Chain, Chain, Chain: Crazy Nodal Note Sequencing Departs from Everyday Step...
Ready to step beyond normal step sequencers? Skip ahead in the tutorial videos here, and you’ll see what’s possible: elaborate grid patterns that don’t just play looped patterns ad infinitum. Now, as...
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Lauflicht 2 is One Tricked-Out Step Sequencer for Launchpad, Renoise
Late at night, you may hear them, a distant tapping of fingertips against pads and keys. They are the hackers, geeking away the late hours to make insanely-sophisticated custom musical contraptions,...
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Maschine, in Color: First CDM Hands-On With New Maschine Hardware, Software...
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...
View ArticleDueling Grids: A Duet for monome and MPC [Live Set of the Day]
Ocelot – Beyonica (Live) from Tim Shaw on Vimeo. Let’s again step back from the world of the industry to the realm of individual musicians and how they make tools make sounds. Tim Shaw’s music is a...
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Ableton Push: Integrated, Touch-Sensitive Hardware Control for Live [Details]
Now, Ableton is doing its own hardware. Sure, Ableton’s logo was on the Akai APC40 and Novation Launchpad, and yes, “engineering by Akai” is stamped on the Push. But make no mistake: this is really...
View ArticleVideo Walkthrough: Maschine Meets Ableton Live in New Template
New Year’s Resolution: hands off that mouse / trackpad. Let’s get more physical with our production. If you’re not eager to wait for Ableton’s Push hardware, or you’re just a fan of traditional pads...
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Midi Fighter Spectra: Crazy-Sexy Arcade Buttons, US$175.99 [Live+Serato+Traktor]
If you want to mash on some arcade buttons for your DJ or live set, your perfect hardware may have arrived. Sure, okay – you’ve seen this before. DJ TechTools followed up on their original,...
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Livid Base: Colored Pads Meet Touch Faders, $399 [Gallery]
RGB color grid? Mais ouis! Here, though, add in velocity-sensitive touch strips, too. Product photos courtesy Livid Instruments. So, other than lots of new analog monosynths, the one thing we now have...
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Ableton Gives Dates: March 5 for Live 9 Release, Push Pre-Order
If you’re eagerly awaiting Live 9, we now have solid dates from Ableton. The Berlin developer will release Live 9 to the public on March 5, available for immediate download. Their new Push hardware...
View ArticleFlight of the Bumblebee: Ableton’s Push Gets Its First Virtuoso Demo – And...
The melodic layouts of pads on Ableton’s new Push hardware do place notes in closer proximity, allowing you to perform virtuosic materials with added ease. Well, some added ease. You can bet what you...
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Grid Tricks: Japan and Jeremy Ellis Show Us How Maschine, MPC Can Be An...
They’re two alternative universes with musical wonders in them, places we wish we could live. They both begin with the letter ‘J.’ One is Japan; one is … Jeremy Ellis. Each might as well be their own...
View ArticleBitwig Watch: Endless, Open Modulation; Grid Control; Sounds from Thavius Beck
Yes, you have our attention. LF-Ogling this one could raise an eyebrow or two. We’ve been waiting for Bitwig betas to start to look like something that’s ready to use, and for Bitwig Studio to start...
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Live 9.1 Preview: Dual Monitors, More Push Sequencing, High-Quality Sample...
Side by side by Live 9.1. Dennis DeSantis shows new dual monitor support at the Kompakt pop-up in Berlin. Photo by Zoya Bassi for CDM. In the midst of a pop-up week of events held with Köln’s Kompakt...
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Interview: Sheffield’s The Black Dog Branch into Controllers, With...
Direct from artists to artists: a crowd-funded design for musicians. Photos courtesy Machinewerks. The Black Dog are titans of experimental techno and house, with a long record to match. (We reviewed –...
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Stirring Solo Vocal + Ableton Push: Thomas Piper, Live at Webster Hall
Grid and human. Photo courtesy Thomas Piper, live at Webster Hall (New York). If the computer can do one thing, it is to vastly expand what a single musician can do live. Whether you rise to that...
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aleph Soundcomputer: Interview with monome creator Brian Crabtree and Ezra...
aleph is something of a curiosity: it’s a dedicated box uniquely designed for sonic exploration that isn’t a conventional computer. It comes from the creator of the monome, but while dynamic mapping...
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30 Days of Free Ableton Push Tutorial Videos, Now Also Downloadable
Ableton’s Push really is growing on me; it’s astounding to have lots of the working methods from software integrated on a piece of hardware, in pads and buttons and knobs. But because it does so much,...
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DJing with Step Sequenced Traktor: Remix Decks Meet New Hardware
Step-sequenced Remix Decks make for a different level of Traktor performance – as much live as DJ. But it took an independent designer, not Native Instruments, to really push the concept. Images...
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Launchpad + Raspberry Pi = Standalone Grid Piano Practice Machine, Boots in...
A standalone grid musical instrument? Done. And it can be a new way to venture into the worlds of harmony. Marc “Nostromo” Resibois is back with another clever Raspberry Pi hack. We saw him last fall,...
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Free Mark Eats Sequencer, A Beautiful Example of What Pattern Making Can Be...
If we’re living in a golden age of resurgent synthesizers, we’re also in the midst of a renaissance in step sequencers. Faced with the challenge of making machines make musical sense, the lowly step...
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