Francisco Partners exits Muse Group (Audacity, Hal Leonard, MuseScore)

Francisco Partners, the private equity firm, is now exiting Muse Group amid 2026’s financial maneuvers. Muse Group is the Cyprus-based conglomerate that owns the publishing giant Hal Leonard, audio editor Audacity, notation software MuseScore and StaffPad, and the online platform Ultimate Guitar.

Basil stereo delay completes Bastl’s PIZZA trio on VCV Rack — all for free

The freeware VCV Rack ports of Bastl’s delicious PIZZA family now include the original Pizza oscillator, Crust drum/percussive voice, and Basil stereo delay. Endless patching pleasures await with these (and don’t forget the free and open source KOMPAS “probability navigator,” too).

Peter Kirn - February 22, 2026

Airwindows VerbThic, VerbTiny let you go even more rabid for reverb, for free

Chris Johnson, aka Airwindows, continues to share his love for DSP with free tools, open source code, and elaborate discussions of the joy of crafting reverbs. So just in case you don’t feel blessed enough with free effects after SuperMassive’s new Sirius reverb/delay, here’s the tiny and the thick in all-new Airwindows editions. And they’ll even run in VCV Rack or on a Raspberry Pi.

Peter Kirn - December 3, 2025

SuperSonic: SuperCollider synth is fun, playful, colorful, free, in any Web page

Peter Kirn - November 15, 2025

plugdata 0.9.2 is huge update for this free sound exploration powerhouse

Peter Kirn - September 24, 2025

MiilkyTracker screenshot featuring new UI, CYCLE synth running.

MilkyTracker, legendary free music tool, just got a huge update

Peter Kirn - December 4, 2024

Tired of controller lock-in? Mixxx is a free DJ alternative; 2.4.2 out now

Peter Kirn - November 27, 2024

SuperCollider 3.12 updates massively powerful, free sound synthesis coding environment

Peter Kirn - August 4, 2021

Here’s some lovely music in the woods, on monome norns arcologies and more

Peter Kirn - June 14, 2021