Top 5 Modular Gear of 2018 by Strymon, Mutable, Endorphin, Erica, Arturia

Whew, what a year for modular gear that was! Here's the best of a cracking field of modular gear in 2018 - which you may or not agree with. It could easily have been a Top 20!

Positive Grid Bias Amp 2 LE – Free until Boxing Day!

Looking for some new virtual guitar amps and cabinets? Positive Grid has a special Christmas give-away this year, offering its Bias Amp 2 LE software bundle for free for a limited time.

Joyo R-08 Cab Box IR Loader: The best value IR cab pedal on the market?

Joyo's new R-08 Cab Box is a guitar cabinet emulator with lots of built-in virtual cabs and amps, a big screen - and lets you load your own IRs. And all that for under GBP 200!

Fuzz + Reverb + Delay + Mod = Collision Devices Black Hole Symmetry

French upstarts Collision Devices' have launched the Black Hole Symmetry pedal, a unique take on some classic guitars pedal effects combined into one very interesting and creative package.

New Korg Volcas: Micro Modular and Digital Percussion Synthesizer

Just when you thought Korg had lost interest in the Volca series of mini synths two new ones pop up on Instagram - a Buchla inspired Micro Modular and a Digital Percussion Synthesizer.

Nektar BOLT Harmonics Synthesizer takes us by surprise

BOLT offers a different approach to synthesis. It builds overtones with the structure of the oscillator with full or odd harmonics, inverted or deeply embedded and then modulates the heck out of itself.

Suhr Reactive Load IR: A neat box of amp tricks

The new Suhr Reactive Load IR could be the perfect 'box of tricks' for guitarists that need flexible volume control when recording or using high wattage valve amps live.

Polyphenom: Dreamily hypnotic hybrid synthesizer that will synthesize your soul

Polyphenom combines additive and subtractive synthesis in the hope of it adding up to something awesome. It certainly pulls off the dreaminess of additive and the power of subtractive in one neat package.

Leak! Are Nektar about to release a VST synthesizer?

An Instragram video of musician and producer Julian Wassermann at play on his Nektar Panarama T4 controller keyboard also shows an unknown VST synthesizer with the Nektar logo and the name BOLT.

Complex-1: front patching Modular Synthesizer for Propellerhead Reason

Reason is the modular workstation we didn't realise we had. Complex-1 literally brings all that patching to the fore with a sublime modular synthesizer Rack Extension with both West and East coast flavours.

Behringer MS-101 joins the clone pre-production line

Uli Behringer updates us on the forthcoming MS-101. As with many others promised for the end of the year it's taking longer than expected but it's now in pre-production and we could see it early next year.

Joyo O.M.B – A One Man Band with looper and drum pattern generator!

Joyo carries on its determined assault on the cheaper end of the pedal market with the O.M.B., a looper pedal for combining overdubs with drum patterns to create your own sounds and song ideas.

Sewn: a material based solar powered analog modular synthesizer from Ellistronics

Ellistronics is at it again with the handmade synthesizers of notes and noises. This time it's all Sewn into a bit of old sack and solar powered for ultimate portability.

Korg Prologue V1.30 fixes the annoying tuning instability

After months of complaints from Prologue users Korg finally steps up and deals with the oscillator tuning issues on their hybrid polyphonic synthesizer

Best Budget Christmas Gifts for Guitarists: Top Ten Guitar Stocking Fillers!

It is that time of year, you need a gift for the guitar player in your life and you don't want to spend a fortune, but you do want something they will actually need.

Victory Amps turns up the power with new VX100 The Super Kraken

Amp designer Martin Kidd and guitarist Rabea Massaad have reworked the VX The Kraken amp to come up with the VX100 Super Kraken - But is there enough new here to justify the name "Super"?

Prok Drums: Mighty Morphing virtual analog DSP drum module kits

A Bassdrum, Snare, Hi-Hat and Clap in four DIY modules that use DSP based virtual analog as their sound source and let you morph through the synthesis parameters in XY 2D. Very cool kits.

TRK-01 Play and other Christmas treats from Native Instruments

Native Instruments loves a bit of Christmas and you can always count on them to fire out something free and something cool around the holidays. This year it's a free version of TRK-01, a voucher and a prize ...

Dirty Haggard Audio DH-2 Death Fuzz: An improved Shin-ei Companion FY-2?

New Portland, Oregon based pedal company Dirty Haggard Audio have updated and improved an old classic Japanese fuzz circuit and named it the DH-2 Death Fuzz.

Behringer Neutron 2.0 firmware update adds a load of extras

The Neutron 2.0 firmware update brings a load of new stuff, features and improvements completely free to all users plus a new Neutron App to get into the details that the knobs don't provide.

SampleTank 4 unveiled with 8,000 sounds and a new sound engine

A whopping great big update to the original software sample library workstation. SampleTank 4 has 5 times the content, a redesigned sound engine, mixer, editing and grooving.

Rocket Surgeon Ice Caves Ambient Reverb: Glacial ambience for the adventurous

The new Ice Caves Ambient Reverb pedal is an Arctic-themed take on reverb pedals with a unique set of parameters for those that like to get more experimental with their 'verb. Frosty!

OP-1 is not dead say Teenage Engineering – stop paying silly eBay prices

Teenage Engineering weighs in on reports that the OP-1 portable synthesizer has been discontinued prompting inflated second-hand prices. They are just tooling up for another run.

Arturia Pigments: a swirling polyrhythmic, modulating and randomising mega-synth

Arturia has dropped Pigments, a visually enticing mega-synth that takes modulation, randomisation and probability to some very interesting places. Get your first in-depth look here!