Kliohearts’ software line is a treasure trove of effects. But Kliohearts Essentials alone is an impressive free collection of standalone plug-ins for anyone. You won’t want to sleep on the latest addition, Compactor, a deceptively simple “precision ducking” tool.

Modjaq’s Swimmer is a rare, deep-sea creature, trawled up from the depths of the Max for Live world. This is not your general-purpose modulation source. Think of it like an idiosyncratic Eurorack module — a source of specific gestures and a beautiful, briny gift from the ocean. I recommend embracing the oddness, but even so, […]

Summer vacation? You can tell a USA-born project because it doesn’t take one. Vidvox has a nice update to their VJ/live visual app VDMX that captures inter-app audio. And for absolutely any Mac user, there’s an awesome music visualizer that’s totally free — bringing you back to the fun you had with visualizers back in the day. Milkdrop is back on the Mac!

Lyra Pramuk’s Hymnal is an ecstatic, prophetic vision, a hybrid of synthesis and organicism in an improvised compositional structure with processed voice and strings, conveyed with striking intimacy. Lyra talks to us about inventing culture and reconnecting with musical roots while unlearning, all at once.

There’s the old saw about great avant-garde jazz being “the notes you don’t play.” But crafty subversion of the usual bassy wall-of-sound is core to Wrecked Lightship’s appeal. A buzzy synth with no top line, minimal percussion, an unidentifiable bit of atmosphere – it’s apt to remind you of staring at someone snoring in the pitch dark.  

Bitwig is having a hot, packed summer. And there’s one big teaser: we don’t know anything about it yet, but Bitwig Studio 6 beta is coming on August 27, as revealed briefly on Bitwig’s socials. In the meantime, let’s play with some Brazilian beats and explore controller integration.

What can the city of light be as a hub for TouchDesigner? Recently, the debut summit there offered a first look. The media art scene is defined by its communities — how they share practice and push one another further. So we invited Amir B Ash (OVVO Studio, MUTEK.AE) for insights into what Paris’ first TouchDesigner meeting brought and how you might apply it to communities where you live.

Erica Synths is reimagining a modular synth you’ve probably never heard of. In the late 1970s, Dutch publication Elektor Magazine put out something it called the Elektor Formant as a series of DIY kits. That modular system is getting a full reimagining and reboot from Erica Synths.

This has got to be one of the quickest routes to sheer drum happiness inside Ableton Live ever. Meet the pay-what-you-want/donationware Vertex by aorist (aka Tom Duncalf). It’s a bit like a Moog DFAM, but in the Live idiom, with a bunch of extras. You just need this one. Trust us.

I love this idea: take your LUTs (color Lookup Tables), and mess with them creatively via code. Resolume covers the technique in their latest tutorial, though you could also drop these into other environments (or your video editor). They’ve also got a how-to on packaging Wire presets, taking advantage of that functionality.