They gathered for 24 hours in 70 live coding performances from around the world. Now Algorave has a 55-track album “full of really great music and noise from the live coding/algorithmic music community, fundraising to support Palestinian health, dignity, and culture.” All that plus extra videos from their recent livestream and more. At a time when computer tech is all about extraction, it’s refreshing to see an actual community that’s using code to give.

If you didn’t get the chance to grab Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals and were hoping to stock up, there’s still a chance on some music gear, software, and plug-ins (with a couple I missed that expire tonight). Here are a few of the best options. Hardware First, Reverb has up to 80% off […]

Quick! Your modular/synth/contact mic/pot-and-pan is making amazing sounds, and you want to capture them for fast 1-shots/drum racks. And you hate the tedious editing/naming admin! Robert Henke’s new Sample Capture is for you — and it’s free, for Ableton Live 12 and Max for Live.

My hips are sad. These promos are not moving them; they’re squashed to hell, grooveless, and it’s about as fun to dance to as an Airbus engine drone.* I know how to solve this: N.A.A.F.I, the Mexico-based international label with its unique voice and rhythms patterned on the likes of tribal guarachero, spun by its family of producers into deeply personal bangers.

Pam’s back in town, and she’s learned a new language. ALM/Busy Circuits’ “Pamela’s Disco” sports an Ethernet jack for PRO DJ-LINK — that’s the sync format found on CDJs and other Pioneer DJ/AlphaTheta equipment and compatible gear. You read that right: now your modular has a sync button.

Move over, recycled ideas and emulations: it’s been a year of reimagining entire effects categories. And ADPTR Audio’s Utopia stands out in a 2025 class of reverbs that are more than just reverbs. Here’s a look at why it’s an effect I can’t put down, why it’s so much fun to tweak, and how the developers thought about it.

Chris Johnson, aka Airwindows, continues to share his love for DSP with free tools, open source code, and elaborate discussions of the joy of crafting reverbs. So just in case you don’t feel blessed enough with free effects after SuperMassive’s new Sirius reverb/delay, here’s the tiny and the thick in all-new Airwindows editions. And they’ll even run in VCV Rack or on a Raspberry Pi.

You can pluck it, strike it, bow it, use your fingers, use a pick. The Lethelium is upcycled from bicycle parts and imagined in a cycle-punk zombie comic where bike parts save civilization. And all of this could only come from the imagination of Montreal artist Lateef Martin, an artist who lives a sci-fi reality others might only dream of. Or as Lateef puts it: “it reinvents the wheel.”

Sale-itis has made the full year a maddening deluge of discounts. (You know who you are, inbox plagues!) But here are some legitimately excellent deals on music software available now.

Black Friday/Black Week/Cyber Monday/Week/Month/whatever gets overwhelming. But here’s a selection of genuinely impressive discounts, on gear like Ableton Move and Push, Moog, Sequential, Erica Synths, Polyend, and even a couple of favorite Eurorack modules. I keep an eye on a couple of selections that might make good gifts, too.