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About

XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.

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MusicRadarGear

“It nearly didn’t happen. After I wrote the song, me and Diplo had a massive fight and I threw the hard drive at his head from the top floor”: How M.I.A. and producer Diplo broke the rules – and channelled Pink Floyd – on her mega hit Paper Planes

September 15

M.I.A.’s biggest hit almost never was. The British-Sri Lankan artist’s breakout track was nearly lost after a fight with her producer – and boyfriend at the time – Diplo. That track was Paper Planes, and as M.I.A. reveal

Read at MusicRadar ↗

Gear“No one is quite sure how the acid got inside the synth”: Can using psychedelics make you a better musician or producer? MusicRadar

“I reached out to Biggie. He came through. He sat in the studio and vibed, no paper, just listening to the music and rapping off the top of his head”: Jay-Z recalls his early days with The Notorious B.I.G. and the fatal beef between Biggie and Tupac

Gear“I reached out to Biggie. He came through. He sat in the studio and vibed, no paper, just listening to the music and rapping off the top of his head”: Jay-Z recalls his early days with The Notorious B.I.G. and the fatal beef between Biggie and Tupac MusicRadar

“It’s the first long-form video - I can’t think of a band that would let their lead guitarist fall flat on his face in the opening scene”: Giles Martin on the enduring importance of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night

Gear“It’s the first long-form video - I can’t think of a band that would let their lead guitarist fall flat on his face in the opening scene”: Giles Martin on the enduring importance of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night MusicRadar

"Engineers no longer need to lock themselves into proprietary plugin ecosystems": Audient launches Horizon, a new line of Thunderbolt interfaces with sub-millisecond latency and no onboard DSP

Gear"Engineers no longer need to lock themselves into proprietary plugin ecosystems": Audient launches Horizon, a new line of Thunderbolt interfaces with sub-millisecond latency and no onboard DSP MusicRadar

"He didn't tap a foot or move his head or anything. He listened to it all the way through and I thought he hated it": When an Eagle, Heartbreaker, Roger Linn and an Oberheim OB-X combined forces for a pop masterpiece – the Boys Of Summer story

Gear"He didn't tap a foot or move his head or anything. He listened to it all the way through and I thought he hated it": When an Eagle, Heartbreaker, Roger Linn and an Oberheim OB-X combined forces for a pop masterpiece – the Boys Of Summer story MusicRadar

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