Tekno from Baby Audio was easily one of my favorite plug-ins of last year — it’s a rich, “bend”-able, brutal box with the feeling of hardware drum synthesis. And now it gets a step sequencer, plus a ton of tweaks you might have missed in the first release. And one more thing: iOS users, there’s a mobile version with AUv3 version.

No, MTV is not shutting down, though Paramount Skydance did shutter some all-music video channels in various markets. But never mind: the internet can best even vintage MTV. Tune into MTV REWIND and hit shuffle by decade.

It’s a Very Workshop System Jamuary. Music Thing’s patchable music lab-in-a-lunchbox has proved that small-batch personal hardware can attract a select, dedicated community sharing great stuff with one another. Let’s catch up with what’s been happening in that magical village of synth wonder in the past year. Don’t forget, the ideas and code here are all open — meaning this could inspire more.

We’ve had a deluge of superb VCV Rack modules, carrying straight over into the first days of the new year. But let’s skip to this one: Jeremy Wentworth’s free Grains is the granular sampler you’ve been waiting for, now available for VCV Rack and 4ms MetaModule. Bonus: my guide to other granular modules in Rack… and a surprise teaser.

LANDR, the AI-powered music platform, has acquired Reason Studios. That pairs Reason with the Montreal-based platform for mastering and distribution, and LANDR subsidiary SynchroArts (makers of VocAlign and Revoice Pro).

For all the twin woes of the gaming and music worlds, last year saw even more imaginative explorations of music and games. Steam has extended sales on some items and third party sites have codes from a recent sale; Epic Game Store’s sale runs through January 8. And there’s a lot of winter ahead, so let’s dive in.

Here’s a good way to start 2026: the folks at Surge Synth Team now have their free and open-source OB-Xf synth in beta status in nightlies, with 1.0 just around the corner. And that means this long-running project is just about ready for primetime, bringing a fully open instrument inspired by the 1979 Oberheim OB-X. […]

Happy birthday today, December 31, to Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha. If any song sums up 2025 and the threat to civilians from drone warfare, it’s his cover of “Sheel Sheel Ya Ajmal Sheel” tuned with the whine of the weapons buzzing overhead. On his birthday and New Year’s Eve, the artist offers a song with […]

What’s your New Year’s Resolution? I mean, use more music software, obviously. Why, someone has some other goals? Let’s get you started with Autodafe, who posted a handy guide to getting up and running with the JE-8086 reverse-engineered emulation of the Roland JP-8000 (and I’ve updated that guide, too).

I won’t mince words about the year – on a global scale, things seemed to be falling apart. I’ve likely been to more protests and rallies in 2025 than since before COVID. But we have each other, and we have empathy, and we do what we can.