Unreal Engine 5.5 is a major release for artists of all kinds. On the audio side, the free-to-start platform has new tools for visualizing and debugging, powerful Audio Widgets for UI interactions, and a slew of MetaSounds improvements for workflow, quality of life, and targeting different platforms. Oh, and – finally, there’s reverb.

In whirling, abstract flights of noise and oscillations, composer Arash Azadi makes electronics that evolve as if in an electro-organic primordial ooze. And he has something to say about returning us all to a deeper state of existence.

Soundtoys has made their exceptional phaser plug-in PhaseMistress free for a limited time. Here’s how to get it, plus some CDM-exclusive presets and a crash-course tour.

Music venues and artists in Lebanon continue to collect essential funds and supplies for forcibly displaced people. Here’s an update on how that’s going, a guide to fundraising events internationally, some music, and a conversation on community efforts at Nation Station.

Max 9 is available today, bringing benefits for casual tinkerers and hardcore devs alike. There’s more code, more performance, more livecoding, more visual powers, and – one more thing: you get the building blocks Ableton uses for sound.

KORG’s new multi/poly is an analog modeling synth, not an analog remake of the Mono/Poly. But it’s the debut of a new platform for the company – and the digital approach could mean a balance of authentic sound with some much-needed new ideas. It’s really a Mono/Poly crossed with some of the best of recent KORG digital synths and modular. And there’s even a dose of KAOSS.

Move, the all-new compact all-in-one hardware platform from Ableton, got your attention – whether you loved it, hated it, or just weren’t sure. So here’s still more detail on Move: what it can do, what it can’t, how it compares, and some tips and hacks for getting more out of it even at v1.1.

In the face of darkness and horrors, we have to keep supporting music. It’s a reminder of the lives we’re fighting for — and a language for when even our mother tongue fails us. As Lebanon has experienced a Hell in 10 days, here is some music to last beyond the present reality.

Amid mass Israeli attacks on the people of Lebanon, musicians, artists, journalists, and cultural institutions are banding together to provide emergency mutual aid. That includes our friends at the Beirut Synthesizer Center and other spaces, which have turned their facilities into shelters and stores for urgently needed supplies. Today was another horrifying day to be […]

Against a backdrop of daily horror across the Levant, there are voices like Mayss from Jordan. Her video “On This Land” accompanies the compilation for Palestine I covered earlier this summer. Now is also a time to discover her far-reaching mixing and podcasting work, including conversations with David Lynch and Underground Resistance co-founder Mike Banks. And now may truly be a time for inner stillness.