Sanjay C’s News Blitz: Plugin Alliance Plot Twists, Gear Steals & Synth Hype

Sanjay C opens with the kind of plot twist you only get in the music tech soap opera: Plugin Alliance and Brainworx are out from under InMusic’s empire, thanks to founder Dirk Ulrich buying them back. This move slaps if you’re into indie spirit over corporate spreadsheets. The new umbrella, RCK FRC, also ropes in Apogee and Manley, meaning a chunk of the old Native Instruments group is off doing its own thing—just as iZotope did earlier with Boris FX.

The vibe here is all about continuity, not a total reset. Dirk’s promising licenses and plugins stay safe, and the devs aren’t going to ghost us. Community noise is mostly positive, and I get it—founders have vision, big companies have quarterly targets. Whether this means more innovation or just less corporate fluff remains to be seen, but Sanjay’s watching for that upcoming roadmap like a hawk. If you’ve got Plugin Alliance stuff in your tracks, breathe easy… for now.

Lunacy Audio is handing out a summer sale that’s basically a free pass to sonic chaos. Beam 2.0 is their modular multi-effects playground—think Lego for weirdos, with grains, reverbs, filters, and modulation you can patch up in any order. If you like stumbling onto sounds that make your DAW sweat, this is your ticket.

You’re not married to the main plugin either: core modules run standalone, and as new bits drop, you just snap them in. Bismuth, co-developed with Virtual Riot, takes any audio and spits out tuned harmonic layers—so even a dull kick can come back as a rave anthem. There’s no way to describe exactly what these plugins do in words: you’ve got to hear the carnage unfold in the video.

UJAM is back with a sale that makes even the most broke bedroom producer look twice. Full drum plugins, synths, and guitars for nine dollars? That’s lunch money. Sanjay C shouts out a few favourites—Vice drums, USynth 2080, CineDream guitar plugin—and if you grab anything, you get Baby Audio’s Super VHS plugin for free if you hurry.

The deals page is a goldmine if you’re trawling for cheap inspiration. UJAM makes those plugins you grab when you want to sketch ideas fast or need instant drums. Don’t sleep, though—these freebie combos disappear quick, and there’s another UJAM free plugin at the end of the video for newsletter signups. Only in this economy do you get this much for a tenner.

Native Instruments finally drops a new synth, and it’s not just any softsynth—it’s the SuperStarSaw, built with hyperpop architect A.G. Cook. This thing is laser-focused on massive, stacked leads, trance chords, and lush textures. If you want to fill the rave bunker with sound, this is it.

The party trick here is the XY morpher—blend four variations and get instant movement. Native Instruments keeps throwing XY pads into everything, but here it actually makes sense. For $99, this isn’t a jack-of-all-trades; it’s a super saw specialist for the modern synth crowd. If you want to know how it actually sounds in a mix, you’ll need to catch the video—words can’t move air like a saw stack.