Here’s Laurie Spiegel introducing Music Mouse in the 1980s

Eventide has posted a fantastic archival video in advance of their remake of Music Mouse. In this 1987 episode of Midnight Muse, composer and programmer Laurie Spiegel explains the software and takes call-in questions. “Even if we’re very good at the keyboard, sometimes we want our habits broken up,” she says, and “[this] allows you to push melodic lines around in space.”

Filter Delays, free Max for Live stereo effect from Robert Henke

Here’s a surprise, an evidently spontaneous drop from Ableton co-founder Robert Henke in Max for Live. Filter Delays provides three filtered stereo delays with some very clever twists; it’s a free download for Ableton Live Suite 12+ users.

Jam, color, and geometry — discover Perplex On’s AV synesthesia bliss

Dive deep into these explosions of sound, light, and shape from Munich-based Perplex On, as the musical act pairs compact instruments with visuals made in Lottie and Imaginando’s VS – Visual Synthesizer. Dazzle at these eye-popping, brain-tickling audiovisual explorations. Warning: contains flashing lights and rapidly changing patterns. As perfectly structured as these are, they also […]

FFAB unlocks the batch audio powers of the free ffmpeg with a GUI

FFmpeg, the free multimedia toolkit, is so powerful that, honestly, it’s entirely possible not to know all that it can do. For audio, the new FFAB offers a graphical front-end on Mac and Linux, with real-time preview, drag-and-drop filters, parallel processing, and useful visualizations that even command line lovers won’t want to miss.

New, free TechAudioTools lets you get serious with Unreal’s MetaSounds

MetaSounds is a powerful platform for sound, synthesis, and procedural audio and music. And the price is right (free). But in the past, it had some gaps in out-of-the-box functionality. Epic has quietly released TechAudioTools Content, a bunch of free editor tools and widgets that anyone interested in Unreal or MetaSounds should go grab right this second. It’s always the little things.

Novagrid, sequenced multi-effect with bitcrusher, sonic motion plug-in

Mario Nieto’s Novagrid opens up sequenced volume, pan, filter, and bitcrusher effects in plug-in form. And while that may sound a bit familiar, Novagrid has some tricks up its sleeve. If you like animating sound, you’ll definitely want to take a look. If you buy something from a CDM link, we may earn a commission. […]

OHYUNG’s IOWA on Trans Music Archive is as powerful as a glacier

Take a moment for the arresting stillness of “all dolls go to heaven.” IOWA, the full-length opus by film composer Lia Ouyang Rusli (“OHYUNG”), hits you deep in the gut. The first 2026 release by must-follow label Trans Music Archive is both an essential meditation and a call to arms.

Move 2.0 adds Audio Tracks with clip warping, live processing; more

If you’ve got an Ableton Move, you can take advantage of its public beta today, too, just by connecting Move to your computer. And this is a huge release: in addition to other new functionality, Audio Tracks support warping clips and live-processing audio. This has the power to turn Move into a serious pint-sized powerhouse, […]

Erosion side-by-side with Erosion Legacy.

Ableton Live 12.4 adds Link Audio, updated effects, more: hands-on details

Ableton Live 12.4 enters public beta today. New features include continued refinement of Live’s audio effects and the ability to merge stems and separate stems for just a selected portion of time. And there’s one unexpected twist: Ableton Link can now do audio. Here’s a deep dive into what’s new, based on beta builds leading […]

SonicSketch DAW interface with audio controls, post-processing for image, and audio effects. In the center, the Indaw Anticline visualized seismic data, with a waveform puck in red moving across a teal path through the black and white image.

Live out your Xenakis fantasies, free in your browser, with SonicSketch

JeongHo Park, a self-described “algorithmic composer” and artist, is building a delightful instrument that turns images into scores with full drawing capability for making paths. Inspired by the likes of Xenakis’ UPIC, the tool gives you instantly mind-bending results, living in that netherworld between synthesizer and score.