Patching for the people – there’s no reason cost or access has to keep you from the powers and fun of modular synthesis and music making. VCV Rack’s launch this month got lots of attention, but there are other options, too. Here the latest, best picks.

The chalk is underwater, screaming like a chattering alien. Or that’s how it sounds through a hydrophone. Enter the weird world of some of Richard Devine’s field recordings – then grab the sounds for your own Creative Commons-licensed creations.

Our friend Brian aka Afrorack has kept up his must-see series of DIY video tutorials in his home Uganda. And as ever, he’s producing brilliant instruments and fantastic music on a budget, thanks to some serious ingenuity.

It’s another winter of tough commercial pressures and pandemic limits on gathering. But Hong Kong Community Radio – and now CFK Radio – provide some shining examples of how to create new spaces for far-out sounds.

The romantic engineering synth maker has something small and affordable, a post-apocalyptic weirdo instrument from designer Kakos Nonos. It’s part chip music, part noise experiment, in the grand tradition of stuff like the Atari Punk Console. Meet Rumble of Ancient Times aka Грохот древних эпох. It’s great to see Soma using some of their recent […]

Create Digital Laser Motion? The laser control tool from the makers of MadMapper now has a video tutorial series to walk you through its workflow.

Jozef Bogin, Slovak engineer and hacker, has just posted this short video of a light pen – PCjr interface, and whenever we have events planning again, I really want to see it as a VJ act.

An imaginative generation continues to pass away from us, now with the death of Alvin Lucier.

Now that VCV Rack Pro 2 is here, Rack works properly as a plug-in. And here’s an advanced application for it – trying new ways of working with clock and time.

The anticipated VCV Rack 2 is here and out of beta. What will it support? What does the release mean for compatibility with modules? What will it cost if you opt for the ‘Pro’ version? All the details here – but yeah, you can finally run VCV Rack inside your DAW.