2025 Life & Software Tooling Updated

In 2021, Danielle and I moved from Pittsburgh to Portland. In the process of major life changes and finding new friends, I used this as an opportunity to upgrade some devices and re-tool my performance setups.

I puchased an M1 max laptop and slowly migrated my performance environment from linux/thinkpad environment to this new machine. As a result, my day to day and audio tooling has changed quite a bit. It’s surreal to have a laptop capable of running realtime audio-visual sets after many years of $50 thinkpads.

Cross-platform

• Plug Data - Puredata becomes max FOSS edition. Check out some of Ewan Bristow uses of this for inspiration
• Strudel - as a tidalcycles ancient with awful code quality by all current measures - its been fun to watch strudel develop and come into prominence over the past few years. browser-based js tidalcycles with hydra :O
• Synte - emergent new live-coding language concept

Macintosh

FOSS

• Sound as Pure Form - Beyond supercollider a Forth-like language for audio synthesis using lazy lists and APL-like auto-mapping
• ppooll - gleaned this recommendation from Francisco Botello for an abstract and fun windows approach to semi-free max-adjacent tool set

PAID - Cover your eyes if you’re FOSS-ONLY

• Ableton 12 - major improvement to the well established DAW. integration of m4l transformations and advanced compositional tooling updates have finally convinced me to primarily host my performance setup here
• Clyphx Pro - extended python scripting to cover more advanced algorithmic performance concepts that I lost while transitioning from tidalcycles -> ableton/max
• Max - I’ve finally caved and accepted max into my life. I’ve been working with max in a limited capacity (max4live -> max) for about 5 years but the migration from linux to osx was the final sell.
• Touch Designer - Another major revelation of migrating to macintosh is my ability to use this tool 10 years late!

Plugins

• Fors - quickly becoming my most used set of max4live/standalone plugins. expertly tuned fm synthesis! want the electron sequencer in your daw? why not.
• Zebra 3 - world may be crumbling, but the impending release of zebra 3 is a monumental DSP feat
• Tokyo Dawn Labs - quickly becoming some of my go-to tools for mixing/mastering and precision audio work

Remarks

While i’ve continued to work on new spednar material since 2021 and the move/tech migration, a lot of effort has been more recently put into my collaborative project with Danielle as Family Trust using a number of the above tools. We’ve shed the DXGPVWZ name to pursue SERIOUS music ;)