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October 2024

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369 articles

October 31
- “Everyone thinks the amps are going to make you sound great because they are so expensive”: Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the biggest misconceptions about Dumble amps, the “bona-fide genius” behind them – and why the clones don’t measure up
- 5 pro recording setup ideas: from recording bands to mixing and mastering, these recommended rigs will get the job done
- Zildjian at Recording Week 2024: Zildjian ALCHEM-E Perfect Tune Headphones pair to the Zildjian app to create a truly personalised listening experience - customised for your hearing - so you never miss a note.
- “My favourite, secret plugin on the planet… it just adds more snap and clarity”: Kanye West and Jay-Z producer Anthony Kilhoffer on the budget bitcrusher he used on In Paris
- "The living, breathing embodiment of funk": Bootsy Collins' bass guitar, Farfisa organ and Yamaha DX7 go up for sale along with a collection of memorabilia
- “Dang, might be a smaller venue but I’d say it more an upgrade than going to Hollywood”: Ginger Root is forced to downgrade LA gig but fans seem relaxed about it
- “I still have the guitar. It still buzzes”: Brian May reveals the radical mods he made to his £10 acoustic for Queen’s debut album, all to make it buzz
- “A good vocal is one that doesn’t sound like it has been recorded in the garage (even if it was)”: New to recording vocals? Start here
- “Right up there with the most iconic Fenders of all time… A ton of work went into this one”: The Fender Custom Shop unveils $20,000 replica of John Frusciante’s 1962 Strat, forensically replicating every ding and dent of the RHCP guitarist’s original
- “There are so many hurdles guitar players get into that are attributed to knowing 30% of the neck. Just map it out - it takes a week”: Julian Lage unlocks the secret of mastering guitar
- "Last night I got an email from someone who said 'I'm 46, is it okay to start producing music?' I said 'yes, start now!'": How a 67-year-old pensioner went viral performing industrial techno at home
- “Over 350 grassroots music venues are now placed at immediate risk of closure”: UK Live music representatives criticise Reeves Budget cut in business rate relief
- “Don’t stand there like a coward, come here and say it... See you later then”: Thom Yorke leaves stage after pro-Gaza protester interrupts show
- "There are few producers who haven’t employed – or lusted after – it at some point or another, such is its legendary status": Why does everyone love the UREI/UA 1176 compressor?
- “13 minutes of pumpkin-flavoured power metal mayhem!”: The ultimate Halloween anthem
- Streaming royalties for Bowser? Nintendo Music puts the company’s classic video game soundtracks in an iOS and Android app
- “The Foo Fighters discovered a ghostly presence that not only knew how to terrify people, but also about the ins and outs of using Pro Tools”: The scariest places music has been recorded
- “From glassy cleans to deeper, more aggressive tones”: The new Harley Benton Agufish Custom Signature Series
- “Elvis walked in the room – this was before he was fat – and he said to me, ‘You know anything about guns?’ I said, ‘I’m from Detroit.’ He said, ‘OK, come in here’“: Alice Cooper’s near-deadly encounter with the King
- “Its biggest asset is its ease-of-use”: iZotope Neutron 5 review
- “It’s dreamy, evocative and incredibly emotive, but there’s so much you can do to sounds as well”: Sonora Cinematic Panorama Guitars review
- "George had a smugness on his face when he came in with this one, and rightly so - he knew it was absolutely brilliant.": Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on the recording of Abbey Road, track-by-track
October 30
- "It makes it sound like an authentic recording and less like you programmed the whole thing with your mouse": 11 tips for software guitar that sounds like the real thing
- Is this the most English piece of band merch of all time?
- “The need for philanthropic support is extremely urgent”: Burning Man fest is in financial trouble
- “If you see some mistakes, and some problems, it’s because we don’t have our bass player”: Coldplay forced to play a show without one of their members for the first time in their history
- AlphaTheta promises to "free your inner DJ" with DDJ-FLX2, its lightest and most compact DJ controller yet
- “They're French. I would say it's a kind of techno prog band”: Elvis Costello reckons that the Brooklyn warehouse gig he saw Justice play was “one of the great shows I've ever been to”
- "When it comes to performance and playability, Casio goes to great lengths to recreate the grand piano experience, achieving impressive results": Casio AP-S200 digital piano review
- “When I quit my job as a scientist to be a songwriter, I was waiting tables and bartending and needing to write songs for a living”: The art of songwriting with rising country star Stephen Wilson Jr
- “Understand your genre and use some suitable references”: Cleaning up muddy recordings
- “Now I realize how little you really need to create good music when you just pick the right sounds - whether that’s on purpose or by accident”: How Darude created Sandstorm, the meme-worthy trance anthem named after a synth preset
- How to recreate classic recorded drum sounds from The Beatles, Metallica, Nirvana and more
- "It has been a bit bewildering for us that Herb would so abruptly opt out": Primus left “in complete shock” by drummer’s sudden departure
- “It stands out for being HEAVY!”: Jerry Cantrell reveals his favourite Led Zeppelin song
- “Justin said, ‘I’m working with this artist you may or may not know’”: Bonnie Raitt confirms that Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon contacted her personally when he and Charli XCX wanted to sample Nick Of Time on their Brat remix track
- “Who wants to tell him?”: Busking drummer unknowingly performs Chili Peppers song in front of Chad Smith
- “She didn't move from the sofa and she sang two takes of Rolling in the Deep and that's what we used”: Adele, Daft Punk and Taylor Swift are among our picks for the best recorded albums of the 21st century
- “‘Where's Carlos?’ ‘He's in that room.’ So my parents and I, we knock on the door, and he's, ‘Oh, you're the kid I heard about… do you want to play tonight?’”: How a 9-year-old guitar prodigy ended up jamming with Carlos Santana
- "There was water dripping onto the gear and we got interrupted by a cave diver": How Mandy, Indiana recorded their debut album in caves, crypts and shopping malls
- “A flexible and impressive compendium that extends way beyond just jazz”: Toontrack SDX The Jazz Sessions review
- Roland’s new Earth Piano instrument puts “50 years of piano development” into your DAW
October 29
- "They just went in there and bang, bang, bang – three takes or so and nailed it”: Why Oasis’ Definitely Maybe was recorded twice
- “A commanding new effects pedal that merges aggressive octave fuzz with earth-shaking analogue synth tones”: Third Man Hardware joins forces with Eventide for the Knife Drop – featuring Jack White’s presets, it’s designed for “sonic chaos”
- Ticketmaster clamps down on unauthorised resales of Oasis tickets as 50,000 for next year’s tour are cancelled
- “The drummer broke his snare-drum skin, the bass was in a different tuning, Gilmour’s guitar wasn’t working properly…”: Bryan Ferry remembers Slave To Love’s chaotic live debut
- “Making that record was like pulling teeth!” Rock legends Rush remember the album that drove them half-mad
- “People think of Prince and they think ‘vocalist, songwriter, guitarist'. But his bass playing: bar none”: Questlove on the Prince production with the ‘David Garibaldi LM-1 drum beat’ that he calls “one of the most daring funk songs of all time"
- How to build a complete mastering chain in Ableton Live using only stock plugins
- “He ended up with a fully-fledged, pro studio - it just happened to have an engine and some wheels underneath”: David Gilmour, The Rolling Stones, Timbaland, Depeche Mode and more in nine of the weirdest recording studios ever built
- “Simple to use and versatile enough for any style of guitar playing”: Fender unveils the Champion II amp series, a trio of affordable solid-state modelling combos with onboard effects for players of all levels
- “I would love to do another album and I may try to bully him on that": Pete Townshend on future Who plans and the possibility of new music
- “We recorded that song in a toilet with quite a cheap microphone, a Shure SM58”: Phil Oakey lifts the lid on the birth of The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me
- “A new level of technical playability and truly musical tone”: Cort expands its shred-ready electric guitar lineup with the KX700 TT, a limited edition high-end S-style with Fishman Fluence humbuckers and True Temperament frets for on-point intonation
- iZotope's Neutron 5 adds 3 new plugins and makes its AI-powered Mix Assistant "faster and smarter"
- Play 'em like Noel! Learn 5 classic Oasis riffs (and 1 underrated riff)
- “The fact is that for 2024 and beyond, digital is the way to go”: Want to build an affordable home studio? Start here
- “Ideal for maintaining clarity in extended-range instruments”: Abasi Concepts wants to take your tone to the next level with the Micro-Aggressor – a boost-style compressor voiced for low-end guitar
- “Jimmy Page was meticulous. Hendrix was more free-form”: The genius of two visionary guitarists by the producer who worked with both
- “Travis Scott sampled our song - that’s pretty cool!”: How a long-lost '80s rock track was finally heard by millions
- “Delivers a compelling mix of features for music production, mastering, editing and audio restoration”: Magix Sequoia Pro 17 review
- Synchro Arts by LANDR at Recording Week 2024: Discover the ultimate vocal production studio – Get 50% off Revoice Pro 5
October 28
- From iPad Pro to the iMac: Apple's new all-in-one desktop takes its M4 chip from the company's flagship tablet
- “She actually gives me so much advice on taking care of myself and being me in an industry that’s so overwhelming sometimes”: Olivia Rodrigo has been getting advice from Chappell Roan
- "Despite recording some truly iconic albums that became a huge part of pop culture history, he always felt like one of us": Five seminal records Steve Albini worked on
- “Training a model based on the 13-year-old Brenda Lee, using original masters, was both a challenge and a creative breakthrough”: BT on the new Spanish version of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree that was made possible by his SoundLabs AI MicDrop plugin
- “I never, ever get nervous before a show, but it was nerve-racking”: Mike Portnoy on his Dream Theater live return
- "Manipulate any audio source into a hauntingly immersive soundscape": SSL releases Halloween-themed free plugin X-Orcism II: Voices from the Crypt
- If a tree falls in a forest and no-one hears it, should it receive a royalty payment?
- “Once you hear these unwanted sounds you'll never be able to unhear them - and they could ruin your mix”: 10 things to avoid when recording
- “It’s been stuck in my head, and it would make me feel good if I knew that 65,000 other people have this song stuck in their head, just like I do”: Taylor Swift is joined on stage by Sabrina Carpenter for a surprise shot of Eras Tour Espresso
- “It sounds just like an original, while being simple to use, and easy to control from within your DAW”: Roland Space Echo RE-201 Plugin review
- “Interfaces are all about connections and the more money you spend, the more options you’ll get in return”: New to audio interfaces? Start here
- “Sometimes people need a mix engineer, or a recording engineer, or a producer, or a guitarist – or sometimes all of those things”: Amy Sergeant on her professional studio career and her approach to mix engineering in the modern industry
- Why Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere could spark a new wave of interest in the Teac 144 Portastudio, the 4-track cassette recorder that triggered a home recording revolution
- Laney at Recording Week 2024: Laney's exciting partnership with AURORA DSP delivers a digital revolution in guitar and bass tones
- HH Audio at Recording Week 2024: Meet the Q Series – HH Audio’s newest mixers
- IK Multimedia at Recording Week 2024: Why their iLoud range delivers much more than monitoring
- sonible at Recording Week 2024: Balancing out vocal, speech and instrumental recordings has never been easier than with smart:EQ 4
- Neural DSP at Recording Week 2024: Discover Nano Cortex – An infinite number of amps and pedals on your pedalboard
- u-he at Recording Week 2024: Discover Filterscape, u-he's truly unique sound-mangling plugin package that's recently been updated to version 1.5
- Minimal Audio at Recording Week 2024: A new wave of synthesis is here – Current 2.0 is available now
October 27
- “A pretty addictive set of effects, with use that ranges from the more commonplace to experimental and avant-garde”: UVI Tape Suite review
October 26
- “She was playing stadiums in the US, and she was playing my remix. She was singing on my remix. I didn't expect that at all”: Boston Bun on the secret to killer remixes and making his track Nobody // Me
- “It feels incredibly authentic at the base-sample level, and provides vast potential which extends way beyond its original use by rock bands”: Cherry Audio Wurlybird 140B review
- “I think Billy would say there was no need to make any more songs. And maybe, as a fan, I felt the need for one more”: Freddy Wexler talks songwriting, producing, discovering Lady Gaga and restarting Billy Joel’s fire
October 25
- “A great combination of classic plugins – we’re surprised by how much we like the preamp”: Universal Audio LA-6176 review
- "My car got stolen with all my songwriting books in the boot so no second album any time soon”: Raye’s songwriting book is stolen - on her birthday
- “Every once in a while we choose woods from our stock to create special instruments and these guitars are great examples of just that”: PRS adds super-versatile “08” pickup switching to the CE bolt-on with limited run black limba and swamp ash models
- “A combo of powerful, flexible, multi-layered spectral audio editing with cutting edge AI-based neural networks”: Steinberg SpectraLayers Pro 11 review
- “We’ve never thought we have made the perfect record. We are always on the lookout to discover new ways of doing things, new sounds”: Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith on Tears For Fears’ restless creativity, artistic independence and the search for surprise
- "I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could. You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances": Stevie Nicks explains why she cut Lindsey Buckingham out of her life, and it's partly because "he wasn't very nice to Harry Styles"
- “He never got to see GPS”: Helen Mirren feels “sad” for Kurt Cobain, but not for the reason you might expect
- “He was playing this kit that had cushions in it and tape all over it. It didn’t sound like Rodge”: Queen hated Roger Taylor’s drum sound on their debut album so much that they “augmented” every beat for its reissue
- “I tried to make the concert feel like my own spin on a rock show. My dream was for people to jump and scream and be all sweaty by the end”: Olivia Rodrigo reflects on her hugely successful Guts World Tour
- "I’m not checking my emails on stage!": Autechre hit back against critics of electronic artists that perform with laptops
- “Nicky Wire on lead vocals!”: Hear the Manic Street Preachers’ surprise new single
- “This exceptional instrument combines the legendary features that defined early Van Halen with modern performance enhancements”: EVH Gear unveils the Star TOM, a shred machine with a single ‘bucker, kill-switch and no-fuss Tuna-Matic bridge
- “I’m the first black female in heavy music with my own signature guitar”: Diamond Rowe is making history with Jackson
- “I’ve got lots of ideas and I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space - it’s been a long time”: Kate Bush is readying herself to start work on a new album
- “Chad Kroeger called me in the middle of the night and was cursing me because he couldn't get the song out of his head. I was like, ‘now you know everyone else felt with How You Remind Me!": We speak to the Lottery Winners
October 24
- “Can you put a banjo in a dubstep drop?”: Jacob Collier teams up with Google to launch AI-powered music creation tool MusicFX DJ
- "He came and asked for some money, but it was alright... if it’s a hook, or I feel like I’ve taken their idea, then I'd always try and pay for it": Fatboy Slim on sampling's "Wild West" origins - and nicking the bassline from The Clash's Guns of Brixton
- Cableguys’ new Snapback plugin puts a “secret trick of pro producers” at your fingertips
- “There’s a little song called Toxic that was headed my way, and I was like, ‘Toxic? I don’t know if I want a song called Toxic’”: Kylie Minogue on the Britney Spears hit that she turned down
- “He offered me Jimi’s guitar and then disappeared!”: How Lenny Kravitz almost got his hands on Hendrix’s Woodstock Strat
- “It’s his message, to let the world know how he feels about all the things that’s going on in the world”: Kool and the Gang drummer spent 20 years on a solo album but didn’t live to see its release
- Korg’s Multi/Poly is a versatile new synth that takes influence from an ‘80s cult classic
- “He asked me to go into the studio and add some sounds and jam with the band a bit, to bring more electronic experimentation into their sound”: Jon Hopkins reflects on being introduced to Coldplay by Brian Eno
- "She's kind of known for her pop songs, but they actually go a lot deeper than that. I think she can even be compared to some of the great poets”: Academics debate Taylor Swift at Birmingham University event
- “The same sound engine and colour touch display as the GX-100 in a portable, travel-ready design”: Boss promises a “universe” of tones from the small but mighty GX-10 amp modeller and multi-effects
- "There's no heart there. David was the centre of it all... he was the heart of this band”: Graham Nash reveals why he’ll never play with Stills and Young again
- “I don’t usually get nervous, but I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem”: So Barack Obama raps the opening lines of Lose Yourself
- “Those hoping for a reissue of the Mono/Poly are going to be disappointed – its capabilities are so much broader than that”: Korg Multi/Poly review
October 23
- “A hugely versatile and impressive package at the sonic level… But the player may put professionals off”: Spitfire Audio Abbey Road Orchestra Symphonic Strings Professional review
- “Baby Audio’s take on vocal processing is a stunning, simple and effective one”: Baby Audio Humanoid review
- “Pull your sound through the prism and into a spectrum of dazzling tones”: Elektron’s Digitone II adds FM drums, phase distortion, comb filters and more
- Minimal Audio unveils Current 2.0, the next edition of its all-in-one synth, sampler, multi-effects plugin and content platform
- No need to wait for Black Friday; Sweetwater's Beat The Holiday Rush Sale has mega offers like $500 off D'Angelico and over $1,000 off B.C. Rich and Guild
- “Beautiful from all angles”: Kurzweil and Axel Hartmann channel mid-century modern design with the KaP1 digital piano
- “For those needing a step up from cheaper, more basic condenser microphones, the MV6 is an excellent investment”: Shure MV6 review
- “My facial disfigurement from the surgery means I can’t open my mouth wide enough for a strip of spaghetti, let alone to sing”: John Farnham on why his voice is now silenced
- "Songs don't come that often. I've gone two years without writing anything": Springsteen reveals he’s currently suffering from writers’ block
- “An amazing voice - absolutely awesome!”: Bruce Dickinson salutes former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno
- "This is not something to be afraid of - this is something that we need to use": Timbaland says he spends 10 hours a day using controversial AI music generator Suno
- Both USB audio interface and multitrack recorder, Tascam’s retro-looking Studio Bridge is designed to be the missing link between your analogue console and DAW
- “An electrifying experience!” Steve Vai is buzzing about a new G3 live album with Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson
- “I’m not a ‘musician’ - I was always scared of people who had studios”: How Burial produced the 21st century’s most influential electronic album on a “rubbish, dying” computer with outdated software
October 22
- “It’s compact, fun and easy to use... and features tones derived from the Helix family”: Line 6 serves up a $179 high-gain bargain for metal thrashing maniacs with the POD Express Black
- “The authentic genre-defining sound of one of the world’s most ferocious high-gain amps”: Universal Audio unveils the UAFX Knuckles ’92, offering monster Dual Rectifier tones in a compact pedal
- “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted": Thom Yorke adds his support to a warning on the dangers of AI
- “What we get here is the essence of Alesis’ flagship electronic drum set, with all the great features, minus the stuff that is likely to be ‘nice-to-have’ rather than essential”: Alesis Strata Core review
- “He felt the Rolling Stones got the adulation and respect that ‘The Mop Tops’ didn’t... he would get really angry about it, and call them ‘the Rolling Pebbles’”: Lennon’s '70s confidant tells fascinating story of the ex-Beatle's competitive streak
- “I just took it out and I could see all the flame coming out on the side of it and I went, ‘Oh my goodness gracious.’ It’s just so beautiful”: Gibson unveils stunning $19,999 replica of Jimmy Page’s 1964 SJ-200 acoustic
- “Punches above its weight”: Alesis unveils Strata Core, a cut-down version of its flagship Strata Prime e-kit
- Spitfire Audio launches LABS+ subscription platform for samples - but LABS will remain free
- “We have the YouTube generation to thank for its explosion”: Unpacking the modern lo-fi genre
- “Our studios were right beside each other. I’m working on Missy; he’s working on Kelis. I walked in, and I heard Caught Out There. I walked back to Missy and said, ‘We gotta rethink’”: Timbaland on being inspired by the “genius” of Pharrell Williams
- “He certainly put his stamp on the first two albums”: The 6 greatest Iron Maiden songs featuring Paul Di'Anno
- “A beautifully simple stompbox that combines the most essential delay types with the features that matter”: JHS Pedals unveils the Flight Delay, offering analogue, digital and reverse delays with tap tempo
- "This is weirdly hilarious and also pathetic”: Fans see the funny side of festival merch typo debacle
- "Anybody who gets this console, it'll be the most famous studio in the world": The legendary mixing desk used on The Beatles’ Abbey Road is going up for sale
- "I am not aware of it and don't really give a flying...": Thom Yorke’s blunt riposte to speculation about new Radiohead activity
- “The ultimate weapon for metal guitarists who demand the ultimate amplifier”: Blackstar unveils the Series One MK II, a four-channel 100W fire-breathing tube amp with “world-class” tone
- “Elvis sorted through them, picking out several by title alone, then listening to them on the studio speaker… when he heard the second one, he instantly brightened. ‘Let me hear that again,’ he said. ‘Something I like about that one’..."
- The internet's biggest bundle of free plugins just got bigger, as MeldaProduction introduces MDelay
October 21
- Discover high-precision sound with the Austrian Audio Hi-X20 headphones
- “We ask his fans to raise a glass in his memory”: Ex-Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno dead at 66
- “I changed the sound of music forever”: Cher joins Dua Lipa to sing Believe - minus the Auto-Tune - at the Rock & Hall of Fame, as she’s inducted by Zendaya
- This massive study compares 2,368 synths, samplers and drum machines from 1896 to the present day - and the results might surprise you
- “Everything that Dream Theater fans want!”: 5 highlights from their landmark London show
- "Kraftwerk is not a band, it’s a concept": How Kraftwerk introduced the world to electronic music - and showed us that we could make it too
- “I was going to buy a Minimoog because Keith Emerson had one. I was in the store and I was trying it out and I hear a voice behind me say ‘you don’t want that’”: Why Foreigner’s Al Greenwood said no to the Minimoog and bought a little-known synth instead
- "We're here to deconstruct the elements of music theory that will demonstrably make your music better”: The pillars of music theory made simple
- Loved by Jeff Buckley, despised by Courtney Love: the singer who famously urinated on her A&R man’s desk
- “Taylor is the ‘now’ one. We are the ‘still now’”: Ringo Starr has his say on people comparing Taylor Swift to The Beatles
- “Is everyone OK? You think that two rock dads wrote my female rage album about the horrors of being pregnant and accepting suburbia?”: Halsey on the reaction to their Nine Inch Nails-produced album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, in 2021
- “You could present an audience with 13 minutes of guitar improvisation and they would actually thank you for it!”: The very best of Peter Frampton
October 20
- There's no need to suffer with high (or low) action anymore: How to adjust the string height on your electric guitar and bass
October 18
- “I see no reason for not playing Belfast”: What Rory Gallagher said about recording his greatest album
- Martin Scorsese confirmed to direct film of Robbie Robertson tribute concert
- "It's possible to make great songs with little to no knowledge of music theory": 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
- Bruno Mars jumps on the drums for APT, his new single with Blackpink’s Rosé that’s served with a pinch of Toni Basil
- “We were finally given the schedule last night, and it is not to our satisfaction. So we are staying home”: Foreigner drummer decides to skip Rock & Hall of Fame induction
- “The problem is, if there’s something good on there, you hear that in three or four other records. Do I care? Not really. None of us are reinventing the wheel“: Hardt Antoine on the art of sampling and establishing a signature sound
- “I have a great deal of respect for Ed Sheeran. He fought his corner and stood up not only for himself but the whole music industry”: A quick-fire guide to copyrighting your music
- "Think you can stop what we do? I doubt it!": A group of Irish kids recorded a viral drum 'n' bass track - 6 million views later, it's up for a Grammy Award
- Don’t wait for Black Friday – right now you can enjoy a massive 15% off all PRS SE guitars from now until Christmas
- “Every artist could say that - ‘I don’t want that’ - and it would disappear. But you know artists hide behind management”: Robert Smith on his frustrations with Ticketmaster and dynamic pricing
- “I wanted Alice In Chains to be a guitar duo band - because of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Aerosmith”: Jerry Cantrell on his love of classic guitar harmonies
October 17
- No music theory? No problem! LANDR's AI-powered Composer plugin will instantly generate "chord progressions, basslines, melodies, and harmonies" for you
- “Why are you doing this?”: Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell recalls his conversation with Tom Petty after he’d sent him the songs he’d written for his side project
- “A new Inspired by Gibson Custom signature model from one of Japan’s most well-loved guitarists”: Epiphone and Tak Matsumoto strike gold with 1955 Les Paul Standard based on his vintage original
- Jonas Brothers gig stopped after laser pen is pointed in Nick Jonas’s face
- “You realise these things are designed for hospitals, and MRI machines?”: Joe Bonamassa reveals the secret to keeping his tube amps sounding their best night after night – and he “nicked it” from Angus Young
- SoundCloud confirms that electronic music fans are its most engaged listeners, and that the popularity of trance in particular is on the rise
- "Many offer 'vintage-sounding' samples, but we’re offering the real thing": Tracklib announces "first of its kind" royalty-free sample packs made up of authentic '70s recordings
- Talking Heads pose the questions on US game show Jeopardy - take them on here
- “Over 400 effects based on those of the award-winning Axe-Fx III”: Fractal launches the VP4 ‘Virtual Pedalboard’ – a compact, hugely configurable digital multi-effects unit that could give your 'board the night off
- “Muscular, articulate rock tones were the tones I always sought, but I made a name for myself in the ‘80s when you needed a little more aggression”: Friedman unveils the Jake E. Lee signature IR-J dual-channel tube preamp pedal
- “John Lennon’s death had a huge effect on me. He was the one who invited me to drink with The Beatles”: How Foreigner’s Mick Jones connected with a hero
- Native Instruments discontinues Maschine MK1 and MK2, but new Maschine software is on the way - with stem separation and more
- “The whole second verse of that song is ‘80s song titles, strung together as sentences”: No one knew about the lyrical Easter eggs I dropped into a Rihanna hit single, says songwriter Evan Kidd Bogart
- One Direction singer Liam Payne, aged 31, dies in Buenos Aires
- “My original guitar hero has always been Brian May”: The Last Dinner Party’s Emily Roberts on her new (red) special friend
- “Spreads those SidStation ripples even further”: Elektron’s Syntakt gets new sounds and a Euclidean sequencer
October 16
- “An all-round upgrade to the formula of the original, but it’s unlikely to convince any sceptics”: Elektron Digitakt II review
- “Huge sounds, overwhelming options, great value and easy modulation, all in a crazily priced package”: The Synth Factory Horizen review
- “That album makes me tear up. It makes me emotional, just because I think, wow, imagine being there in that crowd, listening to one of the greatest bands of all time”: Charli XCX on the Daft Punk album that hits different
- “Why would you lend your talents to Michael Jackson?”: Alex Van Halen told Eddie not to play on Beat It
- Coming soon: MusicRadar's Recording Week 2024
- “I am very honoured to be a Gretsch signature guitarist because I have been a massive fan for so long”: Gretsch unveils a stunning limited edition semi-hollow electric for Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore
- “It was three weeks before the release, and he said: ‘I know it will be number one’”: How ATB accidentally came up with the hook for the chart-topping 9PM (Till I Come) while showing off his studio to impress a date
- “The Les Paul approach, where you play everything yourself and you’re bouncing tracks around”: How Lindsey Buckingham reinvented Fleetwood Mac
- “Just ask Kiss, Nirvana and The Rolling Stones - all bands that became globally recognised brands”: How to build an artist identity that cuts through the noise
- "I didn’t know how to work any of it. It felt like being at the controls of a spacecraft: a spacecraft that I had absolutely no idea how to fly": Elton John says he’s never got over his Hammond organ “phobia”
- “It’s a task that most of us can’t be bothered with, but it’ll pay off in the long run”: Never cleaned your synths? Here's how – and why – to do it properly
- “I became a better player because I had to follow Randy Rhoads”: How Jake E. Lee found fame with Ozzy
- “Nirvana was an honest expression of not being ashamed to put your angst on the front page”: Run DMC rapper talks about how he relates to Kurt Cobain
- “The world’s greatest guitarist is what everyone says. It’s kind of a dicey title”: A deep dive into the Van Halen catalogue proves the point
October 15
- “It’s a mixture of a jam band, me as a singer-songwriter, and programming with late ‘90s, early 2000s dance music technology of the day”: Johnny Marr on how “Moogs, Korg 101s and Space Echo” shared space with guitar to shape his sound with the Healers
- “Has Oberheim running through its samples, like a stick of rock!”: GForce Software Oberheim DMX review
- "Where the Foxgear units shine is being fully integrated, including the power stage": Foxgear 100W Series review
- "The Jeval is a decent integrated pedal solution as a fly rig or pedalboard gigging solution": Baroni Jeval review
- “It’s designed to push boundaries and redefine what a Fender guitar can be”: Fender unveils the American Ultra II, US-made classic models revamped for high-performance feel and tone
- “Can someone explain what is happening right now? Y’all got my heart pounding!!!!”: Fleetwood Mac are revamping their social media accounts and fans are getting excited
- Supercharge your next production with up to 50% off instruments and effects in the unmissable Native Instruments NKS partner sale
- “Brian and myself were talking the other day, and we both said that if we feel we have some good material, why not?”: Roger Taylor teases possibility of new Queen music
- Small might be beautiful, but even with an upgraded A17 Pro chip and Apple Intelligence support, is the new iPad mini’s appeal big enough?
- “That was the beginning of the greatest love affair of my life”: Fred Again on how swapping a Boss 8-track recorder for his first DAW ignited his passion for music making
- “It’s taking experience from playing some of the greats”: Future Sound Systems Cric is a pin matrix-equipped analogue dream synth
- "My new plugin does ridiculous things": Baby Audio and Andrew Huang release Transit 2, the latest version of their multi-effects plugin that "kills static mixes"
- "I can't help but wonder how much music Computer Music has had a hand in bringing to life over the years. What a magazine": Computer Music magazine to close after 25 years in print
- “That’s the most wild thing I’ve ever seen anyone do”: Fred Again on watching Brian Eno break the rules in the studio
- “I think we're about to have a big resurgence now in kids picking up guitars, and I think we've got the Gallagher brothers to thank for it”: Should we be hopeful about the future of guitar music?
- “Watching his hands in the studio, I learnt something I never knew”: Steve Cropper on ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons’ secret sauce
- “It’s not just about louder sound – it’s about achieving a more responsive, resonant instrument that truly comes to life in your hands”: Furch unveils the Booster Soundport, a player-facing “resonator” to transform acoustic performance
- “Sometimes there’s just a hole in the stage. That’s alright! Ok, where was I?”: Olivia Rodrigo falls down a hole – but makes impressive recovery
- I can do it with a broken guitar: the story of the smashed-up Taylor Swift-themed acoustic takes another turn as it’s flipped for more than than it sold for when it was still in one piece
- “Breaks down the complex task of mastering but we’d love different options on how to pay for it”: Softube Flow Mastering Suite review
- “Each instrument comes with a custom hardshell case, a signed COA from Robert Smith and directly supports life-saving cancer research”: Schecter and the Cure’s Robert Smith join forces for charity with the release of the Shellflower UltraCure
- Roland’s latest SP-404 MKII special edition comes loaded with sounds from Moodymann’s KDJ Records – and it’s limited to just 600 units
- Baby Audio's Transit 2 reinvents the best-selling transition and motion effects tool designed in collaboration with Andrew Huang
October 14
- “I was like, ‘This is so me. She was one of the first women who was dressing kind of like a boy, and I was so drawn to that. She’s the coolest”: Billie Eilish on her new-found appreciation of a ‘00s pop-punk icon
- "One of the best covers of this I've heard": Finneas delivers a heartrending take on Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge
- “As far as guitar playing goes, go to the old school - Randy Rhoads, Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen”: The wisdom of Dimebag in the final issue of Total Guitar
- Beatles ‘64, new Scorsese-produced fab four documentary, announced
- “I’m so happy for these bitches... They’re doing great. Fans are drawn to them because they’re awesome”: Billie Eilish on the mega-success of Roan, Charli and Sabrina Carpenter
- "A guitar software instrument can sound incredible - as nuanced and human as the real thing, but only if you know exactly what you are doing with it": The ultimate guide to software guitar
- Focal’s Lensys Professional are the new big siblings to one of our favourite sets of studio headphones
- “You had Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck and all these great guitar players, but Jimi blew everybody’s socks off!”: Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones on the genius of Hendrix
- “It can control practically anything you can imagine”: New to MIDI? Start here
- “The nuclear option”: Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit sue Universal over “millions” in unpaid royalties
- "It's instant breakcore!": EB-Blasphemy is a break-slicing, generative multi-effects plugin that we can't believe is free
- “Then on-air, is where it gets nuts”: How Prince’s final, legendary guitar performance on SNL was saved by a quick-thinking audio engineer
- “Large swathes of the country are missing out on seeing artists”: New figures suggest much of the UK is becoming a ‘touring desert’
- "As a musician, you've lost money before you've even got off the ground”: A shocking analysis of the disparity between promoting music compared to other sectors
- “It’s pretty awkward to hold and you have to make sure water doesn’t spill out... but it’s definitely playable”: Burls Art unveils his guitar-quarium
- “Jimi Hendrix songs which only you can listen to!”: Previously unheard demos are up for auction - but they’re not cheap!
- “So I met her, and her dad was from down the road from me in Penarth! As she sang, I remember just thinking, wow”: Bass legend Pino Palladino on getting an unexpected call from Rick Rubin to play on an album by a “young British artist”
October 13
- “A unique-sounding synth plugin to create absorbing sounds and textures”: Expressive E Noisy 2 review
October 12
- “We’re scared of the media asking us intrusive questions and trying to pick holes in our relationship”: Liam Gallagher on why there’ll be no Oasis reunion interviews
- “We know people want to hear the best-of... we don’t want to be a legacy band that just plays its greatest hits and then that’s it”: James Hetfield on why Metallica will always play new songs
- Watch breakout UK artist Yunè Pinku flip a piano sample and build a beat from scratch
October 11
- “I’ve always said that I don’t play the guitar, I play the strings”: Ernie Ball and John Mayer team up for signature Silver Slinky guitar strings in a unique gauge that could be the Goldilocks option between heavy and light
- See Tool and BEAT drummer Danny Carey warming up behind his enormous kit
- “This thing’s f***ing sick! This one’s good!”: Watch Jared James Nichols unleash Blues Power magic on Lester Williams’ “Texas Troubador” 1954 Stratocaster, one of the most vibe-y Strats you will see
- "You simply do not need thousands of pounds of high-end gear and a top-end studio to create a great track": 8 mixing and mastering techniques every bedroom producer should know
- “That sarcasm became the song”: Pharrell Williams says his mega-hit Happy isn’t as sincere and joyful as you think, and that he’ll never stop loving former Neptunes partner Chad Hugo
- “Greeny is my Excalibur!”: Metallica’s Kirk Hammett says he’s still in love with that famous guitar
- “Okay, if I were to meet David Bowie, would I feel okay about showing David Bowie this album?”: Modular synthesist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith on making meditative electronic masterpiece, Ears
- “The record industry is, pretty much, dead”: Al Di Meola speaks out about the lack of opportunities for young musicians
- “I almost think of it as audio archaeology”: Universal Audio CEO Bill Putnam Jr on the brand’s decades-long quest to capture the spirit of classic studio gear in software
- “Clean explores the wild side of compression and brings the interactivity of distortion circuits to a clean signal”: Chase Bliss unveils Clean, a studio-quality analogue compressor with a “fun” twist
- Jonny Greenwood: Radiohead have "no plans" for 2025
- “I’m kind of fascinated with that tipping point where the artist can say ‘I don't need you anymore. Why would I need you?’”: Are record labels at risk of irrelevance? this industry expert thinks so
- “Johnny offered his services to the band”: What Noel Gallagher said when one of his heroes almost joined Oasis
- “It’s the perfect combination of vintage Fender vibe and modern high-tech performance”: Fender expands its Tone Master lineup with a tweed-covered '59 Bassman – a lightweight, digital-brained 4x10 with mojo to burn
- “This finish uses real silver in the paint… before the final clear coat is applied, the silver oxidises naturally, allowing the finish to change over time”: Ernie Ball Music Man launches Tosin Abasi's Kaizen in Gallium and it is the coolest finish ever
October 10
- “When I do the solo I’m actually out front on the stage with Olivia jumping around, but we MIDI-mapped the expression pedal so it’ll do all the whammy changes”: Olivia Rodrigo guitarist Emily Rosenfield spills her Guts World Tour secrets
- Slice beats, humanise grooves and work around the 4-track limit: 9 tips to help you get started with Ableton Move
- “It’s always hard to try to find the right innovation sweet spot, because you can do things that are too far ahead of the market”: ROLI CEO Roland Lamb on Airwave, setting music free and the challenges of innovating in today's industry
- “If Beethoven himself were here today, and he was sitting at the piano, what would the approach be?”: Jon Batiste takes Für Elise to unexpected places as he previews his Beethoven Blues album
- "We joined our creative forces and, in the end, we brought together the best of both worlds": BABYMETAL and Electric Callboy team up to create their own free videogame
- “My playing has always sucked, but it sells!”: The guitarist who co-wrote two of the most famous songs of all time admits he is no virtuoso
- Here's how you can win a $7,500 vintage Minimoog signed by Peter Gabriel
- “I was sort of hot in those days!”: The guitarist who had the cojones to replace Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy - and the chops to play alongside David Gilmour in Pink Floyd.
- "Signature models mean just that. You play the same bass I play, and you're probably better at it than I am": Blink-182's Mark Hoppus gives us the lowdown on his brand-new Fender bass and discloses why he has switched to the Neural DSP Quad Cortex
- “When we signed a record deal with Warner Brothers, she was cleaning toilets on the same day”: Will the rocketing cost of being a musician eventually kill the industry?
- “Probably some of the dumbest sh*t this band has ever put out… I want it”: Green Day fans are loving the crazy formats for Dookie ‘De-Mastered’
- Olivia Rodrigo sparks intense speculation that she’ll be headlining Glastonbury 2025 with announcement of rescheduled UK Guts World Tour dates
- “Spreading Utopia into fully surround speakers... 27 moving curtains... bespoke instruments: an aluphone, a circular flute and a reverb chamber... in a personal chapel”: Take cover, it’s Bjork’s new book
- “I’ve always wondered why there isn’t more support in this industry - not just for the artists, or the band, but for the crew, the people working their asses off from 7 in the morning to 2 in the morning": Backline demand mental health action
- "The idea of gamifying the Mind Games album has manifested as an incredible limited edition speaker and radio": Sean Ono Lennon and Teenage Engineering launch tribute OB-4 for $999
- AlphaTheta brings its A-game with the new all-in-one XDJ-AZ controller
- "Mixing on the XDJ-AZ is a hugely rewarding experience, with nothing feeling clunky or cramped": AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ review
October 9
- Cherry Audio’s Atomika revives a classic Soviet-era synthesizer
- “A new keybed, solid DAW integration, touch-sensitive controls, and deep configuration”: Arturia KeyLab 61 mk3 review
- “It's harder to put creators in the centre. It's harder to give them more creative control. But it's worth doing”: Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava on how the new Studio One integration brings the Splice ecosystem directly into the workflows of creators
- “The entire creative process of listening, playing, and creating is brought together in a single guitar”: Yamaha’s new TG3 C TransAcoustic is a cutaway dreadnought with reverb, delay, chorus, looper… And Bluetooth
- “I’ve been shredding on the guitar lately. Which has been nice”: Billie Eilish goes behind the scenes on her Hit Me Hard And Soft tour, her first with a full band
- “I would play solo piano gigs and a producer for Daft Punk came into the bar one night. He asked me if I wanted to join an all-female electronic band”: LP Giobbi on transitioning from jazz to dance music - and remixing Taylor Swift
- “He played a solo that I thought was not great. I said, ‘I feel like you could do better!’”: What Rick Rubin told legendary guitarist Joe Perry during the recording of Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s mega-hit collaboration Walk This Way
- “The compressor we always wanted but couldn’t find”: Polyend Press is stereo analogue hardware with the convenience of a plugin
- "We want to make our platform available to more people": Neural DSP's Francisco Cresp on what its new Nano Cortex means for the innovative company
- Studio One becomes the first DAW to integrate Splice as PreSonus launches Studio One Pro 7
- "That noise. I'll never get past that sound of him wailing. I could hear, 'Oh he's gone. He's gone.' My life as I knew it was completely over": Lisa Marie Presley remembers the day her father died
- Is mixing and mastering a dying art? Research shows that 8 in 10 tracks from DIY musicians exceed Spotify’s recommended loudness levels - and clipping was found in more than half
- Here’s one you’ll all know – Mk.gee plays the same song 12 times in one gig
October 8
- “Slicker than ever and although some of the improvements are quite nuanced, the incoming Sonarworks SoundID integration and monitoring extras will no doubt be suitably welcomed”: Universal Audio Apollo x8 Gen 2 review
- “The world’s most authentic amp models, no UA hardware required”: Universal Audio releases its industry standard UAFX amp modelling pedals as plugins
- “Like having a seasoned engineer in a classic analogue studio”: Universal Audio unveils new vocal production plugin Topline Vocal Suite
- “A brilliant piece of kit that’s more than a match for the demands of the modern producer/engineer”: Universal Audio Apollo x4 Gen 2 review
- “Built for the stars, ready for your studio”: Universal Audio launches the next generation of Apollo X audio interfaces with auto-gain and onboard monitor correction
- Arturia’s Synthx V plugin updates “one of the most revered synthesizer architectures of a generation” with tools that offer “advanced sound design possibilities”
- Stills and Young reunite at Harvest Moon charity festival
- “I heard that the CEO, Uli Behringer, lost sleep over that episode. He could not comprehend why a pedal company would tell you to buy other people's stuff”: JHS Pedals’ Josh Scott on praising his rivals and seeing his stomps being used by the stars
- “These are very touch-sensitive and very dynamic”: Give your Tele a tone makeover fit for a blues superstar with the Seymour Duncan Joe Bonamassa 1950 Broadcaster pickup set
- “The same professional versatility and playability as its PLUS counterpart but without all the fancy aesthetics”: Harley Benton rolls out a hot-rodded S-style for under $200 with the all-new ST-Modern HSS
- "Every movement and gesture creates a new sound unique to them, which will make music much more expressive, and could even lead to new genres of music": ROLI unveils the Airwave, an expressive new way of learning and creating using its MPE instruments
- “He was not happy about the situation…”: Neil Finn talks Fleetwood Mac and stepping into Lyndsey Buckingham’s shoes
- Finneas announces North American For Cryin’ Out Loud tour for February and March 2025
- “Designed for everyone from singer-songwriters and buskers to acoustic duos and electric players”: Positive Grid launches Spark Edge, the take-anywhere 65W amp and PA speaker with 36 amp models, 50 effects and heaps of smart features
- “He had a natural feel for music that you can’t teach - his first take was often perfect, and that’s extremely unusual”: Careless Whisper guitarist Hugh Burns on George Michael’s “remarkable talent”
- Replace drum tracks on the fly with the DDJ-GRV6 controller from AlphaTheta
- Guitar Center's Guitar-A-Thon proves guitarists don't need Amazon's Big Deal Days: save up to 35% on gear, including a mind-blowing $430 saving on the D'Angelico Premier Bedford
- “It wasn’t the mics or the compressors or the tape – it was the foot and his drum! That’s how you got that sound": Uptown Funk co-producer Jeff Bhasker on capturing ‘retro’ drum sounds
- “She has left an indelible mark on the word and an unfillable chasm in our hearts”: Teenage prodigy Nell Smith dies, aged 17
- Ableton Move aims to be the perfect hardware sketchpad for Live
- "For some, Move might prove to be a gamechanger, but others will likely struggle to fit it into their creative workflow": Ableton Move review
October 7
- Chaka Khan hits the heights with Sheila E as they perform I’m Every Woman at the American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special
- “I swear to you when you just get a moment and you just listen, you’ll never be able to unhear it”: Pharrell Williams thinks that his falsetto vocals on one particular song sound like Mickey Mouse
- “We are tired of professional ticket touts abusing the ticket marketplace and stealing tickets out of fans’ hands, only to immediately relist them at inflated prices”: New survey finds that touts make £145 million each year from UK music fans
- “You just watch her walk in a room and it’s very easy to understand that she’s so composed, she’s graceful, she’s gracious”: Sabrina Carpenter on Taylor Swift
- "I have not thought lyrically since about the year 2000, 2001... I'm smart enough to not come back for the encore”: Henry Rollins on why he’s done with music
- "Mackie has gone above and beyond to make the ShowBox an absolute no-brainer for buskers and small live performances": Mackie ShowBox battery-powered all-in-one PA review
- “I called Taylor and we cut the drums in his home studio”: The Struts’ frontman Luke Spiller says that he and Taylor Hawkins lost out to Billie Eilish on the No Time To Die Bond theme
- “It has a reputation for being a big, dumb, four-chord song, but there’s more going on than I expected”: A music professor breaks down the theory behind Oasis’s Wonderwall
- “It’s a very concerted effort I make to not do that, and to try to be influenced by things that I love and not what’s current”: Sabrina Carpenter songwriter Amy Allen on why she doesn’t listen to other contemporary pop hits
October 4
- Levelling and polishing your guitar frets might have just got a whole lot easier with the MusicNomad U File and Fret Polisher
- Pink Floyd are in the Money as they seal their back catalogue deal for £400 million
- “The Sound of Silence was the first song I wrote which seemed to come from some place that I didn’t inhabit”: Paul Simon tells all in a new three-and-a-half-hour documentary
- "It's a job many of us guitarists and bassists put off – or even avoid entirely – but it's surprising how much of a difference it makes": How to clean your guitar better
- “A complete all-in-one solution for the gigging musician requiring a powerful, compact ampless rig”: Amp modeller and profiler market heats up as IK Multimedia celebrates one year of TONEX with huge (and free) effects upgrade
- "I dream of the studio being a place that anyone can access, not just those with the money to do so": Jack Antonoff reveals plans to make public recording studios available to those who can't afford them
- “Kate Bush is the only person who can get Kate Bush back on stage. I’ve tried persuading her recently, actually. Gently”: David Gilmour on carpentry, trousers and the return of Kate Bush
- “The look and feel of a long-treasured musical companion”: Gibson expands Les Paul Standard range with satin nitro finishes and a plain mahogany topped model with a warmer tone and “punchier mids”
- “Would you like to speak to my audio engineers?”: Sabrina Carpenter claps back and confirms that she sings “live every show 100%” on her Short n’ Sweet tour
- “As far as I’m concerned, with Andy not being here, it’s impossible to have a reunion of The Smiths”: Mike Joyce scotches Smiths reunion rumblings
- How to buy and sell gig tickets (and when to run a mile)
- “It was the first piece of gear that I got in New York - it had this thunderous low end to it”: How a Prophet-5, a kalimba and a prog rock sample inspired the genesis of Bonobo’s biggest track
- "Everything being diatonic is not some sort of requirement or restriction on things sounding good": Fans and music theory experts unpick Nirvana's About a Girl
- “He’s enabled fans to achieve the iconic blink-182 tone they've always dreamed of”: Fender and Mark Hoppus team up for limited edition signature Jaguar Bass
- How ‘the loudest band in New York’ built an album out of a DIY synth (literally)
October 3
- “I was making music completely on my own; I found it quite weird including other people in a process that felt very personal”: Rising producer Yunè Pinku on DAWs, Madonna and shaking off the cobwebs of lockdown
- “Whether a listener is using Airpods or in Berghain next to a wall of speakers, the objective is to try to create a mood in people’s minds”: Producer and engineer Matt Karmil on crafting a mix that translates to any environment
- "There are few producers who haven’t employed – or lusted after – it at some point or another, such is its legendary status": Why does everyone love the UREI/UA 1176 compressor?
- “We actually pooled all our money, the whole band fund, and we were able to afford one cabinet and one amp to share – even the guitar was borrowed!”: The Offspring’s Dexter Holland recalls recording the landmark Smash on its 30th anniversary
- “We were messing with different keys and then we heard the second verse jump up. It sounds like she’s having this idea in real-time": Jack Antonoff explains that unusual key change in Sabrina Carpenter’s Please Please Please
- "This will help artists and producers who don’t have the option of hiring someone like me": Spike AI puts an AI chatbot based on chart-topping mix engineer Spike Stent inside your DAW
- Ever wanted to play your synth like a violin? A Japanese DIY enthusiast has made that a reality
- "You guys definitely have to be the first band into the Sphere, because this is the future": U2's live sound engineer on how he persuaded Bono and The Edge to be the Las Vegas Sphere's first resident band
- “They believed that if you learn the song or even hear it before you record it, it's going to sound rehearsed”: Kathy Sledge on why producers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards didn’t play We Are Family to Sister Sledge right up until they recorded it
- “She thought anything could be pop - she wanted pop to be pushed to its extremes”: Sophie’s brother and studio engineer on completing her final album and the legacy she leaves behind
- Roland just unveiled its V-Drums Quiet Design VQD106 kits, delivering “the lowest playing-noise in the history of electronic drum kits”
October 2
- “Not only a fantastic-sounding electric guitar for stage and studio use but is also equally enjoyable as a songwriting tool and is considered by many to be the ideal ‘couch guitar’”: Gibson brings back the ES-330
- “Ideal for players who love the dreadnought tone in a more comfortable size”: Martin debuts all-new body size and salutes Hawaiian influence on steel-string acoustics with the koa-backed O’ahu HG-28
- M-Audio’s new Forty Series monitors promise “precision sound, adaptability, and seamless connectivity” no matter where you’re working
- Behringer's Grind is a hybrid semi-modular synth that borrows oscillators from a beloved Mutable Instruments module
- “For those of you who didn’t get a chance to rock out in-person, now you can have the best seats in the house!”: Here’s when you can watch Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour concert special on Netflix
- “The first thing I played for Steven on this piano was this; I played that for him and he said, ‘What is that? What are you going to do with that?’”: John Williams recalls the first time he played the Jaws theme for Spielberg in new documentary
- “You’ve only got to look at the dynamic potential of 10 fingers on a keyboard compared to 10 fingers on a guitar ”: Steve Howe on six-string explorations and how a Novation Summit opened a window into fresh chord voicings on his new solo album
- “We embarked on a mission to craft the ultimate pedalboards that meet Greg's every need”: Jam Pedals teams up with Greg Koch for Koch Ness Monster signature multi-effects units
- “Our philosophy is that you should not be limited to a budget to buy the instrument of your dreams”: Harley Benton to ship direct in the US as budget-gear superpower partners with Reverb
- This new immersive music and dance-based VR game aims to alleviate anxiety in young people
- “One Platform. Infinite sounds”: Audiomodern’s Soundbox MPE-compatible sampler is all-in-one musical machine for endless instrument creation and customisation
October 1
- Issue 340 of Computer Music is on sale now
- "Most people who are real dyed-in-the-wool Gibson people, they'll say behind closed doors, when the internet's not watching, that their favourite pickup is a P-90": Joe Bonamassa introduces new Epiphone signature guitar with the 1955 Les Paul
- LR Baggs is making guitars now – can the pickup expert bring something unique to the market with its AEG-1?
- Want 33,000 classic sound effects for free? The BBC have just opened up the ultimate resource of nostalgia-inducing samples
- “That’s incredible… that is nuts”: Tom Cruise gets a Royal Albert Hall organ lesson from Anna Lapwood after a surprise appearance at Top Gun: Maverick in Concert
- "Back in the Stu with Stuart Price": Madonna is back in the studio with Hung Up mastermind Stuart Price
- “An enhanced application that is nonetheless reassuringly familiar and reasonably priced”: Native Instruments Traktor Pro 4 review
- “At least we don’t need the wall hanger”: Man seemingly spends $4,000 on a guitar signed by Taylor Swift and then immediately destroys it
- “It’s become indispensable - I use it on almost everything because you simply can’t go wrong with it!”: Mastering engineer and musician Rafael Anton Irisarri on the piece of gear that he calls his “secret weapon”
- “If you’re doing your accounts then organisation is good, if you’re making art it’s good to work a bit blind and a bit weird”: 5 workflow tips from Hardt Antoine’s house track masterclass
- Is this the end of wired audio? AlphaTheta launches the new wireless HDJ-F10 headphones for DJs
- "The HDJ-F10s sound (mostly) great, and look good, but are they worth the £469 price tag just to remove a wire on the stage?": AlphaTheta HDJ-F10-TX review
- Recording Week 2024: Exhibitor A-Z