Contributors / Senior Reviews Editor

Marcus Feld

Marcus has been testing synths, plugins and DAWs for over fifteen years, with a stubborn weakness for modular and anything that abuses an envelope. He leads Dubspot’s reviews desk and owns the Dubspot Score methodology.

Senior Reviews Editor

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Latest from Marcus

Superlunar GX-8600 glitch and corrupt plugin interface

Superlunar GX-8600: Bend, Freeze and Corrupt Sound

Superlunar's GX-8600 is a $69 glitch and corrupt plugin with a rhythmic glitch engine, a signal-degradation engine, and four LFOs. Full specs and Effectrix 2 comparison.

Marcus FeldJul 14, 20267 min read

Chopgrid sampler plugin interface with a 16-cell grid and sound modules

Chopgrid Review: Sampling Built Around Chance

Chopgrid is a chance-based sampler that fills a 16-cell grid from random files, with 14 synthesis engines, a drum machine, and glitch FX. Specs and price.

Marcus FeldJul 12, 20267 min read

Ultra synthesizer plugin interface showing its UltraWave oscillator and modulation section

Ultra: One Synth, Five Engines, and UltraWave

Ultra is a flagship multi-synthesis plugin built around the UltraWave engine, with five sound sources, dual filters, 32 voices, MPE, and a perpetual license.

Marcus FeldJul 10, 20268 min read

iZotope Ozone mastering suite, part of the iZotope lineup now owned by Boris FX

Mixing & Mastering

iZotope Joins Boris FX: What It Means for RX and Ozone

Boris FX acquired iZotope on July 2, 2026, moving RX, Ozone, Neutron, and Nectar to a new owner. Here's what changes for your licenses and updates.

Marcus FeldJul 7, 20267 min read

Tracktion Waveform Free 14 DAW interface on a home studio screen

Tracktion Waveform Free 14: Free DAW With AI Built In

Waveform Free 14 brings a built-in AI assistant, a redesigned interface, and refreshed stock plugins to Tracktion's free DAW. Full features, specs, and pricing.

Marcus FeldJun 30, 20268 min read

d16 Group PunchBox 2 kick drum design plugin interface

d16 PunchBox 2 Adds a Wavetable Engine for Kick Design

d16 PunchBox 2 adds a wavetable engine, four sound generators, and 1,100+ presets to the kick-design plugin, launching at €79. Here's what changed.

Marcus FeldJun 28, 20263 min read

Excite Audio Evolve Dark Matter sample-based synthesizer plugin interface

Evolve Dark Matter: A Quad-Engine Synth for Dark D&B

Excite Audio Evolve Dark Matter is a quad-engine sample synth for dark drum and bass and atmospheric techno, with XY morphing and 250 sound sources.

Marcus FeldJun 27, 20264 min read

Akai MPC 3.9 oscillator synth engine update on a standalone MPC

Akai MPC 3.9: The Update That Turns Your MPC Into a Synth

Akai MPC 3.9 adds a built-in oscillator synth engine, hybrid keygroups, new Arrange tools, and flexible time signatures. Here's what's new and if it matters.

Marcus FeldJun 23, 20263 min read

Bitwig Studio 6.1 rebuilt Sampler device interface

Inside Bitwig Studio 6.1: Spectral & Fragments Sampler

Bitwig Studio 6.1 rebuilds the native Sampler with Spectral time-stretch and Fragments granular modes, plus auto tempo and pitch detection and slicing.

Marcus FeldJun 22, 20262 min read

GForce Sequential Prophet-5 software synthesizer plugin interface

GForce Prophet-5: The First Official Sequential Plugin

GForce and Sequential ship the first officially licensed Prophet-5 plugin. We cover the features, the Rev1/2/3 models, price, and whether it's worth it.

Marcus FeldJun 20, 20263 min read

Universal Audio UAD Topline Vocal Tune pitch-correction plugin interface

Mixing & Mastering

UAD Topline Vocal Tune: Native Real-Time Pitch Correction

UAD Topline Vocal Tune is a native pitch-correction plugin with ultra-low-latency monitoring, Shift mode, MIDI repitching, and a key finder. $99, $79 intro.

Marcus FeldJun 18, 20264 min read

Best DAWs for Beginners — Free and Paid Picks for 2026

Best DAWs for Beginners in 2026: Free and Paid Picks Compared

The best DAWs for beginners in 2026, from free picks like GarageBand, BandLab Studio, and Cakewalk Sonar to paid options like Ableton Live Intro, FL Studio, and Logic Pro.

Marcus FeldJun 12, 20267 min read

The Best Free Synth VSTs in 2026 — That Actually Compete With Paid

The Best Free Synth VSTs in 2026 (That Actually Compete With Paid)

The best free synth VSTs of 2026, tested honestly: Vital, Surge XT, Dexed, OB-Xd, Odin 2, and Tunefish. Synthesis types, CPU load, sound, and real limits.

Marcus FeldJun 12, 20268 min read

The Best Free VST Plugins in 2026 — Synths, Effects, and Instruments

The Best Free VST Plugins in 2026: Synths, Effects, and Instruments Worth Installing

The best free VST plugins of 2026, ranked with honest pros and cons. Vital, Surge XT, Valhalla Supermassive, TDR Nova, Spitfire LABS, and more.

Marcus FeldJun 12, 20268 min read

The Best Reverb Plugins in 2026 — Free and Paid Picks for Every Mix

Mixing & Mastering

The Best Reverb Plugins in 2026: Free and Paid Picks for Every Mix

The best reverb plugins of 2026, free and paid. We compare Valhalla VintageVerb, FabFilter Pro-R 2, Eventide, free Supermassive, and more by use case.

Marcus FeldJun 12, 20267 min read

Stable Audio 3 from Stability AI showing the open-weight generative audio model family for music and sound effects

Stable Audio 3 Is Stability AI's Most Useful Audio Release Yet — With One Big Caveat

Stable Audio 3 brings open-weight music generation, six-minute tracks, ComfyUI integration, and on-device inference. The trade-off: no vocals, no lyrics.

Marcus FeldMay 26, 20268 min read

Suno v5.5 Custom Models interface for training a personalized AI music model on your own catalog

Suno Custom Models Review: Tuning AI to Your Own Sound — and the Questions It Leaves Open

Suno's v5.5 Custom Models let Pro and Premier users train the AI on their own catalog. We test what works, what doesn't, and the copyright questions Suno hasn't answered yet.

Marcus FeldMay 26, 20269 min read

oeksound soothe3 dynamic resonance suppressor plugin interface showing a spectrum display with resonance nodes

Mixing & Mastering

oeksound soothe3 Review: The Resonance Suppressor Grows Up

soothe3 review: oeksound's dynamic resonance suppressor gets a Detail knob, Soft mode, and low-latency processing. Pricing, upgrades, and how it beats soothe2.

Marcus FeldMay 19, 20269 min read

u-he Zebra 3 software synthesizer interface showing the adaptive modular routing

u-he Zebra 3 Review: A Ground-Up Rebuild, Spline Oscillators, and an Adaptive Modular Interface

u-he released Zebra 3 on April 20, 2026 for €249. The cult-favorite synth has been rebuilt from scratch with spline-based wavetables, additive synthesis up to 1,024 partials, and an adaptive modular interface.

Marcus FeldMay 19, 20265 min read

Native Instruments Komplete 26 product collage showing Absynth 6, Kontakt 8, and the included instruments

Komplete 26 Review: Is the Absynth 6 Return Enough to Justify the Upgrade?

Komplete 26 ships with Absynth 6 back in the box, plus iZotope Elements bundles and a Fazioli grand. The headline is real — the rest of the upgrade is murkier.

Marcus FeldMay 5, 20265 min read

Bitwig Studio 6 — full GUI screenshot of the modular DAW from Bitwig GmbH

Bitwig Studio 6 Review: Clip Aliases, Project Key Signature, and a Major Automation Overhaul

Bitwig Studio 6 brings clip aliases, automation clips, project-wide key signature, Spray Can, and layered editing to the modular DAW. Out April 2, 2026.

Marcus FeldApr 28, 20265 min read

Kiive Audio VX-Q plugin interface showing four-band EQ and saturation controls

Kiive Audio VX-Q Review: British EQ Meets Creative Saturation

Kiive Audio's VX-Q combines rare British EQ character with five saturation modes for creative tone-shaping. Here's our hands-on review.

Marcus FeldDec 12, 20257 min read

Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio interface showing the Enigmatic '82 amp model with cabinet and effects rack

Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio: The End of the Hardware Requirement

UA's Paradise Guitar Studio brings Golden Unit amp modeling to native plugins. We analyze the Dumble, Showman, and Plexi emulations that make this a studio essential.

Marcus FeldDec 1, 20259 min read

Valhalla FutureVerb plugin interface showing dual-engine reverb and echo controls

Valhalla FutureVerb Review: Eight Years in the Making

After 8 years of development, Valhalla DSP's FutureVerb delivers pristine reverbs and granular delays in one powerful $50 plugin. We explore its dual-engine design and why it's becoming essential for producers.

Marcus FeldNov 13, 20256 min read