There's not many (any?) virtual instruments with an exclamation mark in their name. But that's not the reason Xpand!2 sample playback/synth deserves your attention. Joe Albano takes you deep into it.

Move over robotic beats, it's time to welcome in shuffles and humanized grooves. And Bitwig Studio allows you to do just that. Gary Hiebner shows you the way to the dance floor.

Don't be intimidated by the idea of creating a lead sheet in Logic Pro X's Score Editor. It might be simpler to achieve than you think with the help of Jay Asher.

You can do so much more with Logic X's Piano Roll than just drawing in MIDI note events. Darren Burgos shares five of his favorite Piano Roll/MIDI editing tricks here.

The Komplete Kontrol software works well with all hardware but comes into its own when paired with Komplete Kontrol S-Series keyboards. Here's 5 tips from Hollin Jones on how to get the most from it.

While editing audio is much more flexible than ever before, converting audio into MIDI can add another level to our ability to change a recording. Gary Hiebner shows how to do this in FL Studio.

It's Halloween today, and high time we banish the fear and focus on empowerment. Here's 13 quick tips on how to make learning music software less scary than it might be.

Want to give your sounds some extra grit, edge and pure, downright distortion? G.W. Childs shows how Reason's Parsec can be the perfect processing platform for you.

You've heard them lifting the energy of a track to breaking point before the drop. We're talking about Risers. Darren Burgos has created high resolution 14-bit risers in Logic Pro for you to download!

Are you looking for the perfect pitch risers for your electronic tracks? Bill Burgess shows how you can easily make your own in Ableton Live in seven quick steps.

In one of the more recent updates to Bitwig Studio you'll find note expression features. Gary Hiebner shows how this can give your synth sounds more detail than you might have imagined possible.

In part 2 in this exploration of Logic Pro X's Arpeggiator MIDI plug-in, Gary Hiebner shows how to export Arp patterns, use the Grid mode, and use more than one arpeggiator together.

It's common practice to play with the BPM to achieve a different pace in our songs. But how often would you alter the time signature, and should we be exploring new meters when composing?

Though not designed primarily as a standalone device, the Apple Watch could be a useful controller, recording tool and metering analyser for musicians and DJs. Can you think of any more uses?

Here's a quick and useful tip by Jay Asher for Logic Pro X users demonstrating how to hide empty measures in Logic's Score Editor, so only the instruments playing are displayed.

It's time to take a journey into the world of synthesis with veteran synthesists, Logic guru and musical maestro, Peter Schwartz! Here he explores harmonics, overtones and partials.

From managing windows more effectively to using the Steinberg Hub, Track Versions and the MixConsole, Steinberg Cubase is packed full of features to streamline your workflow. Here's 10 of our faves.

It may not be common knowledge, but did you know that Ableton Push can give you deep control over your third-party plug-ins? Tadhg Leonard shows how.

The Maschine hardware from Native Instruments is popular and with good reason! What about the software side of things? Well, version 2 contains some tasty features which Mo Volans outlines here.

Continuing with his tips on DJing using Ableton Push, Tadhg Leonard looks at how to use Push to record and replay your FX automation data in the third part of this mini-series.

Experienced musician, composer and Logic expert, Jay Asher, shares these excellent tips on how to use chord inversions to make your keyboard parts even more musical.