About FW//RADAR

A small story about scratching your own itch.

Who's behind this

I'm Vincenzo Risi, aka Nostoi — an electronic music producer based in Milan, working mostly in the downtempo space. Like most producers, my studio has slowly grown into a small zoo of synths, drum machines, samplers, audio interfaces, Eurorack modules and outboard. Each of them with its own firmware. Each of them with its own update schedule. Each of them on a different brand website.

Why this site exists

One night I realized I had spent more time tab-hopping between Elektron, Korg, Native Instruments, Behringer, Make Noise, RME — just to find out if anything had a new firmware — than actually making music. The information is out there, but scattered across dozens of brand sites, each with its own layout, naming, release rhythm.

Turns out there wasn't — so I built one. FW//RADAR started as a private tracker for my own rig. After a few weeks I figured other producers probably had the same itch, so I made it public.

How it stays alive

The site is free, has no ads, no subscription, no paywalled features. It runs on a small VPS with AI-assisted validation in the loop — which keeps the database accurate, but isn't free. Hosting, domain, AI usage all add up to a small but real monthly bill. If FW//RADAR saved you some time and you'd like to help keep it running, you can buy me a coffee. No pressure — the service stays the same either way.