Ready to get started with the deep 2D/3D media environment TouchDesigner? Or you’re an educator teaching others? Or you just want one newbie-friendly tutorial for Fluffy the Noise? It’s all here.

VR music has quietly evolved from fringe experiment to serious, fun musical tool – and it’s done so entirely through one app, PatchWorld. Released publicly last summer, it’s gotten steadily more capable and reliable, including on Meta’s affordable Quest 2 headset and HTC’s VIVE. But most recently, on top of additions like Ableton Live integration, PatchXR has added a true killer app: multiplayer.

One week ago, we were shocked by the sudden death of Odai Masri aka ODDZ. Odai’s work extended from his own musical voice to untiring, fearless leadership for Palestine, Palestinians, and humans around the world. That included not only founding Exist Festival and its fledgling label imprint, but acting as a constant champion for others.

While there are plenty of folks lamenting the increasing banality and regressiveness of commercial techno, Black artists and labels are quietly reimagining the genre. Just take these recent, massively underrated outings from Black Techno Matters, Black Catalogue, and yes, even under-the-radar new music from a Moroccan artist on the mighty Metroplex Records.

The obscure software synth wonders of the Commodore Amiga hold up today as unique sound creation instruments. And as early as 1985 they offered real-time polyphonic synthesis, thanks to the onboard Paula chip. Paulee Bow shares their deep dive into a wide assortment of these in a new documentary – and makes the platform tantalizing enough that even generations born long after the Amiga may find themselves booting an emulator or hunting flea markets.

Now in its final hours on Kickstarter, Time Machine is a unique and essential Eurorack rendition of the classic multi-tap delay. And it’s also the project of a growing group of queer inventors, from the co-creator of the original Dark Sky – meaning Olivia is now returning to Kickstarter after 12 years.

We talk about the Mac, but ultimately the Mac was a vehicle for GUIs – icons, mice, scrolling, toolboxes, painting. We talk about the iPhone, but the iPhone turned out to be about mobile photography and apps and touch. Get too hung up on the (very pricey) initial hardware, and you might miss some of the potential of what Apple is doing with what they call spatial computing. And you’ll also miss how some of these threads in interaction design started – as with those other examples – long before Apple.

VCV Rack, the free and open-source host, has added a new illustrated manual for all its free modules. (Free docs, free host, free modules – got it?) It’s a great intro or refresher — those pictures illustrate a lot of concepts that can elude even advanced synthesists. That makes this worth a look whether you’ve got a hardware Eurorack rig or are just getting started in software.

Drift is a friendly, MPE-ready, hardware-inspired synth that’s now included in Live 11.3. Since anyone with Live 11 – even Live Lite users – will get it free, let’s go straight to the source to understand the instrument. We took the chance to talk to Marc Resibois, the instrument’s creator, about how Drift was developed – and get his tips on sound creation and some of the sound features you might otherwise miss.

Okay, forget the vaporware “metaverse” business. You can open a browser tab and use this right now (in beta). Create, build, remix, and code 3D rooms for any kind of fun you imagine. While the big tech platform internet is unraveling, we can all play with stuff like this instead. And it’s kid-friendly – and a way for kids to learn to code (human coding, not AI).