It was the worst of times, it was … the worst of times. The Internet and social media has doled out hate and trolls, democracy-crushing propaganda and tribalist fragmentation. But then, an Internet Christmas miracle happened.

Live coding environments are free, run on the cheapest hardware as well as the latest laptops, and offer new ways of thinking about music and sound that are leading a global movement. And one of the leading tools of that movement just hit a big milestone.

Propellerhead has unveiled a modular instrument add-on for Reason, Complex-1. It puts a patchable, West Coast-inspired synth inside the already patchable Reason environment – and it sounds fabulous.

The mysterious, murky, glitchy-future sounds you hear from, AYRTBH, Shanghai’s Wang Changcun, emerges from an algorithm. That software can make this album over and over again without sounding the same. The artist explains – and shares a specially generated exclusive for CDM readers.

VST brings more choice to Reason, but more support demands, too. Here’s an update on how Propellerhead are optimizing Reason to bring plug-in performance in line with what users expect.

Hey, hardware modular – the computer is back. Cherry Audio’s Voltage Modular is another software modular platform. Its angle: be better for users — and now, easier and more open to developers, with a new free tool.

The just-before-the-holiday-break software updates just keep coming. Next: the evergreen, lifetime-free-updates latest release of the DAW the developer calls FL Studio, and everyone else calls “Fruity Loops.”

There are those who run from chill, and those who dive headfirst. 214 aka J. Alvarez, real name Chris Jordan, has just the back-of-the-freezer chilled out tracks we need right now, that musical journey into Twin Peaks.

You’ve got plenty of off-the-shelf controllers – but what if you want something that’s unique to you? OpenDeck is an affordable, young, Arduino hardware-compatible controller platform for DIYers, and it’s starting to produce some jaw-dropping results.

Arturia made their name emulating classic synths, and then made their name again in hardware synths and handy hardware accessories. But they’re back with an original synthesizer in software. It’s called Pigments, and it mixes vintage and new together. You know, like colors.