Audio Damage ShinRonin, now free, is a throwback to 2003 plug-in design

You wake up. It’s the year 2003. Some upstart software developer called Audio Damage wants to let you patch a combo filter-delay however you like, including ways that will break your ears. Ronin is reborn as ShinRonin, from a time when software developers let you run with scissors and do strange things. This is one […]

Download a book on Dutch electronic music history, Philips and beyond, free

Kees Tazelaar’s On the Threshold of Beauty is a wonderful plunge into the history of electronic music in the Netherlands, 1925-1965, including the Philips Pavilion and the World’s Fair, but a whole lot more. It’s free to download now — the perfect beach book if you’re a total nerd. (Welcome home.)

Peter Kirn - July 3, 2026

Pac-Man, Befaco RANDOM8, and more free modules of VCV Rack

Your sequencing gets upgraded — including cameos by Pac-Man and the LOGO turtle. You get even more secret weapons for drum synthesis. You get the hot new RANDOM8 collab from Befaco and Mylar Melodies, cloning their new hardware. There’s just so much goodness in VCV Rack that covering the free stuff has me dizzy. Here’s your June update, with some sound examples.

Peter Kirn - June 18, 2026

Turn Ableton Push 3 into a single expressive percussive surface, free

Peter Kirn - June 15, 2026

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

Peter Kirn - May 19, 2026

Free: Minimal Audio Hybrid Filter, and some tips on how to use it

Peter Kirn - May 19, 2026

Free emulations of 80s Alesis MIDIVERB II, MicroVerb, in plug-in form

Peter Kirn - April 27, 2026

You can now get eight of UA’s best plug-ins free, plus the free LUNA DAW

Peter Kirn - April 15, 2026

Sonify data in Ableton Live with a free MIDI Tool; weather data walkthrough

Peter Kirn - March 25, 2026