Boiler Room? TikTok? They’ve got nothing on Detroit’s “The Scene,” the city’s own dance music show of the 70s and 80s on Black-owned WGPR-TV. And if you need a little groove in dark days, let’s turn the clock back to Halloween and Model 500 techno.
Music
Eclectic new ШЩЦ03 is a wintry memorial from London to Kyiv
Music December 1, 2023
Fire mix from Janus Rose, full of unreleased music: latest POST
Music December 1, 2023
Cologne, on the outskirts of Tehran: Timcheh Music Festival this week
Music November 29, 2023
A very Unreal Halloween: playable Theremin, scenes from cinema
People continue to do wild things with Unreal Engine and MetaSounds. Celebrate Halloween with an interactive Theremin deep dive tutorial, and some classic cinema scenes from Halloween and The Shining recreated as ambient environments.
Gnarly free Halloween saturation plug-ins from Acustica: distooooooortion
Necco wafers? Trail mix? No, we want only the best candy – and free saturation plug-ins. Acustica Audio has not one but two free gems that range from light heat to complete, horrifying destruction. Here’s how to grab them.
Here’s the current fix for ridding yourself of the macOS Orange Dot
Wait, Apple may be reading this – uh, my mistake. Did I say there was a workaround? No, no, that orange dot on the menu bar belongs there, and if it’s screwing up your live visual projection, hey, security. Oh, look, your Apple Watch is telling you it’s time to meditate and close your eyes! Ommmmmm…. (okay, are they gone? read on…)
Mac updates: M3 performance gains, including raytracing, shading
As expected, Apple unveiled the M3 generation of Apple Silicon last night. There are performance enhancements across the board, with features like raytracing and video performance being the major standouts. But as always, you may want to take your time, particularly with OS updates, and consider whether a refurb is your best value.
CDM Deals: Free UA LA-2A compressor, Perfect Circuit Halloween Sale
There are some big deals through October 31 – and happy Halloween. That includes the last call on Universal Audio’s beautiful LA-2A tube compressor plug-in and a ton of discounts over at Perfect Circuit (with Eurorack, drum machines, and more).
Fortnite gets a modular synth and custom music engine: Patchwork + UE
Every once in a while, the kind of cool thing you’d imagine does happen. So Harmonix, the music game dev, is still thriving at Epic, and they’ve got a surprise. They’ve built a full-blown modular synth that runs inside Fortnite, thanks to Unreal Engine and MetaSounds. And it’s capable of everything from letting creators add their own interactive music engine to multiplayer music, concerts, and more.
TouchDesigner Experimental build is hot: ProRes, Leap Motion, more upgrades
To see what’s in store for the audiovisual / generative-interactive 3D powerhouse TouchDesigner, look at the bleeding-edge “experimental” build release notes. And there’s a ton here – just a few highlights:
Free custom Push 3 standalone control: grab parameters with Max for Live
Ready to get more control – without a computer or mouse – using Ableton Push 3 in standalone mode? We’ve got some hacks for advanced parameter mapping from our friends Darren of Isotonik Studios and Elisabeth Homeland. And there’s a free download – no Max skills required.
JX-3P gets a PG-200, circuit mod, as Roland continues plug-in UI overhauls
Roland has been steadily overhauling their plug-in range, but this one you shouldn’t miss. The 1983 JX-3P was always an overlooked gem – think a JUNO with two oscillators, cross-mod, and more pitch modulation. But now Roland finally nails their software recreation by improving the sound and adding a simulation of the PG-200 programmer for hands-on control.