Kalide Systems’ unique effects playground and custom effects toolkit Collage got a nice update recently, full of user-requested features—some from comments here on CDM. Here’s a look, plus a couple of quick effects to download and play with.

Just when you think you can’t hear any new noises from a delay, along comes Sinevibes Integer, drawing on classic bucket brigade delays to create something retro and futuristic all at once. We’ve also got an extra CDM-exclusive preset bank to explore more.

Apple has released macOS Sonoma 14.4.1. As verified by some plug-in developers, this includes fixes for an issue that could cause plug-ins to fail. It also includes important fixes for USB hubs and Java.

There’s no need to imagine the history and conception of music as beginning and ending in western Europe. The history of music is far older, richer – and stranger than that. Here’s a glimpse of some of that and more resources to help broaden our sense of what music can be.

V4CO is more devilish proof that in Eurorack, anything is possible – even the improbable, unruly, and joyfully unwise. More than just an oscillator, it’s a demented, destructive voice combining 8-bit wavetables, sub-bass, overdrive, and VCAs, adding patchable circuit-bending mayhem with the GLITHc expander.

How about Commodore AMIGA-style sampling – complete with pixel UI, lo-fi sampling styles, vintage time-stretching, and both modern and Amiga file support – in a plug-in? It’s Amigo Sampler, it’s got a price point from a fish and chips shop, and it sounds wicked. (The plug-in, and the music from the folks making it, too…)

The world’s biggest music company has now teamed up with one of the world’s leading instrument and music creation tech makers to weigh in on the growing AI boom. Mostly what we get is a set of general principles – but talking about who made music for the data sets is central, and it could be an indication of musician/instrument/music industry partnerships to come.

Diagnosing the problem is easy – streaming is fundamentally broken and opposed to artists’ interests and no one likes it. But finding a solution? After going viral with a rant about streaming, James Blake has revealed his answer – but it’s one we’ve seen before.

Minimal Audio continues its straightforward standalone effects series with Flex Chorus. This is a thoroughly modern take on the genre with two very different-sounding modes, each calibrated for timbral character enhancement and big stereo.

Between samples and synth, sound design and performance—and with a heaping dose of machine learning—Visco is a new way of imagining a beat construction plug-in. But what you’ll probably notice first is that you get to squish around a futuristic blob of goo like it’s space-alien Silly Putty.