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.

The best mixing doesn’t just jam some bangers together – it creates an emotional topography to traverse. So it’s a pleasure to welcome Moe Nagasi aka Surface Crawler, whose compositional imagination and musicianship shines through in her mixes. Good timing, too, as she’s got a score for a film premiering this weekend in Leipzig.

VCV Rack, the software Eurorack modular you can use standalone for free, has four handy modules for your patching enjoyment.

Minimal Audio, the maker of some of the more unique effects in recent years, is now stepping into the synth space with Current. And they’ve got a real mothership of a synth, merging tons of synthesis and effects ideas into one instrument. It is subscription-based – and they have a particular take on that, too. Here’s a breakdown:

Data visualization tools are now numerous, but sonification – transforming information into audio – holds untapped potential. Manifest Audio has a set of tools that makes it uncommonly easy to translate data into MIDI, modulation/control, and sound. You can use data as a creative source – and use music and sound as a way of […]

Ardour 8 has arrived with easier editing, automation, improved tempo mapping, arpeggiators, Launchpad Pro controller support, and more. The DAW is a workflow powerhouse – and it’s free and open source for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Our friends in Vermont have shared this video tour of their SuperPlate reverb plug-in – the unique, five-plate reverb with some extra options. The key: listen to pick up the differences in each of those plate models.

Communities inside and outside Morocco are still reeling from the earthquake last month. Berlin-based art Artist Znzl, whose name literally means “earthquake,” has pulled together threads across international lines and genres, techno to industrial to ambient, for a gorgeous and moving charity compilation. It’s a musical message you won’t want to miss – plus, crucially, direct giving resources here for those who can. And we have a premiere by artist Maze DK from the compilation.