Basically you don't have to read past the opening of this story. It's a Launch Control XL minus faders, which is actually pretty awesome.

#303day just ... reminded of abl3 in @reasonstudios.com with Ripley, Mutagen (discontinued), and Bassline Generator.

The legacy of the x0xb0x returns! An open-source, Arduino-compatible processor (as powered 303, 606, and 909), plus an upcoming DIY 303 kit, from @michigansynthworks.bsky.social #303day and some @adafruit.com memories...

Here, have way, way too much #303Day stuff, including a free Max for Live instrument (and Max 303 patching tutorial), free sounds, discounts on plug-ins, a ton of players showing off the 303 and adjacent instruments (especially from Japan), a music mix, and a gorgeous music video.

Beautiful use of these machines as kinetic instruments. Have you seen some of this? Probably. All of it? I think not! They've been busy...

If you're trying to break away from your browser, this script will make an ominous horse appear. I'm slightly worried I may *internalize* this horse now and have it just appear at rando.

Get spectral: understand how those tools work under the hood, and even try building one yourself, with tutorials for @cycling74.bsky.social Max:

Sounds from Tehran -- to reduce cortisol and "backup your dreams." Thanks @bernisaun.bsky.social

Well, whatever happened here happened here. @voxglitch.bsky.social @vcvrack.com

Internet has again plunged to near-zero in Iran. First and foremost, that means our friends and colleagues are out of touch with loved ones. Because of the outage, it may not look like it's working, but you should try running Conduit on a spare phone or computer; it helps.

Updates to @ebosuite.bsky.social and the Unreal Engine-powered SenSei. This already compelling tool gets better with type and video features on the EboSuite side and 27 3D plug-ins for SenSei.

So much goodness here -- and plenty of skills sharing, too, from courses to @bitwig.bsky.social and #plugdata grid freebies. Enter the world of @tildesounds.bsky.social -- had this mix on repeat all week.

Must-watch from end to end... really poetic. Thanks @scannerdot.com !

The ongoing dependence on Substack and Patreon is obviously partly because of reliance on recommendations for growth. Ghost has a terrific alternative, based on the open Webmention: docs.ghost.org/recommendati... But we need more easy implementations that use that openness.

Let’s get wonky and bend space-time / pitch-time / make splines. There's some @drewdaniel.bsky.social Hit 'Em in here, too. @tomavatars.bsky.social beautiful, polyrhythmic and polymetric MGenBend -- another cure for overly-linear, repetitive sequences.

I normally stay away from complex sequencing tools, but @manifestaudio.bsky.social has really hooked me with this one. It's such a beautiful way to escape overly repetitive grids. The key is understanding how much Noah has built in there so you can do that while staying in the flow. Review:

80s-style digital FM with a ton of modulation, CZ-style phase distortion, and more (free for current users). Let's look inside:

"I told you... you ask me a question and after that you have to take a Kalashnikov to stop me!" I think about Eliane & her work often; beyond bedrock for me, but it was hearing her describe her music in the most animated, matter-of-fact way that sticks out; R.I.P. soundcloud.com/kfw/eliane-r...

An enormous loss. Looking back in portraits, interviews (EN, FR), remembrances (including the essential writing of Louise Gray):

Price relief isn't coming any time soon, but this week still looks like a win. That's a win both for US constitutional government setting limits, and eventually, relief for anyone in music and music tech whose livelihood depends on trade.

Keeping the free and open-source music tools vibe going: Pure Data, vanilla, cyclone, plugdata, Heavy -- what does it all mean? Why are recent updates significant, both for developers and end users? And what if you just want a badass @naskomusic.bsky.social freebie compressor? Here you go.

67% of the sound designers & music makers polled long for more IRL connections with fellow sound artists. If you were thinking about starting a local group, meetup or event, this may be your sign to finally do it. People will be grateful you did. Take the poll here: forms.gle/u2Wr9pezJPC2...

Ardour 9.2 is out today. It's extraordinary how much depth this fully free and open-source DAW provides. And now it'll feel a lot more comfortable to users of other DAWs, too. We aren't talking enough about Ardour.

I created a big anonymous survey for sound designers / musicians & other audio creators. The goal is to better understand our community, how people work & connect to other audio artists. I'd really aprpeciate it if you took the time to answer it an share it around: forms.gle/u2Wr9pezJPC2...

Some rather rare footage of Portsmouth Sinfonia with Brian Eno from way back, live in concert. Music that certainly makes you smile 😀 youtu.be/yHpfO7qO0rw?...

Of all the US tech I would love to escape and may face the biggest climb to do it, AdSense and (esp) Google Ad Manager.

Everybody gets a free PIZZA party. With the addition of the Basil stereo space delay, *four* Bastl modules are free and open source on @vcvrack.com. These really made my weekend, so here you go -- deep dish:

At least one of our devs also has a self-hosted Zulip instance and has found it easy to deploy. It's much less pretty and fun than other chat software, but it gets the job done. Also the Zulip developer community has been friendly and open to adding features that make it more fun for casual use

Since announcing SuperSonic a few months ago I've made more than 50 releases and almost 700 commits. SuperSonic is no longer experimental, it's a robust well engineered & tested web synth. I'm going to build such cool stuff with it & I hope you do too! sonic-pi.net/supersonic/d...

Do you love drones? Then here you go, courtesy @movingfurniturerecords.com ! An epic work from two legends. For even more, we go to compositions by La Monte Young and a stunning new light projection by Jung Hee Choi that will tickle your retinas.

Amidst a lot of theoretical discussions -- anyone out there using Zulip for a self-hosted community? I'd love to see an actual use case. Despite the clear privacy crisis with ID requirements at Discord, most people I know are sticking with it.

Updated with the links. (human error -- I had a WordPress block get corrupted while editing, and it was the one with the links) Also, I've added a short disclosure about Charles' use of Anthropic Claude in development. We need transparency and critical analysis of the use of LLMs for coding.

Look, don't ask why, but yes, I am imagining an alternate-reality WWDC keynote where Apple gives us features that only make sense in my head, like the ability to change back to the old window style and turn off all security and safety features ("Run with scissors mode"

It's crazy how much this can do -- custom synths, effects, display and web streaming and sampling, and controllers. But I don't want to bury the lede: on-device screenreader support is a major breakthrough for blind and partially sighted users. And let's hope it starts a trend.

Oh, I had fun with this one. An exhaustive guide with sound samples on creating patches with the new Poly Flanger, an 8-voice polyphonic tunable flanger from Minimal Audio: cdm.link/poly-flanger...

This icon makes up for all the drab ones we've been seeing lately.

Revenge of the Nerd! Yeah we'll all be watching this one, huh? (Furbies not included.)

"We haven't scratched the surface of what's possible musically." (-Laurie Spiegel, then but -- what's beautiful about this is, *also now*)

"Democratizing music": And you can expect AI subscription costs to go *up*, not down (both because right now they're not profitable, and because that's what lock-in is intended to do). Also how many free tools sound better than Suno? (some running in a browser tab)

Hold up! Robert has *another* free device for you -- and there's a reason it's illustrated by an image of water and rock.

How Laurie Spiegel thought about Music Mouse in 1986-1987, from the introduction she wrote accompanying the software and an interview:

Since I wrote about it, this free Web tool by @jeongho.bsky.social has gotten a huge update: "Harmonic mode, wavetable mode, looping -- "image-to-pixel conversion, sound-table parameter control, harmonic parameter control, and loop-based playback."

Free, brilliant device here by @roberthenke.bsky.social for Ableton Live Suite, built in @cycling74.bsky.social Max for Live. Clever details and a good illustration of how economical patching and gen~ can be, too:

Been blissing out to this *hard* for the last weeks, so it's great to get to share some of Perplex On's work and workflow. Total AV joy.

This is so insanely powerful it's kind of hard to know what to say. Elaborate parallel processing chains for audio that you can just drag and drop with ffmpeg's file format support and convolution and all this other stuff... and it's free?!

Widgets, documentation, reusable presets, and even a procedural SFX generator that spits out audio! Let's go! Free @unrealengine.bsky.social + free add-on -- rounded up some useful learning resources for you, too, in case it's all new to you.

All day every day! 🦒🌊🌈🐬

Never too many sequenced effects. Exploring the joys of Mario Nieto's Novagrid... @isotonikstudios.bsky.social cdm.link/novagrid-seq...

Deeply affecting ambient album inbound -- and a portal to Lia Ouyang Rusli's stunning output both as film composer and with her OHYUNG project. @transmusicarchive.bsky.social continues their essential imprint -- and vinyl purchases benefit the Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund.

Missed this one, but it's great! Eurorack - visual sync! (if you're curious for more on this, I can try and do a little roundup...)