Best of show: walk NAMM with us in a gear-mas gallery

Who stood out at this year’s NAMM show, that festivus of gear that brightens our winters from Anaheim? We’ve given you some idea with NAMM and LA’s Buchla & Friends. Here, in images, are our favorites from NAMM, as captured by LA photographer Mehdi Hassine and veteran Berlin hardware guru Gösta Wellmer.

A free emulator of Roland JP-8000 and the love of supersaws and trance

Digital preservation is the new challenge for synths, just as it is in areas like games. And the Roland JP-8000 got a big leg up with a free and open source release from The Usual Suspects available this month, the JE8086. It’s one of several recent emulations, so let’s talk about why the 1998 synth […]

Peter Kirn - December 30, 2025

Rage with the machine: Pigments 7 with new filters, new FX, sound features

Bonkers new filters? A Play mode everyone will actually want to use? Yeah, December isn’t done with you yet, synth fans. Meet the new Pigments 7 with Rage, Ripple, and Reverb filters, Corroder effect, improved amplitude envelopes, FM modulation on the filter, and more.

Peter Kirn - December 16, 2025

Motherly, sequencer percussion synth, is pure rhythmic happiness

Peter Kirn - November 21, 2025

Physical modeling, modular explorations with Adam Pietruszko and AAS’ CV-3

Peter Kirn - November 18, 2025

Arturia V Collection 11 hands-on: Pure LoFi, Jup-8000 join latest update

Peter Kirn - April 24, 2025

Augmented Mallets Play, showing graphics of mallet instruments (one real, one synthetic), and parameter knobs arrayed around a central morph knob.

Freebies: Mallets get Arturia’s Augmented treatment

Peter Kirn - December 19, 2024

The best Black Friday deals in music tech right now

Peter Kirn - November 29, 2024

Arturia’s take on Elka Synthex puts buttery layers, hypnotic arps in reach

Peter Kirn - October 28, 2024

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