Hardware Reviews
Death By Audio: The Destroyer Series – 3 Small But Mighty Pedals
Derek Oswald
Death By Audio has been hand-building noisy pedals in New York for over twenty years. The Fuzz War is standard-issue in noise rock. The Rooms is one of the most unhinged stereo reverbs you ...
Heavys H1H Review: Finally, Headphones That Respect Rock
Derek Oswald
Full disclosure, I am aware these have been out for several years. However, I kept seeing these pop up on my feed during the holidays, with Instagram videos of people listening at trade shows, ...
Audima Labs The Sway Review: An Entertaining New Take on DJing
Derek Oswald
The Birth of The Sway If you live in Australia, your first introduction to The Sway or Audima Labs may have been on Shark Tank Australia, where many startups get their first spotlight. However, ...
Trap Door Electronics Active Acid: Prophet-5 Character In A Stomp Box
Derek Oswald
If recent reviews and demo videos on AltWire haven’t already made this clear, I’m a massive fan of acid-style music. Its sounds, its subgenres, and the numerous 303 hardware clones, tributes, and VSTs that ...
Sim’n Tonic Nome II Review: Finally Making MIDI Timing Work The Way It Should Have Since 1983.
Derek Oswald
Here’s the thing about running hardware synths into a DAW: it should be simple. MIDI has been around since 1983. Your interface has MIDI ports, your DAW sends clock, and with significant advances in ...
The ESI XSynth Review: A Surprising Tiny Synth With Brilliant Depth
Derek Oswald
I first saw the XSynth on Instagram and had to get my hands on it. At 387×148×27 mm and 634 grams, this is the iPhone Air of the synth world, with a size that ...
Home Bake Instrument’s Acid Mint & FM Mint MK1: Our Latest Cool Reverb Finds
Derek Oswald
As with so many of my Reverb finds, this one started with a random Instagram account that the algorithm decided I needed to see: over and over again. My first encounter with Home Bake ...
Eternal Research Demon Box (2025) Review: Playing with Electromagnetic Fields
Derek Oswald
A unique instrument that turns invisible magnetic fields into playable sound. Everything hums, but most of us never hear it. The Demon Box, created by Eternal Research in Los Angeles, captures invisible electromagnetic fields ...
Waldorf Iridium Core Review (2025): A Greatest Hits Collection Disguised as a Desktop Synth
Derek Oswald
Waldorf has been around long enough that you can watch digital synthesis evolve simply by looking at their catalog. The early PPG influence shaped everything. Those bright, shifting wavetables became a signature of late-80s and early-90s electronic ...
Norand Mono MK2: A Delicious Sounding Acid Synth That’s Not A 303-Clone
Derek Oswald
Norand hasn’t been around as long as the big Japanese or American brands, but their path is already pretty clear. The company is based in France and started with its first release, the original ...
Board Review: Rebuilding Game Night for Our Distracted Brains in 2025
Derek Oswald
There is a quiet irony to modern social life. We have never been more connected, and we have never spent so much time sitting next to one another without actually interacting. Phones glow on ...
IK Multimedia ARC On-Ear: Better Monitoring, On The Go
Derek Oswald
Headphones are often the most practical monitoring option, but they rarely replicate a full-room sound. They isolate each ear, eliminate acoustic blending between channels, and remove the cues created by speakers interacting with a ...
Gibson x Loog SG Guitar Review: 2025’s Best Guitar For Children
Derek Oswald
When our tester, Jordan, first introduced the Gibson x Loog SG to their home, it wasn’t their first attempt to help their 11-year-old daughters, Adalynn and Autumn, get into guitar. Previous efforts with full-size ...
Synido TempoPad C16: A Capable 16-Pad Controller Built for Mobility
Derek Oswald
Most pad controllers follow a familiar outline. They hand you a grid, offer a few knobs, and call it a day. The Synido TempoPad C16 takes a different route. Synido fits a sixteen-pad performance ...
Embodme Erae 2 Review: Exploring A Bold New Language of Touch
Derek Oswald
I first saw the Embodme Erae series during the surprise livestream of Linkin Park’s From Zero secret concert. As a longtime fan of the band, I tuned in to the live stream, both nervous and excited about what ...
Fart Pedal 2.0 Review: A ‘Gas’-Powered Pedal That’s Pure Fun
Derek Oswald
When the Studio Erupts The first time I stepped on The Fart Pedal: Number Two and hit a note to test it, the monitors let out such an aggressive blast that I glanced toward ...
Small Creator Spotlight: Shiela Dixon’s Retro MIDISID 4 Morpheus Revives the Legendary SID Sound
Derek Oswald
Most musicians don’t look to Etsy for synthesizers. The site is better known for boutique pedals, handmade controllers, and other curiosities. Yet tucked between craft projects and circuit art lies a fun little nod ...
Woovebox Micro Music Workstation Review: A Compact Wonder Gets Even Better With Firmware 2.0
Derek Oswald
The Woovebox Micro Music Workstation asks a simple question: Can something smaller than a smartphone replace a 1990s studio setup? Remarkable in both its size and functionality, the Woovebox combines a 16-part synthesizer, sequencer, ...
Franklin Audio RA-100 Review: The Quiet Workhorse Your Studio Didn’t Know It Needed
Derek Oswald
Purchase the RA-100 here and use code ALTWIRE to get 5% off the Franklin Audio RA-100! Noise and level mismatches can derail a session before it starts. Hand-built in Sydney, the Franklin Audio RA-100 addresses this ...
Roland SH-4d Current Review: With v2.0, a Robust and Satisfying All-in-One Synth Gets Even Better
Derek Oswald
Roland calls it a synthesizer, but the SH-4d’s four synth parts, rhythm track, and sequencer give it a groovebox-like workflow. Four synth parts, a rhythm track, per-part effects, and a multitimbral sequencer enable you ...
