In 1977, the marriage of motion pictures and telephones somehow birthed Hal Alles’ Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer – an experimental additive synth that imagined new directions for both music and vocal communication. This 1977 demo has the creator show off that vision, and Laurie Spiegel is on-hand to explore the device compositionally.

Why work in modular? One good answer: modulation. And modules are increasingly departing from more utilitarian approaches to gesture recording, morphing, and other expressive concepts. Neutral Labs Pip does all that and has some clever ideas for how two LFOs can work together. It’s available pre-assembled or with source code & DIY builds for those who want it.

Come in person to Berlin or tune in online from anywhere all day and evening Sunday, as Refuge Worldwide joins Root Radio, RA, and Radio AlHara to send urgently-needed assistance to earthquake relief. Also on the radar: in-person efforts in Melbourne and Berlin, and we can gladly add more and more ways to give.

The multi-effects module field is packed with choices. But Ghost stands out for its combination of dynamic, spatial, time, and distortion effects plus an easy-access filter. It’s a greatest-hits-plus of endorphin.es’ modules packed into 16HP – musical and playable, whether you want to be surgically precise or brutally dirty.

Ghost is Endorphin.es’ filtering, distorting, (sidechain) compressing, reverbing, do-everything multi-effect for Eurorack. And it keeps getting better – now with the free V3 update, it adds additional effects features and tweaks.

One box, many reverbs – MOD Audio (formerly MOD Devices) is back in action. Their open, plug-in architecture pedalboards just got a load of new high-end reverbs from DoGood Sound, including convolution with IR loading with IRs up to 15 seconds. That sounds greeeeeeeat. (Imagine a big cave reverb on that last line.)

Teenage Engineering and designer Love Hultén worked together on the design for the CHD-4, a drum machine based on electrocardiograms. The object went on auction on Valentine’s Day this week, in an effort to raise visibility of Congenital Heart Disease.

Ableton Live has freed us from the restrictions of looping and recording with tape. But what’s missing? The restrictions of looping and recording with tape.

Albert Nyström shares their DIY creation – 3 months of work, one $30 Teensy 4.1 microcontroller / USB brain, a total BOM cost of $70, and one cute-looking drum machine like no other (truly).

Emergence, Daniel Gergeley’s gorgeous granular plug-in, has reached a 1.0 milestone with tons of new features. The additions appear well worth the $20, but the 0.3 release is still available free/pay-what-you-want. Here’s a look at what this does, with demos.