Who wouldn’t want Pink Floyd’s backup vocalists at their fingertips? The tenor of many reviews of EastWest’s Hollywood Backup Singers (HBS) vocal sample player/library is that...
If you’re a synthesist, the Kyra could be a DSP farm for your DAW. One remarkably exciting new synthesizer that isn’t getting enough attention (yet) is...
What does Arturia’s flagship controller/sequencer offer electronic musicians? Keystep Pro is a great unifier, controlling CV/gate modular systems as well as DIN MIDI and USB MIDI...
Can a virtual warehouse full of instruments maintain quality along with quantity? Even the free version? SampleTank 4 is a 16-part multitimbral sound/groove workstation for the...
The price of classic synthesizers continues to rise. Which ones are worth their asking price? With few exceptions, almost everyone agrees on which vintage synths they...
The Rock Band 3 keytar is crazy-cheap and amazingly useful. Behold the power of mass production: this two-octave MIDI controller has a keyboard feel that rivals...
If you want the predictability of an LFO with the pattern variations of random modulation, just add chaos. One challenge in music composition is finding the...
The heart of many synths is a wavetable oscillator, but what the heck are wavetables? Filling your mix with fresh, exciting sounds is what electronic music...
Catching up with classic and new releases from some of Germany’s finest electronic musicians. Since the earliest availability of electronic instruments, musicians in Germany have always...
Where did “the world’s most dangerous synth” begin, and where is it now? Fifty years ago, Herb Deutsch, Chris Swansen, and a handful of other dedicated...
It’s easy to put words in a virtual singer’s mouth with the Kontakt instrument Realivox Blue. Realivox Blue is a word- and phrase-based vocal sample library...
This pioneering Belgian synthesist has worked with Bowie, Dolby, Deep Forest, and Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider. When he bought an EMS VCS3 in 1970, Daniel Lacksman became...
Vocoding and vocal-synthesis effects are a snap with this innovative processing software. Waves OVox is a voice-controlled processor and resynthesis plug-in that also runs as a...
How closely does the Behringer K-2 sound and function the same as the classic Korg MS-20? The K-2 is yet another synthesizer in Behringer’s reproductions of...
Kraftwerk cofounder Florian Schneider died in April after a brief bout with cancer. You’ve likely heard that Florian Schneider, one of the founding members of Kraftwerk,...
