Sosir Freeze-Delay is a free “experimental” plug-in for macOS (Intel/Apple Silicon) and Windows (AU/VST3), intended to give you bowing effects with guitar inputs. It’s beautiful for that, but also creates a range of freeze/delay effects, some beyond just the standard infinite reverb. Let the dark ambient drones commence.

Kaleidoloop, an adorable portable looper/recorder, is back with a compact form factor plus a software update that delivers new modes, layering, and more. It’s now also a unique playback/effect that you can customize yourself with Pd.

If the February doldrums have you, Plugin Boutique has some last-minute software sales now, including a big deal on an SH-101 clone from Softube and 95% off a bundle from Universal Audio. And that could very affordably get you a nice synth fix.

In the face of daily violence and massacres delivered in near real-time to our phones, musical artists are finding ways to find one another and be named. Compilations in solidarity with Palestinians take on a new urgency — as a way to weave threads between people.

Speaking of BABY Audio, they’re up to five free plug-ins, each versions of their premium offerings. That includes several that feature quick-access randomization, which could be a source of inspiration when you’re stuck, adding some instant spice.

Arturia’s polysynth software flagship now adds a generative, polymetric/polyrhythmic sequencer and the ability to process external audio inputs, along with other features. It’s also easier on the CPU, and this is a free update. Here’s what’s new in Pigments 5 – and how to dive into its best sound and sequencing features right away.

Dark days need sounds like eu-IV – “you-four,” as in euphoria. The prolific Baltimore-based producer cut his teeth backing rappers, and now his ultra-chilled beat-tape music has an ease and honesty that you’ll feel right in the heart.

Late last week, we learned of the passing of a legend of electronic music production, Mexico’s Álvaro Ruiz Mayagoitia. His wide-ranging talent across various aliases (Balboa, Ruisort) should have gotten far wider recognition outside of Mexico. It turned with ease from glitchy experimental minimalism to hip-hop electronica to soundtracks, his imagination simply refused to be confined to a single form of expression.

Teenage Engineering’s fecund design imagination has yielded inventions wonderful, ambitious, sometimes prohibitively expensive, odd… but can the company reinvent the lowly field recorder? And was the “field system” just marketing vision or pipe dream – or does it bring those pieces together for something genuinely musical and productive? We turn again to CDM’s at-large Swedish gear tester (and tester of Swedish gear) Andreas Roman for a proper review. -Ed.

Whether you’ve got the hardware keyboard, the software plug-in, or both, Arturia has dropped a major V2 update with an all-new wavetable engine, new effects, and more. This is also part of today’s V Collection X update.