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
String machines: the cheapest way to get a huge analog pad
Divide-down oscillators, BBD ensemble chorus, and why a paraphonic 1970s design still beats a modern polysynth for one specific job.
Fatboi Sharif and Child Actor had never worked together. Crayola Circles is what happened
Two longtime Backwoodz affiliates finally in one room — horror-movie writing over production that keeps refusing to behave.
Blockhead's The Aux is the Backwoodz posse album, disguised as a producer record
The veteran producer's first rap album since Garbology put him in the matchmaker seat — and doubled as a roster showcase for the label.
Backwoodz Studioz: a guide to the label billy woods built
The roster, the release model and the direct-to-fan store that make Backwoodz one of the most functional independent rap labels running.
Granular synthesis on hardware: turning three seconds of audio into a whole track
Grain size, density, position and pitch — the four controls that matter, and how to keep granular textures from turning to mush.
doseone on Backwoodz: All Portrait, No Chorus is an indie rap pioneer refusing to coast
The Anticon co-founder teamed with Steel Tipped Dove for a January 10, 2025 album the label calls uncompromising — and it is.
Steel Tipped Dove has run the same Brooklyn walk-up studio for 15 years — and half the scene came through it
Joseph Fusaro is the producer whose name you only notice in the credits. That is exactly the point.
Additive synthesis explained: building sound one harmonic at a time
Why the oldest idea in electronic music is also the most literal, and how to use additive thinking even on a synth that has no additive engine.
History Will Absolve Me: the album that made billy woods
Two years in the making and released in 2012, History Will Absolve Me is where billy woods stopped being a well-kept secret. A look back at the record and its reissue.