Massive power, every format: the BB-777 brings back a boombox icon

It was arguably the moment the boombox peaked: the GF-909/GF-777 from Sharp boasted dual cassettes, radio, and massive sound. Now, Bumpboxx has decided to reboot that boom box for 2026, with a modern machine that can do everything — CDs, tapes, radio, USB, Bluetooth connectivity, the works. It could be a holy grail across every generation burned out on soulless streaming and ready to love music all over again.

Komplete 14 adds Kontakt 7, expands bundle, but M1/M2 support is spotty — at a glance

KOMPLETE 14 is coming later this month, with a major software update to the KOMPLETE sampler following in October. That includes some major expansion to bundled tools, but still incomplete support for new Apple machines until late 2022 / early 2023. Here’s an overview of what’s new. What’s new KOMPLETE 14 is the first landmark […]

Peter Kirn - September 8, 2022

Roland releases JUNO-X polysynth, which can be a vintage JUNO, or a lot more

The days of Roland slapping a vintage name on something fairly unrelated are over. The JUNO-X will absolutely behave like a vintage JUNO. But the digital heart underneath also means it’ll be everything from a vocoder to a JD-800 – which means if you are in the market for a Roland keyboard, you’ve got some choices to make.

Peter Kirn - April 27, 2022