Twelve things landed on the radar in October, published over seven days. We called six of them Fire.

That is half, and half is not a bar — it is a coin. This audit exists to say which of the six we would defend with a straight face, and which we suspect we liked because they were free.

The month in numbers

12 reviews between 2026-10-17 and 2026-10-23.

Verdicts across the month
Fire6
Stash5
Digital Furniture1

6 of 12 — half. We would rather write that sentence down than quietly lower what Fire means.

The ones we would defend

  • illformed - Glitch 2 — Sixteen years old and still the least polite plugin here. Nothing free does that to a drum loop.
  • u-he - Zebralette 3 — A free synthesizer from u-he is not a loss-leader; it is the engine they built the paid Zebra on.
  • Slate Digital - Complete Access Free Collection — Sixteen plugins for nothing, and the caveats are about the account, not the tools.
  • UJAM - Detunicorn — A real instrument with a real deadline. On 19 November we find out whether we miss it.
  • D16 Group - Echolite — No account, no coupon, no date. That is what a freebie is supposed to feel like.
  • The Crow Hill Company - 100 Year Old Piano — Recorded before anyone restored it, which is the entire point.

The ones we put down

  • Stash · Azazel Audio - VisualComp 2 — Good, and already covered by something you probably own.
  • Stash · Moth Production - Whirl DT — A nice idea we would not reach for twice.
  • Stash · Steinberg - Steinberg Classics Collection — Legacy instruments with legacy installers.
  • Stash · AIR Music Technology - AIR Vocal Distortion — Not open yet. It cannot earn Fire from a waiting list.
  • Stash · GForce Software - Axxess — One of a series of GForce giveaways; the series is the story, not the plugin.
  • Digital Furniture · GForce Software - M-Tron Select 2 — A good M-Tron, and a better one is free elsewhere.

What expired

Nothing expired this month. The first deadline is UJAM - Detunicorn on 18 November 2026.

What is still ahead

  • AIR Music Technology - AIR Vocal Distortion — opens 27 November 2026

What we got wrong

  • The Slate cover pointed at a checkout page instead of the product page. A reader would have been asked for money before reading a word.
  • The Steinberg link went to the company home page rather than the instrument. The editor caught it, not us.
  • The first title counted items — Six Freeware Picks — so every addition meant rewriting the headline. The month is the edition now, and the title carries the date instead.
  • One publication replaced October's page with a split version, throwing away what the month had already accumulated. The diagnosis was right; the cure was not.
  • The email pipeline was merged able to produce packages but blind to product names: 'lifetime updates' arrived as if it were a product. It is refused at the gate until that is fixed.

Nothing expired in October, so the Expired badge has still never fired in production. The first honest test is 19 November, when Detunicorn runs out.

Next audit: the last Sunday of November.