AAS’ Multiphonics CV-2 modular is great; what we want now is more modules. And AAS is delivering, with five new modules for your West Coast, waveshaping, signal sculpting and mangling pleasure. Five may not sound like a lot, but you can do a lot with a couple of these. Here’s a look at what AAS have added in CV-2 version 2.1.

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.

We talk about the Mac, but ultimately the Mac was a vehicle for GUIs – icons, mice, scrolling, toolboxes, painting. We talk about the iPhone, but the iPhone turned out to be about mobile photography and apps and touch. Get too hung up on the (very pricey) initial hardware, and you might miss some of the potential of what Apple is doing with what they call spatial computing. And you’ll also miss how some of these threads in interaction design started – as with those other examples – long before Apple.

The pandemic apparently brought together modular house Make Noise, instrument maker Jeff Snyder, and soundhack creator Tom Erbe. Spectral analysis/resynthesis, once just an esoteric software process, is now in a beautiful module. Get your hands on some new sounds.

Arturia has rounded out its Augmented line with Augmented BRASS. It’s like a hybrid brass plug-in even for people who don’t like brass plug-ins – more like the brass tool for synth lovers.

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.

Buy local: the world of gear for musicians is opening up to independent makers in more places. That includes Tbilisi-based Ambient audio, who are making everything from glowing and recycled patch cables to modular kits.

Over 60 years after its invention, FM synthesis is still full of surprises. And that’s what makes the free MS-2 synth plug-in fun.

The flagship CV/gate and MIDI sequencer from endorphin.es is now available in its own “ultralight” aluminum 42HP housing – atop last year’s V2 update and recent smaller tweaks. All your step sequencing and polymetric and polyrhythmic needs are here.

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.