Cheap handheld gaming consoles now often pack surprising processing power. But many risk ending up as e-waste. A new open-source project is turning them into powerful Linux music workstations, instead, complete with the ability to run plug-ins—and original games, too. Oh, and the project has some familiar faces involved. Here’s an exclusive first look.

This is why you get intimate with code, line by line. Artemiy at Sinevibes obsessed over details, breaking a filter model by rewiring its internal connections — and now, with v3, giving it precise modulation in a wide variety of shapes. Now, like kids kicking over a sandcastle, we can take that handiwork and apply it to total, absolute destruction.

XEN FX LAB is a follow-up to a software hit (and hardware, before that), adding a modeled spring reverb, strike for “knocking” the virtual tank, and a dub button for adding dub-style throws, plus significant performance optimizations all round. And yeah, it’s time for more wild drones and dubs and echoes and the lot. macOS, Windows; VST3, AU, standalone; also on iOS.

Mouthwashing, the underground psychological horror adventure, helped a slew of new fans discover the joys of Imogen Heap. Now Imogen and the game are back on all current consoles. No excuses: it’s Halloween weekend, and what other title offers “Descend into Madness” as one of its feature bullet points? I do mean all consoles. Windows […]

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.