Today, Ukrainians marked 1000 days of terror across the whole country, following over a decade of war and multi-generational struggle. Now is no time to give up on listening to Ukrainians – or their music.

More than just a 3-voice synth, CRUM HUM is a generative instrument with touch controls and knobs for dialing in aleatoric chords and melodies. It’s the latest boutique creation from Nyström, maker of the Crum Drum.

Final Cut Pro 11, like Logic Pro 11, marks new machine learning-powered functionality – but don’t fret; some of this is stuff you’ll actually use. There are non-AI improvements, too, like overdue keyboard shortcuts. And its iPad version is gradually becoming more mature, too. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new in the free Mac update and latest iPad release.

Mixing MiniDV video, Roland JUNO-6 sounds, and gauzy analog processing, Dawn is a calming fifteen-minute break. The film is “an ambient, peaceful project for an uneasy time,” writes creator Benjamin Tennikoff.

It’s what a lot of musicians wished for – especially judging by all the renders you were making. But the reality looks and works better than what you imagined: the OP-XY is a more mature OP-Z follow-up with a rich complement of sequencing features. And it’s all in gorgeous black and monochrome.

Every so often, you get something that’s clearly a labor of love. Apple has acquired the innovative digital reverb legacy of Quantec and its late founder Wolfgang “Wolf” Buchleitner and built it into Logic Pro for iPad and Mac. That joins some other welcome improvements to Logic’s Mixer and Bounce in Place in this release.

Unreal Engine 5.5 is a major release for artists of all kinds. On the audio side, the free-to-start platform has new tools for visualizing and debugging, powerful Audio Widgets for UI interactions, and a slew of MetaSounds improvements for workflow, quality of life, and targeting different platforms. Oh, and – finally, there’s reverb.

If what you crave is not so much a groovebox/sequencer as a synthesizer, behold the latest from Polyend. Simply dubbed Synth, it’s a 499 $/€ instrument packed with playable synth engines. And you could see it as the first dedicated synth instrument from the company since their original flagship Medusa.

Now is a time to listen more deeply. Sound artist Izabela Dłużyk, blind since birth, launched a crowdfunding campaign to “dream despite blindness” back in 2016 to travel to Peruvian rainforest. We can sonically travel with her in a full-length album of field recordings, The Amazon — Where the Moon Wept.

Palette Sequencer by the duo KOAN Sound uses color palettes to generate sequences for melodies and modulation. It’s gorgeously designed and available now for Ableton Live and Max for Live.