Hardware Reviews
Tentij Instruments ORB MK1 Review: Heavenly Wurlitzer Charm In A Much Smaller Package
Derek Oswald
Unit provided by Tentij Instruments for review. The Tentij Instruments ORB MK1 weighs under 7 pounds and sounds like a 56-pound 1960s Wurlitzer. That sentence shouldn’t make sense, but by God, they’ve done it. ...
Studiologic Numa X Piano GT Review (2026): Studiologic’s Top of The Line Studio Essential
Derek Oswald
I’ve spent the last few weeks learning what it’s like to play a true studio workhorse. American Music & Sound sent this to me on loan, and the experience was fun, if not an ...
Cheerful Electronic OPL Studio Review: A Full OPL3 MIDI Studio In The Palm of Your Hand
Derek Oswald
The moment I pulled the OPL Studio by Cheerful Electronic out of its box, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. It looks like a handheld toy straight out of the 1990s, a ...
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal Review: 2025’s Most Creative Pedal Release
Derek Oswald
A glass window sits on top of the enclosure, revealing a brushed DC motor. Feed in a note, and the pedal’s pitch-tracking system uses that note to drive the motor oscillator. An A4 at ...
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 ...
