While there are plenty of folks lamenting the increasing banality and regressiveness of commercial techno, Black artists and labels are quietly reimagining the genre. Just take these recent, massively underrated outings from Black Techno Matters, Black Catalogue, and yes, even under-the-radar new music from a Moroccan artist on the mighty Metroplex Records.

It’s not just the firmware you can mod on Korg’s ultra-low-priced NTS-1 effect/oscillator. You can also mod the hardware. Here are two Eurorack conversion kits, other custom cases, plus Korg’s own resources for your own DIY efforts.

Another holiday in the USA means another day of deals on music tech. Here are a few of the best discounts for stuff we like.

Take 6HP of Eurorack space, add MIDI in and out, USB MIDI, and 8 outputs – then have those outs do whatever you want. It’s Univer Inter, or “UI” for short – and crucially, it does have its own UI, via a powerful Web configuration tool.

Polyend’s flagship all-in-one instrument and sequencer grid Play gets a big update this week. That includes a sought-after Piano Roll, plus a whole bunch of features for melodies and chords.

What if your external clock could be the orbits and rotations of the solar system – and what if the ratios were accurate? That’s the idea behind the new Manifest Audio Solarus, a beautiful free giveaway from producer, developer, and Ableton Certified Trainer Noah Pred.

The obscure software synth wonders of the Commodore Amiga hold up today as unique sound creation instruments. And as early as 1985 they offered real-time polyphonic synthesis, thanks to the onboard Paula chip. Paulee Bow shares their deep dive into a wide assortment of these in a new documentary – and makes the platform tantalizing enough that even generations born long after the Amiga may find themselves booting an emulator or hunting flea markets.

If you want to be inspired to discover more futuristic potential lurking inside your everyday Roland machine, where better to look than Detroit’s legendary Underground Resistance? Recon X produced a free Production Pack for the TR-8S that’s pure fire.

It’s one last obstacle to streaming DJing becoming a reality: the mighty Pioneer has announced it’s adding streaming to its decks. Meet StreamingDirectPlay with Beatport.

Conway’s Game from Nervous Squirrel brings the cellular automaton “Life” to Eurorack form – complete with an 8×8 matrix of jacks, one for each cell.