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XLR MAG

Signal of the week

Electric guitars & amps · 86 stories, +47 vs last week

Electric guitars & amps: 86 stories in seven days, +47 on the week before.

EuropeCort KX500 Baritone: E-Gitarre mit Edelstahlbünden & Locking-Tuner serienmäßig delamar

GuitarsMany Guitarists Pick Up A Mandolin Expecting A Smaller Guitar, But It's Closer To A Violin With Frets [News] Ultimate Guitar

Latest

DJ MagLive & DJADAM Audio announces Sub8 PRO and Sub10 PRO subwoofers Managed by the company's new software system, ADAM Control

DJ MagLive & DJBaby Audio announces new muti-effect plug-in, HyperWarp The plug-in comes loaded with 190 presets from "top producers and sound designers"

DJ MagLive & DJA Minimoog is set to take be used in a soloist's performance with the Asheville Symphony "One of the aims of this concerto is to showcase the virtuosity of the classical tradition on a synth"

BillboardIndustry‘Golden’ Is Still Golden, Wins Best Song at 2026 World Soundtrack Awards (Full Winners List) “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters is still picking up awards. The global smash, which won a Golden Globe, a Grammy and an Oscar last winter, among many other awards, won best original song at the 2026…

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsMany Guitarists Pick Up A Mandolin Expecting A Smaller Guitar, But It's Closer To A Violin With Frets [News] Features : In bluegrass, the mandolin's "chop" is a muted chord snapped onto the backbeat that does the job a snare drum would.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsTarantino Intentionally Had Kurt Russel Destroy A 145-Year-Old Martin For 'Hateful Eight,' Historian Claims, Challenging Mixup Narrative [News] Music News : "Tarantino filmed it at night on purpose so that the guitar tech wouldn't be there," Dick Boak, former historian at the Martin museum, says.

MusicTechGearCRSSD Lab has been hosting music-making workshops for years — why? It’s 32°C in San Diego, and CRSSD festival is brimming with short shorts, tank tops, sunglasses and ice-cold beers.

MatrixSynthSynths'The Thing' Theme Synth cover (Prophet-10 Rev 4, ESQ-1, JX-3P) - Ennio Morricone video upload by PKN Synth "Main theme by Ennio Morricone from John Carpenter's 'The Thing' / pknolan Gear used: Sequential Prophet-10 Rev4 Ensoniq ESQ-1 Roland JX-3P Yamaha MODX M7 Produced/performed…

MatrixSynthSynths1 sequence, 2 synths, 3 minutes Synth Jam video upload by Midnight Fury "One sequence. Two synths. Three minutes. Short live synthesizer performance.

MatrixSynthSynthsNovation Circuit Tracks - Ostinato of the Year video upload by Synthesaurus Rex "I was going to call this 'arpeggio of the year' but then I thought that this technically might not be an arpeggio, but an ostinato.

No TrebleGuitarsJoe Hubbard Breaks Down Chick Corea’s “Spain” in New Bass Course Joe Hubbard breaks down Chick Corea’s “Spain” in a new bass course with 12 lessons, samba grooves, solo analysis, and backing tracks featuring Tom Brechtlein.

Music ConnectionIndustry"Voice of a Generation" by Marquis H.K. (paperback) $33.99 Yep, MC has gone punk rock crazy with our books this month, thanks to this string of releases from the Earth Island imprint.

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.