Teenage Engineering, smart speakers, China and cake

Teenage Engineering have been working with Chinese company Raven to produce artificially intelligent smart speakers the likes of which you've never seen. Currently, H and R only speak Chinese and love cake.

Wampler Paisley Drive Deluxe: Brad Paisley, The Underdog and the Paisley Drive

Wampler's relationship with Brad Paisley goes back to a time way before his original signature Paisley Drive pedal and this decently priced new 'Paisleydog' mixes two into one pedal.

Special Edition Throbbing Gristle TG ONE sample player module

TipTop Audio have been working with Throbbing Gristle's Chris Carter to curate a unique version of their ONE sample player. The TG ONE comes with new modes and 2 exclusive cards packed with TG samples.

Steinberg unveils 9.5 updates to Cubase Pro, Artist, and Elements

Version 9.5 brings a new mixing engine with 64-bit resolution for greater performance and even cleaner audio. The single-window layout now sees the addition of file browser and other useful panels to the ...

Apogee outs Mic Plus digital condenser microphone for Windows, Mac, and iOS

Apogee annonced an update to its digital condenser microphone, the Mic 96k. The new Mic Plus offers several improvements, in addition to the well-known Apogee preamp and A/D converter...

Guitar Jo – Make your guitar sound like a banjo!

This new gadget for your guitar will make it sound like a banjo, yes, a banjo. Its makers are currently looking for funding via Kickstarter - will you be tempted to give one a roll?

AIR sets off its Boom drum machine as stand-alone plug-in

features 10 electronic drum kits that pay homage to classics like the 808, 909, 606 and CR78. Each kit has 10 different drum sounds with adjustable pan, volume, tuning, and decay. They can be mixed and ...

Modor Eurorack Formant Filter is ready to morph your vowels

The Formant Filter from the Modor NF-1 is now available as a Eurorack module. It sounds every bit like you are running your oscillator through someone's throat.

CMixer digital mixer for live, DAW free mixing through your computer

With CMixer you could mix all your external hardware drum machines, synths and modular through your audio interface to your computer with plug-ins and EQ without having to mess about in a DAW.

Alter Audio Timetosser boxes in real-time audio slicing, dicing, and re-sampling

Timetosser is a ready to go re-sampling maschine - not that a Kaoss Pad or an iPad with effects apps won't be able to get you the same effects, but they can't beat this little box's immediacy...

BlinkWheel: Electromechanical step sequencer controlled by LEDs

Hackspace experimenter Koka Nikoladze has constructed the BlinkWheel electromechanical step sequencer that's programmed by the placement of LEDs that blink and trigger samples as the wheel turns.

TBProAudio DynaRide tames those troublesome loud or quiet parts

DynaRide probably won't smash drums in the style of a 1176, but might end up sounding cool and useful for other things - like more "surgical", mix leveling work. It looks modern, but with a vintage edge...

Gleetchlab 4: modular DAW of audio processing and mad manipulation

Gleetchlab 4 is for messing around with the nature of sound via 6 loopers and a load of processors to filter, stretch, delay, degrade, Gristleize, percolate, resonate and modulate.

XT Synth: space age guitar violin ribbon synth MIDI controller

Looking like the sort of instrument played by space rockers Andromeda on TV show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the XT Synth positively pulsates with possibilities.

Flintpope Palette brings some thick synth pads for free on Windows and Mac

in case you are in the mood to try something new, here's a cool freebie that just popped up - Palette is inspired by paintboxes and has eight coloured rectangles that trigger samples.

trig31: 8-channel trigger-to-MIDI converter for Eurorack

Send triggers out to a drum machine or MIDI sound source with Vladimir Pantelic's trig31 8-channel trigger-to-MIDI converter. Time to dust off that Dr Rhythm or groovebox and get it back into your mix.

Revelation Guitars’ Marrakesh Quarter Note: Microtonal fun on a budget

If you fancy opening up your musical world then you should take a look at this cool new offset guitar that has more to offer than many others out there...

MalletSTATION: The MIDI controller that beats your beats with beaters

I had no idea that the MIDI input paradigm that was missing from my life was mallets. The Pearl Drum MalletSTATION is here to change all that and it's got to be this season's must-have controller.

Sonimus combines the Black & Brown SSL 4K equalizers in its StonEQ 4k plug-in

Rather than go for a straight-up emulation, which has been done hundreds of times, Sonimus combined the best traits of the SSL 4K EQ's two variants - the Brown and Black versions...

Warm Audio WA-47jr – the Neumann U47 replica for $299 is a thing now

A $299 Neumann U47 clone? Why not - the technology is there, and $299 is (more or less) what it costs to produce a convincing replica. So give it up for Warm Audio and its WA-47jr mic...

MusineKit 2: A musical adventure playground

Developed by Sensomusic and La Muse En Circuit, MusineKit 2 brings a playful and creative musical box of modules to touch, control, manipulate and mess about with on Windows or MacOS. Pure joyfulness.

Best free plug-ins this week: Little Plate, MSpectralPan, AAS Session Bundle

This week saw some excellent freebies pop up in time for those gloomy November productions of yours. Check out Little Plate, MSpectralPan, and a great offer for Focusrite users...

ALM about to release an Akai S950 filter clone module called MUM M8?

I put on my detective badge and track down the clues to uncover a rumoured Akai S950 filter clone by ALM/BusyCircuits. Some shaky images and second hand sightings point to the name MUM M8.

MSK 007 Leapfrog VCF: a filter like no other?

The MSK 007 Leapfrog VCF claims to uncover old filter architecture that's never been used in modular before. Is it just me or does it look every bit like an oscillator?