CM AWARDS 2018

To wrap up another incredible year of new plugins and gear, we’ve handpicked our choice cuts from the past 12 months. Drum roll, please…

We pick the best of 2018’s new products

In what’s been yet another cracking year for the computer-based producer, 2018 has seen a wealth of marvellous new music applications and plugins take to market, as well as the usual slew of updates – some iterative, others transformative – to most of the major DAWs, and some of our favourite instruments and effects. We know we’re always saying this, but the world of in-the-box music production has never been more affordable or well-supplied than right now. Whether you’re just dabbling with synths and drum machines on your phone, or putting together what will surely be the next great electronic album on your Mac or PC, the sonic power at your disposal today, no matter what your budget, is nothing short of mindblowing.

Over the next ten pages, we’re going to take you on a tour of what we consider to be the best new releases over the last 12 months, as whittled down from the full list of well over 100 viable products reviewed in the last 13 issues of . We’ve got nine categories, from DAW of the Year to Freeware of the Year, and each one contains a winner and three runners-up. The runners-up, it’s important to point out, aren’t presented in any particular order.

As is the case every year, narrowing the field down to our final 36 proved to be an epic and difficult task, and it’s inevitable that some of our selections will prove controversial – do let us know what you make of them on social media.

But enough preamble! Take your seats, ladies and gentlemen, and we’ll begin…