All content archive

March 2026

Filter

Year
Month

187 articles

March 23
- “What are you planning to actually use it for?”: Back in 1984, Midge Ure appeared on BBC TV to reveal our MIDI guitar synth future with his box-fresh Roland GR-700
- Klang.io says Transcription Studio is the "world’s first" AI music tool that can transcribe multiple instruments simultaneously
- Shares in BTS parent company Hybe fall 15% after ‘disappointing’ attendance for Seoul comeback gig
- “Prince had rented out the theatre with free popcorn, snacks and drinks for everyone. Then we found out he wanted to watch Finding Nemo!”: Cory Wong on the night Prince broke up a Paisley Park jam session to guffaw in front of a Pixar family classic
- “Super Hans said he’s come up with a bass loop for our new track that is so good, when he tried turning it off, he literally couldn’t”: 5 things Peep Show taught us about music production
- “To get into the personal details, of why that didn’t necessarily sync up, just didn’t seem like it was going to benefit anybody”: Nate Mendel of Foo Fighters explains why the reasons for Josh Freese’s sacking were kept vague
- “The little idiot”: Dave Davies hits back at Moby calling Lola “unevolved” and “transphobic”
- “On the spur of the moment I said, ‘I’m going to do the backing vocals in Spanish’”: How The Clash created an iconic ’80s hit that’s lived on thanks to Levi’s, Kylie and Stranger Things
- The most exciting synth we played at NAMM 2026 is now available to order
March 22
- “Some people think writing songs is like drawing from a well or picking apples off a tree. It’s more like a muscle you work out and develop”: Avalon Emerson evolves from club DJ to dream-pop auteur on Written Into Changes
- “I knew that he liked me, and he would call me on the phone. ‘Robben, what you doing!?’” Robben Ford on how playing with Miles Davis made him feel untouchable
- "A machine worthy of building your whole workflow around": Akai MPC XL review
March 21
- “We wrote 24K Magic when Uptown Funk was No 1. So if you hear the same spirit in that song, that's why”: A decade on, we look back at the musical theory and retro gear that shaped Bruno Mars’ 2016 classic
- With up to 60% off in Thomann's Spring Sale now is the time to give your pedalboard a spring clean - here are my 8 pedal choices starting at only £9.60!
- “I said, 'tomorrow I’m going to go into the studio, find some place, make up a tune and make this record'. So I said to Jeff ‘do you want to help?’": The story of the Travelling Wilburys, the star-studded supergroup that made it all look fun
March 20
- “This ease of use is rare in such a small practice amp that covers so much tonal ground, and is the reason the Prism-Mini is worth considering as your desktop companion”: Laney Prism-Mini review
- "The first thing, Maurice walked in and said 'You're the guys who stole our song!' He was just joking – he said, 'Thanks for making us cool again!'”: Kevin O’Toole recalls the Bee Gees’ reaction to N-Trance’s ‘90s cover of Stayin’ Alive
- “We hate AI slop. We don't want the fun to be taken out of music making": We tried to vibe code a custom looper pedal with Polyend Endless – here's what happened
- “Although most of the songs on those two albums aren't really aimed at my demographic, they're all so good that it's hard not to fall in love with them”: The Cure’s Robert Smith gushes over Olivia Rodrigo, and says that they’ve been in the studio together
- Relive the golden era of the DX7, Jupiter-8 and Prophet V with this mega-pack of free '80s synth samples
- “People have told me they’ve heard it at weddings – with a guy singing it at the organ. Oh God! I can’t imagine what that was like”: Bryan Adams and the ballad that ate the world
- MusicRadar deals of the week: Score hundreds off PRS, Bose, and Moog - and grab a new guitar pedal for less than £10!
- SampleRadar: 303 free organic drone samples
March 19
- I just stumbled on a treasure trove of free glitch plugins
- “You shouldn't even know about that. I’d rather not speak about it”: The contentious origin of the David Guetta monolith that brought Sia to mainstream attention
- “The truth is that a 12-year-old girl pre-sold her creative output before she knew what it would be like, and before she knew what she was signing away”: Lorde confirms that she no longer has a recording deal with UMG
- “I would have to do the mental work… I think I could find it in myself”: Miley Cyrus says that, although she “loves and misses live shows,” she still has no plans to go on tour – but she isn’t ruling out performing at the Super Bowl
- “That was a Juno-DS keyboard – it was literally plugged into Logitech computer speakers, not running into a board or an interface even”: Jim-E Stack reveals the lo-fi production techniques behind Bon Iver's Walk Home
- “The perfect marriage of brilliance and brute force”: With high-output humbuckers, an onboard Lumen Filter, compound radius fingerboards and a contoured body, Gretsch unveils the reinvention of the Jet
- “The drums were triggering random sounds on the Juno and DX7, making what you now hear as the intro: a squelching, pulsing bass sound”: How a happy accident helped George Michael have a huge hit with the banned song he thought sounded too much like Prince
- “Our determination to achieve a sustainable future is strengthened and energised by your support”: Native Instruments releases update on insolvency proceedings
March 18
- Locking tuners, oiled ‘Speed’ neck, compound radius ‘board with rolled edges: Charvel’s hotrodded shred performance just got more affordable with the launch of the $569 Standard SD Series
- “Push the reset button on the debate on AI and copyright”: The music industry breathes a sigh of relief as plans to let AI firms pilfer copyrighted material are dropped
- “Might have become our favourite reverb, covering a lot of ground, from the smallest snappiest rooms to vast, endless galaxies”: Erica Synths Nightverb review
- “Is NOT going to happen... Nil response. I speak with many close to her, including fam, but have not had a single syllable back in over two decades”: William Orbit has written a sequel to Ray Of Light but he says Madonna hasn’t responded
- Like Nuno Bettencourt, Mark Morton isn’t afraid to use a classic dirt pedal in an unorthodox fashion – here he reveals the secret behind his crushing Lamb Of God rhythm tone
- iZotope's Tonal Balance Control 3 captures audio directly from Spotify, YouTube and your DAW timeline for fast and intuitive referencing
- “You’d have Mark talking about strings, Our Kid talking about amplifiers. Whereas me and Bez would just walk in and be ourselves. So nobody wanted to talk to them”: Shaun Ryder on life in the Happy Mondays
- “I said, ‘Hey, you guys want to jam on some Isley Brothers?’ Nobody laughed”: Les Claypool remembers his audition for Metallica
- Unwatched and unloved: Two-thirds of recorded footage from gigs is never played back
- “Who would have thought we'd be having full Ableton running on an iPhone chip? That's kind of crazy”: The first reviews of the MacBook Neo are in, and it looks like good news for budget-conscious music producers
- “It inspired a whole generation of hard rock guitarists to pick up the instrument, not least Metallica’s Kirk Hammett”: How a broken string, a loan from his brother and a fresh paint job helped Michael Schenker turn this Flying V into an icon of rock
- Shake off the winter lull and dust off the cobwebs with up to 60% off guitars, pedals, synths, mixers, and more in the massive Thomann Spring Sale, including £542 off an ESP LTD and £70 off a UAFX reverb pedal
- “Slacker my ass! I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive”: How one song turned the self-confessed “worst rapper in the world” into an alt-rock icon
- “These tools should not replace the artist, but support a workflow where human intent, taste and creativity remain at the core”: Roland unveils generative AI tool, Melody Flip
March 17
- Would you buy “one of the greatest rock albums of all time” from this man for $2 million?: Meet the ex-Kiss guitarist asking one lucky fan to pay to manufacture and sell his album
- "Of course I knew this device would be controversial": ChatDSP generates instruments and effects in Max for Live from text prompts - but now even its creator is asking if he should take it down
- “All roads go back to the music we did. I worked with Bruno because he loved what I did with Amy, and as big as other records were, that is ground zero": Mark Ronson explains what made Amy Winehouse such a great musical collaborator – "she had no filter"
- “The Telecaster is like the heart and soul of rock and roll music”: Fender celebrates 75 years of the electric guitar that started it all with limited edition collection
- “I tried to write a love song that wasn’t corny, that didn’t sound stupid or lame the way many do. I think I succeeded”: How Talking Heads crafted the delicate beauty of This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
- “I created the guitar parts. I was super jet-lagged and loopy, but I was able to focus, and we created the song. Natalie’s version is extremely similar”: How Paul McCartney’s guitarist Rusty Anderson helped to shape the sound of a classic ’90s hit
- “It’s not for the faint of heart. You need to know what you’re doing to play that guitar”: Derek Trucks reveals what it’s like to play Jerry Garcia’s record-breaking $11.56mn Tiger guitar
- “Fans are consuming music from the artists they love in more ways than ever”: US vinyl sales hit the $1 billion mark for the first time in over 40 years
- "The numbers are going backward": New report finds that 2025 saw "no progress" for women in music
- “I had just finished a Christmas album; he had just finished a Metallica album”: It might have been “a bit of a whiplash” for some of his fans, but Josh Groban says he has no regrets about his “ballsy” decision to make an album with Rick Rubin
- “We do not ever want it to be like we’re going through the motions or we’re having to run on empty. We’re going to do 20 shows each year. No more, no less”: Radiohead suggest they’ll play short-term residencies in other continents
- “He wrote some of the best parts of Hotel California and Desperado. He wrote some pivotal lines that I wouldn’t have thought of in a million years”: Don Henley’s praise for his Eagles bandmate Glenn Frey
- “I urge them to reconsider and step up to help the next generation of talent”: Minister’s message to Live Nation’s dawdling over £1 arena and stadium levy
March 16
- “People never believe me that Kraftwerk created Atomic Kitten”: OMD’s Andy McCluskey says that it was an electronic music legend who advised him to form the ‘00s girlband who would hit number 1 with Whole Again
- “Was Courtney impossible, difficult, a drug addict, terrifying, and even mean sometimes? Yes, she was. But it took me one second to understand that she was also a survivor”: Melissa Auf der Maur on her time in Hole and why she’s “proud” of Courtney Love
- “At least three albums with people who are a few of my favourite artists of all time... I’d say 95 percent of the work I’ve done was unpaid”: James Blake on the hit and miss nature of his production work
- "I picked up the acoustic guitar and noodled around, and Bruno was freestyling and singing along. That started the whole idea, and we were like, 'OK, this is where we go'": Why Bruno Mars' new single Risk It All could have ended up sounding very different
- “There’s plenty of output to use the pedal as a conventional boost with tonal options. And there’s a whole area of dirt to be explored”: JHS Pedals 424 Gain Stage review
- “I find it amazing that people are singing along in such a celebratory way about being involved in a car crash”: We speak to The Smiths’ producer Stephen Street and learn how their most beloved song came to be
- “At least I'm a record holder of something!”: Songwriter Diane Warren is out on her own as the most nominated person not to win an Oscar as KPop Demon Hunters’ Golden wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song
- "How real can drums feel inside a plugin?": Klevgrand promises to "redefine what a drum sampler can be" with OneShot 2
- "Lot after lot, we felt like we were making history”: John Lennon’s Broadwood piano goes for a record-breaking $3.3 million
- “We didn’t want to be the kind of band that came out with a big song and then went away. But when that song came out, it changed everything”: How Stone Temple Pilots created one of the great alternative rock anthems
- “To me, it was like being asked to tour with the Beatles”: Paul Gilbert on why he turned down the gig of a lifetime – and why not maintaining his “Whitesnake haircut” was a barrier to career progression
March 15
- “This is actually rock music written on electronic equipment”: How to replicate the sample-based sonics of a gnarly Prodigy classic
- “When Tarantino first sent me the script I hated it. I didn’t want my music associated with that!”: Why Neil Diamond refused to have his song used in Pulp Fiction – and ended up regretting it
March 14
- “I thought Motörhead was just a load of noise, to be honest – but good noise. I’d never heard anything like it. It was like a spaceship had come down to land”: A classic interview with former Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell, who has died aged 64
- “I understood it as a great pop song, but I wasn't sure on the very first listen as to whether I liked it or not”: How Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke bottled the sound of heartbreak with Only You
- “It would be way better if drummers weren’t reduced to nothing”: Eric Johnson on the one thing he doesn’t like about modern pop music
March 13
- “Would I take this to gigs and use it with confidence, knowing that my pedals are being powered sufficiently and safely? Absolutely”: Harley Benton Spaceship Power 40-B review
- “All I hear is ‘Auto-Tune sucks’, ‘drum machines have no soul’ and ‘you can’t make hip-hop on a laptop because computers have no swing’”: Flying Lotus on the backlash against AI music – and why he's staying out of it
- “I didn't get it at first. Then I visited my friend's studio. The way he was using it opened my eyes”: House icons Alan Braxe and Fred Falke on embracing AI in the studio
- “Loving this cover!”: Tears For Fears give Harry Styles’ performance of their biggest hit the seal of approval, but was there a more appropriate version he could have sung?
- “I don’t think we would’ve found any success had I not written any songs or had someone else been the lead singer. Me and the fellas would’ve been playing down at a local club somewhere”: The story of a rock classic that’s now hit over two billion streams
- “The Matrix hack song to clear your debt and get wealthy”: Is Anita Ward’s Ring My Bell more than just a disco classic?
- “I’ve spent so many thousands of hours wasted on plugins – it just doesn't matter”: Fred Again on how "getting into the weeds" with software can distract from songwriting and make you less creative
- “It was horrifying. All week, we were rehearsing. It was perfect. I don’t know exactly what happened”: Alex Warren on his Grammys night in-ear monitor mishap
March 12
- Gibson unveils the Songwriter Recording Artist acoustics, dreadnoughts with a little bling and a top-tier build – and quite possibly the makings of a future player favourite
- "A massive expansion of its abilities as a modulation and automation powerhouse": Bitwig Studio 6 review review
- "For a guitar that comes in at this price, the overall build is impressive, with a level of attention to detail that’s more than respectable": Harley Benton Custom Line King-12 CE NT review
- Get a FREE Bitwig 6 8-Track license exclusively with MusicRadar
- “I remember David reaching over to John and saying, ‘No, don’t do it like that’, and John going, ‘Excuse me? I’m the bass player, right? This is how I do it!’”: The tense night David Bowie and Queen spontaneously came up with a classic
- “I just think it’s more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It’s a tough instrument. It’s not easy”: Unlike Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Aerosmith, Prince never allowed his music to be used in Guitar Hero – here’s why
- “I was 28 or something and he was 80. He’s like, ‘Here, son, this is how you do it.’ How sad is that?” Joe Bonamassa on the time BB King taught him how to use an iPod (and what made him blues guitar’s GOAT)
- “I have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with my Prophet ’08”: Art School Girlfriend on the synths, software and studio secrets behind new project Lean In
- “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band”: Why this cult classic was hailed as one of the most influential albums of all time
March 11
- “It’s my song… I wrote it”: Watch Paul Rudd and Joe Jonas going from friends to foes in the trailer for Power Ballad, the new musical movie from John Carney that centres on a songwriting dispute
- As a pro guitarist, I think Boss makes the most reliable pedals around, so with 26% off everything from the DD-8 to the Waza Metal Zone in Amazon's Spring Deal Days sale, it's time to stock up
- Always crashing in the same car: Major album releases lead to increased traffic fatalities
- “I said, ‘Sam, I’m gonna tell you what I told Alex, which is, I don’t really play like Eddie’”: Joe Satriani says he told David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen to call Nuno Bettencourt when they called about EVH tribute tour
- “Normally, people were happy to take his tracks, because he’s Prince. But we wanted to do the song our own way": When Prince gave the Bangles Manic Monday he assumed they would just sing over his demo, but the band had other ideas
- “A lot of people got a hard drive full of music and they don’t know how to finish… just tell everybody, ‘Hey, that’s what I got – hope you like it!’”: Watch Saba, No ID and Jimmy Douglass build a track from scratch
- Bitwig Studio 6 is here with improved automation, Clip Aliases and tons of workflow enhancements
- “I was cacking it, I really didn’t know if it was going to work or not. We did Creep by Radiohead and I noticed I was crying halfway through": Alex James on Britpop Classical, Blur and the prospect of returning to Coachella
- “I shuffled into this big open room, and Tina was there and she was very upset. She said to me, ‘If we get rid of David, would you join the band?’”: Adrian Belew insists he was asked to replace David Byrne in Talking Heads
- “Spotify is the highest-paying retailer globally - paying the music industry more than $11 billion in 2025”: Spotify reveals how much it actually pays out to musicians in its new Loud & Clear report
- “The first thing I start off with is figuring out the chords like this. As you can see, I put them in manually”: PinkPantheress reveals that she composes and records her chord progressions using her MacBook’s QWERTY keyboard
- “The type of reverb pedal that will sound incomprehensibly huge and haunting with all the settings maxed out”: EarthQuaker Devices reinvents reverb once more with the Towers Stereo Reverberant Filter
- Baby Audio's “most advanced synthesizer to date” is a granular plugin with audio-rate modulation capable of creating “entirely new textures”
- Long-lost peak George Michael tour film and live album unearthed and set for release
- Baby Audio's Grainferno can transform any sound in your sample library into something entirely new
March 10
- “There are a lot of amazing guitars in this world, but none are as versatile as the Telecaster”: Country star John Osborne’s signature Tele comes factory modded with a distressed nitro finish, custom pickups – and it’s even got a B-bender too
- Frustrated about the sterile feel of your digital guitar rig? Friends and family commenting on how stiff your playing has been since you went all in with modellers? Victory’s PowerValve 200 has the mojo to restore that tube amp “thump” and feel
- “I didn't say that I think her music was 'boring' or whatever click bait the net is trying to scrape together”: Jack White puts the record straight about Taylor Swift
- PRS sues Steam for using music without a licence – for 23 years
- “The thing was lighting up like a toaster. It was glowing red”: Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo didn't set a speaker on fire during the making of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, but an AC/DC issue did
- “We were labelled ‘the new Led Zeppelin’. I mean, wow! But it was a blessing and a curse. There could never be another Led Zeppelin, just like there could never be another Beatles”: The strange tale of a great rock band that had it all – and then blew it
- “Protecting the integrity of Fender’s iconic designs is essential to preserving the legacy of the artists and builders who shaped them”: Fender wins historic German court ruling over Stratocaster body design
- “We never wanted David Bowie to write the score. It would have been a cliché”: Why Ryuichi Sakamoto’s spellbinding theme from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence remains so captivating
- “Oddly enough, the first person who made me fall in love with the sound was Dave Navarro”: Why Cory Wong needed the signature wah pedal that could do it all
- “Right now I gotta lotta of rehabbing to do”: Jello Biafra has had been hospitalised with a stroke
March 9
- "The amp and effects modelling unit for those who’d rather play than get bogged down in too many details" Blackstar ID:X Floor Two review
- “This will revolutionise the ticketing marketplace”: Deal has been worked out between the US Justice Department and Live Nation
- Harry Styles outed himself as an unlikely modular synth fan in his new Netflix special, but was all that knob-twiddling for real?
- “You’re not working with anyone else. You don’t have to worry even for two seconds about what they think”: Boy George on why he prefers writing songs with AI than humans
- “I was trying to learn Bohemian Rhapsody on the piano and I messed up a little bit. And then I just wrote half the song accidentally from that”: How making a mistake while trying to learn a huge Queen song inspired Sienna Spiro to write Die On This Hill
- “Music is just such a sweet shop. There are so many styles and talents, and it’s hard to just stick to one thing”: Jonny Greenwood to release another collab album with Israeli Qawwali musician Shye Ben Tzur
- “There’s a misconception about the vocals being buried - they aren’t”: My Bloody Valentine’s sound engineer on wrangling the shoegaze pioneers’ huge live setup
- SampleRadar: 213 free wooden percussion samples
- “Dylan said the answer was blowing in the wind, he didn’t tell you what the answer was”: Jack White on why he doesn’t write protest songs
- “I was told to take it off. I didn't want to take what he'd said to me off... Because I thought it was really interesting": Damon Albarn reveals that Lou Reed’s voice on The Mountain is a ‘replica’
- The story of Born Slippy, Underworld’s emotion-stirring dance classic
- “We didn’t just want to set a record; we wanted to create something iconic. Something that shows the world what Africa is capable of when vision meets excellence”: Record broken for Largest Orchestra at an Afrobeats concert
March 8
- “We should all be proud that British musicians are responsible for this force in music called heavy metal. Black Sabbath and Judas Priest invented true heavy metal music”: How Priest singer Rob Halford remembers the band’s breakthrough moment
March 7
- “When I first met George I was just speechless. But when we started playing, he gave no direction. He liked the way I played, and I would just be myself”: Robben Ford on what it was like working with a Beatle at the age of 22
March 6
- “It was such a special moment. It felt very special to be able to give her that towards the end of her life”: Marianne Faithfull's last performance captured in new doc
- "I put it on everything - you get this beautiful shimmery goodness out of it": Jasper Tygner on the Soundtoys plugin behind the "filmic" sound of his debut album Blue
- “I don’t want anybody kissing my eyes. I don’t want anybody staying up all night to hear me breathe. What are you kissing my eyes for?”: 28 years later, songwriter Diane Warren is bewildered by some of her lyrics for what became Aerosmith's biggest hit
- “I can play timbres and speeds other drummers can’t – up to 20 hits per second”: Meet Jason Barnes – the prosthetic-assisted one-armed drummer
- Waldorf upgrades its Iridium Desktop synth with a little help from Aphex Twin
- Furby organs, lightsaber theremins and the 1000-oscillator synth: Look Mum No Computer on his 7 craziest musical inventions
- “We believe labels and distributors must take an active role in reporting”: Apple Music announces new tagging system for AI-generated music
- “Even when we went to collect the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1980, I was thinking, ‘How did this happen?’”: This No.1 hit is the pinnacle of yacht rock, but its smooth sound belies its tortuous creation
- MusicRadar deals of the week: Score $390 off a divisive Fender Stratocaster, $180 off a stunning Gretsch and hundreds off PA and live gear
- “In terms of the guitar solo, he just keeps going! You think, ‘OK, surely it’s time to wrap it up?’ But no, he keeps going and it’s great”: The genius of David Gilmour in Pink Floyd’s greatest songs – by Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Stu Mackenzie and more
March 5
- “Evocative organ sounds and slower, gentler revolutions with a distinctive flavour”: Crumar Burn rotary speaker simulation pedal review
- “Until now, creativity has been stifled by the need to acquire playing skills. Now, using the computer, any child can play": Unearthed BBC video from 1986 shows what music technology in the classroom used to look and sound like
- “I’m sure there are players that don’t have an interest in playing dynamically and just want to be on or off… that’s cool, and there’s a lot of pickups that do that. But not mine”: How Mark Morton and Gibson reinvented the Les Paul for modern metal
- “Six highly collectible amplifiers valued at more than most homes are worth”: Looking for the holy grail tube tones of Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Carlos Santana and Robben Ford? IK Multimedia just put $300,000 of Dumble mojo into a Tonex One mini pedal
- “A happy bending of the rules of nature”: Elektron’s latest Syntakt update adds sample synthesis and new sequencing tools to the hybrid drum synth
- “It's my favourite piece of gear that I own now – I use it on absolutely everything": Art School Girlfriend on the second-hand dynamic mic that shaped the "intimate" sound of new album Lean In
- “He played it to Motown, and they said, 'No way is Beck getting this song, it's too good’”: Dissecting the musical magic of Superstition, the song Stevie Wonder just couldn’t let go
- “The magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price”: Apple’s new MacBook Neo might be cheap, but for music producers, could it be a false economy? It’s complicated
- “The lower the instrument in pitch, the closer to the centre of the stereo image it should be placed”: How to pan like a pro and spread your mix across the stereo image
March 4
- "This might be the most amp-like option out there, and it's certainly convinced me of the benefits of the humble FRFR speaker": Blackstar Artist FR Standard review
- “Afterwards he sent David an invoice for $10,000. I don’t know if David actually paid him that much”: Tony Visconti on Dave Grohl’s “ludicrious” Bowie session fee
- “I wanted to recreate it, being lost in instrumentation and the musicality”: Harry Styles says that “hypnotic” electronic music by the likes of Floating Points and Jamie XX has influenced not only his new album, but also his marathon training
- Here's 7 of the hottest guitar gear releases I tried at The Guitar Show this weekend that are available to buy right now
- “We set out to honour the soul of these iconic instruments while making them accessible to every kind of player”: Epiphone raises the bar for its acoustic guitar range with all-solid builds, rosewood fingerboards and affordable takes on Gibson classics
- Chompi's latest firmware update turns this cutesy sampler into an "entirely new instrument" with an arpeggiator, sample-slicing and more
- “For the past 30 years it has been the quintessential backline amplifier on stages and in studios around the world”: Fender celebrates three decades of the Hot Rod Deluxe with a stunning anniversary edition
- “MTV in 1997 or 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out - it was replaced by rap… People were waving guns. Some people assert the CIA was involved... above my pay grade, but I saw it happen”: Billy Corgan says rock was “dialled down” in the late ’90s
- “Every time I play a Les Paul or anything I just wanna do, like, AC/DC”: Sam Fender releases behind-the-scenes footage of him working on a guitar part for Rein Me In, his hit single with Olivia Dean
- “Dolly said ‘Can you just make it, like, reds and greens and sparkles?’. I played as many notes as I could while the other hand was working the transposer. She was going, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s it. Whee!’”: Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter on his life as a session player
- "An analogue FM synth that is actually fun to play": Frap Tools’ debut polysynth Magnolia might be the most exciting new instrument of 2026
- Tembo is a kid-friendly magnetic drum machine and sampler that promises "unforgettable family jam sessions"
March 3
- “I’m watching this sort of genius develop right in front of me, and he seems he has no physical barriers”: Joe Satriani on what it was like to teach a teenage Steve Vai
- “I thought it would be fun. That was a big mistake. I underestimated just how difficult it would be”: When Phil Collins made a guest appearance playing drums with a Genesis tribute act – and ended up admitting, “It was horrible!”
- “A couple of the lyrics turned out to be AI-generated… I thought, ‘Okay, I like the music. The lyrics are still in the spirit of what I’m going for, and so I’ll go for it’”: How Paul Gilbert accidentally wrote a song using an AI hallucination
- “It blew me away, and I felt things that I hadn't felt before. And also, more than that, I felt like I was listening to something I'd never listened to before”: How PinkPantheress’s meteoric rise has been aided and abetted by Basement Jaxx
- Hello Old Friend: Clapton heads out to Midwest for September US tour
- Novation unveils Launch Control 3 with OLED screen and expanded connectivity
- “This is a love and friendship story I have with Mexico that can’t be compared to anything. Thank you for all the excitement, all the joy you’ve made me feel”: Shakira breaks record for the largest gig in Mexico City’s Zócalo
- “I’m going, ’We’re from North Hollywood! What do we have to sing about Africa?’“: How Toto crafted their deathless classic
- “There’s a box for the band, and if we’re lucky and they want to jump on stage, great”: Could Billy Joel make a live comeback at his own tribute night?
- “Independent venues aren’t just part of music history – they’re where the future is written”: Marshall launches membership scheme and pledges percentage of online sales to support grassroots music venues
- Lights Up: Harry Styles one-off cut price Manchester show is to be made into a Netflix Special
- “Maybe I’m Amazed is always a fun song to play and sing. It’s got everything in one incredible tune – plus two guitar solos!”: How Rusty Anderson – a Beatles fan as a kid – ended up playing guitar for Paul McCartney
- “Ignore the cameras, and ignore the Hall Of Fame drummer sitting next to you”: When some drum students find out their regular teacher’s been replaced by Chad Smith
- 10 of the best Roland TB-303 tracks of all time: Aphex Twin, Fatboy Slim, Voodoo Ray and more
- “We didn’t set out to do it, but Lily gave everyone permission to tell their stories straight”: We visit the LA house where Lily Allen made West End Girl, and explore the home studio of Blue May
March 2
- “It’s my legacy as a human - like raising my kids, marrying my wife, and honouring my parents”: Brandi Carlile on helping Joni Mitchell return to the stage
- “Undoubtedly the most versatile lunchbox amp Victory has ever made... High-gain amps rarely come with clean channels this good”: Victory MKX Lunch Box Head review
- “The moment you feel the signal is getting too aggressive, it's time to back off”: The difference between distortion and saturation and how to effectively get a gnarly sound
- “The Koala app is amazing – it’s the best sampler and the deeper you go, the madder it gets”: Shabaka Hutchings on his journey from jazz saxophone to iPad beatmaking
- “I’d been in and around music since I was 15, so I guess I wasn’t surprised. I just started to become conscious of it”: Pete Tong admits he has to wear a hearing aid these days
- "If you watch closely, the cello’s slipping and I’m pulling it up while playing. It was so embarrassing. I think I faked it but it didn’t sound that great": Laufey reveals that she suffered a cello malfunction during a Grammys performance with Billy Joel
- “Then Tim said something that changed everything: ‘There’s clearly still an audience. Fans still love these games. Just start by making a guitar’”: Guitar Hero's spiritual successor is on the way
- “The advice I give to all aspiring songwriters and performers is ‘Don’t repeat yourself. Develop and grow. Raise the bar”: Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka has died, aged 86
- Dawesome's Love 2 granular multi-effects plugin promises "instant beauty for any sound"
March 1
- “The title was a kind of code word because the song was a preposterous, grandiose thing. Patton wrote the words a week after he joined the band”: The groundbreaking hit that saved Faith No More’s career – and saved the life of Slipknot’s Corey Taylor
- “They got me a drum instructor. When I heard that the song (for the advert) was going to be In The Air Tonight, I was just like ‘this is amazing’”: The man inside the gorilla suit for the In The Air Tonight Cadburys ad remembers his “dream job”