Watch as a telephone is transformed into a DIY analog drum machine

Push-button telephone. Analog drum machine. Arduino Nano. DIY amplifier. Shashwath Sundar, aka simple_but_nerdy, makes the telephone-drum machine fusion seem like it was meant to be.

Baby Audio’s Tekno drum machine gets a sequencer and iOS AUv3 version

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.

Peter Kirn - January 8, 2026

New free VCV Rack modules: chaotic oscillators, HP word generator, drums

It’s time again for that trip-to-the-candy-store feeling with VCV Rack: the Eurorack rush without spending anything at all. Since our last episode, we’ve gotten new 4ms Roland-style drums, some unique stuff from Venom, a trio of chaotic oscillators, and a sequencer inspired by the legendary HP 8006A Word Generator. Hands-on with these open-source creations — let’s go!

Peter Kirn - July 21, 2025

Visco is a warped drum machine that lets you squish sound like goo [hands on]

Peter Kirn - March 20, 2024

Mindmeld Shapemaster LFO-MSEG for VCV Rack and creating drums

Peter Kirn - November 28, 2023

Brahmaputra to AI: debashis sinha on practice, body, humanness, and his double release

Peter Kirn - March 23, 2023

Elektron’s Syntakt, broken down: a box of goodness with synthesis, effects, sequencing

Peter Kirn - April 21, 2022

Top music gear news from Superbooth 2021 – the CDM monster guide

Peter Kirn - September 22, 2021

CHAIR made an amazingly realistic snare plug-in – get a CDM discount, then play it on a table

Peter Kirn - July 26, 2021

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