It’s a quad digital delay with a bunch of patch points in its sprawling 42HP. But Xaoc Devices’ new Samarkanda and its audio buffer can transform into a lot more, from granulators to loopers to resonators – basically, anything you can build out of its four independent delays. It might be the most powerful re-patchable effect we’ve ever seen.

The synthesis community is sharing an outpouring of remembrances following the loss of Paul Schreiber, creator of the MOTM synthesizer, Synthesis Technology, co-designer of the Realistic Concertmate MG-1, and more. He was not just an inspiration but a friend to many in the synth world.

Interactive Shader Format (ISF) code for working with Metal and rendering on macOS, plus an underlying Metal framework that powers live visual app VDMX6, are now free and open source. That’s great news even if you’re just toying around with shaders or working with visuals, as it opens up lots of possibilities to come.

The new Berlin is… London? Today is the opening of SchneidersKeller, the new Denmark Street outpost of the legendary SchneidersLaden, appropriately situated in the basement of Rough Trade. (It broke my hipster dosimeter!) And you’ll like the shopkeepers: the store is opened by our friends Edd Butterworth (London Modular, Sonic State) and Jean-Marcel Fricke (son of Manfred, MFB Berlin).

It’s a great week for free and open-source media tools. Hot on the heals of GIMP 3.0 final, we get Blender 4.4. It’s labeled as focusing on stability, but the Blender contributors have packed a bunch of major animation, video, and UI features in there, too. Now, we can say this is the tool used in Oscar-winning films (Flow).

The culmination of seven years of open-source development, GIMP has reached its milestone 3.0 release. GIMP was always powerful, but this feels more like the mature, usable release to take on the proprietary heavyweights.

Today, Radio Alhara is marking five years of operation by playing 24 hours of archival material from its home in Bethlehem, Palestine.

Spectral resynthesis is having a moment now that it’s one of the new oscillator types in the mighty Xfer Serum 2. If you’re looking for other ways to get your spectral resynthesis on – or you’re a Serum user who just can’t get enough – here are three free tools to sink your FFTs into.

Serum 2, 11 years in development, is here. And it looks ready to take on its rivals, with an updated interface, arpeggiator expanded oscillator architecture (phase distortion!), granular and multisampler and spectral oscillators, new effects features, and – surprise, even a clip sequencer. It’s really an all-in-one synth now, without sacrificing its trademark accessibility.

To aid in your professional merriment, here’s a complete round-up of Severance stuff, from behind-the-scenes discussion of the show’s sound design and score to an eight-hour mix of “music to refine to.”|