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August 2021

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202 articles

August 31
- Johnny Ramone's 1965 Mosrite is going up for auction
- Watch Rabea Massaad open Stormzy’s Reading set in an arena-sized blaze of flames, fireworks and fret wizardry
- Ernie Ball Music Man updates Omar Rodríguez-López's signature Mariposa Deluxe in Sahara Sunset and Galaxy Pearl
- Watch: Dave Grohl invites 11 year-old drummer Nandi Bushell to perform on stage with Foo Fighters
- How to swap a humbucker pickup with a coil-split control
- Carlos Santana’s star-studded new album Blessings And Miracles will feature Kirk Hammett, Steve Winwood and Rob Thomas
- Hear Dave Grohl drum on new Halsey song, Honey, produced by Nine Inch Nails
- Mixcloud live studio is designed to be a “one stop shop” for DJs, producers and musicians when they’re live streaming
- Former Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll in hospital following heart attack
- Bogner’s new Ecstasy Mini amplifier packs 30-watts of crunch into a compact solid-state head
- Fender Japan teams up with Hawaiian surf artist Heather Brown for limited edition Art Canvas Esquire
- Audio Damage takes the delay plugin road less travelled as it heads to Other Desert Cities
- Eric Clapton’s releases This Has Gotta Stop, a new track with perceived anti-vaccine message
- Watch Halsey guitarist and session ace Arianna Powell offer a guided tour of her pedalboard
- Classic album: Marshall Jefferson on Ten City - Foundation
- Find the key of any song with Auto-Key Mobile, a free app from the makers of Auto-Tune
August 30
- Studio hacks: 8 sure-fire ways to beat creative block
August 29
- Lee 'Scratch' Perry dies, aged 85
August 27
- Fractal ups its floor game with the FM9 – the amp modelling giant's “most powerful floor unit ever“
- Reddick's new Voyager Modular is the electric guitar you can mod on-the-fly
- Harmony unveils 6 Series tube combos: watch Yvette Young put one through its paces with a stunning solo performance
- Win a Blackstar HT Club 40 MkII 6L6 by taking part in the company's new survey
- Go on a field recording adventure in new PlayStation game Season
- Foo Fighters Chris Shiflett, Dave Grohl and Pat Smear touring pedalboards revealed
- SuperBooth 2021 announces complete program of events
- Here’s why Focusrite’s FAST plugins are the smart FX choice for all kinds of music producer
- On our Radar: Simo Cell
August 26
- Harley Benton releases a new run of Fusion-III guitars
- How guitarists can unlock the hidden features of an envelope filter / auto-wah effects pedal
- How to build a complete recording studio in your home PLUS An amazing FREE plugin and sound packs worth $50 PLUS six funk sample collections!
- Tascam’s Mixcast 4 Podcast Station looks like a modern-day Portastudio
- GOAT hunt: Who is the greatest 1980 –1999 guitarist?
- FINNEAS dives into Logic Pro to break down the drum track for Billie Eilish’s Therefore I Am
- Rudosa: "It seems like Logic is an afterthought for Apple, and I'd sooner work on a DAW that's a company's main focus"
- Tosin Abasi, Misha Mansoor and Polyphia's Tim Henson talk guitar and the merits of Metallica's St Anger with Rick Beato
- Dave Grohl: “Listening to Nirvana’s In Utero kinda makes my skin crawl”
- A harp run through a distortion pedal might sound heavier than your electric guitar
- Steve Albini on working with Nirvana on In Utero: "The bulk of the record, the vocals Kurt is singing are his first take"
- Ross From Friends’ new album was powered by his own Max for Live device
- Space Controller lets you pan your music just by pointing your mobile phone
August 25
- Kanye West enters the music tech market with the Donda Stem Player, a $200 device that enables you to remix his new album
- Joe Bonamassa "transitioning into a superstar" on new album, claims producer
- A lost Frankie Knuckles house track recorded during his early studio sessions in the ‘80s is set for release
- Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever concert film is an orchestral love letter to old-school Hollywood glamour
- Me in my Studio - Clean Bandit: "Grabbing a real Juno or Polysix is just as quick as grabbing the VST"
- Rick Rubin tells Paul McCartney that John Lennon called him “one of the most innovative bass players of all time,” as they dissect some of The Beatles’ greatest hits
- Remembering the time Charlie Watts punched Mick Jagger in the face
- On our radar: The Velveteers
August 24
- Hear pre-Rolling Stones Charlie Watts perform with Blues Incorporated in 1962
- Charlie Watts - the music world reacts to the death of the Rolling Stones legend
- Noel Gallagher's 10-year-old son showed him how to play AC/DC's Back In Black
- Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies, aged 80
- Gibson releases a stunning Murphy Lab aged replica of Jerry Cantrell's Wine Red 'Wino' Les Paul Custom
- The video for Caribou's new single is the only cute dog footage you'll need this week
- Issue 374 of Future Music is on sale now
- Watch Jared James Nichols play one of the first Gibson Les Pauls ever made as 'Dorothy' comes back from the dead
- The Urban Puncher plugin promises to make a good fist of beefing up your drum sounds
- Create endlessly sustaining soundscapes with Old Blood Noise Endeavors' new Sunlight Dynamic Freeze Reverb
- 15 questions for... Ishmael Ensemble: "Arrange fast. It's more efficient than being stuck in a 4-bar loop"
- Samplab is a free VST/AU plugin that lets you edit the notes in your polyphonic audio samples
- Watch Testament's Alex Skolnick lay down a blazing lead on an all-star heavy metal cover of Toto's Hold The Line
August 23
- Dirty Loops' Jonah Nilsson interview: "I think that's the most important thing about being a musician; together, you're stronger"
- Could the Sequential Take 5 synth give you the Prophet-5 sound in a compact and more affordable keyboard?
- The six words that changed David Bowie's life in 1980
- Tascam Portastudio meets Teenage Engineering OP-1 in retro-hipster cassette loop heaven
- Keith Moon drove a Rolls Royce into a swimming pool on this day in 1967. Or did he?
- Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo chooses the 10 players who blew his mind
- Rhodes releases the first photos of its new electric piano and says it’s “going to blow people’s minds”
- Musicians pay tribute to rock n' roll icon Don Everly, who has died age 84
- The best new effects in Native Instruments Guitar Rig 6
August 20
- Sitek seeks out new depths of phase shifting with the super-versatile Phasia
- 9 guitar tuning hacks
- Watch DragonForce's Herman Li have a blindfolded shred battle with Megadeth's Kiko Loureiro
- 6 things you need to think about before you rent a recording studio space
- Topic - 5 things I’ve learned about music production: “Why do you even want to sound like anyone else?”
- Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis: “Coming from drumming, the guitar was so one-dimensional. I had to find all these things to make it more dynamic and expressive“
- Katatonia / Bloodbath guitarist Anders Nyström pays tribute to the Boss HM-2 distortion pedal
- Be prepared to have fun building the Oskitone Scout open-source synth
- Is Steinberg’s new synth plugin bundle an Absolute bargain?
- The Baywatch piano riff and an outrageous bass solo… Cory Wong's collaboration with Dirty Loops does not disappoint
- The ultimate beginner's guide to room acoustics
- Guitar Showcase 2021 is coming! 24/25 September launch confirmed
August 19
- Metallica The Black Album track-by-track interview with Bob Rock
- Dave Mustaine gets candid about Megadeth and Metallica in his Gibson Icons interview
- Rush legends Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee unveil new signature ale with new videos
- SolidGoldFX unveils LYSIS MKII Polyphonic Synth Filter Fuzz Machine
- Native Instruments adds a Picked Nylon option to its Session Guitarist range
- Anderson .Paak gets tattoo instructing that no music bearing his name should be released in the event of his death
- See footage as John Mayer reports for tour duty with Dead & Company
- Sandunes: "I’ve been working to bring more mindful and deep listening into my music making"
August 18
- The 'first Gibson Les Paul' guitar to go on sale
- 7 easy guitar gear modding hacks
- On our Radar: Joris Delacroix
- 10 songs that never need to be sampled again
- The Track: Rhode & Brown on the making of Wave 200
- Heritage Audio aims for the sound of Motown with its Motorcity EQualizer
- The greatest Boss MT-2 Metal Zone moments ever
- Dean Guitars sued by Dimebag Darrell's estate – company responds
August 17
- Gibson releases the Tony Iommi Signature SG Special
- Classic interview - Orbital: “Sometimes we might be halfway through a track, and we think, ‘What about the 303?’”
- Sabbadius Electronics nails that late-60s Uni-Vibe sound in a smaller format with its newly unveiled Tiny-Vibe pedals
- 15 questions for... BON | "The ideas just come, then it’s about working out how to translate them into sounds"
- Save an extra 40% off Waves plugins and bag yourself a FREE plugin with orders over $50
- HeadRush launches the compact but mighty MX5 amp modeller and guitar effects processor
- Rathbone debuts the stylish, affordable ‘No.6‘ parlour acoustic guitars
- The Nektar Impact GX Mini is a tiny MIDI keyboard with a surprisingly large feature set
- Eventide cofounder Richard Factor is searching for extraterrestrial life – “I believe... Look at the size of the universe“
August 16
- Poly Effects' Hector puts a virtual modular inside your modular set-up
- You can now make beats with a Reese's Puffs cereal box
- The beginner's guide to: dancehall
- Janet Beat, a pioneer of British electronic music, releases first album at 83 years old
August 15
- The Cure bassist Simon Gallup has announced he's quit the band
August 13
- Sophie Lloyd and Cole Rolland take classical rock to a level with their guitar version of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony
- Listen to an album-length mashup of Michael Jackson's Thriller and Daft Punk's Random Access Memories
- Survey reveals that 40% of women under 40 have experienced sexual harassment at a live music event
- Dream Theater return in epic style with new song The Alien
- New book Renegade Snares goes deep into the history of drum & bass
- Classic album: Holy Ghost! on Holy Ghost!
August 12
- In defence of…Metallica's Lars Ulrich
- Tama releases Limited Edition Lars Ulrich Black Album 30th Anniversary snare drum
- Aimi+ uses AI to create generative remixes of music from Space Dimension Controller, Roska, Shanti Celeste
- The Quantus Ampla from Noise Engineering has more tricks up its sleeve than your average VCA
- Sign up to Plug-in Collective and get a free transient enhancer from Focusrite
- John Mayer proves tone is in the hands with an Epiphone guitar and Roland amp
- Get 'the best of TrueFire', handpicked by the best guitar magazines in the world
- Electronic Sound Summit's 2021 edition set to take place at Liverpool's Baltic Triangle
- See Primus play A Farewell To Kings on their Rush tribute tour
- 10 great things about the Roland SH-101
- Hear all 16 models from the new IK Multimedia AmpliTube X-Drive distortion pedal in action
August 11
- Steve Albini show you the best ways to mic speaker cabs
- Megadeth rehires James LoMenzo on bass for forthcoming US tour but is he back for good?
- Eric Bibb: “I love cheapo guitars that have a unique quality. They’ll tell you what songs they want to play“
- Erica Synths Bass Drum 2 module is more than just a 909 kick clone
- Reason's Mimic Creative Sampler lets you take sampling to another dimension
- Omnicharge's Omni 20+ is the swiss army knife of power banks
- Discover the sounds of singeli, a new high-tempo genre coming out of Tanzania
- Loraine James, Rroxymore and KMRU to host free production masterclasses through Black Artist Database
- Classic interview - Autechre: "There isn't one thing about the gear that we’re using now that we don't understand"
August 10
- Joe Bonamassa demos Gibson's Murphy Lab Les Paul, SG and ES-335 guitars
- John Mayer: ”I don’t really consider myself a blues guitar player – my phrasing gives out after a certain period of time”
- Cort unveils the built-for-metal X500 Menace
- Museum of Modern Electronic Music set to open in Frankfurt
- Behringer's new Studio XL audio interface promises to be an all-in-one communication centre for your studio
- Billy Gibbons shares tone secrets from his latest solo album, Hardware
- Ida Mae guitarist and Elixir® Strings artist Chris Turpin demos his tonesome take on the blues
- Four Tet takes Domino Recordings to court over streaming royalties
- Questlove pays tribute to Bad Boy Records producer, Chucky Thompson who has died aged 53
- Neunaber Audio launches all-singing, all-dancing Illumine reverb and calls it “the ultimate reverb machine“
- Lindsey Buckingham says Mick Fleetwood is open to his return to Fleetwood Mac
- Talking Shop - Scalping: "Just enjoy making noise, worry about the details later"
August 9
- Video: Unwind with Mateus Asato and Marty Friedman's instrumental cover of a Crowded House soft-rock classic
- The greatest guitarists pre-1980 revealed
- A museum for old and weird synths is here and you can even use some of the instruments from the comfort of your own home
- Harley Benton's £58/€68 wireless system could free your guitar or bass from cables
- Bounce Boss gives you a better way to manage your audio projects online
- Andy Summers confirms Police album reissues with four-disc Regatta De Blanc
- Is Behringer about to embark on recreating the ARP Quadra?
- Brian May on Eric Clapton's anti-vax stance: "He’s my hero, but he has very different views from me in many ways”
- What is wavetable synthesis?
August 6
- Jared James Nichols: “I came from that school of Leslie West, SRV, early Clapton... all that grab you by the throat guitar playing“
- Guns N' Roses release high-octane new single, Absurd
- Mooer unveils expanded, feature-stacked X2 versions of its D7 delay and R7 reverb
- Mano Le Tough: “If I can get one or two good tracks out of each synth then they kind of pay for themselves”
August 5
- Roland celebrates 808 day with an 808 bomber jacket that costs $808 (you can try the TR-808 plugin for free, though)
- 5 songs drummers need to know featuring Jeff Porcaro
- Watch social media shred sensation Sophie Lloyd rework Britney Spears' Toxic as a pyrotechnic rock guitar instrumental
- Watch Lamb Of God's Willie Adler unbox and demo his stunning ESP USA Eclipse
- How to set up a wraparound bridge
- FINNEAS reveals that he made “really bad” music for 5 years after he bought Logic Pro
- ESP offers its retro-shred LTD '87 Series in the ultimate retro-shred finish
- The BOSS RC-505mkII is a next-gen tabletop looper for beatboxers and singers
- The Offspring drummer Pete Parada says he has been dropped after refusing Covid vaccine
- Charlie Watts bows out of Rolling Stones US tour while recovering from medical procedure
August 4
- Joanne Shaw Taylor announces The Blues Album and turns up the soul on new single Let Me Down Easy
- Tom Morello covers Highway To Hell with Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen, announces new solo album
- Suhr goes back to the future with the limited edition Standard Legacy series
- Weezer rock a stadium-metal groove on their playful cover of Metallica's Enter Sandman
- Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter set to return to ‘dance’ music… with a ballet score
- Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite and Reuss Effects join forces for dual-circuit fuzz/distortion pedal
- New M1X MacBook Pros tipped to arrive soon: more powerful music production Macs set to launch in a matter of months
- Fender adds the Super Reverb to its Tone Master digital amplifier series
- Biffy Clyro, Stereophonics and a cast of musicians explain why music can bring out the best in us
August 3
- Paul Gilbert: “Hendrix had his thumbs all over the guitar, beating away at it. He kinda invented Stevie Ray Vaughan when he did Killing Floor“
- Neal Schon’s Don’t Stop Believin‘ 1977 Les Paul Deluxe sold for $250,000 in epic vintage guitar auction
- Behringer returns the Oberheim name to Tom Oberheim, saying it was “the right thing to do”
- 5 great pitch shifting pedals guitarists need to try
- Becoming Led Zeppelin, an all-access documentary, will debut in Venice
- The best John Bonham beats and fills every drummer should learn
- This ‘live’ MIDI keyboard art, created in a DAW, has to be seen (and heard) to be believed
- Me in my studio: Joris Delacroix
- Fancy owning a Minimoog that was signed by Bob Moog? Here’s how you could win it
August 2
- Gibson adds a trio of limited edition acoustic guitars to its Exclusives Collection
- Harmony equips its retro offset Silhouette model with a Bigsby vibrato
- Classic interview - The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett: “There are too many people just sampling beats. They need to be a bit more clever”
- Steinberg’s Dorico for iPad promises to bring top-quality music notation and composition software to your Apple tablet
- Video: ZZ Top perform for the first time after Dusty Hill's death with long-serving tech Elwood Francis on bass
- Get more than 90 classic Roland effects for free until the end of 2021 with the Zenology FX plugin
- Noel Gallagher says the internet would have “written off” Oasis and explains how virtual instruments revitalised his sound
- Behringer shoots for the moon with a clone of the Roland Jupiter-8 synth
- James Jamerson: 11 iconic basslines
- Nail Tim Henson's guitar tone with his new signature Archetype plugin suite from Neural DSP
- Is F'em the new ultimate FM power synth?