As part of CDM's ongoing construction of the "Completely Free Studio," I'm working on assembling good freeware hosts for Windows and Mac. (Linux, of course, being a no-brainer!) Here's what's on my recommend list at the moment: Audio editor: Audacity (open source), Win/Mac/Linux, with the addition of the VST Enabler / LADSPA bridge for Linux […]

Today I'm speaking to an audience at the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology of Connecticut College about finding a meeting place between visual expression and sound. For attendees (and you readers at home), here are some helpful links: Physical Modeling and Sound Creation: Apple's Logic (Mac-only) is deep as it is, but its Sculpture […]

Open source Linux drum machine Hydrogen has made its way to Mac OS X; Johnathan Dempsey has created binaries for easy installation (10.3 required). Hydrogen is still in development, but this is worth trying, and you can bet you'll see many more Linux audio tools on the Mac. Install Jack first if you haven't already, […]

If you need an excuse to suit up for an extravehicular activity in the cosmos of sound, Absynth is back again. Native Instruments quietly dropped Absynth 6.1, with oft-requested LFO retrigger and undo/redo, plus a surprise: a new audio modulator.

The prolific Kaximia of Tembra Modular and the series “Let’s explore modular synthesis” transports us to a Synth Days holiday weekend event in Kyiv. Let’s welcome her CDM writing debut, as she gives us a window into a Ukrainian modular scene that’s thriving, despite everything.

SP-404MKII version 5.50 brings two long-awaited features — side chain compression and exFAT SD compatibility. Here are those details, plus a #404day round-up of the fabulous videos you’re making. #404day has come to a conclusion in Japan — but that means my feed is alive with the sound of Japanese (mostly) 404 videos! Y’all always […]

Feeling the need to make music making a little less solitary? In this multi-part series, we’ll be exploring some resources for adapting Ableton Live to playing with others — playing in tune, in sync, sharing ideas, and producing together. So let’s start as instrumental ensembles do: by tuning up.

Imagine granular synthesis, taken in entirely different dimensions. That’s Incline — Cristian Vogel’s cross-bred mixture of microsound and machine learning segmentation. It explodes sounds into a highly configurable topography, then applies precise envelopes, with unique rhythmic and textural results. Here’s how to explore those strange new worlds.

Oliver Greschke’s Elastic OSC continues to blossom as a mobile instrument. Packed with open-source algorithms from Mutable Instruments’ Plaits as oscillators, Elastic OSC has added powerful modulation and now supports Android and MIDI Polyphonic Expression.

Now, raw data can be a musical source in Ableton Live 12 Clips — for free. Manifest Audio’s Datafree shows the potential of Live’s Generators, transforming any pasted numbers into music and sound. There’s a deeper rabbit hole to go down, but here’s a great way to start. Let’s try it with freely accessible climate data and make some weather-based melodies.