Marina Herlop: Voice and Piano Extended To Infinity

Marina Herlop is on a path of discovering the infinite possibilities that extend out from a foundation of piano and vocals. On her most recent album, Pripyat, the classically trained Catalan composer chops and layers her voice many times over, filling out her compositions with elaborate harmonies and spiky electronics,…

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Made in Ableton Live: Ori Moto

Ray Wassef, aka Ori Moto, shares a step-by-step guide to getting a track made in Live ready for performance. Learn how to prepare and clean up stems and clips so that they’re easy to trigger and tweak on the fly, and see how to make the most out of Live’s…

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A Look Back at Eight Standout Features and Videos from 2022

Our recap of the past year is here for some extra inspiration over the holiday season. Take a look back at eight features and videos containing some of the best creative insights, tips and tricks from 2022. Afriqua Presents Principles of Black Music Adam Longman Parker, aka Afriqua, gave us…

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Aril Brikha: Remaking “Groove La Chord” with Live and Note

What is the formula for making a hit record? Is it a balance of talent, inspiration, and years of practice? Or is the process simply a matter of luck, or perhaps even the result of some higher powers at work? Romantic poets such as Coleridge and Shelley believed that in…

Dec 2022

Prioritizing the Personal: Sam Slater on Reasons to Collaborate

When we think of reasons to collaborate with someone, we might think of the skills or sounds a player could bring to our music, or the perspective a producer might offer that could improve it. In other words, we think about the end result, and imagine it being optimized by…

Dec 2022

ANTI-MASS: From Uganda Into The Unknown

From left to right: Nsasi, Authentically Plastic, Turkana Electronic music has experienced something of a reckoning with the non-Western world. After so many years – decades, even – of imbalanced representation that favored US and European artists, globally networked communication and connectivity has helped certain regions and cultures enjoy more…

Dec 2022

S8JFOU: Self-Reliance Through Software

DIY, or do-it-yourself, is a way of doing things that emphasizes independence and the handmade. The term originally came from the do-it-yourself home renovation trend in the US and UK in the 1950s but was later taken up by the hippie counterculture of the 1960s and subsequently, by 1970s and…

Nov 2022

Ropes, Fields and Waves: Celia Hollander Sculpts Time with Sound

Ascending the tall, narrow stairs of Celia Hollander’s apartment in Los Angeles’ Highland Park neighborhood feels like entering a cloud where the fragrance of citrus blossoms mingle with the morning’s coffee brew. Her compact, modular studio accentuates a desire for functional flexibility, a setting that bends to sound’s calling. Scattered…

Nov 2022

Friends, not Samples: The Soft Pink Truth on Collaboration and Pleasure

“If I had to boil it down to a slogan it'd be like, ‘Friends, not samples,’” jokes Drew Daniel of his recent music. Daniel is best known as one half of the duo Matmos, who are famous for doing extraordinary things with unlikely sound sources: a washing machine; the sounds…

Nov 2022

George FitzGerald: Personal Stamp

When music makers talk about improvements to their creative flow, they’re usually referring to a new instrument, an untapped sound source or perhaps a fresh approach to processing. They’re rarely referring to the unfinished sketches and dead ends that litter their hard drives. But for George FitzGerald, these eight-bar loops…

Nov 2022