CDM Create Digital Music

The myth of Drexciya is coming to the Toronto Biennial — with playlist

Peter Kirn — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:59:10 +0000

The myth of Drexciya is getting its moment at the Toronto Biennial, as retold by Underground Resistance. That's free through December 20th if you're in Ontario, but let's kick off a watery weekend with the accompanying playlist, too, courtesy UR and Sumberge label manager Cornelius Harris.

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teenage engineering op-xy added a drum synth, sound shaping, more

Peter Kirn — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:37:02 +0000

teenage engineering, the company that made news for slipping in an interview that it isn’t making new synths (maybe), might also make news for making its synths do new things. There’s an official (not hacked!) firmware update for the op-xy flagship, and it adds a new drum synth, multichannel audio, dynamic filter, and detune. The […]

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Digital sound, but physical: Roger Linn’s LinnStrument in action, 10% off

Peter Kirn — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 14:36:11 +0000

No, we do not all want to be reduced to brains in a jar. Music has always been about gesture, whether embodied in the breath or touch. So now is the perfect time for the LinnStrument, the human-scaled expressive grid from Roger Linn. Roger writes to point us to some of the latest musical examples […]

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Listening to birdsong — and the instruments that mimic it

Peter Kirn — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:50:01 +0000

Okay, class: today's reading includes a short but inspiring passage by Estevan Carlos Benson, who has lately been suggesting we treat our musical listening biome in the same way that we do our gut. Along the way, we get birdsongs and whistle bottles from Ecuador millennia ago and Peru today.

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Max 9.2: V8 FFTs, better Windows support, Ableton abl goodies, more

Peter Kirn — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:03:11 +0000

Cycling '74 has a surprisingly packed Max 9.2 update out now, with improvements and additions for Jitter, the Web, V8 (JavaScript), buffers, video on Windows, Gen, and the Ableton abl collection. It's a slew of nice stuff for patchers.

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Bana Haffar’s Ancient Future mutates memory and meaning in machines

Peter Kirn — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 21:00:58 +0000

If you feel at sea in a starless night, Ancient Future might summon charts from the ancestors, fragmented through samples and voltages, a hauntology of modular deconstruction. Bana Haffar, co-founder of Modular on the Spot in LA and Beirut Synthesizer Center in Lebanon, has an essential offering out this month.

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UA Volt Gen 2, Max: built-in dynamics and preamp tone, displays, more

Peter Kirn — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:18:38 +0000

What do you do when software is feeling a little, well, disposable? Hardware, for one. Universal Audio has updated its Volt line of USB audio interfaces with built-in processing for preamp tone and dynamics, and on the higher-end models, "smart" displays and extras like ADAT input. (Hint: that can solve some of your connection problems to outboard mixer/Eurorack modules/whatever.) And these interfaces are really not expensive, starting at $149.

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Beads, last of the Mutable Instruments modules, is now open source

Peter Kirn — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:59:38 +0000

Beads, the granular "texture synthesizer" that was Emilie Gillet's follow-up to the legendary Clouds, is now fully open source. That completes the final missing piece in open-source code and free licensing for Mutable Instruments' iconic and influential range of Eurorack modules.

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teenage engineering might quit synths, but parody can’t quit them

Peter Kirn — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 15:02:50 +0000

teenage engineering CEO Jesper Kouthoofd made waves when he casually mentioned he’d told the company he founded to quit making synthesizers. Whatever is coming from the Stockholm company, the jokes they inspire show no signs of abating and -- this seems an opportunity.

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Interview: 33EMYBW on Amalgamate, metamorphosis, and insect philosophy

Peter Kirn — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:26:52 +0000

The patterning on butterfly wings is constructed of tiny blade-like scales (lamellar), with color structured into complex messaging and variation. That’s precisely the sonic feeling of Amalgamate, the latest from Shanghai-based artist 33EMYBW. We got to talk to 33 about alienation, metamorphosis, and the meaning of some of those lyrics. Photos by Di Wei Aamalgamte […]

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