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August 2026

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156 articles

August 23
- “In ’70s post-Vietnam America there was no album that better captured the fall from Eden, the long slow afterburn of the ’60s”: Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne’s golden years – by Bruce Springsteen and Browne himself
- “I’ve released music that I’ve only monitored on laptop speakers”: Chris Lake on his mixing secrets
August 22
- "There's no barrier to capturing a performance that's happening on any instrument in any part of the space": Inside Hot Chip's London studio
- “Ahhh, what a tune! It has more melodic genius and simple power than I ever realised”: The melancholy classic that made Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel the world’s hottest songwriting duo
- “I said, 'Dad, what you did with The Beatles was kind of amazing, wasn’t it?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Not as amazing as Brian Wilson’”: Giles Martin on the overwhelming talent of Brian Wilson
August 21
- “There's real springs inside the oversized enclosure. Confirm it by giving the unit a gentle kick!”: Crazy Tube Circuits White Whale Junior review
- Where's your head at? It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #18!
- “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
- “I did have a couple of people saying, 'You're being so obsessive.’ But it had lost the magic, and so he said, 'Do you know what to do?’ And I said ‘I do’”: How going back to her Korg M1 demo helped Donna Lewis to create one of the biggest US hits of 1996
- 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
- “I guess it’s a real summer song – as soon as you play it, you know it’s going to kick off”: Ash’s Tim Wheeler tells us about the making of their most beloved song
- “She was a bit nervous at first. She just sat down and she sang. I directed her. I wanted her to improvise”: How Lana Del Rey collaborated with movie maker Baz Luhrmann to create one of her most hauntingly beautiful songs
- “James’s rhythm parts are insane. His right hand looks like it's not even moving – It's one of the most aggressive, precise things you've ever heard in your life”: Andrew Scheps on the complex legacy of Metallica’s Death Magnetic
August 20
- “An excellent example of the genre’s shifting atmospheric soundscapes”: EarthQuaker Devices Towers review
- “My hands just wouldn’t work. There was no way I could play the guitar. It was pretty scary”: Rockabilly icon Brian Setzer on his recovery from the autoimmune condition that stopped him playing guitar
- “I know I'm not supposed to use these foot pedals like this but it works”: Ariana Grande’s live looping moment on her Eternal Sunshine tour showcases a skill that she’s been honing for 20 years
- Someone put a chiptune synth and 16-step sequencer in a watch - and it looks as bonkers as it sounds
- “Lemme guess, you got Che Guevara and Malcolm X on your shelf, maybe even Fred Hampton, but at the end of the day you get in the Lamborghini and put your kids in private school”: Charlie Crokett gets personal in playground tussle with Jack White
- A dream machine for Gretsch superfans, this limited run Penguin is refreshed in Pale Blue Pearl with Bigsby and Ful-Fidelity FilterTrons – and it is one sweet songbird
- “People look down on stuff that sells. What do you call that? Downward snobbery I guess”: Revisiting our classic interview with the legendary Lemmy
August 19
- “This is a difficult guitar to put a review score on”: Harley Benton Fusion-T II HH RW HT PM review
- “We liked the sound of what Giorgio was doing with I Feel Love. We thought the marriage of electronics with what we were doing would be something really fresh and special”: Russell Mael on how Sparks went beyond pop to create their own sonic universe
- “It makes your massive amp sound tiny, and way better, and it just sounds sick”: Stu Mackenzie and Jam Pedals team up to bring you the secret behind his King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard tone
- Minimal Audio's Lucid is a granular powerhouse with scale locking, deep modulation and much more
- “Steven started singing, ‘Cruisin’ for the ladies.’ I said, ‘That’s really bad. I don’t think Van Halen would put that on the B-side of their worst record’”: When Aerosmith got schooled by hit songwriter Desmond Child
- Brandon Flowers says that every major label passed on Mr Brightside: "They would say, ‘When did you record this song again? What producer did you bring in?’ And it's like, ‘No, that's the same song. It's exactly the same recording that you heard before'”
- “People often crack jokes about that album. We had that dreadful picture on the cover with the three of us looking like the Bee Gees, and I’m thinking, ‘This is wrong’”: Carl Palmer on the disastrous album that led ELP to break up
- “There's not a night that passes when that doesn't still sting”: When Skrillex shared with us his anger at having four years of his work stolen
- “We're encouraged by the impact these measures are having”: McDonalds branch gets rid of teenage trouble by playing classical music
- Frank Beard, ZZ Top drummer, dies aged 77: "I made him jam for eight hours straight until his tongue just fell out. By the time we stopped, we both knew we had a band"
August 18
- Nearly 40% of music released last month used AI
- Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson give the thumbs-up to Angine De Poitrine: “The most entertaining and exhilarating bits of music that I've heard for a long, long time”
- The legendary SL-1200 is 55: Technics celebrates with a limited edition of the iconic turntable
- “I don’t know how many times I’ve told you about swinging that thing”: Rob Thomas smacks his Matchbox Twenty bandmate with a mic stand
- “To completely ignore written music is to deny yourself acres of inspiration”: It's time to finally learn music theory – Start here with our basic notation overview
- “We would speak for about a year after he passed on – he was very, very present”: Twin Peaks and Dune’s Alicia Witt tells us how the late David Lynch guided her new album
- Behringer’s Daft Punk-approved, cult-classic MIDI controller has been reborn as the BCR32 – and now it’s a hardware sequencer too
- Beatport has banned AI-generated music: "There is a difference between a tool that assists human creation and a system that replaces it entirely. Beatport is built on the former"
- “That was a classic example of hiding the meaning of the song in a whole glorious backdrop of crazy arrangements and cutting-edge synthesizers”: Roland Orzabal on the hidden depths of Tears for Fears’ first hit
- Fancy recording an EP at the world-famous Real World Studios?: “Our goal is to find talent and provide the facilities and support to let them flourish in a way they wouldn't be able to otherwise”
- “As soon as I started writing music with computers, I got so addicted to it”: Tom VR on his creative process, "game-changing" Ableton Live tips and the hardware synth he can't stop talking about
August 17
- “It starts out polite but then gets loud, dirty and nasty enough to pick a fight with fuzz”: Warm Audio Dirty Boy Jr. Booster review
- Bad Bunny caught up in copyright case that could see massive consequences for reggaeton as a genre
- “Prince liked it loud on stage - Your head would be vibrating after those shows. Your body and your mind were shaken to the core”: We find out what it was really like being on-stage with Prince
- “We wish him the best in his future endeavours”: Slipknot confirm that Sid Wilson is no longer a member of the band
- “He heard us playing his song electric. You could see the gears grinding in his head. It was like watching a slow-motion lightning bolt”: How The Byrds reinvented a great Bob Dylan song and inspired Dylan to revolutionise his music
- “We were just looking at each other like, ‘Holy crap,' Like, he has turned back time”: Geddy Lee talks about the vocal prep he had to do for Rush’s 50 Something tour
August 16
- “Mutt said, ‘Give it a go, and if it doesn’t work get rid of the guy.’ And that’s exactly what we had to do, because Jim was less than useless!”: Why Def Leppard couldn’t make their monster hit Hysteria with Jim Steinman as producer
- “Lindsey was beating his guitar as hard as he could and screaming his lungs out. The first time I heard it, I thought, 'What the heck is going on?’”: Inside the making of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
August 15
- “We wanted people to say, ‘Wow, that's Cypress Hill?’”: Cypress Hill’s beat-master Eric Bobo tells us why the band recorded their new album entirely in Spanish
- “When Kraftwerk became an institution we stopped being contemporary. Instead we became salesmen of nostalgia”: Karl Bartos reflects on the end of Kraftwerk’s golden era
August 14
- “Makes you realise just how good budget guitars have become”: Harley Benton ST-62LA review
- SampleRadar: 505 free rave synths samples
- Suno’s Studio 2.0 adds an AI chatbot that can control your project, transform sounds and generate custom plugins
- How many keys are there on a piano? – and why are some keyboards bigger than others? Here's everything you need to know about keyboard sizes but were afraid to ask
- How Pete Townshend’s drunken night with two Sex Pistols inspired The Who’s last classic song with Keith Moon: “I used to go to clubs and get insulted. Just stand there and endure these snotty little kids saying, ‘Boring old fart!’”
- Check yourself (before you wreck yourself): It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #17!
- The MusicRadar app is live, and free on iOS and Android - grab it today
- “We always recorded with Michael in the dark - he hated light. The studio was absolutely dark”: Behind the scenes of Michael Jackson’s monster hit
August 13
- The guitar genius of Ritchie Blackmore in 5 classic tracks: “There is nothing cooler on record than the dimension-altering alliance of Blackmore, Roger Glover’s bass and Lord’s Hammond organ”
- “An effects unit aimed squarely at those who want a fast, powerful way to experiment with sound”: Soma Laboratory Warp review
- Travis Barker’s new doc is out today - here's 8 other drummers whose incredible stories deserve to be told on screen
- “I don’t want to say The Beatles cleared it, but somebody at EMI or Apple. So whoever you were that did it, thank you. Thank you, Sir Paul”: Mike D on how the Beastie Boys got away with sampling five Beatles songs on Paul's Boutique
- “Our producer worked with Ozzy Osbourne, so I said, ‘What if Ozzy sang on this song?’ But then I said, ‘How about Rob Halford? The Metal God!’ They all went, ‘Nah, that’s a crazy dream’”: When the Judas Priest legend teamed up with Five Finger Death Punch
- “Music has always been my first language. Justice has always been my inheritance. Contra-ICE is where those two lineages meet”: Ad-Rock, Tom Morello, Kathleen Hanna and others team up for Anti-ICE benefit album
- “As a bona fide guitar nerd this is the epitome, this is the high-water mark”: Martin unveils a pair of Joe Bonamassa signature acoustics based on a 1937 pre-War vintage unicorn
- "My goal was, get it out before I die! If I live another 20 years, I'll hit everyone with part two!": Travis Barker in 2012 on his memoir, becoming sober and why he's never really changed his kit
- “It’s a sick, twisted song. I thought it was a love song. Just like all those people that get married to it not realising it’s a dark, demented track”: Stewart Copeland on The Police’s double-edged classic
- Watch Ritchie Blackmore perform onstage with Deep Purple for the first time in more than 30 years: "A couple of days ago I got a message from a local lad, ‘I only live ‘round the corner – do you mind if I come and jam?’
- Brian May asked AI to recreate the cover of Queen's The Game. He wasn't happy with the results: “So this is the kind of intelligence that will soon be ruling the world??!”
- Reissue, Repackage, re-evaluate the songs: Morrissey And Marr have collaborated on new Smiths Rough Trade archive release
August 12
- AI's ties to major labels deepen as Suno strikes licensing deal with BMG
- Fender refreshes the vintage-inspired US models that offer “a near 1:1 comparison with their original predecessors” – adding classic finishes from the paint room
- Rod Stewart cancels the rest of his US tour following heart surgery
- “Artists who use AI should step to the side and let real artists do their thing. There is too much amateur music being released that clogs the arteries of the music business”: Tony Visconti on why human musicians will never be replaced
- inMusic reportedly closes down Native Instruments’ UK office as senior leadership exits company
- Japanese punk band Otoboke Beaver apologise for hospitalising fan with guitar throw: “I’ve reflected deeply on the overwhelming burden and heartache I have caused this person due to the inadequate response”
- “I sang it to Yoko, Phil Spector and a few people and they always winced. I decided to change it... The words were silly anyway”: How John Lennon created one of his greatest post-Beatles songs – with a little help from Yoko
- Ritchie Blackmore to play with Deep Purple for the first time since ’93 tonight: “Well, it is a secret, and I don’t want anybody to know, but I’m probably going up to do an encore”
- "Every time I played it, I got phone call after phone call. I thought I'd get howls of protest": How turning a tear-jerking orchestral classic into an unlikely dancefloor hit launched William Orbit's solo career
- Spotify finally get tough on AI slop as platform adds ‘Persona Badge’ to mark out AI-generated ‘artists’
August 11
- Dimebag Darrell’s favourite rack unit is reborn as a compact pedal: MXR unveils the Flanger/Doubler pedal – BBD-driven analogue mojo for ‘70s and ‘80s flavours or fatter metal tones
- “Everybody used to say how great Clapton was, but I remember saying to Eric, ‘You try playing that one riff for eight minutes!’”: How rock legends Status Quo stole a riff from The Doors and built an entire career out of it
- “There are people in my band who are questioning whether they’ll perform it with me. And those people will be fired”: Boy George says he’ll sack any bandmates who refuse to play his ‘pro-Israel’ song We Will Dance Again
- “I haven't really listened to Rush music… I never stumbled into the catalogue”: Anika Nilles on her preparation for Rush’s 50 Something tour
- "I will be restraining you, sir, if you do not stay seated!": DnB producer Bou samples cabin crew's altercation with angry passenger then invites flight attendant to his show
- “A worthy successor to one of the most recognisable synths of all time – but unlikely to replicate its predecessor’s iconic status”: Korg MicroKorg 2 review
- “This short and highly strung man in cowboy boots lit a hand-rolled smoke in a little room, asking me to play something”: How did Angine de Poitrine get so very weird? Khn’s maverick but brilliant guitar teacher might explain a lot
- “We got this wrong… We do not support AI-generated music, and our process will reflect that going forward”: D’Addario admits generative AI was used on string demo video after all
- IK Multimedia just totally revamped its Tonex Player and made its tone ecosystem a lot easier to use: “It extends the capabilities of Tonex software and hardware alike, creating a single connected workflow from capture to studio, rehearsal and stage”
- “Oh, it was a nightmare. I was becoming physically sick just thinking of going to the studio each night. I used to love working with the band. By that point, I dreaded it”: The Beatles’ most trusted engineer on their studio tensions
- “I’m still disappointed when people hear the chorus line as ‘got to’ rather than ‘get to’”: How One rescued Achtung Baby and saved U2
- "Imagine what Bucket faces every day, because he don't talk to people. He talks with his guitar. And that's pretty much it.”: Bootsy Collins on his friendship with oddball guitar virtuoso Buckethead
- “It’s much less tension and pressure than directing a movie... It’s kind of our first heavy metal album”: John Carpenter on why he’s happier making music than films these days
- “The first three times I performed it in public, I burst into tears – because it brought back the intensity of the experience”: How Joni Mitchell wrote Woodstock – an era-defining song that spoke to a generation
August 10
- Watch early camcorder footage of early Oasis, unearthed and made available to watch
- “Scars are cool. I’ve never left a show when my hands are a mess and I think ‘I wish I didn’t play the way I did’”: Travis Barker on his drumming style and how his versatility was Blink-182's secret weapon
- “Picture Madonna, the biggest pop star in the world, playing with this retro gear that you could buy for $50 in The Recycler”: The story of how Madonna and William Orbit united and crafted a euphoric electronic pop classic
- “The thing that they do so well, when they’re weaving together and listening to each other and responding to each other is alive and well”: Mick Jagger talks about Keith and Ronnie Wood’s guitar work on new Stones song
- We have “a clear set of principles” that are “always rooted in supporting artistry and creativity” says Suno CEO, as company seeks to limit reputational damage from latest legal defeat
- 1010music updates its Blackbox sampling workstation with a better screen, onboard battery and USB audio streaming
August 8
- SampleRadar: 105 free 808 weight samples
- “I think the song seems more relevant than ever, especially in the US, with the ICE raids and all that”: How David Byrne and Brian Eno anticipated a darker tomorrow on Talking Heads’ 1979 masterpiece
- “It’s a strange little song - even for a ska song. It has a different kind of rhythm”: We chat with The Selecter’s Pauline Black about their breakthrough 1979 single
- For 808 Day, 13 iconic Roland TR-808 tracks that made a legend
August 7
- “Ideal for beginner guitarists chasing heavier sounds”: Sire Larry Carlton X1 review
- “Oasis’ schedule is booked”: According to a source, the Gallaghers’ masterplan for 2027 is already in place
- “I found my old PS4 controller collecting dust in a drawer and I had an idea”: MIDIpad transforms your gamepad into a musical instrument and MPE controller – and there’s a free version
- “Next year should be a pretty interesting year, because I think quite a few things will reveal themselves”: Lindsey Buckingham teases some possible Fleetwood Mac activity in 2027
- “Will there be music in the future? Absolutely”: Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean are positive that the Fugees will record again
- “There are these fun, crazy sessions where everyone's wild and something comes out of it and then there are ones that are a struggle and suddenly there's a breakthrough – I just enjoy them all”: We look back at a classic William Orbit interview
- William Orbit, the production genius behind Madonna’s Ray Of Light, has died, aged 69
- Nikki Sixx admits that Mötley Crue do use backing tapes, but says that the band members always play their instruments: “Since we saw Queen using some during Bohemian Rhapsody live, we understood that we could bring in elements that we could not do"
- Brain me in: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #16
- Arturia's Pigments Play is a free version of one of the best soft synths around – and it's more powerful than you might expect
August 6
- “The music just comes to me. It’s like that movie Amadeus”: Yngwie Malmsteen emerges from an “avalanche” of ideas with “80 to 90” songs and a scorching new album – and you can hear him unleash the fury on new single Now Or Never
- “That's the version I wish came out originally. You're going to hear a lot of jazz chords, ladies and gentlemen”: Charlie Puth reinterprets his back catalogue – including his huge 2015 US number one – as he performs at the Tiny Desk
- We speak to the noise music creatives pushing out at the extremes of sound: “It's somehow a kind of fetish”
- “The ‘90s are back”: Steinberg celebrates 30 years of VST with the Classics Collection, a new free plugin bundle that includes the first ever VST instrument
- Fender CEO clarifies his controversial comments comparing cover songs to AI: “My intent was to talk about how technology can help artists and players learn and grow”
- Alesis and Zildjian forge a "perfect" partnership that they hope will "raise the bar for electronic drums"
- “He never rated himself as highly as everyone else did": New documentary in the pipeline about Rush’s Neil Peart
- Producer claims Kanye did use AI on Bully and sues for unpaid wages: “Despite nearly two years of demands, the defendants have refused to compensate plaintiff for plaintiff’s services”
- “I was on the road with Guns, so we went off and finished what we were doing. And then, all of a sudden, I got that phone call”: Slash says he and Ozzy Osbourne had plans to go into the studio together
- Eno’s Music For Airports to be performed in full… at an airport
- 6 steps for perfectly capturing a real drum performance in your DAW
- “It feels like the most ‘us’ thing we’ve ever done – Suno isn’t coming up with that anytime soon”: Sylvan Esso on the making of Ow ∞, their self-built Betty's studio and why they pulled their music from Spotify
- “We played that what must have been 1000 times to work out what it was”: Phil Collins admits that there was one famous drum fill he just couldn’t unpick when he was recording his Motown covers album
August 5
- “This guitar means the world to me. My first El Dorado was a gift from my father”: Marcus King’s signature Epiphone is a stunning dreadnought acoustic inspired by his first-ever guitar – and it has the coolest pickguard ever
- “Since we debuted Motion at NAMM, the anticipation has been off the charts”: Fender’s Motion MIDI controllers have finally landed – and they come with a free copy of the Fender Studio Pro DAW
- “AI models built on stolen intellectual property have no protection under the law”: German performing rights society wins significant victory over Suno
- Line 6 expands its Helix Stadium tone ecosystem with a guitar plugin to “enable you to craft tones practically at the speed of thought” – and there’s a free version
- "I was like, 'Bro... Metallica's never been tighter and you want some yahoos to come jump in and try and be Hetfield? Is that what you're saying?' And they're like, 'Yeah'": Pepper Keenan remembers when he auditioned to dep guitar for Metallica
- Susanna Hoffs recalls the time that Prince invited the Bangles to the studio then upped and left without telling them: “We get there and we’re jamming, then suddenly we look around and he’s disappeared. ‘OK, I guess we’re done’”
- “They didn’t call him the Iceman for nothing. I mean, I was on the receiving end when I was a kid”: Joe Bonamassa on how Albert Collins taught him to wield his guitar as “a weapon” – and jamming with him was the ultimate test of his “intestinal fortitude”
- “Some sounds never go out of style”: Universal Audio makes two classic reverbs used by The Beatles, Radiohead and Brian Eno available natively
- “No option and no choice": Glenn Hughes announces he’s retiring from live performance on medical advice
- “He’s like an alien. I mean, he’s better at guitar backwards than I have been at guitar my whole life”: Gracie Abrams is impressed by Paul Mescal’s left handed playing
- A pressing matter: Suno to launch its own bespoke vinyl pressing and shipping service
August 4
- “It’s the same open, community-powered spirit that’s reshaping modern guitar tone, now built directly into the rig”: HeadRush rolls out Tone3000 integration and native support for NAM captures on its amp and effects modellers
- “My other little secret is, this right here, this position, that’s supposed to be the neck, right? It’s not”: Chris Payton on the guitars he needs to play a Bruno Mars stadium – and the genius mod that makes his HSS Strat even more versatile
- “I asked him what was going on. He said to me, ‘This is too good for you guys. I’m taking it back’”: Prince collaborator David Z, who helped create one of his biggest hits, has died, aged 78
- “Continues to strike a balance between features, size, and price”: Novation Launch Control 3 review
- Brandon Flowers appears to be having something of an existential crisis: “My dad goes to yard sales. He’s never had any money in his life and he’s happier than I am”
- “I don’t want any undos. There’s no ‘undo’ in good music. It’s a performance”: Raphael Saadiq takes you on a tour of his incredible studio, and explains why he still prefers to record to tape
- “In the very early ‘70s, he was in one studio, and I was in another. And we just hit it off”: Tony Iommi reveals Brian May’s lead guitar cameo on his new solo album – and why the Queen guitarist is its only guest
- “The artists that are against it, you’ve got to be careful because it’s going to come and swallow you like the boogie monster at night”: Empire Of The Sun’s Luke Steele says “of course” he uses AI
- Introducing MIXVAULT – the fast and smart way to approach EQing
August 3
- “Seal said to me while we were doing the first album, ‘I’ve got this song - it’s a bit like Greensleeves.’ I was like, ‘that sounds interesting’”: Trevor Horn on the waltz-time song with the "crazy" vocal harmonies that gave Seal a '90s US number one
- "It only felt right that we played it for the first time in America with the man himself": Olivia Dean puts Sam Fender in the Lollapalooza spotlight as he joins her to sing the song that's just broken a long-standing UK chart record
- “I don’t think it’s overstating it, I don’t think it’s hyperbole – you guys invented rave culture”: Moby praises Britain’s historic contribution to dance music
- "Your analogue sound becomes a sample – then the cycle begins again: a new sound, a new sample, a new idea": Vermona drumDING is a hybrid drum machine designed to sample itself
- "In loving memory of Kieran Foster": Illformed Glitch2 multi-effects plugin made available for free following its creator's passing
- "Once up and running, it's a dream to use, and capable of capturing some magnificent audio": Tascam DR-40XP field recorder review
- Olivia Rodrigo ticks another name off her alt-rock wishlist as she joins Smashing Pumpkins on stage at Lollapalooza to sing Thirty Three
- “I wish I hadn’t said it, although it did happen. But we’ve made up”: Phil Collins reveals the origins of his feud with Paul McCartney, and how it ended up being resolved