After 20+ years in professional audio: live sound engineering, studio technical direction (Deep Forest, Pierre Jacquot), head of digital marketing at Playback.fr. A first-hand witness to the analog-to-digital shift, I track the whole audio landscape and break it down here — no fluff.
The Roland RE-201 Space Echo is still the reference for tape echo. Here are eight plugins that bring it into your DAW, from free to high-end — and, honestly, which ones truly do the job versus which are only cousins.
Dawesome sets Abyss II for 20 August 2026: the second generation of its visual synth deepens the engine, adds a mono mode, sample import and full MPE support, without abandoning its founding idea — designing sound by colour rather than by calculation.
Softube releases the Reference 1998 and Reference 1956 Equalizer, two passive tube EQs built for colour and broad musical moves. Available for macOS and Windows from $79, with mid/side and a Headroom control on the 1956.
Lawo gives its Edge One a European debut at IBC 2026: a compact edge device combining video (SDI, HDMI) and audio (MADI, XLR, USB-C) connectivity on a native ST 2110 network, with swappable modules and on-demand FLEX licensing.
A PA system isn’t tuned by ear alone. Delay, phase, gain, tonal response: here’s how to align mains, subs and delays so the whole room hears the same sound.
Triton Audio, the company behind the FetHead, adds a single-knob tone control to its in-line preamp. The Tilt EQ delivers 22 dB of clean gain and reshapes a mic’s tone straight off the XLR, without ever passing phantom power to the microphone.
Just months after being acquired by inMusic, Native Instruments is going through a heavy restructuring: a reported UK office closure, roles on Maschine, Kontakt and Komplete at risk, and a reshuffled leadership. Here’s what’s really at stake for one of the pillars of music software — and for your plugins.
Pittsburgh Modular brings its flagship semi-modular workstation back to life. The Lifeforms SV-2 is no mere SV-1 facelift: it’s a complete rethink, with two thru-zero oscillators, a dual multimode filter section, saturation stages scattered across the signal path and, best of all, a built-in Eurorack bay. Available now at €1,599.
Analog cable and multicore are losing ground to the Ethernet network. But between Dante, AES67, Ravenna and SMPTE ST 2110, it’s easy to get lost. Here’s a clear guide to what audio over IP really is, how these standards fit together, and what you need to master before deploying an audio network.
Fender rolls out its first two pad controllers, the Motion 16 and Motion 32. Each packs FATAR-built RGB pads with polyphonic aftertouch, built-in songwriting tools and tight integration with Fender’s own DAW. A quiet move that says a lot about the company’s software ambitions.