WORLD OF MUSIC ; PORTABLE KEYBOARD - Latest Portable Music Keyboards, Synthesizers and Music News

Elektron has announced a huge free update for owners of the Digitakt, Syntakt, Digitone and Digitone Keys – Song Mode.

For some, it may be a “Hell freezes over” moment, because Song Mode has been one of the most popular feature requests for these devices.

What Elektron say about Song Mode:

“It’s fair to say that Song Mode has been a somewhat generously requested addition to the Digi Trinity, and we’re delighted to bring this powerful feature to those machines.

Song Mode lets you create, edit, and play compositions made up of dozens of your patterns. This makes it a hugely useful feature for all kinds of scenarios and for all kinds of artists.

Want to have a deeply customizable backing track, leaving your hands free for other sweet gear? That’s now possible. And so much more. Extend beyond the limits of the 64-step sequencer, giving you the possibility of longer phrases. Create entire set-lists in a single song, and use it as the springboard for your wicked performance, going off-piste whenever it feels right. Sequence external devices and have them dancing to Song Mode’s tune, turning the Digis into fully-fledged MIDI beasts.

There are also plenty of creative tricks to explore as well, ensuring that hitting play is only the beginning of Song Mode’s potential.

Song Mode may be the show stealer, but we also have a bunch more excellent features landing across the Digis. There’s Portamento, Legato, and global FX/mix coming to Syntakt, and Keyboard Fold and a wider range of scales arriving on Digitakt and the Digitones. For a full list of new features, improvements, and squashed bugs, please check the release notes.”

The update continues Elektron’s tradition of releasing massive free updates for established products, like adding a polyphonic mode to the Analog Four/Analog Keys; adding trig conditions to the Octatrack; and introducing Overbridge.

The free OS updates are available now.

Ableton Live 11.2 is here – AUv3 iOS plugin support for Mac and a refreshed reverb for all.

Ableton has announced the availability of Live 11.2, a free update that is more of a tweak than an overhaul, but the release of Ableton Live 11.2 is still notable for several key reasons.

Firstly, there is an improved Reverb device – the one that comes included with every edition of Live. Besides offers a refreshed and modernised UI, it promises improved usability and better sound.

Mac M1 Live users can now run Moog’s soft synths in their desktop DAW

Live 11.2 also introduces AUv3 support, making more plug-ins available to music makers using Mac computers with Apple silicon chips. These include Moog’s Minimoog, Model 15 and Animoog Z – already available to users of Logic Pro and GarageBand on the Mac.

There are other tweaks and bug fixes as well. Ableton Live 11.2 is available now as a free update. See the release notes on the Ableton website for details on what’s new.

Chase Bliss shared this preview of the Generation Loss MKII – a sort of “Boards Of Canada” hardware effect, described as “a study of tape in all its forms.”

It’s inspired by the sound of VHS tape audio.

“We decided to start from scratch this time and really explore what tape is all about,” they note. “We took apart VCRs, we analyzed anything we could find with a tape in it, from camcorders to cassette decks.”

Features:

• Explore different tape models and find your match.
• Introduce unpredictability with the customizable Failure knob.
• True stereo I/O, with unique failure-based stereo spread.
• Flick back to classic mode at any time.

Generation Loss MKII also features advanced connectivity and customization options, including MIDI, CV and Expression control, presets, and internal modulation of any or all its knobs.

Generation Loss MKII is available to pre-order for $399.

Generation Loss MKII Walkthrough