CDM Create Digital Music

Max for Move: run RNBO patches on Ableton Move — like Granulator III

Peter Kirn — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:04:42 +0000

What if you could remake Ableton Move to do anything, using Max -- the audio engine, I/O, every pad, button, encoder, and even the display? That's RNBO support on Move. It's labeled "experimental alpha," but I've been testing RNBO Takeover Mode on Move, and it's already really usable. There's even a lot you can do without patching at all, like running Robert Henke's now-iconic Granulator III. Here's a first look.

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Tour Ireland’s experimental music history, handmade instruments and all

Peter Kirn — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:49:12 +0000

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so a good excuse to revisit this 2023 compilation of Irish experimental and electronic music back to 1960 — especially as the label has some updates from the underground scene recently. From handmade instruments to bedroom-produced tape constructions and a healthy interest in UFOs, get ready for the strange. “I wanted […]

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Pikimov, free motion and video app, now $6 standalone for Mac and Windows

Peter Kirn — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:42:03 +0000

Pikimov 5.1.0 is now available as an offline app, bringing all the browser-powered video editing and motion graphics powers of this tool to a standalone tool — no internet connection required. The browser version is free forever; for offline capabilities, you need to pay $6 a month (no commitment). Pikimov is not free as in […]

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Pi Day: Hear and see approximations for Pi — and learn about shaders, too

Peter Kirn — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:11:45 +0000

Rebel against the anti-intellectual world around us! Forget the traumas of math classes past! Instead, enter a hypnotic trance as your screen vibrates and headphones ring with the sight and sound of Pi's approximations. Our friends over at VDMX would like to introduce you to the wonders of ... bad Pi.

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Pi Day: Chino Yoshio and Sine Wave Marimbas and Cherry Blossoms

Peter Kirn — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:39:23 +0000

“Chino Yoshio, a composer based quietly in Kyotanabe, Kyoto” has been working with sine waves in poetic, beautifully reflective ways. I’m going to run today with the idea that sine waves need not be just neutral, the absence of harmonics — not just a technical description, like an oscillator. (There’s academic research expanding this definition.) […]

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Free experimental and ambient bank for Grainferno, plus sound design tips

Peter Kirn — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:06:49 +0000

Chattering hyperreal vocal rhythms, delicate sparkling piano gestures, spacey pads — I’ve built a free bank for you for Baby Audio Grainferno. Here’s the download (direct download link), plus some tips on making your own sounds and banks. Download and try now Thanks to Baby Audio for partnering with CDM and helping support this pack […]

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Sitka’s excellent Gravity clock Eurorack module is now open source

Peter Kirn — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:46:33 +0000

Kyiv-based Sitka Instruments is making the awesome Gravity Eurorack clock module open-source hardware. It's an easy and affordable build, and there are already cool alternate firmwares available, with more to come. Sitka is supporting the community -- and you can give back by supporting Ukrainian causes.

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Find whole worlds inside samples: Baby Audio Grainferno deep dive

Peter Kirn — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:24:20 +0000

Per-grain processing, automatic pitch controls, drag-and-drop modulation, and audio-rate oscillations -- Grainferno proves there are still unexplored frontiers in granular synthesis and hand-crafted DSP. It's addictive to add the synth to projects, drag in sounds, and see what you can discover.

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Bitwig Studio 6 is out of beta, and the “workflow update” is worth the wait

Peter Kirn — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:27:38 +0000

Bitwig Studio 6 has arrived after an extended public beta period. A lot of Bitwig users might barely notice, since you switched full time to this release for its polish and workflow improvements — but here’s a refresher, with tips. With all the nuances of little workflow, editing, automation, and interface interaction tweaks, you can […]

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Dorico is quietly working through your Western notation wishlist

Peter Kirn — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:55:28 +0000

Steinberg's Dorico is slowly realizing a dream of notation that has spanned decades of scoring software. How could you combine engraving precision (think Leland Smith's SCORE) with graphical ease-of-use? That might sound easy, but it's been one of the toughest challenges in music software. Dorico 6.2 is a free update that shows how much progress they're making -- before we look to the horizon and Dorico 7.

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