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.

← XLR MAG Archive

MixdownGear

Gear Rundown: Radiohead’s OK Computer

September 23

More than 20 years after its release, OK Computer stands as a landmark moment in the history of contemporary music, combining technological innovation with intense feelings of isolation and despair…

Read at Mixdown ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

Gear Rundown: Radiohead’s OK Computer

More from Mixdown on XLR MAG

GearMixed In Key releases Wingman 3.0, adding chord editing and much more Mixdown

GearSeymour Duncan celebrates fifty years with limited edition Custom Shop Duncan Distortion set Mixdown

GearAlesis releases Turbo Pro, an electronic drum kit built for the next step up Mixdown

GearFender solves 80 year old single coil hum problem with new Silent System Mixdown

GearGuild brings back the Starfire with new Newark St. lineup Mixdown

GearReview: KRK V-Series Five Monitors Mixdown