Meet Blockhead DAW: Where the Grid is Just a Suggestion

Blockhead DAW's Interface

As someone who is deeply invested in the latest tools for music production, I’ve had my binoculars aimed at the development of Blockhead DAW, a genuinely unique and experimental digital audio workstation. Colugo, the developer behind Blockhead DAW, created something that breaks away from the traditional constraints of a global tempo and offers a flexible environment where creativity isn’t bound by a musical grid. With features like “manipulators” that allow for cross-track automation and a constant recording buffer like the Rolling Sampler plugin so no idea is ever lost, its obvious that Blockhead DAW is designed for those who like to move to the beat of their own drum, literally.

While it’s still in development, I’m waiting for a stable beta release before I really dive in and become a user myself. After $3 on Patreon and a few hours of trial and error I came to one of those RTFM (read the F$@%ing manual) moments and thought I’d accept my loses and live to fight another day. In the meantime, I’ll be sharing some clips I’ve come across that do an excellent job of showcasing the DAW’s capabilities. These will give you a glimpse into what Blockhead can achieve and, hopefully, get you as excited as I am for its full release. Blockhead has the potential to redefine how we approach music production, and I can’t wait to explore the impact it will have on the music world.

Here are some videos to give you a closer look at the DAW.

Credit to the original posters.

Is that GODOT Engine in the background?

From the manual: Carnival is an extremely bizarre, unique, and interesting node-based noise generation tool built into Blockhead. It could be called a synth, but relies more on a lack of user control than anything else, meaning the results are generally very chaotic and unpredictable, serving as something more to be sampled and repurposed than used for direct synthesis itself. 

If you would like to support Blockhead DAW's development, you can visit it's Patreon page and get yourself a copy of the alpha build for $3.

Check out an interview with Blockhead DAW's developer Chris Penrose on musichackspace.org.