Impactor, Rupture 2 by Rawton Forge are perfect percussion synths for Live

That’s it. Rawton Forge has nailed it. With the new Rupture 2 on the kick and bass drum synthesis side, and Impactor handling general-purpose percussion synthesis for kicks/toms/tonal, you have an ideal floor-rattling, punchy, snappy synthesis duo for Ableton Live.

Free: 4ms VCV Rack ROMplers put gobs of drums under voltage control

The library for the free and open source VCV Rack has been on fire lately. But this one is a standout: 4ms has a sprawling library of ROMpler modules based on classic drum-machine samples. And don’t let the “ROMpler” part fool you: those samples are ready for full voltage control.

Peter Kirn - May 19, 2026

Elastic OSC, Plaits-derived poly, is now a macOS and Windows plug-in, too

Elastic OSC expands on Émilie Gillet’s 24 original open-source Plaits oscillator models, adding 8-voice polyphony, expression (MPE), a modulation engine, and Elastic effects. And if that sounds like something you wish you had in your computer DAW and not just Android and iOS, now you’re in luck.

Peter Kirn - May 6, 2026

CLÄPP II from Beardyman is the perfect Ableton Live clap — and more

Peter Kirn - April 6, 2026

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

Peter Kirn - January 9, 2026

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

Peter Kirn - January 8, 2026

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

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