Juneteenth lineup round-up and Black Techno Matters scorchers

Juneteenth is about emancipation, and it’s expressed in musical joy across the USA today. Here are our friends from Black Techno Matters with their community calendar of events today — one might be near you — plus two recent releases you should hear wherever you are.

Pac-Man, Befaco RANDOM8, and more free modules of VCV Rack

Your sequencing gets upgraded — including cameos by Pac-Man and the LOGO turtle. You get even more secret weapons for drum synthesis. You get the hot new RANDOM8 collab from Befaco and Mylar Melodies, cloning their new hardware. There’s just so much goodness in VCV Rack that covering the free stuff has me dizzy. Here’s your June update, with some sound examples.

Peter Kirn - June 18, 2026

Kaximia on channeling aggression, soldering into survival; VCF giveaway

Behind the headlines, there is the reality of living through war. Our friend in Kyiv, Kaximia, (part of Tembra Modular, “Let’s explore modular synthesis”) is back to talk about how music can be an outlet. The past days and hours have been horrifying, from Tyre to Odesa, so I’m grateful to Kaximia for her reflections […]

Kaximia - June 1, 2026

The joy of Splines, a module that can make anything from curves

Peter Kirn - May 26, 2026

The best long weekend music gear deals you can get right now

Peter Kirn - May 25, 2026

Free: 4ms VCV Rack ROMplers put gobs of drums under voltage control

Peter Kirn - May 19, 2026

Maggi Payne, photographing crystals, composing for Moog modular III, more

Peter Kirn - May 17, 2026

Make Noise and Tom Erbe have made a mighty morphing spatial Plexiphon

Peter Kirn - May 7, 2026

From Éliane Radigue to West Coast, Homework is a patchable wonder

Peter Kirn - May 4, 2026