West Coast, with penguins: Aaltoverb on Linux; Aalto 2 coming soon

Madrona Labs’ patchable West Coast synth is one of the most playable, exploration-friendly, unique instruments around — a piece of software to last. And it comes with a reverb companion, now on Linux, too as a free demo you can beta-test. The big news: Aalto 2 is coming this fall for macOS, Windows — and Linux, too.

Cook every day: read Suzanne Ciani’s 1976 Buchla Cookbook, for free

In 1976, Suzanne Ciani reported back to the USA’s National Endowment for the Arts with a report on her compositions, in the form of a modular cookbook. Now you can read her notes and follow along using entirely free software, complete with sound examples. I love overusing the cookbook metaphor, maybe just because food is […]

Peter Kirn - September 21, 2026

Buchla Ziggy: the complex oscillator gets a friendly standalone synth

It’s been decades in coming: what if you took the best parts of the classic Buchla complex oscillator with its, well, ziggy waveshapes, and built a friendly compact synth around it? It’s all that modular fun, but in a package that lets you tweak right away without connecting a single patch cord.

Peter Kirn - May 5, 2026

The low pass gate, now in stereophonic sound: Make Noise unveils DXG

Peter Kirn - January 8, 2024

Multiphonics CV-2 goes waveshaping: what’s in the AAS modular’s 2.1 update

Peter Kirn - August 4, 2023

Serge GTO multi-function module, now shipping, brings a rare legacy to Eurorack

Peter Kirn - April 24, 2023

Compusynth video demo and tutorial, to help you go west coast Altair

Peter Kirn - December 9, 2022

Compusynth is like a love child of a west coast modular and the Altair 8800 computer

Peter Kirn - December 5, 2022

Watch this video with tricks to get more out of KORG’s west-coast volca modular

Peter Kirn - August 12, 2022