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XLR MAG

Signal of the week

Synths · 68 stories, +38 vs last week

Synths: 68 stories in seven days, +38 on the week before.

SynthsUMWELT - Generative Ecosystem Synthesizer (VST / AU) MatrixSynth

SynthsVintage Synth Review: The E-Mu Emax II Sampling Synthesizer Synthtopia

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DJ MagLive & DJUniversal Audio announces next generation of Volt USB Audio Interfaces "Every artist has a sound they’re chasing. We want Volt Gen 2 to give people the confidence to explore that sound, experiment, and keep creating"

Magnetic MagazineLive & DJPortola 2026: Where Electronic Music Meets San Francisco’s Industrial Waterfront Website owner? If you think you have reached this message in error, please contact support.

Digital Music NewsIndustryShould AI Music Get a Separate Chart? — Kelly Clarkson Thinks So Photo Credit: Roberto Reposo Should AI music get its own separate chart? Kelly Clarkson thinks it should, even amid her own enthusiasm for AI developments, and she’s not alone.

Music ConnectionIndustryWeird Al Yankovic at the Honda Center Comedy Music history was made on September 14th, 1980 when Weird Al Yankovic performed “Another Rides the Bus” on the Dr. Demento show just a month before his 21st birthday.

Music ConnectionIndustryAssignments: Kip Zimmerman Associate Principal Oboe The Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Music Director Andris Nelsons announce the appointment of Kip Zimmerman as the orchestra’s new associate…

Bass Musician MagazineGuitarsNew Gear: Sterling SUB Series StingRay Plus Sterling announces the new SUB Series StingRay Plus, bringing expanded tonal options and upgraded features to the popular SUB Series lineup.

MatrixSynthSynthsUMWELT - Generative Ecosystem Synthesizer (VST / AU) video upload by Laboratory 0 "UMWELT is a synthesizer made for listening. Press the capsule to generate an autonomous ecosystem with its own weather, tuning, four creature groups, and occasionally a…

SynthtopiaSynthsChompi Sampling Keyboard Lives On As Free Nibbi Plugin Record and sample sounds, play them across the keyboard, layer tape-style loops, and get weird with lo-fi saturation, wow and flutter, delay, reverb, and filters.…

Magnetic MagazineLive & DJSOMA Cosmos Review: Is It Still Avant-Garde in 2026? Table of Contents SOMA Cosmos Design and Studio Setup SOMA Cosmos Algorithms Feedback, Suppression, and Cosmos Performance Controls Using SOMA Cosmos for Recording and Improvisation SOMA Cosmos…

SynthtopiaSynthsVintage Synth Review: The E-Mu Emax II Sampling Synthesizer While the Emax II offers improved specs across the board, it dropped the analog filters of the original. …

PollstarIndustryPollstar Live! 2027 To Take Place In April In Greater Palm Springs Area Dates and a location are set for Pollstar Live! 2027, marking the conference’s desert debut in the greater Palm Springs area.

Music ConnectionIndustryBoyhood Signs With Hand Drawn Dracula Date Signed: June 2026 Label: Hand Drawn Dracula Type of Music: Bedroom-Pop Management: Jesse Northey Publicity: Nathan Walker A&R: James Mejia Web: facebook.com/boyh00d Boyhood is the bedroom-pop…

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.