Bad Gear - He can't do this anymore...

video upload by AudioPilz

"Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world’s most-hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about Digitone II and I hope I can get through this episode without someone vibe coding a… GODDAMIT!!!"

inMusic Brings 22 New Products and a Hands-on Creator Lab to NAMM 2027

Press release follows:

inMusic's NAMM 2027 experience invites creators, developers and music makers to explore fully operational products, experience live performances, and discover new possibilities for hardware customization

ANAHEIM, Calif. - November 5, 2026 - Today, inMusic Brands has announced it will bring one of its most ambitious showcases yet to the 2027 NAMM Show, presenting 22 new, fully operational and feature-complete products alongside performances, artist appearances, panels and a new hands-on experience: The inMusic Creator Lab.

THE INMUSIC CREATOR LAB
Located in Room 204 at the Anaheim Convention Center, the Creator Lab introduces another dimension to inMusic's NAMM presence. Visiting creators and developers will have the opportunity to engage directly with new products and explore what can happen when finished instruments are opened to further creativity.

"These products don't need to be modified. They're complete instruments designed to stand on their own. But for creators who want to take them somewhere new, we want to make that possible. Openness doesn't require incompleteness," said Jack O'Donnell, CEO of inMusic Brands.

CLICK FOR MORE »

The Modular Controller That Keeps Getting Better: Faderpunk

video upload by SynthDad

"What happens when a synth manufacturer opens up its hardware to the community? In the case of AtoVProject’s Faderpunk, something rather exciting!

Faderpunk was already a remarkably flexible MIDI and CV controller, but with the introduction of community-developed apps, it’s becoming an even more powerful tool for modular synthesis, generative sequencing and live performance.

In this video, I explore the new community app ecosystem, show you how to install third-party apps, and dive into some fantastic musical examples.

We’ll explore FP-Grids for generative drum rhythms, TB3PO for acid-inspired sequencing, TechnoKick and TechnoHihat for instant techno grooves, Sift for evolving melodic sequences, and Heat Pump for rhythmic sidechain modulation. I’ll also demonstrate how Automator can record your fader movements and turn them into evolving modulation.

Along the way, we’ll build some musical patches, experiment with sound design, and discover a few unexpected tricks — including using Heat Pump to bring rhythmic movement to the Forge TME Vhikk X.

For me, this is a great example of what happens when developers embrace their communities and give musicians the freedom to experiment and create. And the best part? There’s plenty more to come.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction - Faderpunk keeps evolving
01:16 How to install community apps
03:29 FP-Grids - Generative drum sequencing
05:12 TB3PO - Acid sequencing
07:05 TB3PO - Accents for modulation
08:34 Automator - Recording modulation gestures
09:37 TB3PO - Percussion sequencing
11:00 TechnoKick and TechnoHihat - Instant techno grooves
14:11 Sift - Generative melodic sequencing
16:47 Heat Pump - Sidechain envelopes and creative modulation
20:09 Final thoughts and what’s next

LINKS

Faderpunk official website and configurator:
https://faderpunk.cv"

Faderpunk is more than a controller

It’s a living modulation ecosystem that you can shape, build, and customize to your will Faderpunk is all about customization. You can run apps that use one or more of the channels: LFOs, CV-to-MIDI converters, MIDI-to-CV bridges, random generators, Turing machines, quantizers, sequencers, envelopes, rhythm generators, and so much more.

Modulate anything
Faderpunk is a great companion for your Eurorack and semi-modular synthesizers as it speaks all their languages. Explore lots of modulation options for your empty jacks and get inspired by combining MIDI and modular capabilities.

Whether you need modulation sources, sequencers, or automation tools, Faderpunk puts everything at your fingertips with hands-on, intuitive control.

Make it yours, truly
Using the web-based configurator you can easily add and remove apps via drag & drop. Just connect Faderpunk to your computer and go to https://faderpunk.io.

Need an app that doesn’t exist yet? Create it yourself! Faderpunk comes with a developer-friendly API, making it easy to build your own apps.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Shoyu Station: A Generative Ambient Fish Synth

video upload by Rarebeasts

"Shoyu Station is a generative ambient instrument I’ve built inside a 3D printed fish.

Twist the snout to pick a creature, press the button to drop it in the tank. Each creature makes its own layer of sound: whale calls, deep ocean drones, bubble melodies, slow tidal swells. Add a few and they build up and drift around each other. A small screen inside the fish shows the creatures swimming about.

It runs on an ESP32 with a small TFT screen, a pot for the snout and a single button.

What creature would you like to see in the tank? Tell me in the comments."

Ghost In Translation DS1 Eurorack Drums Module

video upload by Ghost In Translation

"The audio is recorded straight from DS1 to my output module, except for the last part where I put it in context with some effects.

I go through the 16 algorithms to showcase how DS1 sounds.

DS1 is available on https://www.ghostintranslation.com.

00:00 - Kick 1 00:48 - Kick 2 01:34 - Kick 3 02:18 - Kick 4 03:06 - Hihats 05:18 - Cowbell 06:41 - Shaker 07:49 - Cymbal 09:23 - Clap 10:43 - Tokyo Bell 11:31 - Rings 12:38 - Tom 13:47 - Gong 14:47 - FM Synth 15:22 - Acid Bass 17:08 - Dual OSC 18:53 - Select CV 19:57 - More modulation 21:25 - With effects

#eurorack #euroracktechno #eurorackmodular"

Features

16 algorithms

32-bit float DSP

MIDI TRS Type A IN and OUT

Auto calibration

Either-way power

Flippable panels

Technical Specifications

Module Width: 8 HP

Depth: 45 mm

Power Consumption: +12V 75 mA, -12V: 3.5 mA

CV Input Range: 0V to 5V

https://www.ghostintranslation.com

CROWN — DIY Generative Synth made with Teensy

video upload by PhilStudio

"A 16-minute exploration with CROWN, my homemade Teensy-based generative synthesizer, accompanied by visuals from PHOSPHOR.

🔗 Discover the Crown project: https://philstudio.blog/phil-studio-v...

No talking, no tutorial—just sound, evolving patterns, and a few turns of the knobs.

I built Crown out of a dream to create a musical companion for my guitar jams: something that could suggest ideas, explore different styles, and surprise me with just a handful of controls. Its five Crowns shape different aspects of the music, turning a few simple choices into a wide range of possibilities.

An Arduino Nano handles the knobs, displays, and controls, while a Teensy handles the sequencing, musical logic, and generation of notes and drums. The instrument is still a working prototype, evolving with each experiment.

The visuals come from PHOSPHOR, an audio-reactive app I created specifically for this purpose.

🌐 Explore more inventions, music, and experiments:
https://philstudio.blog"


Crown Synth

An experimental generative synthesizer that creates melodies, rhythms and textures for spontaneous musical exploration.

Overview

I created Crown out of a dream to build a musical companion for my guitar jams—something I could switch on, explore, and play along with. I wanted to make creating music feel intuitive, with just a few controls to shape the sound and discover different musical styles without getting lost in menus or endless settings. That idea became the five Crowns: five distinct musical personalities, each offering a different starting point for improvisation. Crown brings fresh ideas and unexpected turns to a jam, leaving me free to pick up my guitar and follow wherever the music leads.

The Build

Crown is built around two microcontrollers: an Arduino Nano handles the user interface—knobs, displays, controls, and parameter selection—while a Teensy handles the sequencing, musical logic, and generation of notes and drums. This lets the Teensy focus on making music while the Nano keeps everything hands-on and accessible. A future Sampler Extension, based on the Tsunami Super WAV Trigger, will expand Crown’s sound palette with sampled instruments, atmospheric layers, and other recorded sounds.

The Philosophy and why Crown?

I think of the five Crowns as the guiding forces behind the music. Each one is an abstract control that shapes a whole set of musical decisions, letting me explore different styles and moods with just a few gestures. The name comes from that idea of influence: each Crown rules over part of the musical world, and together they give it its character. My goal was to make something I could play by feel, letting a few meaningful choices open the door to unexpected music.

Assemble an Etches In 10 Minutes - Instruction Video

video upload by Puremagnetik

"In this video, we walk through the complete assembly of a Puremagnetik Etches Kit in about 10 minutes.

We'll cover what's included in the kit, how to attach the components to the circuit boards, how to fasten the boards together, and the final steps to complete your instrument."

Dreadbox Introuces ALECTO. Analog Percussion Synthesizer

video upload by Dreadbox

"Discover ALECTO, a dual-voice analog drum synthesizer built for bold sound design, evolving polymetric rhythms, and endless sonic exploration.

00:00 – Voices | Shape your analog sound
01:55 – Sequencer | Create ever-shifting rhythms
02:53 – Patchbay | Connect, modulate, experiment
03:58 – Jam | Hear ALECTO in action"

Explaining and testing Alecto by Dreadbox

video upload by Stazma and Dreadbox

Dreadbox Alecto Drum Machine

video upload by Starsky Carr

Alecto: A Drum Synth from Dreadbox

video upload by Stephen McLeod

0:00 Intro 0:39 Assembly 1:49 Sounds 3:43 Modular Integration 5:58 Thoughts

"Alecto is a dual-voice analog drum synthesizer combining powerful sound design with polymetric sequencing. Each voice features two oscillators, a noise source, dual filters, and two envelope generators, delivering everything from punchy percussion and deep bass to evolving sonic textures.

Two independent trigger sequencers create complex, ever-shifting rhythmic patterns, while the versatile patchbay and Eurorack compatibility open up endless possibilities for sonic exploration, whether as a standalone instrument or part of a modular system."

He Turned His Car into a Drum Machine! | Android Auto Sequencer

video upload by HAGIWO

"I built a drum sequencer that runs on my car's Android Auto display.
Now I can make beats right from the dashboard!
Made possible with Android Auto Maker.

Vibe-coded with OpenAI Codex (GPT-6.1 Sol, High).
Built as an Android Auto developer app, featuring touchscreen controls and audio playback through the car's speakers.

For safety reasons, the app cannot be operated while driving.
This app is a technical proof of concept and will not be distributed."

DIY Polyphonic Desktop Analog Synthesizer Demo

video upload by Chris Synths

"Hi all! This is a (no-talking) demo of a DIY 6-voice desktop analog synthesizer I have been working on.

The hardware of each voice features two SSI 2131 VCOs, an SSI 2144 filter, a high pass filter, a wave folder, and ring mod.

All voice circuitry was made with SSI chips, op-amps, OTAs, and discrete components.

There is one effect, an 8-stage analog phaser.

There is an ST microcontroller for MIDI, voice control, display driving, front panel scanning, etc. Control voltages are produced by a DAC80501, as well as by the ST."

Behringer Open Source IGNITE 64-channel Multi-track Sequencer Incoming

via GitHub

There is a Creator in every human being. Our mission is to empower those who have not and cannot.

Source code for the Behringer IGNITE 64-channel multi-track sequencer.

Key features

64-channel multi-track sequencer with a song, scene, track and pattern structure

Patterns of up to 16 bars with 16 steps per bar, scenes of up to 200 bars, 96 PPQN timing

Real-time recording, undo, fill, solo/skip, gang and sculpt functions

Transpose control and up to 10 user-defined scales

Internal General MIDI sound engine

5 MIDI DIN in/out pairs, USB MIDI, and USB host MIDI for up to 5 devices

MIDI clock sync, MIDI Machine Control and remote control

8 CV and 8 Gate jacks with calibration, plus sync in/out

Wi-Fi connectivity

Release status

This repository contains the IGNITE application, its audio engine and hardware protocol, and the Buildroot tree for the Linux image. Material that could not be redistributed was removed, so some parts need your own replacements before they build (see the README in each folder). There is no official firmware release here yet.

Front panel
Touchscreen
16 RGB step pads, each with its own encoder
8 assignable knobs (A–H) and a jog wheel
ROW and BAR encoders
Transport, song/scene/track/pattern, and edit buttons
USB-A port (5 V, 1 A) with a USB STOP button

Bitbox Mk2 Custom Firmware Overview

video upload by Ville Walveranta

"I created a custom patch for the official 2.3.4 firmware that adds a screen saver, speed change without pitch change, vertical waveform zoom, and an easy way to reset parameters to their defaults."

Additional details via the developer:

"I’ve put together a free, unofficial customization of 1010music Bitbox MkII firmware 2.3.4, adding a few features I’ve wanted on my own module. The customized version identifies itself as 2.3.4+c.

What’s added:

Vertical waveform zoom: pinch/spread vertically to adjust waveform height from 25–3200%. This makes quiet samples easier to see and lets you shrink loud waveforms. Horizontal zoom still works normally. A stationary two-finger tap restores 100% vertical zoom and horizontal fit. This only changes the display, not the audio.

Optional screen saver: a black screen after 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes of inactivity. It’s disabled by default, under Tools → Disp. Playback continues while blanked. The first touch, button press, or encoder movement only wakes the display, preventing accidental edits.

Optional MIDI/CV-trigger wake: choose MIDI, CV triggers, or both. MIDI clock and active sensing are excluded. Unlike physical wake controls, the first incoming musical event still performs its normal action.

Pitch-preserving Speed: 50–200% playback speed, with a dedicated SPEED dial on the Sample-mode LFO/Spd page. It supports live adjustment and the normal INFO modulation editor, including LFO/CV modulation. At 100%, it uses native playback.

Double-tap dial defaults: double-tap a numeric dial to restore its default base value. Modulation sources and amounts remain intact.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Prepping for tour; experiment combining Death LFO with Proximity Feedback Machine (Optical Theremin)

video upload by Tim Kaiser

Rainbow Looper, a looper for Ableton Move

video upload by KrazyBaldhead

"I created an 8 track looper for Move with the RNBO Move Takeover

Download it here: https://github.com/KBLiveSolutions/ra...

#abletonmove #RNBO #cycling74 #cycling74rnbo #ableton #livelooping #musicproducers #fenderrhodes"

How it works

The 8 loopers

Each looper is controlled by a column of 4 pads (bottom to top):

Red — Rec
Green — Play
White — Stop
Rainbow color — Select (also opens the looper's parameter page)
The first looper sets the base loop length. Every other looper is quantized to it: recording can start freely at any time, but playback always launches on a multiple of the first looper's length, so all 8 loopers stay in sync.

Step sequencing

Each looper has its own step pattern, controlled with Move's step buttons. Turning a step off mutes the looper's output at that point in the loop — the volume envelope for muting is shaped by the Attack and Release parameters.

CLICK FOR MORE »

TyCoon Sequencer Part 4: Transpose

video upload by TheAnalogmonster

All parts

DIY Eurorack Modules: Tin Man Synths - Music China 2026

video upload by sonicstate

"We spoke to Andrew from Tin Man Synths about his range of DIY Eurorack Modules, a set of simple through-hole designs built around accessible analogue and digital circuits.

The context was China's DIY synth scene, where importing synth brands and beginner kits can be difficult or expensive. Tin Man Synths focuses partly on making local DIY resources more available, alongside carrying other brands.

The range includes a transposing sequencer, which allows one sequence to transpose another, and clocking the two parts out of sync creates a longer rolling pattern of 32 to 64 steps. Other modules include dual attack-release envelopes, a side-chain VCA, matrix mixer, output stages, a semitone voltage-offset processor, the Radius 2164-based filter, voltage-controlled slew, a 40106 VCO, a voltage-controlled LFO, and Daisy Seed-based delay and granular effects.

The modules use through-hole construction, with bare PCBs around $10 and full kits around 400–500 RMB, or roughly $50–60.

Availability is currently mainly China and Southeast Asia."

“AI Is Theft”, Unless It Benefits You

video upload by Scott's Synth Stuff

Note, some of his points are how many feel about Behringer making "clones", especially of gear currently in production.

"Musicians attack anyone who uses AI in music, then cheer when someone vibe-codes new firmware for their synth. Is that a double standard?

In one weekend in October, three different aftermarket firmwares hit the $60 M-Vave FM1. One made it a virtual analog synth, one a four-track groovebox, and one a Roland-style drum machine. Most of them were built by non-programmers using AI tools like Claude Code. Then M-Vave released an official open-source SDK, and Akai and Behringer are moving the same way.

In this video I look at where the creative community draws its line on AI, and why that line seems to move depending on who gets hurt:

Why AI-coded firmware gets cheers while AI music gets attacked
AI code is trained on decades of human developers’ work, just as AI music is trained on artists
AI clones of the Adobe suite, and illegal Hydrasynth emulators that run stolen ROMs
The real risks: a bricked MPC2000, DSP timing bugs, possible malware and abandoned projects
Why manufacturers are now handing firmware development to their users
My own AI use, including my thumbnails, and where I draw the line

This video isn’t against AI and it isn’t for it. It’s about being consistent. Where is your line, and does it still hold when the thing on offer is free?"

A Simple Complex VCO

video upload by Dylan B.

0:00 - Intro
0:23 - Feature Overview
4:51 - Background
5:39 - Outro Jam

ACID FREQ synth

video upload by e j

"9V DIY ACID SYNTH! 🧪🎛️

A little box of squelchy, unpredictable acid goodness, perfect for synth DIY workshops, electronic music enthusiasts, and curious sonic explorers!

Features:

PLL-based VCO (square wave)
Squeaky, squelchy VCF
Random shift-register-based CV sequencer
Built-in VCA

Controls:

Frequency and glide
Filter cutoff and resonance
VCA control (modulated or fully open)

All powered by a humble 9V battery, ready to unleash some wonderfully weird sonic adventures.

Twist the knobs, push the resonance, embrace the randomness...

ACIIIIIIIIID! 🧪🔊"

Can you build a playable synthesizer in a single afternoon?

video upload by Illegal State Of Mind

"Can you build a playable synthesizer in a single afternoon? Here's my attempt: a DIY synth built from a basic ESP32 I had lying around.

At its heart is a DCO: a digitally controlled oscillator. The waveform isn't generated in code. It comes straight from the PWM outputs, while the code only sets the pitch, pulse width and modulation. The result is a fat, raw, monophonic sound with accurate notes and no tuning headaches.

How this ESP32 synth works:
• Two PWM signals from GPIO 18 and 19
• A simple resistor mixer and a capacitor on the output
• MIDI input built around a 6N137 optocoupler, three resistors and a socket (powered from the ESP32 board)
• Pitch Bend and Modulation over MIDI
• Pulse width and detune of the second oscillator controlled by knobs

What this synthesizer doesn't have (yet): an envelope, polyphony and a filter. They can all be added later in the analog part of the signal path, and I'll start working on them soon."