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.

Patching modular synthesis now has its own game, complete with realistic modules and actual signal routing logic puzzles. Meet indie title The Signal State, just released on Steam.

Ableton Live 11.1 is now available as a public beta free to anyone with a Live 11 license. New in this build – new tools for handling lag and adjusting MIDI and pitch/frequency shifting, plus much-awaited native M1 Apple Silicon support.

A violin can be totally transformed – and the performance with it – from ice skates to neon instruments to ventriloquists’ dummies. Laurie Anderson in this film talks about her many ingenious instrumental inventions.

Attacco’s Virtual Controller, now in beta, makes anything into a percussive MIDI controller – not just for triggers, but expression, too. And you don’t need special hardware, either.

The sacred timeline has been restored. The greatest, strangest, glitchiest, most destructive plug-ins of the early 2000s are here with 64-bit support for Mac and Windows, Apple Silicon support on Mac, and UIs that look even more horrible than before. And they’re still free.