There are grain effects aplenty, but AVAL’s latest hits on a uniquely satisfying sound processor in Ableton Live, as input signals unfold into layered, pitched, organic textures.

Connect everything you’ve got, route however you want (including A/B monitoring), and adapt this rack to any setup. Arturia’s new 16Rig is an audio interface, and it’s a standalone mixer, with a bunch of extras. And even as it’s being dropped at New York’s AES, this one might have as much appeal for live setups and producers as it does for studio engineers.

Noise Engineering is adding a new swappable Euroack module platform to its lineup: Alia joins Versio and Legio. That means some new ideas, starting with a new 4-op phase modulation module, but also the return of some old friends. Basimilus Iteritas and Manis Iteritas are back.

It’s the lunchtime juice box of samplers – and an answer to the complexity of both hardware and software without sacrificing power. We’ve gotten our hands on this one; let’s have a look.

The other shoe has dropped: yesterday, following the sale of Bandcamp from Epic to Songtradr, around half of the company’s existing staff were laid off. That’s leading more folks to start talking about alternatives.

Everybody gets more waveshapers! Bitwig just announced Studio 5.1 with new waveshapers, new filters, polyphonic voice stacking, and a Bite dual oscillator, plus other enhancements.

If you like your effects with a heaping side serving of envelopes and modulation, MOTIONS is for you. Triggers and dynamics, texturizers and distortion, filters and panning, and a whole lot of tools for creating shapes and rhythms combine in a semi-modular multi-effects that just won’t sit still. But – that doesn’t mean you can’t use it for precise and subtle effects or skip the over-the-top stuff. Let’s explain.

Synplant 2: it’s still leafy and organic – just more so. Now it has AI-powered sonic analysis and generation which – can sound completely glitchy and unexpected. It has a DNA view full of parameters. It’s weirder than ever, from top to bottom. So here are some more insights from Magnus Lidström about how the original 2009 Synplant led to 2023’s Synplant-further-out follow-up.

It’s a hardware module. But it’s also a software module in the free (paid plug-in) host VCV Rack. The do-everything, clock-based multipurpose voltage-sending Pamela’s Pro Workout is the latest module from ALM Busy Circuits to make the hardware-software crossover. And it joins a number of modules there – many of them free (including some news there, too).

A focus on female composers and electronic artists from Iran – alongside big AV productions like CDM favorites Temp-Illusion – is front and center at Tehran Contemporary Sounds in Berlin this weekend. If you can’t be there, we’ve got a big lineup of music to queue up.