SAMPLED▌ FRONT AND CENTER
Is LUNA Really Free? The Free DAWs Worth Downloading on Mac, Windows and iPad
Universal Audio's LUNA now costs nothing on Mac and Windows. Here is what that gets you, plus the other free DAWs worth your time, including Sampledex on iPad, Mac and Windows.
// also right now
GearWhat Equipment Do You Need to Start a Video Podcast at Home?
A home podcast studio built from gear I actually use: a 4K webcam, a pair of tracking PTZ cameras and the headphones every broadcast booth already owns.
FeatureIs Sampledex for iPad a Real Free DAW, and What Can It Do?
Robert Clemons has brought Sampledex from the Mac to the iPad as a free download. Here is what it does, what it can't do, and who it's for.
// from the dispatch
DJ Dahi helped Ravyn Lenae stop sounding like one genre
Blue Island arrived August 7 on Atlantic — 14 tracks that borrow from '80s pop, reggae, soft rock and electro-funk without ever tipping into costume. The production choices are the reason it holds.
Dinner Party is four different schools of production sitting at the same table
Watchu Bringing? landed August 7 on EMPIRE. Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder all produce — so the interesting question isn't whether it's good, it's who is doing what.
Wixen wants $102M from Meta — here's what the filing actually says
A publishing administrator, 681 songs, five legal counts, and a motion to dismiss heard on August 3. Strip out the headline number and the case is really about what happens when a music licence expires and the platform keeps running.
Marlon Hoffstadt sampled the record that helped invent house — here's how 'Party People' flips 'Move Your Body'
Das Ist Daddy arrived August 7 on Capitol. Its lead single runs Marshall Jefferson's 1986 Chicago house blueprint through a 2026 trance system — and the way it does it says a lot about why old house records keep working.
Beggars Group told AI companies no in writing — here's exactly what the notice says
The indie group behind XL, 4AD, Matador and Rough Trade has published a blanket reservation of rights against text and data mining. It is short, broad, and worth reading line by line if you own recordings.
FM synthesis: how to program it on purpose instead of by accident
Operators, algorithms and ratios — the three things that decide whether FM gives you a bell, an electric piano or a mess.
Kurupt went back to Death Row and handed the whole album to one producer
Tales From My Hood reunites the Dogg Pound MC with the label after two decades — and puts DJ Battlecat behind every single track. That choice is the record.
Country's biggest records are being cut in living rooms — including one at Vince Gill's house
Kenny Whitmire recorded his new single with a Country Music Hall of Famer in a Nashville home studio. That location detail explains more about modern country production than most chart analysis does.
PremRock only makes a solo album when he has something to say. Did You Enjoy Your Time Here…? is that album
Four years after Load Bearing Crow's Feet, the ShrapKnel co-founder returned with a record stitched together by Willie Green and stacked with Backwoodz regulars.