Tim Exile opens up Karst, a node-based modular audio environment built not for tool designers but for songwriters. Cable-free auto-patching, baked-in generative tools and plugin hosting, all running in the browser first, with a standalone app and plugin due in Q4 2026.
1010music’s Bento pocket sampler gets firmware 1.5: the Shredder engine, XY-pad DJ multi-FX and audio over USB-C, all as a free download.
A young Hong Kong outfit shows up with a pocket synth unlike anything else on the shelf: the MD-7 swaps ordinary encoders for force-feedback motor discs and hands you its entire DSP engine to hack. Small box, big idea.
Japanese developer Jun Murakami has released Synth-80, which he presents as the first complete software emulation of the Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter revision 4. Available in VST3, AU, AAX and standalone versions, the plugin is based on an in-depth analysis of an original hardware unit and launches at $59. The Super Jupiter, that analogue treasure long out of software’s reach The MKS-80 Super Jupiter, released in 1984, is the rackmount version of Roland’s Jupiter-8 and Jupiter-6. Eight voices, two analogue oscillators per voice, in-house filters: it’s one of the most recognisable sources of pads, synth brass and basses of the…
Spotted in the latest Syntribe software, the Behringer Mini Pops 7 is no longer a rumor: the clone of the legendary Korg rhythm box Jean-Michel Jarre used on Oxygène is closing in — in RD-78 format, and this time fully programmable.
ASM has finalized the Sequencer Entropy Deviation engine on the Leviasynth. Firmware 1.2 turns the 16-voice, 8-operator FM flagship’s sequencer into a variation machine — the kind of long-haul software support that built the Hydrasynth’s reputation.
Teenage Engineering is rolling out OS 2.5 for its EP-133 K.O. II sampler as a free update. On the menu: a class-compliant USB audio interface, an arpeggiator, reverse playback and a new auto-chop. Enough to upgrade the little beat box from serious toy to genuine production hub. An update that changes the nature of the machine Released just a few days ago, OS 2.5 for the EP-133 K.O. II is not just a bugfix. Teenage Engineering is using the opportunity to bring its whole portable range into line: the EP-40 Riddim is also getting version 2.5, and the EP-1320 Medieval…
Three years after its first tease, the Behringer CS Mini is back — this time surfacing in the Synthtribe software, a sign a launch is nearing. A three-voice analog synth inspired by the legendary Yamaha CS-80, in a Volca-sized box, for a promised hundred dollars or so.
Xaoc Devices turns two Superbooth prototypes into shipping reality. The Skopje is a dual quantizer of rare precision, out now for around $419, while the Budapeszt is a stereo spectral processor that thrives on the interference between its filters. Two opposites, cut from the same demanding cloth.
Erica Synths and Dutch developer 112dB present the Razornator, a desktop effect unlike anything else in their catalogue: five chromatically tuned delay lines capable of turning a simple percussion hit, a pad or a drum machine into a swarm of plucked strings and metallic resonances. Behind the brutalist aesthetic lies an old idea from computer music, brought back up to date. Available since 3 July 2026, it is aimed at producers and sound recordists looking for a character that no generic plug‑in offers. The return of Karplus–Strong, in hardware form The heart of the Razornator is an algorithm many people…