Spectdrum Rhythmic Spectral Gate Turns Any Sound Into A Groove


A four-band spectral gate sequencer.

Spectdrum is a rhythmic spectral gate that splits incoming audio into four frequency bands and uses independent rhythmic patterns to turn each band into a separate rhythmic voice.

Hagai Davidoff has introduced Spectdrum, an audio effect for Mac and Windows that can take any sustained sound and turn it into a rhythmic groove.

Spectdrum works by splitting the incoming audio into four spectral bands, and opens and closes each band in time, driven by its own independent step sequencer of 1 to 32 steps. You can lock the sequences to a grid, or let them run polyrhythmically.

The plugin also provides drawable volume, filter, pan and pitch envelopes, per-band reverb and delay sends, and a master effects section.

Features:

  • Four spectral bands consisting of Sub, Low-Mid, High-Mid and Air
  • Each band has its own frequency range, filter, pitch, stereo width and drive controls
  • Each band has an independent rhythmic sequencer
  • Sequencer patterns can contain 1 to 32 steps
  • Independent pattern lengths allow polyrhythmic sequences between bands
  • Per-step velocity, accents and swing controls
  • Patterns respond to MIDI
  • MIDI Learn allows hardware controls to be assigned to plugin parameters
  • Eight stored patterns can be selected from a MIDI keyboard
  • Drawable per-band volume envelopes
  • Drawable per-band filter envelopes
  • Drawable per-band pan envelopes
  • Drawable per-band pitch envelopes
  • Per-band reverb sends
  • Per-band delay sends
  • Master filter section
  • Master distortion section
  • Master EQ
  • Master maximizer
  • Follows the host project’s tempo
  • Internal BPM setting for creating polyrhythms against the host session

Spectdrum is available now for Windows and macOS as a VST3 plugin, with AU support on macOS. The introductory price is US $69 (normally $99).

Live Modular On The Spot Performance, ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’


The video captures a live modular performance at Modular On The Spot Munich.

This video captures a live modular performance by synthesist and sound designer Martha Bahr, aka Panic Girl, at Modular On The Spot Munich.

Bahr’s performance, The Day The Earth Stood Still, was recorded at MOTS Munich on July 8th, 2026. It features a Moog Mother-32, a small Eurorack system and an Erica Synths? Echolocator.

Modular on the Spot (MOTS) is a series of free, outdoor modular synthesizer performances. The concept originated in Los Angeles with electronic artists Eric “Rodent” Cheslak and Bana Haffar.

An overview of the concept from Haffar, captured in 2018 at the Moog ‘House of Electronicus’:

Free Tool Lets You Customize Mutable Instruments Plaits Macro Oscillator


Plaits Palette is a free, browser-based tool that lets you easily create your own custom firmware for the Mutable Instruments Plaits.

The Mutable Instruments Plaits, originally introduced in 2018 for Eurorack systems, is a digital macro-oscillator module that features multiple synthesis models, including virtual analog, wavetable, percussion, speech. Since then, it has become one of the most popular synth module designs ever created, with its DNA being incorporated into clones, software versions and new synth designs.

Rubato Audio’s Plaits Palette lets you select synthesis models from a large library and load them into the slots of your choosing, with up to 4 banks on the module. You can also customize chord tables, speech models, DX7 patches, and many other functions.

In the video above, Jimmy Cuadra (Perceptes) shares an overview and demo of how to use Plaits Palette to customize your module.

Another overview, via The Unperson, that focuses on how this can expand the Plaits’ sonic options: