Look closer, as that’s not a Moog – it’s a clever, two-Elektron rig. Love that retro-styled case. Photo courtesy RPE Duo. Melding trumpet with live electronics and synths, RPE Duo is doing some hybrid jazz, further out. The pairing of (Doctors) Matt Postle (trumpet/synths) and Radek Rudnicki (electronics) is straight out of England – the […]

It’s a good time to be following this duo: Mouse on Mars seem to have entered a period of explosive creativity. And so it’s doubly a pleasure to be working with them now. As I hear younger artists complaining that they feel confined in musical expression, here are artists unafraid to explore strange, wonderful sonic […]

Synthesizers can sometimes seem stuck in a groove, an endless, repeating parade of identical virtual analog synths. If you want something different, the Hadron Particle Synthesizer could fit the bill. It’s a synth. It’s a sampler. It’s an effect. It’s a synth that can morph from synth to sampler to effect. Based on granular synthesis, […]

Combining even a couple of pieces of equipment can yield a kind of new, hybrid instrument. Our friend Chris Stack shares the latest in his fantastic ExperimentalSynth.com series, that haven for exploring strange, new sounds, seeking out new life and new electronic civilizations. Above: “Kevin Spears explores new soundscapes playing his kalimba through a Moog […]

Matt “Moldy” Moldover helped champion the notion of controllerism, focusing live performance on manipulation of digital parameters. In his latest music video, he shows off his latest creations. What’s nice about what he’s doing currently is that he’s able to augment traditional live rigs with buttons and sensors. Having your controls clamped to a mic […]

A thousand points of light! Okay, really, just a whole bunch of “Fixtures,” which allow DMX/ArtNET integration of lighting goodness with your MadMapper mapping rig. Image courtesy GarageCUBE. The future of mapping as technique is doing more than just mapping as a technique. And so, having seen how ArKaos targeted LED lighting, here’s the popular […]

On computers and most hardware, waveforms have been a “look, but don’t touch” affair. Now, that view is coupled with multi-touch capabilities. Samplr is, as the name implies, an app that focuses on working with sound. With rhythmic slicing modes and multi-touch manipulation of samples, it’s a lovely-looking way to surf sounds from your fingertips. […]

Torann EP Sampler from Lakker on Vimeo. Dara Smith sends this lovely, minimal meditation on particles drifting through space. I love that the visuals aren’t more active than they are, in fact, as if entering a beige, spinning atom. Ian Mc Donnell and Dara make up Dublin-based Lakker. Tracks: Summer Rains Mustard Crying Ciar Static […]

Torann EP Sampler from Lakker on Vimeo. Dara Smith sends this lovely, minimal meditation on particles drifting through space. I love that the visuals aren’t more active than they are, in fact, as if entering a beige, spinning atom. Ian Mc Donnell and Dara make up Dublin-based Lakker. Tracks: Summer Rains Mustard Crying Ciar Static […]

It must be the season of the DAW. After a bit of a quiet spell, we have DP8 (and moving in on Windows turf), SONAR X2 (announced at about the same time), and Live 9 all coming into relief. And now, it’s Steinberg’s Cubase 7. The surprise: these audio tools that seem to do everything […]