There are quite a few solid hardware sequencing options on the market – both standalone sequencers spanning from Arturia’s KeyStep and BeatStep Pro, through Novation’s SL MkIII, all the way to Squarp’s Pyramid, as well the capable sequencers built into … Continue reading Pioneer DJ/Toraiz SQUID: Review, tutorial and top 14 features that make it special
Most drum machines and sequencers don’t support importing MIDI clips or loops, which is a shame because there are plenty of MIDI clip/loop libraries out there with excellent content, many played by real drummers with obvious human groove and feel, … Continue reading Drum Machine Trick: How to Import Loops from a 100,000+ MIDI Clip Library into Almost Any Sequencer
FaderPort 8 from PreSonus is a controller designed to work with multiple DAWs, and its main differentiating feature compared to regular MIDI controllers is it motorized faders. While this may initially sound like a gimmick, using these faders is quite … Continue reading Do motorized faders improve DAW workflow? Ableton Live and Presonus FaderPort 8 Review
Blackbox is a new standalone sampler/sequencer/looper from 1010music – known for their powerful and flexible eurorack modules. It can play back samples chromatically and polyphonically, so you can play it like an instrument (including using single cycle waveforms) and it … Continue reading 1010Music Blackbox: Review and full workflow tutorial
Digitone Keys from Elektron has the same synthesis engine as the “regular” Digitone, but as it quite clear from the first time you look at it, something is very different: Elektron added a three octave keyboard, as well as the … Continue reading Elektron Digitone Keys – what’s new? Review, tutorial and comparison to Digitone
SWN – Spherical Wavetable Navigator – is a six voice stereo wavetable synth, and what makes it special is the way it stores wavetables and the “spherical” way it moves between them. Typical wavetable synths morph between a series of … Continue reading SWN by 4MS: Tutorial and Review of Spherical Wavetable Navigator
Moog’s Spectravox was Moogfest 2019’s Engineering Workshop synth. It’s not available commercially, at least not yet. The only way to get one is to have built it at the workshop (or buy it on eBay…). To see what it’s like … Continue reading Moog Spectravox – detailed overview, and How Vocoders Work
“Generative Music” is a term coined by Brian Eno to describe music that is always different and changing, generated by a system but led by creative guidelines, rather than typical music which follows a set of predetermined notes intended to … Continue reading Create Brian Eno style generative music: 20 ideas and tools for Ableton, Eurorack, DAWless and VCV
If you’ve seen my Eurorack videos, Plaits from Mutable Instruments is in many of them. It’s a very flexible module with 16 different sound engines and three control knobs for each. In MicroFreak, Arturia have taken 7 of the 16 … Continue reading Arturia MicroFreak Review and Massive Tutorial, including all 12 sound engines
Buzzzy is a Kickstarter Synth that has quite a few interesting traits in a tiny little package: it’s a 4 part multi timbral, stereo, digital MIDI module with up to 16 voice polyphony. This review is of a prototype, but … Continue reading Loopop Review: What is BUZZZY?