Native Instruments announced five new products recently; two new synths and three updated versions of their popular synth/sampling line:

Massive (above) is a new analog-style synth, featuring “a high-end audio engine, flexible signal flow, wave scanning oscillators, innovative and intuitive features, drag and drop modulation assignment, integrated step sequencers and effects section, KORE integration” and more. FM8 (below) is a new FM-style synth, featuring “award-winning FM synthesizer, optimized user interface, graphical sound morphing for evolving sounds, versatile arpeggiator, high-quality effects, full-matrix modulation, KORE integration” and more. Also updated are Absynth 4, Battery 3 and their Komplete bundle.

I love using Reaktor 5 to create my own simple, modular synth and effects experiments, but I rarely use any of its pre-built synths and samplers. Many of NI’s instruments seem to me feature-heavy yet singular in their use—as if they’re designed to create a certain type of song or style of music. And, their numerous presets often have a distinct, trendy ‘NI’ sound. But, their complexity can lead to new and stunning sound exploration in able hands— it’s all about the tweaking, after all. it’s nice to see them pay attention to the usability and user interface of their tools as they expand their lineup in new directions. Read more

Do us all a favor and have a listen to these recent and upcoming releases:

• Clara Hill - All I Can Provide
• Various Artists - Dubstep Allstars vol. 4
• Bark Psychosis - 400 Winters
• Broadcast - Future Crayon
• Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae
• Daedelus - Denies the Days Demise
• Erasure - Union Street
• Fink - Biscuits for Breakfast
• Jel - Soft Money
• M. Ward - Post-War
• Peaches - Impeach My Bush
• TV On The Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
• Xiu Xiu - Air Force
• Michael Brook - RockPaperScissors
• Hem - Funnel Cloud
• Four Tet - DJ Kicks
• Nouvelle Vague - Bande a Part
• Koop - Koop Islands
• Mindel - Daylight
• Ochre - Lemodie

Yesterday was John ‘Jack’ Melton’s 16-week birthday, which makes him now four months old! After spending the day making new friends at his new child care provider, he took his evening bottle and usual storytime before retiring for the night. We celebrated in his honor by eating pizza and drinking Grolsch on the front porch while brainstorming our Halloween cosutmes. Later, we listened to traces of the Bob Dylan concert at a nearby stadium.

Salon has an interesting review about This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by neuroscientist Daniel Levitin. It examines how our ears hear and the various parts of our brain process sound, why certain music becomes pleasurable to us by evoking strong emotions and memories, why we’re more open to hearing new music as teenagers, the catchy phenomenon of ‘earworms’, the possible roles of music in hour evolutionary history and more:

We all have music like this, music that burns into the soul when we’re young and remains essential for the rest of time […] there’s a tape or record or CD that once knocked you out with a force that, cheesy as it is to remember, felt like true love. Put on one of those songs now and, if it’s been a long time, the effect is like an old movie; the scenes play back for you in entire exhilarating reels. What’s happening when music captures you in this way deserves some scrutiny. You may feel like the songs are grabbing your heart, but what’s actually going on is in your head. There, says Daniel J. Levitin in his new book “This Is Your Brain on Music,” an “exquisite orchestration of brain regions” are engaged in a “precision choreography of neurochemical uptake and release.” Why human beings make and enjoy music is, in Levitin’s telling, a delicious story of evolution, anatomy, perception and computation — a story that’s all the more thrilling when you consider its result, the joy of living in a world filled with music. Link