CDM Create Digital Music

Enjoy Monty Python’s Argument Sketch on two vintage speech synthesizers

Peter Kirn — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 17:58:33 +0000

A DECtalk Express stands in for Monty Python actor Michael Palin, with an Intex Talker (Votrax SC-01A) voicing the role of John Cleese. Retro speech synthesis just sounds better. Not more intelligible, necessarily, but absolutely better. And it’s hilarious. Eat your heart out, Transmediale / Ars Electronica / etc.: If all of this sounds familiar, […]

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Techno original Sean Tate, aka The Butcher, has died

Peter Kirn — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 19:23:16 +0000

It's a painful year for techno's originators and Detroit. News is spreading today that Sean Tate, aka The Butcher and an iconic techno originator, has died.

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Resolume 7.28 uses vision to let you play with intelligent live effects and blends

Peter Kirn — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:25:23 +0000

Take a break from the surveillance nightmare around us for computer vision that's local, not online, and doing creative, artistic things, instead. Resolume 7.28 adds some powerful Wire nodes and new effects and blends, all powered by vision. Yep, Resolume's removing your backgrounds, segmenting your humans, estimating depth -- and it's good, clean fun.

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Elektron is halting sharing of mods and hacks on its forums; official comments

Peter Kirn — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 22:55:33 +0000

Music gearmaker Elektron last week announced it would not allow sharing hacks and modifications for its devices on its official Elektronauts forum or social media channels. In a statement, the company says a sudden surge in firmware hacking, apparently driven at least in part by AI, helped motivate the decision. Here are the details.

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Oldest recorded voices, haunted dolls, and more from Tempest Instruments

Peter Kirn — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 10:14:10 +0000

New sound technologies? Sure, okay, I guess. But haunted dolls of the 1890s as made by Thomas Edison? Oh, now you’ve got my attention. So in case you haven’t discovered this before, Tempest Instruments, a “small team” led by TV/film and video game composer Alex Davis, has been collected strange sound ephemera of the 19th […]

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Cook every day: read Suzanne Ciani’s 1976 Buchla Cookbook, for free

Peter Kirn — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 17:47:38 +0000

In 1976, Suzanne Ciani reported back to the USA’s National Endowment for the Arts with a report on her compositions, in the form of a modular cookbook. Now you can read her notes and follow along using entirely free software, complete with sound examples. I love overusing the cookbook metaphor, maybe just because food is […]

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Adam Wiltzie talks about his posthumous collaboration with Jóhann Jóhannsson

Peter Kirn — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 16:00:23 +0000

On Friendship Survival Guide, constructed from an archive of loops and sound exchanges, it's as if Jóhann Jóhannsson is alive again. Adam Wiltzie, co-founder of Stars of the Lid and part of A Winged Victory for the Sullen, talks to us about the process, and about the perfect and fleeting personal and creative connection the two artist shared.

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x0xb0x, the synth that launched an open-source hardware boom, is reborn

Peter Kirn — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:06:43 +0000

Based on the legendary TB-303, the x0xb0x was an underground legend all its own, one that helped popularize the open-source hardware movement. And now it's back, in a digital emulation of the original hardware, from x0xb0x's original creator.

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MOTU DP12 arrives, adding Dolby Atmos and more to a DAW classic

Peter Kirn — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:32:46 +0000

MOTU's DP doesn't get a lot of hype -- it just quietly remains a favorite for everything from scoring to post-production. DP12 has deep Dolby Atmos support, an Arrangement Strip, and lots of other welcome additions to this Mac and Windows DAW.

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Elgato’s Stream Deck as a DAW companion; new Reaper controller

Peter Kirn — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:48:41 +0000

Elgato's Stream Deck, a push-button desktop controller with interactive color keys and software shortcuts, has quietly become an ideal DAW accessory. Take, for example, this thoughtfully designed addition from Granite Coast Studio for the inimitable Cockos Reaper.

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