Where's your head at? It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #18!
Test your brains with our round-up of this week's hottest music news
Artists
Where's your head at? It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #18!
Test your brains with our round-up of this week's hottest music news
We speak to Ash’s Tim Wheeler about the making of their beloved sci-fi love song
Ash’s Tim Wheeler remembers the creation of the band’s most popular song - written while they were still at school!
Rockabilly icon Brian Setzer on his recovery from the autoimmune condition that stopped him playing guitar
The Stray Cats frontman says he is “98 per cent” recovered but is playing as good as he ever did
Ariana Grande’s live looping moment on her Eternal Sunshine tour isn't her first
A longtime fan of the Boss RC Loop Stations, she was uploading live looped performance videos as early as 2007
“You get in the Lamborghini and put your kids in private school”: Charlie Crockett gets personal with Jack White
Argument broke out over ‘Satanic’ support act
Revisiting our classic interview with the legendary Lemmy
Back in 2012 we spoke to the late Motörhead mainman about his other great passion - rockabilly
Russell Mael on how Sparks went beyond pop to create their own sonic universe
With the dynamic duo's concert album Live On The Moon out now, Mael re-enters Earth's orbit to explain why Sparks were never going to give us the same thing twice
Music Tech
“Analogue is better than digital, Behringer gear is garbage and your cheap-ass monitors are ruining your mixes”: 10 of the most enduring music tech myths busted
It's time to separate fact from fiction. We demolish ten hot takes persistently spouted by purists, gatekeepers and overzealous Redditors
I've recorded everything from vocals to guitars with this unbelievably versatile mic – and it just plummeted to only $79. That's so cheap I had to check the price twice
With a whopping $170 off at Guitar Center, you can now grab an impressive UK-made microphone with plenty of change from $100
Someone put a chiptune synth and 16-step sequencer in a watch - and it looks as bonkers as it sounds
Is this retro-styled DIY build the world's first wrist-worn sequencer?
Minimal Audio's Lucid is a granular powerhouse with scale locking, deep modulation and much more
This "next-generation" granular effect combines a flexible granular engine with per-grain tuning, filtering, panning and delay, alongside a host of additional effects
“Designed to celebrate the timeless value of vinyl culture”: Technics releases anniversary edition of the SL-1200
There are only 12,000 of them
Behringer’s Daft Punk-approved, cult-classic MIDI controller has been reborn as the BCR32 – and now it’s a hardware sequencer too
More than two decades on from the BCR2000, the super-affordable controller returns with ZAQ Audio's formerly unofficial firmware built in – and it's now available for preorder
"There is a difference between a tool that aids creation and a system that replaces it entirely": Beatport bans AI-generated music
Platform is latest to get tough on slop
“We’re searching for authenticity”: Real World studios launch free recording programme for unsigned acts
You have to be over 16 and based in the South West
Tom VR on "game-changing" Ableton Live tips and the hardware synth he can't stop talking about
We visited the London-based producer in the studio to hear about the making of third album Don't Know How Fast I'm Moving Until I Hit Something
Guitars
“An excellent example of the genre’s shifting atmospheric soundscapes”: EarthQuaker Devices Towers review
EarthQuaker Devices’ latest pedal offers three filter modes to turn stereo reverb into meandering, hazy soundscapes
Gretsch unveils a high-end dream machine: a Penguin refreshed in limited run Pale Blue Pearl finish
A Professional Series Penguin for those serious about Gretsch sounds with a few bucks to spare on a big budget bird
“This is a difficult guitar to put a review score on”: Harley Benton Fusion-T II HH RW HT PM review
Harley Benton doubles down as one of the industry’s leading affordable brands with a well-appointed player
Best bass amps 2026: Top choice bass rigs for any budget
Cut through the mix with our top-rated bass amps, featuring Fender, Ampeg, Aguilar, Darkglass, and more
Stu Mackenzie and Jam Pedals team up to bring you the secret behind his KGWL guitar tone
The Tiny Amp Destroyer has two gain stages plus a treble booster and brings you the unruly and wild gain sounds of Mackenzie's "Cash Converters" small-amp setup
“It starts out polite but then gets loud, dirty and nasty”: Warm Audio Dirty Boy Jr Booster review
Warm Audio revives the Dirty Boy Ball Buster circuit but without the boutique price tag.
“Makes you realise just how good budget guitars have become”: Harley Benton ST-62LA review
Hand-relic'd with a spec sheet that doesn't get old, Harley Benton's Aged Series brings vintage feel on a budget
Guitar Lessons & Tutorials
Get almost $1k of guitar tuition from our number one online platform for only $99 with this epic Summer Black Friday deal – over 11,000 lessons, plus bonus gifts
And if you’re a beginner, the bundled beginner’s guide will get you off on the right foot
Confused by guitar tabs and notation? Use this complete guide to reading music for guitar
Learn to play acoustic and electric guitar in record time with our guide to easy-to-read notation
"Don't play scales just to get faster. Speed is a happy by-product of playing more accurately": Beginner Guitar Lessons - nailing scales
The A major pentatonic, A minor pentatonic and Mixolydian are great places to start and we'll show you how
"There isn't one correct answer": 6 things you need you need know about how to clean and condition your guitar fretboard
A string change is the ideal opportunity to get your 'board back to its best
What are the best online guitar lessons in 2026? I’m a professional guitar gear reviewer and these are my highest-rated lessons platforms
My expert pick of the best online guitar courses will supercharge your playing wherever you are, and whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player
How Tom Morello used his guitar to drill into the off-limits domain of the turntablist
The Rage Against the Machine axe-man’s most memorable moment saw him emulate a DJ scratch breakdown using a trick that few have fully mastered
With a massive 89% discount, $99 for a year's worth of Guitar Tricks online lessons is the best way to upgrade your guitar playing this Black Friday
Guitar Tricks is our number one online tuition platform for guitar players
Ignite your inner guitar god for just 27 cents a day with TrueFire’s July 4th sale - save 60% on online lessons
With over 84,000 lessons at your disposal, this is one of the best value guitar tuition subscriptions online right now
Can you fix your guitar's frets yourself? We try three innovative approaches from MusicNomad to investigate how they might conquer a major cause of fret buzz
Uneven frets are a common issue with our guitars, but MusicNomad has come up with different ways to empower players to deal with it themselves
Latest Tuition
It's time to finally learn music theory – Start here with our basic notation overview
Learning to actually read music can open up many avenues as a musician, and it isn't as difficult as it might look…
Here's everything you need to know about keyboard sizes but were afraid to ask
Looking for the perfect keyboard? Does size really matter? 88, 49, 32?… Here’s the full guide to navigating the keys-world
6 steps for perfectly capturing a real drum performance in your DAW
Inject some feel into your tracks by recording a real human drummer (no jokes, please). It's easier than you think
How to start recording pristine picked acoustic guitar in just three simple steps
You can create a great guitar track using just a single microphone and it's simpler than you think…
10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
Spruce up your chords and snazz up your scales with these simple but powerful techniques
How to use a mixing console
Faders, knobs, buttons, sliders and sockets explained: Here’s how to find your way around a modern mixing desk
The difference between distortion and saturation and how to effectively get a gnarly sound
Adding small or even large amounts of saturation doesn’t have to be bad for you, as we explore how to singe your sonics
How to use reverb to build impressive-sounding filters, reverses, risers and pads
Create your own reverb effects with our step-by-step tutorial
How to get Radiohead’s resonant National Anthem vocal effect in software
On Kid A, Radiohead went resonant with some severe vocal processing - although complex at the time, the incredible results can now be easily achieved in software
Build your own expressive talkbox with plugins
If you love the sound of the talkbox, but grapple with the practicality of the hardware, we have some top tips for recreating the classic sound with plugins
How to get recognisable pop sounds and effects using only Logic’s stock plugins
If you’ve got Logic, you’re already more than capable of recreating Skrillex’s manipulated reverb, Billie Eilish’s formant shifting and much more…
How to emulate one of Jon Hopkins' signature sonic techniques with plugins
We get creative with an effects chain inspired by Jon Hopkins, and a heavy dose of felt piano
Exploring how Harry Styles brought the sounds of minimal techno to pop with Aperture
Aperture heralded a new approach for Styles, but its sounds clearly cribbed from the minimal techno playbook
Do you want to remix faster and better? Here's 6 essential remix skills every producer should know
Get the technical know-how required to make great remixes with these essential techniques
Confused by guitar tabs and notation? Use this complete guide to reading music for guitar
Learn to play acoustic and electric guitar in record time with our guide to easy-to-read notation
I’m so obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo’s Drop Dead trance bass sound that I remade it in my DAW
We create our own transient-heavy synth bass with leanings towards the trance-heavy sounds of the 90s. ‘Drop Dead’ you exclaim? No way! We were Born Slippy!
How to emulate the sound of Gary Numan’s synth-pop classic Cars
We lift the bonnet on a foundational piece of synth genius, and demonstrate how you can achieve its distinctive sound yourself in your DAW
How to master virtually any software synth
Don't let your software arsenal overwhelm you - sometimes the best route to creative success is to mine just one instrument
Latest Reviews
“An excellent example of the genre’s shifting atmospheric soundscapes”: EarthQuaker Devices Towers review
EarthQuaker Devices’ latest pedal offers three filter modes to turn stereo reverb into meandering, hazy soundscapes
“This is a difficult guitar to put a review score on”: Harley Benton Fusion-T II HH RW HT PM review
Harley Benton doubles down as one of the industry’s leading affordable brands with a well-appointed player
“It starts out polite but then gets loud, dirty and nasty”: Warm Audio Dirty Boy Jr Booster review
Warm Audio revives the Dirty Boy Ball Buster circuit but without the boutique price tag.
“Makes you realise just how good budget guitars have become”: Harley Benton ST-62LA review
Hand-relic'd with a spec sheet that doesn't get old, Harley Benton's Aged Series brings vintage feel on a budget
“A fast, powerful way to experiment with sound”: Soma Labs Warp review
Warp's 15 algorithms take in things like reverb, delay and compression – but in typical Soma style, it's a lot weirder and more fun than it first appears
“A worthy successor – but unlikely to become as iconic as its predecessor”: Korg MicroKorg 2 review
Two years on from launch, does Korg's virtual analogue have what it takes to fill its predecessor's shoes?
“Ideal for beginner guitarists chasing heavier sounds”: Sire Larry Carlton X1 review
The jazz-minded session ace goes heavy metal with his latest wallet-friendly collaboration with Sire, and it’s heavy in both senses of the word
“Continues to strike a balance between features, size, and price”: Novation Launch Control 3 review
Novation’s Launch Control 3 update looks basic and minimal, but it successfully packs a lot into a small package
