Data Knot is the best of AI and machine learning: low-latency, optimized, performance-friendly, responsive — a set of building blocks for gestures and sounds that you customize. Built on the Fluid Corpus Manipulation project (FluCoMa) by composer/artist and self-described “crazy person” Rodrigo Constanzo, it’s something else musicians and artists love, too: it’s free.

Despite bombing, drone attacks, and sleepless nights, Kyiv continues to support a burgeoning experimentalism in sound, driven by an appetite for noise and engineering. And it’s bringing more people into that community. Here’s a look inside.

What if you could drop in a bunch of stems and let a plug-in mix and master for you, subtly or to extremes, with no “AI” involved? That’s the latest idea from Tim Exile, and it’s produces such quick, varied results that it can serve as a one-click way to hear your mix creatively from a different angle. Just when everyone had forgotten about Instagram filters, we finally see their equivalent in music. And it’s a delight.

Louna Sbou, the director of Berlin cultural space Oyoun, is one of hundreds of civilians whom Israel illegally detained in international waters yesterday. It’s yet another moment highlighting the ongoing genocide. Here is my appeal to all my friends and colleagues across culture and creative technology in Germany: will you do something?

You know Max for Live can help you create your own instruments and effects in Ableton Live — but you’ve got to take the first step. Max 9’s addition of ABL objects gives you a huge leg up, unlocking Ableton’s own DSP building blocks in ready-to-mod form. Let’s dive straight in, because this is both an easy entry point for absolute beginners and a toolset that’s useful to experienced patchers, too.

Sequential’s new Fourm is a 4-voice polysynth with an all-analog signal path and polyphonic aftertouch and a price under a grand. To pull it off, Sequential designed an all-new expressive keybed and adapted their signature analog circuitry from the Prophet-5 (and Prophet-10). I spoke to Sequential about their instrument and the engineering that made it all happen.

There’s no grid, no harsh colors. Tinge swells and sways like a windchime, coming to life in spinning color wheels. It’s probably nothing like any arpeggiator you’ve seen before — or maybe it’s a “note agitator.” Co-creators Daedelus (Alfred Darlington) and Takuma Matsui (Rainbow Circuit) take us inside the process of how they created and thought about this new generative, responsive, playable melodic delight.

Sure, the tariffs and shipping are a mess, but — you can still find some fantastic gear deals at the moment. That includes new gear and new modules, plus some unique used deals and special discounts. Here are a few of the best.

The Trump administration’s trade policies do more than increase costs for US consumers. Their historic scale and disorganized rollout are causing global disruptions. That hurts independent music gear makers and label owners. It’s also ironically likely to cripple manufacturers trying to work in the USA. The only (sort of) good news: shippers and exporters are trying to find solutions, and at least some of the disruptions should be temporary. But those solutions won’t come free.

What can music do against darkness? It may be our one fuel for emotions, a weapon against depressive inertia. Today, on Ukrainian Independence Day, it’s a perfect day to catch up with Ukrainian label Prostir/I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free — especially as these platforms have been a hub for solidarity with other resistance struggles worldwide.