VST is 30 years old, and Steinberg is giving away some of its earliest plugins

It’s the format that changed software music making forever: the VST plug-in format turns 30 this year. Steinberg is giving away updated versions of Neon, CS-40, Karlette, VB1, and LM7 — some of its earliest plug-ins — to celebrate. And that means you can run these vintage instruments (plus one tape delay) on your modern Mac or PC.

Vintage Max patches revived: free downloads, Leafcutter John and Suren

Suren Seneviratne (My Panda Shall Fly) has been painstakingly cataloging lost software, oldschool patches, and retro musical practices, reviving old machines and software and breathing new life into them. But now, we get some classic Max patches, remade for the current era of Max patches. Download them for free, and listen in as Suren interviews Leafcutter John and John interviews Suren.

Peter Kirn - July 31, 2026

Impactor, Rupture 2 by Rawton Forge are perfect percussion synths for Live

That’s it. Rawton Forge has nailed it. With the new Rupture 2 on the kick and bass drum synthesis side, and Impactor handling general-purpose percussion synthesis for kicks/toms/tonal, you have an ideal floor-rattling, punchy, snappy synthesis duo for Ableton Live.

Peter Kirn - July 31, 2026

Last call on these summer sales on gear and software

Peter Kirn - July 27, 2026

In Expressive E’s Noisy 2.6 synth, expression everywhere, MIDI to MPE

Peter Kirn - July 23, 2026

Digital Arabic Maqām Archive and open-source MIDI plug-in now available

Peter Kirn - July 22, 2026

Free BEAST Repeat for Ableton Live is so good, you’ll switch genres to IDM

Peter Kirn - July 22, 2026

This free Ableton Extension slices up chunks of audio for Move, Live

Peter Kirn - July 17, 2026

With audio and VST3 support, Isadora is now a complete interactive canvas

Peter Kirn - July 14, 2026