oZoe Drum Box: a hands-on, menu-free French drum machine
French brand oZoe introduces the Drum Box, a seven-track drum machine that bets everything on direct control: one parameter, one knob, no…
Music
Elektron Outbox 8: eight separate outputs for your Elektron boxes, audio or CV, no computer needed
Elektron ships the Outbox 8, a hardware interface that gives most of its instruments eight individual outputs over a single USB cable.…
Aodyo Loom: the multidimensional MPE controller enters production with five playing modes
Revived by INODESIGN after Aodyo's collapse, the Loom has just finalised its hardware. This portable MPE controller tracks position, timbre, pressure and…
Monophonic, paraphonic, polyphonic: making sense of synth polyphony
One note, a few notes, many notes: behind those three words hides the single most structuring choice when buying a synth. Here…
Suonobuono Polyvera: early digital grit, run through real analog filters
The first instrument from boutique maker Suonobuono, the Polyvera is a six-voice polyphonic synth and sampler that deliberately recreates the artefacts of…
Sampling explained: from sample to groove, how a sampler really works
Record a sound, map it across a keyboard, chop it into slices, stretch it without changing its pitch: here's how a sampler…
Step sequencing explained: from pattern to groove, how the step sequencer really works
The step sequencer is the founding block of the electronic groove. Velocity, gate, swing, probability, polyrhythm, CV/Gate: here is how it really…
Martinic Prodigy: the little 1979 Moog reborn as a virtual synth, sequencer and polyphony included
Martinic models the 1979 Moog Prodigy monosynth with its ACE technology, then grafts on what it never had: up to eight voices,…
MIDI and CV/Gate: how to make synths, modular and computer talk to each other
MIDI carries digital messages, CV/Gate carries analogue voltages: here is how to make them talk and build a hybrid studio, from volt-per-octave…
Doepfer A-198-2: the Eurorack ribbon controller finally gets a brain
Doepfer overhauls its modular ribbon controller. The A-198-2 keeps the 50 cm Trautonium-style sensor but bolts on an OLED screen, nine programmable…