Described as a ‘time-bending granular effect’, Baby Audio’s latest release HyperWarp is a rhythmic multi-effect plugin designed to quickly mangle sounds and inspire new ideas.

The plugin’s UI combines a customisable graph-style time manipulator with macro-controlled effects, aiming to allow users to quickly warp sounds while also providing precise control over rhythmic manipulation, glitches and stutter effects.

The heart of the plugin is Baby Audio’s granular processing engine. This breaks incoming audio down into micro samples that are then played back in a manner dictated by its controls, which allow users to alter the resolution, pitch and distribution of the grains, as well as dialling in a feedback loop.

HyperWarp also has a range of seven different profiles that apply further effects to the granular engine. Clean Warp provides the most straightforward granular processing with independent control over pitch and time. Flange Warp, meanwhile, is said to produce “tight grains, squeaky effects.” These are joined by Degrade Warp, which combines lo-fi processing and filtering.

Filter Spam is designed to apply randomised per-grain motion-controlled filtering. Harmo-Nicer creates dense harmonic effects using pitch-shifted grain. Fauxcode is a ‘resonant harmonic generator’ said to create sounds akin to a classic vocoder. Finally, Lo-Fizzly combines granular processing with digital downsampling.

Where these effects become really interesting, however, is when paired with the time manipulation graph at the top of the interface. This allows users to draw a looping, complex LFO-like curve that controls the playback of the audio coming from the engine – almost like manipulating the playback of an old fashioned tape deck.

This allows users to create any combination of stutters – by causing the playback to jump backwards – slow down and speed up effects, reversed playback or granular ‘freeze’ effects, where the plugin holds the audio output at a specific point in the loop.

The shape, movement and rhythm of these effects are controlled using the graph, which allows users to input steps based around a tempo-synced grid, freely draw curves, import or export rhythmic patterns or randomise various elements of the grid.

Those randomisation tools come in two flavours: Steppy and Curvy. According to Baby Audio, “the Steppy randomiser generates patterns that emphasise glitched-out stutters while the Curvy randomiser focuses on swing effects, record scratches and other changes in speed over time.”

According to Baby Audio: “By combining graphical time manipulation with granular processing, HyperWarp gives producers the power to reimagine their audio into glitchy rhythmic chops, or use any input as raw material for granular sound design.”

For those in search of quick inspiration, HyperWarp comes stocked with 190 presets designed to warp and manipulate sounds of all varieties.

HyperWarp is out now priced at $99/£79, but it’s currently available for an introductory price of $49/£39. A rent-to-own option is also available. Head to the Baby Audio site for more information.

Spitfire Audio has teamed up with composer, producer and music technologist BT for the release of Phoenix, a hybrid software synthesizer that brings together samples from BT's private archive with wavetable and FM synthesis, a versatile effects engine and extensive modulation capabilities.

Equipped with 16 voices of true stereo polyphony, Phoenix is built on six synthesis engines: a spectral wavetable engine, a six-operator, 34-algorithm FM engine, and a multi-sampled instrument engine with a broad sample library covering strings, brass, woodwind, choirs, guitars, pianos, and percussion from Spitfire Audio's library, alongside more experimental sounds from BT's own collection. These are joined by a dedicated transient engine, a sub-oscillator and noise oscillator.

Phoenix's wavetable engine is built around a "stereo-from-the-ground-up" architecture with two independent synthesis chains per-voice across both left and right channels. This means that key parameters can be can be independently modulated across each channel, creating complex spatial effects. There's also a deep cross-modulation bus with 20 modes spanning FM, AM, ring modulation, phase distortion, wavefolding and more.

The synth's modulation engine comprises 37 sources in total, routed via a matrix with no fixed slot limit. You get multiple four-stage curve sequencers, five-stage envelope generators and LFOs with freely drawable waveforms, alongside four random generators that draw on sample-and-hold, noise, stochastic models and libraries of rhythmic patterns lifted from BT's Stutter Edit plugin.

Paralleling the modulation engine in its depth, Phoenix's library of effects features 37 processors, spanning multiple styles of reverb and delay, along with a multimode filter, chorus, flanger, phaser, tape emulation, saturation, distortion, multiband compression, and – as is to be expected in a BT plugin – glitchy rhythmic stutter effects.

That's not all: you also get a 128-step sequencer and arpeggiator with probability control, and Phoenix is MPE-compatible, giving you per-note control over all five dimensions of expression when used with an MPE controller. All in all, this looks like a beast of an instrument, and one of the most ambitious projects we've seen from Spitfire Audio in a long time.

"This is true cross-synthesis," BT said in a press release. "I've spent my entire life exploring synthesis modalities, built on the back of giants, to be sure, and combined and augmented this way, none of this existed before, not even in a related form. This is a dream inspiration engine fully realized."

Currently priced at an introductory discount of £199, Phoenix is available for macOS and Windows in VST3/AU/AAX formats. The synth currently requires an active internet connection to operate, but Spitfire Audio says it will be introducing offline operation in a future update.

Find out more on Spitfire Audio's website.

Watch a conversation between BT and Spitfire Audio's Paul Thomson below.

What is it?

Having owned an HX Stomp for many years now and been a big user of Helix Native, I jumped at the opportunity to review the latest iteration of Line 6’s software offering in Helix Stadium Native. Arriving not too long after the hardware units, it promises some serious upgrades over the old one and, somewhat unusually for the world we live in, stays at the same price.

However, $/£399.99 is a lot to pay for software. Admittedly, I got the original for £99 as a Helix hardware user, and to be totally honest, I don’t think I’d have paid full price. It is often available at a discount, however, so if you’re willing to wait for a sale, then you can sometimes get it for half price. It’s definitely a steep entry point, although for some it will be worth it thanks to the huge number of amp and effects models included, and the regular updates the original received.

New to Helix Stadium Native is the ability to load Proxy Clones, Line 6’s version of amp and effects capture. It supports up to 48 clones per preset. Cab IRs now run at 32-bit float, and every cab block now has the option for dual sounds. You can place effects between linked amps and cabs, and sidechain dynamics and certain filter blocks.

The UI has had an upgrade with higher-resolution graphics, with a graphic control of mic placement and EQ, plus a graphic view of impulse response curves. You can now search the plugin for presets or blocks, DAW integration is improved with clear names in the automation lanes, and the tuner has been improved upon.

You can import your old presets from Helix Native, but they won’t go the other way. Ditto with trying to use presets from Stadium Native on non-Stadium hardware. The minimum requirements have also changed, with Stadium Native requiring 8GB of RAM and 1GB of hard drive space, where the previous version needed 4GB of RAM and just 100MB of disk space.

If you’re unsure about committing such a huge amount of cash, Line 6 offers an Intro version you can download for free. It’s got 5 Agoura amp models and 16 effects you can sample, as well as the ability to load four Proxy Clones per preset.

Specs

• Launch price: $399.99 ($99.99 upgrade for existing Helix Native and Stadium hardware users available)
• Type: Amp modeller and effects plugin.
• OS: macOS v14 Sonoma, 64-bit (Intel and Apple Silicon processor types are supported); Windows 11 64-bit
• Amps: 27 Agoura, 111 HX, 46 cabs
• Effects: 274
• System requirements: Intel i5 or M1 2.50GHz processor or higher, 8GB of RAM, 1GB of free disk space. An Internet connection is required for initial license authorisation and for using the 15-Day Trial version.
• Plugin Formats: On Mac, 64-bit AAX Native, Audio Units version 2 (AUv2), VST3. On Windows, 64-bit AAX Native or VST3. Available on up to 4 different computers.
• Contact: Line 6

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

Installing Helix Stadium Native on my laptop is a breeze. I activate it via the code on the Line 6 site, download the software, and follow the installation process. I then head to my DAW of choice, Pro Tools, sign in, and I’m ready to go immediately. It pops into my plugin folder under ‘Instruments’ alongside my previous version of the software; no need to search for the raw files and put them in the correct folder.

I plug a HSS Sire S-type into my audio interface, set my levels, load an instance of the plugin on a stereo channel, and I get a sound immediately. So far, so good. It looks remarkably similar to the previous version, but everything is much higher definition. It’s a noticeable change, with sharper blocks and bolder text, but overall it looks very similar, and I’ve got no issues getting stuck into moving things around the signal path.

The window is resizable, which is good as there are so many amps and effects in the lists at the bottom half of the window, and it remembers the size I set it at when clicking back and forth between the mix window of my DAW and the plugin itself.

New for this version is ‘Focus View’, accessible via a click of the aperture icon on certain amps and cabs. It unlocks a fresh graphic mode, and on the amp models allows you to drag a red circle around to quickly dial in sounds. This mode is also available on many of the effect blocks, making quick overall changes very simple. On a cab block, this function lets you move the mic further or closer to the amp, or closer or further away from the centre of the cone.

Continuing through the presets, I come across one called ‘Brit MegaGuitar’, with a lot of blocks in it. Activating all 16 blocks, I’m amazed that I’m able to run it with my audio interface at 32 samples, even with a pitch block in there, which is notoriously DSP-heavy. There are no pops or clicks as I run through some Oasis-inspired leads, as per its namesake.

As I start getting into recording some demos, which you’ll find further down the page, I start to notice that it takes a second or two for the Helix Stadium Native plugin instance to load when I click it.

When recording, I’m often moving between the mix, edit, and plugin windows, and I keep thinking that I’ve misclicked when, in fact, it just takes a while to load up. It’s something I get used to, and it could also be a Pro Tools-specific issue, but it would be great if it loaded a bit quicker to speed up the workflow when I’m in the midst of inspiration.

Another thing that irks me is that the button to activate the blocks is absolutely tiny. When a block is deactivated, it's quite faded, so hitting that button accurately every time becomes a problem for me. A better workflow might be to double-click to activate; either that or make the button a bit more obvious, as there’s plenty of space for it.

These small niggles aside, it’s just as easy to use as the previous version. The dragging and dropping of blocks will be intuitive for all sorts of players, and even things like loading the Proxy captures are easy enough thanks to the ‘Show Finder’ button in the appropriate window. Some may call it outdated, but I think the workflow is great for recording guitarists who want to quickly be able to move stuff around in the signal path and get to a good result quickly.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

With such a huge number of sounds contained within, it’s difficult to get across the length and breadth of it in just this review. I’ve added some sound samples for you further down the page if you want to get hands-on, but I also highly recommend trying the free tier to hear it for yourself. I test it by running through the presets to see what’s on offer, and the first to catch my ear is the aforementioned Brit MegaGuitar, which is based on the Marshall Super Bass amp.

On its own, it’s warmer and cleaner than the more popular Plexi, making it a great platform for ladling on the various effects in the preset. When I stack a fuzz, clean boost, and overdrive into the front end, it retains its clarity and continues to do so as I add three delay blocks and two reverbs into what is a rather busy signal path. It sounds awesome, and I’m immediately impressed with the quality of the presets that have clearly had some attention paid to them.

Next up is the Callisto Chatter preset, which takes a Fender Deluxe Reverb model as its clean base, and adds a shedload of delay blocks into the signal path. It results in a self-oscillating tone that absolutely could be the communication of satellites in orbit. Without the effects, the Agoura amp model recreates the sound of a black panel Fender remarkably well, clean and clear with that mid scoop and a touch of breakup when I really dig in with my pick.

The dual Twin Reverbs from the Double Double preset are next, with each amp panned hard left and right for some glorious stereo sounds. Here I want a little more, so I set each amp using the focus control, with the left one to get it a bit more present in the overall balance. Again, the sounds of the Agoura amps are incredibly lifelike, reacting beautifully to my picking dynamics, and responding realistically when I stick a Klon clone block in front of it.

The incredibly fun Knife Fight follows, again with two amps panned hard left and right. In this instance, it’s an Agoura Ampeg SVT and an Agoura Soldano Slo-100, perfect for some hard rock riffs. I add in a fuzz based on the Zvex Fuzz Factory for the Ampeg and a modded DS-1 model for an absolutely titanic rhythm sound that keeps me playing for a good half an hour.

I also land on the Orange Rockerverb 100 Agoura emulation, which is a relative of my own tube amp, the Rocker 32. It’s got that classic Orange midrange punch in spades, with plenty of oomph in the low end and a smooth overdrive sound. Again, I find the focus view really useful here for dialling in a quick sound, which I can then perfect with the individual controls. It’s the mark of a good tone when I can keep having fun playing despite the fact that I’m sitting in front of a laptop rather than a full-blown tube stack.

Verdict

With such a huge array of sounds on offer, Helix Stadium Native delivers any sound a guitarist can ask for. It’s really easy to set up and use if you already know your way around a DAW, and for the most part, the UI is very intuitive. Changes to the signal path happen quickly, and there’s a huge number of options for sidechaining and signal splitting, as well as clearly marked automation options if you want to get really in-depth.

It is very expensive, though, especially if you consider things like Universal Audio’s Paradise Guitar Studio, which retails at half the price and can often be found cheaper on sale. The UA option isn’t as complete as this, though, and offers much less flexibility with signal routing and tweaking the cabs. Some users will also bemoan that there’s no standalone option if you just want to quickly play while plugged into your interface.

MusicRadar verdict: For non-hardware users, it’s a pricey option, but if you want a huge amount of choice and flexibility in a self-contained unit, it’s hard to look past Line 6 Helix Stadium Native. The sheer number of amps and effects on offer make it one of the most complete guitar plugins out there, and the quality of sounds is such that you won’t be disappointed when it comes time to mix your recordings. The lack of a standalone version might put some users off, but if you’re already using a DAW, this could well be the amp simulator to rule them all.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Jason Sadites

Signal Theory

Ben Hartwell

If you like your sounds distorted, degraded and loaded with lo-fi character, then the humble bitcrusher is your friend.

By reducing the bit depth and sample rate of a signal, this audio effect produces crunchy textures, gritty timbres and artifacts reminiscent of vintage digital gear: it’s a powerful tool for creative sound design, capable of achieving everything from subtle fuzz to total sonic destruction.

Many DAWs have a stock bitcrusher onboard, like Ableton Live’s Redux or Logic Pro’s Bitcrusher, but these tend to be on the simpler side. Bit Layer, a new plugin from RiverFlux Audio, takes things to a different level, allowing you to precisely target your digital degradation with a multiband architecture, mid/side routing and tonal/transient processing. This adds up to more versatility than many paid-for bitcrusher plugins, and it’s totally free.

Bit Layer can dial in up to eight independent layers of processing, each with dedicated controls for bit depth, sample rate and jitter (all three can be reordered in the signal path) along with mute, solo, gain and dry/wet mix.

The plugin’s multiband functionality makes it possible to apply lo-fi texture in varying degrees and styles across the frequency spectrum, and this can be seriously useful for surgical sound design. You could crunch up the hi-hats in a drum loop while leaving the kick drum untouched, for example, or add some ear-catching grit to the high-end of a vocal without distorting the mids and lows.

The plugin’s targeting abilities extend beyond the frequency spectrum and into the stereo field, too: all three modules across each band have mid/side routing, so you’re able to apply the effect independently across mid (the sum of the left and right channels) or side (the difference between the two) channels.

There’s also tonal/transient splitting across each band, meaning that you can treat the transient (attack) portion of a signal independently to its sustained tonal content, once again opening up new possibilities for fine-tuned signal corruption.

All in all, this is a respectable amount of flexibility for a free plugin. If you’re looking for an upgrade to your DAW’s stock crusher but you’re not already in possession of one of the more full-featured paid-for options on the market, Bit Layer looks like a capable alternative.

RiverFlux Audio Bit Layer is available now for Windows and Linux in VST3/CLAP formats, with AU support on macOS.

Head over to Gumroad to download the plugin.

Antares has announced the release of AutoTune Advanced, a new edition of the vocal tuning plugin based on a ground-up rebuild of the Auto-Mode pitch algorithm and equipped with a newly-developed DVA vibrato detection and preservation engine.

The new flagship product in the AutoTune range for producers working in Auto-Mode, AutoTune Advanced promises to address an issue that has plagued producers and engineers working with pitch correction tools since their inception. When applying tuning to a vocal recording – particularly at tighter or more aggressive settings – a singer’s natural vibrato can often be flattened or altered, taking away from the character of the performance.

Advanced tackles this with DVA, a feature that identifies a vocalist’s vibrato and preserves it so that the natural rise and fall of a singer’s pitch remains intact. Not only preserving vibrato, DVA also gives users the ability to cut it, boost it or generate artificial vibrato using a number of different waveshapes in the Creative Vibrato FX panel, with precise control over timing and expression. There’s also a visualiser onboard to track the vibrato-shaping in real time.

Antares tells us that the work the company has done on its updated tuning algorithm represents the “largest engineering investment” since its introduction, producing the most clear and accurate pitch correction found in an AutoTune product to date. This is complemented by a new Live Mode designed for “ultra-fast” real-time monitoring, which is joined by two more latency modes: High Quality is for final mixes and bounces and Low Latency is suitable for general studio work.

AutoTune Advanced also updates a number of features familiar to existing users. The Formant Designer has been given a refresh, there’s a new workflow for inputting custom scales, and a 78-note Visual Keyboard makes dialling in per-note behaviour more intuitive. The plugin’s MIDI Perform feature gives you hands-on control over tuning and Vibrato FX via your MIDI controller.

AutoTune Advanced arrives with a collection of presets designed by Grammy-winning producers, engineers and artists, including Julian Marley, Ann Mincieli, Jess Jackson, David "Yungin" Kim, and more.

“I've been using AutoTune for over 15 years, so I know it inside and out,” Kim said in a press release. “Advanced feels like a real upgrade. Live mode is crazy fast and keeps the artist locked into the performance. The formant designer gives me more ways to shape a vocal without losing the person behind it, and the modern UI gives an old friend a much needed fresh look."

“Since 1997, the complaint about pitch correction has been the same: it takes the singer out of the singing," adds Jeff Wright, CEO of Antares Audio Technologies. "That's the problem DVA was built to solve. It can tell the difference between a pitch error and a decision the vocalist made, and it leaves the decision alone."

In other AutoTune news, Image-Line recently announced that all FL Studio users will now be able to access AutoTune Go, a stripped-back version of the pitch correction tool that’s bundled with FL Cloud Free.

AutoTune Advanced runs on macOS 13 or higher and Windows 10 and 11 in AAX, AU and VST3 formats. A perpetual licence is $450 USD or $17.50 a month as part of an AutoTune Unlimited subscription. A free trial is available now.

Visit the Antares website to find out more.

If you make electronic music, you’ve probably been there: you’ve got a nice little 8-bar loop going, but you’ve had it on repeat for what feels like hours, fruitlessly tweaking with no clue where to go next.

The process of arrangement – structuring your loops, sketches and ideas into fully-fledged tracks – is one of the most difficult stages of finishing a song, and it’s something that even the most talented artists struggle with.

If that sounds familiar, music education company Color With Live has something that might help. Stencils are empty, colour-coded arrangement maps for Ableton Live based on existing tracks that the company describes as “like a colouring book for Ableton”.

Open up a Stencil in Live and you have a proven structure to work with while writing your own track: all you need to do is fill it with your own material, and the arrangement takes care of itself.

Every element of a song’s structure is mapped out in detail, from builds and drops through to fills and breakdowns. You provide the melodies and chords, the sound design and the effects, but the Stencil helps you mould this material into a coherent layout based on a track that you love.

Color With Live is keen to emphasize that a Stencil is not a recreation of a song or a way to copy another artist’s work. The raw materials are stripped out and what’s left is the structure, a template that you can use to create something that’s entirely your own.

Color With Live recently released a free Stencil Pack that features the arrangements behind Flip It by Levity, Fisher’s rework of World Hold On by Bob Sinclair and Dimension’s Once In A Lifetime.

Also on offer are more than 250 paid Stencils based on songs from artists like Four Tet, Fred Again, Calvin Harris, DJ Seinfeld, Metro Boomin, Skrillex and many more. Each Stencil is priced at £8, and there are discounted bundles available if you want to buy more.

The folks over at Color With Live are a generous bunch: they also have a number of free Ableton Racks available on their site, and a free Extension that can be used to save and organize YouTube tutorials in Live.

"We realized one of the biggest pain points in learning production is arrangement. The advice is always to pick apart your reference tracks, but there's nothing visual to check your work," Color With Live’s co-founder Kevin Rea said in a press release.

"Repetition is what makes learning click. Producers download Serum packs to practice sound design and MIDI packs to practice music theory. We were blown away that nothing like that existed for arrangement. Our mission isn’t for our stencil to be a crutch that you rely on for every song, instead something that you can learn from and then apply to future productions.”

Head over to Color With Live’s website to download the free Stencil Pack.

Analogue purists might bemoan the advent of digital music production gear, but an undeniable upside is the ease with which brands can now roll out firmware updates for existing synths, not only fixing bugs and improving usability, but occasionally adding whole new capabilities to existing.

Originally released in 2022, Arturia’s hybrid MiniFreak polysynth is an instrument that has done particularly well out of this form of free upgrade. Built around a synth engine that combines multi-mode digital oscillators with an analogue filter and comprehensive digital effects, MiniFreak’s mix-and-match approach to synthesis lends itself particularly well to being tweaked and updated.

In the four years since launch, the six-voice MiniFreak has gained capabilities that include a vocoder, wavetable, sample and granular oscillator modes and a variety of new effects. Now, with the launch of its fifth major firmware update, MiniFreak is becoming more customisable by allowing users to upload their own samples and wavetables as source sounds for the oscillators.

MiniFreak 5.0 lets users drag and drop samples and wavetables into the synth’s companion plugin MiniFreak V, which will handle all necessary conversion and allow users to then upload sounds to the hardware.

Samples can be imported in WAV, AIFF and FLAC formats that can be used with the instrument’s sample and granular oscillator modes. The synth’s engine imports mono wavetables with 24-bit, 512 point compatibility, allowing users to upload files from a wide range of banks and libraries.

Along with the new capabilities, MiniFreak 5.0 comes with a bank of 23 new presets that also add new samples and wavetables to the stock library.

Although v5.0 perhaps isn’t as radical an upgrade as some previous iterations, it does add a nice extra dimension to an already impressive instrument, one which we described at launch as being “a joy to get lost in.”

Perhaps the most exciting possibility is the prospect of loading ‘vintage’ wavetables from classic ‘90s synths in order to impersonate hardware classics from the likes of PPG or Waldorf.

As with previous updates, the new features come to both the MiniFreak hardware and its MiniFreak V counterpart. The latter is available as a standalone purchase, allowing users to access the synth’s full feature set in a DAW without buying the hardware – albeit with a virtual recreation of the analogue filter.

MiniFreak 5.0 is available now as a free update for owners of either version. Head to the Arturia site for more.

Zplane has announced the release of Timbre, a real-time formant-shifting plugin designed to transform the character of vocals, drums, instruments and mixes without altering their pitch.

Like all formant-shifting plugins, Timbre shifts the formants that make up a sound’s timbral characteristics while leaving its fundamental pitch intact, a process that unlocks all kinds of possibilities for creative sound design. Zplane says Timbre is built on an expanded version of the engine from its Elastique Pitch plugin.

At the core of the plugin are two independently adjustable frequency bands, each offering up to ±36 semitones of timbral shift with their own solo and mute controls, split by an adjustable crossover. Link the two and you get one-knob control across the whole spectrum; unlink them and you can push the low-end one way and the high-end the other, or process just a single band.

The Carrier section is where things get more experimental. It replaces the carrier signal while maintaining the input's modulation envelope, using either a built-in white-noise generator, which can turn vocals into breathy “whisper-like textures”, or an external sidechain, which allows for vocoder-style processing where the envelope of one signal is imprinted onto another.

If you’re not familiar with formant-shifting, the technique is best explained in terms of the human voice. A typical vocal signal, like all signals with inherent musical pitch, comprises a fundamental frequency (the root pitch) and mathematically-related harmonic overtones.

Traditional pitch-shifting will transpose the fundamental and related harmonics up or down while maintaining their relationship, resulting in an obvious transposition of musical key.

A vocal’s formants, on the other hand, are resonant peaks in the spectrum - unrelated to the fundamental pitch - produced by the vocalist’s vocal tract, mouth shape and other resonant characteristics. It’s why, for example, one singer singing a C3 will sound completely different to another vocalist singing the same note. In broader terminology, we usually refer to this as ‘timbre’.

Formant-shifting enables you to manipulate these formants (and therefore the timbre) while maintaining its pitch. In recent years, the technique has become increasingly common in vocal production, with everyone from Frank Ocean to Kanye West getting in on the action and using formant-shifting to add a new dimension to their vocals.

Timbre is available now for macOS and Windows in VST3/AU/AAX formats. It's priced at €79, but reduced to €53 until the end of September.

Find out more on Zplane's website.

Lunacy – the LA-based music software company behind the plugins Cube and Beam – has announced the launch of Nova, a cloud-based virtual instrument platform.

All of Nova’s instruments can be played in both your browser and your DAW via the free Nova host plugin, which gives you access to a growing library of instruments that currently includes ten titles – five of which are available for free. The plugin is available in AU/VST3/AAX formats for macOS and Windows.

Among the free instruments are Woodland Piano, a characterful sampled upright piano with a granular delay onboard and Chiptuner, a single-oscillator chiptune synth that delivers classic video game nostalgia in spades.

Also available for free is Good Vibes, a sampled vibraphone with four velocity layers and multiple effects, and Zephyr Strings, a string arp instrument based on recordings of the Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra. Finally, Silhouettes is an ambient instrument with five presets and an XY-pad interface that’s ideal for atmospheric pads and eerie drones.

Alongside these free instruments, Nova’s marketplace features five paid titles that are a little more versatile than the freebies. These include Gleam, a modal resonator synth developed by Rainbow Circuit, Drift Cassette, a dual-deck tape-emulating multisampler, and Growl, a monophonic FM bass synth built for aggressive low-end tones. All five are currently available in a $99 bundle or can be purchased individually for between $19 and $35, and you can test them out for free in your browser.

While Nova currently looks like a relatively conventional host and marketplace for virtual instruments, Lunacy is working on expanding the product to create something much more ambitious.

The plan is to develop a platform for prompt-based plugin development and customization, synchronized across your browser and your DAW. Using Nova's builder, creators will be able to design, edit, share and sell virtual instruments and effects without any programming experience, all with the aim of making plugin creation more accessible. Lunacy says the builder is currently in early access with a small group of developers, but hasn't yet shared a date for an official release.

“Imagine if you could build any musical instrument you can imagine,” Lunacy CEO Casey Kolb said in a press release. “Soon, NOVA will let you. Once it is fully launched later this year, you’ll be able to dream up any sonic idea or playground, then turn that into a music tool, and then share it with the world with a single link.”

“Say someone makes a step sequencer and shares it. You open it and wish you could add a custom shimmer reverb to the end of the signal chain. You can add that, then you can share your new version with a friend, and that friend expands it further. The tools are never fixed; they are always evolving.”

While these capabilities are still a little way off, we’re curious to see how Nova develops. As it stands, the Nova plugin is worth downloading for the five free instruments alone, and we’re told that the library will continue to grow as time goes on.

Find out more on Lunacy's website.

Universal Audio has announced the launch of Luna 3.0, a major update to the company’s DAW that introduces a raft of enhancements and new features, including AI-powered stem separation, lyric transcription and chord extraction, alongside Luna Play, a simplified recording mode designed to help you get ideas down fast.

Originally released in 2020 as a low-latency recording environment for owners of UA hardware, Luna was made available free to all Mac users in 2023 before a Windows version was launched in 2024. The software has a number of UA's analogue emulations embedded into its mixing workflow, integrating the sound of classic channel strips, mixing consoles and tape machines directly into the recording environment.

The new Luna 3.0 is available in both free and paid tiers; the paid-for version has now been renamed Luna Studio (formerly known as Luna Pro) and includes some of the more advanced features unveiled in the update. Luna Free has also received a significant overhaul, though – let’s dig into what’s new.

Available across both tiers, Luna Play is a new recording mode within the software that strips back the complexity of a regular DAW to offer a simpler and more streamlined workflow. Described as something like a “voice memo app” designed for “easy, immediate and focused creativity”, Play can automatically detect the instrument you’re recording and the tempo you’re playing, set appropriate levels and suggest presets from UA plugins – all you have to do is play. (Check out the video below for a demo.)

Luna Play is also equipped with the new stem separation functionality that you’ll find in both Luna Free and Luna Studio. The free tier gets 4-track separation covering Drums, Vocals, Bass and Other, while the paid-for version gives you two extra tracks: Guitar and Piano.

Also new in Luna Free are welcome improvements to a number of the DAW’s more bread-and-butter features. You get an overhauled Piano Roll that provides a dedicated MIDI editing workspace alongside the main timeline, Folder Tracks that organise tracks and route audio to folders, an Adaptive Grid on the timeline that adjusts to your zoom level, and more nice-to-haves like a Strip Silence tool, automation for clip gain and the click track, alongside rulers for chords, keys and time signatures.

Another addition is Record FX, a workflow previously only available to Apollo owners that allows you to record directly through native plugins. Overall, that’s an impressive amount of firepower for a free piece of software, especially considering that Luna Free was already one of the more capable free DAWs available to budget-conscious music-makers.

The updates exclusive to Luna Studio include audio-to-MIDI functionality and new AI-powered lyric transcription and chord extraction tools developed by Moises. The paid-for version now comes with several plugins you won’t find in Luna Free: Topline Vocal Tune, UA’s simplified vocal pitch correction plugin, along with two third-party instruments, Celemony Tonalic Essential and Dreamtonics Synthesizer V 2 Core. Luna Studio is priced at $199.

Universal Audio has also unveiled a new subscription plan, UAD Spark Studio, priced at $19.99/month or $149.99/year. A subscription will give you access to Luna Studio and a collection of 70 native UAD plugins, including some of the company’s most popular analogue emulations – covering classic compressors, channel trips, preamps, EQs, tape machines, delays, reverbs and amps – and seven instrument plugins.

Head over to Universal Audio’s website to find out more.

There’s no shortage of plugin brands touting machine learning tech right now, but Norwegian outfit Acon Digital has proved itself to be one of the most adept in the field.

Last year’s innovative Remix:Drums, for example, put a uniquely-focused spin on stem separation, applying the ubiquitous tech specifically to percussion in order to allow live remixing and editing of already mixed drum parts. It proved to be one of our favourite software releases of the year.

Now the brand has returned its focus to its longstanding audio editing, mastering and restoration application, Acoustica, for what Acon claims is the most significant update in the company’s history.

Acoustica 8 updates and expands upon its predecessor’s suite of tools, working the latest versions of Acon Digital’s AI and machine learning algorithms throughout. This includes overhauls to the DeNoise and DeHum modules, which are now machine learning-powered. The DeClip and DeClip tools, meanwhile, get new, streamlined interfaces.

Version 8 also includes Extract:Dialogue 2, which introduces individual sliders and sensitivity controls for adjusting voice, noise and reverb elements. This is joined by AudioFill, which can intelligently close gaps in audio content and as of this update promises to fill larger regions for “smoother, more natural repairs.”

Acoustica 8 also features some more fundamental updates. The entire UI has been overhauled, adding a new launch page, customisable toolbar and dockable workspace. The application also supports immersive audio, allowing for up to 9.1.6 channels, including Dolby Atmos.

There are updates to the application’s spectral editor too. This gains a new ‘select similar’ tool, along with adjustable feathering for smoother edits, and improved visualisation of the stereo field.

"Acoustica 8 is a result of listening closely to our customers and the wider audio community to fully understand the technical challenges they face every day,” says Acon Digital CEO Joel Heatley. “It is our most ambitious release to date, combining best-in-class tools with pricing unmatched in our industry."

As with previous versions, Acoustica 8 is available in several tiered editions. These start at £119/$149 for the Standard edition, rising to £239/$299 for the Premium and £359/$449 for the Ultimate editions. Each tier has differing levels of flexibility – Standard, for example, is stereo only, with no immersive support.

Acoustica 8 runs as a standalone app or as AU/VST3/AAX plugins (depending on the edition). As of this version, the application supports ARA2.

Head to the Acon Digital site for more information on each edition.

Serato has unveiled the latest major update to its DJ software, Serato DJ 5.0, which has just arrived in public Beta.

The headline feature of this new version is a significant overhaul to the application’s beat detection technology. This arrives in the form of new Lucid Beatgrids, described by Serato as its “most accurate and intuitive beatgrid technology to date”.

These beatgrids make use of new analysis processes, designed to adapt better to tracks with fluctuations in BPM, resulting in less manual editing and better reliability when playing, for example, classic funk, soul or disco tracks not recorded to click track or DAW timeline.

According to Serato, both the ‘flexible’ and ‘fixed’ modes in v5 offer more accurate and reliable analysis. Lucid Beatgrids also offer improved labelling and customization, as well as improved editing controls and better labelling of BPM changes.

The other major change for Serato DJ 5.0 is improved integration of streaming services. As with previous versions, users with the relevant subscriptions can mix with tracks from Apple Music, Tidal, Beatport, Soundcloud and Spotify within Serato DJ. As of this update, however, it's possible to mix and match tracks from different streaming platforms – and your own library – all without signing in and out of different accounts.

In the library, each streaming service now appears as its own crate, with a new provider search dropdown added, making it easier to find tracks across different services. The library also now displays BPM and key information for streaming service tracks before analysis, for better on-the-fly selection and preparation.

Both of these feature upgrades come to both Serato DJ Pro and the free Serato DJ Lite. Pro users get an additional new feature in the form of Cue Loops, which lets users save loops as cue points, allowing DJs to easily jump to a pre-defined loop point and activate it on the fly.

Serato 5.0 is in public Beta now. You can learn more about the Serato DJ 5.0 Beta at Serato’s The Drop blog and join the public Beta here.

Back in June, Universal Audio announced the release of Topline Vocal Tune, a native vocal pitch correction plugin that lifted the vocal-tuning engine from the company’s existing Topline Vocal Suite plugin and made it available as a standalone tool.

Today, the company has made Topline Vocal Tune available for Apollo and UAD-2 hardware, meaning that owners of compatible products can run the plugin on their hardware's internal DSP. This enables ultra-low-latency pitch correction when monitoring vocals while recording, without relying on your computer's CPU for processing power.

UA launched Topline Vocal Suite in 2024 as an all-in-one vocal chain, offering producers analogue-emulating preamps, saturation, compression, EQ and a multi-effects section alongside its vocal tuning capabilities.

Topline Vocal Tune strips that back to the tuning engine alone, which UA says offers “ultra-low-latency” performance, allowing vocalists to perform live through the plugin or monitor pitched vocals without delay while recording.

According to Universal Audio, Topline Vocal Tune can handle everything from transparent and natural-sounding correction to the recognizably hard-tuned effects associated with hip-hop, R&B and pop.

At the core of the plugin is a single Tune control for dialling in correction speed, ranging from subtle to fully hard-tuned. The Natural section adds Elastic and Sustain controls, which are intended to keep a vocal in tune while maintaining the slides, vibrato and tonal character that pitch correction can often mess with.

Topline Vocal Tune's Shift panel features Pitch and Formant controls for conventional pitch- and formant-shifting that can be blended in with a Mix dial, while the MIDI Repitching function lets you input melodies and harmonies through a MIDI keyboard to retune your vocals with your playing.

The plugin's Topline Key Finder detects the key and scale of your session automatically, saving time on set-up, and the Scale Define mode can be used to lock pitch correction to custom scales.

"When singers feel good in their headphones, that's when great takes happen," says Julian Prindle, Senior Product Designer at Universal Audio. "Topline helps artists stay confident and in the moment while giving producers everything they need to shape vocals behind the scenes."

Topline Vocal Tune is priced at $99 with an introductory discount of $79, and the purchase includes both DSP and the native version, which runs on macOS and Windows in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats.

Find out more on Universal Audio's website.

Launched in 2000, Audacity is one of the world’s most popular apps for audio editing and recording, having accrued hundreds of millions of downloads over its 26-year lifespan.

It’s not hard to see why: not only is it free, open-source and cross-platform, Audacity has become increasingly powerful in recent years, inching ever closer to becoming a fully-fledged DAW while preserving the simplicity and ease-of-use that it’s known for.

Today, Muse Group is launching Audacity 4, bringing with it a host of significant improvements in what its creators are describing as “the biggest update” in the software's history. Audacity’s latest update overhauls the software’s editing workflow, polishes up its interface and introduces new ways for users to organize their work, all with the aim of making the app easier and more intuitive to use.

Open up Audacity 4, and you’ll be able to see the difference straight away: the software now opens on a dedicated home screen and has been outfitted with a refreshed user interface that has a more modern feel. (If you like the classic Audacity look, you can switch back over.)

The update isn’t just skin-deep though, and Muse Group says it has improved “nearly every aspect” of Audacity’s audio editing workflow in an effort to provide greater flexibility when working on complex projects. Clips can now overlap on the timeline and be combined in groups, and they’ve also been equipped with new handles for trimming and stretching. Audio editing is now non-destructive, so trimming clips no longer deletes the underlying audio.

A new Split tool has been introduced that allows you to slice up clips with ease and precision, and the Envelope tool has been improved. What’s more, each track in Audacity 4 now has its own level meter that can also monitor audio input when recording, and the main playback meter can be switched to a vertical orientation.

Audacity 4 also introduces Workspaces, which allow you to switch between multiple versions of its interface designed for different use cases. The interface is now more customizable, and you’re able to save customized iterations of the UI as Workspaces that suit your personal workflow.

The update has also refreshed the software’s catalogue of audio effects to make them more intuitive to use, and the application now supports a broader range of third-party VST3/AU/LV2 effects.

"Audacity has been helping creators record and edit audio for more than 25 years, and our goal with version 4 was to prepare it for the next 25”, Muse Group’s Chief Product Officer Julia Sazhina said in a press release.

“At Muse Group, we're always looking ahead at how technology can help creativity. It was important for us to bring one of the world's most iconic audio editors into the new era. We are not changing what creators love about Audacity, but giving it the modern architecture needed to support the intelligent tools and connected workflows of the future."

Audacity 4 is now available for macOS, Windows and Linux. Head over to MuseHub for a download.

Tone3000 has been quietly revolutionising how guitarists find their sound. It hosts the world’s largest community of NAM A2 captures and IRs, all community created, built on open-source Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) tech.

Players can take their analogue device – be it an tube amp, overdrive pedal, fuzz or whatever – create a capture of it and share it digitally for anyone in the Tone3000 community to use.

And it is bringing this tech to a number of leading brand’s hardware devices, too, with the likes of Blackstar and HeadRush offering Tone3000 native support. Even in the digital era where the amp modellers have ushered in a great abundance for players, this is a paradigmatic shift in how we search for tone.

Now, Tone3000 has made access to its vast library of NAM A2 captures available in a free and open-source guitar plugin that can be run inside your DAW or as a standalone app.

It makes the Tone3000 ecosystem a lot more user friendly, with a Chains feature that allows you to put together a full signal path from user-created NAM A2 captures and IRs. For example, you could take a capture of a slightly pushed Marshall JCM800, stick a capture of an EP-3 boost pedal in front, then – what the heck, right? – lets stick a Keeley Mk3 Driver on there too, more heat more crunch, then with an IR of your choice.

Chains lets you go further, stacking unlimited NAM A2 captures. You can also create these sounds in stereo, run two chains simultaneously and pan one left and the other right. The Spread control allows you to widen a mono signal without splitting it into stereo and there is a handy EQ section that applies global EQ to your entire chain and offers pre and post parametric EQ to your individual blocks.

There are also a plethora of advanced controls – “oversampling, MIDI mapping, per-block normalisation” – to make using these NAM A2 captures a lot easier.

And that’s really the point. The Tone3000 is designed to simplify your workflow. There’s no need for a third-party NAM player.

Everything from the Tone3000 library is available within the plugin from the moment it was created, and it’s there you can manage your favourites, organise them and integrate them with the rest of your in-the-box setup.

"Because the TONE3000 Plugin is open source, right now is the worst it will ever be,” says Stanley Vergilis, the co-founder and CEO of TONE3000. “We’re excited to see what the community does with it.”

For more information, head over to Tone3000.

2026 is turning out to be a significant year in the life of Reason, the rack-based DAW that can also operate as a plugin. Following the news that its developer, Reason Studios, had been purchased by LANDR, a new version (14) of the software was announced in April, and now there’s Reason Free to consider.

This, as you’d expect, is a completely free version of the software that works both standalone with its own sequencer (you can record up to 16 audio or instrument tracks) and as a plugin (VST3, AU, and AAX). What’s more, it comes with some of Reason’s best-loved devices – all of which can be used within the DAW of your choosing – so if you don’t currently own the software, it could be a great way to increase your creative options without spending any money.

Reason Free contains 15 devices, including four notable instruments. One of these is the excellent Europa wavetable synth, which was sold as a plugin on its own at one time, while the Kong drum module still sounds as good today as it always did. Songwriters will appreciate the ID8 sound module, which covers ‘stock’ GM-compatible sounds such as pianos, drums, bass and strings, and the line-up is completed by the simple Monotone bass synth.

There are effects, too – The Echo delay, the Audiomatic ‘character’ effect, the RV7000 MKII reverb and the Mclass Maximizer limiter – along with the Scales & Chords MIDI chord player. The Combinator enables you to combine instruments and effects into a single playable preset, and there are also LFO, audio and CV merger/splitter and MIDI output devices.

It’s a pretty solid collection, then, but the hope for the developers is obviously that you’ll like what you see and upgrade to a Reason+ or Reason Rack Plugin subscription, which will give you the full complement of devices.

Even if you don’t, though, there’s plenty here to keep you entertained – Reason Free can be downloaded now from the Reason Studios website.

What is it?

The significance of the Prophet-5 synthesizer, in the evolution of commercial music and production cannot be overstated. Where the Minimoog brought pseudo-affordable synthesis to the masses, the Prophet-5 picked up the torch and single-handedly reinvented synth production, with real musicians in mind. All of this was courtesy of Dave Smith and his company Sequential Circuits Inc (now just known as Sequential).

Initially released in 1978, the Prophet provided 5-note polyphony, coupled with the ability to save and recall patches. This was a revelation for keyboard players, alongside a five-octave keyboard and the immediacy of hands-on control, thanks to the beautiful control panel. As one successful UK session keyboardist commented to us recently, “it was the only synth you needed!”. That might not be quite true today, but it certainly was back in 1978, with little choice or competition.

After three major revisions of the original instrument, production ceased in 1984. Dave Smith released several other synthesizers with a slight nod to the Prophet moniker, but it wasn’t until 2020 that he revisited the original format, with the release of Version 4, in both five- and ten-voice iterations.

There have been many software versions of this legendary machine since the dawn of the plugin era, but we have had to wait until now for synth behemoth GForce to offer its own model on the original. Impressively, its Prophet-5 is the only example with official endorsement from Sequential.

Performance

GForce has included all the usual plugin formats, as well as a standalone version. With its scalable interface, this allows you to get lost in the programming by blowing it up to the full size of your computer screen, and just playing… and playing!

We are fortunate to have a hardware Prophet v4 in our studio, which allowed us to place the two against each other for direct comparison. The software also includes all of the original patches, which are present without any additional layer of effects, so this was the perfect place for us to start.

We probably shouldn't be surprised by what we heard, given GForce’s amazing reputation. The attention at the sonic level is exceptionally good. The behaviour of the pots is a little different; the software pots tend to offer a greater level of detailing and accuracy, particularly with the lower values, which is just where you want the fine-tuning. By comparison, the hardware offers conventional, equally-measured operation from 0 to 10.

Reducing both synths to their basic waveforms equally provided no clues in our attempts to separate the two, in our blind testing. Maybe the filter section would reveal differences between the two? No! In fact, much like the v4 hardware, GForce has included the original Mk1/2 SSM filter, alongside the Mk3 Curtis chip filter, and other than a difference in pot position, there is nothing to choose between the two, sonically.

In fact, despite keeping our own hardware in V.4 territory (which should be very stable), our own hardware had a tendency to wander in terms of its pitch stability. A Vintage pot was introduced to allow users of the hardware to engineer how stable they would like their Prophet to be, and in a nice touch, GForce has included this pot, not that you will want the instability of a v1 Prophet-5!

More notes good

Despite the revelation of five voices in 1978, later polys did attempt to address the problem of note stealing, for more grandiose synth pads with long release tails. This is not going to be an issue here, as the software allows 10-voice operation, effectively like the Prophet-10. Where GForce goes further is with the ability to stack voices into layers, with both layers offering full 10-voice operation.

If we add this to the exceptionally good effects section, we can't be surprised that the overall stature of the effected output is stunning, and all of this with the ability to control parameters on screen, or using automation within the DAW. Like other GForce products, the mapping of modulations or control through MIDI CC is very simple. There are several hardwired modulation paths, just like the original instrument, but one of the most eye-catching is the inclusion of the XLFO and XADSR sections, which offer more flexible, capable and advanced sources for modulation. Assigning these elements is as simple as selecting the modulation destination and adjusting the settings in the ‘X’ section. We were even able to modulate the Vintage pot in this way, although it might be more useful to generate pulses and gates in the direction of the filter.

If working within a DAW, a dedicated CC button allows the assignment of MIDI CC to pretty much any parameter, and certainly all the ones you need.

The other Poly

One element which we have to pay particular attention to, is the Poly-Mod section. This was always a unique form of cross modulation, which quickly became part of the Prophet sound, allowing the generation of metallic tones and thunderous effects. Experience tells us that this can be very difficult to capture in software, but GForce has really nailed it. It is every bit as effective as it always was, but if anything, offers a greater degree of control, thanks to its software domain.

Located down in the performance control area, there are a number of other tasty tidbits that were never available on the original instrument. Firstly, the original Prophet only ever offered a mono audio output. Thanks to a pan mode, with spread amount, you can quickly generate stereo depth, before using the onboard effects.

There is also the addition of chord memory and the exceptionally useful arpeggiator. In standalone mode, the latter really does allow you to get lost in the sound, particularly when used alongside the hold control.

Verdict

We have to conclude that this is a pretty special release. Firstly, the Prophet-5 holds a very special place in people’s hearts as the first machine of its kind, and GForce has really looked after its legacy beautifully. If you are a purist and just want an original machine in software, you are firmly in luck. You can dial back any of the additional elements, and just use this like an original Prophet-5.

However, for more contemporary or stylised work, the software has an incredible amount to offer. With over 420 new patches, alongside the original 38 factory patches, the programming team has taken full advantage of everything this new iteration has to offer while truly respecting its heritage. The subtle detuning of the oscillators, with the greater control of the envelope section, means that you have the sound of an original, with extraordinary levels of control and greater depth of modulation. It is undoubtedly the best of all Prophet worlds, and an enormous testimony to the original machine and the brilliance of GForce for looking after the details in software.

Hands-on demos

GForce Software

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

The history of commercial music is littered with instances where a new technology has inspired creativity to go in a different direction: acoustic to electric guitars, acoustic to electric pianos, drum machines and, of course, synthesizers.

While synths took a little while to take hold of the mainstream, there were moments of backlash, with the '90s being an example, through bands such as Oasis. But it was in 1997 that Roland released a hardware synth called the JP-8000 that would notably change the sound of commercial music forever. This initial influence was evident through the style of electronic music known as trance, but quickly infiltrated other styles, remaining incredibly fashionable in today’s commercial production landscape.

The JP-8000 introduced the concept of the supersaw waveform to the world; it was a sawtooth wave, but with clones of itself that could be detuned in a controlled way, giving rise to the enormous-sounding synth pads that were popularised in trance. It also influenced other commercial synth products, with the Virus range of machines, from Access, being notable supersaw ambassadors.

These sounds are fully omnipresent in pop and commercial culture, with a majority of synths providing some form of capacity to embrace the sound. It is, however, sometimes difficult to get the exact sound you want, so wouldn't it be great to have a specific software instrument that embraces this technical trait and stamps its endorsement on the name of the product?

Performance

Super*Saw (pronounced as SuperStarSaw) is a new plugin from Native Instruments, designed in collaboration with critically acclaimed producer AG Cook. If you are unfamiliar with his work, search out his album Britpop, or his work with Charlie XCX, and you'll hear plenty of evidence of supersaw usage.

Apart from integrating seamlessly with other NI products, such as Komplete Kontrol and Maschine, Cook has supplied many of the patches, while the visual aspect of the plugin includes design elements from his longtime visual collaborator, Simon Whybray. It is very striking in its appearance, albeit in green and pink!

The new Super Star

Upon loading Super*Saw for the first time, there is a degree of familiarity, which begins with the oscillator section on the left-hand side. To be honest, this rather undersells the concept, as we will quickly discover!

Super*Swarm is equipped with two partial sound sources, which are identifiable by a pink and green dot, located on the top left-hand side. Each of these sources is identical, but they are described within the context of the instrument as Swarms. Each Swarm is equipped with its own set of parameters, which begins with the number of audible sawtooth oscillators, which can then be detuned. You can't start with a single oscillator, but what's the point of that in this context, particularly when you can increase the Swarm up to 16 saws per partial? You can see how many are in play from the square graphic located on the top left-hand side of the Swarm section. Once you have selected your Swarm level, you can then de-tune and spread the oscillators across the stereo field. Even with only one Swarm in operation, it sounds gigantic!

In the lower half of the Swarm section are a host of modulation elements. Changing parameters is simple enough, once you get the hang of it, but requires the movement of the mouse over a particular parameter, at which point a value will appear, allowing you to increase or decrease with the mouse. Your connection with this interface may just depend on what you are used to. It is an elegant and simplistic piece of design, but as with all levels of minimalism, sometimes things aren't as obvious as you might hope! Like anything, once you know how it works, you quickly get used to its modus operandi.

Mix it up

Moving to the central part of the instrument (and with previous thoughts on the design ringing in our ears) you definitely have to do some experimentation.

Located at the top in the centre is a mix control, which indicates levels between the pink and green Swarm layers, as a circle. This fills or depletes with each click and drag. It's elegant, but you have to get used to it. This is also where you can change the tuning of each Swarm layer, with the ability to transpose up or down two octaves, either side of the core note.

This central section is described as the Morpher, as it allows you to take a snapshot, using the target icon, located in each corner. Much like an X/Y pad, it then allows you to seamlessly shift between the snapshots, and does so very smoothly indeed.

At the bottom of this section, icons relating to amplitude envelope and filter quickly reveal a host of control elements related to each menu category. To be honest, this felt a little bit fiddly, as a lot of information is displayed in a relatively small space, and while the elegance is maintained, a larger display area would certainly be beneficial here. The filter itself is very in keeping, stylistically speaking, with the genre intended for a synth of this kind. You can switch between 2- and 4-pole filters, with lo, band and hi-pass filters being available.

The central display is also switchable to Voice Control mode, which allows the engineering of a host of different elements, particularly relating to control of polyphonic playback. Here you can engineer all sorts of glides and bends, which can be particularly useful for creating risers or quirky synth sounds.

FX and more

The section on the far right is switchable between the effects section, which provides chorus, delay and reverb, and further modulation sources, which include LFO and two ADSR envelopes.

Verdict

It becomes very clear, very quickly, that Super*Saw is an immensely powerful sound source, as long as you don't mind starting with a sawtooth as your main constituent component. No problem there, because that's the whole point, right?

In order to get you going, there are a considerable number of presets, all placed in categories to guide your path. It doesn't take long to hear how complex sounds can quickly become, and we have to admit that despite our admiration for the concept, we felt like we only scratched the surface with its capabilities. A large part of this is because of the hieroglyphic and graphical nature of the interface, which is really fun to use, but does find you scratching your head occasionally. Of course, in an ideal world, you would work with the synth to fully understand its operational elements, and make no bones about it: if you have a requirement for huge-sounding saw-based pads, this is a fantastic synth which is going to reward you continually, but you’ll need to have the manual on hand to get the absolute most from the instrument.

Hands-on demos

Native Instruments

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

Native Instruments’ Komplete is the company's ‘everything you could wish for’ bundle of instruments, effects and sounds, and it has just been upgraded to 26, from 2024’s v15. This isn’t a jump of 11 versions that you missed, rather NI’s new and logical annual naming convention.

And now that NI has been bought by InMusic, you can be pretty sure that Komplete has a decent future, into the '30s at least, we’d hope.

As ever, when it comes to reviewing Komplete, we’ll give you the meat of what’s new, and assume you have some knowledge of the more established NI titles. Don’t expect 340 individual reviews – we’ll give you a flavour of each level, but the ‘konclusion’ might end up back in your court with the old ‘how much can you handle’ versus ‘how much do you want to save?’ arguments.

Performance

First up the various Komplete bundles are still called Standard (£494/$549 for 315GB of 180 instruments and effects, 70+ expansions and 63,000 sounds); Ultimate (£1,124/$1,249 for 950GB of 280 instruments/fx, 100+ expansions and 116,000 sounds); and the Collector’s Edition (£1,754/$1,949 for 340+ instruments and effects, 150 expansions and over 180,000 sounds).

Yes, when it comes to Komplete, reviews tend to be numbers, lots of them, and large ones at that.

And before we delve in deeper, we should mention the three additional Komplete Select editions: Electronic, Beats and Band, where you get titles dedicated to those broad genres and styles. At just $99, these are a very good intro to the Komplete universe and even pay for themselves with a $99 discount should you upgrade to Komplete Standard.

On to the more expensive bundles, and each of the three comes with what NI rightly calls its flagship products comprising Absynth 6, Massive X, Kontakt 8 and Guitar Rig 7 Pro. Just in the last title alone you have pretty much every effect ever created, and not just for guitarists – it's a superb suite of plugins.

The synths are pretty awesome too. Absynth 6 is new to all three and is an update to one of NI's longest-serving instruments and slots easily into a 2020s DAW rack, while Massive X has become the mainstay of dance music producers everywhere. Between the two, you have all your dreamy textures and pads, and feisty basses and leads properly covered, and a lot more besides.

As for Kontakt 8, well, this instrument shell, player and organiser has also recently been beefed up with more creative tools and we're using it more than ever. You pretty much have everything you need with these four titles, then, and we've only just started.

A lot more newbies

Time for the newcomers at each level, so grab yourself a big cuppa. Starting with the Standard edition, you get two titles from NI's Definitive Electric Keys Collection, namely Jade and Teak. Jade is designed more for gritty and punchy sounds, suitable for more pop and rock piano styles, while Teak has a warmer tone with a '60s vibe, better for sparser arrangements to our ears.

These new electric piano titles now increase depending on the Kontakt bundle you buy, so for the Ultimate edition, you get two more (Ember for more rhythmic and percussive keys and Moonshell for light and soulful), and with Collector's Edition you get all six pianos, with the addition of Phoenix, more of a Fender Rhodes/'70s style piano, and Diamond, a '60s version more suited to jazz. That's a lot of electric pianos – overkill perhaps.

Back to the newcomers for Standard and you get Electric Neon Essentials, one of NI's Session Guitarist titles and aimed at pop and EDM guitarists, although there's a decent amount of flexibility under the bonnet, meaning you can easily stretch these sounds into a wide variety of genres. It's slick, and the very definition of 'mix ready', almost too smooth on occasion.

As with the pianos, you get more guitars as you step up Komplete levels, so Ultimate adds Session Guitarist – Electric Ruby Deluxe. However, both Ultimate and Collector's have the same 12 Session Guitarist titles and, as it turns out, the same pianos, organs and drums, so if sampled instruments are your thing, Ultimate might get you what you need for less outlay than Collector's.

In fact, as far as major upgrades go, that is it for the Standard edition, as most of the new fun does sit with the more expensive options. For example, both Collector's and Ultimate now feature Claire: Avant, a virtual version of the world's biggest piano.

Bigger doesn't always mean best, of course, but Claire does deliver an impressive and varied sound covering jazz, soundtrack, mellow, distorted and even harpsichord. In the (perhaps unlikely) event that you find yourself short on piano sounds, this definitely fits the bill. Collector's Edition (of course) boasts more, another Claire piano called Avant, which adds a more experimental edge to your piano sound.

Another big, new title – again only for Ultimate and Collector's – is Erosia, an instrument for cinematic sound design. This is one of the most impressive of the new additions, combining four soundscape parts for eerie pads, grain effects and shimmering atmospheres. It also has a very decent amount of tweaking available, where you can dig into some waveshaping, harmonic resonance and effect parameters – a very solid '26' inclusion.

Along similar lines, but with a very different UI and approach – although, it has to be said, a similar soundscape vibe – is Circular, only available for the Collector's Edition. It's essentially an instrument that combines layers, each with its own sequencer, so you can create dynamic and evolving chords, while being able to adjust parameters on the UI circle.

You get 30 sound types to choose from, each with its own presets, so there are a lot of ingredients, and while it is basically another way of layering four parts, it does offer some intriguing and usable results.

The final two big NI offerings are both orchestra-based and available for the Collector's and Ultimate bundles. LCO Strings is a recent release that allows you to combine those four layers – NI loves its four layers – with high-quality samples from the London Contemporary Orchestra. Bland UI aside, it manages to not only deliver realistic orchestra sounds pretty quickly, but also has enough articulations, LFOs, and core samples to deliver expressive and flexible results that can be pompous and dramatic or eerie and atmospheric.

Cremona Quartet Ensemble is another orchestra engine, this time with a string quartet taking up those four layers. The instruments are modelled on the kinds of antiques that cost tens of thousands, including a Stradivari cello and violin, and Guarneri and Amati violins.

Of the newcomers we have discussed so far, this is probably the one with the most realism attached to it. It includes a playing style where the quartet only plays its individual parts as mono instruments, so if you play two, three or four notes, the other instruments kick in; or play them polyphonically – your choice. Either way, the results are very good and this is likely to be one of the additions we'll be keeping on our drive.

Other brands

Of course, NI is now offering Plugin Alliance/Brainworx and iZotope plugins as part of Komplete. Rather than attempt to go into depth on all of these, all three levels of Komplete offer the iZotope Elements versions of Ozone 12 (for mastering), Neutron 5 (mixing), and Nectar 4 (vocals), so that's pretty much all your production plugins sorted, albeit with less grunt than the full-fat versions.

Other iZotope highlights include FXEQ, which is a rather brilliant (and cheap) workhorse plugin that lets you add effects with ease as you would an EQ. You also get VocalSynth 2, which might be old but still does exactly what it says on the tin; and Trash, a distortion, filtering and convolution plugin which is a production favourite, although we were less than impressed by its current version. Still, good to have anyway.

The Brainworx/PA standouts for all three Kompletes include the bx_enhancer saturator/ compressor/EQ, and the multiband compressor, bx_glue. Ultimate adds the bx_XL mid/side mastering plugin and bx_clipper, while the top-tier Collector's bundle adds the excellent bx_console AMEK 200 (our only criticism was the price), and bx_masterdesk PRO, a full mastering plugin which delivers great results, fast.

While Komplete can often look like NI throws everything at the bundle, these third-party inclusions do make sense in the overall scheme, as the iZotope plugins bring their AI assistant technology to your productions, while both Plugin Alliance and Brainworx fill the gaps and make it more hands-on if that is your thing.

Finally – and we're almost breathing a sigh of relief just writing those words – all three Kontakt bundles now include 28 Play Series titles (that is, streamlined sound collections/instruments for Kontakt) which have been bolstered by half a dozen newbies including Marco Polo Drums, 24k Drums, Hypr, Halo Vox, Luxa and Roux. Look, they're free, there are 28 of them, you get them whatever. Never look a sonic gift-horse in the mouth.

Verdict

It's so easy with Komplete – whatever the bundle level – to get swept away by the sheer numbers, the savings and the absolute might of these great tools and how they could and really should positively impact your music making. We all love more for less, right? And with that in mind, Komplete is as big a bundle, upgrade, bargain, and bloody huge outlay as it’s always been. Better in fact!

You will not need another plugin (whichever version you opt for).

But right about now, and in every Komplete review, we get to that nagging question as it starts emerging from our sugar-rushed brains: do I really need it all?

Here we go again, back at this argument and always the Komplete Kaveat: that throwing plugins at a project doesn’t always make it better or indeed finished. The tyranny of choice is real and sometimes a deliberately slimmed-down plugin setup can be more creative.

Yet, short of allowing you to pick and mix your own titles – which would be great but, we suspect, messy – NI has probably got the balance just about right between the various Komplete bundles in 26, and, of course, upgrades are possible if you just want to go small to start with.

But do balance up your needs, your hard drive size, your time, the style of music you make and, of course, your budget. There’s no doubting that Komplete really is 'complete' but, as we pointed out above, certain editions might just do – Ultimate over Collector's for example, especially when it comes to recreations of 'real' instruments.

Either way, with the incorporation of many excellent titles from Plugin 'The Rebel' Alliance and iZotope, Komplete is still the greatest music software bundle(s) you can buy (or subscribe to from $15 a month with NI's 360 deals).

But is your music missing focus or plugins? That is the question, and only you can 'Komplete' the answer. We've done our job and warned you about the tyranny of choice, but we're still quietly making space for the Collector's Edition anyway. As your dad used to say: 'Do as I say, not as I do, my young Padawan'. (Well, ours did anyway.)

Hands-on demos

Native Instruments

Alternatives

Specifications

If you’re anything like us, your hard drive’s - and sub-hard drive’s - most space-devouring items are typically those associated with colossal orchestral sample libraries.

For such desktop Mozarts, a solution to these irksome space requirements has today appeared courtesy of the Japanese company Dreamtonics, best known for its smart and expressive Vocoflex and Synthesizer V.

Like the company’s previous wares, AI - or rather ‘neural acoustic modelling’ - is the underlying secret sauce behind the ambiguously-titled Instrument X. Rather than relying on multi-gigabyte sample playback, Instrument X smartly adjusts the performances of its instruments in realtime, with a range of classical instruments to cherry-pick.

Beyond the lack of storage space required by this acoustic modeling-based platform, the standout feature of Instrument X is its ability to direct your virtual players via its easy to use interface.

While Smart Articulation is able to automate your performances, you’re also empowered to edit in forensic detail - adjust notes as well as articulations such as staccato, legato and tenuto. You can then layer in instrument-specific articulations to further shape your virtual instrument performances. Remember, this is all running live within the standalone program - and no internet connection is required.

But instrumental technique is just the beginning, you’re also able to dictate the mechanical bow friction, breath pressure and harmonic saturation of your players. The AI Performance Retakes allow you to instantly shake-up performance variations, to add some spontaneity and human-like flavour to proceedings. Meanwhile, fluid gesture synthesis allows you to evolve notes continuously from a whisper to a roar with no obvious breaks in the performance.

Dreamtonics measured the geometry of its studio with its own patented dodecahedral speaker array. Using these measurements, the company has been able to detach the instrument source from the directional acoustics, meaning that you can find your perfect blend of microphones and smartly configure the sound of the room to your taste, too. Using the 11-channel Microphone Mixer panel (Spot, Decca Tree, Ambient pairs) you can conjure full phase-coherent rooms on the fly.

“Marking a monumental breakthrough in computational acoustics, this new platform replaces rigid, multi-gigabyte sample-playback libraries with neural acoustics modeling,” Dreamtonics states. “By translating notation directly into sound-wave radiation, Instrument X grants composers, film scorers, and music producers unprecedented command over organic bow, breath, and key articulation directly from their keyboard, bypassing static loop triggering entirely.”

Right now, 15 individual instrument expansion are available across three separate collections - as described by Dreamtonics below;

Orchestral Strings Collection: Features Violin 1, Viola 1, Violoncello 1, and Contrabass 1. Engineered for fluid legato lines, cinematic swells, and continuous micro-pitch bowing adjustments. It includes deep structural micro-editing for breath rests, major/minor interval trills, tremolos, falls, portamentos, and harmonics, alongside dedicated pizzicato, col legno, sul ponticello, and sul tasto techniques. Fully modeled con sordino mute integration provides authentic physical dampening.

Orchestral Woodwinds Collection: Features Flute 1, Piccolo 1, Oboe 1, Clarinet in A 1, and Bassoon 1. Captures organic breath dynamics and true register transitions. Specialized articulations include inhalation breath triggers, major/minor interval trills, expressive falls (Clarinet and Bassoon), and native harmonics (Flute 1).

Orchestral Brass Collection: Features Trumpet 1, Trombone 1, Horn 1, and Tuba 1. Includes deep breath tracking across all sections, alongside specialized techniques like trumpet trills/tremolos, trombone portamento glides, and horn stopped notes. Trumpet 1 and Trombone 1 feature full modeling for straight, cup, and harmon mutes.

“While it may sound incredibly difficult to transcend the static constraints of traditional sample playback to achieve a fluid, organic performance, the 'AI-driven' synthesis is actually the straightforward part,” Dreamtonics’ CEO Kanru Hua says. “The true challenge lies in deep-customizing this technology to satisfy the exacting, high-end demands of real-world composition and production experts.”

Instrument X is available now at the Dreamtonics’ Store. The core editor is free to download with the purchase of any Instrument Expansion ($99 each). If you want to try before you buy, a free 14-day editor trial and 7-day instrument trials are also available. To build your bespoke instrumental rack, you can also purchase single Instrument Expansions individually.

Read more and acquire Instrument X over at Dreamtonics.com

After launching in public beta back in June, Bitwig Studio’s 6.1 update has been officially released, bringing with it a “radically updated” Sampler device that the German developer promises will “invite you to sample in ways that weren’t possible before”.

Sampler has received a major overhaul that dramatically transforms what the device can do, and among these new capabilities, sample slicing is one of the most useful new features for music-makers working with audio. Load up a sample, hit the Sliced icon and Sampler will chop it up into slices that can be triggered from a MIDI controller or the Piano Roll.

There are five Slicing Modes that determine how a sample is divided: Divisions slices the sample into a number of equal pieces between 8 and 64, Beats cuts at rhythmic intervals based on Sampler’s BPM detection, Onsets chops it at the transients with adjustable sensitivity, and Pitch slices at points where the sample’s pitch changes. There’s also a Manual mode for setting your own slice points.

There are several options for how slices are triggered, too: along with the usual chromatic layout, you can assign slices to white or black keys only, trigger them via note velocity, or trigger them with a dedicated Select parameter that responds to automation and any of Bitwig's modulators. Each slice can also be given its own loop settings and modulated independently, courtesy of three per-slice modulation sources that can be mapped to any parameter in Sampler.

Sampler has also been equipped with new automatic pitch analysis that makes it quick and easy to map a sample’s pitch accurately across the keyboard. Sampler can now helpfully sets a sample’s root key automatically, either by detecting the average pitch across the sample’s duration, or setting the root key from a chosen position in the waveform.

Click the Orb icon in Sampler and your sample’s pitch will be analysed, represented by an orange line running across the waveform. Press a key, and the sample will be dynamically retuned during playback to maintain the chosen pitch throughout its duration, even if the original sample changes in pitch.

The updated Sampler also features two new Play Modes: Spectral is designed for “stretching, bending and breaking” sounds, and uses a newly purpose-built algorithm to deliver clean and artifact-free time-stretching, with a Preserve Onsets function that maintains the punch of a sample’s transients even when slowing it right down. Spectral's Reharm mode lets you shift the harmonics of a sample while leaving the fundamental where it is, and harmonics can be quantized in line the project's global scale.

Complementing Textures, Sampler’s existing granular mode, Fragments Mode is a more advanced granular engine that can generate up to 256 independent grains per voice, giving each grain independent playback rate and direction, position and size. Grain size can be set in milliseconds or beat units, and there's a morphing grain envelope, a Motion control that randomizes each grain's playhead position and stereo placement, and the ability to repeat each grain up to 16 times for denser textures.

Sampler’s other Play Modes have also received an update: Repitch has been bolstered with two hardware-emulating characters that are applied per-voice – Bitwig says Analog delivers “juicy saturation and tape flavour” while Digital emulates vintage samplers via bit and sample-rate reduction – while Cycles, a mode that turns samples into wavetable-style oscillators, gains pulse width-style modulation, phase modulation and control over odd and even harmonics.

Bitwig Studio's new pitch detection also powers the Tuner, a new analysis tool available both as a device and as a Grid module. Grid users get some love too: the Sampler module can output its onset, pitch and envelope as signals, and Fragments grains can be triggered directly by signal input.

Whereas Bitwig Studio’s previous update was all about core DAW functionality, 6.1 finds the developer sharpening its focus and reimagining one key device that’ll be central to most users’ workflows, opening up an abundance of creative possibilities for music-makers that work with samples.

Bitwig Studio 6.1 is available now, and is a free update for all customers with an active Upgrade Plan. The updated Sampler and the new Tuner are included in every edition, though the Spectral and Fragments Play Modes are exclusive to the full version of Bitwig Studio.

Find out more on Bitwig’s website.

Minimal Audio is a Minnesota-based developer behind a growing catalogue of plugins that includes popular tools like Rift, a versatile distortion effect, and Current, a powerhouse virtual instrument we described as “one of the most powerful synths on the market” in our 2024 review.

The latest release from Minimal Audio is Lucid, a granular multi-effects plugin and sound design tool that the company says can “turn any sound into musical textures, harmonies, and rhythmic effects that stay in key, in time, and under control”, combining a flexible granular engine with scale locking, tempo sync, deep modulation and a host of additional effects.

At the heart of Lucid is its granular engine. Like other granular effects, Lucid captures audio in real time and chops it up into tiny fragments called grains that can be manipulated and rearranged to create new sounds and textures.

Alongside the typical controls for grain size, rate and shape, Lucid features two playback modes that determine how Lucid moves through captured audio over time: Stretch Mode time-stretches, reverses or freezes audio in sync with your DAW and Scrub Mode allows you to set the playback position manually, or via modulation, automation or randomization.

On top of this, Lucid features three Grain Effects that run each grain through independent filter, delay and stereo imaging modules: the Grain Filter has 10 different filter modes and built-in saturation, the Grain Delay module is equipped with its own pitch-shifter, filter and diffusion reverb and the Grain Imager can be used to create complex spatial patterns through its six Spread Modes, which determine how grains are positioned in the stereo field.

What makes Lucid different from many other granular processors is its ability to detect the pitch of each grain and retune it independently, making it possible to produce creative tonal and harmonic effects while ensuring that Lucid’s output always remains in tune with your project.

Enter the key of your track on the right-hand side of Lucid’s interface and the plugin will analyse and retune each grain in real time. There’s plenty of potential for pitch-based experimentation here, with multiple Retune Modes, a Chord Mode that creates layered harmonies from each grain, and an arpeggiator that cycles through retuned grains.

Lucid also features a sophisticated modulation engine, equipped with six swappable modulators that can function as LFOs, envelope followers and “curve sequencers” (freely drawable envelopes) that can be assigned to any parameter via the modulation matrix to introduce movement and depth. Each preset also has two macro knobs that can also be controlled via Lucid’s Animator Pad, an XY pad that also has multiple modulation controls.

As if that wasn’t already enough to keep all but the most adventurous sound designers busy, Minimal Audio have added an Effects Rack to Lucid with eight effects that can be chained together in 12 slots. The rack includes delay, reverb, chorus, compression, distortion, EQ, filter, ring mod and frequency shifting, and each effect has a surprising amount of tweakability on board.

As is the case with every Minimal Audio plugin, Lucid is stocked with a diverse array of presets (more than 350) with searchable tags, each of which has two preassigned macros, so you can quickly introduce variation with the Animator Pad without having to dig into any of the deeper controls.

We spent some time Lucid prior to release and were very impressed – it’s a clear rival to time-tested granular tools like Output’s Portal. There’s a vast amount of scope for creative sound design here that goes well beyond the abilities of many granular processors.

Lucid can transform your audio into everything from pointillist ambient soundscapes and chaotic time-stretched textures to complex harmonic patterns and glitchy rhythmic fragments, and the deep modulation system and bolt-on effects give it an edge over the growing number of similar plugins in this space. Check out the preset demo and walkthrough below to get a sense of what it can do.

Available now in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats for macOS and Windows, Lucid is currently priced at an introductory discount of $79.

Find out more on Minimal Audio’s website.

AI music platform Suno is rarely out of the headlines at the moment: in the past few weeks alone, the company was defeated in a landmark lawsuit brought by German performing rights society GEMA, introduced new download limits and audio watermarking technology, and inked a major licensing deal with BMG.

The latest news from the divisive brand is the arrival of Suno Studio 2.0, the second generation of the company’s browser-based DAW, which places the capabilities of Suno’s generative AI models in an environment that musicians and producers will be more familiar with, while offering greater creative control over their output.

While Studio’s abilities have previously been limited in comparison to conventional DAWs, Studio 2.0 finds Suno introducing standard features that you’d expect to find in more traditional music software, like MIDI support, parameter automation and latency compensation, alongside more advanced AI-based features, such as the new agentic AI chatbot Studio Chat.

Unsurprisingly, Suno says MIDI integration has been the most requested feature for Studio from its user base, and in its latest version you can import, record and edit MIDI on the timeline or in the newly-added MIDI editor, just as you would in any other DAW, and there’s audio-to-MIDI conversion onboard too.

Unlike most DAWs, however, Studio flips that on its head, converting MIDI to audio using Suno’s generative engine. This feature transforms, or “covers”, MIDI clips on any instrument track into audio clips that feature a different instrument, timbre or style (specified using the chatbot) while preserving the pitch, rhythm and dynamics from the original MIDI part.

New MIDI clips can also be created using Studio Chat, allowing you to generate melodies, chord sequences or drum patterns from text prompts.

Studio has also been equipped with a horizontal channel strip for each track that runs along the bottom of the interface – a familiar workflow for anyone that’s used a DAW before – which can be populated with software instruments, like the new Wavetable synth, or a number of newly-added stock audio effects, including reverb, delay, compression, distortion, EQ and noise gate.

Alongside the introduction of a more traditional music production workflow, Studio 2.0 brings a number of AI-powered features you won’t find in many DAWs. The most notable of these is Studio Chat, an agentic AI chatbot that can control the DAW in response to your instructions, generating sounds, organizing your project or editing MIDI and audio. (Image-Line launched something similar in the latest version of FL Studio with Gopher.)

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Studio Chat is its ability to build customized audio effects. AI-powered vibe coding tools that turn prompts into plugins are nothing new, but this is the first time we’ve seen this kind of capability baked directly into a DAW.

In the video demo embedded below, Suno’s Henry Phipps generates a basic rotary cabinet-emulating tremolo effect, but promises that the possibilities for plugin generation are “very broad”. (While plugin creation doesn’t currently require credits, Suno says that “a credit structure may be introduced in the future”.)

In a press release, Suno says that Studio 2.0’s new features were developed in response to lessons learned from user feedback. “Over the past year we have seen artists at every level spend hours at a time using our tools, and their feedback and ideas have shaped our understanding of music-making,” the statement reads.

“Perhaps our biggest takeaway from spending time with artists is their deep appreciation for the instruments and tools that have earned a place in their studios. There is a long lineage of pre-AI music technology that many musicians (along with us folks building Studio) love and rely on.

“These modern music foundations, like guitars, drum machines, synths, effects and step sequencers are tried and true, and those familiar ways of interacting with sound ought to be available in the next generation of music software, including Suno Studio.

“Studio has always been about helping you turn a spark of inspiration into a finished work you can call your own. Studio 2.0 is the next step in that direction, giving you more ways to get inspired while providing access to the workflows you’re already most comfortable with.”

Suno Studio 2.0 is available now for subscribers to the platform’s Premium tier, which is priced at $30/month or $24/month billed annually. Find out more on Suno's website.

IK Multimedia has given its Tonex Player a top-to-bottom refresh, offering a completely user experience “photorealistic” gear choices, improved workflow – and there are some fresh sounds too with this public beta release debuting 220 all-new Premium Tone Models.

Think of the Tonex 2.0 Player as the “creative hub” of IK Multimedia’s electric guitar and bass tone ecosystem; it’s the one place for managing your Tone Models, edits, presets, captures, and where you search for new sounds.

Once you’ve created your sounds you can make them available across your Tonex hardware devices.

When IK Multimedia says its Tonex ecosystem is growing, it really means it. I swear the diagram [see below] showing how the Tonex 2.0 Player sits at the heart of all the various hardware devices is getting more byzantine by the day.

The Tonex 2.0 Player is available as a guitar plugin or as a standalone app for your DAW. Boot it up and the first thing you will notice is that the homepage has changed, with your gear, signal chain and library all accessible.

“It’s faster to find the sound you want, easier to shape it, and more rewarding to explore everything Tonex has to offer,” says IK Multimedia.

The “photorealistic gear experience” is only a cosmetic update but these things matter, especially when browsing through the many, many different amp models. Speaking of browsing, the Tonex 2.0 Player offers improved integration with the ToneNET user community, with the new Smart Search feature making it easier to find user-created Tone Models and full signal-chain presets. There are dedicated (and resizeable) floating browsers to make navigating your various amps, effects and Tonex Collections a little bit easier.

That is crucial to the Tonex model. It is designed to be fully interoperable across all Tonex products, software and hardware alike, and IK Multimedia's Amplitube 5 platform. The big selling point for this refresh is that it creates “a single connected workflow from capture to studio, rehearsal, and stage”.

The Tonex 2.0 Player is available now as a public beta, and will soon be available as a free update for all Tonex users.

For more details, head over to IK Multimedia.

Steinberg is celebrating 30 years of its VST standard by telling us that "the '90s are back" and releasing the Classics Collection. This is a new free bundle that features five fondly-remembered plugins from the ‘90s and early ‘00s, one of which was the first VST instrument ever released.

This was (and is) a simple two-oscillator synth known as Neon. We’re old enough to remember when this arrived (in 1999 as part of the Cubase VST 3.7 DAW update) and it did a fine job of proving that the ‘software instrument’ concept – which many still doubted – was credible.

Indeed, it set the tone for what was to come, both sonically and with its vintage-style ‘wooden’ end panels, which became ubiquitous as emulations of hardware synths flooded the market

The VB-1, meanwhile, was one of the original virtual bass instruments, and made it clear that the VST market wasn’t only going to be about synthetic sounds.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and Steinberg released the CS-40 polysynth, and that’s resurrected here, too. The sample-based LM7 drum machine also gets another airing, and the bundle is capped off by Karlette, a classic ‘90s tape delay plugin.

As you’d expect, these plugins aren’t as powerful or refined as many of their contemporary counterparts, but trying them again, they hold up surprisingly well, and it could be a fun creative exercise to go back and try and make a track with the same kind of software sounds that producers had access to 25 years ago.

It’s also worth saying that, while some of the plugins have been re-released before, these versions are compatible with the latest Mac and Windows operating and are VST 3 compatible, though there are no AU versions.

You can download the Steinberg Classics Collection now from the Steinberg website.

You now no longer need a Helix Stadium amp modeller to apply use of Line 6’s flagship Augora modelling technology to your electric guitar tone, because the digital guitar amp and effects specialist has just unveiled a guitar plugin to bring all this tone-shaping power to your DAW.

Technically, there are two plugins, and one of them is free. Choose the Helix Stadium Intro plugin and you get five Agoura-modelled amps, with 11 channels in total, plus five matching speaker cabinet models and 16 “studio-quality” effects models.

You also get support for cab IR loading and Line 6’s Proxy clones – meaning you can upload digital “clones” of hardware gear that have been created on a Stadium Helix processor.

This “Intro” version could be your entry point into the Line 6 Stadium Helix tone universe. As Line 6 says, the Helix Stadium Native Intro license provides a curated set of amps and effects at no cost and with no expiration”.

Or you could have a 15-day trial of the full version, whereupon your tone options expand considerably, with 27 amps modelled by Augora (a total of 55 channels), plus 111 HX amps, 46 speaker cabs, and 274 effects.

Again, you get Proxy clone support, with up to four clones per preset, and you can upload IRs. With the full version, presets are compatible with Helix Stadium hardware, and there are a range of discounts for those who already own Line 6 hardware.

Prices start from $99 for those with Helix Stadium processors or the Helix Native plugin, and there is a fairly hefty $399 price tag for those without a qualifying discount, i.e. owners of Line 6 hardware.

Perhaps what Line 6 is counting on is that a free trial of the Stadium Helix Native will make more converts to its hardware.

Or that when you consider everything that is in the plugin – which is a lot – that it adds up to a lot of tones and in-the-box solutions for recording guitars. Quite possibly everything most players would need and then some.

This is very much the Helix Stadium model, only it is not inside a piece of hardware, it is inside your DAW. And again, with Proxy capture support, it is expandable, too. MusicRadar was certainly blown away by the Helix Stadium XL, not only was the Augora amp modelling first class, but that user interface was super intuitive.

"Even in the comfort of the testing room, the Helix Stadium XL is still the most usable modeller I’ve gotten my hands on to date," wrote Matt Owen. 'It’s a ‘best of all worlds’-style approach that has been refined into Line 6’s own style."

The Line 6 Helix Stadium Native plugin is out now. Check it out over at Line 6.

Universal Audio has announced that two of its EMT reverb emulations are now available as native plugins, meaning that UAD EMT 140 Classic Plate Reverberator and UAD EMT 250 Classic Electronic Reverb can be used in any DAW on macOS or Windows without any Apollo or UAD hardware.

Introduced in 1957 by German manufacturer Elektromesstechnik, the EMT 140 was the first plate reverb, an invention that gave studios an alternative to a spring reverb or dedicated echo chamber for the first time. Plate reverbs work using a thin sheet of steel suspended on springs inside a frame: a transducer vibrates the plate and pickups capture the result, producing a lush and silky reverb with a smooth and dense decay.

Abbey Road installed four customized EMT 140s in 1957 that have featured on recordings by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead and more. Alan Parsons, who engineered The Dark Side of the Moon, has claimed that the 140 was the only reverb used on the album.

Released almost two decades later, the EMT 250 was the first commercially available digital reverb, and also offered several modulation and time-based effects. An ultra-rare piece of music tech history, it was originally priced at $20,000 and only around 250 units were built. The EMT 250 can be heard on Prince's Purple Rain, alongside records from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Jackson.

UA's EMT 140 plugin emulates three different EMT units modelled at The Plant Studios in California that can be switched on the front panel, and complements the original controls with additional settings for balance, width and modulation. Each of its three plates can be set to an independent reverb time from 0.5 to 5.5 seconds, and you also get a choice of original EMT or Martech input filter models, a two-band shelving EQ and reverb time modulation.

The EMT 250 plugin is built on an algorithm sourced from a "golden unit" at Ocean Way Recording, and the plugin features six program modes covering Reverb, Delay, Phase, Chorus, Echo and Space. Three of the panel's four levers are remapped for each mode, controlling decay time and separate LF and HF decay multipliers in Reverb, or coarse and fine delay times and repeat damping in Echo. A front/rear switch gives you access to the four discrete outputs of the original hardware and a Noise control models its noise floor.

"Some sounds never go out of style," said Bill Putnam Jr., CEO of Universal Audio. "The EMT 140 and EMT 250 have inspired generations of great recordings, and we're excited to bring them to even more creators."

The UAD EMT 140 Classic Plate Reverberator and UAD EMT 250 Classic Electronic Reverb are priced at $149 and currently available at an introductory discount of $79, and both are included in the UAD Spark subscription. Owners of the non-native versions are eligible for upgrade pricing.

Find out more on Universal Audio's website.

Electronic musician and software developer Kieran Foster, also known as Illformed and Dblue, has passed away. Foster was the developer behind Glitch, an influential multi-effects plugin initially released for free in 2005, and its commercial sequel Glitch2.

In memory of Foster, who passed away last month at the age of 47, his sister Joni has made the Illformed Glitch2 plugin available as freeware, with the help of Foster's friends and collaborators Taktik and Beatslaughter.

Glitch2 is a sequenced multi-effects plugin designed to "slice, dice, chop, screw, twist, turn and mangle your sounds into radical new forms".

The plugin is equipped with eleven unique modules covering reversing, time-stretching, pitch-bending, delay, distortion, ring modulation, beat repeat, trance gate and more. Glitch2's step sequencer allows the user to switch the effects on and off rhythmically by entering sequences into each module's lane, with per-module controls for volume, mix, filter and pan.

There are also a ton of options for randomization and mutation onboard. Glitch2's Randomizer module applies a random effect each time it's triggered, with adjustable probabilities for each module, and both sequences and parameters across all modules can be individually randomized or mutated.

Both sequencer patterns and snapshots of parameter values can be stored as Scenes, and up to 128 scenes can be created in each Glitch2 Program. Scenes can be triggered in real-time via MIDI notes from your DAW or controller, making Glitch2 a powerful tool for incorporating sequenced effects in live performance.

"Glitch can be as gentle or as brutal as you like," reads the description on the Illformed website.

"Add the occasional splash of retrigger or stretcher to single hits within your drum loop, or fill the entire sequencer with random effect blocks for a totally chaotic trip down the digital rabbit hole... the choice is yours!"

Both Glitch and Glitch2 were ahead of their time upon release, and influenced the development of countless glitchy "FSU" (Fuck Shit Up) plugins that take a similar approach to sequenced sound-mangling, such as Sugar Bytes' Effectrix and Devious Machines' Infiltrator.

Foster's friends and family have shared a memorial on the Illformed website that describes him as "one of the brightest stars in the musical sky... leaving the world a legacy of his music, sound, art, legendary software and overwhelming goodness of character."

"It’s with tears in our eyes and our hearts full of sadness but also joy that we remember him and will never forget," the memorial concludes.

Glitch2 is available for macOS, Windows and Linux in VST/VST3/AU formats.

Head over to the Illformed website to download Glitch2.

Vochlea – the company responsible for Dubler 2, a plugin that allows you to use your voice as a real-time MIDI controller – has announced the release of DubBox, a new app that applies the same concept to drum programming by converting vocal percussion into drum loops.

Aimed at producers and beatmakers that work out rhythmic ideas vocally, DubBox can transform spontaneous beatboxing into sample-based drum patterns.

This is achieved by training the software on the user’s vocal sounds, which are then used to trigger drum samples in real time with velocity sensitivity, which can then be recorded, quantized and exported as audio or MIDI.

DubBox can learn up to eight vocal sounds per project, each of which can be mapped to samples from its built-in library or imported sounds.

Stocked with 10 packs, the app’s sample library covers everything from classic 808s to futuristic sound design and industrial percussion. Each sample has individual controls for gain, pitch, tone, drive and filter, and can be assigned to choke groups.

Once samples are configured, the user can record to a click or freely with up to 20 takes of overdubbing, and DubBox will detect the BPM of a performance before stretching and quantizing the results accordingly, while preserving the feel of the original take. When quantizing voice recordings, DubBox’s Voice Warping function time-stretches the entire take to the grid rather than re-triggering individual hits on each beat.

When you’re happy with the results, you can export your input vocal, the sample track or a mix of both, or export a MIDI file to drop into your DAW.

"Everything we build starts from the same belief: the voice is the most immediate instrument there is," said Vochlea CEO George Wright in a press release.

"Dubler 2 turned it into a live controller for your whole studio. DubBox is a new instrument for a new player, the beatmaker whose beat is already in their mouth. Beatbox in, finished drum loop out."

Priced at $39/€39/£34, Vochlea DubBox is available now for macOS and Windows.

Find out more on Vochlea's website.

Charli XCX’s seventh studio album, Music, Fashion, Film, will be released on July 24, following up 2024’s world-dominating Brat project with a stylistic move away from the brash electro-pop of its predecessor that leans into a more reflective and guitar-led sound.

Ahead of the album’s release, Charli and co-producers AG Cook and Finn Keane sat down with John Kennedy for an episode of the Tape Notes podcast to talk through the making of three tracks from the project: Card Declined, Rock Music and No One Lasts Forever.

Finishing the record on a contemplative note, No One Lasts Forever features a spoken-word cameo from David Cronenberg, as the renowned director recounts a near-death experience in a monologue that mirrors the themes of impermanence Charli explores in the track’s lyrics.

“This song has made me change the way I think about my life and my art,” Charli tells Kennedy. “That was the journey I was going on while I was writing it.”

The song’s production was handled by longtime collaborators AG Cook and Finn Keane, who made use of heavily distorted guitar and vintage synths (namely the Minimoog and the PPG Wave) to fashion its distinctive sound, along with some unconventional sound design techniques and an AI-powered “audio mosaicing” plugin called Concatenator.

“The biggest difference in general compared to so many tracks that Finn and I have done together separately, and on any project, is this is so audio-heavy,” Cook says. “There’s pretty much no MIDI. Any MIDI that's in there is all chopping up something that we actually recorded or edited. A lot of the guitars, bass, all that, we're playing it in, drum kits and drum machines.”

Cook and Keane tell Kennedy that much of the material for the track came from an impromptu jam session that saw the pair recording and manipulating small fragments of sound from various sources – detuned guitars, processed synths, analogue drum machines and even snippets of other songs on the album – to create textural elements that take the production to a different dimension.

“We have all these little sounds that are throughout the track, all these little bits and pieces,” Cook says. “It’s funny because we’re literally running around the studio with as many things plugged in as possible and just doing the worst sounds.”

“We were trying to find the ugliest things,” Keane adds, “but then we actually did something kind of cool with the drums.”

“The whole second half [of the track] uses bits and pieces of this jam, and one tool I used to really bring the most out of it – apart from selecting and chopping, which felt a little bit predictable – is this weird plugin called Concatenator,” Cook says.

Developed by Datamind Audio, Concatenator is an innovative AI-powered “audio mosaicing” plugin that can transform an entire sample library into a playable instrument using a technique called concatenative synthesis.

Analyzing large numbers of samples using machine learning, Concatenator then indexes each sound by timbre, pitch and amplitude, organizing the samples as a mosaic at the centre of its interface. As audio runs into the plugin, Concatenator rebuilds the input in real time by stitching together tiny fragments of sound from its library that bear the most similarity to the incoming audio.

Cook used Concatenator to create a drum pattern out of the “bits and pieces” he and Keane recorded during their jam session. “This is like a drum loop, but it’s actually made out of pretty much all of those files,” he says. “You can see that we’ve loaded all of these [samples], MS-20, Vermona, Prophet stuff… and any audio file you throw underneath this will actually start finding tiny bits of all the samples that are similar in pitch.”

“It’s weird because it’s a very digital, new plugin, but we’re doing it with all these other things,” Cook says, comparing the glitchy aesthetic of the drum loop to the sound of skipping through stations with a radio dial. “It was a nice way of being able to sample tons of stuff in this really ambiguous, uncanny way that I tend to like. It’s a mix of selecting little regions and letting some bits be chaotic and random and very 3D.”

Listen to the full Tape Notes episode with Charli XCX, AG Cook and Finn Keane on Spotify.

For more track breakdowns and interviews with artists and producers, check out Tape Notes’ YouTube channel or subscribe to their Patreon, where members can access full-length video episodes, exclusive offers, merch discounts, artist gear lists and behind-the-scenes content.

Tape Notes also runs a monthly giveaway offering one Patreon member of their Extended Players Premium tier the chance to win music-making gear: this month, the prize will be a pair of D3V Desktop Monitors from Adam Audio.

Native Instruments has announced the release of Super*Saw, a new soft synth developed in collaboration with AG Cook, the Grammy-nominated producer, solo artist and PC Music founder best known for his work with Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek and Beyoncé.

Super*Saw is inspired by the supersaw, a classic synth patch that has figured prominently in Cook’s production work. Built by layering multiple detuned sawtooth waves together, it’s a bold, bright and aggressive sound that’s closely associated with trance music of the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Though the technique itself predated the synth, it was Roland’s virtual analogue JP-8000 that popularized the sound through its dedicated Super Saw oscillator.

Native Instruments says that Super*Saw seeks to push the supersaw “further than it was designed to go”, turning a "time-consuming production technique into a fast, fun, and flexible workflow” and producing everything from “rich harmonies to metallic dissonance, ravey leads to impossible glides, euphoria to tension, all from the same sound source”.

At the heart of Super*Saw are two independent 16-saw oscillator banks, Swarm 1 and Swarm 2. The Swarms panel, on the left-hand side of the interface, adjusts the number of active oscillators in each swarm and fine-tunes the pitch, panning, and amplitude of each saw wave, and three Motion controls introduce modulation to these parameters that’s applied to each oscillator individually.

In Super*Saw’s central panel is the Morpher, an XY pad that can morph continuously between four different patch states in each corner of the grid. (You can also hit the dice icons underneath to instantly generate a random patch.)

Here you’ll also find controls for the amp envelope and filter, which can be applied to each Swarm individually and offers both 2-pole and 4-pole slopes, along with high-, band- and low-pass modes and keytracking. Super*Saw also has three onboard effects: chorus, delay and reverb.

Super*Saw is an eight-voice polyphonic synth, but also features monophonic, unison and poly-unison assignment modes. In the Voice Control menu, you’ll find controls to adjust the detuning and stereo width of the voices in Unison mode, along with sophisticated glide controls that can be used to set individual portamento times for each of the synth’s eight voices, and a Shape control that adjusts the contour of the portamento.

The synth features five modulation sources, each of which can be assigned to an unlimited number of parameters. There’s a single tempo-syncable LFO with rate, shape, phase and retrig controls that can be applied per-voice or globally, and this is joined by two tempo-syncable, velocity-sensitive ADSR envelopes.

You’ve also got the mod wheel and the Voice Offset section, a bank of eight faders that each represent one of the instrument’s voices: when routed to any potential modulation target, that control will be offset by the value dialled in at the fader.

Though there’s plenty of scope here for manual sound design, Super*Saw also comes with a broad preset library of AG Cook-style patches, covering basses, leads, pads, plucks, soundscapes and more.

We spent some time with Super*Saw prior to launch, and were impressed by the depth of control and diversity of sound on offer in an instrument that’s designed to explore the possibilities of a single synthesis technique.

Much more than just a Native Instruments plugin with a famous producer’s name stamped on it, Super*Saw feels like a genuine collaboration that represents an extension of AG Cook’s artistry. Capturing the bold and distinctive hyperpop sound design Cook experimented with on projects like Charli XCX’s Brat, the plugin takes the classic supersaw sound to new heights with its focused but versatile architecture.

“It’s funny having my own synth plugin,” Cook says in the video embedded above. “It’s something that’s always been a goal of mine… I’m really interested in very specific tools, and I’ve been excited when I’ve seen certain artists do their own tools around the ideology they have.

“I’ve really enjoyed building on what was established as the supersaw in the ‘90s. A lot of instrument design is about taking things that exist in the world and looking at the corners of it, like: ‘what could we do?’, or ‘what could be improved or flipped on its head?’ To actually be involved in that sort of process, that’s the enjoyment – you’re building into this family tree of a musical idea that was started a long time ago.”

Native Instruments Super*Saw is available now for macOS and Windows in VST3/AU formats, and is priced at $99/€99/£89.

Find out more on Native Instruments' website.

Baby Audio has announced the release of SubCulture, a bass enhancement plugin that tracks the pitch of incoming audio and locks its processing to each note, generating tuned subharmonics that stay in key with the source material.

Where many bass enhancers rely on static frequency-boosting or basic pitch-shifting, Baby Audio says, SubCulture is built around what the company is calling a “fully adaptive architecture”: its whole processing chain aligns to its pitch detection engine and its subharmonics are derived from the input signal, helping to avoid the frequency clashes and phase issues that can often arise with synthesized sub layers.

The plugin combines three individual bass enhancement engines: Sub Layer blends in a pitch-shifted version of the input signal at up to two octaves below or above the original, Root Boost is a pitch-tracking EQ band that can cut or boost by up to 18dB at the fundamental frequency of each incoming note, and Resonance is a parallel filter network inspired by analogue hardware that adds “warmth and resonant energy” at the tracked pitch.

SubCulture is also equipped with an analogue-modelled saturation section which offers five clipping types (Tube, Tape, Diode, Vintage and Crystal) and a multi-mode compressor for dynamic control. A basic three-band master EQ tweaks the sub, low and high content of the enhanced signal and is joined by a global high-pass filter and a mono control that sums low frequencies below a chosen point.

SubCulture is designed for monophonic sources like basslines and vocals, but the plugin’s MIDI mode lets you control the pitch of its engines manually, which Baby Audio recommends for polyphonic sources.

As well as bass enhancement, Baby Audio suggests a few alternative use cases for SubCulture: beefing up synths and guitars, thickening vocals with an extra sub-octave, or spicing up drum patterns with experimental self-oscillating effects.

The plugin comes with 177 presets from producers and sound designers including Craig Bauer, Dacota G and Eryck Bry.

In a press release for Baby Audio, mixing and mastering engineer Dacota G said: "Just when I thought my toolbox was set you came through with one of the most essential plugins. SubCulture is 1000% going on every single mix going forward.

"This is exactly what I’ve been missing. I almost want to go back and use it on some of the mixes where I wish I had something like this."

SubCulture is available now for macOS and Windows in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats, priced at an introductory discount of $79 before it goes up to the full price of $129. There's also a free trial available if you want to give it a try.

Find out more on Baby Audio's website.

Remember when the internet was a brave new world, full of promise, and felt like a wild frontier where anything was possible? That’s all changed, of course, thanks to the overwhelming dominance (both negative and positive) of social media, but there’s one corner of the web that still entices: music production.

Thanks to developments in APIs involving audio and MIDI, among other things, it’s now possible to use your basic browser as a hub to make music. This isn’t a novelty any more - browser-based DAWs are packed with sophisticated tools and internal applications that often stand up to the equivalent you might have used on your desktop or as a plugin in your DAW.

Let’s explore some of the most useful and intriguing options available in your browser, from classic synthesizer emulations and modular sequencing environments to full-on DAWs.

Bet you never thought you’d be whipping up complete tracks in Chrome, did you?

André Michelle knows a thing or two about making music with web pages. As the founder of OpenDAW, a free digital audio workstation that runs in your browser, he’s fully committed to the idea of non-desktop music production.

“The web is the ideal platform for software,” he says when asked why he’d make a DAW that runs within an internet browser. “It's inherently built to be platform-independent.”

Although web-based music applications have been around for a few years now, André, explains that because of recent breakthroughs, browsers are now a much more viable way to make music. “The web now has enough APIs to cover what music tools need: audio, MIDI, WebGL (for graphics), storage,” he explains. “Developers finally started recognising the potential.”

Additionally, he identifies the ‘Wild West’ nature of the internet as to why it’s the ideal place to pioneer this new avenue for music production. “The web has also always been a place to experiment,” he enthuses. “Users are more open to new ideas, and updates ship far quicker than a desktop app allows.”

Thanks to protocols like Web MIDI - which lets you play a browser-based instrument with a controller just as you would any other piece of software - it’s more viable than ever.

We’ve always thought of DAWs as applications downloaded to a piece of computing hardware, like a laptop or a tablet, but they can also exist on the internet. Browser-based DAWs are very much a thing now, with a number of different ones available, including André’s OpenDAW.

A complete (and free!) music-making platform, OpenDAW offers bespoke instruments like a synthesizer and drum machine, audio recording and effects, and even a way for you to build your own music applications on top of the OpenDAW SDK via scripting. It’s also been made with the concept of democratisation, and education, in mind.

“Sharing is the browser's own territory, so it's effortless,” André says about what a browser-based DAW offers that an offline app doesn’t. “Our Classroom feature lets people work in the same session at the same time through an invitation link, directly between their machines, with no login. It's the most accessible place to start.”

It also takes privacy seriously: “No signup, no tracking, no paywalls, no subscriptions, just create,” André says.

An online DAW like OpenDAW also makes sense if you’re often on the move and need to use a variety of different devices and machines. “Moving across platforms and computers,” is André’s response when asked why some would want to produce in a browser. “Your work isn't tied to one machine or one operating system. It runs on whatever's in front of you, a Chromebook, a borrowed laptop, your own machine.”Freedom, in other words.”

Other online DAWs include Audiotool, which supports third-party VST3s and, as of version 3.0, offers an open-source SDK that allows users to build their own instruments, plugins, and AI-connected music creation tools; BandLab Studio; and Smol Sequencer , a modular sequencing environment.

Of course, there’s more to music-making than DAWs. Sometimes you just want to kick back and have a play with a synth, sampler or drum machine without worrying about all the things that come with launching a DAW. In the same way that you might open a standalone instrument app on your desktop, you can navigate to a webpage and play a browser-based one. And, thanks to the Web MIDI protocol, you can even do it via your regular MIDI controller (although many offer QWERTY keyboard note input too).

Quirky musical gadget manufacturer Playtronica https://shop.playtronica.com/ and Chromatone, a web-based source for musical education, have curated a page called Web Synths Collection with more than 60 instruments available to jam on.

Some of the ones worth trying out include Steve Goldberg’s Juno-106, an emulation of the famous analog icon from Roland; a recreation of Yamaha’s DX7 by Matt Montag loaded with sounds like the famous (or should that be infamous?) E. Piano 1; and Matthew Cieplak’s ER-99, a recreation of the TR-909 drum machine with audio synthesized using the WebAudio API.

WebSynths is billed as ‘a free resource for any musician with internet access.’ This is a running theme with online music-making. Although browser-based instruments and tools don’t have to be free, many often are, retaining that foundational web ethos of democratisation and open-source sharing.

WebSynths currently has two instruments to play with. They are WebSynths Grooves, a booming virtual analog drum machine with some serious sound quality, and WebSynths Microtonal, a beautiful VA synthesizer with a focus on Aphex Twin-like tunings. Helpfully, both provide a way to capture audio so you can capture your sonic creations to use as you see fit later.

One of the great things about web-based music is the variety of instruments you can come across, many of them made by enthusiastic programmers who just like to code and see their ideas come to life.

One such instrument is Mezcla, an SP-404-style sampler. Says developer Capelo on Reddit;

“As a longtime beatmaker, I wanted a way to chop samples and test loops when I'm away from my gear. I built Mezcla to be a fast, distraction-free sampler that runs right in the browser.”

Interestingly, plugin developers are starting to use the browser as a way to allow prospective customers to demo instruments before buying. One such case is Jun Murakami’s Synth-80, an emulation of the Roland MKS-80 that runs right on a web page. It’s the entire instrument, complete with MIDI functionality and a QWERTY keyboard-enabled interface.

While browser-based instruments are undoubtedly not as convenient as plugins, you can still use them in your DAW with a few workarounds. Just as you would with a standalone instrument app, you can route system audio into your DAW with a client like BlackHole for Mac or VB-CABLE for PC.

With Web MIDI now very much a thing, it makes sense that hardware synthesizer editors and librarians would start migrating into browsers. You’re working from your computer or tablet anyway; why not put the editor into the internet rather than on the desktop?

Vintage synth owners know that old gear can sometimes be frustrating to work with. Having all of the menus only accessible through a single-line LCD screen can lead to many a hair getting yanked out.

Thankfully, programmers and patch librarians have long existed on computers to bring all of that arcane programming onto a big screen. As long as the instrument has good MIDI implementation, you can do your programming work from your computer. And now, thanks to Web MIDI, that editor can live on the internet too.

Knob.Monster is a new all-purpose editor. A ‘browser-native cloud SysEx librarian and patch manager,’ it connects to vintage synthesizers via a USB-to-MIDI handshake.

Knob.Monster currently supports the Yamaha DX7 and other FM-era instruments, Roland Juno-106 and Jupiter-6, Korg M1, and Casio CZ synths. The site isn’t free but it does promise an alternative to aging software librarians.

There’s a growing number of web-based editors helpfully targeting specific instruments as well. This is particularly helpful for old samplers like the Akai S5000 and Roland S-330, whose operating systems can be cryptic, to say the least.

New instruments are getting some love too, such as Behringer’s Mini series of synthesizers like the Pro VS Mini and JT Mini thanks to this lineup of free browser editors from Digital Sunset Studios. These are also available as desktop apps, but it’s nice to see the browser version as an option as well.

In the same way that browsers make excellent sense for editors, they’re also ideal host locations for tool and utility applications. No need to clutter up your hard drive when apps can live online. Here are three recently utility programs that handle useful but not necessarily bandwidth-heavy aspects of music production, such as sample slicing and wavetable creation.

Sample chopping is one of those aspects of beatmaking that can sometimes be a faff. Finding the right workflow can be tricky.

Chppr is a free online sample slicer designed to make sample loop preparation fast and easy before you take it to the DAW stage. It lets you upload or record audio, chop it, turn slices into playable pads like a hardware sampler, program patterns, arrange sketches, and export wav files from the browser. It works extremely well and is intuitive and fun to use.

Another sample-related browser utility is WavedStudio. If you work with wavetable-based synthesizers like Serum, Vital or Phase Plant, you have probably thought about making your own wavetables.

While there are standalone apps that let you do this, WavedStudio is surprisingly deep. It’s fairly complex so it’s worth looking at the documentation, especially when it comes to working with the 3D Topology functions and FM operators, but getting to grips with the main wavetable drawing parameters isn’t too difficult. WavedStudio outputs at 64 frames x 2048 samples per frame, which is the standard format for most modern wavetable synthesizers like Serum. Although WavedStudio is currently free, the developer is considering optional paid Pro features after the beta period ends.

Of course, if you want wavetables for Ableton Wavetable or some other synth with a different format, you’re going to need a converter.

You’re in luck, as the internet has you covered here too. Batch Wavetable Converter from Kimura Taro does what it says on the tin: it lets you change wavetables from one frame size to another, with control over frame number, sample rate, bit depth, and even sharpness of the output audio.

And yes, it can do more than one at a time (as you might guess from the name). Kimura also has a single-cycle waveform converter called SCW Resynthesizer and his own additive wavetable creator as well. His whole site is well worth a perusal.

Browser-based music creation is having a bit of a moment then, with so many cost-effective, slick ways to develop your music on any desktop or mobile device with internet access. Just make sure you remember to bookmark your project!

Zplane has released Peel Stems 2, an update to its real-time stem separation plugin that promises significant improvements in speed, sound quality and usability over the first version.

Like its predecessor, Peel Stems 2 splits mixed audio into four stems (Drums, Bass, Vocals and Other) directly inside your DAW. Load the plugin on any track and you're given independent level controls for each stem, letting you mute, isolate or rebalance individual elements of a mix in real time, without waiting for offline processing to complete.

The headline improvement in Peel Stems 2 is speed: powered by the latest version of Zplane's proprietary separation technology, the plugin's processing latency has been reduced from 483ms to 245ms at 44.1kHz, a drop of almost 50%. (Intel Macs are still supported, with latency coming in at 385ms.)

Zplane says separation quality and clarity have been improved too, delivering cleaner stems with fewer artifacts, and the isolation slider, which fine-tunes the strength of the separation, now has a broader range and a more noticeable effect on the signal.

Elsewhere, the interface has been redesigned with new stem colours and clearer visual feedback, and the Focus EQ's Focus Frame – a spectral tool that isolates specific frequency ranges and stereo information – now displays cutoff frequencies at both ends of the spectrum.

Unlike cloud-based stem separation tools, Peel Stems 2 processes audio locally, so there's no need to upload files to external servers.

"With Peel Stems 2, we wanted to push real-time stem separation within DAW-native workflows further," Zplane CTO Tim Flohrer said in a statement. "With significantly reduced latency and improved audio quality, Peel Stems 2 represents a major step forward in stem separation technology."

Zplane's Peel Stems 2 is a one-time purchase, with no subscription or login required. Available now for macOS and Windows in VST3/AU/AAX formats, it's priced at €59 and owners of the first version can upgrade for only €19.

Find out more on Zplane's website.

Italian DJ and producer Ciauru has won the Reply AI Music Contest, a competition designed to reward "experimentation across AI, music and live performance".

He took home the prize after performing at Kappa FuturFestival in Torino, alongside four other finalists selected by an international jury. His winning project, titled Raw Botanical Data, used platforms such as Krea.ai, SeeDance, and Higgsfield to turn video footage into "impossible movements, recursive spatial structures and unstable textures".

According to Ciauru, whose real name is Simone Privitera, "Artificial intelligence is not necessarily a danger or an obstacle. In this case, I used it creatively: everything started from the hand of a human being, who guided 90% of the work." (Musically)

1,400 projects were reportedly sent to Reply ahead of the contest, and it ultimately took a creative with genuine pedigree to come out on top: Privitera has previously worked with various high-profile artists including Italian electro house heavyweight Benny Benassi, Dutch DJ Don Diablo and American super producer Steve Aoki.

That being said, Privitera's decision to dive headfirst into the controversial world of AI music would be frowned on by many within the industry.

The Association for Electronic Music's Chief Strategy Officer Jay Ahern recently warned of the dangers of AI being used for "the wholesale ripping of people's creative works" (MusicRadar), while the recent formation of the anti-AI band The Bootleg Velvet Sundown shows the lengths some artists are willing to go to protect live instrumentalists and reject artificial intelligence in music.

"AI was very useful in speeding up a process that would otherwise have taken me much longer," Privitera said. " I hope that more and more emerging artists decide to take part [in this contest], because creating connections with platforms like this through initiatives of this kind is not only possible, but also extremely effective."

Image-Line has launched an update to FL Studio that makes it the first major DAW to implement agentic AI directly into its workflow.

Available now as a free download for all existing users, FL Studio 2026 also features a redesigned version of its Flex instrument, a new transient-splitting multi-effect, cloud-based project backup and more.

After introducing Gopher – an AI-powered chatbot that offered users guidance from the DAW's manual and knowledge base – with FL Studio 2025, Image-Line has transformed Gopher into an agentic assistant that can access and make changes to your project. Ask Gopher to change the level of a track, adjust a plugin parameter or reorganize your mixer channels, for example, and the action will be performed in your DAW.

Image-Line says these new capabilities are designed to help beginners learn the software and speed up workflows for existing users, and is keen to emphasize that Gopher does not train on user data.

Another tool introduced in FL Studio 2025 that's received a significant update this year is Loop Starter, a feature that helps users quickly generate new ideas via FL's Channel Rack. Loop Starter now draws on a substantially expanded sound library via FL Cloud, and offers users a longer list of genres from which to choose from.

Alongside the updates to Gopher and Loop Starter, FL Studio 2026 features a major upgrade to Flex, its most popular stock plugin. Refreshed with a modern, visually engaging aesthetic, a new browser and a revised sound engine under the hood, the preset-based instrument is now more CPU-efficient and arrives with eight free sound packs that are available to all FL Studio users.

FL Studio 2026 also introduces Transmitter, an all-new effects plugin that splits signal into transient and sustain elements for independent processing. These two parts of the signal can be processed within Transmitter, via its onboard saturation, delay and reverb, or routed to the Mixer to be processed on independent tracks using other plugins. Transmitter is available as part of FL Studio's All Plugins Edition.

In addition, FL Studio's 2026 update brings with it a long list of less flashy but highly useful updates, a highlight of which is automatic cloud backup, meaning that saved projects can now be backed up to the cloud for secure storage.

FL Cloud Project Backup is included with every FL Cloud plan: Free tier users get 500MB of storage, Plus get 5GB, and Pro get a massive 1TB. (FL Cloud is Image-Line's subscription-based add-on for FL Studio that offers users samples, plugins, mastering tools and distribution through DistroKid).

Another addition that caught our eye is FL Studio 2026's new Audio Logger. Running in the background, Audio Logger continuously captures the last 60 seconds of the DAW's master output – a bit like Ableton Live's Capture MIDI function, but for audio – meaning that you'll never lose an idea, even if you forget to hit record.

“Every second spent searching, organizing, or recovering work is time taken away from creating,” Image-Line CEO Constantin Koehncke said in a statement.

“With FL Studio 2026, we’ve removed friction throughout the creative process with a wide range of quality-of-life and workflow improvements, while introducing powerful new creative tools designed to inspire new ideas and help more people make more music.”

For a comprehensive overview of what's new in FL Studio 2026, visit Image-Line's website.

For as long as I have been teaching music, people have asked me if there is some way to automatically turn audio recordings into sheet music. Until recently, I told them that it couldn’t be done. But now there are a few AI products on the market that claim to do exactly that.

Klang.io's Transcription Studio promises to turn audio into notated transcriptions, lead sheets and guitar tablature. This would be a valuable tool for music educators, songwriters and composers alike. But does it work? We recently reviewed an AI transcription tool called Songscription, and we were not impressed. It detects pitches well, but it does not do so well with rhythm. Can Transcription Studio do better? Let’s find out.

What is it?

The word “klang” suggests “clang” to English speakers, but it means “musical tone” or “musical note” in German. Klang.io has been in operation as a company for a surprisingly long time; the hype around AI might be recent, but researchers have been working on the underlying machine learning technologies for decades.

Klang.io has been offering computer-assisted transcription tools for specific instruments for several years, but their latest offering is Transcription Studio, a browser-based audio-to-notation platform. (It's also available as a VST3/AU plugin, but for this review, we only tested the browser-based tool.)

In theory, you can drop any piece of music into Transcription Studio and get a notated score. However, these kinds of tools are only as good as their training data, and Transcription Studio's transcriptions work better on some kinds of music than others, as we will see below.

One disclosure before we go any further: I came to this review with a strong anti-AI bias, and I believe that we should approach generative AI with skepticism. Before I started writing, I spoke to the company’s founder, Sebastian Murgul, along with his public relations representative. I came away liking Sebastian and feeling more open-minded toward the product as a result.

Why should you care about my thought process, or my feelings about a tech company founder? In assessing a new technology, it isn’t enough to ask what the tool does now; you also want to think about where it might be headed in the future. There are many reasons for a music educator like me to be concerned about AI. Is this tool going to be an excuse to lay all of us off, even if it doesn’t do our job as well as we do?

Sebastian Murgul shares my concerns. He is a deeply nerdy person who just wants to make a useful product, not to disrupt (or destroy) music education as we know it. He does not actually think AI can replace human music transcription and analysis, and he recognizes that it can’t make sense out of every kind of recording.

Murgul has some specific cases in mind for Transcription Studio: for DAW-based composers of film and game music to be able to communicate their ideas to human performers, for example, and for pop songwriters to be able to generate lead sheets for copyright registration. (In the US, you only have to submit a sound recording of your song, but in Latin America you have to submit a notated lead sheet too.)

Murgul is clear that users will only get good results from Transcription Studio if they already have a good understanding of the music they are trying to transcribe, and if they are able to edit its output themselves.

Performance

When you enter the Klang.io Transcription Studio, you can choose between uploading an audio file, entering a link to YouTube, Instagram or TikTok (but not Bandcamp or SoundCloud), or recording straight into the computer mic. From there, you select a transcription mode from the options below.

• Multi-Instrument Mode: the default setting.
• Single-Instrument Mode: the most accurate and reliable mode, especially if it’s a transparently recorded acoustic instrument like piano.
• Classic Mode: this setting is optimized for classical music.
• Rock Mode: a beta feature. It differs from multi-instrument mode in that it is optimized more specifically for guitar, especially distorted guitar.
• Arrangement Mode: rather than transcribing each individual instrument or voice, this mode produces a lead sheet, just top-line melody and chord symbols. (Based on my tests, this should probably be labeled as a beta product too.)

After choosing a mode, you select the instruments in the recording. You can have Transcription Studio detect them for you, but it performs better if you tell it what to listen for. Finally, on the Additional Options screen, you can specify key, time signature, approximate tempo, note duration quantization, and whether you want triplets or not. Again, you can have the software detect all of this, but the results will be less accurate.

Once you have created your transcription, you can view and listen to it as a notated score or as a vertically scrolling piano roll. You can export your score in various formats, including Music XML and MIDI. Transcription Studio also has Note Editor mode, a rudimentary notation editor, though for any serious overhauls or formatting you will want to work in a separate program like MuseScore, Dorico or Finale.

The most interesting feature of the Note Editor is the Anacrusis (Pickup Bar) setting. Transcription Studio’s makers recognize that the software has trouble identifying downbeats, especially if the recording has any silence at the beginning, so they make it easy to move the location of the first beat of the first bar. Unfortunately, you can only move the downbeat in increments of one beat. (This is an issue, as I discuss later in the review.)

In testing out Transcription Studio, I repeated some of the same tests I performed on Songscription for the sake of comparison, but I mostly selected pieces of music that were better suited to showing Klang.io’s strengths and weaknesses.

I started with Nina Simone’s recording of the blues standard Nobody’s Fault But Mine. It’s a simple piano-plus-vocal recording, and had I recently assigned my aural skills students to transcribe it. Could they have used Transcription Studio to cheat on the assignment?

The answer is: sort of. Transcription Studio detected the notes and rhythms of the piano part very accurately. However, it gave the key signature incorrectly as D major; the song is a blues in A. In fairness, there is no consensus on the correct way to write key signatures for blues, but A or A minor would be the usual choices.

Transcription Studio’s take on Nina Simone’s vocal was less accurate. It simplified her melismas significantly, and it was thrown off by her vocal timbre, because notes that she sang with more inflection appeared in the transcription on the wrong pitches.

For a comparison with Songscription, I tried Crazy by Patsy Cline. Songscription had failed to make head or tail out of the song, presumably because its training data doesn’t account for 1950s recording fidelity or instrumentation.

Transcription Studio did not do much better when I asked it for a lead sheet. It could not distinguish the lead vocal from the backing vocal or instruments, and the triplet feel threw off its rhythmic detection, so it couldn’t find the tempo or downbeat. It did get the chord symbols mostly right, and it detected the lyrics accurately too.

However, Transcription Studio shows lyrics in a strange way. Rather than placing each syllable with its corresponding note, it groups entire phrases together in the middle of their approximate location on the score. I would prefer to have lyrics be on a separate page; it is confusing to see them placed so unconventionally.

I wondered whether Transcription Studio would do better on a multi-instrument transcription of Crazy. This time, I specified the instruments, the key, the time signature and the approximate tempo, and also told it that Patsy Cline is an alto. Klang performed better this way. The bassline was quite accurate. The vocal melody was still mixed up with other parts, but now the meter and rhythm were right. The guitar and piano parts were more hit and miss, and the drum part was completely chaotic; I guess the training data doesn’t include drums played with brushes.

Next, I tested Single Instrument mode with a solo piano recording of Blue Monk by Thelonious Monk. Transcription Studio offered me the choice of pop or classical; jazz was not an option. I chose pop, because that seemed closer. I also entered the key and tempo. The results were good, at least until Monk’s improvised solo started. The software rendered some of his expressive timing strangely, but that is understandable; many human transcribers would struggle to represent those rhythms.

Transcription Studio’s chord symbols were mostly on point, but with some odd omissions. The chord library does not include ninth chords, so Klang wrote Bb9 as Fm7. In Monk’s solo, something about his timing threw off Transcription Studio’s beat detection, so even though his tempo is steady throughout, the transcription was off by one beat from that point. Unfortunately, the anacrusis correction feature only works for the first downbeat. This is something you could easily correct in an external editor, though.

Transcription Studio’s training data includes lots of classical music, so I expected it would have an easy time with Prelude No. 1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by Glenn Gould. I was right: the transcription took one tenth as long as any of the others I had done so far. It was quite accurate, aside from the fact that it was confused by the silence at the beginning of the recording, which it rendered as a one-and-a-half-beat-long rest. The anacrusis correction only works in increments of one beat, so you would need to fix this in an external editor.

I was interested to see that Transcription Studio added chord symbols to the Bach piece, with about 95% accuracy. I sometimes write jazz-style chord symbols on classical scores for harmonic analysis purposes. It is intriguing to consider the idea of having software do it automatically at scale, though I think people should be doing this kind of thing by hand for the sake of their own understanding.

For a further test of Classic Mode, I used Bach’s Contrapunctus I from the Art of Fugue, performed by the Emerson String Quartet. This chart was mostly accurate too, though Transcription Studio missed the first note, along with a few others that were played quietly. Transcription Studio also combined the violin and viola onto the same staff. Once again, it placed chord symbols throughout, which is not a feature that most classical performers would want, but that jazz and pop musicians might find extraordinarily useful.

I wanted to see how Transcription Studio would do with electric piano, which is not one of the instruments on its list. So I gave it What'd I Say by Ray Charles. I gave the software the key and tempo, and told it to listen for vocals, piano and drums. It did pretty well on the electric piano, with good pitch accuracy and timing, and mostly accurate chord symbols.

The timbre of the electric piano did confuse it somewhat, because it heard the top notes as a vocal part. Transcription Studio got the broad outline of Ray Charles’ actual vocal melody, but the rhythms were squared off and the pitch was sometimes a half-step off. As with Crazy, Transcription Studio could not even approximate the drums.

Maybe the noisy vintage recording was throwing the transcription off? I figured that a cleaner, more contemporary recording would work better, so I tried Everybody Laughs by David Byrne. As I expected, the results were more impressive. Transcription Studio misidentified acoustic guitar strums as hi-hats, but the guitar part itself was remarkably good, with clear and accurate tablature along with notation.

The vocal part was uneven, with David Byrne’s idiosyncratic singing clearly throwing the software off. Transcription Studio did pretty well with the string arrangement, showing that the training data includes a lot of orchestral music. The only real problem was that it heard harmonics as separate notes in places, but this is a problem that all pitch detection algorithms share.

For a more mainstream pop recording, I used Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, assuming that this kind of loud, bright and clear pop banger would be easy to transcribe. Transcription Studio wrote this vocal line extremely accurately. However, it had trouble distinguishing the other instruments, presumably because they are layered and processed so heavily.

For a more authentic transcription challenge, I wanted a song that I didn’t already know how to play. I chose Burnin’ Hell by John Lee Hooker. I wasn’t expecting much for the vocal, but I thought Transcription Studio might do well with the guitar, since it is unaccompanied and has clean tone. Sadly, whether it was Hooker’s open tuning or playing style, Transcription Studio couldn’t make head or tail of it. I guess there isn’t much blues guitar in the training data.

How about the Beatles? I tried Blackbird, figuring that it is sufficiently classical-informed in its harmony and playing style. However, I forgot that the song has a lot of meter changes, and Transcription Studio understandably could not follow them. Also, it had trouble distinguishing Paul McCartney’s voice from the guitar. So some measures were perfectly clear and accurate, while others were chaotic.

My final test was one of my own original compositions, a track I made in Ableton Live using only synthesizers and drum machines. I can’t find my Ableton session anywhere, and I can’t remember exactly what notes or chords I used. I’m sure I could figure it out, but I have never had the time to sit down and do it. This is the exact use case that the company has in mind.

Transcription Studio has an option for synthesizers, but there is clearly a limit to the weirdness and inharmonicity that it can cope with, so its transcription of my melody and bassline was not very good. However, it did get the majority of the chords right. The transcription is not usable as a guide for a performer, but it would be quite helpful to me if I were to transcribe the track myself.

Verdict

As with other transcription and audio-to-MIDI tools I have tried, Transcription Studio does very well at detecting pitches, especially on single instruments that are recorded clearly. It also does a good job with vocals in a conventional pop style. It can identify note onsets accurately, and if the rhythms are straightforward, it can organize those rhythms into a meter fairly well.

However, if the rhythms are too far off the grid, or if they're too swung and idiosyncratic, Transcription Studio struggles. The more complex the recording, the less able it is to separate the layers, and older or noisier recordings are a problem too. Also, even when its output is accurate, you may still need to do extensive editing and formatting before you could hand charts out to an ensemble.

The difference between Transcription Studio and its competitors is that its designers recognize the limitations of their tool. They are assuming that you are not a complete novice, but rather that you already have some musical sophistication. The user interface makes clear that the more you can inform the software in advance, the better the results will be, and that you should expect to edit and adjust the output afterwards.

The best way to understand Transcription Studio is not as a tool for generating sheet music. Even if its scores were perfectly accurate, writing sheet music for human performers requires more than identifying the notes. You need to use your judgment to decide how to lay everything out and how much detail the performers will need. (I expect AI transcription to get more accurate, but I do not expect it to develop editorial or graphic design skills.) I think it’s better to think of Transcription Studio as a tool that gives you clues for writing your own sheet music, and in that application, it has significant value.

What is it?

Cubase really needs no introduction. It was the first computer-based sequencer to incorporate a graphical arrange window, and it even embraced hard-disk audio before many others. In recent years, it has settled into a steady pattern of yearly updates, and the latest of these is Cubase 15.

As before, it comes in three flavours, with the Pro version delivering the full feature set. As well as the main DAW software itself, you get a cut-down version of SpectraLayers (SpectraLayers Go) and, as usual, a big selection of sound content, virtual instruments and plugins. Steinberg’s aim is to make it a self-contained system without the recourse to third-party additions (though of course many users will have their own favourite additions).

The headline additions in Cubase 15 are the expanded modulator system, a new melodic mode for the pattern sequencer introduced last year, redesigned expression map functionality, stem separation, two new effects, the Omnivocal vocal synthesis engine (open beta), plus a bunch of workflow improvements and functional tweaks. Whilst it's fair to say that a quick glance at this list doesn't point to any game-changing new features, it does cover quite a bit of territory. Let's take a closer look.

Performance

The modulators introduced in Cubase 14 were one of its big new features, and something that the users who had experience with Ableton Live and Bitwig had been calling for.

The update expands on this with six new modulator types – Random Generator, Sample & Hold, Wavefold LFO, Crossfader, Attack/Decay and Morph LFO. Modulators are a great way to create tempo-synced effects (eg, filter sweeps), but the ability to chain them and incorporate more modulator types extends their use into more creative and experimental areas.

It's worth noting, though, that Cubase works on a per-track basis for the modulators. It would be nice to see a global modulator track that can be freely routed to multiple destinations.

The pattern editor introduced in Cubase 14 was primarily aimed at drum sequencing and at the time quite a few users hoped that a more versatile version that could work easily with melodic/musical patterns might be on the cards. Thankfully, we now have it in the form of the Melodic Pattern Sequencer. It is based on its rhythmic predecessor, but to address the melodic aspects of this type of sequencing, Steinberg has added interesting scale- and shape-generation features. This means that even with a few presses of the randomisation button, the results are likely to fit well within the context of your existing track. The more we played, the more fun we had, and although it's still quite basic, especially in pattern management and copy/paste features, this is a really nice addition.

There's no escaping AI right now, and those two letters seem to be assigned to all kinds of products at the moment. In Cubase 15, it's applied to the new stem separation feature, which can split any audio file into vocals, drums, bass, and other elements (ie, all the rest). It performs this directly from the project window, splitting tracks into separate layers. It's quick, works quite well, and is free; however, you'll find better results with specialised software solutions, including online options, where there is significant competition. In fact, explore a little further and you’ll discover that SpectraLayers Go, bundled with Cubase 15, can separate vocals from music and appears to do a superior job – at least on the tracks we tested.

The same goes for OmniVocal, although this time it is clearly labelled as a beta. It's certainly not going to compete with something like Dreamtonics Synthesiser V or Ace Studio in terms of its expressiveness, realism and flexibility, but once again comes as a free addition. Hopefully, as it develops, it will become a little bit more fluid to use, particularly when adding and editing lyrics. At the moment, it can be a bit of a slog to get the most realistic results.

Regarding new plugins, Ultra Shaper offers transient shaping, limiting, and EQ, making it a useful addition. The Pitch Shifter – as the name suggests – is designed for vocal processing and features formant-preservation and saturation modes. It's not particularly cutting-edge, but it works well, though primarily suited to mixdown rather than live processing due to its significant latency.

These and other stock plugins now support UI scaling (finally!), which is a real boon when using high-res displays. We only wish there were a way to apply a simple 2x scaling to older plugins (including some from Steinberg). This would be a simple, unfussy solution for navigating plugins that shrink to tiny proportions in some setups.

One interesting feature of the newly designed hub is Project Preview, which stores a small snippet of a track for quick listening before loading. This feature only works with newly saved projects that have it enabled (allowing you to customise which small, ie, 5-second segment, is previewed). Despite its simplicity, it is surprisingly useful, especially for those who do not employ a helpful naming scheme or work on multiple tracks at once. It's also worth noting that DAWproject support allows sessions to be shared with other compatible DAWs.

A small but significant arrival in Cubase 15 is the automation’s ‘Last Touched Parameter’ feature, which provides quick drawing/editing access to whichever knob or slider you've last moved for any given track. This is a real time-saver, as is the new ability to add volume or pan directly to the Track Controls Area (though we prefer the accuracy of a vertical fader). This is a nice way to tweak levels, and it will be a real time-saver for some.

Finally, Expression Maps have been redesigned. The setup process is now more streamlined, integration with the Key and Score Editors has improved, and per-articulation attack compensation aims to enhance the realism of orchestral mock-ups. For those with large orchestral sample libraries, especially those with compatible instruments that automatically import key switches, this will be warmly welcomed.

Verdict

This release introduces many features to boost your creativity and streamline your workflow, and it is a strong update overall. However, it might seem a bit underwhelming for some, and there is certainly some sentiment on Steinberg forums that the total on offer here doesn't quite justify the annual upgrade cost. Another perspective is to consider the £83 upgrade fee as roughly equivalent to a £7/month subscription. If it were a subscription, we would say it offers fair value for money.

Nonetheless, there are some areas we would like to see improved in the future. Key Command options could be expanded, and the Remote Editor could become more accessible. Fully featured API access, capable of integrating with AI tools (such as Claude and ChatGPT), would be a fantastic addition – possibly even a game-changer – for delivering long-awaited features. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what AI can do – not as a replacement for the composer or producer, but as a time-saving assistant, and it would be great to see Steinberg take a leading role in this.

Opening, closing and project loading times can be slow on more complex projects or setups with many plugins. It would be beneficial to see some optimisation in this area. We also hope attention is given to the comping functionality in Cubase, as there are ongoing frustrations about moving active comps to other tracks and a few other issues that cause difficulty when working with multiple live audio elements.

One of the challenges with a major DAW such as Cubase is that it must accommodate a wide range of users. For every person who finds the expression map functionality or notation capabilities particularly useful, there will be others demanding clip-based playback or improved AI generative tools. Steinberg has to carefully balance its approach to satisfy everyone. Overall, however, Cubase remains a fantastic piece of software that we are happy to continue using.

Hands-on demos

Cubase

Alternatives

Specifications

Apple has announced the release of Logic Pro 12.3, an update to its flagship DAW that brings improvements to two stock plugins, Sample Alchemy and Beat Breaker, an upgrade of its AI-powered harmonic analysis tool Chord ID and a whole host of extra tweaks and enhancements.

As a longtime Logic Pro user, I’ve always been a fan of Logic’s stock plugins - from simple tools like its Overdrive and Pitch Shifter through to versatile multi-effects and powerful instruments like the Alchemy synth, the DAW has built up an impressive and varied stable of stock processors in its decades-long history.

Some of the most recent additions have become personal favourites, including 2024’s ChromaGlow saturation tool and Beat Breaker, an effect introduced in 2023 that slices and dices audio in real time to create glitchy patterns out of any sound source. It’s the latter plugin that’s received a refresh in Logic’s latest update, and for me, it’s far and away the most exciting upgrade of the lot.

Beat Breaker was already a capable and creatively inspiring effect, offering fine-grained control over how incoming audio is rhythmically chopped, rearranged, reversed and processed, but Logic Pro 12.3 expands its abilities with three new modes that open up even wilder possibilities for sonic manipulation.

The plugin's new Filter mode lets you to apply low- or high-pass filters to each slice of audio, with adjustable filter type, cutoff frequency, slope and curve for each segment, combined with a new Resonance mode that adjusts the cutoff resonance per-slice, allowing for fast-paced rhythmic filter automation.

Joining the new filter options is a Pan mode that gives you control over each slice’s position in the stereo field, along with randomization controls that are now available across all modes with adjustable probability and intensity, making Beat Breaker an even more powerful tool for audio-mangling mayhem.

Beat Breaker aside, Logic Pro 12.3 also upgrades the DAW’s Sample Alchemy plugin, a hybrid of sampler and synth that draws on spectral, additive and granular synthesis techniques to create playable instruments from multiple sound sources.

Sample Alchemy’s Granular engine has received a fresh coat of paint in 12.3, adding a new Sync mode that layers multiple parallel grain streams from different points in the chosen samples, offering control over stream count, position, formant-shifting and randomization. Apple has also shared a new Granular Alchemy Sound Pack that shows off the new Sync mode’s capabilities with a variety of loops, one-shots and field recordings.

Logic Pro’s Chord ID function – an AI-powered analysis tool that can identify chord progressions in both audio and MIDI regions – has also been overhauled. Apple promises that accuracy in detection across both single instruments and full mixes has been improved, and Chord ID can now pick up extended chords and inversions even if they’re played on an "out-of-tune piano or a distorted electric guitar".

That’s not all, either: Logic Pro 12.3 also brings with it a new Producer Project that gives users a behind-the-scenes look into Kehlani and Usher’s 2026 release Shoulda Never, and a laundry list of less dramatic enhancements, including significant updates to Flex, the DAW’s real-time time-stretching and pitch-correction engine. For a comprehensive overview, check out the release notes on Apple’s website.

Fresh from the release of Voxcraft, a versatile plugin designed for creative vocal manipulation, UJAM has unveiled Retrocraft, a multi-effect that's built for adding vintage character to audio through saturation, degradation and colouration.

UJAM says Retrocraft can bring the sought-after tones and textures of vintage audio equipment to any sound. This is achieved through its Hardware panel, which is made up of three sections that can imitate the character of an assortment of amplifiers, players and speakers, from tube amps, cassette players and gramophones to car stereos, boomboxes and dusty vinyl records.

Once your signal passes through the Hardware section it hits the Effects section, Retrocraft which is equipped with six individual effects modules – each can be switched on and off and adjusted independently, but their order in the chain is fixed.

First up we have Lo-Fi, which reduces audio quality through a variety of methods including bitcrushing and ring modulation and offers six different modes.

Following this in the chain is a modulation module that covers chorus, ensemble, flanger and phaser, followed by the Instability module, which mimics the wobble and flutter of tape machines and the artifacts of early digital audio equipment.

You also get Delay and Reverb modules, both armed with six distinct sonic flavours, and a Chop module, which slices, rearranges, repeats and reverses small sections of audio for a glitchy Beat Repeat-style effect.

At the bottom of the interface are an array of global controls that allow you to adjust the dry/wet mix and input/output levels, apply low- and high-pass filters, double-tracking and compression.

"We're big fans of the many character-processing tools available today, but we felt there was room for a more integrated solution that combines these types of effects with important additions like modulation and ambience processing," UJAM co-founder Peter Gorges said in a press statement.

"Instead of tediously building effect chains, Retrocraft lets you start with a complex effect combination you like and easily tweak it to make it your own. The element of surprise and fresh ideas really stands out here."

Priced at an introductory discount of $49 until August, UJAM's Retrocraft is available now for macOS and Windows in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats.

Find out more on UJAM's website.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: There’s no question we’re definitely spoilt for choice when it comes to plugins, and as developers continue to get ever more creative, or unearth ever more esoteric hardware to emulate, sorting the wheat from the chaff becomes harder and harder.

The best way to negate option paralysis (and get the best out of the plugins you already have) is by developing a stock set of favourite or ‘golden’ plugins. That’s just what I’ve done.

Some more complex tasks might require a helping hand from other plugins, but in general terms, these 6 go-tos typically serve me just fine when working on my projects.

So here are my particular 6 choice plugins - along with my reasons for liking them and keeping them close…

1. Waves Doubler

One of the oldest plugins in this list and in my setup, Waves Doubler is a plugin I always come back to.

It’s very easy to use and, to be fair, it is a bit of a one-trick pony. But what an excellent trick that is.

Built along similar lines to the classic Eventide H3000 micro pitch-shifting effect, it comes in two and four voice plugins that provide, rather unsurprisingly 2 or 4 additional voices respectively. I said it was simple.

It’s an additive effect and the interface includes control of the dry signal and additional voices so it’s easy to use as either an insert or auxiliary. Other options include 2-band EQ and modulation. There’s a bunch of great presets with plenty of producer contributions too.

Doubler is great for adding width and richness to sounds, and with fast and deep modulation settings can produce some quite weird outcomes. Nevertheless, my favourite effect is a lot more subtle and uses the 2 voice version with a static micro pitch shift on one side and a slowly modulation pitch shift on the other. This is particularly good for vocals but also works well for adding width and richness to other instruments.

2. Soundtoys Decapitator

Soundtoys Decapitator sounds like a pretty destructive plugin, and at extreme settings it can certainly do plenty of damage. But it’s far more flexible than the name implies, and is an excellent tool for adding a bit of audio interest when everything is sounding a bit sterile.

The engine is built around 5 main saturation circuits. Each models a specific and fundamentally different piece of hardware and is designed to create the complex harmonic behaviour and dynamic response they produce.

These include the valve-based Ampex 350 tape machine preamp (A), the Germanium translator-based Neve 1057 input channel (N) and the Chandler/EMI TG Channel (E).

Rounding things off are two modes from Thermionic Culture’s Culture Vulture, based on triode (T) and pentode (P) topologies. Further options include low and high pass filtering, and overall tilt style EQ and of course input drive.

All told it’s a slightly oddball plugin that delivers a broad palette of sonic goodness. It’s great for adding weight or grit to bass, fatness to drums and beats, and anything from mild to heavy harmonic distortion to pretty much anything.

However, I like to use it subtly across multiple tracks. This is great for adding flavour and provides the perfect antidote to those pristine DAW-based productions.

3. UAD EMT 140

You’ll find plate-style reverbs in many reverb plugins. However, if you’re looking for a plugin that gets properly close to the richness and depth of the original hardware, then a quality hardware emulation is the way to go.

The UAD EMT 140 is in my opinion the best, and much like the original hardware creates a wonderfully spacious effect. Based on the stereo version of the hardware (EMT 140 ST) the plugin actually has 3 different plate emulations.

Two are based on two different valve-based originals, and one on a Martech upgraded unit. In practice this means you get to choose from 3 quite different sounding plate effects. Much like the original you can adjust the reverb time using the damper controls, meanwhile you also get access to the internal shelving and high pass filters relevant to both the original and Martech designs.

In typical plugin style the whole package then gets a load of extra features that go beyond the original hardware. These include 2-band EQ, modulation, width control, left/right balance, and wet/dry mix.

There’s also a built in pre-delay, something which is not part of the original hardware. The EMT 140 is surprisingly flexible, increasing the damper setting achieves great shorter reverbs perfect for punchy back beats, and medium settings can be great for vocals. But if your track has the sonic space, then my favourite application is a longer setting for the classic shimmering and lush plate reverb.

4. Cableguys ShaperBox 3

Often we want a creative effect that does something unexpected or out of the ordinary, and although it’s perfectly possible to piece together individual processors to create a bespoke outcome, an all-in-one plugin often provides options we’ve not considered.

ShaperBox 3 from Cableguys is a perfect example and a fantastic tool that can create everything from subtle movement to complete re-arrangement of the incoming audio.

The modular design includes a palette of effects that ranges from basics such as volume and pan, to phasing/flanging, distortion, pitch shifting, filtering and reverb. There’s even an oscilloscope so you can visualise what you’ve created.

Effect parameters are controlled via onboard drawable LFOs, and these can be triggered by the incoming audio, MIDI or simply run continuously in sync with your DAW. I’m a particular fan of this last option which makes for some pretty amazing outcomes.

Couple this with the Time module, which allows you to stutter, reverse and generally mess with the incoming audio and you have a pretty compelling and creative effect.

5. IK Multimedia AmpliTube 5

There are a lot of guitar amplifier emulation plugins to choose from. Many of these are excellent, and picking a favourite for all applications isn't easy. Nevertheless, the one that I keep coming back to is IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube and there are a number of reasons for this.

First up, it has incredible variety in terms of the types of the hardware it models. This includes the individual amp, cabinet speaker and pedal components that form AmpliTube rigs, and also integrated access to the IK Multimedia’s Tonex system of captured tone models.

Next up, the design is guitarist friendly, arranging the components in rig style configurations that any guitarist will find recognisable. There’s a handy onboard tuner, flexible routing to allow more complex rigs, and good control over cabinet miking and speaker choice, which strongly appeals to my engineering mindset.

In terms of sounds, various bundles are available, but you can also buy expansions and additional rig components, as well as Tonex expansions.

There’s also a massive number of presets and also preset sharing via the online ToneNET ecosystem. Finally, and most importantly, it does sound really good, even when you strip things down to single components.

6. Oeksound Soothe

If you’ve spent any amount of time notching out undesirable frequencies from audio, you’ll appreciate how refreshing it is to find a tool that makes the process easier.

Soothe 3 from Oeksound is by no means the only resonance reducing processor on the market, and it’s worth giving a shout out to both Baby Audio’s Smooth Operator and Kern Audio’s Smooth. Nevertheless, Soothe is my favourite, and its latest v3 iteration is better than ever.

It’s very easy to use, and coupled with the flexibility to address specific frequency regions is highly flexible. It can also be quite aggressive should that be required.

To get started all you need to do is use the EQ style curve to select and focus the target frequencies.

Then simply choose from the Hard or Soft modes and adjust the Depth. The Detail option lets you adjust how precise the behaviour is, and if you want to hear what it’s actually doing, simply select the Delta monitor option.

Although I have used Soothe 3 for aggressive resonance reduction, for me it’s at its best when used moderately to help tighten up a sound.

Arturia’s catalogue of effects has expanded rapidly in recent years and, for our money, the latest generation of its FX Collection bundle offers one of the most well-rounded software packages on the market right now.

While much of the FX Collection is built around software emulations of classic hardware, the company’s latest plugin is something more original.

Rev Ocean is a reverb that, as its name suggests, takes inspiration from the sea, supposedly resulting in a plugin that can turn “a simple reverb tail into a living sonic current” and “transform any sound into a fluid, ever-shifting sonic space.”

That description might sound a little New Age and vague – and the plugin’s UI design looks like it could be lifted from a flyer for your local aromatherapy clinic – but under-the-hood Rev Ocean features an interesting combination of reverb, pitch and modulation tools.

The plugin is built around a feedback delay network design with multiple stages of diffusion. It features three modes, labelled Abyss, Tide and Foam, which each offer a different combination of diffusion behaviour and modulation.

Abyss adds multiple reverse layers in parallel, with subtle pitch modulation used to spread these reverb tails resulting in, according to Arturia, “a harmonically rich evolving tail.”

Tide, meanwhile, introduces independent filtering of the left and right channels of the reverb output, to create ‘wave-like’ stereo swells.

Finally, Foam has a long, slow attack and cloud-like build up designed to destroy transients and create dense, washed-out effects that are said to be perfect for shoegaze-style guitars.

Beyond the modes themselves, Rev Ocean has controls for Decay, Size and Brightness. There’s also a high/low input filter, and controls for width, transient control, ducking and pre-delay.

Rev Ocean is available now priced at €49. Head to the Arturia site for more information and to grab a free demo.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: The very term ‘saturation’ sometimes feels like it has a negative value attached to it. Throughout recording history, technology has sought to deliver the cleanest signal possible, so why for the love of Joe Meek would you want to turn a clean signal into a distorted one?

It turns out, the answer is relatively simple. As human beings living in an organic world, we quite like impurity and a measure of chaos - and that's where sensible use of saturation can bring an awful lot to the musical table, whether it's individual instrumentation, as well as an entire mix.

The term distortion is very closely linked to saturation, but while they are subtly different, one could not have existed without the other.

If we go back around 100 years, the predominant music of the era was jazz, and particularly big bands. Electric guitar amplification was not particularly advanced, and would now be probably described as ‘lo-fi’.

Guitarists would often turn up their equipment as high as they could go (we don’t think ’11’ was a thing back then), in an attempt to compete with the loud acoustics of a large band. This would lead to equipment overdriving or speaker cones failing, with the resulting sound being something close to the guitar distortion that we know today.

With the advance of electronics, distortion pedals began appearing in 1962, and by the 70s, they were both commonplace and an essential part of a guitarist’s rig. This gave guitarists ultimate control over their distorted sound, without the need to destroy an amplifier on a weekly basis!

But why should guitarists have all the fun? With the rise of synthesisers in the 70s and 80s, synthesists and producers realised that they could get some pretty gnarly tones by attaching the same distortion pedals to synthesizers.

Nothing exemplifies this more than the acid house era of dance music, from the late 80s and early 90s.

It was this period where the now-legendary Roland TB-303 was repurposed from a humble bassline machine to the must-have device for the genre. It turns out, whacking up the resonance on the 303 filter produced an amazing sound through a distortion pedal. Club-avoiding guitarists, however, were largely non-plussed.

So what exactly is saturation, and what does it bring to the production table?

By and large, saturation is designed to be more subtle than distortion, often with a penchant for mimicking good old-fashioned analog equipment. You remember our previous point about clean signals? We rest our case!

Saturation excites and distorts certain frequencies and harmonics in the signal, depending on your chosen plugin. What's more, we can trace the saturation story back to the late 90s.

Back then, CDs were the predominant format, and many musicians and producers were reporting that the overall sound of the digital signal chain was a little cold and sterile.

Couple this with the emergence of one of the first rack-mounted units to offer a one-stop mastering solution - the TC Electronics Finalizer - and basic mastering saturation became commonplace.

TC Electronics described this saturation as 'Digital Radiance Generation', or DRG for short.

DRG applied second harmonic distortion to a mix, designed to mimic analog equipment and specifically analog tape, so it's no surprise that it was quite a hit.

However, over-using it could quickly destroy a mix, forcing mix engineers to pay close attention.

Fast forward to the current DAW age, and we are now flush with a plethora of different saturation plugins, with many being very highly regarded and offering bespoke solutions, depending on your production requirements.

One of the big boons of plugins, is that you can use them as many times as you like, and while it is probably a bad idea to sprinkle saturation on every instrument in your mix, there are definitely places where employment can pay dividends.

If you find yourself recording an electric bass part directly via your audio interface, you could choose to use amplifier simulators to colour the signal. This could be regarded as a form of saturation, but you could also go all-in and just apply a saturation plugin to warm up the signal.

One of the most highly regarded in the current market is Decapitator from Soundtoys. Not only is it flexible, but it can go from incredibly subtle to total extreme very quickly.

When applying saturation, it is always really important to listen objectively. The moment you feel the signal is getting too aggressive, it's time to back off, and that may not necessarily be exclusively down to the saturation amount control.

Just about all plugins will be equipped with a Wet/Dry see-saw control, and adjusting this can scale an extremely saturated sound to help it blend in more nicely.

Of course, this principle could also apply to sampled bass sounds, which may be a little too clean for your mix. It's also a concept which could be applied to drums, specifically if you are working with samples within your DAW.

It's a common complaint that many drum samples are just too clean, so it could be very useful to add a little saturated colour to your drum track. The only problem is, the drums themselves often sound great with saturation, but the hi-hat and cymbals can react less favourably…

A sensible solution requires the creation of 2 drum tracks, both with accompanying MIDI parts. You can then mute all of the drums on one channel, muting all of the metallic instruments on the other. This leaves the path clear to saturating the drum elements on their own, with no effect on the cymbals and hats.

Before you get lost in instrument saturation heaven (or hell, if that's your preference) be aware that some instruments do not embrace saturation so readily, particularly instruments with a more acoustic persuasion, such as acoustic pianos, string sections or brass and woodwinds. There's no harm in trying, but don't be surprised if saturation does little to improve the sound.

With a slight sense of history repeating itself, we have to revert to TC’s DRG concept, and discuss how beneficial subtle saturation can be to an entire mix.

Mastering suites, such as iZotope’s Ozone, offer a number of saturation solutions, designed to be used during the mastering phase. These include tools to excite upper frequencies, and elements for inducing the sound of vintage tape.

But if you want a little more control, one company that personifies the application of saturation to mimic analog is Universal Audio. It has produced an array of exemplary plugins which are perfect for subtle saturation across your mix.

If you are nervous about over-applying saturation, take a look at the Verve Analog Machines plugin, which is available in two forms; the first is an entry-level Essentials version, offering four saturation models, while the upper-level version provides 10 models.

The idea is simple - apply across your mix, and adjust the tone and amount controls to suit your production. The included models range drastically from subtle, through to downright dirty, so it's important to be objective.

For even more control, UA’s emulation of the Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder is stunning. This plugin can induce everything from saturation through to hiss and even wow and flutter. It just depends how extreme you want to go!

One final thought. We've mentioned on several occasions that you need to be objective about your saturation exploits, and be careful not to overuse. You can easily destroy a mix by being a little overzealous.

If you find yourself regularly creating or delivering stems of your mix, be aware that many saturation plugins induce noise.

If you deliver half a dozen stems and they all have noise on them, when all the stems are played back together, that's going to be quite a racket. It’s probably best to defeat the noise element as much as you can, in this setting, so that your music doesn't get drowned out by hiss.

We spent many years trying to get rid of tape hiss and noise, so you don't want to end up back where we all started.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: Back in the early 80s, many of the mainstream companies that had ploughed their energies into analog drum machines were starting to feel the pinch of digital technology.

As we look back on that period, we can now appreciate the charm and character of those analog beat boxes - and the fact that they just don't sound like real drums has actually become a key part of their enduring appeal.

Emulating real drums with hardware doesn't seem to matter much anymore, because we now have solutions that can present the realism of live kits via software.

But back in the 80s, technology companies were still looking for ways to try and compact real kit sounds into one affordable box. Perhaps the newfangled world of digital technology held the answer…

This wave of digital drum machines incorporated (quite lo-fi) sampled sounds, and intended to bring a new dimension of similarity with real kits. It didn’t quite work out as they planned, but it did usher in what many now regard as a golden new era of quirky and distinctive electronic drum machines.

Here's a few key examples of these digital drum machine legends, and where you can find top-tier emulations in plugin form today…

1. Linn LM-1

Roger Linn released the iconic LM-1 Drum Computer in 1980, and the resulting effect that this machine had on popular music culture was like a tsunami that swept across all forms of production.

It was the first in a line of machines that became generically known as the LinnDrum (a name that was popularised by a successive model), and caused a seismic upheaval, in both the production of music and with how drum machines themselves were used.

Based around 12 drum voices, the crunchy 8-bit samples became legendary across all genres.

The solid kick drum, the phat snare, and hi-hats and cymbals that, actually, did sort of sound like the real McCoy, made the LM-1 a sought-after bit of kit.

There were stories of artists removing analog drum sounds from their records, to be immediately replaced by these new digital sounds.

That’s what happened while The Human League were recording their breakthrough album Dare. They even secured the accolade of the first UK No.1 chart single to use a drum machine, with their hit Don't You Want Me

But the Human League weren't alone, with notable adopters spanning the likes of Gary Numan and ABC, through to Prince and Michael Jackson.

Thanks to artists like Daft Punk and The Weeknd popularising its distinctive signature across the last few decades, the 80s Linn sound is still very much in demand.

In trying to secure samples or Linn-shaped plugins, it's important to gravitate towards sounds which adopt the low sampling rate used on the original machine.

One of the longest standing options for a Linn plugin, comes from Aly James Lab. An authentically-designed recreation, VPROM is now at version 3 (€56). It also brings some very useful additions, such as the ability to compile your own sample sets.

Another option is GForce’s applauded IconDrum (£69), which offers an exceptionally authentic Linn look and feel, although it will only operate from within a DAW, as it does not employ an onboard sequencer.

What it lacks in sequential duties, it more than makes up for in sonic detail, including sounds from further Linn Drum revisions.

2. Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer

Our next contender for the digital crown is a digital drum machine in sheep's clothing, because it's not entirely digital!

When Roland started to develop the replacement for the TR-808, the engineers realised that they needed to do something to improve the realism of many of the sounds. The answer was to digitally capture (i.e sample) the cymbal and hi-hat sounds, while keeping the rest of the drum machine in the analog domain.

The problem was, by the time it was released in 1983, the bewilderingly authentic Linn was everywhere, and the humble 909 was just not cutting the mustard for people in production circles. It was regrettably another commercial flop, heading straight to the bargain bins and secondhand ads.

Enter the jilted (house) generation, who hoovered up these second-hand units, and by the early 90s, the sound of the 909 was everywhere!

You could not move for acid house tunes that relentlessly employed the iconic hi-hat sound in the classic closed/open pattern.

Used prices for hardware 909 units have calmed these days, with the 808 occupying the priciest used-unit top-spot position.

The first and most obvious place to look for a 909 plugin is Roland. The company reproduced the 909 in hardware form, as part of its Boutique range with the software following not far behind in plugin form.

By its own admission, tinkering has been done with the original make-up of the machine to make it more usable, yet sonically as people remember.

Even so, for a mere £133 ($153), you can have modelled sounds from the originators, complete with a host of additional production elements.

You can also locate samples from many suppliers, including the ubiquitous Samples from Mars and Splice.

We've also got a few free processed samples as part of this exquisite collection we compiled not so long ago. Click the button below to find out more

3. Oberheim DMX

The extraordinary success of the Linn LM-1 set an incredible benchmark, which many other companies were keen to capitalise upon.

Where Roland shifted to sampling its cymbals, Oberheim took a similar approach to Linn, producing the DMX later in 1980, making it the second fully programmable drum machine to employ samples.

The Oberheim DMX differed in a number of ways; firstly, it featured 24 individual drum sounds which were derived from 11 different samples.

These could be deployed up to a maximum of 8-voices at one time, polyphonically speaking. It also offered tuning for each drum voice and provided humanising features such as rolls and flams, along with variation of timing, which was designed to make it sound more like a real player.

Much like the LM-1, the DMX had its fans, particularly hip hop artists such as Run DMC, but perhaps its most famous usage is represented by its soloistic placement in New Order's Blue Monday.

The thundering kick was particularly popular, so much so, the kick drum alone was used as part of the drum track for Every Breath You Take by the Police. Nothing else - just the kick!

The most notable software reproduction in our view comes from GForce Software, which has painstakingly reproduced the DMX in plugin form, with the full endorsement of Oberheim Electronics.

Not only does it include all the classic sounds, but it embraces the updated sounds, which were introduced in 1983. As the original hardware adopted a system of swappable EPROMS, for altering sound sets on the original machine, GForce has also included many of these iconic variations, such as the Sequential Drumtraks.

It's a very complete solution, but one that requires a DAW due to the lack of internal sequencer.

4. Honorary mentions

We cannot delve into the world of digital drum machines emanating from vintage culture, and not mention one of the most groundbreaking and indispensable machines from the era.

In 1988, the Akai MPC60 offered the iconic sound of 12-bit sampling for both individual drum hits and loops, making it an entirely flexible device for any user to record their own samples.

Developed in collaboration with Roger Linn, the MPC was way ahead of its time, but was embraced wholeheartedly by many producers, particularly those working in styles of music that were dependent upon breakbeats.

It set the precedent for many of the similar technologies which we take for granted today that operate in a very similar way, by controlling software on computer via hardware.

Even though the current music tech market is brimming with drum and sample software, it's extraordinary how popular these original sounds remain.

Whether it be the heavy transient clicks of the kick, or the fatness of the snare, coupled with the bright and cutting hi-hat, these retro drum sounds are firmly still in vogue and sound just as fantastic as they did 40 years ago - but with all the advantages and cost-effectiveness of software.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: Whispers, rumours, leaks. Like the crescendo of a filter sweep, the return of Absynth – the iconic software instrument that helped define the sound of early 00’s electronic music – reached fever pitch in the lead-up to its unexpected rebirth at the end of 2025. Behind the scenes at Native Instruments, the energy was no less frenetic.

“Maximum crunch, constant panic” is how Brian Clevinger, Absynth’s creator and founder of Rhizomatic described the final pre-release push.

Speaking to MusicRadar mere days before the launch of Absynth 6 - and prior of course, to the recent news that Native Instruments would be acquired by InMusic - Clevinger seemed keenly aware of the high expectations he and the development team were expected to meet.

You see, Absynth isn’t just any soft synth. Its sea-green colour scheme and idiosyncratic architecture is something that a generation of sound designers and synthesists have grown up with.

This relaunch wasn't just a new version: it’s a full-blown resurrection.

Arriving two years after the product was discontinued by Native Instruments, and 16 long, long years since the release of Absynth 5.

Now sporting MPE capabilities, newly designed filters, a slickly upgraded UI, a trippy new spatial method of navigating presets, and all the sonic firepower long-time fans could ask for, this 2025 iteration of Absynth was, thankfully, worth the wait.

Back in the year 2000, when Clevinger released version 1 as ‘shareware’ (what we might now describe as a freebie) he had no idea how large the impact would be.

“I didn't think anybody would be into it,” he admits. “But I was just inundated with responses. People were really excited about it, it was kind of an instant hit.”

Looking back, it’s easy to see why. VSTs were still toddlers, having only been invented four years previously. The very premise that you could work with computer-generated sound, rather than triggered audio samples, was still fresh, and the available instruments were mostly rudimentary emulations of pianos and Minimoogs.

“The whole concept of a software synth hadn't sunk in yet,” Clevinger says of that time. “The idea that you play a note on your keyboard and the sound comes out of your computer was a weird idea for most people.”

In that context, Absynth, much like the potent beverage from which it takes its name, was a mind-melting experience. Its three-channel lanes and swappable modules could combine multiple types of synthesis and audio processing simultaneously.

Equipped with a waveform editor, it allowed users to draw custom shapes before applying additional algorithmic transformations, including the now-iconic ‘Fractalize’ function which added new harmonics by recursively pushing a waveform back into itself.

Its approach to modulation, which put user-defined, multi-stage envelopes front and centre, was, and still is, a remarkable contrast to the dominant paradigm of LFOs.

Perhaps most importantly of all, it took all of those powerful sound–shaping tools and made them comparatively easy to experiment and play with. It’s little wonder that Absynth was snapped up by Native Instruments a year later, becoming one of the company’s flagship products from 2001 all the way up to 2023.

All that innovation is made even more impressive by the fact that Clevinger’s skills as a software developer were entirely self-taught. Rather than a formal study of computer science, his pathway to Absynth was guided by a life-long fascination with the inner workings of audio.

“I was just always really interested in sound,” he recalls. “With certain sounds, it was kind of an emotional thing. When I was a little kid there was this big drain pipe with three smaller pipes at the back, we'd go in there, clap our hands, and it would make this just incredible comb-filter kind of sound. I wish I could hear it today.”

That ear for the unusual eventually led Clevinger to study music composition at university, where he first got his hands on classic hardware like the ARP 2500.

“This was in the early ‘80s,” he recalls. “It was just before MIDI and I was still working on analogue systems, but, at the same time, I was hearing examples of the computer-generated music that was happening at IRCAM. They were doing stuff I really wanted to do myself, but it was just completely inaccessible.”

Early musical programming environments like Max/MSP and Supercollider offered Clevinger the experimental sonics he was interested in, but lacked the intuitive accessibility of a musical instrument.

That tension stayed with him and, as computer power increased and real-time digital synthesis became possible in the mid-90’s, he began teaching himself DSP programming with aspirations to bridge the divide.

“The soft synths that were available were pretty limited,” he says. “It was either really simplistic things that didn't sound great or super complex modular environments. So I thought Absynth could be a sweet spot in-between.”

While he knew where he was aiming, Clevinger makes clear that Absynth was definitely not the result of some master plan.

What began as 'crappy little oscillators and really crappy little low-pass filters' were steadily refined and linked together, eventually coalescing into the foundations of Absynth’s first version.

“It just came out of whatever experiments I was doing at the time,” Clevinger says simply. “I mean the whole setup with three channels happened pretty early and I was originally thinking of it as a temporary solution till I figured out how to make it more modular, but after working with it I really liked it. Things just evolved until they got to the point where it felt right.”

Absynth broke new ground upon its release, and continued to do so over the following years: V2 introduced sample playback and granular synthesis; Absynth 3 added surround sound output, even though, as Clevinger laughingly admits, almost no one had multi-channel setups at the time; the fourth iteration brought vastly improved preset browsing and assignable macros, and the fifth instalment introduced Mutation.

It’s worth pausing to appreciate the genius of Absynth’s Mutation feature. Using tags for instrument type, articulation, genre, and more, users could define a narrow list of presets before hitting the Mutate button. This would then pull random parameters from those presets and combine them with whatever sound you were currently working on.

Not only that, but you could define how much randomisation should occur, how far from the original sound you wanted to deviate, and even lock down specific modules to exclude them from the mutation process.

A dedicated Mutation History window would save each new variation, allowing you to build up a library of related sounds at lightning-fast speed. It’s a feature that is still impressive all these years later, but at the time of its release in 2009, it was inspired.

“People kept asking for a randomiser,” Clevinger says of Mutation’s origin. “But if you just start randomising the parameters it gets very complicated because each preset can have a completely different set of modules. I wanted to do it in a meaningful way, where the musician could guide that random process somehow.

“I was looking at the preset list,” he continues. “And thinking about how you can select just bass sounds, and it'll only show you bass. I thought if you could pick one of those related presets, grab little bits from it, insert it into the preset you're working on, and then add some randomisation, that would be the key. I wanted it to be like going on a journey, instead of just jumping around between random sounds.”

Version 5 was a triumph, but it was also the point at which Absynth began to languish. Development slowed, and after growing increasingly long in the tooth the instrument was eventually discontinued in 2023, much to the dismay of longtime users.

For just about any other soft synth, that would have been the end of the story. But the remarkable longevity of this instrument, its sheer uniqueness and its undeniable musical prowess ensured that, even once it was gone, it was not forgotten.

“I had no idea that so many people were still using it, to tell you the truth,” admits Clevinger when asked about the community response to news of Absynth’s demise. “But I just got tons, and tons, and tons of messages from people begging me to bring it back somehow.”

Those pleas have now been answered. Working closely with the Native Instruments' team, a process that Clevinger unreservedly describes as 'fantastic', Absynth is back for a sixth outing and is looking better than ever.

“We have really been focusing on the user interface,” emphasises Clevinger. “Because nobody's ever been happy with Absynth's UI. It’s a super complex thing to get right, and involves endless discussions to try and work out the problems, but I'm really thrilled with what we've got now; it's so much better than what we had before and the design team's been great.”

For Clevinger, the top priorities during the development process were ensuring backward compatibility with legacy presets (presets from versions 4 and 5 are compatible with Absynth 6) and that the original audio engine was retained - a section of code that Clevinger says he touches 'as little as possible.'

But it wasn't all about preservation: significant improvements were made to Absynth's granular synthesis chops.

“All of that stuff is much denser than it was previously,” Clevinger told us. “We added a high density mode, and the Aetherizer and the Cloud filters sound much closer to what I originally wanted.”

One of the most striking new UI elements is the Preset Explorer that greets you when you first load up Absynth 6. A dizzying array of presets, dating back over two decades, are rendered as a multi-coloured point-cloud that you can click through and navigate as you might a geographical map.

Native Instruments tasked a number of artists with designing custom presets for Absynth 6, including none other than synthesis pioneer Brian Eno himself.

Working with Eno was something of a full-circle moment for Clevinger, who was inspired by Eno’s looping techniques when designing the envelopes for the original Absynth plugin.

That’s not all. Using deep learning techniques, Native Instruments’ Applied AI team trained a model on Absynth’s entire back catalogue of presets, allowing them to be spatially grouped by sonic characteristics. The goal is to help users break past the preset-paralysis that so often arises when scrolling through endless walls of text.

“I don't think there's anything musical about a list of presets,” says Andy Sarroff, head of Applied AI at Native Instruments, and himself a former mix and mastering engineer. “There’s something inherently uninspiring about staring down thousands of names and tags when you're trying to create. So, how do we solve that problem? There's never gonna be any perfect solution, but being able to visualise and explore this huge universe of sounds in a spatial way will hopefully either help you find what you want quickly, or be inspired by adjacent sounds.”

Of course, Absynth still has a more traditional preset browser system that you can switch to if you prefer, and Sarroff makes clear that accommodating different working styles is a top priority. “It's always a balancing act for us,” he points out. “We’re trying to figure out how to do this in a way that helps people feel like they're having fun, and not that they're being talked down to in any kind of way.”

Alongside all of that there was alos the inclusion of MPE and polyphonic aftertouch, enabling those performers who want to feel the maximum amount of nuance and expression from the instrument the ability to go deeper.

However, for Clevinger, it wasn’t this that caught his finely-tuned ear; his favourite new addition was the humble ladder notch filter.

“I really like the new ladder notch filter,” he says, confiding that he unconsciously drew some inspiration from one the first synths he ever used, the ARP 2500, during its design.

“My favourite thing on the ARP 2500 was this multi-mode filter that had a notch mode - and I certainly did not try to emulate it or anything, but that was the sound I had in my head. The notch filter mode, that's my favourite.”

It’s an attitude that seems emblematic of Absynth’s quarter-century run: bedrock features and idiosyncratic innovation, a workhorse and a dream machine, the essentials and the esoteric, all blended together to serve up a truly intoxicating sonic concoction.

As fans look ahead to the next 25 years, they can feel assured that Absynth has lost none of its potency, or its relevance, least of all to Clevinger himself.

“It's been a real emotional thing bringing this back,” he reflects. “This is the best project I've ever worked on.”

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: If there’s one artist that truly captures the current state of DIY music production, then it’s Fred Gibson aka Fred Again. His inherent musicality, combined with deep computer-based production wizardry have seen him enrapture millions.

As the years have passed, Fred has also developed his own more introspective style, an evolution that can be traced across his recorded output.

“I try and make a few ideas a day, and most of them are rubbish…” Fred told Instagram’s Ask It Anyway. “The thing is for me, the joy and the journey of finding out what you like, just like closing your eyes and throwing paint and seeing what sticks,” he said.

“I would definitely preach all day about, the more you can fall in love with the obsession of it and the craft and just chasing chasing, to me that’s the win. The best feeling to me is when you play back the thing you’ve made that day and you actually feel good about it. That’s the drug I’m chasing every day.”

Here we’re going to look at three key aspects common in his productions - reverbs, vocals and found sounds - and show you how to go about achieving similar results with the help of typical plugins.

Technique 1: Creative reverbs

Step 1. Fred’s use of reverbs and delays is key to many of his productions. Check out the track Delilah (Pull Me Out of This) above to hear a multitude of examples across its runtime.

We often use reverbs to create a homogenised effect, but Fred tends to be a bit more focused, often using big long reverbs to add interest on specific sections or parts, or alternatively to create a washy pad-like effect. Let’s take a look at how to set that up.

Step 2. When using reverbs in this precise, additive way, it’s often easier to set up the reverb on an auxiliary send. This allows us to use the reverb on multiple sources, and also provides a bit more flexibility if you want to add specific processing to just the effect return. Here we’ve selected a rich algorithmic reverb, and set a long decay time of 10 secs.

Step 3. We want our reverb to have plenty of density and minimal early reflections - here we’ve set the balance to 100% late reflections. You might also want to add some modulation, which creates some pitch interest. Meanwhile to tame the lower frequencies, which can often get too overbearing, use the reverb EQ or simply add a regular EQ after the reverb plugin and adjust this to taste. Here we’ve used a low shelf which is cutting from about 500Hz downwards.

Step 4. Next, rather than just set a static send level to the reverb, use your DAW automation to pick out specific sections. On a vocal this might be specific phrases. Try words at the ends of phrases, as the reverb can then fill the space. Alternatively, try automating dynamic levels to create a reverb swell - we’ve used both techniques here.

Overall, use the send levels to create specific reverb spot effects

Step 5. Finally, side chain compression is a key aspect of Fred’s sound. Rather than rely on side chaining the source sound, we can actually apply this independently to the reverb return and then automate the depth as needed. As an alternative to a compressor you could use a volume modulation plugin. Here we’re using a tremolo plugin, removing any stereo panning, then offsetting the timing to create a pumping effect.

Technique 2: Hooky vocal phrases

Step 1. One of the most recognisable aspects of Fred’s production style is his creative approach to vocals. Whether these are sung, spoken, or sampled from speech, which they often are, phrases are often deconstructed, processed and rearranged in a piecemeal way to create hooky, repetitive phrases. Check out the track Marnie (Wish I Had U) above to hear a key example of what we’re referring to here.

Step 2. Firstly, find sections that will work in this way. Look for rhythm or timing in the source audio that will work with the feel of the track. If the words can impart some kind of universal meaning then even better. Stick to shorter sections, no more than one or two bars. Once you have a usable section move it to a new track.

Step 3. Next, look for words or phrases within the part that can be repeated. Focus on the rhythmic or melodic hook and how you can enhance this through repetition. This could be the first or last word in a phrase - it’s the latter we’ve used here.

Step 4. If you need some help with this, there are plenty of plugin options you can try. Here we’re using the Logic Pro effect Beat Breaker, which is re-arranging one bar of audio in a creative way. Other options include Cableguys TimeShaper 3 and Stutterizer from Repiet & Revealed. These types of plugins are great at creating multiple outcomes, and you can then pick out something that works in your track.

Step 5. Finally, try messing with the pitch and formant of the sound. You should be able to adjust this in most DAWs, and changing formants in particular can be a great way to make a vocal part sound younger or older without changing the actual pitch. Here we’ve used Flex Pitch in Logic Pro to shift the formants up on one specific section.

Technique 3: Found sound manipulation

Step 1. Finally, we couldn’t talk about Fred Again’s productions without a quick mention of found sounds. His approach is to sample real life sounds and then manipulate them using processing to create something new.

This may be a field recording or something as simple as desktop finger drumming (check out Fred’s Tiny Desk Concert). This approach can add an interesting layer sonically and helps create something that’s truly unique amongst the many quite similar stock sounds. Here we’ve tried to add to our beats using some recorded table taps, and to make things a bit more lo-fi we’ve recorded this using the mic on our smartphone.

Step 2. The plan was to simply record a few hits and then use the one we liked and copy it round to create a repeated kick style sound. However, while recording we accidentally added an additional quieter tap and this added some feel which sounded really good.

Step 3. To finish up the process we’ve used two adjacent beats, leaving them in the bar position where they were performed. Then we tightened up the timing a bit, and then copied round one of them to complete the bar. This section is now ready for further processing with your plugins of choice.

Sounds suitably Fred-esque, but with a little bit of our own quirks thrown in for good measure. Hopefully exploring Fred's emotion-first attitude will unlock some new ideas for your own productions.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: Classic drum machines, beatboxes, rhythm composers - whatever you choose to call an analogue box-o-tricks - they still make a fantastic percussive sound that continues to infiltrate many areas of contemporary production.

We are talking about drum machines that were produced in the period around the mid-70s to early 80s, with sounds that used analogue circuitry to try to bottle the feel of real drums… and therein lies their initial downfall!

Unfortunately for the analogue drum machine, most of them did not sound very much like a real drum kit - which is what most people were striving for at the time.

Roland produced the original ‘Dr Rhythm’ DR-55, under its Boss branding, specifically to try and encourage guitarists to take them down the pub on a Saturday night, rather than using a live drummer.

Great for a lone singer-songwriter - less so if you’re a Motorhead tribute act!

Just about all analogue drum machines were a commercial flop. Apart from a few select placements in notable songs, their initial history was consigned to the bargain bins in most music stores, only to be purchased at a knockdown price by the cash-strapped next generation, looking for bedroom studio-based beats.

The resulting electronic music of the late ‘80s and ‘90s saw these instruments re-appraised in this new context. Finally, they were given their due respect.

Here then, we're going to shine a light on three of the very best analogue drum machines from music history, highlighting where you've heard them before, and where to find the best examples in software.

1. Roland TR-808

We have to start our list with the daddy of all drum machines, and the mainstay of dance music. The 808.

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, to give it its full name, was first released in 1980. All analogue in design, it offered the user 16 buttons across the front, which for the most part would equate to 16th notes, making up an entire bar.

This was one of the first instances of Roland’s distinctive drum programming layout which became known as XOX-style,. The patterns could be assembled into song formation, with storage for up to 32 patterns.

With an initial price tag of £765, the 808 ceased production in 1983 - but not before a few choice placements had sealed its status for future years.

Marvin Gaye used the 808 to provide the complete drum track for Sexual Healing. In fact, recording engineer Mike Butcher cites it as the first time the 808 had been used for its own qualities; “As far as I know, he was the first person to program a TR-808 as its own instrument instead of trying to imitate a drum kit,” Butcher told Electronic Sound. “He would do things like put the side-stick on a beat, which a drummer wouldn’t do.”

Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody put the iconic 808 cowbell sound firmly on the menu, thanks to its extensive use throughout the song (particularly the introduction).

However, where the 808 found its forever home was in the realms of hip-hop and R&B.

Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force religiously used the 808 in their early releases, this association with hip-hop became key to the 808’s longevity.

It didn't take long for other artists to realise how the sinusoidal kick-sound of the 808 could literally shake a room. Its attraction widened further, becoming a mainstay central component of techno and other electronic genres.

The price of a used hardware 808 extends to several thousands, and that's for a machine which might not have MIDI as a retrofit, so software could be a highly attractive (and far cheaper) alternative, without the hassle of vintage maintenance to boot.

Roland has rejuvenated the 808, in a plugin form, which is available for £133/$149 from Plugin Boutique, or as part of a Roland Cloud subscription.

There are also some great sampled versions of the 808 available, such as the UVI Prime8+, which operates within UVI's own Workstation plugin, for just €39.

For a more universal option, try the extensive set of processed samples from Sample from Mars, available in numerous sample and production formats.

And, because we're quite kind here at MusicRadar, we have our very own 808 and 909 samples for you to download and use for free, just click the buttons below to find out more about (and grab) each of our SampleRadar 808 packages.

2. Roland CR-78

The CR-78 sonically resides not far away from the 808, being the machine that preceded it.

It has the honour of being the first mass produced programmable drum machine, although any programming required the additional WS-1 Programmer, which was rare and expensive even from new. Consequently, most users tended to just make do with the onboard preset patterns.

Being a newfangled gadget of the times, it was notably used by a number of artists. Soft Cell used the Foxtrot pattern to provide the backing for their cover of Tainted Love, while the Disco 2 preset was used by Phil Collins on the iconic In the Air Tonight - prior to the big live kit entry of course.

The CR-78 allowed subtle variation of patterns, thanks to the ability to mute certain sounds on playback, which created a degree of flexible usability for artists.

One enormous plus point for owning a CR-78 in plugin form, is that you will likely get the best of both worlds; the original presets, and the ability to program your own rhythm tracks.

Once again Roland has produced a faithful recreation of the CR-78 in plugin form.

Cherry Audio has also produced a very accurate version of the CR-78, complete with beautiful graphics, XOX-style user pattern programming and a superb standalone application, which will run on your desktop Mac or PC, for just £39/$49.

3. Korg Rhythm KR-55

The Korg KR-55A (and its updated model - 55B), has become another much loved classic since its first release in 1979.

Regular users of this analog machine included Depeche Mode, but its most famous deployment has to be Joe Jackson’s Steppin’ Out, where the the basic, but driving, analog beats provided the backbone for the entire song, although the snare was doubled by a real snare, played by a drummer.

Even so, it was laden with plenty of preset patterns, and some really classy sounds that feel very rounded by comparison to some of its competitors.

Once again, the clever folks at Cherry Audio have undertaken the task of bringing us the very best that the KR-55 had to offer.

The KR-55C, includes production-ready content from both the 55A and B revisions, along with a heavy dose of additional control elements, and a XOX-style programmer.

You can trigger sounds from your DAW or build patterns using the standalone version, but either way, it's incredibly good, and all for just $49!

There are a handful of smaller sample producers who have captured the original KR-55, such as WaveShaper, available through Loot Audio.

4. Honorary mentions

The mid-70s to mid-80s was undoubtedly a fertile time for drum machine development, with plenty of analog models available - many of which are quite rare and unique.

There are a few that we have to give honorary mentions to for their services to electronic music and pop culture in general.

The Korg Mini-Pops series of machines were unique in sound and style, which was not lost on electronic pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.

The Mini-Pops 7 provided the main rhythmic backbone for his first two albums Oxygene and Equinox.

The Mini-Pops 7 had a unique party trick, where you could combine and playback two rhythmic presets simultaneously. This combination of rhythms was a technique employed continually by Jarre in the making of the two albums. You can read more about Jarre's extraordinary process in this lengthy feature.

The Boss Dr Rhythm 55 (DR-55) was a very basic programmable drum machine. Running on AA batteries, it was the drum machine of choice for Depeche Mode, who effectively used the machine as their drummer for their early live gigs.

According to Vince Clarke, it was Dave Gahan’s job to pick the right preset and set the tempo, before pressing the start button. Simple times, with simple devices!

Finally, we have to mention the Roland TR-606. Another one of those machines aimed at guitarists who needed a drummer, but with the advantage that you could link it directly to a TB-303 should you also need a synthesised bass player too.

It didn't catch on, but the 606 has become known as a classic unit in its own right, despite having been unfairly labelled the poor man’s 808. It’s comparatively limited, but still sounds fantastic!

The good news is, all of these machines have been remodelled in either hardware or software, and you will find plenty of sample libraries, should you want to explore their unique pallets more fully, and what's not to enjoy about that?

The distinctive sounds of these analogue legends is today, more accessible than ever before. And really, no self-respecting producer should be without them.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: In 2023, plugin developer Minimal Audio got into hot water when it announced that its new synthesizer, Current, would only be available through a subscription. The backlash was immediate and ferocious. Minimal Audio reversed its decision, making the instrument available for outright purchase or via a rent-to-own scheme instead, a decision that was greeted with nearly unanimous praise.

Software subscriptions remain frustratingly common in the music industry. While they can offer easy access to instruments and effects, they can also come bundled with all sorts of additional problems, not least of which is that you never actually own the product you’re paying for.

Rent-to-own, on the other hand, is seen as the more logical alternative. You’re still getting the benefit of access without having to pay the entire amount upfront, but you also get to keep the plugin at the end of the rental period.

However, it’s not always so cut and dry. The saying ‘too good to be true’ exists for a reason, and even though rent-to-own (hereafter RTO) is generally better than a subscription, it is still not without its own pitfalls.

Before we go any further, it could be helpful to define the model.

Rather than pay for a plugin entirely upfront to receive a perpetual license, you lease it from the developer or a third-party reseller and pay it off in monthly instalments. Once you have completed the payments, the leaser then transfers the license to you and you fully own it as you would if you had bought it in one lump sum.

One of the first high-profile RTO agreements was between sample-provider Splice and Xfer Records, the developer of the uber-popular soft synth, Serum. Splice continues to offer RTO options for products, passing your payments on to the developer rather than acting like a bank and buying the license on your behalf.

Third-party retailer Plugin Boutique is also in the RTO business, as are more and developers, such as Ableton, who recently made not only new purchases of Live 12 available in this way but also now upgrades as well.

While RTO is certainly convenient, especially when buying expensive items like DAWs that may be impossible to afford outright, they are not without their dangers, as we shall see…

Here are seven points to keep in mind before entering into an RTO agreement. You might be surprised by some of these.

1. Say goodbye to sale discounts

When you buy a plugin via RTO, it’s true that you generally don’t pay more than the standard list price. You pay in monthly instalments at a rate that is the total price divided by the number of months.

While this is convenient, and may seem like a deal, that total amount will never be lower than list price.

What happens if the plugin goes on sale, such as during November when it’s common practice to offer deep discounts for Black Friday? Nothing happens. You still pay full price.

In other words, when buying RTO, you cannot take advantage of a sale.

“(Developers) make their money by never giving you a sale price,” notes Reddit user 'HooksNHaunts', “Say you pay for a plugin that is $150 but it’s on sale everywhere for $75. You don’t get the sale price. You’re still gonna pay the full $150 through the rent-to-own process.”

'Kirk_Bananahammock', also on Reddit, makes a similar point in a thread called Is Serum's Rent-to-Own on Splice a Scam? “Plugins often go on sale, so you might have paid $100 towards the plugin, only to find the plugin on sale somewhere else at a discount and you could have paid less overall if you had waited.”

Upgrade pricing could also be affected when paying RTO. In general, software companies will grant you a discount on an upgraded version of a plugin when you already own an earlier revision. If you’re still paying it off via RTO, however, you don’t technically own it yet, and so may not be eligible for the upgrade.

Splice, for its part, will allow you to move up to the new version - but you’ll still have to continue paying for the original plugin on top of the latest one, adding time to your payment contract - and disqualifying you from any sales pricing in the meantime.

2. Beware impulse buying

When you only see the monthly payment price and not the total amount, impulse buying can become a real danger. “When people pay for things monthly, the first payment is what they see in their heads (in terms of) what is owed,” musician Jon Salichs tells us, who has experience leasing plugins. “So they might go crazy” buying things they don’t need", he adds. "Why stop at Serum when you could also get Arturia’s Pigments 7, or Current, or Massive X from Native Instruments? Or indeed all of them?”

Splice also offers bundles via RTO, with multiple titles included for a discounted total price. But do you really need both of those plugins or are you pulling the trigger just because the monthly payment is tantalisingly low?

Arturia’s V Collection Pro is $699 new, an eye-wateringly large amount. But when broken down into instalments, it’s only $24.99 per month. But do you really need everything in that package?

“I got a combo so it was more expensive,” explains Jon. “You could, for example, rent-to-own only the latest Ozone instead of getting Ozone and Neutron in a pack for more money. Maybe you don't need everything in that combo. Consider what you need.”

3. Subscription creep can happen here too

In much the same way that’s it’s easy to buy too much at a time, you could also end up with more RTO plans than you can afford to pay.

In the modern landscape of subscriptions being the norm, this is often referred to as ‘subscription creep’. In much the same way that you can end up with too many streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime, you could find yourself with hundreds of dollars worth of payments per month to companies for RTO instruments and effects. It can all start to add up…

4. You have to be online

Much like with subscriptions, leasing outfits need a way to verify the plugin is authorised to use.

This is generally done online, and often through a third-party app that needs to be open and connected to the internet, such as the Splice app. While remembering to open the application at the beginning of a session can be cumbersome, for some having to be connected to the internet at all is a push too far.

“I personally don't care for the ‘log-in daily’ thing, as sometimes I have my machines offline for several days,” says KVR Audio commenter Shabahbriah.

Some producers opt to work on perpetually offline computers. For them, this system would be impossible.

5. You can't resell your license

While this danger is less common than others, it’s quite possible that even after you finish paying off your license, you’ll be forbidden from reselling it.

Every developer has their own rules about transferring licenses, with many turning into NFRs (Not For Resale) after one ownership change.

This can also be true when buying via RTO, with the license becoming an NFR after completing payment. You may technically own it - but you’re still not free to transfer it to someone else.

In response to the question, “If the developer normally allows for (a) product to be license-transferred, does that still hold?” on KVR, user 'riddim83' discovered that at least one company doesn’t allow resales: “It’s definitely not normal licenses across the board, as D16 (Group) licenses become NFR.”

This will not affect all producers, as many do not resell plugins anyway. Says Jon Salichs, “I've never sold any software. Though there might be a way, I just don't do it.”

6. If a problem arises, who do you deal with?

Any RTO agreement will have to involve some amount of DRM and authentication, and with those additional hoops to jump through, something could go wrong. If you’re leasing directly from the developer, you would reach out to their customer service department (and hopefully they’ll get back to you in a timely manner).

But when dealing with a third-party, who do you contact? the leaser or the plugin company?

This is exactly what happened to Reddit user 'ChildShapedMan' when paying for Serum through Splice. “I went to use Serum today and it came up with the license expired error message,” they wrote. “I followed all of the troubleshooting I could and nothing helped. I've emailed the support team and they are saying they can't see any plan on my account. I have emailed them my receipts and proof of payment for the last two transactions but (I am) currently waiting for their reply…”

Other Redditors had also had issues, and some recommended contacting Xfer Records directly, while others suggested signing in and out of the Splice app and website. While this is admittedly an older issue, with no recent similar comments appearing when performing searches, the fact remains that technology has a way of breaking, and when you’re stuck in the middle of a session with not one but two companies to deal with, it can be frustrating to say the least.

7. If you can't make payments, you're locked out

The biggest and most catastrophic issue is, of course, that, much like with a subscription, if you can’t make payments, you’re forbidden from using the software.

In the middle of a session? Too bad. Finally got the vocalist in the studio after months of waiting? Sucks to be you.

The good news is, however, you’ll able to pick up where you left off with no penalties when you can start making payments again.

“If you pause your membership before you've paid it off you'll lose access to it,” notes Reddit user 'Poop Fandango' "But you don't lose your progress towards paying it off. That will pick up from where you left off if you start paying again.”

However, lack of penalty or no, if you can’t pay, you can’t play. You could, of course, employ an alternative instrument or effect in the session.

“Probably that did happen,” Jon says when asked if he had any trouble in the studio when he paused payments. “But in that case, I (used) an alternative plugin. It wasn't really a problem for me because I know other ways to achieve the same effect. But it might be for someone who doesn’t.”

This solution, of course, won’t work if the software that you’re leasing is not an instrument but a DAW like Bitwig or Ableton Live!

Ultimately, paying for music software through a rent-to-own scheme can admittedly, be a convenient and affordable way to get access to instruments and effects that you might normally not be able to use.

But it makes the most sense for plugins that tend to not go on sale and don’t charge for updates, like Xfer Records’ Serum.

However, you should still use your common sense when signing up and be aware of the prospective pitfalls we’ve highlighted here.

Make sure that you read the terms and conditions and understand what you’re getting into - and what will happen if you can’t continue to pay.

Nothing would be worse than opening up a session, ready to work, and finding that you can’t access an important instrument because your credit card was declined.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: Today's plugin instruments require a lot of processing power. Whether that be the latest analog modelling synthesizer with a sound that’s comparable to hardware, acoustic physical modelling for ultra-realistic violins without samples, or experimental instruments recreating physics and other state-of-the-art processes, your bog-standard CPU is getting increasingly more taxed by all of the heavy lifting. Now add that instrument to a DAW session with other synths and effects, and your poor computer is ready to throw in the towel.

Enter the GPU. The Graphics Processor Unit may have started as a dedicated pixel cruncher but, thanks to its unique structure, it’s now being pressed into all kinds of new duties, including artificial intelligence, neural networks, and lately, audio.

Because of this largely underused chip, powerful new processes are now becoming available to audio plugin developers willing to think outside the box.

We recently spoke with three of them - GPU Audio, Anukari and sonicLAB - to find out how they’re harnessing the GPU to create software instruments of astonishing realism, scope and power.

The GPU has traditionally done the work of rendering a computer’s graphics, and it does this very well. But lately, some very clever developers have been using it to process audio as well. Can it really make that much of a difference, though? We asked Chris D, the Head of Pro Audio Partnerships at GPU Audio, a leader in the field, about this.

“If you’re happy with one soft synth and a delay, there is probably not much call to get your GPU involved in audio processing,” Chris says. “What the GPU offers for audio processing is an almost unbound level of processing.”

The key to this, he stresses, is the GPU’s ability to process in parallel. It can handle multiple processes at any one time, unlike conventional DSP audio, which is sequential and therefore limited. “Think of the processes like cars on a motorway,” he explains. “Our CPU has one lane for traffic to flow; the GPU has thousands of lanes.”

Evan Mezeske of boutique developer Anukari points out that GPUs, such as the ones in Apple’s M-series chips of from company NVIDIA, remain largely unused when we work with audio.

That idle GPU could be tasked to push the limits of how many plugins or tracks we can run simultaneously, or for single plugins that require a lot of computational power. Evan’s instrument, also called Anukari, falls into the second category.

“I personally find category two more interesting,” he enthuses, “because it raises the question of what kind of plugins simply couldn't exist without this kind of processing power? I'm interested in new kinds of audio processing that haven't been thoroughly explored before because they were previously computationally infeasible.”

Markus Steinberger, GPU Audio’s R&D Scientist, sees this new evolution of computation as part of the ‘evolving spirit’ of Moore’s Law, an observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 that posits that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles - and so gets more powerful - every two years.

Now, rather than relying just on more transistors, we can take advantage of smarter architecture and workload distribution. “By offloading demanding audio tasks to the GPU,” Markus says, “GPU Audio unlocks high-throughput, real-time processing that significantly outperforms conventional CPU-bound workflows.”

Evan at Anukari puts it this way: “Insofar as audio processing can translate transistor count into ‘audio goodness,’ this just means that to take full advantage of what modern processors have to offer, the GPU is becoming increasingly attractive. But it's not always so easy to turn more transistors into audio goodness.”

But isn’t this difficult to do? “Yes and no,” answers Evan when asked if it’s difficult to get the GPU to process audio. “The GPU is very, very different from the CPU, and to take full advantage of its power requires a different approach to how a plugin's DSP code is written.”

“Graphics cards were not designed to process audio,” points out Chris at GPU Audio, which has put in about 10 years of R&D on its tech.

“They are designed to continually pump out an insane amount of pixels across your computer screen. When you’re not playing games, or rendering complex images, your GPU does next to nothing. Imagine what could be done with all of the unused resources.”

Sinan Bokesoy, the founder of software company sonicLAB and parent company sonicPlanet, explains how he uses the GPU to calculate scene data in some of his applications, which is then used in audio calculations.

“Instead of calculating this data on the CPU alongside the audio waveform processing,” he says “I use the parallel processing structure of the GPU, which is very efficient for such scenic calculations. GPUs can work together with CPUs to calculate data that feeds audio algorithms efficiently and without low-level programming efforts.”

Ultimately, says Evan, “it's a question of creativity in terms of how to utilize the strengths of GPUs in an interesting way.”

Although gamers will try to get the best GPUs that they can, the good new for music producers is you don’t need a special GPU to process audio. The one you already have in your computer is likely good enough, such as an NVIDIA chip or the ones built into Apple’s M-series chips.

“Normal GPUs are fine,” explains Evan. “Generally, what you get when you pay more is a GPU that is a tiny bit faster, but is massively more parallel. But any modern GPU is pretty much a marvel of technology. All of the Apple silicon GPUs are incredible, and anything from the last few years from NVIDIA is great.”

GPU Audio recommends a minimum spec of NVIDIA Series 10 upwards on Windows, or M1+ for Apple. “NVIDIA released its series 10 GPUs in 2014 and the M1 came out in 2020,” says Chris, “so we’re not talking about the very latest hardware. Our aim is for as many people as possible to experience what the GPU can do for audio.”

Looking at diagrams of Apple’s M chips, especially the Pro and Max models, a significant amount of the IC is devoted to the GPU. That’s a resource just waiting to be exploited. “The Apple M chips have a dedicated GPU which we are harnessing for DSP on Mac OS,” Chris comments. “These parallel processing juggernauts are redundant when you’re making music. It seems crazy not to use the GPU!”

GPU Audio doesn’t make instruments itself; it partners with other developers, allowing them to use its technology to offload processing to the GPU. One of its partnerships is with Audio Modeling and its SWAM line of physical-modeled orchestral instruments. These include SWAM-B for brass instruments, SWAM-W for woodwinds, and SWAM-S for strings, plugins that offer a high degree or real-time realism that doesn’t rely on samples.

“A major advantage of the GPU in this context is its extremely high memory bandwidth,” says Markus. “While incoming audio typically arrives at 44.1 to 96 kHz, computing the effect of a room on that signal can require accessing trillions of contributing samples per second.” This can lead to bottlenecks; GPU to the rescue. “This makes GPU Audio a natural fit for high-fidelity, real-time room modeling and immersive spatial audio experiences.”

You can also access the company’s tech with the Vienna Power House add-on for VSL’s Vienna MIR Pro 3D and Vienna Synchron Player. This add-on offloads convolution processes to your graphics card, “which is otherwise redundant in music making machines,” says Chris.

GPU Audio has also recently made its SDK (software development kit) available to third-party developers, so we’re likely to see more instruments and effects that make use of the GPU in this way soon.

Now, let’s look in more detail at a few of the specific plugins that are fuelled by parallel GPU processing. Anukari 3D Physics Synthesizer is a unique physical modeling synthesizer that lets you build your own 3D instruments with various physics components like masses and springs as well as oscillators and the usual synthesizer bits. It’s incredibly flexible and powerful, sort of like a modular synthesizer but for physical objects rather than synth modules. Something this complex requires a lot of computational power, both visually and in terms of sound.

“Anukari is doing this great big complicated physics simulation, where the entire physics world needs to be stepped forward in time for each audio sample,” explains Evan, likening it more to the kind of physics engine that you'd find in a video game or something like the analysis tools that an automaker might use to understand physical stresses in a mechanical part.

“This fits very naturally into the way that a GPU works, where many calculations can be done all in parallel,” he says. “Anukari does virtually all of its audio processing on the GPU.” In terms of the audio, almost nothing happens on the CPU except commanding the GPU to do its work.

“Of course,” adds Evan, “that's really only half the story, because Anukari has these beautiful 3D graphics that depict the 3D instrument the user has constructed. The graphics also happen on the GPU, but that's not so interesting from an audio perspective.”

Another instrument that uses physics to help generate sound is Protean from sonicLAB. But instead of physical modeling, it uses a combination of additive and FM synthesis along with particle physics to create wild and experimental sounds, up to more than 1000 of them at a time.

“I use multi-core processing for audio algorithms in our Protean software since there are several hundred sine waves calculated simultaneously using multithreaded jobs,” says Sinan. “This is how parallel processing is implemented on CPUs using their multiple cores. A modern GPU might have thousands of cores versus a CPU's eight to 16 cores.”

In a recent article, we highlighted GPU audio processing as one way in which music production will change going forward. We asked the developers how they see this technology figuring into things.

“I would say that it's a part of the future,” agrees Evan of Anukari. “I believe there is still infinite potential with really simple stuff. But at the same time, I obviously am interested in what is possible now that really wasn't possible before.”

GPU Audio also sees it as playing a big part in tech moving forward. “If you want ultra low latencies, multi-channel spatial mixing, thousands of convolutions, and real-time machine learning then the GPU is the only way to go,” says Chris, pointing out that CPUs suffer from a physical restriction to their size and also processing capacity due to inherent thermal distribution. “GPUs on the other hand,” he notes, “are designed to be scalable, to run with multiple devices, and also to be used for cloud processing.”

Here is where things really get interesting. Cloud processing, which is something the GPU Audio team is looking into, could provide a way to not only shunt processing power over to another chip - but to another computer entirely. Says Chris: “This would be handy for example if your mobile device doesn’t have a powerful enough CPU but you still want to access incredibly high levels of processing.”

Another possibility for GPU audio processing is in hardware applications. “Imagine a mixing desk doing complex spatial processing on multiple live inputs,” says Chris. “There is scope for really advancing these existing technologies and harnessing the GPU for so many things.”

And, to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies like AI, we’re going to need the added boost of a GPU. “If we consider machine learning and live AI processing,” says Chris, “which is genuinely forging a new path for audio, these can only be processed in real-time with a GPU. So if you want a mixing desk which can de-noise your live space over multiple channels using live machine learning, it can only be achieved with a hardware-embedded GPU.”

The future just got a little brighter - and a little faster.

PLUGIN WEEK 2026: Typically, dynamics processors have a relatively specific function. We don’t mean what type of processor it is – compressor, limiter, whatever – but rather which specific model of processor is used on what specific instrument or sound source at which specific stage of the production process.

When a processor is well-matched to these specifics, then excellent results can be produced; when deployed outside of its specialism, though, even the most lionised of tools can deliver unsatisfactory results.

For example, a Fairchild 660 (whether hardware or a decent software emulation) has a legendary reputation as a vocal compressor, but its charms often aren’t as apparent in a mastering context. Similarly, a Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor has a near-magical ability to add “glue” and cohesiveness to a mix, but is not so impressive when slapped onto a vocal track.

Given this specificity, it’s rare to come across a dynamics processor that complements any sound source: vocals, instruments of every type, sub-mixes, full mixes, masters, music, dialogue, foley… the lot! It’s even rarer for that processor to be well-suited to every stage in the production process, from recording and tracking all the way through to final mastering.

Nevertheless, since its inception a decade ago, Oeksound Soothe has grown into exactly this – a rare example of a jack-of-all-tracks also being a master of all, as revered and relied upon by recording and mix engineers as by mastering and audio post-production facilities. And with the latest iteration of the plugin boasting a freshly-minted low-latency mode capable of realtime processing, live sound engineers are sure to be catching the bug soon too.

But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves! Before getting to what’s new in Soothe3, we need to ask: what makes Soothe so ubiquitous and widely beloved, and more pertinently, what does it actually do?

What is Soothe?

Soothe is described by Oeksound as a “dynamic resonance suppressor”. If that leaves you scratching your head, perhaps the closest comparison would be a dynamic EQ. As you may well know, a dynamic EQ is an equaliser in which each EQ band contains a compressor-style gain reduction processor. Thus, if the signal amplitude within a band’s frequency range exceeds the band’s threshold, the compressor will reduce the volume of that band.

The primary use of a dynamic EQ is to reduce resonance and prevent frequency buildup – this is when frequencies produced by multiple instruments combined become overpowering when they sound together. A suitably configured dynamic EQ can detect these “hot” frequencies and reduce the band’s gain accordingly. A multiband compressor can do something similar too, although we typically use these for broad-brushed dynamic control, whereas dynamic EQ is a better for more focussed and surgical frequency control.

But Soothe isn’t actually a dynamic EQ, and nor is it a multiband compressor. There are elements of crossover with both, but Soothe goes about its business in a very different way, and has a sonic impact that’s different to both. Soothe continually monitors the incoming signal, sensing for resonances and frequency spikes, and when a resonance is detected, Soothe reduces the amplitude of the affected frequencies until the resonance has passed.

Per-frequency gain reduction is visualised in realtime in the plugin, and this visualisation is overlaid by a curve that, to the untrained eye, looks for all the world like an EQ curve – but don’t be fooled! The curve (and the bands that define the nodes of the curve) describes frequency-specific modifications to the resonance detector’s sensitivity.

Detection is more sensitive where the curve extends above the centreline, and less sensitive below it. This means frequencies are more likely to be reduced where the curve is above the centreline – which is essentially the opposite of an EQ, if you think about it – and entirely unlike a dynamic EQ.

How has Soothe changed over the past decade?

The original version of Soothe featured just three customisable sensitivity bands, and it processed higher frequencies with more detail than lower ones. This meant the plugin excelled at dealing with problems in the upper-mid and high frequency ranges, but was less precise in lower registers – capable of controlling a bit of low-frequency rumble or low-mid boominess, but not so effective at surgical fixes in the low-end.

This didn’t stop the plugin from becoming an immediate hit. As the company’s marketing director, Atte Karm, told us: “The success of the original Soothe was way out of proportion compared to expectations, and its continued success is something that no one could have expected”.

There are those who, if finding themselves having released a runaway success like Soothe, would have simply basked in the glory of their achievement, but that wasn’t the case for Oeksound. With the lessons of the first version’s development fresh in their minds and an eye on their users’ feedback, the company embarked on a complete rewrite of Soothe.

With an all-new full-frequency-range engine, an additional sensitivity band, and new band modes, Soothe2 offered far more depth and focus in its control over lower frequencies than its predecessor. The update also inaugurated the concept of Soft and Hard processing modes, the former designed to be more transparent and adaptive to source dynamics, the latter being more aggressive, level-sensitive and compressor-like. Soothe2 also gained attack and release controls for shaping the response time of the gain reduction, mid/side processing, and the ability to weight the sensitivity between stereo channels – left-to-right in L/R stereo, or mid-to-side in M/S mode.

Importantly, Soothe2 acquired the game-changing ability to work with external sidechains, thereby allowing it to be used for tasks such as reducing mic bleed, creating spectral space to reduce frequency masking, helping a vocal or lead line stand out within a big wash of reverb, and many other creative tricks.

All of this significantly broadened Soothe’s appeal, pushing the plugin into a far broader range of studios and facilities than previously. But Oeksound still wasn’t satisfied, and embarked on the development of a third version, making further changes, adding new features and generally sprucing up a tool that was already a staple in the workflow of producers and engineers across the globe. (Check out the video below for a comparison of how Soothe2 stacks up against the newly-released Soothe3.)

Soothe's next generation

While the most obvious change in Soothe3 is the crisper, brighter interface, the most impactful changes lie in the plugin’s resonance detection and reduction algorithms. As Atte explained to us: “The balancing act was to keep the process feeling ‘effective’, and at the same time make it easier and quicker to end up with settings that tame just the ‘bad resonances’ instead of sucking the life completely out of the source signal.”

To that end, Soothe3’s Soft mode now senses resonances based on their strength relative to the overall spectrum at any given moment. This makes the processing threshold entirely independent of input level, thereby ensuring resonance control is independent of dynamic variations in the audio. As a result, processing is more musical and transparent, and setup time is reduced (just turn the large and inviting Depth dial!) Hard mode retains the more compressor-like response of Soothe2, making it ideal when it comes to applying sidechaining tricks such as de-bleeding and de-masking.

Soothe2’s Selectivity and Sharpness controls, which determine the frequency bandwidth of detection and processing (respectively), have been combined into a single Detail dial. As Atte explains: “We felt that the Selectivity control was important, but often either difficult to understand or didn't yield wanted results. So we decided to do a deep dive into how this aspect should be controlled, and we ended up at the single Detail control.” This new control saves a huge amount of time, and makes you wonder why control over the frequency focus of detection and gain reduction were ever presented as separate controls in the first place.

Where Soothe2 has a fixed set of six sensitivity bands – high-pass and low-pass filters plus four variable bands – Soothe3 can now freely add and remove bands up to a maximum of eight, and each band offers a free choice of eight band types. New here, and replacing the band-shelf mode, is the band-pass mode.

This focusses the sensitivity in a specific frequency range while leaving the remainder of the spectrum entirely unprocessed – essentially the same as using a paired high- and low-pass filter. Adding additional band-pass bands creates additional sensing and processing ranges, but any other band type falling outside of the range of that band will have no effect.

The tilt band type is also gone, but has been reimagined as the all-new Tilt feature. This lets you apply tilt – that is, a positive or negative ramping of strength – to the plugin’s Detail, Attack and Release parameters.

The tilt for each parameter is split into two, one part affecting low frequencies from around 500Hz downwards, the other affecting high frequencies from around 2kHz and up, and each tilt part can produce either a positive or negative ramp. So you can, for example, have progressively slower attack times for both low and high frequencies, or increase the Detail in the low end while reducing it in the high end. This is far more versatile than the old tilt band mode, yet also manages to be more intuitive and understandable.

Soothe3's low-latency mode

As mentioned, Soothe3 boasts a low-latency mode, and this impressively allows the plugin to run with 0ms latency when operating at 44.1kHz/48kHz sample rate, and just 1ms at higher rates. Of course, you do still have to take your own audio I/O latency into account, but nevertheless, this is a game-changer.

In the studio, it means being able to deal with unwanted mic artefacts at source – handling noise, proximity effect, de-essing and popping, and even bleed from other sources, but what’s really exciting are the live applications. Alongside giving venues all of the tonal and sonic benefits that studio-based users have come to love, we’re struggling to think of a better way of suppressing feedback and quickly compensating for the Mobile Flesh Baffle effect (the difference an audience’s size and position can make to the sound pumping from a PA rig).

Support for multichannel surround up to a 9.1.6 configuration will make Soothe3 even more invaluable in TV and film post-production than its predecessor. Each output group (LR, LFE, Centre, Surround, etc.) can be independently enabled and has its own Depth setting, which makes a lot of sense – after all, you probably don’t want the same amount of low-end control on the LFE channel as on the main LR channels, for example.

There are various other smaller changes, such as a Max Cut setting, which defines the maximum gain reduction that can be applied to any frequency, a linear phase mode that helps with parallel processing setups at the cost of a little latency, and a streamlining of the plugin’s performance controls with separate settings for realtime and offline processing.

What's behind Soothe's success?

Soothe’s particular way of shaping the spectrum and taming errant frequencies, combined with the transparency of its processing, is quite unlike anything else and can be exceptionally useful at every stage of production. You can overcook things with Soothe, but it’s pretty obvious when you do, and very easy to back off the extreme settings… unless you like how they sound!

Applied to individual tracks and parts, Soothe can mitigate unpleasant acoustic resonances, de-ess sibilant vocals and de-squeak acoustic guitars, control mic pops and handling noise, dial out unwanted mic response characteristics, and even reduce mic spill.

When creating mixes and sub-mixes, Soothe does a much better job of calming frequency build-up than does a dynamic EQ, and can also be helpful in dealing with frequency masking problems.

At the end of the chain in mastering and post-production, Soothe provides a unique means of cleanly modifying problematic frequencies and adding cohesion in a way that’s more focussed than a broadband compressor, more effective than a dynamic EQ, and more sonically transparent than either.

Despite its many talents, though, Soothe isn’t a magic wand. It can’t repair a bad recording, it can’t add life to a dull performance, and it won’t make an ineptly-mixed track sound professional.

What it will do, however, is help your audio sources stand out in their own spectral and sonic space. It can address rumbles, boominess, honkiness and harshness, it can transparently shape a source’s tone without wrenching it through an EQ, and – when configured just right – it can make the difference between a decent mix and an amazing one.

The tracks used in this article were sourced from Telefunken Elektroakustik's Live From The Lab series and the Cambridge Music Technology multitrack library, both of which offer producers a catalogue of downloadable multitracks to practice their mixing skills.

We'd like to thank Telefunken, Cambridge MT and the artists involved, Hayley Reardon, Pau Figueres, Albert Kader and Remember Jones, for allowing us to host their music.