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XLR MAG

Signal of the week

Synths · 103 stories, +33 vs last week

Synths: 103 stories in seven days, +33 on the week before.

SynthsCasio MT-52 Meets MiniFreak 49 | Audio Input Experiment MatrixSynth

GearAnukari 3D Physics Synthesizer Gets Biggest Update Yet Gearnews

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TonebendersVoices384 - Behind The Sound, Music & Editing That Bring Stories To Life This episode was recorded live in Toronto during TIFF, as part of Behind The Camera House. The idea was to get composers, picture editors & supervising sound editors all together to discuss how they…

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsIron Maiden's Nicko Mcbrain Dismissed Double Bass Drums As 'Un-Drummer-Ish.' Drummers Like Slipknot's Joey Jordison Changed His Mind [News] Music News : "I was just trying to make the point that I thought that… a drum set should only have one bass drum."

Mixmag AsiaAsiaDialled In explain why they’re “a blank canvas for the audience as much as the artists” Ahead of their Singapore debut, co-founder Dhruva Balram explains how the London-founded South Asian platform books across regions, classes & countries & trusts the dancefloor when it comes to…

MixdownGearThe 12 best 12-string songs When Rickenbacker delivered a prototype 12-string to George Harrison in New York in February 1964, it was only the second one the company had ever built.

Bandwagon AsiaAsia“A scene worth documenting”: KEXP & AXEAN Festival bring Southeast Asia’s independent sounds to the world From shoegaze and metal to traditional folk, KEXP and AXEAN Festival are giving international listeners a closer look at Southeast Asia’s independent music scenes through 12 exclusive live…

Bandwagon AsiaAsiaSpotify names LNGSHOT its latest RADAR Korea artist following 500 million streams LNGSHOT have been selected as the latest artist for Spotify RADAR Korea , marking another milestone in the K-pop quartet's breakout year.

Bandwagon AsiaAsiaIV OF SPADES embrace playful romance in ‘Susundan’ music video ahead of 'TROPICAL DREAM' album — watch IV OF SPADES are back with a playful new music video for ‘Susundan’ , offering another taste of their upcoming third studio album, TROPICAL DREAM , set for release on 9 December .

PollstarIndustryPhoebe Bridgers, Slayyyter, Billy Strings To Headline Hinterland 2027 Phoebe Bridgers, Slayyyter and Billy Strings (Getty Images) Festival announcements are upon us, and Hinterland is the latest to unveil its lineup.

MatrixSynthSynthsVERSIO CHRONICLES video uploads by Robotopsy Robotopsy Playlist: 1. AMPLA Versio Chronicles Season 1 Episode 1 The adventures of Splash Woman in her quest to find the Ampla Versio. 2.

MatrixSynthSynthsCasio MT-52 Meets MiniFreak 49 | Audio Input Experiment video upload by Solidtrax "Got a ‪@casiomusicgear‬ MT-52 from a friend and thought: let's mangle it with an ‪@ArturiaOfficial‬ MiniFreak 49!

The Music NetworkIndustryAFA Backs Victorian Coalition Pledge to Cut Festival Red Tape The Australian Festival Association (AFA) has welcomed the Victorian Coalition's election commitment to cut regulatory red tape for festivals and outdoor events, describing the proposed changes as a…

SonicScoopStudios & prosIntroducing The Ultimate Bass Processor If you’re anything like me, you haven’t always had an easy time mixing bass. Don’t get me wrong—I’m plenty good at it now—but it took me YEARS to learn to do it well.

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 six 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.