Inside Synth

Inside Liberland

Matt Broomfield | UnHerd | 17th July 2023

Account of a visit to a boggy patch of land on the banks of the Danube, claimed by "a coterie of libertarian crypto enthusiasts" as a utopian micronation. About the size of Gibraltar, it is uninhabited because of a post-Soviet border dispute between Croatia and Serbia. The "population" — a handful of activists — currently lives on a houseboat downstream, closely supervised by the Croatian police (1,724 words)

Synth Wars

Daniel Griffiths | MusicRadar | 21st June 2023

How MIDI came to be the universal interface for synthesisers. In the 1980s, manufacturers were racing to be the first to produce an easily programmable system. The temptation was to lock musicians into one maker — so they had to stick with Korg, or Moog, or Yamaha. But thanks to a "minor miracle", an agreement was reached: a decision that changed the sound of music (2,508 words)