We're kicking off a new article series rounding up all the best bits from the previous week's web activity, just incase you missed anything. From exciting music tech developments, fascinating live sets and whacky plugin updates to unmissable competitions, new music releases and more, check us out every weekend for some instant link gratification. Let the news commence'
1. Play a Commodore 64 from within your browser
So you know that gorgeous, earthy, warm, wandering synth sound that you know and love Boards of Canada for' Well, now you can create and play with it from within your very web browser! Gone are the days of having to track down ancient technology on eBay and get it adapted for modern setups from your local electronics wizard. Just click above and start massaging those keys for blissful, analogue synth heaven...
2. Ableton Live at its humble beginnings
Witness the beginning of Ableton Live's journey to DAW dominance, where it started life as a Max/MSP patch in Ableton co-founder Robert Hencke's live set. Live's subsequent rise to global popularity makes perfect sense when gazing upon this simple yet robust patch - Hencke built it to solve particular musical needs, including the innovate feature of being able to launch different audio clips independently of one another. An inspiring taste of how great things are borne from practicality and necessity.
House of Vans' recent Berlin clubnight, featuring what can only be described as a mouth-watering lineup, has been brought to the Boiler Room as both video and audio streams. Check out this superb slave from the event, a live set from one of ModeAudio's absolute favourite electronic soul proponents, Lapalux.
4. Win the brand new Roland TR-8 drum machine
An immense cloud of digital chatter has blown to and fro across the blogosphere since Roland announced they were updating their iconic TR-808 and 909 drum machines. The result, the digital TR-8 hardware drum synth, has divided opinion but this is your chance to grab yourself a unit and make up your own mind - enter FACT and Brighton Music Conference's competition now.
5. Download alternative Hip Hop legend Alias' new EP for free
The legendary Anticon label has been putting out stellar alternative Hip Hop for years now, including many classic releases by producer, rapper and co-founder Alias. He's back with a brand new 4-track EP, titled 'Indiiggo', with his 9th full-length slated for early summer. Click to stream the EP via Soundcloud, where you can also download it for absolutely nada. What a guy!
6. Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies comes to Ableton's Max For Live
Ableton Live's in-house programming environment, Max For Live, has yielded some truly weird and wonderful devices for sound manipulation but none have come much stranger than 'Oblique'. An implementation of Brian Eno's famous Oblique Strategies playing cards, posing obscure questions designed to help composers stuck in a creative rut, Oblique doesn't actually process or organise sound but might just help you out of your next musical jam.
