News archive
December 2021
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225 articles
- December 31
- December 30
- December 29
- December 28
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- Google launches spectacular free online electronic music exhibition, featuring playable AR vintage synths
- 5 tracks producers need to hear by… Brian Eno
- Jon Hopkins: "I don’t really have any modular synths, drum machines or any of that stuff - it’s all really Ableton and source audio from random places"
- The 10 best tracks of 2021, as voted by you
- December 27
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- Drumming grandmother Dorothea Taylor challenges Blink-182's Travis Barker to a drum battle after performing What's My Age Again?
- Guthrie Govan: the 10 guitarists who blew my mind
- Apple Music boss admits he can’t hear any difference between compressed and lossless audio: “our ears aren’t that good”
- 5 tracks producers need to hear by… ABBA
- The 5 best new plugin synths of 2021, as decided by you
- December 26
- December 25
- December 24
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- Watch Rabea Massaad’s video tour and demo of Neural DSP’s new Archetype: Petrucci software and guitar plugin
- Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen shows off his epic guitar collection and reveals he owns three of the 19 ’58 Explorers in existence
- Alt-J’s Joe Newman: “My relationship with playing guitar has changed... in lockdown I got really into guitar YouTubers. I started readdressing how I wanted to play”
- TC Electronic reissues its first-ever pedal as the Stereo Chorus Flanger returns new and improved
- Steve Cropper‘s 5 tips for guitar players: “I always look at my guitar before playing and say, ‘If you don’t play good tonight, you’re firewood in the morning!’“
- 5 songs guitarists need to hear by… Dream Theater
- The best metal guitarists in the world right now, according to you
- December 23
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- SampleRadar: 352 free chillout samples
- Mark Knopfler: "People say, ‘How do you get that sound?’ Well, I plugged it in and then I started fiddling with the knobs..."
- Make 2022 your most musical year yet, with up to 63% savings on Native Instruments' Evolution Series plugins
- Here’s why Eventide’s SplitEQ is the groundbreaking plugin that you didn’t know you needed
- December 22
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- Lava Music unveils the next generation of travel-friendly smart guitars, the ME 3
- Acustica Audio’s free Eminence channel strip plugin offers EQ and compression for a “creamy” old-school sound
- Celebrate the TB-303 and get a free Baby Audio plugin with issue 303 of Computer Music!
- SampleRadar: 500 free ring modulation samples
- GForce Software gets festive with its own Christmas song, and promises a “lotta groovy things for you in 2022”
- Pedal demo expert Andy Martin chooses his favourite effects of 2021
- "I’ve worked with so many people but I have to say Axl Rose’s voice is amazing, truly one of a kind" – remembering late vocal coach legend Ron Anderson with this 2019 interview
- Revisiting the John Mayer pentatonic guitar lesson with new notation
- The 10 best producers of 2021, as voted by you
- 5 songs guitarists need to hear by… Eric Clapton (that aren't Layla)
- Christmas just arrived early with 50% off all Waves plugins
- December 21
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- Metallica’s epic 40th Anniversary home town shows streaming on demand over Christmas weekend
- Watch EarthQuaker Devices’ Jamie Stillman and Wata talk about the making of the Boris guitarist’s Hizumitas fuzz
- SampleRadar: 265 free lo-fi acoustic samples
- Sinevibes brings its entire range of inventive plugin effects to Windows
- Warm up your holiday season with Arturia’s Tape Mello-Fi, a free plugin with lo-fi vibes
- Treat your ears to superior audio this Christmas with Tidal HiFi Plus for just £2/$2 for three months
- Watch Gibson Custom Shop guru Tom Murphy discuss his career and the craft behind his groundbreaking aged guitars
- The best new studio gear of 2021, as voted by you
- Mile End Effects unveils the Julep, a stereo panning/tremolo and phaser pedal that remixes the Ibanez FP-777 Flying Pan
- Nightmares on Wax: "I was like a mad scientist. The studio had no soundproofing, I didn’t know anything about transience and we didn’t even use a compressor, yet the tunes sounded wicked"
- Brian Eno slams NFTs: “How sweet - now artists can become little capitalist assholes as well”
- SampleRadar: 797 '90s synth samples
- The 5 best new sequencers and controllers of 2021, as voted by you
- December 20
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- Drumeo is launching its 2021 Drummer Of The Year Awards, and wants your vote!
- See John Mayer and Cory Wong trade signature licks and guitars in the studio
- The 5 best new drum machines of 2021, as decided by you
- Teddy Riley on producing Michael Jackson's Dangerous: "It was really difficult for me having to follow in Quincy Jones' footsteps"
- Neil Young on leaving CSN&Y: "I wanted to take the love somewhere else where it would do better"
- The beginner's guide to: glitch
- The 5 best new audio interfaces of 2021, as decided by you
- James Hetfield: "When I pick up the guitar I want to be the drummer"
- Watch a sublime guitar instrumental cover of Hallelujah by four players
- SampleRadar: 475 free crate digger's vinyl samples
- December 19
- December 18
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- The Wurzels drummer John Morgan dies after contracting Covid
- Thomann is having a Big Xmas Giveaway! Over €1500 of studio and recording gear is up for grabs today
- Sylvan Esso's Career in Gear: "We printed the entire song through the radio transmitter, and that was the version that ended up being on the record"
- SampleRadar: 181 free synth chords samples
- December 17
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- Tom Morello’s spectacular demo of his signature MXR Power 50 amp-in-a-box overdrive is a reminder that he is still one of guitar’s most radical innovators
- Great Eastern FX Co channels the tone mojo of a cranked Fender Champ with the Small Speaker Overdrive pedal
- Neural DSP and Dream Theater’s John Petrucci join forces for the latest Archetype guitar software suite
- Treat the guitarist in your life to an epic range of lessons in TrueFire’s biggest sale of the year - save up to $150
- Our 21 favourite guitar videos of 2021
- Waves’ lowest-ever Black Friday prices are back again for the next 24 hours - including LoFi Space for free
- Marshall amp fans, take a video tour of the British amp titan’s new mixing and recording studio
- Mr Black promises “ooey-gooey swirling syrup” and more from its versatile new 8-Stage Phase Shifter mini pedal
- Win a chance to perform at Expo Dubai 2020 with Lowden’s Take the Stage competition
- The best rock guitarists in the world today, according to you
- Nail Stevie Ray Vaughan’s blues tone with Crazy Tube Circuits’ new Crossfire preamp/overdrive pedal
- Here’s why you still can’t buy Erica Synths’ Perkons HD-01 drum machine
- SampleRadar: 223 free retro video game samples
- NFTON is the revolutionary new NFT platform reinventing the music industry
- Arturia's latest Pigments update reinvents their flagship softsynth
- Kirchhoff-EQ is the ultimate dynamic EQ plugin
- December 16
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- Dave Navarro recalls ‘very strange’ Guns N’ Roses studio session
- 5 of the best free music theory resources for producers
- iZotope and Native Instruments celebrate the holidays by letting you download the Trash 2 and NI Play Series: 25 plugins for free
- 55-year-old German widow ordered to pay Eric Clapton’s legal fees for listing bootleg CD on eBay
- Treat the musician in your life to quality lessons with up to $100 off an ArtistWorks gift card this Christmas
- Tim Exile’s Endlesss is now free: online looping and jamming app is here to get you through the bleak midwinter
- Ibanez reveal second signature guitar for Yvette Young: YY20
- The best online guitar personalities in the world today, according to you
- IK Multimedia unveils brand new Amplitube Mesa/Boogie 2 collection
- Brian Eno unveils ‘transfixing’ LED turntable: “We sat watching for ages,” he says
- SampleRadar: 331 free raw materials samples
- George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord receives first ever video, featuring a star-studded cast
- The 5 best new plugin FX of 2021, as decided by you
- December 15
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- Classic interview: Alex Lifeson talks Rush Moving Pictures track-by-track
- Harley Benton has guitar practice covered with two new digital modelling combo amps priced under £100
- Issue 378 of Future Music is out now
- Epiphone teams up with the Gibson Custom Shop for the 1961 Les Paul Standard SG
- SampleRadar: 275 free micro modulars samples
- Gibson releases stunning Murphy Lab replica of Johnny Winter’s Polaris White 1964 Firebird V
- AIAIAI and Richie Hawtin say that they’ve created “the first wireless headphones for music creation”
- The best pop/funk/RnB guitarists in the world right now, according to you
- Overloud is giving you another chance to download Gem Mod - a $99 plugin reboot of Roland's Dimension D chorus - for free
- The 10 best albums of 2021, as voted by you
- Gibson unveils much-anticipated Flying V EXP signature guitar for Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine
- The best alternative guitarists in the world right now, according to you
- Roland wants to show you its ASX technology as it delivers a new retail store experience that it calls “the future of shopping”
- The best blues and jazz guitarists in the world right now, according to you
- December 14
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- The best new Eurorack modular gear of 2021, as decided by you
- Pigments 3.5 is a “supercharged” synth plugin, says Arturia: new version promises to take it into “a new era of sound”
- Tornado survivor plays his grand piano amongst the wreckage of his house: “I heard the most beautiful sound. Music”
- Sonible’s smart:limit plugin promises instant, automatic loudness - without sacrificing dynamics
- SampleRadar: 162 free world percussion samples
- The A to Z of analogue synthesis
- Brad Pitt is reopening a classic French recording studio used by Pink Floyd and AC/DC, and he’s co-designing the mixing desk
- December 13
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- Tool drummer Danny Carey arrested for Misdemeanour Assault at Kansas City airport
- SampleRadar: 170 free psych-rock synth samples
- Ivan Ave: "I try not to over-romanticise gear, although like anyone, I too dream about sharing a house with a real TR-808"
- Played by Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, is the ‘Million Dollar Quartet Piano’ the most important in rock and roll history?
- Harley Benton goes T-style crazy with its new TE-62CC and Fusion-T electric guitars and the prices are crazy
- Twisted Electrons delivers a Sound Blast from the past with new ‘90s soundcard-inspired BlastBeats groovebox
- December 12
- December 11
- December 10
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- Monkees singer-songwriter Michael Nesmith dies at 78: musicians react
- Interview: Gibson's Cesar Gueikian on the past, present and future of the guitar giant: "We care about the quality, we care about the legacy that we will leave behind"
- LANDR launches Chromatic, a new ‘streaming instrument’ that lets you play loops, hooks and one-shots
- Daedelus: "LFO everything, that's the motto of this record. I’m trying to make everything move and breathe"
- SampleRadar: 205 free ultra minimal samples
- Spitfire Audio’s Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings aims to capture the magic of the world’s most famous studio
- Zildjian and Reflexx partner for Conditioning Pad practice pad collaboration
- Playbeat 3.0 adapts to a new era of creators by introducing preset and packs creation
- December 9
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- Steinberg is giving you a free LoFi Piano virtual instrument that promises “unique character”
- Mason Maynard: "Since I started buying hardware a couple of years ago, it has turned into an obsession (which costs a lot)"
- Bill Bailey: “I got a tremendous amount of pleasure out of listening to the Buzzcocks or the Clash, but playing the piano gave me the same sort of thrill”
- The best new guitarists in the world right now, according to you
- SampleRadar: 556 free timewarp FX samples
- Reason’s new MIDI Player Effect enables you to generate basslines in seconds, then tweak them endlessly
- Is Casio about to launch a new synth? Here’s the evidence
- Robbie Shakespeare, seminal reggae bassist, dies aged 68
- December 8
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- Slate Digital's MO-TT brings the legendary sound of OTT to any DAW
- The 10 best new acoustic guitars of 2021, as voted for by you
- Native Instruments launches Komplete Now, a $10-a-month synth/effect subscription service with a 3-month free trial
- SSL launches Big SiX SuperAnalogue USB mixer: next-level hybrid console is designed for desktop producers who want to go large
- The 10 best new signature guitars of 2021, as voted for by you
- 14 alternative Christmas songs that you might not have heard before
- The 10 best new electric guitars of 2021, as voted for by you
- Hold on to your dough, because Audioblast BreadSlicer is a free VST auto-slicing plugin for creating glitch and stutter effects
- Lauren Hibbard on the Marshall Origin 50: "It's my perfect amp for rock music"
- SampleRadar: 216 free jazz keyboard samples
- December 7
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- Waves’s Vocal Production bundle slashed by $1,100 to just $99.99 - 24 hours only
- The 10 best new guitar amp and modelling pedals of 2021, as voted for by you
- Bring Me The Horizon’s Jordan Fish on his ‘Stormtrooper’ live setup: “I don’t think you necessarily need to be held back by your piano or keys ability, you know what I mean?”
- The 5 best new hardware synths of 2021, as decided by you
- 808 Mafia’s Swede and G-Sonique release the Trap Bass VST synth plugin, promising kick and bass sounds that will “break your windows”
- The 10 best new effects of 2021, as voted for by you
- VHT has open mic night covered with the True Acoustic guitar amp series
- Classic album: Claude VonStroke on Beware of the Bird
- Wampler unveils the Pantheon Deluxe Dual Overdrive, doubling the drive circuits for 200 combinations of gain settings
- These are the rarest, most eye-catching synths on Reverb right now
- SampleRadar: 488 free hip-hop essentials samples
- December 6
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- The 10 best session/solo drummers of 2021, as voted for by you
- The 10 best online drum personalities in the world right now, as decided by you
- Peter Jackson says that he used machine learning to restore the Beatles’ music for Get Back documentary: “We made some huge breakthroughs in audio”
- Rival Consoles: "There isn’t an analogue synth that can do what software like Massive does, and that’s an old digital synth now"
- Huge drum giveaway! €5000 of drum gear up for grabs today
- SampleRadar: 278 free hi-hat and cymbal samples
- Harley Benton just stepped up its multi-fx game significantly with the DNAfx GiT Pro
- Download 1,673 MIDI chords for free: a drag ‘n’ drop music theory hack for beatmakers and producers
- David Lee Roth says he came up with the idea of adding stripes to Eddie Van Halen's guitar so it didn't look like Jimi Hendrix's white Strat
- The beginner's guide to: bleep
- December 5
- December 4
- December 3
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- Mojo Hand FX unveils the Sericon, a Klon-style drive pedal with three separate gain controls
- Tears For Fears break out the acoustic guitars for new single No Small Thing
- Brian Eno got annoyed at The Who's "lightweight" songs: "what are they doing releasing this kind of material?"
- Jim James: “There’s just something so beautiful about a 335. To me, it really is the ultimate guitar”
- Robby Krieger on Jim Morrison: "There was no difference between Jim on-stage and off. I’m pretty sure Iggy Pop doesn’t roll around in glass in between trips to the supermarket and I doubt Hendrix ever set his guitar on fire just to keep warm"
- Listen to Kirk Hammett and Alex Lifeson join Tom Morello on the hard-riffing, EDM groove of new single I Have Seen The Way
- "You can have Lemmy's sound through this plugin" – Duff McKagan on Softube's new Marshall Murder One
- Hans Zimmer on the benefits of Spatial Audio and his “weird relationship” with Jony Ive: “I don't want to hear stereo, because you took half of my sonic world away”
- How to restore your electric guitar’s tremolo
- Brian May looks back on his Queen live guitar solos: "If something works great and you get a good response, the tendency is to keep doing it but it doesn't work that way"
- Behold the Hydra: Steve Vai's new triple-necked beast of a guitar
- The Breakdown: Danny Byrd on the one record he wishes he'd produced
- Watch Buzz Osborne share the secrets behind his Melvins riffs, playing style and how he gets his tone
- SampleRadar: 338 free house samples
- The 10 best songwriter guitarists in the world right now, according to you
- December 2
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- Steve Vai returns with new song Little Pretty, announces album Inviolate
- The fourth run of Harley Benton's flagship Fusion-III guitars is bringing the flames
- Downloading Rast Sound’s free VST/AU Mad Filter plugin might actually make a lot of sense
- Sennheiser’s new HD 400 Pro studio headphones promise to help you create “outstanding audio mixes”
- Tom Morello gets his first ever signature overdrive pedal with MXR POWER 50
- That Universal Audio sound is now within reach of everybody, from bedroom producers to podcasters, with Volt
- Electro-Harmonix adds the Q-Tron Envelope Controlled Filter to its Nano range of effects pedals
- Nile Rodgers swaps the Hitmaker for a hot water bottle as he reads you a Spatial Audio bedtime story on Apple Music
- Rhodes is now allowing everyone to order their dream MK8 electric piano (if they can afford it)
- Bono says the guitar on The Fly is "the sound of Edge's brain"
- The 10 best bassists in the world right now, as decided by you
- Taylor Swift responds to Billy Joel comparing her to The Beatles: “that broke my brain”
- Might as well jump: Dave Grohl covers Van Halen (and keytar is involved)
- SampleRadar: 483 free movie soundtrack samples
- December 1
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- SampleRadar: 298 free analogue drum samples
- SampleRadar advent calendar: get a free sample pack every day this December
- Thanks to Focusrite’s Hitmaker Expansion, anyone who buys a Scarlett, Clarett+ or Red audio interface now gets $1,300-worth of essential studio plugins for free
- The Edge: "Even Better Than The Real Thing is probably the closest U2 will get to sounding like the Rolling Stones"
- BBC Radio 1's Matt Edmondson: "I'd never written a song, or picked up an instrument. I knew nothing about producing, and I've learned it all. Every song you hear in the podcast is me figuring it out as I go along"
- Meet the woman who’s been playing the piano for more than 100 years
- Spotify reveals the most-streamed artists, songs and albums of 2021
- See Dave Grohl singing behind the drum kit, crooning Barry Manilow and screaming death metal on cover versions
- Spitfire Audio’s free LA Atmos Labs instrument brings you the “beating heart” of Los Angeles in a plugin
- "I took advice from Madonna for that record" – Michael Stipe explains why New Adventures In Hi-Fi and Reveal are his favourite REM albums
- Ross From Friends: "I had an idea to create a piece of software that would record everything I play. It’s the same principle as sampling – except I’m sampling myself"
- Virtual Eurorack studio VCV Rack 2.0 launches with VST plugin support, but not in the free version
- The Breakdown: Danny Byrd talks us through his process from inspiration to mixdown