Another giant of electronic music’s evolution has passed, with the loss on Sunday of Jon Appleton.

For a lot of users, it’ll just mean the splash screen goes from pink to gray. But Live 11.1 is a beta no more. That’s huge news if you’re on Apple Silicon, but there are a lot of other little improvements you’ll want to catch whatever platform you use.

Philip Glass turns 85 this week, and you can celebrate by stealing his piano. Well – you can celebrate by getting a free plug-in version of his favorite piano.

Patch we’ve seen already to be an unparalleled tool for building interactive musical instruments and complete immersive worlds in VR. Now it’s nearing beta release, with a sign-up for closed access immediately.

If you produce anything that involves juggling Apple devices, Universal Control is now nearly ready for public consumption. Developers are the first to get to try it out – but that’s relevant, as I’m sure that’s the community that’s been most eager.

We have access to endlessly powerful music creation and sound synthesis software. So… why on this particular Friday is it more fun to make stupid sequences out of emoticons? Enjoy “thirtydollarhaircut.”

It’s the perfect follow-up to 1010’s ultra-compact blackbox sampler and bluebox mixer. Now nanobox adds pint-sized synthesis to the range, with ultra-portable granular and wavetable synths – and we’ve got a first review from resident 1010 expert Andreas Roman.

Here comes the twist – in a year in which so much of the adventurous end of the electronic music scene was stalled, that dynamism was alive in Köln by way of Iranian diaspora. Timcheh was a window into where electronic musical inventors can go next, together.

Podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz is already must-listen material, covering the stories behind sound design and branding. Now clear some headphone time for the story behind HBO’s goosebump-inducing 80s theme and iconic 90s angelic TV-switching-on opener, and beyond.

“I prefer to leave complete freedom to the listener … letting them find their own music within themselves from the sounds I offer.” Happy birthday to legendary composer Eliane Radigue – and now is the perfect time to discover yourself in her sounds, if you haven’t already.