7 free ways to make music – right here in your browser

Creative ideas aren’t always easy to come by, so when inspiration hits, it pays to act fast. For many of us, however, those fleeting moments of ingenuity tend to happen far outside the studio – when we’re sitting on a train; stuck at work; or perhaps just curled on the sofa, unwilling to get up and enter a world of cables, gain-staging, and untimely...

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Zombies in Miami: “Every track is an adventure and a fresh start”

“People ask us, ‘Is Aguascalientes a ranch or something?’,” says Canibal. “Sometimes they don’t know that it even exists.” And yet, he and production partner Jenouise have taken their electronic double act Zombies In Miami to Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Lyon, Munich, Moscow and beyond. And the duo’s atmospheric productions have landed...

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Community wrap-up: New videos from Blezz Beats, two different Blakes, and more

If you’re reading this, then you’ve survived yet another Valentine’s Day. And what better way to rebound from the dead roses, deflated balloons, and paeans to romantic consumerism than by remembering your first true love: Music. Inspiration is critical to keeping that creative fire alive – so let’s fan the flame and see who fired us up this February....

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Baauer’s world gets looped, warped and stretched on Planet’s Mad

Planet’s Mad, the Grammy-nominated new album from Baauer, is squelchy, crunchy, squishy and crispy. It’s got bass that oozes and groans, percussion loops layered into thick and crispy chunks and synth elements that twinkle and glide, while human, animal and alien voices dodge in and out of the mix like they’re being chased. It’s got some of the EDM...

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Hear an exclusive sketch from footwork pioneer RP Boo

Chicago footwork will forever be associated with hardware: Shredded beats, ghostly samples and quaking sub-bass made on MPC samplers and brought to life in ferocious dance battles. That’s also the case with genre pioneer RP Boo, who’s been at the vanguard of footwork for over two decades – from the 1999 blueprint of ‘The Godzilla Track’ through the...

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How to set up your own livestream

Looking to join the Twitch party with your own music or DJ sets? Been inspired by a live show on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram? Getting started is not as hard as you might think. In this piece, we’ll cover what you need to consider technically as you jump into the growing world of livestreaming. To start, you’ll need: Music that you can make at...

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Turn your passion into a profession: Video game scoring and sound design

In this series, producer, DJ, label head, and mix engineer, Kevin McHugh – who you may already know as Ambivalent – sets out to explore some of the less obvious ways in which music producers can turn their existing skills towards a fulfilling career. Along the way, he’s speaking to successful figures from each field, diluting their wealth of combined...

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How do you score chess? Carlos Rafael Rivera on scoring The Queen’s Gambit with NI pianos

Carlos Rafael Rivera is an EMMY Award winning composer who writes for film and television and also has an illustrious career in education. His long-time directing friend (and former student) Scott Frank cemented their partnership on the movie A Walk Among the Tombstones and Netflix Western drama Godless. Their most recent TV project, The Queen’s Gambit,...

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Toot your own horn with these free saxophone libraries for KONTAKT

The saxophone is a real chameleon. This woodwind instrument has many different registers from the tiny sopranino to the enormous contrabass, and it’s so versatile that you can hear it wailing away on retrowave revivals or as a featured solo instrument throughout classic jazz albums. But the same emotive human element that makes the sax so appealing...

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Hear ambient experimentalist Christina Vantzou sketch out a space-age string quartet

With a background in fine art and film-making, Christina Vantzou aims for “intensity, extreme beauty, and dissonance” in her slow-burning compositions. Since taking her first steps into experimental music as a member of the The Dead Texan, Vantzou has released five albums of transportive modern ambient for labels like Kranky and Shelter Press, along...

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