Polish software house D16 has been cooking something special for its flagship 909-inspired drum machine, Drumazon 2. It’s an emulation that captures not just the feeling of the original hardware – but the spirit of the music that was made on it. Let’s have a detailed look.

Industry trends and power grabs ultimately suck all our souls dry. So let’s return to the originators making the music, and support both the music and the humans making the music. Akua Grant, aka Femanyst, aka Lady Blacktronika, is one of the most naturally intuitive and imaginative producers I know. She’s also in need, and it’s way past time that the music translates into real sustenance.

People continue to do wild things with Unreal Engine and MetaSounds. Celebrate Halloween with an interactive Theremin deep dive tutorial, and some classic cinema scenes from Halloween and The Shining recreated as ambient environments.

Necco wafers? Trail mix? No, we want only the best candy – and free saturation plug-ins. Acustica Audio has not one but two free gems that range from light heat to complete, horrifying destruction. Here’s how to grab them.

Wait, Apple may be reading this – uh, my mistake. Did I say there was a workaround? No, no, that orange dot on the menu bar belongs there, and if it’s screwing up your live visual projection, hey, security. Oh, look, your Apple Watch is telling you it’s time to meditate and close your eyes! Ommmmmm…. (okay, are they gone? read on…)

As expected, Apple unveiled the M3 generation of Apple Silicon last night. There are performance enhancements across the board, with features like raytracing and video performance being the major standouts. But as always, you may want to take your time, particularly with OS updates, and consider whether a refurb is your best value.

There are some big deals through October 31 – and happy Halloween. That includes the last call on Universal Audio’s beautiful LA-2A tube compressor plug-in and a ton of discounts over at Perfect Circuit (with Eurorack, drum machines, and more).

Every once in a while, the kind of cool thing you’d imagine does happen. So Harmonix, the music game dev, is still thriving at Epic, and they’ve got a surprise. They’ve built a full-blown modular synth that runs inside Fortnite, thanks to Unreal Engine and MetaSounds. And it’s capable of everything from letting creators add their own interactive music engine to multiplayer music, concerts, and more.

To see what’s in store for the audiovisual / generative-interactive 3D powerhouse TouchDesigner, look at the bleeding-edge “experimental” build release notes. And there’s a ton here – just a few highlights:

Ready to get more control – without a computer or mouse – using Ableton Push 3 in standalone mode? We’ve got some hacks for advanced parameter mapping from our friends Darren of Isotonik Studios and Elisabeth Homeland. And there’s a free download – no Max skills required.