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XLR MAG

Signal of the week

Plugins & DAWs · 97 stories, +53 vs last week

Plugins & DAWs: 97 stories in seven days, +53 on the week before.

SynthsBoy Harsher’s Augustus Muller: A feeling on repeat with AstroLab and V Collection MatrixSynth

Studios & prosEventide H9000 Immersive Update Review: From Plugin To Rack Production Expert

Latest

PollstarIndustryJohn Mayer Adds June 2027 Dates To ‘Live At Sphere’ Residency Photo by Mark Seliger UPDATE: Citing “overwhelming demand,” John Mayer has added three more performances to his “Live At Sphere” residency that promises to “combine immersive sound, visual spectacle…

DJ MagLive & DJThe Prodigy tease mysterious "Non-Music Projects" platform, BLK.ANT The platform appears to be based at London's TileYard Studios

DJ MagLive & DJHow Charanjit Singh reimagined Indian classical music for the electronic age In 1982, Indian composer Charanjit Singh’s ‘Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat’ became one of the first albums to harness the potential of the Roland TB-303, the bass synth that would later…

DJ MagLive & DJAlison Wonderland becomes an independent artist after 15 years, shares new single ‘RESCUE U’ The DJ and producer is celebrating the end of a 15 year contract with "her favourite song" to date

MatrixSynthSynthssleep and relaxing music | rain & feelings video upload by naktside "I have begun a series of music for sleep. Please share your thoughts so I can refine it."

MatrixSynthSynthsPolyArp + Sequential OB-6 | 3:1 Polyrhythmic Arpeggios (Live Demo) video upload by Iris Orbit "Try PolyArp: https://irisorbit.io/polyarp/ A live performance on the Sequential OB-6 with PolyArp, my MIDI arpeggiator.

MatrixSynthSynthsGetting Started: Modifying CV with attenuators and offset modules video upload by Noise Engineering "Control voltage doesn't always need to be used exactly as it's generated.

Guitar PlayerGuitarsBob Dylan and Jorma Kaukonen on the guitar icon who led an electric blues revolution and died alone and unknown Why are the blues the lingua franca of guitarists everywhere? Why is the 1959 sunburst Les Paul one of the most coveted axes in the universe?

Music ConnectionIndustrySong Biz With Sublime, Ashley Gorley, and More Motown Signs Hawthorne Signed to Motown Gospel, Grammy-nominated Koryn Hawthorne ( The Voice f inalist) releases Big Gospel this month (produced by J.

RekkerdDAW & pluginsUniversal Audio launches Empirical Labs FATSO Tape Simulator Universal Audio has introduced an authentic emulation of one specific, widely used piece of analog studio hardware, with its multi-mode compression, tape saturation, and transformer coloration…

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsGet a free soft alto saxophone for Splice INSTRUMENT Download our free alto saxophone for Splice INSTRUMENT—grab these presets during the drop window and they’re yours to keep forever.

Music ConnectionIndustryJack White, John McBride and Vince Gill to headline AES Show Nashville The AES Show Nashville 2026, will take place from Friday, October 30 to Sunday November 1 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, bringing with it, "an extensive…

On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

On view

This week, from that corner the newest stories from the corner of the industry you picked

The wire their own posts, translated

How records get made in 2026 from the industry's own reports

Sources

Fetched every three hours, linked to the original

About

Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.