It’s a different vision of a festival and exhibition, one that bubbles up from the Kiez instead of being collected in modern palaces. For the next few days, artists from the Berlin neighborhood around Kottbusser Tor will reveal their self-image in communities in exile.

Nothing punches like the Novation Bass Station, the UK company’s 1993 analog original. GForce Software makes a pretty good argument for making this a plug-in: emulate all the powerful sound of the synth and its filter, but add awesome modulation, effects, and sequencer/arp, unison mode, up to 16-voice polyphony, and make it mega-affordable (or free with a keyboard controller).

The Alan Parsons/Keith Adkins handmade, one-of-a-kind Frequency Translator was a key component of The Dark Side of the Moon. And its sound has been hard to describe, let alone recreate – until now. PSP Audioware worked with the one and only Alan Parsons to model it in plug-in form in a personal passion project they’re releasing as PSP Wobbler.

Just when you need it most, here’s a fresh idea in hardware. Gearnews leaks new motorized MIDI controller hardware from Melbourne Instruments, the Delia and Nina synth maker.

Nothing about this year was normal; next year promises the same. But that’s what music is for – to reframe moments in time.

From La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela to Valee and Gangsta Boo, Michael Vincent Waller talks to us about collaboration, mixing, and connecting the dots between modern Classical/new concert music and hip-hop.

Eventide is in on the holiday gift game, too, with a giveaway through New Year’s Eve of one-knob signal separation fixers for low-end thump and high-end air.

It’s a drum machine. It’s a sampler. It’s got a rechargeable battery. It’s got… some space inside the case. So hacker DIYDSP (Noah Vawter) added his own amp and speaker, modding the handheld with the self-contained speaker Roland left out.

Baby Audio has a giveaway of an effect from their collaboration with Andrew Huang, Transit 2. Warp is just that module – Speed, and time-independent pitch (Stretch) – for free.

A sequel is only worth its weight in spice if it can best the original. For Dune 2, Hans Zimmer and his team went further with their electronic instrumentation to immerse us even deeper in otherworldly sounds. Now we get some insights into how they did it, and why the Expressive E Osmose was a starring player.