Music Production Forum

Dutch producer Pythius has spent more than a decade blurring the line between cinematic sound design and high-intensity drum and bass. His music balances chaos with control, combining distorted percussion, dark melodies, and detailed atmospheres that feel both mechanical and alive. Over the years, he has built a strong reputation for pushing boundaries across genres, performing at major festivals including Let It Roll, Rampage, Lowlands, and Beats for Love... The post Inside Pythius’s workflow for fusing metal and drum and bass first appeared on Native Instruments Blog. View the full article

Soundtoys offers the Little Plate plate reverb plugin for free until December 18th as part of the 12 Days of Soundtoys promotion. The free offer on Little MicroShift (my absolutely favorite Soundtoys plugin from the Little lineup) just expired, but the next freebie is equally sweet. If you’ve ever wanted the lush sound of a [...] View post: Soundtoys is giving away Little Plate for FREE until December 18 View the full article

Which were the best-selling synths of this year? We got an exclusive look at Thomann’s sales figures in 2025. Get ready for some surprises! We asked our retail partner Thomann which synths flew off the shelves this year, sorted by number of units sold. Not surprisingly, the list of best-selling synths is dominated by budget instruments. Nevertheless, some of this year’s best-sellers came as real surprises to me! ... The post Top 10 Best-Selling Synths of 2025 appeared first on gearnews.com. View the full article

In late October, some Sweetwater customers received notification that their pre-orders of the Behringer Pro-16 and VCS 3 were suddenly being cancelled. This came after the company exhibited a prototype of the Pro-16 — an emulation of the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 with 16 voices — at its booth at NAMM earlier this year. Users on a Reddit post about the cancellations guessed that this may be due to market saturation, with too many unpurchased instruments cluttering up warehouses and stock shelves. And with global tariffs, inflation and other economic woes hitting buyers hard in the purse, it wouldn’t be surprising if things had reached a breaking point, users said. So w…

For a limited time, KV331 Audio is giving away Synthmaster One, a full-featured wavetable synthesizer that rivals established giants like Serum and Massive X. The plugin is available for macOS and Windows and impresses with its clear structure, ease of use, and flexible sound design. What’s particularly exciting is that this is not a stripped-down version, but the complete plugin, which normally costs around $49. An offer not to be missed! ... The post KV331 Synthmaster One as Freeware: Free Wavetable Synth for Fat Sounds! appeared first on gearnews.com. View the full article

Upon its 2024 release, Arturia’s AstroLab was described by company co-founder Frédéric Brunas as “everything we’ve ever wanted to achieve.” Back then, I noted in my cover story for MusicTech that the story of the AstroLab, a keyboard that places presets from the Analog Lab software plugin into a computerless hardware setup, is really the story of Arturia. The France-based developer was initially founded by Frédéric Brun and Gilles Pommereuil as a software-only company, but its offering soon diversified with hardware synths, controllers and more. AstroLab ties them back together... The post Arturia’s AstroLab 37 review: Big sounds, small footprint appeared first on MusicTe…

Zebralette 3 is based on a single oscillator from Zebra 3.… Read More U-He Zebralette 3 Now Available As A Free DownloadView the full article

Parrot creates rhythmic patterns by sampling small slices of incoming audio, and repeating it in a sequenced loop.… Read More Klevgrand Intros Parrot Audio Repeater EffectView the full article

Telequencer takes inspiration from the Make Noise Rene, bringing the experimental spirit of modular synthesis into the digital realm.… Read More New Generative Step Sequencer For Ableton Live, TelequencerView the full article

Developer Alexander Zolotov has introduced Low Poly Synth, described as "a generator of melodic atmospheric sounds with billions of unique timbres."… Read More Low Poly Synth Now Available For Android, iOS, Linux, Mac & WindowsView the full article

At the Show, you’ll be able to see one of five Keith Emerson Moog Modular System (KEMMS) reissues and a panel celebrating Emerson and his work. … Read More Keith Emerson Moog Modular Reissue & Memorial Panel At 2026 NAMM ShowView the full article

Owners of the Behringer Edge will want to check out the latest firmware, which the company says delivers important improvements to overall MIDI performance and system stability.… Read More Behringer Edge Update Fixes MIDI Timing IssuesView the full article

Every schematic, PCB, panel, and part list is available and ready for DIY.… Read More New Open Source Synth, Shmøergh Moduleur, Features ‘Tons Of Fun Sh**’View the full article

Image-Line CEO Constantin Koenche has announced FL Studio Web, a browser-based version of the beloved DAW, FL Studio — better known to many as FruityLoops. FL Studio Web isn’t a complete port of FL Studio desktop, but it boasts the same workflow, FL Cloud integration, stock FL Studio plugins, and a strikingly similar GUI. Koenche says the DAW is designed as both a “gateway into music production” and a powerful on-the-go companion for experienced users. In practice, that means that you can start a track in the browser, save the project, and access it later at FL Studio desktop, complete with the full suite of Image-Line plugins. At least, that’s the theory — MusicTech hasn…

IK Multimedia has kicked off its December AmpliTube 5 CS giveaway, and it’s a huge one, with six guitar gear module giveaways. IK’s AmpliTube 5 CS is a free guitar and bass workstation, and a 64-bit exclusive release for macOS and Windows. The gear freebies for December 2025 are the Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb head, [...] View post: IK Multimedia drops huge AmpliTube 5 CS December promo with 6 freebies View the full article

We’ve had quite a few Zebralette updates in recent months, as the highly anticipated third edition neared the end of a lengthy beta phase – and now, Zebralette 3 is out! After immeasurable hard work and dedication from Urs Heckman and his team at u-he, we can finally say the wait is over, and Zebralette [...] View post: Zebralette 3 is here: The latest version of u-he’s freeware classic is official View the full article

Developer Orchestral Tools has released FFOSSO, a freemium instrument player for macOS and Windows. We’ve seen freebies from Orchestral Tools before, like the Berlin Free Orchestra for SINE Player, but FFOSSO is a little different. You can use FFOSSO in two ways: with a free account, or with a paid subscription (€10 per month). Orchestral [...] View post: Orchestral Tools releases FFOSSO, a freemium instrument player for macOS and Windows View the full article

Kushview is the developer behind the recent DuckDuck and Goose one-knob dynamics plugins, and ReTuner is the latest addition to their catalog. ReTuner is a free and open-source pitch-shifting plugin for music tuning conversion. The ReTuner plugin is available in AU, VST3, CLAP, LV2, and Standalone formats for macOS, Windows, and Linux. You can download [...] View post: Kushview releases ReTuner, a FREE tuning conversion plugin View the full article

Infinite Digits has released AmenBreak VST, a performance-based beat slicer and sample mangler for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with a generous free version that’s well worth your time. I appreciate it when a paid plugin comes with a free edition that isn’t crippled or constantly nagging you to upgrade, and AmenBreak VST gets this part [...] View post: AmenBreak VST offers a generous FREE edition and a hands-on approach to break mangling View the full article

Inlet Audio has released ANIMATE and SPHERE, two free sample libraries for Native Instruments Kontakt (they also require the Pulse Downloader), aimed at composers and producers who enjoy atmospheric, organic, and cinematic textures. Before getting into the sounds, there’s one important thing to mention upfront: both libraries require the full version of Kontakt (6.8.0 or [...] View post: Inlet Audio releases ANIMATE and SPHERE, two FREE atmospheric Kontakt libraries View the full article

Solid State Logic has released SpringVerb, a vintage-inspired spring reverb plugin for macOS and Windows, and it’s currently available at a discount along with some pretty awesome bonus freebies at Plugin Boutique. I’ve had a soft spot for spring reverb ever since I fell down the dub music rabbit hole roughly 25 years ago (Your [...] View post: Get the new Solid State Logic SpringVerb for $29 + a Plugin Boutique freebie View the full article

When a software instrument becomes a standard in multiple industries— the way that Omnisphere did almost immediately after its release in 2008— it’s easy for a developer to become progressively complacent. Omnisphere is such a household name by now that I’ve even heard naysayers refer to it as a “mere ROMpler” in an attempt to discredit or invalidate its status... The post Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere 3 review: Still ahead of the competition appeared first on MusicTech. View the full article

Boutique synth designer Love Hultén has announced Works II - a new retrospective of his recent custom synthesizer designs and mods. … Read More New Book Looks At Unique Synth Designs Of Love HulténView the full article

I decided to take a look at some of the more expressive synths of the last 40 years that I have owned and used. From mighty digital giants to emotive analog beasts, I explore instruments in my collection that have used innovative ways to add expression to your keyboard performances. I’m not the most proficient keyboard player, hence my need to surround myself with enough technology to help eke out the ideas in my head into some sort of musical product. But when I discovered the KORG Prophecy on the mid/late 90s, I found a synthesizer whose expression capabilities actually made me sound like I knew what I was doing! So here, along with the Prophecy, I wanted to talk about …

Soundtoys is giving away Little MicroShift for free today as part of its annual 12 Days of Christmas promotion, and if you’ve been following BPB for a while, you’ll know this is a big deal. Little MicroShift is hands down my favorite Soundtoys freebie. I originally grabbed it during a similar promotion back in 2020, [...] View post: Soundtoys offers Little MicroShift for FREE in its 12 Days of Christmas promotion View the full article

U-He has announced that Zebra 3 is now available as a public beta. … Read More U-He Zebra 3 Now Available As BetaView the full article

KV331 Audio has made SynthMaster One free until January 4th (and you can, of course, keep your free license afterwards). The popular wavetable synth is yet another fantastic Christmas giveaway we’ve seen this month, following the freebies from Soundtoys, Universal Audio, iZotope, and others. SynthMaster One typically costs $49 (and often sells for around $25 [...] View post: KV331 Audio makes SynthMaster One FREE until January 4 View the full article

North Carolina-based synth maker GLX Audio shared this preview of the Balsam 8-Voice Modal Synthesizer.… Read More Balsam 8-Voice Modal Synthesizer First LookView the full article

Developer nakst has announced that Integrate, a virtual analog synthesizer for Windows and Linux, is now available for free. The instrument was initially priced at $54.99 when released in 2022. Integrate takes inspiration from classic virtual analog synths but isn’t a straight emulation of any single piece of hardware. Instead, it feels like a modern [...] View post: nakst Integrate virtual analog synthesizer for Windows and Linux is now FREE View the full article

Not too long ago, during the chaos of Black Friday promotions, Universal Audio offered us one free plugin from a collection of ten products. The good news is that anyone who missed out on the Black Friday giveaway now has a second chance to grab one of those ten plugins for free. The even better [...] View post: Universal Audio follows up its Black Friday freebie with another holiday giveaway View the full article