Hey, hardware modular – the computer is back. Cherry Audio’s Voltage Modular is another software modular platform. Its angle: be better for users — and now, easier and more open to developers, with a new free tool.

The just-before-the-holiday-break software updates just keep coming. Next: the evergreen, lifetime-free-updates latest release of the DAW the developer calls FL Studio, and everyone else calls “Fruity Loops.”

There are those who run from chill, and those who dive headfirst. 214 aka J. Alvarez, real name Chris Jordan, has just the back-of-the-freezer chilled out tracks we need right now, that musical journey into Twin Peaks.

You’ve got plenty of off-the-shelf controllers – but what if you want something that’s unique to you? OpenDeck is an affordable, young, Arduino hardware-compatible controller platform for DIYers, and it’s starting to produce some jaw-dropping results.

Arturia made their name emulating classic synths, and then made their name again in hardware synths and handy hardware accessories. But they’re back with an original synthesizer in software. It’s called Pigments, and it mixes vintage and new together. You know, like colors.

We’re coasting to the end of 2018, but Bitwig has managed to squeeze in Studio 2.5, with feature the company says were inspired by or directly requested by users.

You want to play with your music toys together, and instead you wind up unplugging and repatching MIDI. That’s no fun. We wanted to solve this problem for ourselves, without having to trade high performance for low cost or simplicity. The result is MeeBlip cubit.

Musicians don’t just endure technology when it breaks. They embrace the broken. So it’s fitting that Holly Herndon’s team have produced a demonic spawn of machine learning algorithms – and that the results are wonderful.

Kids today. First, they want synth modules with the power of computers but the faceplate of vintage hardware – and get just that. Next, they take for granted the flexibility of patching that virtual systems in software have. Well, enter TUNNELS: “infinite multiple” for your Eurorack.

The iPad finally gets a dedicated port for connectivity, as you’d find on a “desktop” computer – and it’s loaded with potential uses, from power to music gear. Let’s break down exactly what it can do.