With Latent Terrain, crack open AI and explore neural synthesis in Max

“I’m not particularly interested in typing prompts to make stuff, I’m interested in breaking them and dissecting them,” writes Jasper Shuoyang Zheng as he introduces Latent Terrain. Now using an intuitive, elegantly designed open-source Max external and UI, you can play the weird world of neural audio codecs like an instrument, transforming your own sounds into new textures.

Turn Ableton Push 3 into a single expressive percussive surface, free

The most exciting add-on for Ableton Live this spring for me is actually not an Ableton Extension. It’s warpradius, a Max for Live device by Jon Doe One that transforms the entire grid into a single expressive percussion surface. It employs a Bessel membrane resonator model, a modal synthesis method that produces realistic, varied percussion sounds. And it’s free.

Peter Kirn - June 15, 2026

Niseko is a gorgeous, instant must-have additive synth for Ableton Live

Forget any associations you may have with additive synthesis. Monomono’s Niseko takes that harmonic content and makes it accessible and expressive, via the UI or an input (including Push and MPE).

Peter Kirn - May 29, 2026

This free tool lets you create interactive, live graphic scores in Ableton Live

Peter Kirn - May 15, 2026

MSteppySnap for Ableton Live makes modulation playable, maleable

Peter Kirn - April 24, 2026

CLÄPP II from Beardyman is the perfect Ableton Live clap — and more

Peter Kirn - April 6, 2026

Play together with Ableton Live, pt. 1: playing in tune

Peter Kirn - March 31, 2026

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

Peter Kirn - March 25, 2026

On 303 Day, acid bassline love abounds, and some freebies, too

Peter Kirn - March 3, 2026