Bandcamp United announced late last week that Bandcamp workers had voted to unionize. In a year that’s bringing deep economic uncertainties and layoffs, there’s one more hopeful narrative for workers: the organizing movement is growing.
Music
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
Liz Pelly’s Spotify book reveals how company uses ghost content
Music Tech Web December 19, 2024
Here’s what’s in Apple’s Logic Pro for iPad – and it’s more than you probably think (first impressions)
It’s been a long time coming, but Logic Pro’s leap to the iPad is an impressive one. You get a most of the editing, mixing, instruments, and effects that you have on desktop – provided you’ve got an iPad capable of running it. And it’s a killer environment for third-party iOS plug-ins, to boot. Here’s what’s inside.
Inside the new Ableton Push: all the technical details so far, from I/O to Max for Live
The new Push represents a technical leap forward for Ableton, both in terms of its upgradeable, Intel-based standalone architecture and its new pad sensor tech. I got a chance to speak to the folks at Ableton about some of those details, and how the hardware evolved. We also have some early answers for those curious about connecting gear or developing in Max for Live.
The new Ableton Push 3, at a glance: standalone, new pads, new platform
Ableton today introduced their long-awaited third-generation Push hardware. The layout and functionality are familiar, but there’s new hardware including new pads, MPE support, and audio + CV + MIDI connectivity, plus standalone operation and upgradeability. CDM has talked to Ableton and tested the gear with prerelease software.
Dark, eerie, modular sonic adventures from Tehran and the Caspian shore: bernisaun
Sound recordist, producer, audiovisual producer, and modular experimentalist Behrooz Farahani is spinning deep ambient excursions live in modular. And sometimes there’s literal spinning.
BOSS is bringing back an 80s Roland rackmount delay in a collab with the late Eddie Van Halen
Meanwhile, at Roland… Check your bingo cards, because I’ve got … “the 1980s…” … “digital” … “Roland rackmount digital delays” … “BOSS” … “floor pedal” and … “Eddie Van Halen.” Who has bingo?
Hands on: Soundtoys SuperPlate is five plate reverbs in one – and delivers on nuance
In the midst of lots of splashy effects, Soundtoys’ latest is an exercise in subtlety and precision. These plates are as lush as you’d expect, but they stand apart in giving you detailed control over their results.
Here’s Bruce McCulloch and a BOSS DR-660 for peak 90s drum machine vibes
“Check it out.” It’s just The Kids in the Hall’s Bruch McColloch and a BOSS DR-660, “the hottest drum and percussion sounds.” “And the surprisingly low price makes this the best value of any drum machine on the market.” Now add one Bruce. Just watch.
Rooms.xyz puts adorable remixable, code-able 3D rooms in your browser – you know, for kids
Okay, forget the vaporware “metaverse” business. You can open a browser tab and use this right now (in beta). Create, build, remix, and code 3D rooms for any kind of fun you imagine. While the big tech platform internet is unraveling, we can all play with stuff like this instead. And it’s kid-friendly – and a way for kids to learn to code (human coding, not AI).
Capitol Studios hand-built just four of these tube compressors – now UA has a plug-in
Universal Audio, which now make native plug-ins you can run anywhere (not on specialized hardware), has a couple of new releases this week. Most interesting: they’ve recreated an insanely rare tube compressor.