Articles
Make Noise, Erica Synths, and Doepfer All Drop New Modular Gear in One Week
Three modular manufacturers announcing new hardware inside seven days isn’t a coincidence, it’s a squeeze.…
Push and Groove Turns Mutable Instruments Plaits Into a Free DAW Synth With MICRONIX
I have been waiting for someone to do this properly. Mutable Instruments Plaits is one…
The Long Road to a Pad That Breathes: Our Ambient Playbook
A particular frustration comes with ambient pads. You spend an hour dialing in something gorgeous…
13 Free Effect Plugins We’d Keep If the Studio Budget Vanished
On a roughly quarterly basis someone in a group chat asks the same question: if…
The Timely Angle: What We Made of u-he’s New Firmware and Why It Matters for Club Mixdowns
u-he doesn’t move fast, which is exactly why its firmware drops land differently than the…
Free Synth VSTs That Earn a Slot Next to the Paid Ones (2026)
The test I run on free plugins before they get to stay on my machine:…
Kick and Bass: The Sidechain Moves We Use to Keep Both Loud
Every record I finish comes back to the same argument: the kick and the bass…
Best Ambient Plugins for Textures That Never Quite Repeat
The hardest thing about ambient music isn’t making something pretty. It’s making something that stays…
Serum vs Vital: Which Wavetable Synth Deserves a Slot on Your Drive?
I’ve had both Serum and Vital sitting in my template for years, and I still…
Arturia Pigments 6 Review: The Synth That Took Over Our Ambient Sessions
Pigments has been my ambient workhorse for years now, and version 6 didn’t just add…