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

CDM — Create Digital MusicGear

Listening to birdsong — and the instruments that mimic it

October 14

Okay, class: today's reading includes a short but inspiring passage by Estevan Carlos Benson, who has lately been suggesting we treat our musical listening biome in the same way that we do our gut.

Read at CDM — Create Digital Music ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Listening to birdsong — and the instruments that mimic it

More from CDM — Create Digital Music on XLR MAG

GearMax 9.2: V8 FFTs, better Windows support, Ableton abl goodies, more CDM — Create Digital Music

GearBana Haffar’s Ancient Future mutates memory and meaning in machines CDM — Create Digital Music

GearUA Volt Gen 2, Max: built-in dynamics and preamp tone, displays, more CDM — Create Digital Music

GearBeads, last of the Mutable Instruments modules, is now open source CDM — Create Digital Music

Gearteenage engineering might quit synths, but parody can’t quit them CDM — Create Digital Music

GearInterview: 33EMYBW on Amalgamate, metamorphosis, and insect philosophy CDM — Create Digital Music