Thomann is celebrating its 70th anniversary with some great software deals! The retailer’s birthday is your chance to save on software synths from Vengeance, Rob Papen, and Cherry Audio, as well as mixing and mastering plugins from Universal Audio and LANDR. If you’re always on the hunt for great deals on soft synths and effects, check out these offers! But you’ll need to be quick – these exclusive deals expire on May 10, 2024. You can also find more exclusive deals for Thomann’s 70th anniversary here. 40% off Vengeance VPS Avenger 2! More than four years of development work went into Ve ..read more

The latest instalment in its Augmented series, Arturia Augmented YANGTZE, sees it venture east, blending traditional Chinese instruments with contemporary sound design. There are few instruments to evoke images and sentiments about a single country and its culture simply by hearing a single note from them. This can be said about the Erhu, Pipa or Yangqin. All three of these immediately evoke images of China. China has a rich culture and music is at the very heart of it. Arturia Augmented YANGTZE And it is these instruments, and more, that Arturia has cleverly captured and embedded in their po ..read more

One of the 80’s most loved and sought-after drum machines returns in the 21st century via the GForce Software Oberheim DMX, the first officially licensed plugin of its kind. Drum Machines. Once thought of as the end of human drummers. Thankfully, that prophecy never came true. But they soon became ubiquitous in popular music. When Roger Linn released the legendary LM-1, with its sample-based sound set, everyone else followed. Including Roger’s friend, Tom Oberheim. The Age of the Drum Machine You had to be around at the time to truly experience the impact that sample-based drum machines had ..read more

Ami Sampler is a free 8-bit sampler plugin inspired by the Commodore Amiga computer from the 80s! This week’s roundup of the best free plugins also features a vintage channel strip and a free string machine synth. Enjoy! Astriid Ami Sampler: Amiga-style 8-bit Sampler If you like vintage samplers, you’re going to love this one. Ami Sampler is a free 8-bit sampler plugininspired by the classic Commodore Amiga personal computer from the 80s (which famously offered four channels of 8-bit sampled audio – a big deal back then). I know I’m not the only one getting a bit ..read more

The Roland System 100M remains a high-water mark for both the company and analogue synthesizers in general. And yet its success was far from guaranteed. Read on to find out why. Roland System-100M If asked to name some modular synthesizer systems, you’d probably first come up with Eurorack, followed by Moog, Buchla and maybe Serge if you’re a real nerd. There are more, of course, including two from Japanese powerhouse Roland, the System-700 and System-100M. The former, the System-700, was prohibitively expensive. The latter, however, was not, and the System-100M served as an introduction to m ..read more

Already a stellar synth in every sense of the word, the Arturia MiniFreak Stellar now it has a colour scheme to match! It’s fair to say that the Arturia MiniFreak caused quite a stir when it was originally launched in late 2022. Arturia took their unique digital Freak oscillators and made a polyphonic synthesizer that was small in stature but huge in sound. It was a huge hit! Arturia MiniFreak StellarThe Arturia MiniFreak Stellar Now Arturia has given it a new paint job! Mirroring what they did with the MiniFreak, we now have a dark and brooding user interface. The all-black keys might not be ..read more

Is Oberheim about to release the TEO-5? A few weeks before Superbooth, images of what looks to be a new Oberheim synth have been leaked online. The Oberheim TEO-5 looks suspiciously similar to the Sequential Take 5. Oberheim TEO-5 The leak was discovered by a user on gearspace.com, who shared a few pictures allegedly leaked by a European retailer. If the images are real, Oberheim will likely unveil the new synth at Superbooth 24 in Berlin in a few weeks. Oberheim has partnered with Sequential several times, most notably for the OB-6 – a version of the Prophet-6 with Oberheim voice ..read more

The EX Upgrade now comes preloaded in the new flagship Roland FANTOM 6 EX, FANTOM 7 EX and FANTOM 8 EX synthesizers – including the JX-3P ACB Expansion! Roland FANTOM EX Synthesizers Roland’s top-of-the-line FANTOM 6, 7 and 8 workstation synthesizers came out in 2019. Built around ZEN-Core synthesis, they also featured SuperNATURAL and V-Piano technologies and were billed as Roland’s flagship synths.  EX marks the spot Last year November saw Roland rolling out the EX Upgrade, a significant (and paid) firmware booster that added a number of new features to the instruments, including Analo ..read more

This week’s synthesizer Sounds & Presets visits one of my favourite music sites on the internet, a free library of great sounds and some great patches from France! There’s no shame in using presets! There, I said it. Don’t let people tell you otherwise. Some of the greatest songs of all time use presets. Just ask Prince. Or Jean Michel Jarre. They both delivered love letters to the Roland D-50 with ‘Lovesexy’ and ‘Revolutions’ respectively. Both albums unashamedly used copious amounts of factory presets. And this week I bring you some doozies! Nothing here will break the bank and there’s ..read more

Superbooth 2024 is near and there will be loads and loads of new synths, samplers, drum machines, and Eurorack modules for sure! But there are also quite a few synth deals for the GAS’ers without a money tree this week. So you won’t even have the budget to get all these new toys! This week we found a couple of great deals for modules from Endorphin.es, a case from Eurorack inventor Doepfer, and even a few Volca models from Korg over at Thomann! Save 5% on Endorphonin.es Ghost – One of the most popular effects modules in Eurorack It isn’t much, 5 percent down from its usual asking price, but m ..read more