ADPTR Utopia: what makes this spectral reverb one of the best effects of 2025

Move over, recycled ideas and emulations: it’s been a year of reimagining entire effects categories. And ADPTR Audio’s Utopia stands out in a 2025 class of reverbs that are more than just reverbs. Here’s a look at why it’s an effect I can’t put down, why it’s so much fun to tweak, and how the developers thought about it.

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

The best music making software and plug-in deals right now

Sale-itis has made the full year a maddening deluge of discounts. (You know who you are, inbox plagues!) But here are some legitimately excellent deals on music software available now.

Peter Kirn - December 1, 2025

Black Friday: pimp my Live with the best add-ons

Peter Kirn - November 28, 2025

Super Massive 5 adds Sirius echo/reverb to the best free plugin in the galaxy

Peter Kirn - November 28, 2025

What happens when AI-synthesized vocals meet choral notation?

Peter Kirn - November 26, 2025

3D visuals arrive in Ableton Live, easy as synths, with Unreal-powered SenSei

Peter Kirn - November 26, 2025

Live 12.3 final is here: what’s new that isn’t Splice or stems

Peter Kirn - November 25, 2025

Sinevibes Cache has turned into a buffer-mangling, playable breaks machine

Peter Kirn - November 25, 2025

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