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December 2024
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131 articles
- December 11
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- "It's staying in my DAW": Disclosure's Guy Lawrence loves Serato's bonkers new multi-effects plugin
- “A pro-quality tool for hard-working musicians who like the guitar to do the heavy lifting”: Fender American Ultra II Stratocaster HSS review
- “He claims to find me completely indigestible, but whenever he walks on stage he sings my lyrics, vocal melodies and song titles - is this hypocrisy or self-deception?”: Morrissey hits out at Johnny Marr
- “You never know what will happen. You’re on a bus with pythons”: Orianthi on her Orange Oriverb amp, how soloing is like rapping and why confetti cannons are just one of the risks on an Alice Cooper tour
- All I Want For Christmas is on the slide as new streaming stats reveal that it's losing its twinkle
- “Paul is actually stacked up, doing The Beatles next”: It’s (very nearly) official: Paul Mescal looks set to play Paul McCartney in new Sam Mendes biopic
- “Prince is overtly sexual. I am very quietly sexual. That's the difference”: What Stevie Nicks said about her famous friends - and famous ex-partners
- Hit me hardware and software: Billie Eilish shows off the mobile recording studio that she says “goes everywhere” with her
- "This should have been built 100 years ago - it may well become the story of 21st-century music": Hans Zimmer on the next-gen synth he used for the Dune: Part Two score
- “The quest for clarity and loudness can only go so far”: Bibio on his career-long fascination with tape recording, budget samplers and vintage pedals
- “If your flanger is too harsh, try a chorus - if it's too subtle, try a phaser”: How modulation effects work and how to use them
- "They said 'You’re not leaving!' I said, 'I am leaving, I’ve left,' and they wouldn’t believe me": Bill Wyman talks cash, chaos and quitting in new interview
- “You have ideas that you think wouldn't suit the band - like this song that sounded like U2!”: How a happy accident led to one of Iron Maiden's greatest songs
- “If I wake up one day and I can hold a pair of drumsticks then I will have a crack at it”: Phil Collins opens up on his struggle to play drums in affecting trailer for new documentary
- “4 in 5 UK musicians have lost work because of Brexit”: Unwrapping the legacy of Britain's EU exit on musicians
- “It could just take over and we don’t want that to happen”: It's Macca Vs The Machines as Paul McCartney wades in on AI’s threat to music makers
- December 10
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- “Meticulously crafted analogue and digital circuits all curated from the ground up for bass-centric tonal expansion”: Fender unveils the Bassman effects line – 5 pedalboard essentials for bassists
- “A full range of controls for instruments and DAWs, along with a semi-weighted keyboard that’ll please the players”: Novation Launchkey 49 and 61 MK4 review
- “It's not quite as dark, but it explores other subjects a little bit more”: Robert Smith confirms existence of ‘companion’ album to Songs Of A Lost World
- “I signed some contracts back in the ‘90s that I thought were amazing - I celebrated with a bottle of champagne. I look back now and think, ‘how the hell did I agree to sign this?’”: Sasha on breaking into dance music - and why it's not any easier in 2024
- “Imagine standing in front of a wall loaded with tube amp heads and 4x12 speaker cabinets, grabbing your guitar and hitting a chord”: Crazy Tube Circuit’s Heatseeker is an amp-in-box to help you nail Angus Young’s high-voltage AC/DC tones
- “I'm not afraid of breaking the rules": Viral 67-year-old producer The Last DJ shares his essential techno tips
- “Yes we can!”: How Barack Obama almost facilitated a Bob The Builder and Bruce Springsteen collab
- “It's Christmaaaas!”: How Slade created a festive classic - with a little help from John Lennon
- “The show will be a powerful celebration of the coolest instrument in the world, the electric guitar!”: Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to share the stage again on epic 2025 UK/Europe tour
- Taylor Swift gives away $197 million away in bonuses to Eras tour crew
- Behringer proves the haters wrong and releases Wave, the PPG Wave clone that's been four years in the making
- December 9
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- “Technical virtuosos fiercely dedicated to their craft... Experimental, innovative and brave”: President Biden presents Grateful Dead with Kennedy Center Honor
- “Exceptionally authentic, while also providing sonic depths in a production-ready format”: Cherry Audio P-10 review
- “It was probably the best two weeks that I’d had for years!”: Geezer Butler on the time Black Sabbath sacked him for a fortnight
- "People like the feeling of anticipating what's going to come next - almost like ascending to the top of a rollercoaster before the breath-taking plunge": Write better songs by learning song forms
- “They weren’t quite as glamorous as they are now. You could have mistaken them for a band from York”: The night The Killers played above a pub in Lincoln
- “It’s high and low, it’s poetry meets drugs, it’s earnest meets arrogance”: Which classic album could Charli XCX be talking about?
- “The Beatles' Because is based on Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (played in reverse). So, was John Lennon cheating when he flipped Ludwig Van?”: Digging into the long history of the sampling debate
- "Chorus is a beautiful effect when used nicely, but it can also sound horrible if over-applied - unless that’s what you want": How to harness the chorus effect to give your tracks more life!
- “Some of the things that age most quickly are electronic drums, which I’ve used tons of, but they usually sound very of their time”: Finneas on how he and Billie Eilish made a conscious effort to make Birds Of A Feather sound “timeless”
- Behringer hits back at critics accusing the company of only making "vaporware" in defensive social media post: "No other company delivers as many innovative and affordable products as we do"
- “Like something Paul and Linda cooked up while they were smoking”: The Asimov–McCartney alien musical that never was
- “This particular 808 is arguably the single most important drum machine in history”: The origin of house music in 5 key tracks
- "We have no recourse besides to try to sue Kanye, but that's costly": Producers for Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign say they haven't been paid for work on Vultures 1 and 2
- “I’ve got the 303 but I don’t know how to work it - it’s making all these crazy sounds!”: How a small group of Chicago producers invented house and changed music forever
- What the Ek? Spotify founder is richer than any musical artist, ever
- Wish that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour could go on forever? Now even The Eras Tour Book will be a record-breaker
- December 6
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- “Each toy is designed in house and rigorously tested by our dogs on staff”: Schecter has a treat for the player who doesn’t mind a squeak or two and some bark in the mix
- “They haven’t agreed on anything for 20 years”: How Ice-T got Roger Waters and David Gilmour’s go ahead for Body Count’s Comfortably Numb cover
- “Beyoncé does not make mistakes. She does, however, make some counterintuitive choices - and this song includes a few of them”: The flawed genius of pop's biggest anthems, from Hey Jude to Hey Ya!
- “Designed as the ultimate ‘stage guitars’”: Faith launches the all-new Eclipse series – a trio of all-solid cutaway acoustic electric guitars with a maple forearm rest for comfort and Fishman electronics
- “We finished this song and there were 5,000 angry geezers standing there just… dead silence”: Noel Gallagher liked Confidence Man so much he asked them to support him on his tour, but his fans weren’t so keen
- “At first people only saw me as grandpa playing music, but then they wanted to listen. They love the banging techno!”: Meet the viral 67-year-old producer raving into retirement - and proving that techno has no age limit
- "If you were surprised by the 'Top' songs in your Spotify Wrapped, it might be because the difference between your top 5 and top 100 streamed songs is just a tiny number of plays": Get more streams in 2025
- Fantastic (free) plugins and how to use them: Vital
- “The playing experience of both the SLO-100 amplifier’s legendary channels in a powerful, compact new pedal”: Soldano doubles down on the Super Lead Overdrive tones with the SLO Plus
- Spotify Wrapped reveals top artists' favourites (and which ones love themselves perhaps a little too much)
- “Man, the place that he built as his home, it’s so deranged”: After recording at Prince’s Paisley Park complex, Jack Antonoff can confirm that it’s “even cooler than you could imagine”
- “Your faithful companion, musical soulmate... the tool that lets you express your creative vision”: Modern, versatile, affordable, the Les Paul Studio Session offers a compelling update on Gibson’s most-loved electric guitar
- "Do we really need another virtual analogue synth? If it sounds this good, the answer is yes": Yum Audio Ember review
- “Digital is obedient, which is useful in certain circumstances, but analogue misbehaves and that wildness is appealing”: John Foxx on spearheading the synthpop movement and the anniversary of Metamatic
- “They all said he was crazy. The whole industry said he's going off the deep end. Who would even buy a guitar or a piano over the internet? And he just stuck to his guns. For him everything was doable": See behind the scenes as Thomann turns 70
- December 5
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- "He’s stabilised now, which is brilliant": Brian May’s wife Anita Dobson gives fans a fresh update on his progress
- "He's a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me": Bob Dylan has just endorsed Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan impersonation
- “Reimagined for the 21st century by renowned British luthier Patrick James Eggle”: Shergold unveils Masquerader Standard Series, an affordably priced, imaginatively spec’d S-style with a P-90/humbucker combo
- “They’re both rock ‘n’ rollers in my opinion. And that’s kind of why I gravitated towards them as a ‘band member’: I just love their rock ‘n’ roll spirit": Dan Nigro on why he’s more than just a producer for Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan
- “Everything that you've learned about making music just seems to click at the right time – it feels like an accident”: Turning old ideas into finished tracks with Mr. Mitch (aka DJ Cuddles)
- “That same, authentic syrupy sound onto your pedalboard without breaking the bank!”: Having unveiled super-affordable Klon and Tone Bender clones, Behringer unveils a $69 take on the Shin-Ei Uni-Vibe
- “It was a huge disappointment when it didn’t make it to number one”: 40 years on, the story of Wham!’s Last Christmas
- "The Prophet-5 is undoubtedly one of the most iconic and influential synths ever built": The story of Sequential Circuits in 10 synths, sequencers and drum machines
- Nintendon’t say it’s true: Sleep Token vocalist appears to play Nintendo Switch live on stage
- “Now you can forego the frustrating searches, the vintage pricing and the worry of aged-out parts and obtain a brand new Mark IIC+”: Mesa/Boogie reissues the Holy Grail tube amp famously used by Metallica
- “God, I hate that album so much. I haven’t listened to it for a decade, at least”: Charli XCX might want to forget the mixtape she released when she was 14, but it’s not nearly as bad as she remembers
- “Those people attending had no idea they were blessed with this exclusive performance 5 years ahead of the release of the song”: MGMT once played a 2000s classic to a tiny crowd in newly-found footage
- Billboard put a ring on it, naming Beyonce as the greatest pop star of the 21st century
- “Those looped dance music breakdowns and drops have been done a million times before - so tweak them a little!”: New to working with loops? Start here
- December 4
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- “They pick one crisis in one country and they paint the whole of Africa": Fuse ODG, the rapper behind Band Aid’s 40th anniversary controversy, releases his own We Know It's Christmas clapback track
- “The new high-powered mover from Hoover - it’s a little groover!”: What Brian Johnson sang before his audition for AC/DC
- “I can’t play jigs or reels or any of that traditional Irish stuff, but I have got a good ear for blues, the tonality of it”: 3 ways to supercharge your lead guitar playing like Rory Gallagher
- "A standout year for female artists": But Taylor Swift didn’t bag Spotify Wrapped’s most streamed song of 2024
- “I’d never considered myself a lyric writer, but me and Terry put it together in about 15 minutes. Then, we went to the pub!”: Michael Palin on his most famous musical moment and the “genius” of Neil lnnes
- “After you’ve caressed them with Stairway To Heaven, now you’re going to disturb them!”: How Jimmy Page constructed the perfect Led Zeppelin album
- “Most of the classical venues have a very arrogant attitude towards pop music, which is what I’m considered to be by most of them”: Nils Frahm hits out at genre snobbery
- Meet the dongle nightmare that’ll get your original iPod working with your M4 Mac
- Is music nostalgia really dead as new acts out-ticket established artists?
- “I feel like because I did not make it, I must be cheating”: Is using commercially available samples in a track really that much of a problem?
- “Instead of shouting ‘Maiden! Maiden!’ they were going ‘Sooty! Sooty!’”: Iron Maiden legend Nicko McBrain's funniest moment
- “Don't worry, this doesn't count as Whamageddon. We checked”: As Last Christmas celebrates its 40th anniversary, Blackpink’s Rosé covers it in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge
- "By 2028, AI music is projected to account for 20% of all streaming platform revenue": We're on the cusp of an AI-dominated streaming landscape, and creators are going to feel the brunt of it unless policy makers intervene
- "Has anyone got a white Sprinter van outside? It's being robbed!": Band robbed at gunpoint on first day of tour - before they'd even "played a note"
- “I handed the bass to Steven, picked up a guitar and played the solo”: How Aerosmith swapped instruments to create a ’70s rock classic
- “The electronics are just as authentic and deliver all of the sonic character of Jimmy’s legendary EDS-1275”: Gibson unveils meticulous Custom Shop VOS replica of Jimmy Page’s iconic 1969 Doubleneck
- December 3
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- “The mahogany armrest enhances comfort and aesthetics”: Harley Benton debuts the impressive yet affordable CLO and CLG acoustics, featuring all-solid spruce and rosewood builds, Fishman electronics and an inviting armrest
- “The massive guitar sound that sparked an entire generation has been completely and faithfully captured in stunning detail”: Nirvana tone guru Aaron Rash releases The Nevermind Sessions IR bundle, and promises a sound “identical” to Kurt Cobain’s
- "SID WAS THE PISTOLS": Liam Gallagher hits back at Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock’s criticism of Oasis
- “Thank you so much Mr. Reid, hope you get the same inspiration from that Triplecaster”: Jack White and Vernon Reid swap signature guitars after chance meeting at the airport
- "They tell the real story of what led to one of the best-selling bands in history splitting up": Legal documents relating to The Beatles' break-up to be auctioned off
- “I haven’t been able to see the performance, but I have enjoyed it”: Elton John tells audience at Devil Wears Prada premiere that he’s lost his sight
- “CorOS 3.1.0 and Cortex Control 1.2.0 showcase our relentless drive to keep the Quad Cortex at the leading edge of possibilities for the guitar”: Neural DSP gives Quad Cortex functionality a juicy power-up, adding two new compatible plugins
- “You’ve ruined the song!”: The bust-ups, bickering, tantrums and tech that made The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me an ’80s anthem
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over and done with, but here are 33 music deals that are still alive and kicking
- So what do you think is the highest earning TV theme of all time?
- This "absurd and over-the-top" distortion plugin transforms a glitch into an audio effect - and it's absolutely free
- “The main lead is often pushed and pulled in as many directions as possible to create the characteristic machine-like sound” How to make supersized hyperpop vocals
- December 2
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- With the LEGO Strat close to its lowest-ever price, who needs the Fender Custom Shop? Be quick, though, you don't have much time left to grab it and build your own
- This Moog bundle price drop might be my Cyber Monday deal of the day
- I banned myself from buying plugins this Cyber Monday, but Universal Audio’s UAD Amp Bundle is about to undo that: £91 for Ruby ’63, Lion ’68 and Dream ’65, saving hundreds on the list price!
- In my opinion, these are the only 12 plugins most producers need. Here’s why - and how to save money on nearly all of them with these last-minute Cyber Monday deals
- "This is a game-changer for us. I mean, that's a pretty essential piece of gear": Andertons just slashed £249 off the Behringer X32 mixer, which has Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett's stamp of approval
- Picture this: you’ve got $/£200 to spend on synths. Now I think I’ve found the best deals for you this Cyber Monday
- Bear with me on this… I think this Behringer synth might be the cheapest analogue poly ever
- The best Cyber Monday iPad deal just so happens to be on the model I own - here’s why you should buy it, too
- Don't miss 5 of the best EQ plugin deals you should leap on before Cyber Monday is out!
- Grab a whole lot of plugins for a bargain price: These are the Cyber Monday software bundle deals not to miss
- "We had to ban people from bringing actual cowbells to the concerts": Blue Oyster Cult’s Buck Dharma on that SNL sketch and its aftermath
- I've tried all the major DAWs and Ableton Live is my absolute favourite - and it's 25% off for Cyber Monday
- Bitwig Studio is one of the most creative DAWs money can buy, here's why you should grab it while it's going cheap this Cyber Monday
- My favourite soft synth of the last year is a bargain in this Cyber Monday deal – do yourself a favour and grab it now
- We said this virtual orchestra set 'a new standard', and you've got a limited time to pick it up for less this Cyber Monday
- I recently bought a Les Paul, but the Squier Troublemaker Tele I’m reviewing has just been reduced by a whopping $136. Now I need to find space for another guitar before the price goes back up
- I absolutely love this Cyber Monday deal on the Yamaha Seqtrak, it’s giving Teenage Engineering features on Behringer money vibes
- “It’s a great honour, but it’s going to cost me a fortune to do it”: Rod Stewart spills the beans on the price of playing Glastonbury
- "It’s a sad day for every MCR fan. He was so pivotal to their sound for so long": Tributes paid to My Chemical Romance’s Bob Bryar
- I've been using Adam Audio studio monitors for five years after switching from KRKs and I've never looked back - and now they're 25% off for Cyber Monday
- “A well-crafted sequence is successful wherever you may wish to use it”: Use these tried and tested chord progressions to build an engaging song
- December 1
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- Roland’s SPD-SX Pro electronic drum pad is an industry standard for hybrid drumming, and you can save $200 on one: but only if you’re quick!
- The incredibly powerful plugin we called "one of the greatest effects plugins ever made" is half price for Cyber Monday
- If, like me, you buy your own presents, these Reon Driftbox synths have come down so much in price that they could be the ideal Christmas gift for that synth-lover in your life
- I've used this Behringer Powerplay P2 in-ear monitor amp on every gig since I bought it. At £27 with this Cyber Monday deal, it’s an essential for your live rig
- It might be a beginner keyboard, but I still love my Casio CT-S1, and I’ve never seen it cheaper than this
- I like this bargain pedalboard power supply so much I bought three of them: now it's even cheaper for Cyber Monday
- Check out this 98% reduction on a HUGE plugin bundle from Rigid Audio in its closing down sale this Cyber Monday
- Forget Digitakt II, Elektron’s OG Digitakt is still a great instrument – and you can get it for less than £500 in this Cyber Monday deal
- Here's 5 of the best software synth deals you should jump on this Cyber Monday
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