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.

More than three hundred sources, in sixteen languages: 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

NMEScenes

Here’s what U2’s ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ stadium tour stage production will look like

11.12

U2 have shared a first look at the stage production for their ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ stadium tour, which Bono describes as a “little play on shamanism and showbusiness”.

Read at NME ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Here’s what U2’s ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ stadium tour stage production will look like

More from NME on XLR MAG

ScenesRoger Taylor steps down from Duran Duran and retires: “This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make” NME

ScenesGang Of Youths announce new album ‘Compañero’ with captivating single ‘Benny’s Video’ NME

ScenesCliffords celebrate outsiders and fight Irish stereotypes on powerful new single ‘Rod For My Back’ NME

ScenesJamie T announces Kate Nash and Willie J Healey as tour support as he teases more “special guests” NME

ScenesThis is what Interpol and Bloc Party played as their kicked off their 2026 European co-headline tour in Berlin NME

ScenesJake Bugg talks overcoming hardships for ‘Alamo’: “I’d spent so much time being an artist that I’d neglected being a human” NME