GForce Halogen FM makes playing with frequencies fun all over again – review

Quick: when was the last time when you just messed with a synthesizer knobs and played with waveforms for the sheer joy of it? The new soft synth from GForce dumps all the algorithms and black-box elements of FM in favor of the visceral pleasure of messing around with sound. It’s not another historical emulation. It’s an FM playground.

Dirty, punchy, free: this plug-in rendition of the Korg Poly-61 is raw and perfect

The 1982 Poly-61 was a grimy, cheap, raw-sounding quintessential 80s synth. It doesn’t have any of the star power of other Korg instruments or rivals from Roland and Sequential. So instead of a commercial remake, what we get is free. But it’s fantastic. It’s way better than you’d expect from a free plug-in. Meet the Full Bucket Music FURY-68.

Peter Kirn - May 6, 2025

Linux DAW is a one-stop catalog of free and proprietary plug-ins for Linux

From full free and open-source software to proprietary favorites from other platforms, the plug-in options on Linux have quietly come into their own. linuxdaw.org has a visual, searchable catalog – and it’s a reminder of just how spoiled for choice you are even without Windows or macOS.

Peter Kirn - November 8, 2024

Rare Oberheim OB-1 is perfect as a plug-in: review, Tom Oberheim vid

Peter Kirn - July 12, 2024

Niche no more – Dials by AudioThing, Hainbach proves test equipment models can be essential

Peter Kirn - September 29, 2022

With AudioThing Noises, a noise generator becomes more than a noise generator

Peter Kirn - February 17, 2022

Free plug-ins: iZotope Trash 2 is free for a limited time for your distortion and mangling needs

Peter Kirn - December 28, 2021

VCV Rack 2 arrives – standalone is still free, $99 intro gets plug-ins with VST right away – details

Peter Kirn - November 30, 2021

Now that Ableton Live is Apple Silicon-native, will your plug-ins and tools still work?

Peter Kirn - September 29, 2021

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