Sunday Loop #011 — Some Links Worth Your Time
Why Sunday Loop exists
The week moves fast. Between work, sessions, and everything else, the good reads get lost in the noise.
Every Sunday evening I share links — things I found worth reading during the week. Logic Pro, sound design, sampling, the occasional curveball. No algorithms, no filler. Just five things I’d genuinely recommend to a friend.
Grab a coffee. It won’t take long.
— Ewald
This Week
1. inMusic has apparently laid off 100 Native Instruments employees from nearly all departments
Category: Workflow
Native Instruments is joining inMusic — the company behind Akai, Moog, Alesis, and M-Audio — bringing iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx along with it. Both CEOs are talking “deeper integration” and “faster” tools, but early reports point to ~100 layoffs across nearly every NI department, including all of support. Worth a read if you use Kontakt, Komplete, or Ozone — consolidation like this tends to show up in your workflow eventually, not just the org chart.
2. Dirk Ulrich reacquires Plugin Alliance and Brainworx from inMusic
Category: Workflow
Plugin Alliance and Brainworx are back with their original founder: Dirk Ulrich has reacquired both brands from inMusic through his holding company RCKFRC, closing the loop after selling to Francisco Partners back in 2022. His statement leads with the essentials — “your plugins, your licenses and your projects will remain our highest priority” — a direct answer to the instability that followed Francisco Partners’ leveraged-buyout run and Native Instruments’ insolvency earlier this year. RCKFRC also owns Manley Labs and Apogee, so this reads more like a focused hardware-plus-plugins portfolio than another debt-driven roll-up. Good one to watch if you’re a PA/Brainworx user wondering whether license servers survive the next ownership change.
3. 19 Best Sound Design VST Plugins Available 2026
Category: Sound Design
19 sound design plugins spanning synths (Serum 2, Current 2, Atoms), granular/morphing tools (Novum, Morpho), and pitch/ring-mod effects (Wave Shifter, MF-102S RingMod). Serum 2 gets called out as capable of building entire tracks including drums, Current 2 for sounds that “don’t exist anywhere else.” One free pick in the mix — HAZE by Lunacy Audio — if you want to test the waters before buying. Aimed at producers already past the basics, so don’t expect explanations of what granular synthesis is.
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