Elektron Digitakt 1.3. Polyend Tracker 1.4. But don’t miss what boutique maker 1010music are doing with their Blackbox sampler. Here’s a look at there just-out 1.9 firmware update – and some lovely music, too. In this season of nuanced, musical updates for desktop hardware, it’s great to get this, too. Andreas Roman reviewed the Blackbox […]

While everyone argues about subscriptions, let’s return to the lovely world of FL Studio. This time, the “Lifetime Free Updates” delivers new sounds, more visual tools, Apple Silicon support, and more.

The recurrence of Bandcamp Friday means yet another slew of releases, which is unequivocally a wonderful thing. But I hate schedules and structure – we’re musicians, not accountants! – so let’s just leave this week with one gentle gem.

I’ve been eyeing that 7×7-shaped hole in Roland Cloud for a while, and I know I’m not alone. Now Roland has added the 707 and 727 drum machines to their growing software back catalog.

ROLI has filed for administration and will reboot as beginner-focused Luminary as the company struggles with losses. Current employees remain, and even the Seaboard is apparently coming back in stock – but this could be a cautionary tale for “hypergrowth” in music making.

Polyend’s Tracker has become a contemporary classic. The 1.4 update transforms sequencing, step effects, and how you work with line input, among other features – and hang on, as there is also some news to do with pricing, manufacture, and distribution.

It’s powered by math but doesn’t require you to remember your, uh, linear algebra. It’s not a set of presets, but it’s accessible to newcomers and experts alike. MOPs is a free entryway to treating motion like an expressive instrument, and it radically changes the experience of using Houdini for the first time.

We overstate the impact of a lot of musical legends. But then there’s Lee “Scratch” Perry, and overstatement is a challenge.

Inspired by objects like wall clocks and reel-to-reel tape machines, Orbita is a sequencer whose interaction is physical and kinetic, via small discs placed on a turntable. The twist is, it’s not just a design demo – you’ll be able to buy one yourself.

It must be the future because your cereal box is also an augmented-reality drum machine or synth. We talked to the creative team about the project, plus the full-featured “pro” models.