This bizarre experimental DAW is a sound designer's wet dream [blockhead]

In an age where every DAW is super streamlined for production, one developer dares head in the opposite direction with "blockhead", an experimental DAW that embraces the idea of breaking all the rules.
Find blockhead at the developer's Patreon page:
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00:00 Intro to Blockhead
00:47 Workspace
01:34 Destructive Clip Editing
02:44 Lane Effects
04:50 Multiple Simultaneous Tempos
06:37 Block Synth
08:38 Carnival (Noise Generator)
09:33 Loopback Recording
10:51 Final thoughts
12:49 Demo (Outro)

[@ALTAMICHANNEL]

This feels like opening up a DAW for the first time as a kid, I kinda wanna try it haha

[@soundlearn]

It’s $3, so it’s worth a shot just to mess around with!

[@killer3544]

more like opening paint as a kid

[@CypiXmusic]

Throw it at Burial, see what he comes up with :P

[@ColdComp]

@@CypiXmusic lol for real!

[@wasabifinessed]

Underrated comment

[@richardsmithson4453]

Thought the same ha

[@jordanmillon8904]

I’d wanna see what aphex twin does with this too

[@katurian666]

That's the first thing I thought when I saw "no grid."

[@reddleyTV]

I was kinda like, “yeah that’s cool I guess” until 10:08 and my jaw hit the floor. That is unbelievably dope. I can’t count the number of times I was messing around and made something cool only to mess with the settings and lose it, never to figure it out again.

[@privatedomicile6627]

You should check out the rolling sampler from bird bird. It will do exactly this in whatever saw you want and it’s only $20.

[@Radgerayden-ist]

Also a feature in BespokeSynth

This is actually a concept I've seen before in a Mr Bill video tutorial - he sets a resampling track recording and then just has fun messing around with things, then comes back and clips what he likes. He called them 'idea jams'. I love using this technique to make sample packs!

[@SadTown99]

Always save your sound presets in a custom folder as you continue working on your track, the file sizes are so tiny you can really go crazy without any concern for space... & consider turning on auto-save for the entire project or get used to quick saving every 10-15min when you make a drastic change within the track.

[@jonautry]

@@privatedomicile6627I think Melda has one too

[@Cassanti]

It's a raw piece of software right now but I can see the vision. Traditional DAW's have a lot of hoops to jump through to get this level of detail in your song so it's refreshing to see a new concept and have it just make sense. Right now, it looks like it takes the flexibility and ease of use of popular DAW's and combines it with the detailed editing of trackers. Very interested to see where this goes.

[@WhizPill]

this should be a plug in, not a DAW

[@kewdii]

Right? This totally reminded me of absolute macro control you'd have on a tracker. This seems so cool and makes me want to mess with it.

[@UndarZ]

​@WhizPill there's no way this could work as a plugin

[@kevinkrebs1412]

legitamately excited to hear what music is going to sound like in 10-20 years with tools like this available to the next generation

[@WiltingGardenOfHeathen]

Just look up various granular vsts and resampling tools. This really isn't anything new just expand your listening and find new genres :p

[@benjoe999]

Based on the music nowadays it will be just a pure sine wave

[@le-jesuve]

my cpu wheezin watchin this

[@mikemartin6554]

Indubitably!

[@jackmono]

The lane effects create a way better workflow and ease of use of the effect than for instance using an effect on a track in ableton, toggling the on and off and then automating the effect. This seems more in line with how a producer want's to use those effects. Very nice.

[@ColdComp]

One day, this is going to be INSANE

[@Andrew-rz7qt]

Unfortunately it's really difficult to break into a market that is already saturated with many other products and then try get people to change after they're used to working on another one.

[@VeganKebabDoRuky]

@@Andrew-rz7qt you don't always have to change, you can just add. If Blockhead remains to be a unique playground, people won't see it as a replacement DAW, rather an enrichment. There already are people who use more than one DAW because they prefer certain operations to be split up across. Like using a different DAW for mixing and mastering.

[@Andrew-rz7qt]

@@VeganKebabDoRuky personally speaking I started on Ableton version 4 and have tried them all, reason, cakewalk, pro tools and always come back to Ableton.

[@neilpatrickhairless]

I use Reaper for recording and Harrison Mixbus for mixing (basically a Harrison Mixbus branded console version of Ardour) and VCV Rack quite a bit. I am in the market demographic for this, I think lol

[@Andrew-rz7qt]

@@neilpatrickhairless that's the problem with bringing a new DAW to market, once people have found a set up that works for them, it's very hard to get people to switch.

[@cardonbmusic]

Polyrhythmic music would go crazy in this

[@seanephram]

paging Virtual Riot!!

[@JoshuaDb_The_Witness]

This reminds me of my first "DAW", Acid Pro - back in 1996(?) I think. It was my introduction to making music with a computer - had to keep everything on external disks - had 12k of memory and a shitty Turtle Beach sound card - that I had to install myself. lol... I swear I made better music when I had shitty gear and no idea what I was doing. Since then I have gone to music school and audio engineering school - worked as a professional bassist, an engineer, and sound designer for film and theater - all kinds of gear has passed through my hands since then - but Id give all of it up - to go back to that time when everything was still an adventure - and I had no clue. lol.

[@JoshuaDb_The_Witness]

Okay - spoke to soon - MUCH cooler than ACid! lol

[@JoshuaDb_The_Witness]

This would REALLY benefit from a touch screen - a port to iOS would be fantastic.

[@ennayanne]

I feel that, I feel like the most fun I had producing was when I first started and really sucked at it lol

[@onlyusernameleft2]

I was just reminiscing about Acid Pro yesterday how weird

[@JoshuaDb_The_Witness]

@@onlyusernameleft2 it's what got me into making music with computers back in the day

[@theorize999]

this looks great for sound design, like the type of sound design you would do for movies and games, where you’re layering many sounds into one

[@ViRiXDreamcore]

Great point! Layering here is goiunt to be great.

[@tzadcannotbeleftblank9765]

so excited for this kind of alt-DAW

[@GeorgeLocke]

Without a wider palette of effects and synthesis tools, it's more of a sound design toy or experiment. I love the interface for drawing automation, and i love the clarity of just "sound over time." So, as a big sound design nerd, I see it as a place to go after sound design, where the limitations force me to stop sound design and focus on composition/layout.

[@timdanyo898]

I like the clean sketch aspect. It’s open and exploration beckoning.

[@spawel1]

BwO-esque

[@VeganKebabDoRuky]

This is cool, I can definitely see myself making choppy glitchy whacked out breakbeats in this DAW, seems like the perfect environment for it. I'll keep my eyes on this development.

[@Joey_Headset]

Great video! I don't have the sort of galaxy brain that could create entire tracks in this, but I could totally see myself using it for sound design.

[@soundlearn]

Trust me, neither do (as you can clearly hear in what I created), but it’s fun to play around with nonetheless!

[@bangkokcanon]

thanks for taking the time to make this short film. i found it inspiring. it's great to see tools that encourage manageable, accessible play; building blocks that are simple to put in place yet rich with possibilities. i'd love to see more on it and will probably end up downloading / supporting.🎉.

[@nicstoohigh]

dude this has some crazy potential, definitely make more videos on it

[@soundlearn]

Definitely plan on following the development. Next time I’ll be a bit more well versed in it and do a proper walkthrough.

[@supernatural802]

Oooooh me like! Thanks for the quick demo! Tht always recording feature should be in all daws.

[@Amangiechsin]

this is pretty sick! it reminds me of seeing these old computer programs that aphex twin would use to make his music back in the 90s

[@GiulianoDiaz-cn2rd]

CPU GONE WILD🗣🗣🗣🗣

[@lev7509]

Great video! Your presentation is very on-point, honest, and not dumbed-down. Sharing your enthusiasm, not making an ad. Appreciated!

[@ueberlicht_]

You can drag in SAMPLES into the CARNIVAL and hit RND also (Sample stays). Glitch heaven.

[@zonashi8645]

Damn. I recently fell in love with working with audio over midi. This is perfect 🤩

[@abrotherinchrist]

I really like the idea behind this UI.

[@uazuazu]

I like this approach. It seems minimalist and simple (once you've got the basics), but with endless possibilities and few limitations.

[@Sundji]

I definitely think this will help get people out their heads and into the music. The "limitations" of the workflow would probably make me feel a lot less dependent on the end result. I'm genuinely excited to get my hands on this. I can go with the flow here and take it into FL Studio as a sample.

[@Emily_M81]

space is play/stop tab is "play from where the mouse is"

[@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070]

Video games, shows, animations and indie music is about go crazy

[@lichtfilme]

It’s cool, thanks for figuring it out for us!

[@johannasbjoernson918]

Its back to the start, just with a nice interactive GUI. aphex twin had to do that in consoles, text files and tracker-style tables. its a nice idea to galvanise the many software synth engines which were lost to the advances in OS, filesystems and hardware. its not like the techniques aren't in use anymore: they come carefully curated and neatly packed into synth cases, vst files, modulation and effects boxes. but before they ship out as products they still have to be created. taking a step back to the point where every oscillator can touch any point of every other oscillator.. is a great option to have. cross-, pulsewidth-, audiorate-modulations, wavefolding, feedback, using noise instead of envelopes to modulate amplitude etc. there's a shit ton of sounds to be had when shooting at waveforms for target practice. nice!

[@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070]

Two Tempos what was this madlad on thats wild

[@FelixArchive]

thank you for showing this off, this is sick!

[@gesslr]

A brilliant video. Really helpful too. Many thanks!

[@jackmono]

That's it I'm creating a new moniker to release blockhead tracks with named: "no icon"

[@RichCochrane]

First I've seen of this so thanks for posting about it -- I've got interested in non-traditional workflows recently and this one looks tremendous.

[@colinbudd5840]

Feels like an invitation to break from the formulaic. I’m in.

[@michaelshea-wright7940]

this looks incredible, thanks for sharing

[@scotthjohnson1558]

Thank you...Wonderfully creative, and super interesting.

[@REMOTEGIRL]

This app seems really freeing and even if I don't use it as my primary DAW I can see it's usefulness for creating new sounds. I became a supporter after this so thank you for the demo!!

[@PeteGunnShow]

this is interesting. cool video! always fun too see a video not about the same stuff everyone else is doing lol even if its all stuff you can do in reaper using takes and free lane positioning (outside of the carnival thing). The only difference being the way you implement the effects, you would have to use bypass envelopes for it, but still doable. I guess the creative advantage here being the workflow. Even the loopback recording is available via the global sampler script. All that said, the way the effects are implemented gave me some cool ideas to try in reaper!

[@mikemartin6554]

Ok.... I'm sitting here watching this and..... I found myself filled with somewhat giddy wonder! I use Reaper and love it,but this is just crazy enough to bubble up some new juices.....👍

[@music-zv6je]

I thought this was a reference to the legendary producer Blockhead himself 😭

[@kassih.musica]

Carnival is crazy! I want to try it! Noise music gona love this!

[@rallokkcaz]

As somebody who knows a bit about how DAWs and Audio DSP work, this is an incredibly inventive and innovative approach to sound design... I need this.

[@f33fifofum]

That looks awesome

[@MalcolmBlakeSeeAndHear]

Ivy Lab just dropped a new single called "blockhead" ...wander if they used this thing

[@BeritzLofi]

Looks so interesting !!

[@JohnSmith-pn2vl]

this is really cool, well made video

[@rappersorbee]

Someone needs to show the Blockhead DAW to Blockhead the hip hop producer

[@RolieKloeOlie]

It looks like most control of the daw is the mouse. If this comes to raspberry pi this would be perfect for the uconsole

[@DileepNow]

Audacity is destructive. I would even call this non destructive Audacity.

[@Emily_M81]

thanks for sharing, this looks awesome.

[@samthesomniator]

Damn. That is pretty much like adjustment clips in Video editing. 😲

[@neuralmodulator]

Great video and demonstration! Kind of seems a bit lackluster, but if they flesh it out a little more I could see it being really cool. It kind of reminds me of Audiomulch or something, but hopefully won't stagnate in development as much as that did :)

[@soundlearn]

It’s very much in what I would consider to be pre-alpha at this stage, but I just really dig the direction it’s taking so I’ve been supporting the dev on patreon for some time now. He’s been consistently dropping updates since release so I’m excited to see where things will be a year or two from now.

[@neilpatrickhairless]

Most DAWs stagnate in development without a fat budget or generous development team. A lot of plugin development is the same way, especially when you're talking Linux it seems

[@Alithareaper]

There Is No "they" , its one Guy creating a daw

[@edmontontech2008]

All of this stuff is super easy to do in Ableton.

[@mundainmonstre2372]

oh snap he got audio inputs working! TO THE LAB!!!!!

[@titangames729]

This is definitely cool but you can achieve this in Reaper using the global sampler script. Totally a game changer and I like it a lot

[@durere]

Fun fact: there's a great US HipHop producer named Blockhead. Highly recommend a listen.

[@afrosymphony8207]

that carbibal thing is the wetdream portion of this..omg its insane!

[@Maplefoxx-vl2ew]

the noise generator is similar to Aparillo synth, its not as complicated as you think. its actually very simple to understand.

[@browncauk]

Love the multi-tempo guide idea in a DAW! Midicake ARP can do this for MIDI.

[@rudolfsilkens604]

This is like a super neat Visual Scripting interface for Audio in a Game Engine.

[@pattyluss]

Wow, what a unique approach to the DAW!

[@noscope1876]

Waiting for the day that someone makes a cover of blockhead by DEVO using blockhead

[@peffken8834]

This looks fresh. A cool tool to get or stay creative. At least for new inspiration. I like unconventional concepts - whether good or bad, they are innovative to begin with.

[@StevenSmethurst]

deffo had a burial/ fred again vibe to it

[@Gusrikh1]

Most intriguing. The future DAW or … a DAW within a DAW.. Certainly very unique.

[@GoogleAccount-kw1mz]

I wonder how importing and exporting stems would work, because it looks like automation and stem processing would be fun

[@callmesleeper]

This feels like an evolved thing from Cubase's old *Direct Offline Processing* (which can be done per individual clip or how ever many selected, but can still be reverted back how ever many steps) I can't really agree on "not knowing your way around" being helpful if you are surgical in your sound design, since you really need to know the tools and where to access them. BUT. If you rely heavily on "happy accidents" in the production. Sure, a new "confusing" thing can be helpful I guess. This is interesting nonetheless

[@soundlearn]

Thanks for a bit of background on DOP. Sounds interesting. I don’t doubt a good sound designer can master a program like this or a synth like the OP-1, I just think there’s something charming about diving in headfirst into unorthodox methods to making music. It definitely makes for something inspiring happy accidents early on that I think tend to disappear once you master any specific tool. Thanks for watching!

[@baduino]

lol that looks fun but tbh it also looks like a very very simplified version of the generative abilities of Synplant 2.

[@DarkGloComics]

RECORD a song you WANT TO sampleee. PULL your CHOPPPSssss!

[@notnoaintno5134]

seems like fun

[@synthoelectro]

something for experimental artists for a change.

[@koenignero]

Thank you very intressting

[@amp4105]

So dope

[@ennayanne]

omg it has an in-built rolling sampler

[@madhavraghu]

you can do this in reaper too with BirdBird's global sampler script (also a plugin for other DAWs, just called rolling sampler)

[@fionaskittle]

Would love that carnival thing as a vst :o

[@TheQxY]

This would be sick with MIDI and plugin support.

[@kevinlovelace6772]

This would be great for workflow with modular synths.

[@Atrazeal]

It's magix music maker, the first one. Just without the grid. I really liked editing with magix.

[@kassih.musica]

nice track!

[@Inhibitd]

im gonna see if it works with vcv rack.. 🤞🤜have to work out the loopback stuff... let you know if i get it working.

[@dagobject]

check out Bespoke Synth it's another really weird DAW

[@jonelversus]

This would be dope for sample based songs

[@theorize999]

does it load vst effects? or are there a good amount of fx? i’m looking to destroy audio, the way it’s set up granular tools should be in it amazing things could happen

[@theorize999]

Wow it does have granular as soon as I found that out I went straight to patreon lol

[@thelinkofperfectioncharity9469]

This Is very very interesting

[@Shnowz]

I love this daw, y'know, because of the implication.

[@unduloid]

2:10 "Destructive." It's not changing the original samples. So no, it's really not.

[@soundlearn]

According to the dev, it is manipulating the actual waveform of the sample in realtime. I guess you could argue that you can you can easily reset parameters to get back to the original sample though so I see what you’re saying.

[@A.D.G]

@@soundlearn I don't think that's what is happening. The original file you load into Blockhead is not modified. Try it yourself, drag a sample from splice to your desktop then drag that into Blockhead. Modify the sample in blockhead and save the project. Now play the file from splice on your desktop, it will be unmodified

[@tonybeatbutcher]

Bro you made a juke track in it ❤

It looks good for fx making software

[@dpfxz]

I mean its just cycling, sample looping etc. ....whats the quality and how many kinds of bugs or 'common problems/limitations etc.' does it have? Ableton does all this already. This has a quick workflow but at what cost ...if I was to switch?

[@soundlearn]

By no means is this DAW ready for prime time. I wouldn’t use it as a replacement even if it was, personally. I think it’s a great tool for sketching ideas or creating specific sounds.

[@GeorgeLocke]

Why is the spring reverb stereo?

[@GeorgeLocke]

I have no other comments.

[@synthoelectro]

There was software during 2000 that gave you the ability to make strange sounds, this reminds me of that.

[@unduloid]

You mean, like pretty much _every_ software that lets you manipulate sounds? Yeah, this reminds me of those too.

[@mvsr990]

Metasynth?

[@synthoelectro]

@@mvsr990 actually no, I can't remember but this is very nice.

[@22222Sandman22222]

soundshaper? (edit: that one is even weirder and much harder to use... :D)

[@synthoelectro]

@@22222Sandman22222 I just don't remember but it was something odd.

[@ooglyga6100]

omg this was designed for rhythm fiends.

[@nikbl4k]

ef'ing brilliant

[@Sundji]

give this to Kenny Beats or Monte Booker

[@mylivetubetv]

Thank you for sharing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Andrew-rz7qt]

But from the get go you are clipping, so mixing down is going to be a task.

[@alltheserobotsshallfall]

Meshuggah will love this