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
AKAI SOLO is part of the NYC indie rap wave and completely apart from it
The Brooklyn rapper has worked with Pink Siifu, Armand Hammer and Navy Blue — and still sounds like nobody else on the bill.
Church: the billy woods album that gets overlooked, and why it should not be
Released six months after Aethiopes, Church is billy woods' most patient record — a single producer, a single mood, and the best argument for loop-based rap in his catalog.
West Coast synthesis: wavefolding, low-pass gates and why it sounds nothing like a Moog
Subtractive synthesis starts loud and removes harmonics. West Coast synthesis starts simple and adds them. Here is how that changes the way you patch.
ØKSE is the Backwoodz record where four avant-garde musicians hand the mic to rappers
Savannah Harris, Mette Rasmussen, Val Jeanty and Petter Eldh built the band. billy woods, ELUCID, Maassai and Cavalier came along for the ride.
Underground rap in July 2026: the month the basements out-shipped the majors
Gangrene came back. Dark Lo and V Don announced another one. Crip Jesus swung a Wu-Tang bat on the West Coast. Here is what actually moved in the underground this month.
How to copyright your music in the U.S. (and why it actually matters)
You own your song the second you record it — but registering it is what lets you enforce it. Here's how to file with the U.S. Copyright Office, what it costs, and the mistakes producers keep making.
Willie Green got his first drum machine at eight. Now he mixes half the Backwoodz catalog
Berklee-trained, Brooklyn-based, and the reason a lot of these records sound like one continuous piece instead of a beat tape.
Aethiopes at four years: billy woods and Preservation's empire record
Released April 8, 2022, Aethiopes is the billy woods album that most rewards a second listen. What Preservation's production is doing, and why the record sounds like nothing else in rap.
Wavetable synthesis on hardware, explained without the math
What a wavetable actually is, why scanning it sounds different from a filter sweep, and how to program moving timbres that stay musical.