Artists Dieter Doepfer: Completing the Circuit If any one individual can be said to be responsible for the resurgence of modular synthesis over the past decade, it would have to be Dieter Doepfer. With the introduction of the Eurorack standard for his own company’s A-100 modular system in 1995, Doepfer opened the way for other manufacturers...
Artists Fabian Russ: Electrifying the Classics with Circular Sound For some, reinventing the likes of Bach and Haydn with computer software amounts to cultural heresy. For German composer and sound designer Fabian Russ, it’s his ticket to working with some of the most respected soloists in modern classical music. Russ deconstructs and reassembles canonical classics using Simpler and routinely...
News First Video Tutorial and Two New Modules for OSCiLLOT Don’t think that Max for Cats has been napping since the release of OSCiLLOT. Two new modules have just been added to the collection for your patching pleasure; a comb filter and an extremely useful (and extremely fun) feedback module that lets you send the output of a module back...
Artists Jimmy Edgar: Working the System Modular synthesisers don’t exactly spring to mind when listening to Jimmy Edgar’s music. His slick style is born out of the crucible of funk and R&B, and is influenced by the mutant strains of electro, house and techno issuing from his native Detroit. Basically, it sounds sexy in a way...
Artists Mayur Narvekar Talks Tabla, Tradition and Live The origins of traditional Indian music stretch back thousands of years into the foggy recesses of history. Learning an instrument like tabla or sitar was a life’s work demanding knowledge of an oral tradition handed down through generations. In contrast, modern music production software has existed for only a few...
Artists Keith Fullerton Whitman: Navigating the Modular Maze There’s a conspicuous amount of attention on the field of modular these days. While in the past modular systems were the mark of a specialist, they’ve now become an option pitched at the prosumer. But for those thinking of diving in, there are caveats that need exploring. Firsthand knowledge from...
News OSCiLLOT: Modular Synthesis Comes to Live While modular synthesis has been around for decades, the past few years have seen a huge revival of interest in all things analog and patchable. The emergence of a whole slew of new module manufacturers has gone hand in hand with a re-discovery among electronic musicians of the creative possibilities...
Downloads Download a Live Set from Laidback Luke How many times have you listened to an immaculately produced track and wondered how they did it? Perfect mixdowns can seem mysterious and unattainable, especially when you’re using the same production tools as a top-flight producer, but your results don’t sound that way. Perhaps a look under the hood of...
News Introducing Alter Echo and Holder: Two Powerful New Devices for Creative Sound Design Searching for new sounds can lead you down a rabbit hole of effects chains and complex routing. It’s all too easy to throw on more and more processing tools when you’re looking for something. A more efficient method is to use plug-ins which combine the best elements of different effects...
Artists Input/Output: Afrikan Sciences In our series Input/Output, we pull up a chair in the studios of producers from the Ableton Community, inviting them to shed light on the inspirations, techniques and technologies that feed into their production process, and the latest music to come out of it.Arriving via the ever-adventurous PAN label, 'Circuitous'...
Artists Controlling Live with Oculus Rift’s Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) has, for many years, been a medium suggestive of a far-off future and technologies more likely found in science fiction than in real life. But the past two years have seen the possibilities of VR back in the spotlight, driven in no small part by Oculus VR’s...
Downloads Herrmutt Lobby: Hijacked Controllers and Hands-on Music Since the rise of laptops and MIDI controllers it’s been hard to say exactly how “live” electronic music performances really are. A lot of these set-ups are a long way from the responsive, hands-on control you’d get from a guitar or saxaphone, and it leaves some producers and musicians looking...
News New Pack by EarthMoments: Lé Slow Lé Slow is a collection of darkly atmospheric, cinematic textures, loops and sounds. EarthMoments’ team of producers and engineers has fed an array of acoustic and electric sound sources through state-of-the-art analog and digital processing to conjure up a unique library of languid, dreamy and unconventional sounds.Included in the Pack...
Artists Seekae: Beating the Worry The late 2000s were a fertile time for beat-centric interpretations of electronica. New artists, such as Sydney trio Seekae, combined the unquantized shuffle of Dilla-school hip hop with the wide-screen emotions of classic EDM. Seekae in particular always showed potential to go somewhere further; their 2008 debut The Sound of...
Downloads A Gift for the Holidays from Ableton & Sample Magic We consider ourselves lucky here at Ableton HQ; that’s because we’ve spent a year being inspired by the innovation and creativity of the Ableton Community across the globe. Whether it’s producers, artists or developers pushing technology into unexpected realms, or musicians and teachers supporting and educating one another, there’s a...
Artists Videos of 2014: Five of our Favorites Our final roundup for 2014 features five videos which struck a chord with us this year. Coming from contexts as diverse as Yale University and the forests of Sweden, this suite of films are equal parts inspiring and illuminating. See how the power of the human voice and technology can...
