There’s a drool-worthy new keyboard synth this week bearing the name KORG. The surprise: it comes one day after a widely-anticipated product announcement, and it comes from a single hacker, not KORG. One $25 embedded computer plus one controller equals one hackable, lovely instrument – with knobs and patch cords, no less. So, it’s hard […]

Apart from a new workstation keyboard (well-covered by Synthtopia), the hardware news from Korg today is all about making the microKORG line more appealing to customers. That includes an XL+ model with additional sounds, and new color options across the board celebrating the microKORG’s tenth anniversary. (Japanese and UK sites from Korg apparently pre-empted a […]

In this age of maximalist, aggressive productions, the leafy green imagery for Pole’s waldgeschichten (literally, “forest stories”) fits perfectly. The trilogy of releases, the latest arriving at the end of last week, is easy-going and reserved. Each sound is precisely placed, gently shuffling interlaced dub-like patterns set against calm swells, sometimes resembling the cry of […]

Translating between the visual and the musical is never a perfect science. But maybe that’s the point — maybe it’s the oblique quality of transforming a picture into a sonic score that’s so appealing. SonicPhoto is the latest application to attempt the feat. Following in the footsteps of MetaSynth and Photosounder, it makes each pixel […]

If electronic music sometimes seems to contain the secret dance language of insects, mysterious coded rhythms and swarms of sound, an EP released this summer by an English producer makes the connection explicit. Bioni Samp sends us his strange and wonderful sonic journey into the colony. In tunes alternately atmospheric and danceable, at least of […]

Producing dazzling, elaborate visuals doesn’t have to mean ensnaring live music in pre-defined tracks. In the latest episode of this ongoing series, we look on Create Digital Music at a new show for the act ‘Feed Me’ – the kind of story I love, crossing the Music and Motion boundaries. Here’s a key excerpt on […]

Producing dazzling, elaborate visuals doesn’t have to mean ensnaring live music in pre-defined tracks. In the latest episode of this ongoing series, we look on Create Digital Music at a new show for the act ‘Feed Me’ – the kind of story I love, crossing the Music and Motion boundaries. Here’s a key excerpt on […]

Being popular as a person may be a complex formula. But for keyboard synths, “a fun, cute, cheap date” just about covers it. And — sorry, any snobs out there, but no complaints about that. So it is that Novation has a 37-keyboard that combines lots of sound and effects from the company’s UltraNova into […]

Looks smart. There are smart features coming in version 1.8, too – and you get Massive for free. Photos by Arvid Jense for CDM. In living color: the popular drum machine – combining integrated hardware and software – is more colorful, but also more usable, via updates to the screen and pads alike. We’ve gotten […]

RGB pads, custom hardware colors, and time stretching. Photo: Arvid Jense for CDM. Updated: Maschine is now more colorful (via new hardware), has new accessories including a handy stand, and updated, more usable software. CDM has an exclusive hands-on with the new hardware with impressions, updates on what’s changed in the hardware and software, and […]