Music consolidation continues – even beyond what we might have imagined. Hal Leonard is “joining” software maker Muse Group in a “partnership” (read: merger, but with separate operations, they say). Private equity giant Francisco Partners, the same company behind the NI – Plugin Alliance – iZotope conglomerate, is providing the investment.

Mindmeld Shapemaster Pro is a must-have add-on for the VCV Rack modular environment. It’s a multi-stage envelope generator, VCA, and complex VCO, and for starters, a video out today will show you how to use it to make drums.

What do you do if you make one of the best modulation modules out there? Make it better. That’s the Batumi II and the optional Poti II expander, a complete redesign with more features in the same space.

Korg’s drumlogue has a killer app: the incredible-sounding Sinevibes Nano dual-oscillator synth, with all the extras. And that app gets a ton of new stuff in a free system refresh. Add that to the separate, 3rd-party synth based on Mutable Instruments’ Braids macro oscillator, and … drumlogue is like two shampoos in one!

So far, it’s got just two DAWs behind it – Bitwig Studio and PreSonus Studio One – but DAWproject’s creators hope the format will become a new open standard that lets you move projects between software.

Clubs are a new social space for communities to share and collaborate on music, with private and public areas. Clubs are the creation of multiplayer music creation app maker Endlesss, and integrate with those tools – but they’re also catering to users of other desktop tools, too. Here’s what we know from today’s announcement.

It’s not every day we get a new, full-featured physical modeling synth. So welcome to Objekt, a new Reason Rack Extension – and possibly the most notable instrumental addition to Reason in years.

Chair Audio quietly launched a new plug-in, and it’s both free and wonderful. EXC!TE CYMBAL is, no exaggeration, realistic enough that you’ll do a double-take knowing this is a physical model and not in any way sampled.

Artist Rochefsky has been busy cooking up a ton of Mutable Instruments Plaits recipes – which seems just the thing to share on a Sunday. Plus even if you don’t have the module (or like me are on a train at the moment) you can give this a go for free in VCV Rack in software (with the Macro Oscillator 2 module).

One little board is the brains of just about any synth, modular starting point, noisemaker, or instrument you can dream up. Meet the Datanoise PicoADK – Raspberry Pico plus high-quality I/O and the Vult DSP language. Now with a complete video tour of how to get started.