Born and raised in El Paso, TX, now I call Chicago my adopted home. When not unearthing forgotten musical gems, I try to make some time to write my own music using acoustic guitars, MIDI controllers, and electric violin.
Create hair-raising, goosebump-inducing music wherever you go, with Akai’s MPK Mini MK3 — an ultra-portable battery- and USB-powered MIDI keyboard with a reimagined Gen 2 enhanced dynamic keybed made for the world’s finest keyboard players. Make all the music you want, with the expression you need, on eight backlit MPC pads that trigger your favorite […]
Exactly what kind of band is Parliament-Funkadelic? Although the focus of our video above is their totemic single, “Flash Light,” the brains behind it — George Clinton, Bootsy and Catfish Collins, Bernie Worrell, Eddie Hazel, Junie Morrison, and Garry Shider, among many others — were always one group. To distill every nook and cranny of […]
Editor’s Note: This post covers the origins of FM synthesis through a historic and technical lens. For more on the video above, please see the section labeled “Notes From Our FM Synthesis Video.” Black. Queer. Transgressive. In 1986, in some deep backwoods of Huntsville, Ontario, appearing right on the cabin doorstep of a young Beverly […]
I’m going to ask you to do something today: spare a thought for the old keyboard. Whether at school, in the living room or at a music store, everyone at some point in their life has plopped themselves in front of one and struck a note. Intrinsically, we know how they work. On acoustic pianos […]
From trackers like Renoise to DAWs like Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio, Logic and more, I believe I’ve seen/used enough tools to understand how most work. So, truth be told, I both admit to: A: Never using PreSonus’s entry into the digital audio workstation world, the Atom, three years ago, and B: Jumping at the chance […]
“A lot of music for a little cash.” Those were the words to describe the Casiotone — Casio’s revolutionary first portable keyboard — in 1980. Outfitted with built-in preset tones, full-size keys, a built-in speaker, and battery operation, it set the stage for Casiotones as they evolved over the years, eventually featuring auto-accompaniment, lessons, built-in […]
Unite all of your electronic music gear under one universal keyboard controller using KeyStep Pro, Arturia’s sequencing mastermind. The Arturia KeyStep Pro takes complete control of your Eurorack modular rig, digital MIDI synths, and DAW software. It’s all housed in a tight, intuitively designed keyboard kitted out with a built-in 24-part drum sequencer and a […]
Let your imagination run wild with Moog’s Subharmonicon, a dual-oscillator semi-modular analog synth that uses subharmonic generators and multi-layered sequencers to create extremely deep and unforeseeable organic arrangements. Patch it into a rig outfitted with Moog’s other evolutionary desktop instruments — the DFAM and Mother-32 — and hear your music turn literally upside down, producing surprising harmonies generated […]
In light of the ongoing global pandemic, the vast majority of us now find ourselves forgoing any trip to a practice space, club or record studio. That doesn’t mean our musical escape ends at home, however. The largest struggle we’re facing creatively is how to deal with our current situation at home constructively. Now is […]