Okay, forget the vaporware “metaverse” business. You can open a browser tab and use this right now (in beta). Create, build, remix, and code 3D rooms for any kind of fun you imagine. While the big tech platform internet is unraveling, we can all play with stuff like this instead. And it’s kid-friendly – and a way for kids to learn to code (human coding, not AI).

Befaco’s new Fx Boy multi-effects module uses Game Boy cartridges as add-ons, and some of our favorite manufacturers are involved. Just remember, it’s a bad idea to blow on the carts.

Dust off that GBA: it’s a groove box now. Stepper is a free and open source 16-step sequencer with full access to the onboard sound engine and per-trigger parameter locks, Elektron-style. (And this pairs well with Elektron gear, as the developer shows.)

SAND does what Abledon’t.* If you miss plug-in hosting in Ableton Note, here’s a whole app built around sequencing and recording your instrument plug-ins on iOS.

Video killed the radio star, then reality TV killed MTV, then social media killed the Internet. Well, it’s back, all of it. Sort of. The Game Boy Advance will save us. And that brings us back to some retro Asheville chillwave from the more innocent age of 2012.

Vinyl is getting near-impossible to produce and ship; digital is a mess. CDs are – sorry, just not a good format.* Game Boy cartridges seem better than ever. And Remute makes them look and sound so damned good.

Return to the days of MIDI-controlled LaserDisc players – Mark Coniglio, creator of Isadora, walks through this history of the work of Troika Ranch. It’s an incredible microcosm of where dance tech has come for – but you can do stuff today with Isadora, too, like finding a use for that Nintendo Wiimote.

“Picked up this machine at a local garage sale. The owner said he picked up in the 90s and it was not working. Poking around and fixing the power board, it fired up and it turned out to be a tracker sampler. Looks very similar to a modern tracker?”

Bitwig and plug-in maker u-he today are announcing a new plug-in format into beta, dubbed CLAP, for CLever Audio Plug-in API. It’s open and has features missing from the leading proprietary formats – and boasts some significant support at launch. So what will that mean for you?

The days of Roland slapping a vintage name on something fairly unrelated are over. The JUNO-X will absolutely behave like a vintage JUNO. But the digital heart underneath also means it’ll be everything from a vocoder to a JD-800 – which means if you are in the market for a Roland keyboard, you’ve got some choices to make.