norms from monome opens up an ecosystem of musical ideas. But if opening that door was out of your budget range, consider a DIY option – and marvel at what this can do with a terrific new app.

It’s terrible recording technology, made into wonderful music tool. This 1970s Soviet machine saw Cold War spy and military action – but now you get to cheat and use it as a plug-in.

Seared and sighing, the textures of Dakn’s debut release express pain and mourning. But these aching sounds find some feeling of grace. They are hurt expressed, like a cry.

It’s a world of overabundant music and disappearing press, lockdowns and empty venues, endless production up against algorithmic listeners. But no mind: free those tracks, anyway.

For all the video portraits of music-making out there, this series for The Disappearance of Music is something special – and might just inspire you in your own solo creation.

It’s cold outside for much of the world now, and crowds are a no-no. But show off your projection mapping skills while streaming – and be on top of gigs when they come back. Our friends at MadMapper show us how.

This could be the easiest and most inexpensive way to put the epic 1971 semi-modular synth in your rig. Cherry Audio has a killer ARP 2600 recreation – and it costs only US$25.

Architecture and topography themselves become horror in these underground experimental games – titles you can play with a few minutes in the dark.

Let’s be honest – days are dark in the wrong ways now. Here are some free Halloween sound packs and a software update for Reason to give you some inspiration – plus a pumpkin carving game, just because.

It’s just an alpha version, but it’s already impressive: the open source visual programming tools Pd is running in a browser window, even with externals.