Independent music gear coverage
Gibson Adds HiFi DNA Pickups to Four Original Collection Acoustics Gibson has expanded its Original Collection with four American-made acoustic guitars fitted with the new LR Baggs HiFi DNA pickup system. The lineup includes the J-45 Original, J-45 60s…
Read full postZoom Neurig Packs NAM, Touchscreens and AI Tools Into a $300 Modeler Zoom has announced the Neurig, a compact amp and effects modeler built around neural processing, dual touchscreens and native support for the open-source NAM A2 Lite format. Japanese pricing…
Read full postLine 6 Helix Stadium 1.4 Adds New Amps, Effects and Stem Separation Line 6 has released firmware 1.4 for the Helix Stadium and Helix Stadium XL Floor. Called the Eras Update, the free release adds another batch of amp channels and effects while also giving…
Read full postUniversal Audio Finally Makes the FATSO Plugin Native Universal Audio has released native versions of its Empirical Labs FATSO Jr. and FATSO Sr. plugins for macOS and Windows. The emulation first appeared for UAD-2 hardware in 2009, so users have only been…
Read full postErica Synths Konstrukt-8 Now Comes Fully Assembled Erica Synths has released a fully assembled version of the Konstrukt-8 modular analog drum machine. The instrument originally arrived as a collection of EDU DIY modules designed with Moritz Klein, which was…
Read full postAudioThing Materia Turns Any Sample Into an Additive Synth AudioThing has released Materia, a new additive resynthesizer that can take an ordinary audio sample and turn it into a playable instrument. That makes additive synthesis a little less like doing math…
Read full postAudioBlast V10F Brings the Kawai 100F Spirit Into a Plugin AudioBlast has released V10F, a monophonic virtual-analog synthesizer inspired by the Kawai and Teisco 100F from 1977. Rather than reproduce every limitation of the original hardware, the plugin uses…
Read full postStylophone Mini Puts a Synth and Flashlight on Your Keychain Dubreq has compressed the familiar Stylophone idea into the Stylophone Mini, a genuinely playable keychain synthesizer small enough to travel with the keys you will inevitably misplace. The tiny…
Read full postMutable Instruments Beads Is Now Open Source Mutable Instruments has released the hardware design and firmware for Beads under the permissive MIT licence, giving builders and developers official access to the inner workings of the company’s final Eurorack…
Read full postRadiant 2.5 Gives the Eurorack Effects Module a 64-Second Looper Dnipro Modular and Sinevibes have released firmware 2.5 for Radiant, their stereo morphing multi-effects module for Eurorack. The free update adds a dedicated looper algorithm capable of…
Read full post1010music Blackbox 2 Firmware 1.1 Adds Scenes, Stems and Sidechain Compression 1010music celebrated its tenth anniversary with firmware 1.1.0 for the Blackbox 2, adding several substantial production and performance features to the portable sampler. The…
Read full postDelta Sound Labs Stream Pro Turns Live Audio Into a Granular MPE Instrument Delta Sound Labs has released Stream Pro, a granular software instrument built to turn samples and live audio into playable textures. First shown under the name XStream at NAMM 2026…
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