Free meets free: in a labor-of-love community project, soft synth Surge XT is now available as an exquisitely designed set of modules for VCV Rack. It combines two of the best open-source projects for software synthesis lovers, bringing new ways of patching to both. And that means all this power is on macOS, Windows, and Linux, all three.

For music to blossom, artists needs more than isolation. And Berlin and Los Angeles have increasingly been a corridor for inspiration and cross-fertilization. From Kyoka to Khadija, Rainbow Arabia to Daniel Troberg, Los Angeles x Berlin gives a window into that exchange.

The new Max thing Cycling ’74 has been teasing is here, and it’s pronounced “rainbow.” Maybe the easiest way to see why this is a big deal: on the product page, you can mess with an interactive patch in your Web browser natively.

Ancestral Archaeology is more than the title of Nina Pixel’s new double-album. It’s an urgent practice at a moment of crisis for Slovakia and the world, taking a critical and scientific approach to folklore’s legacy, rather than a fetishistic one.

Module makers Lenny and Clarissa are making a name for their After Later Audio line. Up for fall: all the best bits of a complex oscillator made more modular, and a growing line of reboots of now-discontinued Mutable Instruments modules.

Designed by Aphex Twin, Samplebrain takes a new approach to samples – chopping up audio into a “brain” of little bits, networked by similarity. You can play it in real-time, free for all platforms, including Apple M1/M2.

Music software instruments are entering something of a mid-life crisis – and one landmark is the cancellation this week of Absynth by NI/Soundwide. Creator Brian Clevinger has recorded a statement. Native Instruments changes in ownership and leadership have already brought with them significant cuts to key designers and engineers, through layoffs and other attrition. Absynth […]

Just when you think software has lost its wonder, you’re singing into your iPhone with some cute animated blobs. Chantlings is a joy – and a demonstration of how even existing vocal technologies can be employed in fanciful new ways.

Linux has the hosts – Bitwig, Ardour, Reaper, Renoise, Tracktion. And now, it’s got the high-quality analog models, too, including some of the first to support the new, open CLAP format.

The “hot s***”, open, purportedly ethical generative text-to-image AI generator has now moved from invite-only contexts and Discord to full public availability.