In case you missed Noon, the first collaboration was a brain-bending, organic, and exquisitely unpredictable analog drum machine. Its 4-channel sibling Moon has opened to preorders, and in this new compact descendant, it’s even more apparent that this is like a breathing, squawking lifeform of a device.

It’s long past time to start talking about scenes in Egypt, Palestine, and elsewhere not just like some exotic foreign treat, but dead-center in the history of hip hop experimentation. ZULI casually drops his second Habibi Loops for free, and it utterly slaps. To quote one clip, “that’s sick, man — that’s dope.”

Akai’s MPC Live III hits the same week as Roland’s new analog-digital flagship. This new standalone box has an updated 8-core processor and specs, enabling new features — but the biggest story here is expressive pads with 3D sensing.

Ableton Live 12.3 hits public beta today, with stem separation and Splice integration, the ability to bounce groups as well as paste bounced audio, there’s a redesigned Auto Pan-Tremolo effect, and you get some new MIDI Tools and Pack updates, plus some extras you might miss like, finally, A/B parameter changes in devices. Oh, and Push has an all-new layout and more. Here’s what’s new.

Lyra Pramuk’s Hymnal is an ecstatic, prophetic vision, a hybrid of synthesis and organicism in an improvised compositional structure with processed voice and strings, conveyed with striking intimacy. Lyra talks to us about inventing culture and reconnecting with musical roots while unlearning, all at once.

Sonic Pi creator Sam Aaron is building something new. It’s early days, but Tau5 promises to be a “next-gen” creative coding environment. You can use it with your favorite tools, including Ableton Live, hardware, TidalCycles, Hydra, and others. And you never have to feel alone: you can jam with others, code with friends, and even code with AI — or keep it all-human if you prefer. Let’s explain.

AirWindows, if you aren’t already in the know, is a planetary treasure. Developer Chris Johnson has built a massive playground of DSP, available for free/Patreon donationware. And this time, he’s created something he says is “not normal.” What was supposed to be a brutal guitar sound went off the rails. But don’t let that stop you from getting onboard.

Soundtoys is here with the 5.5 upgrade of their flagship suite, plus a free update for everyone with resizable UIs. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new, what’s free, what’s paid, and more. And there’s a sale on, too.

Fugue Machine Rubato is an advanced sequencer capable of spawning elaborate, shifting patterns. Drum Trigs are a new addition to Fugue Machine that allows you to weave drum hits into your melodies. Here’s your guide to getting started.

Torso Electronics S-4 already looked compelling – hard-core granular sampler hardware just when that genre needed a boost. But we were waiting on the 2.0 OS to deliver on that promise. Now it’s here, with macros, scenes, varispeed recording, unlimited sample length, dynamic modulation, and more.