Ekssperimental Sounds Studios analog-style wonders for Reason: hands-on

It’s a portal into a wonderland of retro-inspired gear, all in Reason. Sweden’s own Erik Karl Stephan Söderberg built EKSS as a one-man passion project, building Rack Extensions that ooze personality—that boutique hardware feeling, but all in the box. Come with me down the rabbit hole, including Erik’s fantastic new FreakShift effect and drum step-sequencer.

The joy of Splines, a module that can make anything from curves

It’s an oscillator, a step sequencer, a modulation and envelope source, a quantizer (with custom tunings) — even a scope, thanks to its interactive, animated visual interface. Thorn Audio’s new Eurorack module can make anything from elegant, precise curves. It’s more than just another do-everything module. Now you’re playing with Splines.

Peter Kirn - May 26, 2026

MSteppySnap for Ableton Live makes modulation playable, maleable

In a way, it’s funny how complicated we make modulation. We wind up creating layers of envelopes and free-running oscillations just to get what we want. Tomavatars’ MSteppySnap, once you grok its approach, is nothing like that. This is steppy snappy whooshy glorgy modulation you can play, capture, and trigger intuitively.

Peter Kirn - April 24, 2026

More Logic Pro 12 tweaks, MainStage 4 with Ableton Link: details

Peter Kirn - January 28, 2026

Turn that 1U row into a row of tactile TR-x0x step sequencing: Drummertime

Peter Kirn - November 7, 2025

Roland JUNO-D is a feature-packed mobile keyboard starting at $899

Peter Kirn - September 25, 2024

Android users get Polaris, a new pocket music maker

Peter Kirn - April 8, 2024

ALM/Busy Circuits’ first plugin is an FM drum synth with step sequencer

Peter Kirn - February 19, 2024

Sinevibes Switch v3 makes gate sequence FX devilishly simple

Peter Kirn - December 8, 2023