data.train Max for Live instrument-effect mangles and transforms any sample or source

The latest Dillon Baston creation is really special – a do-everything modulated sample player and effect. That green CRT-style display might make you assume it’s just about some glitch – and it definitely does do that if you want. But go deeper, and this is an extraordinarily versatile effect.

PsyTexx is a forgotten tracker for Palm PDAs – with features like distortion

While speaking of developer Alexander Zolotov, aka WarmPlace (also the name of his 2005 album), here’s some rare footage of his unique tracker that came before SunVox.

Inflation, begone: SunVox is still donationware, and 2.1 makes it slicker and more powerful

The runs-on-any-OS modular music studio got a major 2.1 update this week, with better high-res graphics, a new keyboard, and more. It’s a synth. It’s a tracker. It runs on Raspberry Pi so you can make your own mobile music hardware. It’s stupidly good – and those keys make it easy to jam with on the go. SunVox is a bright music maker even in hard times.

Learn modular MetaSounds in Unreal, free, and start thinking in procedural sound

It was once the stuff of dreams — a patchable, modular environment for sound, synthesis, music, and procedural generative audio. Now it’s free (MetaSounds) in a free game engine (Unreal Engine). You just have to learn to use it – which is why this free comprehensive tutorial series by our friend Matt Spendlove is a must.

Nonlinear Labs’ C15, the human-centered keyboard instrument, expands sound design features

Nonlinear Labs has unveiled a major firmware update for its expression-packed C15 “musicians, not machines” keyboard instrument. No LFOs? No problem: modulation and envelopes are now massively expanded in ways that should intrigue sound designers and keyboardists alike.

Tune in live to sound experiments, performance, bent Game Boys, more from Radio AlHara

Bethlehem-founded international sound platform Radio AlHara is celebrating their collective involvement in CTM Festival with a don’t-miss program today of adventurous sonic exploration and talk. Tune in (live or we’ll add archives as available)! No FOMO, because you just don’t MO.

Scatter: a granular cloud plug-in with minimalist controls and lovely shimmering pitch

Amidst many granular tools out there, Scatter is nicely focused – intuitive controls plus elegant pitch modulation options. It can be a shimmer reverb as much as a granular cloud effect, marrying grain soundscapes with classic digital pitch effects.

Pirouette machines: sound and computation from screw cans and fluidics, with Ioana Vreme Moser

What would electronic machines be like without our usual resources? What about sound from old screw cans and radiosensitivity, or the reclaimed science of fluidics and swirls of water? Romanian-born, Berlin-based artist Ioana Vreme Moser asks those questions in her work, today at CTM Festival, in a discussion you can catch live online.

The latest TouchDesigner roundtable comes to us from inside Berlin’s Zeiss-Großplanetarium

It’s an even rounder roundtable – inside an epic planetarium dome. The latest TouchDesigner roundtable falls in a major couple of weeks for the world media art scene as it descends on Berlin for Transmediale and CTM. That means a very special edition on TouchDesigner and spatial imagery and sound.

Soundwide, parent of Native Instruments and iZotope, lays off approximately 8% of staff

Soundwide on Wednesday laid off approximately 8% of their employees, across their stable of brands. That means at least one major music technology company follows layoffs in tech and media starting this year.