Essential mix: let an hour of tilde’s music energize you (then nerd out!)

Glitchy but driving broken beats are what’s for dinner. Hannover’s tilde (~) is a font of knowledge on topics from Pd/plugdata to Bitwig Studio Grid FX to mixing and mastering. And those skills translate to some genius grooves. Listen up to this full-power montage of all original music.

Tim Exile’s Finalist mixes and masters creatively, colorfully — with no AI

What if you could drop in a bunch of stems and let a plug-in mix and master for you, subtly or to extremes, with no “AI” involved? That’s the latest idea from Tim Exile, and it’s produces such quick, varied results that it can serve as a one-click way to hear your mix creatively from a different angle. Just when everyone had forgotten about Instagram filters, we finally see their equivalent in music. And it’s a delight.

Peter Kirn - October 14, 2025

Grayscale Nexus expands on Mutable’s keyframing – free now in VCV Rack

Mutable Instruments’ Frames had one of Émilie’s best and most underrated ideas: apply keyframing, as in animation and motion, to modular control. Now, Grayscale Modular is developing that concept with 12 channels and more control. It’s available for $399 as hardware, or you can try it right now in VCV Rack for free.

Peter Kirn - June 9, 2025