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.
Music
Tbilisi’s music scene is still out in the streets, defiant
Music December 27, 2024
Interview: Michael Vincent Waller connects concert music and hip-hop
Music Stories December 26, 2024
Live radio from Gaza, Khan Younis and Bethlehem-Hebron choirs meet
Music December 24, 2024
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.
Doepfer gets back to its Eurorack roots, announcing Basic System 3
From Dieter Doepfer, the fine fellow who coined “Eurorack,” the Basic System 3 looks like a true return to form. This is an open-ended analog system with some room to grow, revealed in a new teaser to start out our week.