Polyend Play 1.4 adds Piano Roll plus more melodic and harmonic features

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.

Solarus is a free Ableton Live modulation tool that uses the motions of the solar system

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.

Dazzle at the soft synths of the Commodore Amiga – including a forgotten 1985 gem

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.

TR-8S owners can get a free sound pack from Underground Resistance’s Recon X

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.

Pioneer has added Beatport streaming to the CDJ-3000 – even if we’ll still carry USB sticks

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 of Life, reimagined as Eurorack module with 8×8 jacks

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.

Olivia Artz Time Machine makes the multi-tap delay tactile and modular

Now in its final hours on Kickstarter, Time Machine is a unique and essential Eurorack rendition of the classic multi-tap delay. And it’s also the project of a growing group of queer inventors, from the co-creator of the original Dark Sky – meaning Olivia is now returning to Kickstarter after 12 years.

Keysette is a micro piano to cassette instrument – and limited edition faux vintage

It’s the musical invention that “should not exist, but does.” Keysette is an unholy combination of the 80s and 90s worst cheap synth technology with the worst cassette adapter technology and – is kind of impossible not to love.

Premiere: Ireen Amnes delivers a brisk, growling cut for Keyi Magazine

Keyi Magazine has brought together over four hours of bleeding-edge Berlin productions in a compilation – and accompanying live event – organizing artists around hunger, poverty, and conflict. We get to premiere a bracing scorcher from producer Ireen Amnes to set the mood.

Dreamlike solitude from Johnstown PA, in Nondi_’s Flood City Trax

In Nondi_’s music world, fuzzy reveries of grooves emerge as if half-remembered from sleep, sometimes insistent and raw, sometimes fading to murk. It’s the Internet-fueled sound of artist Tatiana Triplin from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a city whose entire history is marked by neglect and ruin.