Making a Digital Music Player for Cassette DecksIn the cross-over between the era of tapes into that of MP3s, you’d see quite a few of those special cassette tapes that were actually digital music players inside. Some simply provided a 3.5 mm input, while others were complete MP3 players or Bluetooth receivers that just happened to also output to the magnetic read head of a cassette player. Recently [Jonathan Rowny] decided to make his own version of the latter.
Although getting the actual audio signal into the read head is easy enough – requiring little more than its equivalent being used as a write head on the cassette side – actually interfacing with the player’s mechanisms like auto-stop, reverse and so on requires the use of some gearing that detect motion on what would be the tape spools, as well as transfer the motion from the take-up spool to the other spool so that features like the auto-stop mechanism don’t get triggered.
A lot of inspiration here can be found in e.g. the videos made by [Clint] of [Lazy Game Reviews] who looked at a number of examples – including their internals – over the years, with various levels of functionality. For this particular implementation an ESP32-S3 module is used for the brains, along with a microSD card reader for music and a PCM5102 I2S audio codec to create the analog audio signal.
The gears were printed using an SLA printer and seem to work all right. Unfortunately he didn’t realize the importance of the capstan as the mechanism that actually transports the tape, so its motion was not measured as is done in the better cassette adapters. This will likely be corrected in a future iteration, however.

“It’s so important”: Nick Hakim explains why every producer should learn their DAW’s key commands 
As a producer, you’re going to drastically supercharge your workflow if you spend some time learning the key commands of your chosen DAW. 
It might seem like a boring task to sit down and learn them, but knowing how to navigate the grid, move the playhead, and quickly select crucial tools without manually trying to find them within busy dropdown menus can speed up your creative process by several orders of magnitude.
And kicking off the brand-new season of MusicTech’s My Forever Studio podcast – made in partnership with Audient – producer, songwriter and Anderson Paak and Mac DeMarco collaborator Nick Hakim discusses the importance of learning key commands, and explains how doing so improved his workflow.

READ MORE: My Forever Studio: Nick Hakim has your gear on long-term loan

“I learned Pro Tools when I was in college – I kind of fooled around with many of them to start with to understand them and to see what felt right,” he explains of his early experience with DAWs. “I started using Ableton in 2018. I had a cracked version. Sorry! But I was always like, ‘I wanna learn how to use Ableton.’” 
Hakim explains how a friend who was well-versed in Ableton took the time to show him the programme’s basic key commands.
“He literally sat down with me for an hour and showed me how to set my own key commands, little shortcuts,” he says. “Once he showed me that, and just having somebody show me that, it changed [things].
“To me the boring stuff is the fundamental fun – the stuff that’s so important. Being able to cut and stretch, and how to zoom out. Every DAW is slightly different. When I was first in Ableton I’d be doing Logic key commands, pressing X to go to the mixer [laughs].”
My Forever Studio is back, a series which sees the MusicTech team quiz artists, producers and engineers on their favourite gear, asking them to put together their fantasy Forever Studio using whatever musical items their hearts desire.
While it’s an environment for freedom, there are some strict rules in the Forever Studio. Guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they have to choose carefully. There will be nostalgia. There will be anecdotes. There may be gags. But there will be no bundles!
Subscribe to My Forever Studio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and check out all episodes so far via MusicTech.
The post “It’s so important”: Nick Hakim explains why every producer should learn their DAW’s key commands appeared first on MusicTech.

Atlantic Records to release Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, featuring Travis Scott, PinkPantheress, Morgan Wallen, and Keith RichardsThe LP contains 34 original tracks, six of which were issued as singles on Thursday (September 17).
Source

What is LUFS in music production?LUFS is an acronym for Loudness Units Full Scale and is a standardised way to measure audio loudness. It’s most commonly referred to in the mastering phase of music production.
In this context, ‘loudness’ is not the same as ‘volume level’, but rather a measure of how we perceive the loudness of a sound. The maximum possible loudness a system can reproduce is referred to as 0 LUFS, and measurements are expressed in terms of how many LU (Loudness Units) they are below this full scale point. For example, -12 LUFS is 12 LU below the 0 LUFS maximum.
Why do we need LUFS?
Our hearing isn’t sensitive to short, sudden transients, and so peak level meters don’t match our perception. Instead, we perceive loudness from a more averaged-out volume level, and that perception varies across the (roughly) 20Hz to 20kHz frequency range that we can hear.
LUFS takes all of this into account in order to create a system that closely tallies with our aural perception, and which therefore allows the loudness of completely different recordings to be compared and standardised in a meaningful and consistent way.
iZotope RX 12’s LUFS Metering
Why are there different types of LUFS measurement?
A single loudness measurement cannot tell the entire story of how loud a recording is. Many songs, for example, contain quieter and louder passages, and even the most aggressive death metal track may contain areas of serenity. We therefore measure four different types of loudness.
Momentary Loudness: Averages the measured loudness over a 400ms window, showing what the loudness is at any given moment. Similar to RMS volume level measurement.
Short-Term Loudness: Averages the measured loudness over a 3s window. This is generally the most helpful readout for meaningfully judging and comparing loudness, and when aiming for a target LUFS during mixing.
Integrated Loudness: Averages the measured loudness over an entire mix or passage of audio. This is the measurement used by streaming platforms, etc., when checking your audio matches their standards.
True Peak Level: The peak reconstructed signal level, in decibels, this being the peak level once the digital stream has been converted to an analogue signal.
Working with streaming platform loudness specifications
In order to present content at a consistent loudness, streaming platforms set standards for integrated loudness and true peak level, and will apply normalisation processing to any audio that does not match those standards. If you wish to avoid such processing from wrecking your carefully crafted mixes, ensure the audio you submit matches the platform’s specifications.
Loudness meters and tools
Your DAW: Many DAWs have built-in loudness metering, and this is often all you need to get a reliable readout.
Steinberg WaveLab 12: Steinberg’s audio editing and mastering suite features an intuitive loudness meter. It can also analyse passages of audio and overlay the resulting loudness measurement traces.
iZotope RX 12: iZotope RX 12’s Loudness Control and Loudness Optimise modules can provide detailed readouts of your audio’s loudness. The Streaming Preview module can then be used to preview and apply different platforms’ requirements to your audio.
Process Audio Decibel: This loudness and level meter runs standalone or as a plugin in your DAW, and can be linked to an app running on your phone or tablet to display loudness readouts wherever you need them.

Learn more audio and music production terms in our Glossary
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Smart Audio Plugins launches Timbral Box parallel harmonic processor
Smart Audio Plugins has released Timbral Box, a parallel harmonic processor for mixing and mastering, available for an introductory price of €48.30/$56 through September 30th, 2026. Timbral Box is a parallel harmonic processor. Instead of running the entire signal through EQ, saturation, and compression, it leaves the dry signal untouched and adds four processed layers [...]
View post: Smart Audio Plugins launches Timbral Box parallel harmonic processor

Best Budget Synthesizers Under $250The world of plugins and software certainly has its advantages: price, convenience, and the fact you won’t need to free up any space on the desk. But sooner or later, most musicians get hungry for something hands-on.
Many sought-after synths reach well into four-figure price tags, but getting started with hardware instruments is remarkably affordable if you know where to look. Today, a vast number of synthesizers are available for less than $250, suiting all manner of workflows and styles.
One final note beforehand: if you’re willing to up your spend by around $50, you can get your hands on popular instruments like the Korg Monologue and Arturia Microfreak, as well as the Moog Mavis DIY kit and Sonicware’s roster of genre-specific Liven grooveboxes.
But if you’re on a strict budget, here are the best synths costing less than $250 and why they might be right for you:

Behringer Mini range: The cheapest hardware synths available
Korg Volca series: The best budget synth ecosystem
Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators: Affordable portable sequencer synths
Stylophone Gen X-2: A quirky monophonic synthesizer under $80
Blipblox After Dark: Explore synthesis for the first time
Behringer TD-3: The cheapest 303-style synth
Cre8audio East Beast and West Pest: An affordable entry to modular
Korg NTS-1 Digital mkII: Expandable DIY synth with custom wavetables and effects
Bastl Kastle range: Most affordable experimental synthesizers

Behringer Mini range: The cheapest hardware synths available
Image: Behringer
Price: $99 – $129 at Sweetwater
Love him or loathe him, Uli Behringer dominates the budget synth market – so much so, we could probably dedicate this entire list to his company’s products, many of which reinterpret existing instruments.
If you’re looking for maximum bang for your buck, the Behringer Mini range is a good place to start. These compact synths condense recognisable pieces of vintage gear into an ultra-portable format with a two-octave touch-sensitive keyboard.
Whether it’s the Minimoog Model D’s three-oscillator architecture, the phase distortion synthesis of the Casio CZ-1, Oberheim-style pads and brass, or the joystick-controlled vector synthesis of the Prophet VS, Behringer’s Mini range provides an inexpensive introduction to a variety of classic sounds.
Korg Volca series: The best budget synth ecosystem

Price: $129 – $179 at Sweetwater
When Korg launched the Volca line in 2013, few could have foreseen how enduring the format would become. These battery-powered units typically pack a built-in speaker, touch keyboard, MIDI input, sync connections, and a sequencer into a chassis around the size of a book.
The original Beats, Bass, and Keys models covered the basics required for simple hardware jams, but Korg has since used the format to explore more specialised instruments, including the acid-inspired Volca NuBass, the West Coast-influenced Volca Modular, and the six-operator Volca FM2.
Across the wider line, Korg has covered analogue and digital synthesis, sampling and percussion, and even the Volca Mix for connecting several instruments, making the range an excellent starting point for a tabletop performance rig.
Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators: Affordable portable sequencer synths

Price: $59 – $99 at Teenage Engineering
While Teenage Engineering holds somewhat of a reputation for premium price tags, the Pocket Operator series proves the Swedish company is capable of producing genuinely inexpensive instruments too.
These sequencer-based synths, drum machines, and samplers are smaller than a smartphone, with exposed circuit boards and animated LCD screens that look like some kind of musical calculator. Each one is centred around a grid of buttons, two parameter knobs, and a 16-step sequencer with parameter locking and punch-in effects. There’s also a built-in speaker for annoying fellow passengers on your commute.
Our recommendation? The PO-32 is a surprisingly capable drum synth that can import sounds created using Sonic Charge’s microTonic plugin. The PO-33, meanwhile, is a compact sampler and spiritual predecessor to the larger EP-133 K.O. II.
Stylophone Gen X-2: A quirky monophonic synthesizer under $80

Price: $77 at Thomann
Invented in 1967, the original Stylophone was closer to a toy than a fully fledged synthesizer, though it still managed to make an appearance on recordings by the likes of David Bowie, John Lennon, and Kraftwerk.
The lineup has expanded since the product’s 2007 relaunch, with the Gen X-2 standing as the most capable Stylophone yet. It retains the iconic stylus-operated keyboard, but adds considerably more control over the sound, including an attack/decay envelope, a resonant filter, pulse-width control, and an LFO.
Although the resulting instrument remains deliberately simple, its distinctive, buzzy character gives it an identity of its own – and one that can communicate with a wider setup than its appearance might suggest, thanks to CV and trigger connections.
Playtime Engineering Blipblox SK2: Explore synthesis for the first time
Blipblox SK2. Image: Playtime Engineering
Price: $219 at Sweetwater
Falling somewhere between Hasbro’s Bop It and a spaceship cockpit is Blipblox, an instrument developed as an approachable, child-friendly way to explore synthesis and sound design.
Don’t let its eccentric appearance fool you – it offers considerable sonic scope thanks to 16 oscillators, a multimode resonant filter, two envelope generators, two LFOs, and flexible modulation routing. More than 300 onboard melodies can be used to play your patch, as well as external MIDI input, and there’s a built-in drum machine and delay too.
Rather than creating specific patches, the Blipblox is designed for playful exploration – but if the colourful SK2 is a little too toy-like, Playtime Engineering also makes a blacked-out After Dark version.
Behringer TD-3: The cheapest 303-style synth
Behringer TD-3-MO. Image: Behringer
Price: $149 at Sweetwater, or $199 for the Modded Out version
With original TB-303s costing several thousand dollars and Roland’s Boutique TB-03 version sitting around $400, Behringer is the best bet for hardware acid basslines on a budget.
The TD-3 closely follows the original architecture, combining sawtooth and square oscillators with a resonant four-pole low-pass filter for convincingly squelchy timbres. However, Behringer has replaced the notoriously quirky sequencer with its own programming workflow, and added a Boss-inspired distortion along with modern connectivity.
For a wider pallette, Behringer also makes the TD-3-MO, which adds modifications inspired by decades of customised 303s including a sub-oscillator, adjustable slide time, a ‘Muffler’ filter control, and expanded patching.
Cre8audio East Beast and West Pest: An affordable entry to modular synthesis

Price: $249 each (East Beast and West Pest) at Sweetwater
Using ‘modular synthesis’ and ‘affordable’ in the same sentence often feels difficult to justify. Although many modules are relatively inexpensive individually, assembling even a basic playable system can quickly add up. Cre8audio offers two more affordable entry points inspired by contrasting synthesis paradigms.
The East Beast adopts the subtractive approach favoured by Bob Moog, using enveloped filters to shape harmonically rich waveforms like saws and squares for more traditional sounds. The West Pest, on the other hand, is inspired by the additive techniques pioneered by Don Buchla, using wavefolders to add harmonics to simple sine waves, and it’s geared more towards discovering unusual and unexpected sounds.
Both units are semi-modular, meaning they can be played without inserting a single cable – but once you’re ready, the 4×5 patchbays provide hours of exploration, as well as easy integration with a larger system when the modular addiction inevitably takes hold.
Korg NTS-1 Digital mkII: Expandable DIY synth with custom wavetables and effects

Price: $169 at Sweetwater
Korg kicked off its build-it-yourself Nu:Tekt line with the original NTS-1, a compact digital synthesizer kit that paired a programmable oscillator with a useful collection of built-in reverb, delay, and modulation effects.
The mkII version introduces an improved synth engine, an expanded 18-note multitouch keyboard, an 8-step sequencer, and advanced MIDI capabilities – though the original model remains worth considering if you’ve got less to spend.
What truly sets the NTS-1 apart from most other budget synths is its expandability. It supports Korg’s Logue SDK, allowing users to load custom wavetables and effects onto the instrument via the Librarian app. Thanks to a stereo input, these effects can be used to process external audio – so the NTS-1 will remain useful even after you acquire a more powerful synthesizer.
Bastl Kastle 2 range: Most affordable experimental synthesizers
Image: Bastl Instruments
Price: $194 each at Perfect Circuit
Bastl’s original Arduino-powered Kastle offered an intriguing, hackable approach to semi-modular synthesis. Its successors run on more powerful Raspberry Pi processors, but retain the pocket-sized format, nifty jumper-wire patching sockets, and a heavy dose of the weirdness that made the original so appealing in the first place.
The Kastle 2 Alchemist is the most conventional of the trio, albeit only by Bastl standards. Its monophonic four-oscillator ‘hybrid synthesis’ engine combines five morphable modes — Filter, FM, Supersaw, Hypersine, and Glitchnoise — with a customisable, patchable sequencer.
For experimental sampling, the Kastle 2 Wave Bard can turn user-loaded sounds into unpredictable rhythms, textures, and riffs. FX Wizard completes the set by processing external audio through an assortment of delay, modulation, and pitch-shifting effects that range from subtle and refined to unwieldy sonic transformation.
Why You Can Trust MusicTech
MusicTech reviews hundreds of new products every year, from powerful synthesizers, DAWs and pro plugins through to everyday headphones and portable speakers. Our expert reviewers are producers, engineers and enthusiasts with hundreds of years of collective experience, with a keen ear to the ground on new trends and technologies.
Every guide on MusicTech is created by a producer, musician and tech enthusiast just like you. We understand what you’re looking for when searching for a new audio interface, and we want to ensure you purchase genuinely useful products for your craft. So you can guarantee that every product MusicTech recommends to you is a product we’d be happy to have in our studios.
See more music and audio gear buyer’s guides
 
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Nopia is open now for pre-orders – and it might just give the Telepathic Orchid a run for its moneyNopia – the semi-modular MIDI chord generator and synthesizer that’s been teased since as far back as 2023 – is finally open for pre-orders.
First announced in May 2023 by Argentinian instrument designers Martin Grieco and Rocio Gal, Nopia has had niche synth nerds on the edge of their seat for literally years at this point. But the time has come for you to actually think about adding it to your gear collection…
Nopia revolves around the concept of tonal harmony, focusing on the relationship between chords, particularly the connection between the tonal centre (the home tone of the key) and the dominant (the fifth note in a key). The device features a single-octave chord builder keyboard with a 12-button “tonal selector”, allowing players to select a key centre and generate chords that follow the rules of tonal harmony.

READ MORE: LUNA 3.0: the next generation of Universal Audio’s flagship DAW has arrived – here’s everything that’s new

Nopia also features a multitimbral sound engine, which is a hybrid of sampled instruments and onboard virtual analogue synths. There’s also a five-step effects chain and multitouch strum plate for expressive gestures like strumming, chromatic movement and microtonal pitch bends.
After it was revealed to the world, Nopia quickly gained a huge amount of attention, garnering over seven million views on YouTube as of the time of writing.

Last we heard, Nopia was in the midst of an “exhaustive testing stage” back in December last year.
Now, after a hefty wait, Nopia is finally available to pre-order via Kickstarter. Early Bird deals are now sold through, and there’s one option available: Nopia MK1 – Kickstarter Standard, which lets you grab one for $699, a significant discount from its MSRP of $899. As of the time of writing, there’s only 50 units left, so you’ll have to act fast if you want to get your hands on one… So far, the project has received a whopping $1,412,000 of its mere $50,000 goal.
The creators say pre-orders will directly fund the first production batch of Nopia MK1, and orders are estimated to be fulfilled from May 2027. Those who pre-order will also receive exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at the manufacturing process, sound design sessions, and engineering updates as they become available.

“We’ve all heard music and felt something resonate inside us,” the Nopia Kickstarter page reads. “We didn’t have to understand the theory or the architecture behind it, we just felt it. Our ears already effortlessly know how to decode sounds into emotion.
“Nopia was born out of a single question: Can an instrument tap directly into this quiet miracle? Notes sounding together, and moving through time, build the language of harmony. Nopia is technology crafted to immerse you in that language in real-time.”
Learn more at Nopia.io, and secure your Nopia MK1 via the official Kickstarter page.
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How Gold Plastic Syndrome is Killing Toys and Game ConsolesIn a recent video [Sqwerks] does a deep-dive into the problem of disintegrating plastic enclosures of Nintendo DS consoles. These original NDS handheld consoles have a metallic-like coating that appears to interact with the ABS plastic, causing yellowing as well as extreme brittleness and correspondingly broken hinges. Unsurprisingly, this causes the shell to essentially disintegrate the moment you try to disassemble them for something like a screen replacement.
While somewhat the opposite of plasticizer migration into ABS from PVC insulation that we covered before, the underlying cause is probably similar, with the Transformers toy community having come to call it Gold Plastic Syndrome (GPS) based on the fact that it were mostly gold-colored parts on these plastic toys that seemed to be affected. Over time the additives used to add a cool metal sheen and swirls to the plastic appear to interact in a way that makes the ABS plastic very brittle.
Although the underlying cause of GPS doesn’t appear to be known yet, the Transformers community has documented this happening since the late 1980s and into the early 2000s, with even reports that some toys from the mid-2010s suffer from this. Whatever the underlying cause of GPS is, the result is always the same, with disintegrating brittle plastic and often a powdery residue.
In the case of NDS consoles, replacing the affected shell with a third-party replacement is still a viable option today, with [Sqwerks] recommending this solution. For other enclosures and toys where the plastic effectively is the toy, it might be that all we can do is watch them slowly disintegrate until we figure out how to revert GPS.

Polyend has unveiled a new MIDI controller – and it looks an awful lot like a QWERTY keyboardHit command+K while in Logic to bring up the musical typing keyboard. But what if there was also a physical QWERTY keyboard that doubled as a MIDI controller?
Meet Keys, the new unit from Polyend which works not only as a three-octave piano but also as a fully functional keyboard, too.

READ MORE: Dreamtonics’ Instrument X can create a digital orchestra that sounds like real musicians

Currently being showcased at this year’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany between August 26-30, Keys features a single piece of aluminium as the bed, with hot-swappable Kailh low-profile switches meaning you can change without soldering. These changeable keys are also backlit.
The company also says it’s looking into making the firmware behind Keys open source. “Alternative layouts, different control modes, custom MIDI tools, sequencers, and other ideas can all be explored through software,” it says.

Keys isn’t tied to the computer, either, with a TRS MIDI output enabling direct connection with external synths, drum machines, or other MIDI hardware. It can also be used as a standalone controller.
 
“Nine rotary controls can be freely assigned to MIDI CCs for controlling software or hardware, or mapped to everyday computer functions like volume, scrolling, and brightness. A built-in display gives you feedback as you make adjustments,” the brand continues.
Polyend says Keys is still in its prototype phase, so “functionality, colour, or hardware could change”. Price, availability, and further details will be announced by the Polyend team in the future.
Learn more about Keys at Polyend.
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Dreamtonics’ Instrument X can create a digital orchestra that sounds like real musiciansAs orchestras take on more and more popular applications, producers may often want to work with the real thing instead of using sample packs. Japan’s Dreamtonics is working to close that gap with Instrument X. This plugin uses AI to control the human elements of playing orchestral instruments such as breath pressure and bow friction, adding a more dynamic contrast than adjusting volume or applying stock effects. Dreamtonics calls the process “Neural Acoustics Modelling”.
Beyond individual adjustments to the playing style, Instrument X also employs “3D Sound-Field Control.” This function allows instruments to be placed in mockups of different microphone configurations, such as spot, Decca Tree, and ambient pairs.

READ MORE: The best new music plugins this week, free and paid

“While it may sound incredibly difficult to transcend the static constraints of traditional sample playback to achieve a fluid, organic performance, the ‘AI-driven’ synthesis is actually the straightforward part,” says Kanru Hua, Founder and CEO of Dreamtonics. “The true challenge lies in deep-customizing this technology to satisfy the exacting, high-end demands of real-world composition and production experts.”

By approaching modulations to the sounds with Neural Acoustics Modeling, there is no need to take up huge amounts of space on a hard drive with different sample packs. The technology alters the sound waves themselves with the different notation options instead of triggering different static audio files. Moreover, the UI is modelled after standard DAWs, making the workflow transition seamless. The new adjustment options are simply parameters to experiment with.
Dreamtonics has released 11 different packs related to Instrument X. There is the free standalone version and DAW plugin, and the other 10 range from $99 to $649, offering Instrument X with software instruments, software instrument packs on their own, and a complete collection.
Learn more at Dreamtonics.
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What is dithering in audio? How it works and when to dither
Learn how dithering can help enhance the sound of your digital audio, despite the fact that it adds noise to the waveform.

Steinberg is celebrating 30 years of VST and 25 years of HALion with a raft of massive discounts and free updates30 years ago, Steinberg changed the landscape of music production forever when it introduced VST, a groundbreaking format allowing the seamless integration of virtual instruments, effects and processing tools into any compatible host application.
The format quickly became an industry standard, with the majority of plugins today available in VST format, catering to producers working in most major DAWs including Ableton Live, FL Studio, Cubase.
But the 30th anniversary of VST isn’t the only thing Steinberg is celebrating; it’s also been 25 years since the German audio specialist launched its landmark HALion synthesizer and sampler platform.

READ MORE: Steinberg’s Absolute 7 is its most comprehensive virtual instrument collection ever

And in light of these two massive milestones which have very much shaped the way music production looks today, Steinberg has launched HALion 7.5, introducing a raft of new features and upgrades including MPE support, real-time Decompose, and Spectral Snapshot.

Free for existing users, the new version of HALion also features six different synthesis types, a high-performance sample engine, scripting and a huge range of effects, allowing producers to tap into huge sound design potential and developers to build complex instruments and sample libraries with unique interfaces within HALion.
Alongside the HALion 7.5 update, several classic VST instruments are making their return, with full VST3 compatibility, and a VST SDK update supporting more MIDI 2.0 functionality.
To celebrate, Steinberg is hosting a huge anniversary sale between 4 and 24 August, with discounts of up to 60% on HALion and a massive range of VST instruments, including the Backbone drum re-synthesizer, Etude grand piano library, and the Iconica Ensembles orchestral collection.
[deals ids=”4CBLKRde3MHBDqZDwxUWoM”]
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And if that wasn’t enough, Steinberg has created the Steinberg Classics Collection, comprising some of the first Steinberg VST plugins upgraded to VST3, including the LM7 retro drum sample unit, CS-40, Neon synthesizers, VB-1 bass instrument and Karlette vintage tape delay.
The sale also sees 25% off several key iOS and Android mobile apps available via the App Store and Google Play.
Browse the full sale at Steinberg.
The post Steinberg is celebrating 30 years of VST and 25 years of HALion with a raft of massive discounts and free updates appeared first on MusicTech.

How to write a guitar solo: Music theory, genre-based tips, and techniques
Learn how to write a memorable and effective guitar solo with our in-depth guide covering music theory tips and genre-based techniques.

Dystopian Waves makes DroX II Pro FREE for a limited time
Dystopian Waves has made DroX II Pro, its glitch and stutter audio effect, free for a limited time on Gumroad. The Pro version is currently listed as $0+ and 100% off, down from its regular $35 price. I do not see an expiry date on the Gumroad page, so it is probably best to grab [...]
View post: Dystopian Waves makes DroX II Pro FREE for a limited time

Gliff is a FREE MIDI guitar translator for macOS and Windows
Gliff is a free guitar-based plugin for macOS and Windows that’s aimed at guitarists and keyboardists alike. So, there are two ways to approach this plugin: one is as a guitarist looking to create clean, polyphonic MIDI chord patterns that you can drag and drop into your project. The appeal might be that you’re a [...]
View post: Gliff is a FREE MIDI guitar translator for macOS and Windows