Tap tempo? Advanced granular controls? Deep delay? 4-band parametric EQ? All the deep features crammed into the beautifully compact Blackbox sampler features have now moved from beta to stable, and 1.9 to 2.0. Here’s a look.

The duo of Shahin Entezami and Behrang Najafi has produced a tape/digital release of reworks that buzzes and screams with the emotion-packed sounds of futuristic, electronic protest.

Elektron Digitakt 1.3. Polyend Tracker 1.4. But don’t miss what boutique maker 1010music are doing with their Blackbox sampler. Here’s a look at there just-out 1.9 firmware update – and some lovely music, too. In this season of nuanced, musical updates for desktop hardware, it’s great to get this, too. Andreas Roman reviewed the Blackbox […]

Reason is back to its roots, slicing up audio samples and letting you chop them up into instruments – but in a way that stacks up to the workflows of rival DAWs, production tools, and drum machines.

Influenced no doubt by their own Julia Bonar’s live sets, the folks at Endorphin.es are focusing their latest two modules on making it easier to play live.

If you were waiting for a Novation Circuit that can record samples right onto the hardware, this is the one – with a full eight sample tracks to play and packed with features.

Okay, everybody’s been seeing their computer too much lately. So Novation’s Circuit Tracks does stuff with no screen, no menus, even no power plug – and squeezes tons of musical power for the money, at US$399 (about 399 EUR with VAT).

Go bright and daring with Ableton Live color schemes – including one very green option – and load up with some samples from a Christmas ornament. It can be festive, or it can be … something else entirely.

Bitwig’s new 808 freebie is massively multisampled and uniquely integrated with Bitwig Studio – which opens up the possibility of playing bass lines on it or integrating it with modular patches in The Grid.

Hadouken! Teenage Engineering is partnering with game legends Capcom to bring Megaman and Street Fighter to their Pocket Operator instruments. The Swedish gear maker’s mobile line always had a lineage from classic gaming – think Nintendo’s Game & Watch series. But Teenagers love Capcom, so they cold-called the Japanese giant and resident game audio guru […]