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July 2024
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238 articles
- July 31
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- “We’ve successfully removed all human intervention within the amplifier modelling process – ensuring an unparalleled level of precision”: Neural DSP has developed a robot named TINA to create the ultimate amp model
- “We made just about every wrong choice you could make in terms of the most surefire way to have success”: Evan Blair on co-writing and producing Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things
- "It's in 5/4 time at 212 bpm with super crunched out sounds": Producers respond with real tracks following viral tweet about made-up genre discovered in dream
- "The future of analogue synthesis": Moog officially announces long-rumoured Muse synthesizer
- "My main quest is to dedicate my life to mastering the Korg Kronos, which is going to take me into old age": Experimental producer Actress on his studio set-up
- July 30
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- “It boasts 286 advanced effect modules and amp models”: Mooer Audio unveils the GE200 Pro – a feature-stacked multi-effects with onboard Groove Station and 3.5” LED screen for the budget-conscious
- “The limiter that has the best vibe and the best movement, that to me is the most important thing”: Engineer Chris Gehringer on how he mastered Dua Lipa’s Houdini using iZotope Ozone 11
- Transform your voice into another vocalist's in real-time in your DAW with Dreamtonics Vocoflex
- “That's when the phone lines all over the world collapsed… The moment came when people fully understood what this was for”: The creation of The Cars’ song Drive and how it soundtracked a humanitarian catastrophe
- Cableguys: "Our aim with ShaperBox is to make it easy for any producer to get complex-sounding results, all in one plugin"
- “It was also used on some of the sessions for Blues For Greeny and it does appear on the VHS”: Gary Moore’s “Showbiz Blues” 1961 Gibson SG Junior is heading for auction and it is a TV Yellow unicorn from the blues-rock icon’s BBM era
- “We were solid, bungling amateurs on little mixing desks”: D:Ream on their road to platinum success with classic 1993 album D:Ream On Volume 1
- “The same exquisite high-frequency roll off on repeats and warm tape-like saturation as those iconic mechanical boxes”: Red Witch’s Magesteria is a high-end delay inspired by vintage Maestro, Roland and Watkins tape echo units
- "That's why I'm sitting here - that's why I'm allowed to put out records, because I understand how to do that bit of it": Four Tet on his strongest skill as a producer
- Jazz pianist DOMi fixes Ingrid Angress’s drunken performance of The Star-Spangled Banner with a re-harmonised version filled with intoxicating modulations
- "I did a Mountain Dew commercial": Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner on making a living as a musician away from the limelight
- “While his life was cut short, so many other talented artists continue to express themselves within those magical walls”: 38 unreleased Jimi Hendrix tracks to feature on new film and CD/vinyl box set celebrating Electric Lady Studios
- "I think our roots are also in '70s and '80s rock, the beginning of progressive rock, and the beginning of electro music: Joe Duplantier on the combination and ideology that makes Gojira's vision of metal so special
- Issue 412 of Future Music is out now
- July 29
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- “There are so many harmonies and different parts, and that was really what I wanted to showcase”: Billie Eilish performs stripped-back versions of 4 songs from Hit Me Hard and Soft
- SampleRadar: 347 free funk and soul guitar samples
- “We were like ‘Oh my God, we can’t wait for Michael to hear it.’ And then Prince erased the whole thing”: Prince recorded his own version of Michael Jackson’s Bad and then immediately deleted it
- “I was playing with David Guetta on a lorry in Brazil, and he was whupping my ass because his CDJs were louder and didn’t jump every time we went over a pothole”: Fatboy Slim on making the transition from vinyl to CDJs
- "I think with a lot of music these days, a lot of people go way too far with making everything too perfect": Mark Tremonti on why Creed's recording approach on their early albums made them special
- "The Prophet-6 is my most used synth. It’s got a nice balance of not trying to do too much, but doing enough to be flexible": In the studio with Max Cooper
- July 27
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- "I did it in one take. They all stood up and clapped. And, of course, the f-ing thing went right round the world, straight to No 1 in America": The fractious story behind Every Breath You Take
- "A lot of our best songs happened that way": Mark Tremonti on the unexpected key to Creed's success on Human Clay and their remarkable comeback 25 years on
- July 26
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- “I don’t think I have ever done anything quite like this before”: Pat Metheny on the mythology around improvisation, and how a reconfigured baritone guitar compelled him to discover a “another universe” on new solo album MoonDial
- “I think Leo Fender sort of got it wrong, and Jimi Hendrix corrected it”: Richard Fortus explains how Hendrix and Joe Perry improved the Stratocaster’s tone by flipping it upside down
- “A complete solution for guitarists, combining portability, flexibility, and multi-disciplinary practicality”: Mooer Audio launches the SD10i Intelligent Amp – a take-anywhere 10W powerhouse with 52 amplifier models, 49 effects and looper
- iZotope RX 11 vs Steinberg SpectraLayers 11: which is the best spectral editor?
- “It opens up a whole new world of possibilities for your sound”: Neural DSP confirms Quad Cortex plugin compatibility arriving 31 July – and there is a free plugin for all users upgrading to CorOS 3.0.0
- "I hope people use it to score their own lives, to transform a drive to the grocery store or sharing a meal with loved ones into something magical”: Wu Tang’s RZA has high hopes for his hip-hop ballet
- “You will never find exactly this shape. It’s unique”: Jackson breaks the mould for Roman Ibramkhalilov’s highly anticipated MDK HT6 Baritone signature – a guitar built for “unparalleled depth and heaviness”
- "The most under-appreciated guitar skill": If you've ever wanted to learn to play and sing at the same time this is how to start
- "Construct and sequence songs from start to finish in a true DAW-style workflow": Akai Pro announces huge update to its MPC software
- “I broke the cardinal sins of vocal production - five compressors maxed out on a chain”: Iglooghost speaks on his love of Reason, and the seaside town that inspired his chaotic new album
- “Music making is fast becoming elitist. Sadly only those who can afford to make music out of the classroom can have music lessons in the UK”: Music For All calls on new government to improve access to music
- July 25
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- Unlock instant inspiration with this browser-based YouTube sampling tool
- “Really great surprise to be part of the 12 Mercury albums of the year, something I never expected”: Beth Gibbons, Corinne Bailey Rae, Last Dinner Party all nominated for the Mercury Prize
- "Andy went, 'Guys, hello? We're a guitar band?'": Sting's solo demo for The Police's Every Breath You Take officially revealed after 42 years
- “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
- "You may recognize some of his signature licks in the solo section": Matteo Mancuso pays tribute to Paul Gilbert on new song Paul Position
- "The first time I saw him, James and I had gone to the Whisky a Go Go in '82. We saw Cliff play, and just absolutely lost our minds.": Memories of Metallica's lost bass titan Cliff Burton as band launches virtual exhibit
- "That's why we chose to do it with Epiphone, so it could be affordable and young people can revive guitar music by playing and starting bands": Yungblud talks about the inspiration behind his new signature model and his mission to save rock 'n' roll
- A Place To Bury Strangers release vinyl album with packaging that you can build a synthesizer with
- “The biggest frontman to ever come out of Birmingham”: Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler launch Aston Villa’s new kit
- Spotify posts record profits for second quarter of 2024
- "Did you know there's a hidden Asteroids game in Pro Tools?": 10 things you probably didn't know Pro Tools could do
- July 24
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- "He was my mentor and a surrogate father": Eric Clapton shares moving eulogy for John Mayall
- “I recommend people try to make the worst song in the world”: Jacob Collier offers unusual creative advice
- Audient iD4 MKII vs Focusrite Scarlett 2i2: Which should you choose?
- “We don't sell records. If we don't go out and sell t-shirts, we don't make money. I'm a t-shirt salesman. I'm not a musician”: Jack Gibson says there is ‘no music business’ any more
- "I pulled it down quickly and I just looked at Paul and said, ‘What was that all about?!’" Beatles engineer Ken Scott reveals the reason behind Helter Skelter’s strange ending
- An electric state of mind: Alicia Keys' Electric Keys take the virtual stage
- “He looked me in the eye and said, real seriously, ‘Rory, man, I’m the best bass player on earth’. I looked back at him and said, ‘I know’: How the formidable personality and talent of bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius was embraced by Joni Mitchell
- Hurry! Andertons just shredded hundreds off a massive range of Epiphone guitars – including a whopping £400 off the gorgeous ‘58 Flying V
- "When he felt the spirit, he was untouchable" – the story of Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton and Peter Green
- "Keep on playing the blues somewhere, we love you": John Mayall, British blues pioneer, dies aged 90
- July 23
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- “Like taking Madison Square Garden wherever you go – epic and versatile”: With 25 per cent more volume, double the processing power, AI and looper, Positive Grid’s Spark 2 ups the ante for practice-friendly digital guitar amps
- “Compact, lightweight and easy to carry and store… the ultimate all-in-one music creation tool”: Its headless, weighs just 1.7kg, has 8 acoustic models, onboard FX and 20 IR slots – is Donner’s Hush I-Pro the travel guitar you’ve been waiting for?
- "He became just my hero, really": Paul McCartney's bass idol, 'incomparable' Motown session giant James Jamerson
- Cristian Vogel's ShifterMesh is the trippiest effects plugin we've tried all year - and you can test it out for free in your browser
- “I was lucky because I found a guitar that represented both parts of my inspiration, and yet has been famously played by no one but me”: Epiphone and Yungblud channel Angus Young and Billie Joe Armstrong for signature SG Special
- "I never practiced": Unpicking Yngwie Malmsteen's guitar claim
- “The ideal tool for guitarists seeking simplicity, power, and tone in an analogue package”: Blackstar unveils the Debut 100R, high-headroom 100W combos with two channels, reverb, and a MOSFET-driven preamp to replicate tube amp tone
- "While the 909 is legendary, some of its raw sounds can seem a little weedy straight out of the box": 6 ways to process your drum machine
- "Expanded creative capabilities with new world-class piano sounds": Roland updates two of its most popular stage pianos with new sounds
- “It was a threesome, and they were all in love... and, unfortunately, Godzilla crushed the other two, so it didn’t work”: Rob Reiner teases a release date for Spinal Tap II
- Practical music theory: use motion to make a melody and bassline complement each other
- “The guy on the tills put this in my bag too… I asked and thought maybe it was his demo or something but he didn’t seem to have a clue, saying he’d just been told by ‘management’ to give it out to customers”: Jack White gives away his new album
- July 22
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- "This Noise Defender is meant to be a noise gate but it actually makes it noisier": Revisiting Steve Albini's tour of his worst effects pedals
- "More than just another phaser": Minimal Audio's Ripple Phaser promises to inject movement and character into your sound
- "The bottom line is that most people don’t have the time or the space or the money to do it": salute on the barriers to diversity and inclusion in music production
- Come As You Are: Novoselic plays with Nirvana tribute act
- "One day I was in the kitchen and heard music so I went upstairs and he had turned the equipment on and was playing music and mixing between 2 tracks – he was only 2 years and 10 months old”: Meet DJ Archie, the world’s youngest pro DJ
- Get to know your drum machine's sequencer: "If authentic-sounding ‘vintage’ drums are what you’re after, try using no more than two or three different velocity values for all of your drums"
- Amplify your summer sound with JBL’s portable PA systems
- Tame Impala on working with Dua Lipa: "When you speak to other writers, they’ve all got nightmare experiences of people who were too big for the room... The energy Dua creates is one of no ego"
- "Some people think that's the best version of the Stones that existed" The rise and fallout of Mick Taylor in The Rolling Stones
- “We could not exclude a real chance that the merger would result in a substantial lessening of competition for DJ software, resulting in price rises and/or a lower quality offering”: AlphaTheta takeover of Serato is blocked
- July 21
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- “I’ve played Smoke On The Water with some heavy metal drummers and not one of them has played it right. Ian lets the music do its work. He’s probably the most important member of the band”: Ian Gillan bigs up Deep Purple colleague Paice
- "Well, from the very beginning I was working with Michael Jackson. So that was pretty big. And then it became like a normal kind of thing": Rafa Sardina on producing, mixing and engineering for the stars
- July 20
- July 19
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- “The snake has shed its old skin to usher in a new era of decadent saturation!”: Jam Pedals has designed its own op-amp for the Rattler MkII – a Rat-inspired distortion with switchable clipping and mid boost
- Brazilian rock singer Ayres Sasaki dies after freak electrocution accident
- Dyson’s OnTrac headphones promise to deliver "best-in-class noise cancellation" by sampling external sounds “384,000 times a second”
- “A lighter body, a more balanced resonance, and a more polished aesthetic”: Mooer Audio unveils the M810 Intelligent Guitar, offering a whopping 126 onboard effects and a host of player-friendly upgrades
- Korg Collection 5 adds ARP 2600 synth, Vox Continental organ and classic electric piano emulations, taking it way beyond its original remit
- Are you getting the best out of your guitar-picking hand? You might be using it wrong
- “At Coachella, it’s taken you 14 hours to get there, and then you’re playing to people who don’t give a shit”: Graham Coxon is philosophical about Blur’s Coachella debacle
- “There’s only maybe a half-dozen of those on the planet, if that”: Jason Newsted is selling dozens of stage-played basses and vintage guitars in his official Reverb shop – including a 3-string Music Man StingRay and a one-of-one 10-string Alembic
- “I found it late at night while surfing on one of those Chinese websites. I couldn't believe they were making something like that”: How ZZ Top acquired their 17-string bass
- July 18
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- “It makes me really happy to hear other peoples’ takes on my tracks”: Your invitation to remix Caribou
- "Ok, here we go...": Spector launches new range of Euro basses
- “To me, it's kind of milking a dead cow”: Beatles engineer Ken Scott on the release of Now and Then, the band’s final single, in 2023
- See Fatboy Slim rehearsing bass in a hotel bedroom with the band ahead of his Housemartins Glastonbury reunion
- “I pretty much only use presets… I'm not doing any sound design type of stuff”: Four Tet goes deep on presets, Ableton and producing one of his biggest tracks in bed on laptop speakers
- "I think the speakers in your amplifier have the largest single impact on guitar tone": This guitarist seeks to proves it
- LALAL.AI uses “the world’s number 1 AI-powered technology” to bring you the next generation of stem separation
- "I don't listen to albums, I just listen to songs... do people care about tracklisting?": PinkPantheress on why the order of an album's tracks doesn't matter anymore
- Could Traktor Pro 4 put Native Instruments back at the top of the DJ software game?
- July 17
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- Fender and Knockaround are offering you the chance to wear a Strat as glasses
- Audacity 3.6: Free audio editor gets a “visual refresh”, new master channel and compressor and limiter effects
- "Your distortion pedals will sound the way you expect": Porter is a new open-source headphone amp for bass and guitar designed for using with your pedals
- "It's a literal space echo!": Hainbach and AudioThing's free delay plugin sends your sounds to outer space and back
- Gryphon Rue: “I can be impatient with gear that is too complicated and not fun - like the Octatrack MKII, which is breeding dust in my studio”
- Can the relic'ing on a Mike McCready Fender Road Worn Strat be 'improved'? This video finds out
- “If she had, like, 3 more hours in the day, she would just figure out what we do and she wouldn't need any of us”: What Max Martin said to Ryan Tedder about Taylor Swift and music production after they’d both won Grammys for working on her 1989 album
- "Musicians are being taken advantage of because we do it for the love of it": The cost of playing live is going up but grassroots artists say they're not being paid more
- Signing a record contract? The 5 things that could be the difference between a successful music career and losing your vision and control
- "Muse is the culmination of over 5 years of dreams, design, and passion": Specs, price and pictures leaked for Moog's new flagship polysynth
- July 16
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- I’ve bought a lot of Gibson guitars - this £800 off Les Pauls at Andertons is the best deal I’ve ever seen
- “I really fell in love with these guitars after watching the sandblasting process in person. It’s transformational”: PRS rolls out the SE Swamp Ash CE 24 Sandblasted – a $699 limited edition bolt-on electric with a cool finish and serious spec
- “Players can go between jangly rhythm sections to soaring leads with a flick of a switch”: Harley Benton unveils refreshed DC-Custom II Series, including a doubleneck EDS-1275-alike for just over 500 bucks
- Learn classic metal riffs for beginners with Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold
- SampleRadar: 487 free handheld noisemaker samples
- MPC Stems goes standalone, bringing on-device stem separation to the Akai Pro MPC One, Live, X and more
- "I'm genuinely shocked it's this apparent": How much difference does a guitar's fretboard wood actually make to its sound? Well, this video surprised us and its host
- “Ooh, this is not an easy song”: Here’s what happened when The Who’s bassist tried to learn the bassline to Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night as quickly as possible
- “It still sounds and feels like Eddie but you’re listening and going, ‘Oh! That’s Joe!’”: Sammy Hagar explains why no one is better than “the professor” Joe Satriani at nailing Eddie Van Halen’s playing style
- Could the Harley Benton DNAfx GiT Advanced stake a claim as the best value multi-fx and amp modeller right now?
- 5 tried-and-tested mixing chains for vocals, drums, the master bus and more
- “A dynamic playing experience that effortlessly transitions between glassy clean tones and crunchy overdrives”: Blackstar channels the spirit and tones of vintage US amps for the TV-10 A tube combo
- Thomann, PMT, Andertons and Gear4Music are taking the fight to Amazon with these Prime Day-beating sales
- 5 of the coolest free plugins we discovered this month
- “All of us spatially challenged producers can finally sleep easy”: Behringer UB-Xa D price confirmed as pre-orders begin
- “This 5-string electric guitar is a literal dream of mine”: Strandberg launches Jacob Collier signature model – headless and tuned to DAEAD, it’s like nothing we’ve seen before
- July 15
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- “We have finally broken this thing”: Taylor Swift’s famous Eras Tour piano stops working yet again, but it lives to play another show
- Looking for a great Prime Day guitar deal? Skip Amazon and head to Fender for 10% off Ultra and 20% off Squier Affinity models
- Is Pro Tools a worthy investment for home producers?
- “Using the pick actually saved my hands”: Fever 333 bassist April Kae on the downside of multitasking as an artist and her love for the new Fender Player II Precision Bass
- “Steve, Seb, Ax - get in here”: Will Ferrell makes a “major announcement” and confirms that he will be joining “my band, Swedish House Mafia” on stage for one night only
- "Submerge adds a touch of modern magic to a classic production technique": Slate Digital's new auto-ducking plugin makes sidechain compression easy
- Is it time to upgrade your guitar amp? Why the Boss Katana Gen 3 might be the best step up you can make
- “If you want to go to the studio and spend $2,000 a day, take that and buy a laptop and a sample library or tell AI what song you want to make”: As the Record Plant looks set to close, an engineer says “there is no money in the recording music business”
- July 13
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- “Music was just a huge part of skating, especially in the formative years of the ‘70s and ‘80s”: Keanu Reeves and Tony Hawk talk about the skating/music crossover
- “Ain’t nobody gonna believe I’d do this”: What Prince said to his engineer when he “unproduced” When Doves Cry and removed the bassline
- “It’s funny because it’s true”: (B) Real life imitates art
- July 12
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- “I said, ‘Why don’t you just do all the guitars?’ He said, ‘I ain’t got the grease like you, mate!’”: Michael Thompson on living his “rock ’n’ roll fantasy” with Mutt Lange and Shania Twain – and the stories behind his biggest session hits
- The follow-up to Funny Little Boxes' 1991 pedal has a sneaky preview in a new Alice In Chains tutorial video
- “I got off stage and drank half a pint of white wine”: Mary Berry on taking a drum lesson from Rick Astley before playing in front of 23,000 people
- “Dial in everything from a lush chorus to a crushing barrage of noise”: Catalinbread reimagines cult classic Alesis Bitrman as Bitters – “a multi-effects device on steroids” for guitar, synth and more
- “Will be back in touch”: Lorde indicates that she’s been collaborating with producer Jim-E Stack as she teases us from the studio with a very short snippet of new music
- "It's taken me the best part of 20 years to find a guitar where it's, this is my thing": While She Sleeps' Sean Long and Mat Welsh on their search and discovery of the perfect instruments
- “When it comes to building guitar necks, there’s a quick way to do things and there’s a right way to do things”: Ever wondered how PRS makes its necks? This video walks you through a process where every detail matters
- Skip the Prime Day rush and grab yourself up to $300 off Roland drums, pianos, and synths at Guitar Center
- “He doesn’t make it sound like he's trying”: Eric Gales and Slash play Hendrix on the S.E.R.P.E.N.T tour
- “The surest way to keep guitars secure and straps straight”: Joe Satriani and D’Addario might just have put an end to one of the biggest annoyances when playing guitar
- “It was like going back 60 years... You can imagine what it would have sounded like in the Cavern”: Could this be Lennon’s first Vox?
- Better speakers and more keys: Casio’s supersized Casiotone CT-S1-76 could be the perfect portable keyboard for beginner and intermediate players
- “I'm not the bass player. I'm not in the band. I'll never be in the band. I shouldn't be in the band”: Elwood Francis says he'll never replace ZZ Top's Dusty Hill
- “I would love to see a healing between them - and that doesn’t have to take the shape of a tour, necessarily”: Mick Fleetwood hopes Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham can still patch things up
- July 11
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- "This was a special instrument to him and it's kind of crazy to get to look at it and play it": JD Simo demos Mike Bloomfield's old '63 Strat and proves more than worthy of it
- “It’s about starting in a really subtle place and then bringing it to a really big place:” Dan Nigro talks tempo, vocals and artist relationships as he gets his teeth into the production of Olivia Rodrigo’s Vampire
- “It’s like having a compositional companion”: Moog’s Labyrinth synth finally breaks cover, and its dual generative sequencers give it a mind of its own
- "Really, really cool... his guitar style is so unique and he really didn't let us down”: Def Leppard’s Phil Collen on their collab with Tom Morello
- Does the Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Les Paul Custom Shop model sound that much better than the standard version? These demos may have the answer
- Ex-Chili Pepper Klinghoffer sued for wrongful death after "tragic accident"
- “Not Like Us”: Argentina troll Drake after rapper loses $300,000 betting against Messi and co
- July 10
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- “The crown jewel of the family”: Cherry Audio’s Wurlybird 140B emulates a lesser-known electric piano that some consider to be one of the best
- "Why can I barely be bothered to play?": Rob Chapman has some good advice on what to do when you lose motivation as a guitarist
- “When you hear what it does with full dynamic range in a live situation? I think it’s even more magical”: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ FOH engineer reveals the classic studio compressor that’s providing some “analogue love” on their current tour
- "It's become the best guitar for really every genre, at every point in time, for those that choose to use it": See Julian Lage make the new Fender Player II Tele sound truly world-class
- "The impact and influence of music artists like The Beatles, Oasis and others from the north of England have had on the music industry in decades past is redoubtable" – so why are young northern musicians less supported than the rest of the UK?
- “Faster delivery and access to all our products”: Behringer says that it’s exploring the idea of a direct-to-customer shipping option
- “Bass from the back of my car feels soothing. A Cadillac Fleetwood is what I'm using”: Check out the Beasties’ cool set of wheels
- The classic Space Echo RE-201 has arrived in the Roland Cloud, but can it become the definitive plugin emulation?
- July 9
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- Issue 337 of Computer Music is on sale now
- “Every effort was made to push through and play for you, but it is no longer an option to continue”: Queens Of The Stone Age cancel European dates with Josh Homme to undergo emergency surgery
- “Whether you’re playing smooth jazz, hard rock, country, or blues, this guitar can handle it all with ease”: Gibson gives the ES-335 the Supreme treatment and it sure looks mighty fine
- “I feel like if I don’t approach it from a fun angle right now, I’ll just freak out!”: The Mars Volta’s Philo Tsoungui plays drums to Rush, LimeLight after hearing it for the first time
- “It’s angry and ready to bite”: GForce Software releases an authentic but enhanced version of the OB-1, the best Oberheim synth you’ve never heard of
- “It’s got its own voice... I don’t think I’ve ever found something that speaks to me more than this one”: Is Vince Gill's '53 the greatest Telecaster on earth?
- “The new benchmark for quality and performance at this price point”: Fender launches the Player II Series, featuring rosewood fingerboards with rolled edges, upgraded specs and archive finishes
- “I have a really, really spiritual feeling about this next one”: Slipknot’s Shaun Crahan on the band’s next album
- Taylor Swift ditches the synths on new acoustic version of Fortnight, featuring Post Malone
- Ableton Live 12.1 - 5 things you should know: Auto Shift, Drum Sampler X/Y, MIDI enhancements and more
- "We’ve never had it so easy": 5 ways music gear has improved over the years... and 5 it hasn't
- July 8
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- "I definitely think you can play faster with the shoulder": Guthrie Trapp's guitar pick hack could be a gamechanger for your playing
- "It was an enormous part of Rory Gallagher’s life and was with him from the very start of his career right until the end": The Irish bluesman's legendary '61 Strat is going up for auction
- PMT just added hundreds of products to their colossal Summer Sale - score up to 60% off gear from Gibson, Fender, Pearl, Yamaha, SSL, Roland and more
- "When he died, I cried. And I actually jumped into the ocean at San Francisco. And let me tell you, the ocean at San Francisco is cold": Bass legend Jaco Pastorius
- “It’s the double act you didn’t know you needed in your life”: Watch as Robbie Williams performs Blur’s Parklife with actor Danny Dyer in Hyde Park
- Have DAWs made song melodies in hit records less complex? Research suggests that they could be partly to blame
- Tama is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a star-studded live event in London this November
- "You can sing it, you can hum it – you can play it": Jared James Nichols teaches you Mississippi Queen by Mountain
- “Billy Joel’s engineer said that you’re trying to get to a point where your collaborator feels so nurtured they become like a child”: Hot Chip man Joe Goddard on his solo return with Harmonics
- “It's a song with enough twists and quirks to make it stand out from the pop landscape”: A music professor breaks down Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe!
- July 5
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- "It's not just about having the ripped jean look": The one crucial thing that relic guitar haters might be missing out on
- “He was a very melodic player. He wasn’t always just pulling things out of his bag of licks”: Duane Betts pays tribute to his father and shares what he learned from him
- Two guitarists have the ultimate 4th July cookout as they crank two Marshall stacks in an empty warehouse and let rip with The Star-Spangled Banner
- YouTuber buys the cheapest Squier Strat he can find – proves age-old truth about tone, but also something else
- “The pinnacle of compact stereo phrase looper development”: With hi-def audio, 35 mins of onboard stereo looping, DigiTech’s JamMan Solo HD is a super-powered stompbox for solo performance, practice and writing
- "It was kind of like being in a Def Leppard production with Mutt Lange": Opeth's Fredrik Åkesson talks playing guitar for Ghost and avoiding a blood explosion in the studio
- “I’ve played some new Gibson and Fenders that really nail it”: Joe Perry says guitar making is as good now as it was in the golden era – and explains why you don’t need to spend $7000+ on a vintage Klon
- Chromeo left all of their synths in the studio on their latest tour - except this one: “This was the easiest way to recreate all of the sounds that we have on the album”
- Kiasmos on the “perfect mono synth”: “It doesn’t need anything on the chain and it still sounds great, which you can’t say about most synths”
- July 4
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- Steinberg’s free X-Stream synth can “turn any samples into smooth evolving soundscapes and textures”
- "There’s a contingent of people who somehow think I’m depriving the world and other players of gear": Joe Bonamassa talks vintage guitars and unfair accusations
- “It’s like having your own James Bond theme. They’ll play that at my funeral one day”: Eddie Murphy on Axel F, which has been re-recorded using the original synths for Netflix’s new Beverly Hills Cop movie
- Sonicware's new LIVEN Ambient Ø synth is designed for creating immersive ambient soundscapes
- July 3
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- "People are so misinformed": Sepultura is the one metal reunion that hasn't happened but Max Cavalera seems to now have the final word on the matter
- “We’re confident we’ve nailed this synth”: Behringer says that its PPG Wave clone is nearly ready, but we’ve heard that one before
- "Live 12.1 puts real-time pitch correction within reach for anyone working with vocals": Ableton update brings a new vocal tuner and drum sampler to Live
- "I'm just noticing my fingers are getting a little harder to keep moving a lot”: 95-year-old Las Vegas pianist announces that it’s finally time for him to retire
- "I wanted to be able to do that because if he doesn't know who I am now, he will know who I am in the future" – While She Sleeps' Sean Long tells us about gifting Tom Morello his signature Charvel guitar
- “Bad mics, in-ear monitor situations, drowned out vocals”: Who or what was to blame for the Glastonbury sound problems?
- “I love it mate, so good,” says Dua Lipa, but her nonverbal reaction to the busker who insisted on playing his song to her at Glastonbury seems to tell a different story
- “If we go mental enough on the PA… we can make the best-sounding thing ever”: How Fred again.. turned a 77,500-capacity stadium into a nightclub for his biggest ever show
- "70 years on, it’s a sound that is still in demand": The producer's guide to the EMT 140 plate reverb
- July 2
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- “You can now have the sound of your favorite Nirvana record all in the computer without touching a single physical amp”: Kurt Cobain tone guru Aaron Rash releases The Utero Sessions IR Pack
- "John was annoyed because I didn’t say that he had written one line of this song, Taxman… I also didn’t say how I wrote two lines to Come Together or three lines to Eleanor Rigby”: George Harrison and the questions around his Beatles credits
- “Full-frequency wireless audio with sparkling clarity across any stage”: Fender unveils the Telepath Wireless System – is it finally time to ditch your guitar cable?
- Taylor Swift to open her "personal archives" for new V&A exhibition that tells the story of her career
- "I think it will really change your mind about semi-hollows": Wolfgang Van Halen on the EVH SA-126, why rhythm comes first and who his unsung guitar hero is
- “Designed for players who demand a rock solid instrument”: Harley Benton unveils the SC-Custom III, aggressively priced singlecut electrics with stainless steel frets as standard, and plenty of spec options
- “We’re famous for music with The Beatles... and the government is just putting importance on maths and banking": Ed Sheeran bemoans the lack of arts funding in UK schools and says he's trying to do something about it
- “Legendary design and quintessential tone for today’s aspiring guitar hero”: Squier expands beginner-friendly Affinity Series with lightweight, slimmed-down guitars and basses at affordable prices
- “Then of course, both of us realised neither of us had any experience of making drum 'n' bass tunes”: How Ros Atkins gave the BBC News theme a junglist re-rub at Glastonbury
- Frustrated by recording your guitar? Blackstar's new Polar 2 is a USB audio interface designed for you – with bundled software that really sweetens the deal
- FL Studio's huge 2024 update brings new synth, effects, AI-powered MIDI tools, CLAP support and more
- Classic Fender electrics reimagined in spruce, sugar pine and sassafras? Meet the limited edition American Performer Timber Series – US Strats and Teles with cult tone woods and Yosemite pickups
- “We had some incredible musical adventures together… He truly was our Mr Big”: Geddy Lee pays tribute to Rush, Bon Jovi and Gary Moore producer Peter Collins, who has died aged 73
- 7 ways to work smarter with MIDI in your DAW
- July 1
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- A revolution in your hand: Happy 45th birthday to the Sony Walkman
- “Something so amazing and so big that it has lived on for decades since its inception”: New doc tells the story of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios, and how it could have ended up being a nightclub
- Watch the first videos of the leaked Moog Labyrinth synthesizer
- SampleRadar: 371 free fuzzed-out psych samples
- It’s official: New study shows that songs are getting lyrically smarter
- Thomann drops a fresh batch of 70th-anniversary savings - including hundreds off a Gibson Custom Les Paul Special and so much more
- “The main reason why we’re in a band is because of watching Back to the Future”: Coldplay bring on Michael J Fox to play guitar during emotional Glastonbury performance
- “As we prepare for the next chapter of Moog Music, the Moog Store will be closing its doors”: Iconic synth manufacturer to shutter its Asheville factory outlet
- Erica Synths at Synth Week 2024: "PĒRKONS HD-01 tears down the borders between drum machine, synthesizer, and drone instrument."
- Mike Paradinas: "I experimented with Ableton but it did my head in, so I'm still using Logic"
- Is Tame Impala about to launch his own synthesizer?