SOS AWARDS 2026 Winners Announced! Published 22/1/26

Chosen by the readers of Sound On Sound



The SOS Awards celebrate innovation and contemporary design, with nominations being limited to products launched in the 12 months prior to the voting period. These results celebrate the ‘best in class’ products launched or reviewed in the 12 months from September 2024 through to the end of August 2025.

The votes have been counted, and we are very happy to announce the results of each category on the official results page published in our February 2026 issue:

www.soundonsound.com/reviews/2026-sos-awards-results

Congratulations to all the winners, as well as the very worthy close contenders in each category who have been awarded our Highly Commended accolade!

 

Best plugin Pro-Q4? You must be kidding.

I don’t see how it’s any better than Kirchhoff…

 

"These results celebrate the ‘best in class’ products launched or reviewed in the 12 months from September 2024 through to the end of August 2025."

Kirchhoff was released in 2022, and nothing happened in 2024-2025 with it that was worth reviewing again, might pretty easily answer this one. They probably do not review any minor version updates.

 

Those are voted upon by the readers of SOS who voted. I'm a reader, but I didn't even know there was a vote - I think I voted twice in my life for this.

So those aren't "best" per se, but most popular - there is a difference.

In the spirit of transparency, I remember once, years before Google, my first time voting for some music awards with my first wife (also a pianist/composer). We were looking at some categories not only as though they were aliens, but also from galaxies we'd never heard of. We voted for names we'd never heard of, names she couldn't even pronounce in some cases (English was not her native language).

Truth be told, when we didn't know any of the nominees, we voted for names that just sounded good when we pronounced them, rhythmically (ta-da-ta-da-ta-dum), or phonemically. When we did know at least one name (e.g., one of my friends, or roommates at Berklee) in a category, that was a no brainer - even if I never heard the other nominees' work. Not exactly fair, is it.

My point being, this whole "awards" thing - whether Oscars, or SAG, Grammys or TEC, Emmys or Tonys - it's all very nice and pro looking, but it's not exactly a reflection of what's what. Everyone who works at WB or Disney (record label, or studio) nearly systematically casts their votes for the artists, or actors, or projects they worked on, or their in-house buddies worked on. It's human.

Moral of the story, don't get your panties in a bunch over Q4 'beating' your favorite plugin. It's not real. None of these things are.