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XLR MAG

Signal of the week

Electric guitars & amps · 99 stories, +60 vs last week

Electric guitars & amps: 99 stories in seven days, +60 on the week before.

JapanHow Ema Gaspar Became One of Fashion’s Go-To Illustrators Tokyo Weekender

GearFender unveil John 5 Telecaster Collection Mixdown

Latest

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsWhy The Rolling Stones' 'Brown Sugar' Gives Guitarists Trouble In Standard Tuning: Keith Richards Built The Part On Five Strings [News] Tab Spotlight : Apart from the tuning, Keith Richards rarely hits all five strings at once. That's a big part of where the "Brown Sugar" rhythm gets its true feel.

DJ MagLive & DJListen to Hamdi and D Double E’s new collaborative single, ‘Heart & Soul’ The grime veteran and Oxford producer team up on a new track — out now on RCA

Bandwagon AsiaAsiaCao Yang announces debut solo Singapore concert in January 2027 Cao Yang (曹杨) is kicking off the new year with his first solo concert in Singapore. The Chinese singer-songwriter and actor will bring his concert, Young “For Your Eyes Only” LIVE IN…

MatrixSynthSynthsHome Concert 86 - Special 3 hour live edition (Ambient liveset with Moog, Sequential, Waldorf) video upload by Martin Stürtzer "What started as a spontaneous idea eight years ago became a tradition that I am looking forward to a lot: My three hours long birthday session!

MatrixSynthSynthsHow Claude programmed a CS80...in real time. Probably a world premiere. video upload by Jose's Vintage Keys "I have the Mark Cox midi upgrade (and so much more) - and in this first demo I will demonstrate how Claude can program the machine - based on my promps...yes…

MixdownGearNew firmware update from HeadRush HeadRush offer authentic pedal, amp, cab, effects modelling, and cloning at the touch of a finger. Catch up on all the latest news here.

Tokyo WeekenderJapanHow Ema Gaspar Became One of Fashion’s Go-To Illustrators On a sun-drenched summer afternoon, I accompany Ema Gaspar to one of her go-to studios: Kiyosumi Park.

Mixmag AsiaAsiaPhilippine streetwear brand OXGN release final drop of budots-inspired collection Launched with Sgamo & Jarreau Vandal's track 'TIW TIW 2025', the line reinterprets Amekaji style through the sound & spirit of the genre

MixdownGearFender unveil John 5 Telecaster Collection From his early days as a sought-after session player to his legendary runs with David Lee Roth, Mötley Crüe and Rob Zombie, John 5 has spent nearly three decades cementing his place as one of the…

Mixmag AsiaAsiaHydra’s House brings a night of African rhythms & electronic textures to Hong Kong Suru Records founder Hydra brings his melodic, genre-blurring sound to Soho House after going global in Ibiza

MixdownGearBehringer announce Mini Pops 7 The Mini Pops 7’s nine independent analog Voice Out jacks make external processing or capturing multitrack recordings a breeze.

BillboardIndustryJENNIE Pops Up at The Weeknd’s South Korea Concert for Surprise Live Debut of ‘The Idol’ Fan Favorite JENNIE and The Weeknd have finally taken “One of the Girls” from the studio to the stage. The BLACKPINK star made a surprise appearance during The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn concert at Goyang…

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.