Tim Exile built an experimental modular system, all about playability

“Music production feels pointless now,” says Tim — but years after walking away from DAWs, he’s embraced instrument building. New Modular System is a patchable environment, constructed in Reaktor, that’s truly Exile-ish in philosophy. It’s not about a bunch of wire connections. You drop in colored modules and get straight to tweaking, generating, and playing — with wild, massively diverse results.

Sonify data in Ableton Live with a free MIDI Tool; weather data walkthrough

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.

Peter Kirn - March 25, 2026

The developer of Tweakbench wants to remake the DAW without linear time

The Digital Audio Workstation can never quite escape the timeline and its roots in multitrack tape. Tweakbench’s new Noemi, which entered alpha last month, starts from scratch. What if music in the DAW could constantly evolve and change? What if the DAW were non-deterministic?

Peter Kirn - March 4, 2026

Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse is available now from Eventide

Peter Kirn - February 17, 2026

Here’s Laurie Spiegel introducing Music Mouse in the 1980s

Peter Kirn - February 16, 2026

SonicSketch DAW interface with audio controls, post-processing for image, and audio effects. In the center, the Indaw Anticline visualized seismic data, with a waveform puck in red moving across a teal path through the black and white image.

Live out your Xenakis fantasies, free in your browser, with SonicSketch

Peter Kirn - February 9, 2026

Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse, the Mac’s first instrument, in Eventide reboot

Peter Kirn - January 25, 2026

As much triggering as you can handle: Noise Engineering Multi Repetitor

Peter Kirn - January 22, 2026

ANIMEVOX by castpixel is a free retro anime-style sound fx generator

Peter Kirn - January 18, 2026