The Best Music Tech of 2024

It’s the end of music, they said! The harbinger of doom has arrived to take all our jobs, they cried! Thankfully they were wrong. About sampling that is. All those years ago when samplers hit mainstream use, we heard all the same doomsday arguments only to find that rather than ending music, it actually created a whole new era of genres like hip hop, electro, drum 'n' bass and countless others.In 2024, many of the same cries continued to ring out around AI and as yet, the killer robots haven’t knocked on our doors and actually, AI in music has some helpful benefits.

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Caribou used AI to write his own vocals on his 'Honey' album, while many of us have been experimenting with Stem Splitters, Session Players or AI mastering on latest version of Logic. ChatGPT has proven itself to be a powerful source of advice on chords, production techniques and music research. And while none of it is perfect yet, and some music careers will inevitably require adjustment, the seeds of radical change are beginning to sprout.

But that's not the be and end all by any means, and across hardware and software, a raft of first-rate new music tech producers have been released across 2024 to assist artists in their music-making. Here are 10 of the best.

Whether granny kicked the bucket or you fell over a pot of gold on the way to work, the UDO Super Gemini is waiting to relieve you of that extra cash you don’t need. For everyone else, you may but drool over this flagship 20-voice, multi-timbral Rolls Royce of an instrument that has been touted by many as the synth of the year.

£3,388, udo-audio.com/super-gemini

Moog dropped another rival mega-synth in the form of the Muse, and not to mention the release of its analogue filter bank/vocoder, the Spectravox. However it’s the Labyrinth that drew our attention most thanks to its unique combination of elements. Two generative quantisable sequencers and a West Coast style filter/wavefolder lead to a happy accident, mega machine that’s a little kinder on your bank balance than Moog’s flagship monster.

£519, moogmusic.com/products/labyrinth

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Logic will never be as cool as Ableton, as down with the kids as FL Studio or as quirky as Bitwig. But with Logic 11, it delivers its most functionally seismic shakeup to the DAW industry yet. Its AI-powered Stem Splitter, Mastering, Session Players and Chord arranger shoehorn in some of the music techno’s most disruptive new technologies, paving the way for what must surely be next: a prompt based music production DAW.

£199.99, apple.com/uk/logic-pro

The Digitakt and the Octatrack are Elektron’s highest performance sampling titans, albeit at different price points. The former’s Mark II version narrows the distance between the cheaper Digitakt and its Octatrack bigger brother, doubling the audio track count from eight to 16 among other major improvements. Which begs the question, if they’re happy to risk Digitakt II edging into Octatrack II’s domain, what features await on the long overdue Octatrack III?

£899, elektron.se/product/digitakt-ii

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Analogue synthesis is old you say? Spend a few minutes tweaking this innovative, new wave shaping, semi-modular synth and you’ll be tattooing ‘Voltage4Eva’ on your forehead for all to see. Take the guessing game out of building your own modular rig by opting for a device that bundles several expertly curated features into one of this year’s most characterful machines.

£1799, pittsburghmodular.com/voltage-lab-2

No, it’s not a remake of the coveted Korg classic the mono/poly, but instead yet another must have Korg synth – this time going all out to create one of the most feature laden digital synths at its price point. A multi-timbral synthesiser, with up to 60 voices, the range of sounds available are massive. We can imagine it’s the kind of thing Aphex Twin cuddles up to in bed at night.

£799, korg.co.uk/products/multipoly

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Yes, the rumours are true. TE’s OP-1 and OP-Z left the office Christmas party in the same cab, and the resulting offspring blends the best of both devices in a powerful mini-machine. A 64-step sequencer, multiple synth engines, powerful sampler, multi-effects and a built-in speaker means making music on the couch has never felt this good.

£1899, teenage.engineering/store/op-xy

Pioneer’s rebranded DJ arm kicked off with a slew of DJ gear including a luxury controller and this wireless speaker. It’s battery powered and water resistant, meaning it has beach/villa/free party rave written all over it. Unlike most wireless speakers, it is virtually latency free (meaning you can’t bake your tools when someone complains about dodgy mixing).

£859, alphatheta.com/en/product/portable-dj-speaker/wave-eight/black

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Big up the folks at Digital DJ Tips. Why isn’t there a USB drive dedicated to DJ use that loads appropriately fast? When no one answered, they designed their own. Purpose built to sync DJ libraries, it transfers at half the time of a typical USB drive, with both USB-A and USB-C connectivity.

£36.14, store.djtechtools.com/products/chroma-usb-drive-for-djs

The 'wow' factor of high-end DJ controllers and analogue rotary mixers has definitely plateau’d, so let’s look to the opposite end of the spectrum with a nifty, pocket sized DJ controller featuring some innovative features. CV connectivity lets you sync it with a modular, while built-in effects, sync, a looper, EQs and 32 gigabites of internal memory for recording your sets means its feature sets packs a mighty punch.

£399 ($499), driftdj.com

Gavin Herlihy is a producer, mix engineer and music tech writer, follow him on Instagram