(Editor’s Note: As stated, this is Part Three! You can check out the first part here – no particular order was involved because… well, math rock.)
At this point we’re almost used to getting up to December and suddenly realizing, “shit, we’ve got an entire year to review” and being “absolutely gobsmacked” as our UK friends say when examining the amount of amazing music released in the space of twelve months.
But this is only our second year with a dedicated Gear section, so, in short, we’re NOT used to it when looking through the last three hundred and sixty something days worth of pedal and/or plugin releases. It’s a whole industry as opposed to a niche genre… yet we boldly persist.
Maybe it’s Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Maybe it’s our history with music retail. Maybe it’s Holiday-driven familial avoidance syndrome. All we know is that it can’t be stopped – this year’s list has us absolutely stoked for new sound in general. If you’re seeing it here, you know it doesn’t just sound good, it’s got high potential for creative math rock. What does that mean? We’re not always sure, but we’ll do our best to explain. Also, part three is for plugins specifically, so if pedals are more your thing, don’t forgot to click the link in the editor’s note above – otherwise, let’s nerd out with our… birds out?
25 Noiseworks – Dynassist
While advanced compression and dynamics might not be the sexiest buzzwords on our list, they are two of the things that will save you hours worth of tiny tweaks, and the Dynassist gives you the razor’s edge in terms of gluing a project together without losing nuance.
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24 Aberrant DSP – Cataclysm
The new Cataclysm from Aberrant DSP almost reminds us of the infamous PhatFX from Logic Pro X, where its breadth of options and user-friendly tweaks are so overwhelming, you don’t even know what you’re looking at. But don’t let Cataclysm’s bit-destructive nature fool you – it adds more to tracks than it takes away, even if it’s in perilous, unpredictable ways.
23 GRM – Atelier
In a way, the Atelier is also a multi-fx plugin, but it’s more like a suite, or a DAW within a DAW. The user interface is a bit brutalist, but it’s to the software’s advantage, as it actually allows you to see and adjust all of the parameters you could ever hope to tinker with if you’re looking to get into sound design.
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22 Plugin Boutique – Faster Master
The Faster Master lives up to its name with some really interesting and useful features, and for a lot of DIY people in math rock it could also mean a better sounding record. While it’s probably best case scenario to have a professional human do it, if you’re open to trying a shortcut, we’d start with Faster Master.
21 Relab Color Drive
If you’ve yet to be satisfied by the sea of digital options to give your DAW some warmth, the Relab Color Drive emulates tape saturation and gain-staging with the absolute best of them.
20 Odeholm Audio – Thall Amp
There are a lot of heavy guitar plugins out there, but few as capable and forward thinking as the Thall Amp. Of course, this isn’t the biggest surprise when you consider it came from Vildhjarta‘s absolute madman, Buster Odenholm.
19 SoundToys – Space Blender
Reverb pedals and plugins are done to death at this point, but we’re still big fans, and every once in a while something will come out that manages to turn our heads in a new way. This year, it’s the Soundtoys Space Blender, which has freeze control, “color” and envelope settings, and a time setting that almost leans more into the oddities of exotic delays.
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18 Savant Audio Labs – IM90
In 2025, it seems that both pedals and plugins favored the multi-fx unit, and honestly, we’re not complaining. When you have so many options available in one place, whether it’s on your board or in the DAW, having a distinct range can be a key component to choosing the right one for you, and dare we say it, we think this one could hit big with math rock enthusiasts.
17 Native Instruments – Absynth
The legendary synth plugin returns just in time for the holidays, and it’s a real mothership of modular sound but it also looks incredibly easy to use for how advanced it is. Also, this is one of the best trailers for a synth we’ve ever seen, with a tagline made for math rockers: “weird by design.”
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16 Purafied Audio – 5420
This subtly outrageous plugin could easily fool you into thinking it’s a tape emulator or some kind of gain-stage glue, but it actually does a bit of both because technically, it’s dual-harmonic enhancement engine that allows you to split high and low frequencies while adjusting to taste.
15 Nightfox Audio Layered
If you’re looking at synths and feel intimidated, first off, we totally get it. But if you’re able to push through it, the Nightfox Audio Layered plugin has an ultra-simple interface for its highly effective sound – a twelve-layer, multi-instrument extravaganza.
14 Arturia – Pigments 6
Fans of Arturia rejoiced earlier this year when the already celebrated software synth got it’s sixth update, but even if you’re not familiar with the series or Arturia’s history of user-friendly excellence, Pigments 6 is an amazing place to start as any, especially if you’re looking to get downright filthy with granular synth and Adebisi Shank-styled vocoder lines.
13 Universal Audio – Paradise Guitar Studio
Universal Audio is constantly dropping heat and it’s only getting hotter, especially considering this guitarist suite doesn’t just come with pro-level signal chains and support, it’s got all kinds of amazing amps and pedals as well.
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12 Newfangled Audio – Articulate
This one may be a bit of a sleeper for this year, but if you’ve ever spent hours on a mix using EQ and compression to iron out the odd dynamic in instances of drums and guitars, Articulate might be exactly what you need to clean things up without having to constantly backtrack.
11 Safari Pedals – Hippie Elephant Granular Reverb
Again, with reverb having been perfected in almost every way in 2025, why would we have another on the list? Because this one just straight up forgets it’s a reverb with pitch, bit, and granular modulation options you’ll be hard pressed to find on anything else in its price range.
10 Minuit – Solstice
This one is for all you visual learners and synesthetes out there – the Solstice turns your sound into a sort of sonic “map” that almost resembles panes of shattered amber, and rather than tweak recognizable controls, you can adjust parts of the “map” to reveal subtle, even previously inaccessible angles of an established sound.
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9 Scaler 3
Math rock, like many genres, can be exceptionally guitar driven, and thanks to popular tunings like E standard, FACGBE, etc., every so often, that means repeating yourself or others. Frankly, we try not to think about it, but if the thought keeps you up at night, the Scaler 3 plugin is here to help with potential chord changes, song structure hijinks, and of course, scales galore to help you stand out.
8 Eventide – Temperance Lite
Okay, LAST REVERB, we promise. Eventide has a long history of packing massive musical features into the simplest looking spaces and interfaces, even with their free and “lite” versions. What we love about the Temperance Lite is that it’s useful in an entirely different way compared to the competition because you can use it to isolate specific overtones or even boost them.
7 Raccoon Audio – EchoSnack Delay
Really, what can we even say about an echo / delay plugin in 2025 other than if you’re able to find one that lets you be a raccoon that clones some poor guy over and over again depending on settings… well, you should!
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6 Serum 2
It was actually an insane year for software synthesis – hell, we barely avoided putting the Omnisphere 3 on here, and we only did it because we’ve already got like three others on the list. But the Serum 2 deserves a spot here for anyone absolutely serious about getting down to the nitty gritty of wavetable synthesizers.
5 Neural DSP – Mantra
Neural DSP pitched one hell of a curveball this year with the Mantra suite, designed for vocalists and vocal tracking as opposed to their usual demographic of guitarists and bass players. Considering these are all framed within our beloved genre, vocals are often the least experimented with instrument on math rock records, so we’re excited to see what the Mantra unleashes in singers in the coming months as they perfect their new signal chains, which for many will be new territory entirely.
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4 Mixland – Virelia
When people talk about Pultec’s legendary studio compression units, about half the time, we’d wager they’re actually more familiar with the software versions. We know that’s certainly the case with us, and we’re a big fan of the emulation provided by Logic, but the Virelia definitely has us wondering if we should try it on our next round of mixes due to it’s undeniable midrange glue and grit.
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3 JMG Audio – Lofinity
There are a lot of great saturations, distortions, and other sonic destructors out there, but honestly, gain-play can sound a little same-y unless we’re really paying attention. But the way the JMG Lofinity degrades whatever you put in it isn’t just well done, it’s unique in the way that it can analyze your sound and give you an entirely new algorithm to make sure it’s destroyed exactly as it should be.
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2 Lewitt Audio – Space Replicator
If you’ve ever been in a studio, spent hours on a mix, then went out for the ol’ car test and found yourself questioning your ears and contemplating sonic seppuku despite your best efforts, you’re not alone. The Lewitt Space Replicator seeks to be the antidote to this kind of scenario, as well as several others, in which your ears naturally tune to speakers and the given environment, which may or may not result in certain unattended frequencies.
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1 Roland – JC-120
No single piece of digital gear perked us up in 2025 like Roland’s renewed JC-120. After many years spend with the real thing, we grew to love it, but also ceaselessly look past it in terms of other options. With the plugin version, not only do we get the magic back, we also get some improvements on one of the best math rock amplifiers in the biz. Somehow one of the best got even better, and it did so in a context that feels both new and natural at the same time.
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