Mitxela has continued a project to make the “smallest and worst” synthesizers possible – and he’s one-upped himself this time. This MIDI synth is barely larger than the size of its USB-C connector.

Ableton has published a tech note on reducing CPU load on Macs with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3). This is both a good tip and good news: smaller buffer sizes, which also translate to lower latency, now often reduce CPU usage.

It morphs, it step sequences, it generates – it’s an incredibly deep, polymetric, polyrhythmic MIDI sequencer for macOS that works especially well as a Logic Pro MIDI FX. And it’s free. Meet XiixiiQ. My Yule log for 2023 is probably feeding this into Sculpture.

Hot on the heels of our in-depth review of the expansive Noise Engineering Xer Mixa, the folks at NE have a beta update with lots of new features. And that includes the ability to use quadraphonic and hexaphonic outputs for immersive panning.

From Ableton Live to Stockhausen, folks have been generating some hilarious LEGO kits around music making. But leave it to the folks at Rupert Neve Designs, as the 5088 mixer and a ton of studio accessories are part of a real custom LEGO building set, and it’ll be on sale soon.

A little-known invention by Bob Moog in collaboration with mathematician/theorist David Rothenberg has come back from the dead. With 478 keys and 31 tones, just one was produced, and that unit fell into disrepair – until now. Rebuilt and rewired, it just took to the stage for a concert of music in all its microtonal splendor.

The evolution of music is intertwined with the design and capabilities of instruments. After several decades of more constrained tuning and expression, new playability is becoming a norm with technologies like MPE and live per-note tuning. Music hardware maker Roman Flippov of Japan-headquartered Black Corporation joins us to connect early instruments from Buchla and Yamaha with these capabilities with modern creations.

Also out from Arturia this week: V Collection X brings the maker’s plug-in collection up to speed. That includes an all-new Yamaha CP-70 piano model and Augmented WOODWINDS, plus a rebuilt Mini V and Wurli V. And the rebuilt Minimoog, in particular, has a bunch of delicious extras.

Whether you’ve got the hardware keyboard, the software plug-in, or both, Arturia has dropped a major V2 update with an all-new wavetable engine, new effects, and more. This is also part of today’s V Collection X update.

As we enter a third month of violence in Israel-Palestine with no end in sight, sound spaces are providing the discourse, debate, musical expression, and solace for pain that other spaces deny. They also bring us the voices of the people closest to the catastrophe – including some of the artists, colleagues, and friends I’ve written about and who are suffering now. And sometimes, only music can express how we feel, when words are scrutinized, weaponized, fragmented, and fail.