Hardware Reviews
GND-1T Review: Everything Everywhere All at Once, From a Speak & Spell Chip
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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: An Affordable Route To Delicious 90’s Cheese
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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
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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 ...
Kasser Synths DAFM Genesis Review: Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 1989
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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. ...
Melbourne Instruments NINA 2026 Review: An Already Great Synth, Now Even Better
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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 ...
Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave 8M Review: All That You Loved About The OG PPG, Plus A Whole Lot More
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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
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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 ...
Tentij Instruments ORB MK1 Review: Heavenly Wurlitzer Charm In A Much Smaller Package
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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. ...
Erica Synths x 112db Xenodrive: A Great Effects Box for Industrial and Acid Producers
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If you want a one sentence takeaway from this review, go no further than this: Erica Synths‘ new Xenodrive can make your synths an industrial workhorse. Xenodrive: Bringing a Synth From a Whimper To ...
Studiologic Numa X Piano GT Review (2026): Studiologic’s Top of The Line Studio Essential
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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, ...
Teenage Engineering EP-40 Riddim Supertone: 13 Artists, One Very Bold Vision
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Many years ago, Teenage Engineering had an idea for a reggae-themed Pocket Operator. What shipped in November 2025 was something else entirely. Turbulence and Junior Reed performed on an unreleased unit at Weddy Weddy ...
Trap Door Electronics Active Acid: Prophet-5 Character In A Stomp Box
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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.
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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
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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
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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 ...
