microTERA

First of all, for the $10 that the magazine (Keys, or Music Tech) costs it's hard to complain about anything.

This is a limited synth: I believe the developer described it as something like "the left pinkie of Tera". It has only one sound generation mode, which is wave shaping. This makes it a bit of a one trick pony, but it's a cool trick (and it's a cheap trick :-) so that's fine.

The sounds are interesting. I've been able to make some bass sounds that were quite usable.

The problem is that wave shaping is rather un-intuitive. You have 3 sine wave oscillators, and some "spectrum" knobs, and other stuff you don't see on your daily VA. There is no good documentation, so I felt like groping around in the dark: I couldn't give much direction to my experimentation. I have no idea what wave shaping does, and how twisting one know or another will influence the sound. I can make different sounds, but it's hard to realize a sound you're looking for. Everything's more or less an accident.

But hey, you get a rather unique instrument (unless you already own Tera) that makes some cool noises for almost nothing. Who can really complain?Read Review

This is by far the berst "magazineware" to date! Sounds great, unique design, and very affordable ($13.99 here in the US). MTM had a good starters tutorial with the issue too. It's not nearly as extensive as his other instruments (Tera, D'Cota & Cube), but you can't complain at less than 1/16 the price. No reason not to pick up the mag.Read Review