Ableton’s Push 3 Upgrade Kit is now available; Push is “made to evolve”

Ableton has announced that their Upgrade Kit for Push 3 is now available. With the launch, they’ve also released two videos, covering the upgrade process and their approach to making their hardware upgradeable.

Moog’s new Mariana is a monster bass soft synth with dual engines and CV

Moog’s Mariana is here on desktop (macOS, Windows) and iOS and – it’s about as much Moog sound as you can imagine in software. Here’s what’s in that architecture, some hands-on first impressions, plus details of a significant update for the Moogerfooger software effect range that goes perfectly with the synth.

Nepheton 2 is here: D16’s perfect, booming 808 recreation joins 909

This is what many drum machine fans were waiting for: following their remade 909, D16 has its 808 plug-in reboot, and it looks and sounds gorgeous. Here’s what’s new.

Muse Group to “partner” with music publishing giant Hal Leonard

Music consolidation continues – even beyond what we might have imagined. Hal Leonard is “joining” software maker Muse Group in a “partnership” (read: merger, but with separate operations, they say). Private equity giant Francisco Partners, the same company behind the NI – Plugin Alliance – iZotope conglomerate, is providing the investment.

Deluge synth-sequencer-sampler open-source community firmware is here

The Synthstrom Audible Deluge, a grid-based synth/sequencer/sampler, has its first official open-source, community-developed firmware – “and it’s huge,” the makers say. There are new views, new effects, new modulation, and more.

Eclectic new ШЩЦ03 is a wintry memorial from London to Kyiv

Our long-time friends at ШЩЦ, Kyiv-born collective now based in London, have an emotional, diverse compilation out now that “celebrates the spirit of winter.” It also memorializes their late community member Maksym Ostyak, who died defending Ukraine.

NightRadio’s Relic Waves app generates billions of atmospheric sounds

Behold the sonic possibilities of the “depths of the mathematical universe.” Eccentric, prolific software developer Alexander Zolotov (NightRadio) is back from the reaches of space with a crazy new app for Android and iOS, an endless sample generator for just US$1.99.

Fire mix from Janus Rose, full of unreleased music: latest POST

Brooklyn’s incredible artist and writer Janus Rose recently came on Refuge Worldwide in Berlin for my ongoing program POST, and this is one mix you don’t want to mix. It’s one of those times you want to creep/trainspot over the CDJ display on every single track, and a lot of it is forthcoming music so – you heard it here first.

Along with limited Chroma edition, Arturia’s KeyStep Pro gains features

Arturia’s versatile MIDI/CV controller KeyStep Pro gets a big update with version 2.5. The release accompanies a sleek dark-gray, customizable Chroma edition but applies to all KeyStep Pro models.

Free plug-in from BPB and Toybox Audio simulates dirty VHS tapes

It’s the sound plenty of us grew up loathing – only to love it later. VHS tapes can shift pitch, add grain and grime, and immerse your sounds in lo-fi chorus and spread. Our friends Bedroom Producers Blog and Toybox Audio have modeled all of it in a new free plug-in for macOS and Windows.