More, granular — less random. That’s the pitch from Fractiv, a new sampling granular instrument and effect from Sync Audio. Just when you thought you couldn’t squeeze more ideas out of granular sound, they’ve got some smart ideas, including a more playable, precise interface, and grain-based modulation. Mac, Windows, and Linux. Here’s a first look.

Enter an organic sound machine that will take you to an imagined sound world somewhere between a temple garden and a half-awake dream. ENDOGEN is a dazzling tool, built in Max and SuperCollider, that explores notions of lowercase synthesis. There’s a lot to cover as far as what it can do — but you should also feel empowered to play and get lost.

Step through the wormhole into the warped, transcendent sound world of Zoë Mc Pherson and the cosmic visualizations of collaborator Alessandra Leone. The folks at URSSS have captured a full live AV show, so it’s a chance to see even if you don’t have access to this kind of show locally. This show takes moments […]

It’s the crazy-good acid maker, but more than that: Sting is fun for spinning all kinds of melodic and rhythmic patterns. (I’m constantly putting it on percussion tracks.) Now Iftah’s back with a Sting 2.1 update with new arpeggiator and pattern features. And it’s still pay-what-you-want / pay-what-you-can.

Bandcamp is the first major platform to impose a strict prohibition of generative AI. The principles are clear, but how will it work in practice? And is this more symbolic than practically meaningful? Here’s a first look.

Let’s skip to the part you care about: Apple Creator Studio now adds Pixelmator Pro and puts every major Mac and iPad creative app under one subscription, and it’s not too expensive. But just as importantly, though, you can still buy the Mac versions of Logic, Final Cut, Pixelmator, and others as a one-time purchase — no subscription needed.

For a limited time, you can grab UA’s 610-A and 610-B models for free, emulating tube amps, transformers, and EQ circuitry in software form. That includes both the UAD Native version you can run anywhere, plus the DSP version that integrates with their Apollo hardware. Here are some details.

It’s a patcher inside a patcher. And that patcher has more patches that you can copy, randomize, and sequence. And in that patcher is a ton of glitchy goodness. PatchSeq, hot off the grill from Jeremy Wentworth and Voxglitch, is something special.

Out of Belgium, there’s a murky, forbidding free underground netlabel that has survived from another era. It’s aggressively anti-algorithmic, soul-chillingly dark in its aesthetics, and committed to free culture and commons like if social media and AI never happened. And it’s perfect for a frozen European night, wherever you might be.

Push-button telephone. Analog drum machine. Arduino Nano. DIY amplifier. Shashwath Sundar, aka simple_but_nerdy, makes the telephone-drum machine fusion seem like it was meant to be.