Elektron has lifted the veil on the highly-anticipated Digitakt II. As the follow-up to one of the most popular drum computers and samplers in the market, the Digitakt II faces some pretty high expectations. Though certainly it looks poised to meet them, with a host of significant upgrades including support for stereo samples, increased ram and storage, an expanded sequencer, new filter machines and a ton more. Let’s dive into them below. READ MORE: “The most advanced creative synthesizer ever”: Roland launches new FANTOM EX synth series For starters, Digitakt II might feature a highly ..read more

French electronic duo Justice are about to release their first project in nearly eight years, Hyperdrama. The album is set to host a flurry of guest appearances, most notably from Tame Impala. The record features two tracks featuring the indie psychedelia wizard, but it’s not the first time Tame Impala – Kevin Parker – has tried to work with Justice. Parker actually wanted Justice to remix his 2012 track Elephant – but Justice refused to touch it. READ MORE: “Every penny we make with Justice, we invest into stuff that’s not necessarily commercially viable”: Justice say every record they ..read more

Roland has expanded its FANTOM synthesizer platform with the new FANTOM EX series. Dubbed a “new flagship synthesizer series for professional musicians and producers” and comprising three models – FANTOM 6 EX, FANTOM 7 EX and FANTOM 8 EX – FANTOM EX builds upon the FANTOM platform, offering new range of sound design, sequencing and performance features. READ MORE: Roland Fantom-08 review: Road-testing the all-rounder workstation Boasting powerful custom processors, as well as Roland’s fresh Analog Circuit Behaviour (ACB) engine and the JX-3P ACB Expansion, FANTOM EX promises an enhance ..read more

For the past few years, the idea of a rock show and an electronic music show have become increasingly synonymous. Dance music stars like Kaskade and Illenium are filling the same stadiums that Foo Fighters are touring this summer, applying production rigs that are just as fiery and laser-filled. But one electronic group has bridged the gap exceptionally. They’re called Justice. And they bridge this gap at Coachella. Every time Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay have released a new album, from † in 2007 to Hyperdrama, due out this Friday, April 26, they’ve celebrated with a live set at Coachell ..read more

Bang & Olufsen has reissued a CD player originally launched to market in 1996 – with a hefty price tag of $55,000. Though this might seem like an outlandish move, this isn’t the first time the Danish electronics giant has made a move like this. In 2020, it released the Beogram 4000c, but only 95 were made and set consumers back $11,000 each. The series originally came out in the 1970s, but the manufacturers tracked down 95 of the 4000 turntables that were made and refurbished and updated them to make them like new, even to the point where they came with a five-year warranty. READ MORE: R ..read more

Rick Rubin might have made his name as a prolific producer, helping to push ’90s hip hop and nu metal into the spotlight, but in recent years he’s become something of a self-styled creativity guru. While he’s still producing albums, he also published a rather chunky book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, last year. However, British multi-instrumentalist and producer Jacob Collier has had a thing or two to say recently about Rubin’s beliefs, even suggesting that “his audience is non-creative people for whom creativity is novel”. READ MORE: Setting a goal “could be a limitation” in ..read more

Grimes was feeling “a lot better” after her Coachella Weekend 2 DJ set. As pretty much everyone in the world knows, her DJ set during Weekend 1 didn’t go to plan. The tech-obsessed singer/songwriter/DJ stopped the music multiple times with more than a handful of frustrated yells. The major issue was apparently misanalysed track tempos in Rekordbox. “I’ve outsourced essential things like rekordbox bpm’s and letting someone else organize the tracks on the sd card etc.” she wrote in a tweet, apologising for the technical issues after the first performance. “The cdjs were showing me bpms like 370 ..read more

The music industry has changed considerably in the last few decades. Once upon a time, hitting the big time, landing a record deal and getting your music heard by millions was a fast-track to fortune. But the system has changed. That was the pre-streaming era; millions more people were buying records and pumping money into the music-making market. It’s no secret that streaming has dealt an all-but-fatal blow to most musicians’ prospects of making a sustainable income directly through their art – at least without multiple other avenues of income. READ MORE: No, Daniel Ek, the music industry i ..read more

$995 (currently on sale at $389), or as part of Composer Cloud+ subscriptions, soundsonline.com Last year, EastWest set out on a quest: capture the sonic essence of fantasy scoring, tame it into something usable, and place it in the hands of film, TV, and game composers worldwide. READ MORE: Ableton Live 12 dives deep under the hood for its latest milestone Live update The first offering, Fantasy Strings, got full marks from us here at MusicTech and, since then, each successive entry in the series has gone from strength to strength. Joining the string section, we now have brass, woodwinds ..read more

US speaker company Tekton Audio has allegedly been threatening popular critics with legal action for leaving negative reviews of its products. Erin’s Audio Corner and Audio Science Review published negative reviews of the Tekton Audio Troubadour and M-Lore speakers, citing technical flaws according to tests they carried out. READ MORE: “We aim to make this an indispensable tool for DJs, independent artists and producers”: New AI stem separation technology secures UK government funding Erin Hardison of Erin’s Audio Corner published a review of the Troubadour speaker, taking a look at its fre ..read more