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So in case you’re new to the Molten monthly thing, and we’ve had a shed load of subscribers recently – so welcome! – This is where I look over the last month and pick out half a dozen or so bits of new music technology to talk about. It might be hardware, synthesis, modular, it might be software, computer related, it might be industry related or just something cool. And what a month March has been. If you’ve been following this then you’ll know that i had a half arsed plan to make March into a music making month – but i bottled out atRead More →

Yeah I know, it’s almost March but February in music tech terms is sort of that long dark teatime of the soul between the madness of NAMM and the inevitable disappointment of MusikMesse. Not a whole lot going on, other than a bit of snow. Well i’ve managed to dredge up a handful of things like this: Studio Electronics got missed at NAMM but actually had cool boxes and a big knob for the SE-02. MIDI Manufacturers Associated officially adopt MPE and M-CI. Ableton Live 10 is released and gives us lots more of the same. Erica Synths updates their mini modular Pico system. OutputRead More →

Whoosh – that was NAMM for another year – the music technology equivalent of a Jackson Pollack. We were splattered by gear, noise, bleeps and flashing lights. How on earth can we know what was good? Well, never fear, I’m here and I’m going to whizz you through what I thought was interesting in this year’s show. And there was so much of it – i have a massive list of stuff to mention. My overall impression was that Eurorack ruled, synthesizers came in second and computer music hardly even featured. It’s weird how that has evolved. Anyway, I will try to get through thisRead More →

Wow, so that was 2017, they seem to go faster and faster. A whole year ago I didn’t know anything about modular synthesis. I was still trying to make the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book work well for audio and I was wondering whether making videos was a good use of my time. And here we are knocking on the door of 2018 and so much has happened. So let’s have a bit of a recap and I’ll take you through my highlights of 2017. (Text continues below the video) But first December’s news: Trueno Synth Can’t make up my mind is this isRead More →

November – big month for releases – must be the threat of winter making people want to feel better by covering our tired lives in new gear. This month: Gibson pull the plug on Cakewalk – Steinberg release a stunningly full feature half point update while Ableton drip out details of a few things they think are fitting for a full version update. Annoyingly named 000 release the mixing module I’ve always wanted – MIDI Quest bring 1990’s librarian editing to the iPad – sequencers abound with the Varigate 4+, Toolbox, Hermod Brain and C Quencer DLX – cool software weirdness with MusineKit 2 andRead More →

Welcome to the October edition of Molten Music Monthly where I round up what was cool in the world on music technology, computer music and hardware synthesis and stuff. This month we’ve getting into some DIY with Monobloc and Dreadbox Hades, we have a sniff of Ableton 10, Cakewalk Momentum reckons it has a killer app, we lose another mutable module – this time it’s Clouds – this time it’s personal. We get all scaley with the awesomely illuminated if terribly named Theoryboard, Expert Sleepers put General MIDI into Eurorack, Folktek grow a garden of resonance, Apogee release some Windows drivers, Tim Exile gives usRead More →

It’s September, it’s Norfolk, and my shed transforms into this luscious cascade of red that give my shirts a run for their money. This month in the world of music technology we have a feel of Electric Sound magazine, Reason to get 2 new synths in version 10, new keyboards and a new Maschine from Native instruments, SyndtSphere pulls sound out of space, the Noodler wants to play all your gear, Intruso wants your plants to play your gear, Roland thinks we want a Boutique D-50, VCV Rack might beat Softube Modular at the virtual Eurorack game, Axon 2 sparks the apocalypse with it’s AIRead More →