Dust off that GBA: it’s a groove box now. Stepper is a free and open source 16-step sequencer with full access to the onboard sound engine and per-trigger parameter locks, Elektron-style. (And this pairs well with Elektron gear, as the developer shows.)

Some of Teenage Engineering’s high-end design offerings sometimes seem made for design showcases as much as actual music making. But behold the CM-15: this is a gorgeous concept in an area that rarely sees genuinely new design. If it works as advertised, it seems like a new product category.

In the mountains of West Papua, a new electronic sound is emerging. It’s fusing traditional sounds with jaunty synthesized beats in a rapid-fire, high-energy dancefloor brew. And just try to listen without your whole body set in motion.

Effects maker Baby Audio debuted their first synth plug-in this week. It’s modeled on Yamaha’s CS01, the analog monosynth that came before better-known rival Roland SH-101. And packed with cute extras and effects, it’s simply irresistible.

Roland updated their Roland Cloud software recreations of the JUPITER-8, JUPITER-4, and JUNO-106. That includes new UIs, and finally a usable preset manager. Here’s a look, including one terrific sound feature.

Elisabeth Homeland’s wrappers let you use popular effects plug-ins as if they were native Ableton Live device UIs – saving you from opening floating windows. The latest collection is the most ambitious yet, with the skeuomorphic Arturia effect interfaces.

Intertwined threads of color and timbre become a flowing, organic visual trip – like flowing through endorphin-flooded neurons. Visualist Defasten has teamed up with Danish composer SØS Gunver Ryberg in a perfect illustration of the glowing optimism of her new album, SPINE. Patrick Defasten and Gunver Ryberg talk about the project as they premiere it […]

It’s the other West Coast – but one that until recently got far less play in the broader modular world. Now, the folks at Random*Source are shipping years of work (including the involvement of creator Serge Tcherepnin himself) in a Eurorack module. It’s called the GTO, and behind a simple panel lurks a wild amount of possibilities. Real Serge in Euro. GTFO.

It reads like a “vintage” drifting oscillator, but it’s way more than that. KORG prologue, minilogue xd, and even the stupidly-affordable NTS-1 get a deep, lush 4-oscillator virtual analog gift in the form of Sinevibes’ new Dense.

You’ve seen various Max Devices for Ableton Live; ever wanted to try building your own? Ableton has just released a complete step-by-step tutorial with examples. And there are some 90 free Devices in there to play with and start to tweak, too.