As a firm believer in technosolutionism, I am here to tell you, authoritatively, that you need a disembodied glowing hand that creeps around your house and plays spooky music. Not want. Need. Those who do not buy this disembodied hand will surely be left behind, or at least it will crawl after you. Instrument builder and inventor Gijs Gieskes is back at it again.

What do you get the music synth user who’s got everything? Here’s what: mutation and generation options that actually lead you into more tweaking, not away from it. Plus goodies from the original Massive and PPG, and some of our favorite NI effects. Massive XL feels like the sequel Massive X wanted to be. Here’s a first hands-on — at just the right time, with a $99 intro price.

This month, Absynth got two updates that refine its UI and editing navigation, freeing you up to shape your sound. Product designer Hannah Lockwood and Absynth creator Brian Clevinger join us to talk about the work they did on that. I already knew Hannah and Brian were really passionate about their craft, so let’s get our tour from the source — and dive into more Absynth sonic frontiers.

The exquisite collaboration of Lawrence Sammour, Sary Moussa, and Abed Kobeissy, Bethlehem, is released this month. And it has become a rich sanctuary, a shared space that refuses erasure or fragmentation. It also refuses to obey the boundaries of colonialism and occupation, weaving together what was pulled apart, as taut and resonant as the strings of the buzuq.

GForce has updated their site, branding, and pricing (now with both lifetime licenses and subscription options). And there are two freebies, time-limited through the end of November: a Mellotron M400 instrument, and the one I suspect most readers will be into, GForce’s take on the 1975 ARP Axxe synthesizer.

Straight outta Katowice, our friends at D16 Audio Group are celebrating 20 years with an all-new stereo delay: Echolite. And don’t let the “lite” in the name deceive you: this all-new giveaway has some power beneath its simple UI.

Roland has one more announcement — a 1.5 update for its flagship TR-1000 drum machine. That includes note sequencing, a must-requested keyboard mode for playing bass and melodic parts on the gear, the ability to swap patterns and kits with effects on without a hitch, and a lot of tweaks and UI improvements.

It’s the size of a standard guitar pedal. It needs no power It’s… covered in jacks. It’s Mulch Box, the first hardware from Go Outside, and it’s a stunningly simple idea for signal routing any of your gear, minijack and full-sized jack alike.

It’s not just some extra keys or minor feature tweaks. Arturia’s MiniFreak 49 has evolved the range into a synthesizer you can freely explore just by playing, not programming. It’s a fusion of tactile experience and sound, right when we need that. Here’s a full hands-on test.

The kawaii look of the mini Rolands in the Boutique series has returned. There’s one vintage remake — the JUPITER-08, this time with full polyphony and then some (up to 32 voices). And there’s something new: the n/vision wavetable synth.