The east-central African festival has become a global beacon for adventurous music lovers. But this year, you can virtually teleport to Kampala and take in some yourself – right now.

The latest OS update from Elektron takes the beloved workstation and adds a ton of new stuff – making it easier to randomize parameters, trigger sounds via MIDI, edit and perform.

It’s impossible to get perspective on video chat in the middle of a pandemic and the age of Zoom. For fresh eyes, see video chat as if you’re from 1980 – and as employed by a pioneering artist duo.

Who said 2020 was devoid of holiday spirit? Nerd Santa Claus* came through, at least, because Bastl Instruments have made a quirky, sexy good time in the Kastle Drum, a drum-focused follow-up to their adorable Kastle.

Toybox are going wild with powerful modules for Reaktor Blocks, the Eurorack-style patching environment. And that includes tons and tons of free modules – now with cool features like integration with the TidalCycles live coding environment.

If your engine needs some oil, look to the latest release from our friends over at raster – made even more brutal with an intervention by some Spanish industrial legends of the 80s.

Our friend Artemiy has raved at length about why he loves KORG’s hardware development platform, but he just went and did what’s probably the craziest thing yet. Everyone gets an FM engine.

Live visual software makers have made Black Friday a kind of ritual, too – which means now is probably the best time to get that VJ license you’ve been wanting. (Bonus: in 2020, you alone may stand between a viewer and an abyss of boredom in a livestream.)

At the dawn of the 1980s, anyone could buy a Moog-manufactured synth for $500 – at their local Radio Shack. And now you can add this distinctive synth for free.

You need a virtual vacation. This one comes with synthesizers, too – courtesy Julia Bonder, who’s not coincidentally Creative Director at module maker endorphin.es. It’s heavy – and you’ll want to dance. (Dance off anything you just ate, USA.)