We talk less about plug-ins as classics than we do hardware, but Tverb – replicating Tony Visconti’s “Heroes” setup but hugely versatile elsewhere – might just be that. And not one but two Bowie collaborators did how-to videos for Eventide recently.

DJ Stingray 313’s latest sounds are powered by science, brightly colored synthetic synthesized wavelengths beamed from the future. So don’t sleep.

Another reason to switch search engines – privacy-centric alternative DuckDuckGo also has a clever little bpm calculator built in.

In just 48 hours, we’ve been treated both to whistleblower testimony that questions Facebook’s impact on society – and a massive technical outage that shows our dependence on it (and its fragility). Maybe it’s time for the world of music to stop treating Facebook as inevitable and entirely benign.

At the border of Belarus and Poland right now, all the fault lines of the world’s overlaid human catastrophes seem to come together. Artistic collective Oramics has assembled a musical response to the crisis and an urgent call to action.

There’s a gently pastel-colored hand-drawn interface, a backstory involving extraplanetary mining. It’s a reverb, a degrader and multi-effect, but also a drone maker. But whatever it is, Rymdigare transports everything you do to a warm, happy place. It’s like drizzling stuff with warm chocolate.

The duo of Shahin Entezami and Behrang Najafi has produced a tape/digital release of reworks that buzzes and screams with the emotion-packed sounds of futuristic, electronic protest.

While everyone else modulates the 70s, 80s, and even 90s, step back to the 1950s – with a complete array of test oscillators, vintage sound equipment, mixers, patching, and tape. It’s Berna3, and it’s possibly the most retro electronic music software … ever.

I’ve been playing with the LXR-02, the new digital drum synth from Erica Synths and Sonic Potions. Verdict: it’s versatile, loud, and brutally violent when it wants to be. Here are some sounds, plus more tips for LXR-02 players, and the latest on the just-out 1.2 firmware update.

Ableton Live 11.1 beta means a native version of the host that can take full advantage of the hardware inside the latest Macs. But what about VST, AU, Max for Live, and other content – especially if it was built for Intel? Here’s what works, what doesn’t, and how to retain compatibility.