It’s the most on-sale time of the year. You know the drill – but here are some select picks out of the flood, including some sales on tools that happen only this week, both for music creation and live visuals.
Music
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
Unreal Engine 5.1 goes wild: what’s new from foliage to generated sound
In an epic year for Epic, November does it again. Unreal Fest 2022 brought a bunch of sessions on the latest from Unreal Engine, from sound to visuals. And it’s worth making sure that doesn’t fly under the radar of creative musicians, composers, and visualists, especially because there are some updates in their unique audio engine, too.
Cherry Audio added an ultra-rare Yamaha organ to their CS-80 – let’s still Doctor Who this s***
CS-80 emulations have come and gone, but Cherry Audio dug into the ultra-rare “theatre model” Electone GX-707 organ (GX-1) – to give their model even more depth. It’s still a CS-80, though, so we’re still going to watch 1982 Doctor Who as a sound design tutorial.
Dnipro modular from Ukraine makes perfect modules – now with a deeper modulator
If you don’t know Dnipro modular, this maker originally from Kyiv is producing three utterly essential Eurorack devices. And now their excellent Krait knob recorder – LFO – random generator – modulator just got some major enhancements in a 1.7 update.
Free Valhalla Supermassive 2.5 has new modes – and Max for Live wrapper is updated, too
The lush, free plug-in Supermassive is turning 2.5 years old, with its wonderfully sumptuous reverb/delays, celebrating with two new modes, Scorpio and Libra. Plus, remember that Max for Live wrapper that lets it run like a native Live device? That got an update, too.
R-Kontrol is an advanced iPhone, iPad touch controller for Bitwig Studio
Bitwig Studio now gets its own dedicated iOS controller – and it’s got tons of deep features for controlling projects, clips, cues, devices, and the mixer.
Pamela’s PRO Workout, after 10 years of modular pattern making, is next-generation upgrade
ALM / Busy Circuits has given its do-everything pattern, clock, melody, and rhythm maker a next-gen overhaul with new features. It’s a nice way to celebrate ten years. Meet Pamela’s PRO Workout.
Bastl adds extra toppings to Pizza wave-shaping, FM oscillator
Bastl Instruments Pizza 1.1 is here, updating the wave-shaping and FM Eurorack oscillator module. Think more modulation, a new internal envelope mode, internal filtering, and even the ability to turn it into a full 3-operator FM voice.
Sequential Trigon-6: hands-on sounds and impressions of the new polysynth
Sequential finishes out 2022 with something new: a deep polysynth with an architecture that draws on the legacy of the Prophet-6 and OB-6, but stands next to them as a third classic electronic instrument.
Moog Minimoog Model D is back [Gallery]
The 1970 instrument is still the most iconic and influential keyboard synth of all time. And now it’s back in production for the first time this decade. But don’t worry – if you can’t afford a new synth right now, there’s also a discount on their excellent app and, uh, a very nice t-shirt.