The best of Universal Audio’s native plug-ins, in Spark or standalone

Universal Audio’s Spark subscription (native plug-ins) is on sale for 99 cents for 3 months for new customers through the end of the day Monday the 31st. That seems a good time to check in on the subscription offering, which is on my short list of subscriptions I’d consider. (If you prefer perpetual licenses, though, I’ve got some quick picks on their sale there, too.)

James Blake is pitching “Vault,” a subscription download service

Diagnosing the problem is easy – streaming is fundamentally broken and opposed to artists’ interests and no one likes it. But finding a solution? After going viral with a rant about streaming, James Blake has revealed his answer – but it’s one we’ve seen before.

Peter Kirn - March 21, 2024

LANDR, AI-powered mastering, all grown-up: plug-in test

LANDR’s machine learning-powered mastering service is now more than a simple web tool. The quality of the results has matured over years of development, and you can opt for a plug-in version with a complete set of tweakable controls. So, is the current offering worth considering, even if you know what you’re doing with mastering tools?

Peter Kirn - December 30, 2023

Minimal’s Current is a granular-wavetable synth with tons of FX and extras

Peter Kirn - October 11, 2023

Waves goes subscription-only; upgrade plan renewals to end

Peter Kirn - March 27, 2023

Roland now has 4 ways to play their 1991 JD-800 polysynth; here’s a breakdown

Peter Kirn - November 9, 2021

ROLI hits reboot, files for administration, as it shifts to beginners and subscriptions

Peter Kirn - September 3, 2021

Beatport DJ is in-browser DJing for everybody – a first look, from a producer-DJ perspective

Peter Kirn - March 3, 2021

Reason+ subscription could actually save you money

Peter Kirn - January 27, 2021

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