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May 2024
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82 articles
- May 10
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- “Our goal is to further support and enhance the learning experience”: Fender launches Play 1:1, a learning platform offering personalised online and on-demand guitar lessons with its top teachers
- Technics ramps up the RPM as it launches a Lamborghini-themed special edition of the SL-1200 turntable
- A signature Strat from the Edge’s personal collection is heading to auction, expected to fetch upwards of $75,000 for charity
- Zildjian announces Alchem-E Gold-EX, Gold and Bronze electronic drum sets in three different configurations, “We set out to create the most realistic, authentic playing experience across the entire kit and are confident that drummers will agree.”
- How AI is being weaponized in Drake and Kendrick Lamar's rap beef
- “A psychedelic vintage fuzz pushing a long classic reverb, that transforms your guitar’s voice and lets it party!”: Gone Fishing Effects and Kasabian’s Sergio Pizzorno team up for signature fuzzbox
- “The shape of things to come”: Rivalto Guitars unveils the Forma series – three bold, radical, retro electrics that offer Dennis Fano designs at non-boutique prices
- "Despite recording some truly iconic albums that became a huge part of pop culture history, he always felt like one of us": Five seminal records Steve Albini worked on
- "We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry": Apple apologises for controversial iPad Pro ad showing instruments being destroyed
- “This is where my kids play sometimes after school”: Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock built a studio that is like Willy Wonka’s very own guitar gear emporium – and it even has a walk-in pedal closet
- “There’s no way I’m spending more on a Rhodes than a car - it’s ridiculous for a working-class musician”: Prefuse 73
- “Ladies And Gentlemen: Miss Grace Jones”: Actor Ian McShane says that he recorded his iconic Slave To The Rhythm spoken-word intro after smoking “a large spliff” with Trevor Horn in the studio
- Billie Eilish has released a 49-second clip of new song Chihiro via Fortnite Festival and it confirms that it’s a synth-led electronic banger
- MusicRadar deals of the week: Score hundreds off Kurzweil and Roland pianos, up to 92% off SSL plugins and 15% off Fender guitars
- “These huge machines, created centuries ago, were tackling the same challenges of synthesis and sampling and sound reproduction that we struggle with today": Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood is bringing church organ music to the modular masses
- May 9
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- Slash has a new signature Gibson guitar – and it's an ES-335!
- "This gal comes walking up towards me and she's topless, but she had these incredibly blue eyes and I was trying my best just to look at her eyes": The unexpected story of how John Oates and Iva Davies wrote Icehouse's Electric Blue
- “The first AI voice changer plugin for your DAW”: Sonarworks SoundID VoiceAI can make your vocal tracks sound like they were sung by someone completely different
- "I’m speaking a musical language with the modular synthesizer as my pen": Meet Arushi Jain, the "modular princess" using synths to reimagine Indian classical music
- "I always think this is the closest anyone has ever come to making the perfect record": The story of The Undertones' punk classic Teenage Kicks
- "This is what Bruce calls his primal scrub": Bob Clearmountain talks mixing and tweaking Springsteen's Born In The USA guitars
- "Tone-deaf and insulting to artists of every kind": New Apple iPad Pro ad showing musical instruments being destroyed described as "horrendously bad" and "deeply offensive"
- May 8
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- Classic Interview: Steve Albini – "A lot of people in my position are opposed to the home-recording of music. They feel like it cheapens what happens in the studio, but I disagree"
- Acclaimed studio engineer and musician Steve Albini has died aged 61
- “She’s slightly behind the beat but this doesn’t make her sound sloppy; to the contrary, it shows an effortless command of musical time”: A music professor breaks down Amy Winehouse's Back to Black
- “The ultimate recording interface for your favourite DAW”: PreSonus’s new Quantum ES and HD audio interfaces feature instrument inputs that were co-developed with Fender
- “The A&R and the label actually didn’t like it. They were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s a fun song, but it’s never going to get on the radio'": How Train went from nearly splitting up to proving them wrong with smash hit Hey, Soul Sister
- "It was shocking because they still thought of the Beatles as the mop-tops": Let It Be director Michael Lindsay-Hogg on that Paul vs George argument and his newly restored "break-up" movie
- "I had 25 feet to walk over to my kit and figure it out… 20… 15… 10… 5...": Kenny Aronoff recalls his terrifying Jack and Diane drum fill experience
- "I’d never made a guitar before I made the Cloud guitar for Prince": Now the legendary six-string is expected to raise up to $600k at auction
- “Why does it only have drums and vocals?”: Watch Karol G keyboard player Jemma Heigis trying to figure out the chords for Huey Lewis and the News’ The Power Of Love, a song she’s never heard before
- "It's the marmite of DAWs!": 7 things I love about Pro Tools (and 3 that I really don't)
- “Suddenly, you’re in a Vangelis type world”: Hans Zimmer on why the expanded, 6-oscillator Minimoog emulation he created with Synapse Audio gives you “something that you’ve never had before”
- "George Harrison said, ‘When the Beatles play a low E, it sounds like a low E. When Duane plays it, it sounds an octave lower!’”: The story of Duane Eddy's Peter Gunn theme
- Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee are still jamming together: "We’re actually playing a lot of Rush songs" – but there are caveats
- "One of the largest collections of music production software in the world": Native Instruments unveils NI 360 subscription platform
- "If you’re into creating interesting vocoder sounds, try feeding a drum machine through the vocoder instead of a vocal": 14 tried and tested vocal effect tips
- Apple’s super-thin new iPad Pro gets an M4 chip, but the much more affordable iPad Air M2 could be the savviest option for music makers
- "The go-to destination for professionals and creatives seeking meaningful connections": Influential music, film and tech festival SXSW is coming to London in 2025
- May 7
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- “I have never experienced anything like that. It was like piano strings, and it was so far off the neck”: Lee Ritenour on the time BB King invited him to play Lucille and the guitar made him work for every note
- "I can't stand them": Slash reveals he isn't a fan of using in-ear monitors live, but he does like using guitar plugins in the studio
- “The best music creation experience in the industry”: Apple announces Logic Pro 11 for Mac and Logic Pro for iPad 2, adding AI-powered bass and keyboard players and built-in stem separation
- Want to channel your inner Daft Punk? Here are 9 of the coolest vocal processing tools
- “A monstrous amplifier that transcends the boundaries of imagination”: Neural DSP launches upgraded Fortin Nameless Suite X plugin – your new digital solution for atom-smashing chug
- "Your ears will fall in love with the new studio tools": Bitwig Studio updated with new multiband compressor and hardware-inspired EQs
- “If it makes it more accessible and achievable for girls to chase their dreams, then it’s a win”: Epiphone and Miranda Lambert team up for a stunning yet affordable take on her top-selling signature Gibson Bluebird acoustic
- May 6
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- "I have a different perspective on all of that": Richie Sambora releases uncut interview footage from Bon Jovi documentary series that sheds new light on the tensions that led to his departure
- "It’s simple enough to create the perfect hard-tuned and harmonised effects within our DAW, providing you have the right software": How to harness hard-tuned vocals
- May 5
- May 4
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- "Rap purists wouldn't dig us as we weren't straight-up rap. We weren't an indie group, or a rock group": Stereo MC Rob Birch on the making of classic '90s album Connected
- "The result is a track that perfectly encapsulates the 'anything goes' atmosphere of the early '90s, and makes a great Christmas record for the discerning raver": The top 10 most unlikely sample sources
- May 3
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- “I thought he was gonna hook me”: Fran Healy remembers when Travis 'lifted' Noel Gallagher's chords to Wonderwall
- A lightweight, affordable option for Jimmy Page ‘Stairway…’ manoeuvres? Danelectro’s new $899 doubleneck electric guitar could be this year’s super-cool sleeper hit
- Could the friendly-looking First Love be the FM synth that you fall head over heels for?
- “People deplore AI, but it helps sampling become so much clearer and crisper”: Tourist on how AI tech helped shape his new album, Memory Morning
- "I was probably off my head... it wasn't meant to be a novelty record, it was meant to be an underground record": The story of The Prodigy’s cartoon-sampling rave hit Charly
- “It is with a heavy heart that we announce that all store locations will begin store closing sales today”: End of an era for US gear retail as Sam Ash Music to close
- “This ‘notched’ guitar tone has been used by legends like Carlos Santana and Brian May. It’s a fantastic tone to have at your disposal”: Red Witch unveils Euphemia, an analogue sample hold filter with a twist
- “Duane’s sound was distinctive, original and completely cutting edge at the time”: Brian May pays tribute to late rock ’n’ roll pioneer Duane Eddy and remembers the night his hero played the Red Special
- Stevie Wonder flexes his Clavinet chops as he hits the stage with Gary Clark Jr to perform What About The Children
- Designed "to expand the realms of sound design through intricate motion", this quirky French synth has light sensors and a retro pin matrix
- May 2
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- “It’s dynamic and it’s versatile, and thanks no doubt to its enclosed tube it is very ‘amp-y’”: ThorpyFX and Chris Buck apply real valve heat to overdrive and boost with signature Electric Lightning pedal
- “I made Yngwie play on a really slow blues… He sounds even faster”: Dweezil Zappa reveals plans to finish epic all-star track featuring 40 players, including Brian May, and Eddie Van Halen playing a “greatest hits of all of his best guitar licks”
- “There’s no such thing as a wrong note”: Jacob Collier takes you inside his “wise” music room and explains why he can’t stop using a discontinued Native Instruments MIDI keyboard
- The samples from every Prodigy album track have been found and detailed in one epic YouTube masterpiece
- CloudVocal's FlashTrack microphone revolutionizes recording with innovative DSP and versatile features
- “Get you to your sound faster”: Reason 13 puts the focus on workflow, and there are new synth and ‘space delay’ devices, too
- “A funk bass stripped down to its essence – beautiful, minimal, well-crafted”: Vulfpeck funk maestro Joe Dart teams up with Sterling By Music Man for super affordable $399 signature bass
- Is this the most disastrous venue launch of all time? Opening show at Co-op Live cancelled after piece of air conditioning unit falls from the ceiling: "To cancel an event whilst people are queuing to get in is an absolute disgrace!"
- “It’s like a T-Rex made out of chocolate cake”: John Petrucci issues update on new Dream Theater album, promising the “Mount Rushmore” of guitar tones – and a special treat for Tonemission users
- Music from Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and The Weeknd is returning to TikTok, thanks to a “multi-dimensional licensing agreement” with Universal
- "He transformed a piece of samba-flecked elevator music into one of the hardest hip-hop tracks of all time": 10 genius moments in hip-hop sampling history, featuring J Dilla, DJ Premier and more
- Duane Eddy: “Our echo chamber was actually a 2,000-gallon water tank. We went down to the Salt River, visited a junkyard there... and we yelled into tanks”
- “It’s a silly name for a non-silly thing": Tributes paid to "Sultan of Twang", Duane Eddy, who has died aged 86
- May 1
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- Mr piano mule: Man jailed for attempting to smuggle £4.2m illicit stash into the UK in the back of an upright piano
- “An exploration of China's rich musical heritage”: Arturia’s Augmented Yangtze puts a contemporary spin on 6 classic instruments
- Song Athletics releases its first plugin, a sampler "designed to help you find the joy in your one shot collection"
- "We have a huge vision for our software. Our dream is to change how people create music digitally": Modalics on their pizza-inspired, polyrhythmic beatmaking plugin
- “One second you speak to the driver, and next, you are up there in the air”: It’s ‘Jean-Michel flying car’ as the French electronic music pioneer becomes the world’s first passenger in the KleinVision AirCar
- Thomann's 70th birthday celebrations just got even bigger with the addition of super deals on PRS, Korg, Taylor, AKG, Bose and more
- "This is when you need to get serious": Signing a music contract? Here are 5 things you really need to look out for