Necco wafers? Trail mix? No, we want only the best candy – and free saturation plug-ins. Acustica Audio has not one but two free gems that range from light heat to complete, horrifying destruction. Here’s how to grab them.

Wait, Apple may be reading this – uh, my mistake. Did I say there was a workaround? No, no, that orange dot on the menu bar belongs there, and if it’s screwing up your live visual projection, hey, security. Oh, look, your Apple Watch is telling you it’s time to meditate and close your eyes! Ommmmmm…. (okay, are they gone? read on…)

As expected, Apple unveiled the M3 generation of Apple Silicon last night. There are performance enhancements across the board, with features like raytracing and video performance being the major standouts. But as always, you may want to take your time, particularly with OS updates, and consider whether a refurb is your best value.

There are some big deals through October 31 – and happy Halloween. That includes the last call on Universal Audio’s beautiful LA-2A tube compressor plug-in and a ton of discounts over at Perfect Circuit (with Eurorack, drum machines, and more).

Every once in a while, the kind of cool thing you’d imagine does happen. So Harmonix, the music game dev, is still thriving at Epic, and they’ve got a surprise. They’ve built a full-blown modular synth that runs inside Fortnite, thanks to Unreal Engine and MetaSounds. And it’s capable of everything from letting creators add their own interactive music engine to multiplayer music, concerts, and more.

To see what’s in store for the audiovisual / generative-interactive 3D powerhouse TouchDesigner, look at the bleeding-edge “experimental” build release notes. And there’s a ton here – just a few highlights:

Ready to get more control – without a computer or mouse – using Ableton Push 3 in standalone mode? We’ve got some hacks for advanced parameter mapping from our friends Darren of Isotonik Studios and Elisabeth Homeland. And there’s a free download – no Max skills required.

Roland has been steadily overhauling their plug-in range, but this one you shouldn’t miss. The 1983 JX-3P was always an overlooked gem – think a JUNO with two oscillators, cross-mod, and more pitch modulation. But now Roland finally nails their software recreation by improving the sound and adding a simulation of the PG-200 programmer for hands-on control.

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.