VST is 30 years old, and Steinberg is giving away some of its earliest plugins

It’s the format that changed software music making forever: the VST plug-in format turns 30 this year. Steinberg is giving away updated versions of Neon, CS-40, Karlette, VB1, and LM7 — some of its earliest plug-ins — to celebrate. And that means you can run these vintage instruments (plus one tape delay) on your modern Mac or PC.

Tweakbench plug-ins return after 20 years, from NES to ambient

Chiptune, granular, ambient pads, experimental, percussion — once upon a time, Tweakbench plug-ins were everything. And now they’re back, with full support for AU and VST3 on macOS (including Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux.

Peter Kirn - December 18, 2025

3D visuals arrive in Ableton Live, easy as synths, with Unreal-powered SenSei

Mix in 3D, drop in 3D objects, lighting, text, particle systems: EboSuite Sensei delivers an entirely new ecosystem of modeled 3D VJing. Powered by Unreal Engine under the hood, SenSei runs as entirely self-contained Ableton Live Devices. And the results are already impressive – even on an M1+ Mac or decent PC GPU. EboSuite had […]

Peter Kirn - November 26, 2025

Code turns MacBook hinge into a creaking door, Theremin

Peter Kirn - September 8, 2025

IINA, open-source Swift media player, is what macOS has been missing

Peter Kirn - April 18, 2025

Reason’s classic ReCycle is updated, free, and more useful than you might think

Peter Kirn - April 2, 2025

Macs gain more even footing with Unreal – and about M4 for live visuals

Peter Kirn - February 7, 2025

Behold, InstruĊ brings you new VCV Rack modules, Apple Silicon support

Peter Kirn - December 29, 2024

Free Supermassive reverb gets a silky, stellar new mode: Pleiades

Peter Kirn - November 22, 2024