Nothing defies trends quite like the Teenage Engineering OP-1. It’s small and lean, but priced alongside pro instruments. It’s a compact luxury synth. We bring back our resident expert on mobile production, Swedish gear, and multifunction compact goodness Andreas Roman to give us a review – or not. Swede anti-reviews Swede. Go. -Ed.

How do you know analog and patch cords are really back? It’s the return of the patch book. The beloved SOMA PULSAR•23 just got an 80-odd-page tome full of patches for this unique “organismic” instrument, from community members and friends of SOMA.

The latest plug-in from Swedish boutique maker Klevgrand takes their idiosyncratic instrument line to a new level. Tomofon is wave/sample based, but not a wavetable synth or sampler. And the sounds it makes can be realistic, quirky, expressive, and bizarre.

The situation in Ukraine grows literally darker, colder, and more urgent even as the world might want to move on. So it’s worth spreading the sounds of Kyiv’s Standard Deviation, which unites an array of adventurous and imaginative Ukrainian artists with friends like Marcel Dettmann, DJ Stingray, and Setaoc Mass.

The lush, free plug-in Supermassive is turning 2.5 years old, with its wonderfully sumptuous reverb/delays, celebrating with two new modes, Scorpio and Libra. Plus, remember that Max for Live wrapper that lets it run like a native Live device? That got an update, too.

Sequential finishes out 2022 with something new: a deep polysynth with an architecture that draws on the legacy of the Prophet-6 and OB-6, but stands next to them as a third classic electronic instrument.

Software giveth back what hardware scarity hath taketh away. The beloved (and now discontinued) Moogerfooger range is now back in full in plug-in form. And yes, they have fake wood side-panels, too.

The topic keeps coming up – how to find mental peace and remain centered even in tumultuous times. Iranian-born composer Arash Azadi is uniquely able to create those kinds of spaces in his music.

Designed by Aphex Twin, Samplebrain takes a new approach to samples – chopping up audio into a “brain” of little bits, networked by similarity. You can play it in real-time, free for all platforms, including Apple M1/M2.

Music software instruments are entering something of a mid-life crisis – and one landmark is the cancellation this week of Absynth by NI/Soundwide. Creator Brian Clevinger has recorded a statement. Native Instruments changes in ownership and leadership have already brought with them significant cuts to key designers and engineers, through layoffs and other attrition. Absynth […]