Iconic 80s Japanese synths like the SH-101, JUPITER, JUNO, and TR drum machines were defined by both their filters and the engineering around them. We’re fortunate to get to talk about Vostok Instruments about the design of their new four-channel Atlas filter module – what it learns from the 80s classics, and what it adds to the equation.

From DJ and journalist Andra Amber Nikolayi, the Eastbloc Dispatches podcast is your pass to all the culture you could easily miss out on elsewhere, from central, eastern, and southeastern Europe, and various parts of the world recovering from the Soviet Union. And it’s full of terrific conversations.

Elastic Melody, Oliver Greschke’s brilliant melodic sequencing app, now supports MIDI send/receive, for other apps and for hardware. That makes your iPhone/iPad a perfect companion to your synth hardware – including our own MeeBlip geode. Watch:

Why go modular if you’re not going to go nuts with modulation and signal? Bastl Instruments has reimagined their hex modulation CV Trinity with a new 6-channel beast for modulation, envelopes, and knob and trigger recording.

Social media algorithms have enforced a mind-numbing sameness across the music world – pose for the camera, post a few seconds of playing a crowded rave. But not so on DJ Stingray’s feed. It’s time for ear mites. No, not metaphorically — like actual parasitic mites.

Fling yourself onto a timbral buzz saw, with brutal synthetic surfaces, and then unleash a pounding groove. Temp-Illusion have released a full-length, multi-camera video of their live audiovisual performance Caustic Surfaces with artist Amir B. Ash, and it is punishingly good.

In ethereal stretched harmonic recollections of Debussy, across cooly confident grooves echoing from dance floors, composer Marie Wilhelmine Anders has again constructed a rich musical reverie. I spoke to her about her process for Frozen Music, down to the bar, and how Scottish poetry fed this lush sonic landscape.

Arturia’s polysynth software flagship now adds a generative, polymetric/polyrhythmic sequencer and the ability to process external audio inputs, along with other features. It’s also easier on the CPU, and this is a free update. Here’s what’s new in Pigments 5 – and how to dive into its best sound and sequencing features right away.

Dark days need sounds like eu-IV – “you-four,” as in euphoria. The prolific Baltimore-based producer cut his teeth backing rappers, and now his ultra-chilled beat-tape music has an ease and honesty that you’ll feel right in the heart.

It’s like someone took all those questions you see on forums and Facebook groups and built a module out of it. Line input? Mixing? Noise source? S&H and slew? Put it all in one 8HP module.