company, and doesn’t care about pros. Now, let’s parse the above statement and say Apple sometimes makes decisions pro audiences don’t […]

Surprise: A New British Boutique Polysynth is Coming – Modulus Music 002

We have mono synths galore, but true polyphonic instruments are rarer. And while the images are blurry and details are vague, an upcoming English instrument has just the kind of pedigree to grab our attention. SonicState broke the story yesterday, but additional details have been dripping out on social media. It’s called the modulus.002. What […]