A pricey jacket may have overshadowed the rest of the news, but yes, Roland does have some 909 swag and sounds for those of us on a budget, too.

The minds at Bastl Instruments are already launching their September issue module – a “friendly stereo mixer” with line level ins, preamp, and mixing.

Erica Synths’ Pico DSP is already a tiny wonder – a 120EUR, tiny 3HP module with deep custom effects. But the folks at Xodes will let you go even further – at your own risk.

Whether or not you remember late 80s gear, you might well want a device that lets you record and sequence real-time patterns. Retrokits has a tasty-looking gadget coming to do just that. And if the words “Alesis MMT8” do mean something to you, well, you’re probably salivating.

Are human life and human music getting you down? Maybe you just need to be a prince among trout, swimming through the Caucausus’ Lake Sevan. Yerevan’s D.zúk has your ticket, in a debut from over the summer.

While everyone argues about subscriptions, let’s return to the lovely world of FL Studio. This time, the “Lifetime Free Updates” delivers new sounds, more visual tools, Apple Silicon support, and more.

The recurrence of Bandcamp Friday means yet another slew of releases, which is unequivocally a wonderful thing. But I hate schedules and structure – we’re musicians, not accountants! – so let’s just leave this week with one gentle gem.

I’ve been eyeing that 7×7-shaped hole in Roland Cloud for a while, and I know I’m not alone. Now Roland has added the 707 and 727 drum machines to their growing software back catalog.

ROLI has filed for administration and will reboot as beginner-focused Luminary as the company struggles with losses. Current employees remain, and even the Seaboard is apparently coming back in stock – but this could be a cautionary tale for “hypergrowth” in music making.

It’s powered by math but doesn’t require you to remember your, uh, linear algebra. It’s not a set of presets, but it’s accessible to newcomers and experts alike. MOPs is a free entryway to treating motion like an expressive instrument, and it radically changes the experience of using Houdini for the first time.