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XLR MAG

Signal of the week

Synths · 75 stories, +46 vs last week

Synths: 75 stories in seven days, +46 on the week before.

Gear"It's one of the rarest synthesizers ever made": Cherry Audio brings a forgotten ‘80s synth back to life MusicRadar

DAW & pluginsAmy Nicola McBride releases Vesper Virtual Analogue Synthesiser for iPhone, iPad and Mac KVR Audio News

Latest

RekkerdDAW & plugins2Rule updates TugMidiSeq free arpeggiator/sequencer plugin to v2.6.0 Tuğrul Akyüz has released an update for his polyphonic arpeggiator and sequencer plugin for Windows, macOS and Linux (VST3).

MusicRadarGear"It's one of the rarest synthesizers ever made": Cherry Audio brings a forgotten ‘80s synth back to life Cherry Audio has lifted the lid on yet another entry in its rapidly expanding catalogue of vintage synth emulations.

Drummer's ReviewDrums150 Only: Drumeo × SABIAN Bundle Lands at The UK Drum Show Drumeo , title sponsor of The UK Drum Show 2026, has partnered with SABIAN on a bundle made exclusively for the show — and only 150 are available.

PollstarIndustryJim Glancy, John Moore Step Away From The Bowery Presents As 4 Execs Elevated To Leadership Roles Longtime Bowery Presents Co-Presidents Jim Glancy and John Moore have exited the company, the AEG Presents-owned promoter recently announced.

MusicRadarGearHow Nirvana took an obscure ’60s psych-rock song and turned it into their debut single What do Nirvana, Van Halen and The Jimi Hendrix Experience have in common? No, not iconic guitarists who have sadly all passed away.

FifineChinafifine Invites You to Meet Us at the 2026 Hong Kong Electronics Fair & 140th Canton Fair This October , fifine is excited to meet you at two major industry events in Hong Kong and Guangzhou .

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsJohn 5 Becomes Guitarist With Most Signature Fender Telecasters As Three New Models Are Unveiled: 'I Don't Know If The Telecaster Picked Me Or I Picked It' [News] Gear : "Ever since I was little, Fender was always just the pinnacle, the greatest."

Guitar.comGuitarsT-Rex FuzzTopia review – an unorthodox combo of raw fuzz and smooth distortion €149/$189/£129, t-rex-effects.com Wouldn’t it be nice if every two-for-one deal turned out to be a three-for-one?

MusicTechGearWhy festivals are booking hi-fi sound systems on their lineups On April 22 2016, the day after Prince passed, I experienced the audio magic of Despacio for the first time.

Production ExpertStudios & prosCan AI Become An Efficient Studio Assistant? One Person's Experiences Russ recently wrote about how studio assistants are coming back, but not as people . They're coming back as software; they could make life easier, but trusting them without supervision is a recipe…

GearnewsGearMartin O’ahu HG-28K2: Acoustic Koa Beauty With the new Martin O’ahu HG-28K2, the manufacturer expands its O’ahu family, equipping this model with the finest koa wood throughout. The small O’ahu TKE Uke Burst ukulele also joins the family.

Bandwagon AsiaAsiaBINI, SB19, Maki, Skusta Clee, Flow G & more win big at Filipino Music Awards 2026 BINI , SB19 , and Maki were among the winners at the Filipino Music Awards 2026 . Held on 6 October at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, the ceremony returned for its second edition with Billy…

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.