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XLR MAG

Signal of the week

Plugins & DAWs · 135 stories, +97 vs last week

Plugins & DAWs: 135 stories in seven days, +97 on the week before.

DAW & pluginsHell Yes Loop Lab releases Echotrip tape echo effect plugin Rekkerd

Studios & prosApple Announce OLED Touchscreen MacBook Pro: Same M5 Chips, $700 Mor Production Expert

Latest

TonebendersVoices382 - Wildwood This episode takes a new approach! We talk with the sound team behind the new Laika Studios, stop motion animated film, Wildwood.... while they are still in the process of mixing the film!?

RekkerdDAW & pluginsGiveaway Contest: Win Parasite FM synthesizer by Voidscan Audio (2x) If you’re into unique sounds, Voidscan Audio’s recent “biomorphic” FM synth might just be your cup of tea.

Magnetic MagazineLive & DJShort Attention Celebrates 50 Mixes With Omar S Detroit producer Omar S has spent decades building a house and techno catalog through his FXHE Records imprint, keeping his releases closely connected to the city’s underground community.

RekkerdDAW & pluginsHell Yes Loop Lab releases Echotrip tape echo effect plugin Hell Yes Loop Lab has announced a new tape echo effect plugin that is designed to bring warm, textured repeats and a moving transport that responds to what you play.

Guitar PlayerGuitarsPete Townshend’s rescued 1969 SG is coming out of retirement Pete Townshend has destroyed countless guitars over the course of his career, but one of his most memorable victims has survived for more than 50 years.

Music ConnectionIndustryRiot Grrl Carmen Stuns at the LA Opera Composed by Georges Bizet and premiering in 1875, Carmen is a widely adored opera that's performed in French and set in 1820's Southern Spain.

Production ExpertStudios & prosApple Announce OLED Touchscreen MacBook Pro: Same M5 Chips, $700 Mor Apple has announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with a touch-sensitive PROLED XDR display, a thinner, lighter body, and a redesigned thermal system.

RekkerdDAW & pluginsFREE: FloppyDisQ sampler for macOS & Android (public beta) Erol Ozdemir of Techie Turk Design wrote in to share about his sampler instrument for macOS (VST3/AU) and Android.

PollstarIndustryGrahame Lesh & Friends Announce Mardi Gras At Bill Graham Grahame Lesh & Friends will take over San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for a special one-night-only Mardi Gras concert next February.

Digital Music NewsIndustrySuno Fires Back Against Apple’s Subpoena Opposition, Doubling Down on Its Push for Information About ‘Current License Negotiations,’ ‘Anti-AI Deal Terms,’ and More Photo Credit: Immo Wegmann Suno is doubling down on its Apple subpoena push, arguing that the information being sought – about Apple Music’s major label licensing talks, “anti-AI deal terms,” and…

Magnetic MagazineLive & DJHow It Was Made: Zorza – Last Ride (4ever Music + Hard Dance/Hyperpop) Trance, hard dance, and hyperpop have crossed over a lot in the past few years, and Canadian producer Zorza (@zzzorza) has built her career right in the middle of it.

GearnewsGearApple MacBook Pro PROLED XDR Display: The Ultimate Touchscreen Laptop? The Apple MacBook Pro PROLED XDR is the latest and greatest mobile workstation from Apple with an intuitive touchscreen display in 14- and 16-inch options.

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.