Touch a parameter in Live, then take control with MIDI – one at a time. It’s on-the-fly MIDI mapping, without the MIDI maps, and it’s free in the latest ElisabethHomeland gem.

Here’s some Soundtoys goodness to end the year. You can grab the Little Radiator modeled preamp plug-in entirely for free, there’s a sale on, plus from third-party maker ElisabethHomeland you can get a set of handy UI wrappers for Ableton Live, too.

Long-running Ableton Live guru Brian Funk has made a holiday tradition of releasing freebies. He’s outdone himself this year, by turning the sound of Rudolph’s nose in the 1964 TV special into a complete Live Instrument Pack.

He’s been a vocalist (as a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire), a lyricist, a vocalist. But if you know the incredible Mal from his past, you don’t want to miss his latest, either – the groove is alive on the wonky disco Tick Tick Tick, ““cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb.” David Abravanel shares words with the wordsmith and frontman.

When you think Christmas, you envision floating cyborg skulls with glowing wires and then let yourself drift off to some dense ambient pads, right? Well – this is for you. And stick around for a Notch download, visualists!

Okay, this is not a drill – time to hit the studio, load up all those firmware updates, hit the books, hone the chops, work on the tracks, finish the tracks and new jams. Invite friends (uh, once the chops are up). And so we’ve got a new Circuit Tracks update (the dark gray one) with musical workflow updates from Novation, right on the heels of the epic Circuit Rhythm update (the silver one). Go!

What if you could take the early reflections part of a digital reverb, and turn it into an undulating, stereo-phasing, diffusing blurring granulating unison alchemic wonder? And what if you could give it an easy-to-grok UI? Sinevibes did just that, and the results are unlike anything else.

Pulsing with electronic punctuation, fuzzy layers and distorted pianos across expansive introspective surfaces, Emmanuel De La Paix on Terre brûlée charts richly imaginative narrative ambient. We caught up with the Zurich-based artist to premiere the cinematic “Heathen” video, reflect on life and December breaks, and get an eclectic end-of-year playlist refresh.

The KORG MS-20 has long been the cure for the common filter. Arturia has now made their model of it available as an independent plug-in, packed with extras, so you can use it anywhere. And for a limited time, it’s free, so let’s grab it and have a look and how to get going.

Some of that brain-bending research from Paris’ famed IRCAM is coming your way in plug-in form – even (partly) for free. It’s a spectral remixing, sound morphing, audio shaping powerhouse that landed from some advanced alien civilization, but it’s usable by humans, whether we’re ready for this power or not.