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XLR MAG

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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.

Library/Plugins

PLUGINS

The studio inside the computer: what each kind of plugin does, the classics everyone reaches for, and the free ones that are good enough to keep.

EQ

Shapes tone by turning frequencies up or down.

FabFilter Pro-Q 4 TDR Nova Free

Compressor

Evens out loud and quiet; adds punch.

UAD 1176 Collection Waves CLA-2A

Reverb

Puts a sound in a space.

Valhalla VintageVerb

Delay

Echoes in time with the song.

Soundtoys EchoBoy

Saturation

Warmth and grit, like tape or tubes.

Soundtoys Decapitator

Synth

Makes sounds from scratch.

Xfer Serum 2 u-he Diva Vital Free tier

Sampler

Plays recorded instruments from your keyboard.

Native Instruments Kontakt 8

Mastering

The last polish before release.

iZotope Ozone 12

Free this week, every week → News / Free this week · each example opens its maker’s page, checked 2026-10-07 · no prices

Sources · checked 7 October 2026

FabFilter, Pro-Q 4: an equalizer plug-in.
Tokyo Dawn Records, TDR Nova: a parallel dynamic equalizer, offered as a free download.
Universal Audio, 1176 Classic Limiter Collection: compressor and limiter plug-ins.
Waves, CLA-2A Compressor / Limiter: tube compression.
Valhalla DSP, VintageVerb: a reverb plug-in (page as indexed by search; the site refused our automated check).
Soundtoys, EchoBoy: “The Ultimate Echo Plug-In”.
Soundtoys, Decapitator: “Analog Saturation Modeler”.
Xfer Records, Serum 2: an advanced hybrid synthesizer.
u-he, Diva: a synthesizer.
Vital: “Basic: Free Vital. The full synth with all features”, with paid tiers above it.
Native Instruments, Kontakt 8: a sampler.
iZotope, Ozone 12: mastering plug-in.