Tools For Live Session Builders: Defeating The 16-Bar Loop
Derek Oswald
House Session Builder, DNB Session Builder, and Silence Stripper handle two jobs that can stall a track: arranging the music and editing unwanted silence. Tell me if this sounds familiar. I had a track ...
Eternal Engine MARS: Behind One of 2026’s Coolest Synths
Derek Oswald
The backstory of one of 2026’s most ambitious synths. Long before MARS took its current form, Alexander spent years at Vyacheslav Grigoriev’s VG-Line workshop with other people’s synthesizers open on the bench. Roughly fifteen ...
Morphor ECHON 6: BBD Resonators, and Gorgeous Chaos
Derek Oswald
The following opinions are based around our experiences with a loaned review unit from Morphor. About halfway up the ECHON 6‘s feedback control, one initialized patch started groaning like heavy machinery trying to fold ...
Knight Drum 2: An EPROM Powered Vintage Workstation
Derek Oswald
Disclosure: Knightmare Audio provided a complimentary Knight Drum license for coverage. The company had no editorial control over this article. The first Knight Drum’s workflow centered on direct EPROM support. Knight Drum 2 now ...
Bass DNA: Anthony Marinelli’s 5 Great Bass Foundations
Derek Oswald
Rubbery Moog bass, P-Funk squelch, and modulation that gets downright weird. Anthony Marinelli’s Bass DNA covers a lot of sonic territory, from building a patch with a single oscillator to finding that sweet spot ...
Tech House Market SPIT, LOCK and KIX: Superb Debut Plugins
Derek Oswald
Disclosure: In response to our own early interest, Tech House Market provided AltWire with complimentary advance copies of SPIT, LOCK and KIX for editorial coverage – however all opinions contained herein are our own. ...
I AM CHOIR (2026): A New Era of Choir Vocals
Derek Oswald
Lenard Skolnik, also known professionally as Yung Spielburg, loves the day the singers come in. On records where group vocals were part of the sound, he would sometimes bring ten people into the room ...
Review: D16’s Classic Boxes Go Beyond Straight Emulation
Derek Oswald
AltWire occasionally receives plugins or products at no cost for review consideration. Well, full disclosure, and I’m embarrassed to admit this: D16 Group gave me the Classic Boxes Collection quite a while ago after ...
Rawton Max For Live Creator Spotlight: Weird In The Best Ways
Derek Oswald
Max for Live is one reason I have such a hard time imagining myself leaving Ableton. I’m always finding a new developer who’s built a device that attacks an old problem from a new ...
Terminal (VST) Review – Now Clip It, Clip It Good
Derek Oswald
When I’m not chasing Eurodance or 90s dance music drenched in complete cheese, I usually end up at the other end of the spectrum, designing hard techno tracks and industrial tracks that sit at ...
GND-1T Review: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Derek Oswald
The GND-1T is a strange beast, and trying to summarize its sound feels a little like opening a dictionary and deciding to use every word in one very long sentence. Or, better yet, borrowing ...
Waldorf Protein Review: The 90’s In An Affordable Box
Derek Oswald
Waldorf used the oscillator research behind its Microwave 1 Plugin as the foundation for a $399 four-layer hardware synth. Is Waldorf’s ’90s-influenced box, the Waldorf Protein worth your time? Lately, I’ve been obsessed with ...
Nord Electro 7 Review: A Best of Both Worlds Nord
Derek Oswald
My first experience with the Nord Electro 7 was likely a bit different from most. Rather than spending those first ten minutes on glissandos, random noodling, or menu diving, I took another path: I ...
Stride 1.4.1 Review: Turning Happy Accidents Into Movement
Derek Oswald
Stride is a parameter-motion tool built around fast experimentation, editable automation, and the happy accidents in between. Note: Clicking on any of the Stride links within this story will provide you with an automatic ...
Kasser Synths DAFM Genesis: Party Like It’s 1989
Derek Oswald
Green Hill Zone has been in my head for most of my life, so hearing that familiar tone coming out of the DAFM Genesis was always going to hit the nostalgia button pretty hard. ...
NINA (Melbourne Instruments) in 2026: Better Than Ever
Derek Oswald
Within seconds of its first power-on, Melbourne Instruments’ NINA already looks unlike anything else on the desk. After a brief boot, every knob starts moving on its own, snapping into position to match the ...
Flaus Electric Flosser Review: The Perfect Flosser For People Who Loathe Flossing
Derek Oswald
Welcome to our Home & Wellness section. In 2026, the ALT in Altwire becomes Audio, Living & Tech. I must say, I never expected I’d be reviewing an electronic flosser on Altwire. But honestly, ...
Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave 8M Review: All That You Loved About The OG PPG, Plus A Whole Lot More
Derek Oswald
When Bob Coover first pitched me on the 3rd Wave 8M in mid-September 2025, he said something I probably filed under sales optimism at first: “You can make any sound you want with this ...
Blipblox myTRACKS Review: A $349 Groovebox That Helps Children’s Music Creation Feel Like Magic
Derek Oswald
Fifteen minutes after the Blipblox myTRACKS arrived at my doorstep, I had it sitting on the desk with the built-in speaker pointed toward the ceiling. Then I hit the RNDM button for the first ...
I Bought My First Moog for $550. Kulshan Studios Turned It Into an Electronic Music Gem
Derek Oswald
Disclaimer: Kulshan Studios sent me the preset packs for this review, but had no editorial control over the final piece. A clean Subsequent 25 popped up on Facebook Marketplace for $550. Honestly, I probably ...
