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May 2025

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277 articles

May 31
- “Nobody ever asks Pet Shop Boys if they can play the piano”: Pop masterminds Saint Etienne have great news for anyone who can’t play an instrument
- “I thought, ‘He’s given me the riff of the century!’”: The classic song that Stevie Wonder wrote for Jeff Beck — but ended up saving for himself
- Rod Stewart just accidentally confirmed who’ll be joining him on stage for this year’s Legends slot: “We're gonna do Glastonbury together”
May 30
- “I’m proud to finally share this with everyone": Jean-Michel Jarre to release ‘audio visual record’ of his Bratislava mega-gig, which featured an appearance by Brian May
- Thanks to Pearl Jam, Shawn James and a-ha, The Last Of Us season 2 made a big impact on budding guitarists, new data suggests, but here's why fans of the game may have learned the songs already
- Andertons just slashed £456 off this stunning PRS SE, and the finish has to be seen to be believed
- "I told them when I left, ‘Do not use my music'. And of course they used it": 42 years on, Dave Mustaine still has a few things to say about his exit from Metallica
- "Throwing back": Oasis just paid homage to themselves with the reveal of retro-inspired tour merch
- “We missed him and are looking forward to turning it up and rocking out with him”: ZZ Top confirm Frank Beard is back
- "And the finalists are…" It’s time to vote on which band gets to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival
- “Sounding your best isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’ - it’s necessary if you want listeners to make your show part of their daily routine”: The head of Audacity shares his top 5 tips for beginner podcasters
- “The Foundry Series takes the power, dynamism and response of our acclaimed tube amp ranges and forges them into creative, affordable, high-quality solid-state amps”: Laney unveils the IR-equipped 120W Supertop head with onboard effects and matching cabs
May 29
- "Slimming down on features and the most budget-friendly version yet, this could open up the Acoustasonic to a different type of player": Fender Standard Acoustasonic Jazzmaster review
- “Dropping two beats on our second show is not a firing offence”: Zak Starkey speaks out yet again on being fired - and not 'retired' - from The Who
- “As much an honour for me as working with Clint Eastwood or Martin Scorsese”: The creator of Apple TV+'s Smoke was thrilled to collaborate with Thom Yorke, but the Radiohead man's theme for the show might sound rather familiar
- “Synths are kind of like a maze you know? It can take forever to really understand them - I still don't understand synths”: Pachyman on the gear behind his characterful and sun-kissed sound
- “Obviously sounded like it should’ve been on there, but I guess we were a bit arrogant and stupid”: Charlie Burchill on his one regret from Simple Minds’ 1985 smash-hit album, Once Upon A Time
- “Whole Lotta Love was clearly the track that everybody would go to. That riff was so fresh — and it still is”: A classic interview with Jimmy Page
- “Imagine flying with a truly professional, high-quality guitar and not having to worry about an airline damaging it”: Steve Stevens’ new Ciari signature guitar is flight-friendly electric that folds up and can be stored under your seat
- “The kind of instrument that inspires you to take in-the-moment risks instead of feeling like you’ve got to play it safe”: Kramer Volante HSGT Triburst review
- We Are Rewind goes back to the ‘80s with the GB-001, a cassette boombox that gives you a genuine taste of old-school tape recording
- Ex-Chili Peppers guitarist avoids jail in road traffic accident manslaughter case
- “I can sing it in the original key, with no backing tapes at all. I sing it at every show”: The smash hit ’80s power ballad that wouldn’t die
- “There’s only one Boss in America”: Bono backs Springsteen’s over Trump comments
- “That was the last straw, really. I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs”: How a frosty band meeting in a fish and chip restaurant signalled the end for the Smiths
- Chris Bird, MusicRadar Lessons Editor and former Total Guitar Editor has died, aged 48
May 28
- “With unmatched tonal power, surgical precision, and effortless usability, this is the most complete and forward-thinking Profiler platform yet”: Kemper promises a state-of-the-art performance from its refreshed and souped-up Profiler Mk2 series
- Waves pivots from plugins to samples with subscription-based AI text-to-sound generator
- “I looked around and everybody was just down. But we started bashing through some songs that we knew, a bit of AC/DC, a bit of Deep Purple. And suddenly we were all smiling”: Bruce Dickinson recalls his audition for Iron Maiden
- Apple introduces new versions of Logic Pro for Mac and iPad: Stem Splitter gets better, and Flashback Capture means that you’ll be able to recall your MIDI and audio performances even if you didn’t record them
- “Well this is a first…”: Guns N’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus says it was so hot in Saudi Arabia that his pickups melted
- It’s a prog/metal pile on! Ghost and Opeth just blasted Bohemian Rhapsody back at Queen at the Polar Music Prize
- “It’s unfamiliar, intimidating, and seemingly impenetrable for producers raised on DAWs like Ableton Live - but it can unlock a whole new world of creativity”: I tried a music tracker and it rewired my brain (in a good way)
- “Dazzling specs, million dollar looks...”: Entry-level price? Harley Benton’s HBJ-45E SBK is a vintage-inspired dreadnought acoustic with onboard electronics, a solid Sitka spruce top and it is crazy affordable
- “You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great sound, and it doesn’t have to be overly complex”: Joe Bonamassa on how to choose the right amp for a gig
- “Every update deepens AstroLab’s performance potential and workflow”: Arturia’s new 88 key AstroLab finally realises the full potential of the ‘avant-garde’ stage keyboard
- “It would be a bit of an ego thing for me to say I made Sleep Token’s world”: Producer George Lever dishes the production secrets of the band’s first two albums and what he really thinks of their latest
- “I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m here to take the New York Stock Exchange. Is that a right or a left?’ And he hits the panic button and the riot police come and the riot doors slam shut”: The day Rage Against the Machine caused chaos on Wall Street
- “I have a very identifiable voice. It’s a unique sound, the divinity of my vocal cords. So everything I built around it was to protect the integrity of that voice”: How Perry Farrell defined alternative rock with Jane’s Addiction
- “Art creation always starts with a prompt, a seed. Anything can work as a first prompt. Only you can decide that”: Superproducer Rick Rubin just reinvented himself as an AI-powered ‘vibe coder’
- The ultimate guide to pedal board essentials (and what order to put them in)
- "I said I was completely available for the foreseeable future.... Rog said 'Oh!' and we kind of left it there.": Zak Starkey and Roger Daltrey have made up after ‘confusing’ chat
May 27
- “Derringer's legacy extends beyond his music, entertaining fans with his signature energy and talent”: All American guitar legend Rick Derringer dies, aged 77
- “Six finished arrangements”: Slipknot are putting together a new record after all
- “I just really needed to play this part as hard as I could, as fast as I could, or my brain would start screaming at me”: Ethan Ives on playing nasty, searching for melody and unleashing “indie Motörhead” energy on Car Seat Headrest’s epic rock opera
- “It’s pretty extraordinary - the world’s gonna be listening”: The 1975 are working on a new album
- “He was the only one who found it necessary to perform - which was useless”: The Beatle who had to be cut from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon
- “It’s a real bow with synthetic hair on two sides and it’s capable of doing some amazing things”: Turn your acoustic guitar into a violin or cello? The Pickaso Guitar Bow might be this year’s must-have accessory for Jimmy Page superfans
- “If you’re a bass player in a rock band, you are by definition a moron”: As Frank Zappa’s bassist, Scott Thunes rose to legend status, then turned his back on it all
- “Billy is undergoing specific physical therapy”: Billy Joel cancels all live shows after brain disorder diagnosis
- “David Lynch said, ‘I’m using this song in a movie. Hey, why don’t we have a video?’ I said, ‘David, because I don’t have any money'”: How Chris Isaak's Wicked Game could have been lost if not for David Lynch
- "They want to go out with a bang": Saint Etienne announce final album and release new single co-produced with Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers
May 26
- “He said to me, ‘To be honest, we're kind of looking for a Beatles-type visual.’ I left there feeling like ‘OK, this is not gonna happen": Session drummer Hannah Montrose on facing down challenges and manifesting a spot behind the kit with Lizzo
- “I still remember the fascination of hearing Sgt. Pepper for the first time. It's The Beatles — but they're pretending to be another band? It breaks all the rules”: Gene Simmons salutes the Fab Four
May 25
- "We have lived and breathed metal for over five decades, and finally we are summoning our congregation to officially witness our lives uncensored, in a never-before-seen way”: A Judas Priest documentary is in the works
- “One of the individuals who is encouraging this deal to take place is Scooter”: Could Taylor Swift finally be about to take ownership of her first six albums' master recordings?
- “It became clear there was a link between the kids that I grew up with and the difficulties that young men are facing today”: Pete Townshend on how a new version of Quadrophenia moved him to tears
- Scientists just made guinea pigs listen to Adele for seven days… and the results are both surprising and worrying
- "He takes this expensive Martin from the '60s, we test it and I'm like, 'cool'. But it's just not quite making me excited - it's not doing the thing": Why Bon Iver chose a "hideous" $199 Ibanez rejected by a rehab centre over a vintage Martin for Speyside
May 24
- Money’s Too Tight To Mention: New stats show that mid-range artists are feeling the pinch
- "A jaunt behind the curtain of Gorillaz’ extraordinary world": Gorillaz celebrate their 25th anniversary with a new exhibition and four “one-off” gigs
- “Millions - possibly billions - of people have since heard that start-up chime. I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war”: Brian Eno donates Windows 95 fee to Palestinian aid
- "A copy of Serum might be the smartest investment any budding producer makes": Xfer Serum review
May 23
- Universal Audio is giving the $199 PolyMAX synth plugin away for free - but not for long
- “Too risky at the moment”: America is now so divided that a Bruce Springsteen covers band has been advised not to play in his hometown
- “We would have absolutely lied through our teeth if there wasn't a full song”: How a TV jingle turned into a pop classic
- “The last thing you want to do is play a widdly-widdly riff that’s getting in the way of the vocal”: Those Damn Crows’ Ian ‘Shiner’ Thomas on how to write a No.1 album, what he learned from Nirvana, and the Slipknot riff he wished he wrote
- “Gilmour’s Strat went for four million — and 67 nations tuned in to that auction”: The man with the $1billion guitar collection
- I wish these Memorial Day software deals had been around when I mixed my new EP - save up to 90% off Waves, Native Instruments, and Positive Grid plugins
- “I'm sure you all agree, I'm hardly Bob Dylan”: Charli xcx scoops the Songwriter of the Year award at this year’s Ivor Novellos
- Can immersive audio work at a festival? We went to Polygon Live to find out
- “Don’t get too precious about your songs. We’re probably going to tear them apart”: Legendary producer Mutt Lange’s first words to the young Def Leppard
May 22
- "The first thing I notice is a bit of surprise": A guitarist tries 9.5 gauge guitar strings for the first time with the new Ernie Ball Tim Henson signature set
- “Algorithms have sort of turned every playlist into grocery store background music”: We speak to the maker of a game putting the humanity back into music discovery
- “A versatile and durable dynamic microphone suitable for a range of applications”: Universal Audio SD-1 review
- “It means everything to me. It’s the song that gave us our first big break, and it sounds great on the radio!”: The ’90s smash hit that pretty much wrote itself
- "The first 1000 units sold out in mere seconds": Tame Impala's ultra-hyped chord-generating synth is back for a second drop - and this time it's international
- “I sat in this chair here and - ‘cos I’m not the best player, let’s be honest - I recorded one note at a time": Calvin Harris on being inspired by the Grateful Dead and the unconventional way he recorded the guitar riff on new single, Blessings
- Guitar Center's epic Memorial Day sale offers unbeatable deals, including $419 off a Gibson Les Paul Standard!
- "We listened to the community, and this release is our answer": Akai drops major firmware update for Force groovebox with stem separation and plugin support
- “The weight of this responsibility is enormous and I am feeling every ounce of it”: The Who’s new drummer announces himself to fans
- “Cementing Spotify as the ultimate destination for summer listening and proving we know music best”: Did Spotify really just pick the 30 tracks that are going to soundtrack your summer?
May 21
- “There is no stage in the world that's too big for the music that you play on an acoustic guitar.”: John Mayer and Ernie Ball just co-designed a set of next-gen Earthwood acoustic guitar strings inspired by cymbals and bells
- “We wanted the listeners to know that the pirates are on their way!”: How guitarist Steve Stevens kickstarted Billy Idol’s classic hits White Wedding and Rebel Yell
- “Its 23-inch scale-length allows for a softer and rounder tone”: Harley Benton applies retro-classic colour finishes and the incredible shrinking treatment to its beginner friendly JB-62CC Mini Bass
- “That’s the take that we use in the film. That was first time. Dude, it was amazing”: Steve's Lava Chicken, Jack Black’s shortest-ever UK Top 40 hit from the Minecraft Movie, took just 34 seconds to record
- “On Thursday we were at number 2 – then Beyoncé beat us on the last day”: The K’s speak to us about leading the guitar band fightback
- “I was kinda shocked (in the best way) that he was so versed in ‘80s Americana”: Four Tet's next project is an ambient country album with guitarist William Tyler
- "At the end of the summer, a new great voice will sing these songs for you": Foreigner lead singer Kelly Hansen just announced his departure from the band on live TV in the middle of a performance, then handed straight over to his replacement
- "Bringing a long-awaited rock 'n' roll flair to the world of soundbars": Marshall’s Heston 120 packs the latest tech into the style signature of its classic amp heads
- “The finest sound engineer the world has ever seen”: ABBA pay tribute to Michael B Tretow - often referred to as their ‘fifth member’ and a key architect of their sound - who has died, aged 80
- “When he stopped, the hubbub in the studio was like, ‘Oh my god. Oh my god, what’s happening?’”: When Elvis Costello terrified Saturday Night Live by launching into an unplanned song
- Universal Audio makes A-Type Multiband Dynamic Enhancer available as a native plugin
- “It’s raw, there are more guitars and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual”: Robbie Williams drafts Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi to play guitar on his new single
- “When the guitar came back to me, I thought, 'Well, now I have a Strat, a Les Paul and a regular Tele all in one’”: How top session player Brent Mason found everything he needed in one guitar
May 20
- “The Oceans Abyss expands on Electro-Harmonix’s highly acclaimed reverb technology to deliver a truly immersive effects workstation”: EHX’s unveils Oceans Abyss – a stereo reverb powerhouse promising a “completely unique soundscape building experience”
- Welcome to the bungle… Watch an increasingly rattled Axl Rose take umbrage when GNR's new drummer plays the wrong song
- “I saw this old guitar in the corner and I plugged it into the amplifier. And whoever was playing it before had this very warm kind of soulful setting on the amplifier”: Laufey on how a vintage guitar and amp inspired recent single Silver Lining
- “This is my favourite part. I knew it was good because I couldn’t get through it without sobbing”: Bon Iver breaks down his duet with Danielle Haim in BBC’s Maida Vale Studios
- “This is the guitar you’ll pick up once – and never want to put down”: Kramer ups the ante with the Volante – a tricked-out S-style with Gibson-designed US pickups, AAAA quilt maple veneer and a re-engineered neck joint to enhance sustain
- “I’ve always said to the team, anyone should be able to just hit a single button on their phone and be able to start recording”: Fender Studio is the company’s long-awaited entry-level recording app, and it’s free for everyone to download
- “Playing four notes to the bar with your thumb... That changed everything for me, because that’s what I wanted to be able to do”: How Mark Knopfler grew up wanting to be Jimi Hendrix until he ditched the pick and went fingerstyle
- "7) Metronome-like precision behind the kit deemed 'soulless'": Josh Freese just served up 10 reasons why he got sacked from The Foo Fighters
- “Eddie says, ‘Let’s go back to the ’80s, so put down your phones!”: Iron Maiden are asking fans to limit their phone use at the band’s shows this summer
May 19
- "No two guitars will look alike, so ordering one before clapping eyes on it will be a bit of a lottery": Cort KX507MS Pale Moon 7-string review
- “You can play two notes over multiple different chords. It’s a thing. It’s not the same!”: Calvin Harris slams claim by Chicane producer that his new single Blessings sounds too similar to 1996 trance anthem Offshore, then cites song by Tangerine Dream
- “It will drag out your inner Brian Eno with frightening ease”: Soundtoys SpaceBlender review
- “It all came to a screeching halt and forever destroyed the band’s life. And there's no chance for the band to ever play together again”: Dave Navarro confirms that there’s no way back for Jane’s Addiction after chaotic last gig in Boston
- “I don’t know the science behind it but it really works”: Olivia Rodrigo swears by this $50 Vocal Trainer gizmo to keep her singing voice in shape, but how does it actually work?
- “It’s a criminal offence”: Elton lambasts government over proposals to change copyright laws to suit AI firms
- If you're an Ableton Live user, SoundFlow could save you hours of time by replacing complex workflows with the touch of a button
- Bono’s Stories Of Surrender documentary receives standing ovation at Cannes
- “That was a huge moment for me. It put me back in my place”: The insult that brought David Bowie down to Earth
- “This is not a war zone, this is not a riot, this is a System Of A Down concert in Brazil!”: Aerial footage of Sao Paulo System mega-gig goes viral
- “People think I’ve been to the moon, they think I’ve met an alien”: The National’s Matt Berninger on how people react when they find out he’s worked with Taylor Swift, and why she’s such a great lyricist
- "The burglars either had no idea - or knew exactly what they were doing": Esteemed Cologne venue Essigfabrik just had its entire soundsystem stolen in a “Hollywood-worthy” robbery
- "The lie is or would have been that I quit – I didn’t": Zak Starkey sacked from The Who - again
May 17
- “Some people act like that line is nonsense, and I just don't understand that”: How the Killers’ misunderstood classic drew on a struggle with faith - and an MTV presenter’s time with Iraq war veterans
- “I sometimes do seven shows in a week. A week! I did 91 cities in 2024 — I’m not exaggerating. For an old man I think I deserve a little credit”: Why ex-Skid Row star Sebastian Bach is the hardest working man in showbiz
- “Mayer on guitar, Grohl on drums. A lot of fun making this”: Ed Sheeran just revealed the cross-brand, multi-star pile-on he’s made for the F1 movie
May 16
- “We are open to just about anything... I am all for writing anything that sounds like a cavalcade of horses!” Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec are crafting an epic journey, one riff at a time, as Pelican's original lineup takes flight again
- It’s Britney, Twitch… 25 years after Oops I Did It Again the streaming service best known for games wants you to listen to 12 hours of non-stop Spears
- “Getting kinda saucy already”: Watch Lindsey Buckingham react as he checks out Charli XCX’s Von Dutch video for the first time... alongside his daughter
- "I snuck in an easter egg that most people don't know about - I don't think anyone's found it yet": Teenage Engineering engineer reveals hidden Pocket Operator feature
- “The acrobatics. The sexuality. In his prime, he was the super frontman of all time”: The rock icon hailed by Gene Simmons as the GOAT
- From bedroom to billions… The Sunday Times Rich List 2025 just revealed the wealth and rankings of the UK’s biggest music stars
- “I love making bangers. Someone’s got to make them. I’m really proud when they come out of me”: Lorde reveals that she used the drums from Radiohead’s Reckoner while she was writing new single What Was That, and they probably weren’t too hard to find
- Roland puts 8 classic Boss effects pedals in a new plugin, and there are more to come... but they're only available with a Roland Cloud subscription
May 15
- "Window or aisle, how would you like to return home?": Dweezil Zappa on how his dad ran his band
- “In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict”: Springsteen issues rallying cry against Trump at Manchester gig
- Arturia upgrades its MicroLab MIDI keyboard with new keybed, sustain input and USB-C - and slashes the price
- "Circular begins with a single note, but it never stays there": Native Instruments releases polyphonic sequencer that can "transform one note into a stunning soundscape"
- "Everybody was going 'Does anybody know how to work this thing?'": How Guy Fletcher and a classic ‘80s synth became Dire Straits’ secret weapon on Brothers In Arms, and helped to turn it into one of the biggest albums of the decade
- “He went into this trance state as he played. I’d be sitting there at the console and he would lean on me while he was playing. And it was kind of weird – it was like it was coming through me”: A close encounter with the genius of Eddie Van Halen
- “I’m in and I’m really looking forward to it”: First non-Gallagher member confirmed for Oasis reunion line up
- “Each of the three modes represents a milestone in pedal history”: Fortin triples down on modded-TS tones with the Fourteen – an boost/overdrive pedal representing the “apex of Mike Fortin’s modification philosophy”
- "We're fighting for our lives": Neil Young and John Mellencamp confirmed for Farm Aid 2025
- “It’s cheating, if you like, for somebody who can’t play an instrument to press a button and then the instrument plays”: Watch Peter Gabriel and futurist Ray Hammond debate the impact of the synthesizer back in 1983
- “In uncertain times, dominated by the ascendancy of soul-dead oligarchs, their corrosive technology and looting economics, the great positive constant for humanity remains our infinite capacity for love.”: Irvine Welsh is releasing a disco album
- “I sit at my piano and watch skies moving and trees blowing and that’s far more exciting than buildings and roads and millions of people”: The strange story of the Kate Bush classic Cloudbusting
- “Next time don’t bring a wet sponge to a tech fight”: deadmau5 just beat down DJ James Hype by beating Elden Ring with a Pioneer CDJ-3000
- “It looks like the allure of a trove of training data is just too great to be turned down in the age of generative AI": SoundCloud denies that it uses your music to train AI
May 14
- “The old-school Jackson logo, that’s pretty much the pièce de résistance! And it plays even better than it looks”: Jackson gives its metal thrashing X Series Scott Ian King V a super-classy makeover
- “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”: When the Beatles stole the Rolling Stones’ thunder and dropped Hey Jude at the Beggars Banquet launch party
- Underworld, Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada and William Orbit: PinkPantheress has sampled the cream of '90s and '00s UK electronic music on new mixtape, Fancy That
- “This is another item that people kill for. This is the sound of Diamond Sea… This is such a preposterously cool item”: Sonic Youth are selling some super rare gear on Reverb – including Lee Ranaldo’s first electric guitar and a holy grail Ludwig Phase II
- Fresh from covering Radiohead, Billie Eilish has now tackled a Coldplay classic on her Hit Me Hard And Soft Tour (and it's not the first time she's sung it)
- The Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335 has just seen its biggest ever discount - this is a call to save a whopping £380 at Andertons
- "Crafted from Heritage. Tuned for Tomorrow": Zultan Cymbals celebrate their 25th birthday with a new high-end 25 series
- "Can you believe this?": Watch Pulp drummer Nick Banks join tribute band Pulp’d at Fake Festival
- Sexy drill, lagu timur and elector corridos - the international genres blowing up on Spotify in 2025
- “I like the real thing that happens when you dig in a little bit and the amp starts to cry for mercy”: Is the compressor pedal a country guitar essential? Brad Paisley doesn’t think so – and here’s why
- “We used to work with Fleetwood Mac a lot on the uni circuit. You could sit down beside the stage and they’d start playing - der-der, der-der - for an hour and a half. We wanted to do that”: Francis Rossi on how Status Quo developed their 12 bar boogie
- Tempo shifts, key changes and the return of nonsense lyrics: Is Eurovision 2025 set to be the most musically weird contest in its history?
- “Paul’s basslines, while they’re iconic and memorable and musical, they’re not really technically challenging”: How McCartney’s sidekick Brian Ray juggles bass and guitar — and plays the Lennon role in The End
- “It’s not technically hard - a third-grader can play these bits. But on the spot? That’s kind of the difference”: The guitarist on Michael Jackson’s I Just Can’t Stop Loving You on how he found the right moments to play his “little earworms”
- "This is very much the last time around”: Make the most of the Oasis reunion says the band's co-manager
- “Use as a little gain as you can to get the idea across, which may still be all the gain in the world”: Periphery’s Misha Mansoor on exploring “absurd” tunings, his friends' genius, and why he is looking for someone to teach him guitar
- “We threw strings at the track and it exploded”: How a pop anthem turned into a wedding song favourite
- “I’m not even sure what size venues I can play. I don’t know what I can afford, and if it would just be me blowing £100,000 on something to give me pleasure": Gary Kemp admits that even big names can’t afford to tour
- Roland's V-Drums go wireless for new simple and seamless WT-10 sensor and DH-10 hub DrumLink system
- M-Audio upgrades its M-Track Duo budget audio interface with "pro-quality" converters and USB-C connectivity
May 13
- “Its robust construction, low self-noise, and ability to emulate a range of classic microphones make it a valuable asset”: Universal Audio SC-1 review
- “It’s a really wild, weird tuning, and something that low would just not work if you didn’t have a 30-inch scale”: Periphery’s Misha Mansoor on how the Fender Bass VI inspired his Jackson baritone offset – and the “absurd” super-low tuning he uses on it
- “You can hear how loose it is - you can hear how not gridded it is”: Producer Jack Antonoff on how he channelled the Beatles and Jeff Lynne for the drums and bass on Sabrina Carpenter’s Please Please Please
- “I was watching an episode of Friends and someone was wearing a Motörhead T-shirt. Literally an hour later, I got a call to work on their record!”: Romesh Dodangoda on how he became one of modern rock's most in-demand producers
- “I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist": Madonna has teamed up with Netflix and the producer/director Shawn Levy for a series based on her life
- “Making music is like constructing a machine whose function is to dredge up emotions in performer and listener alike”: How becoming more in-tune with our feelings when listening to music made us better creators - with a little thanks to David Byrne
- "I have a whole crowd in front of me, and all I want to do is hug him”: Someone just paid $12,495 to be Kiss icon Gene Simmons' roadie for a day
- Want a gig at the Montreux Jazz Festival? Thomann and Shure want to gift you your big break at the famous global gathering
- Chad Smith just destroyed the Wu-Tang Clan in his latest drum tuition video
- “I used the snare drums I played on those early records, including the snare I played on Two Princes”: Why the Spin Doctors are still rocking with the same old gear they used in the ’90s
- “She played it for us, and we were like, ‘Oh, my God’”: The last song Jill Sobule wrote before her death was entitled JD Vance Is A...
May 12
- "There's too much new gear!": The 12 best instruments, effects and innovations you need to know about from Superbooth 2025
- “This book will serve as a reliable companion on your journey through drumming”: Millenium launches new book for drummers
- “Prince was really excited and kept pumping us up, saying ‘We’re making history tonight’”: How Prince summoned one of the greatest guitar solos of all time from thin air
- “I met him at his house and he played the drums for me”: As he prepares to play him in the Beatles biopics, Barry Keoghan has been studying Ringo Starr’s technique up close
- “It was a joke and suddenly it became a genre. I don't even understand it. I never understood it”: Daryl Hall can’t get onboard with the concept of yacht rock - “It's just R&B, with maybe some jazz in there"
- "I remember in the studio thinking: ‘Oh my God, how am I going to deliver this to the label tomorrow?’ I’d totally lost sight of its potential": A music professor breaks down the theory behind All Saints' Pure Shores
- “While we were all eager to return to the stage, Sean's health is our top priority at this moment”: Alice In Chains pull tour after drummer experiences "non-life-threatening medical emergency"
- “It felt like every song was 20 minutes long. It was not comfortable”: Suzanne Vega explains why she had to play her groundbreaking 1989 Glastonbury set wearing a bulletproof vest
- New to synthesis? This free synth plugin can help you learn how it works
- “It’s really weird: 400 students asking questions, and I’m the only person there - and I’m the instructor - who can’t read music”: Acoustic guitar hero Tommy Emmanuel plays The Beatles and Oasis as he discusses the glaring gap in his musical knowledge
- “I remember saying, ‘Come on, you’re gonna edit it down to, what, four bars?’ Harold goes, ‘No, we’re gonna keep everything.’ And they did!”: How a guitar hero's epic 64-bar solo lit up a classic movie theme
May 10
- “If you’re a singer, you’re totally reliant on your body. You can't put a bit more distortion on your amp or use effects. You can’t compensate. You’re very exposed”: Why Iron Maiden had to change their singer to reach the next level
May 9
- “The only difference for me between me calling it an album and a mixtape is what I went into it thinking it was”: PinkPantheress on why her new project, Fancy That, is a mixtape rather than an album
- "A versatile jack-of-all-trades, with some excellent displays of mastery at times": Fender Player II Modified Precision Bass review
- “John said, ‘I don’t know where to go from here.’ So Paul said, ‘Well, I’ve got this other song I’ve been working on.’ They joined the two bits together to make one song”: The story of the greatest thing The Beatles ever recorded
- "While being dubbed the ‘Metallica Quake’ online, it actually posed no danger": Metallica’s Enter Sandman triggers mini earthquake on its American Football ‘homecoming’
- “I had a bit of a shock because I’d just come from working with Yes, who had done 1,000s of live shows and were all brilliant players. Frankie Goes To Hollywood had done 5 shows and they could barely play”: Trevor Horn on the making of Relax
- “I was hypnotised when I was a little boy - by my dentist who was experimenting with hypnotism”: Pete Townshend reveals why he always does his best on stage, as The Who announce final US tour
- “We may jump up on stage and jam. It's very loose”: Gene Simmons tells Kiss fans to expect the unexpected at the band’s upcoming Las Vegas event
- “You sir, are an absolute madman. I can't imagine how long this took”: You have to see this astonishing Lose Yourself movie mash-up
May 8
- 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
- Novation’s Bass Station II has officially entered its Swifty era, thanks to a new collaboration with a highly respected British designer
- “It is an absolute phenom for us to be able to present to you now our teenage aspirations in this song”: Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are living out their teenage dreams in the video for their new single featuring the ‘Voice of Rock’ Glenn Hughes
- “We’ve carefully considered what matters most to musicians and sound designers”: Groove Synthesis announces a more compact and affordable version of its superb 3rd Wave synth
- Why are parts of the Melvins’ old touring van being sold for up to $40,000?
- L-Acoustics’ new DJ-aimed stem separation software can pull apart any stereo source and fire its elements across a 360 soundstage in the blink of an eye
- Roland releases free update to the SH-4d bringing new oscillator models and the ability to pattern chain
- Calling all synth heads, Thomann just dropped the sale of the year with up to 80% off models from Moog, Behringer, Arturia and more
- Novation's Launch Control XL 3 boasts updated hardware and sleek new design, along with MIDI connectivity for DAWless music-makers
- Phase8, Korg’s ‘acoustic synth’, is finally confirmed for release, and it looks and sounds awesome
- Superbooth 2025: all the latest synth news from Berlin, as it happened
- "True to the Moog legacy and innovative spirit of Dr. Robert Moog": Moog unveils new $899 analogue monosynth, Messenger
May 7
- “Musical equipment does not appreciate being stored away... please keep creating, pushing boundaries”: 12 pieces of Andy Weatherall’s studio gear are now up for auction
- “The neck is carved and rolled to Eddie Van Halen’s exacting specifications”: An EVH electric guitar with fixed bridge and fine tuners? The Wolfgang Special TOM is one classy no-fuss speed machine
- "He’s still in my dreams two or three times a week, getting on my case about something": Motörhead’s Phil Campbell prepares to unveil an 8ft bronze of his bandmate, Lemmy Kilmister
- “Designed to replace your laptop and become the brain of your setup”: Bento is an all-in-one DAW in a box that does 'everything 1010music users have been asking for'
- “This beast of a guitar is built for speed, equipped for domination”: Jackson refreshes three classics as stripped down single-pickup shred machines – meet the limited edition Pro Plus Pure Metal range
- “Why is there no amp that can do a really nice clean, and a really nice gain-y tone, with a reverb on it?”: Victory satisfies Pete Honore’s tone cravings and rehouses his Deputy tube amp in a portable lunchbox format
- “Not another multi-effect for your dentist,” but Polyend’s Mess looks like an FX sequencing powerhouse that you can really get your teeth into
- “It replaced three plugins on my vocal bus - I love it!ˮ: Meet Velvet, iZotope’s new smart vocal smoothing tool
- Arturia embraces NKS - and offers hardware owners free access to Native Instruments' Komplete 15 Select
- The ultra-rare PPG 1002 has been rebuilt for the 21st century - and it comes with a jaw-dropping price tag
- “We were able to up the gain and the volume on tap way past the levels we would normally get”: ThorpyFX’s Hanami fuzz pedal is packing NOS germanium, dynamic, and blooming lovely
- One of our favourite instruments of 2024 gets even better as Polyend adds an experimental sample engine to Synth
- “I'm so glad that the Erica Synths crew was able to carry out the vision and finish the dream!": Hexinverter Électronique’s planned analogue drum machine never made it to market, but the HexDrums is set to put that right
- “Okay, I’m saying it. I didn’t post the video because Giacomo couldn’t play well enough to be on my channel”: Rick Beato comments on the Giacomo Turra plagiarism scandal and says stealing other people’s music is “completely not cool”
- Ableton drops 1.5 update for Move, adding sample slicing, improved MIDI I/O and a new Auto-Filter device
- “I turned to my assistant and said 'Man, this sounds like it's going to be big’”: Shakira and Wyclef Jean reunite for a 20th anniversary performance of Hips Don’t Lie, a song that began life in the Dirty Dancing movie that you’ve never seen
- Instruō's new semi-modular Seashell offers time-saving total recall of parameters via software
May 6
- Moog teases new Messenger synth with freaky Severance-inspired video
- “The PB-62 continues our tradition of delivering outstanding price-to-performance value, and a fresh take on a classic theme”: Vintage mojo from a $180 beginner bass guitar? Meet the Harley Benton PB-62
- "Create unique and professional tracks in seconds": Sugar Bytes' Dialekt is an 8-track groovebox that can create instant songs in a variety of genres
- “This isn’t just an Artist Signature model – it’s a glimpse into what could have been, had this concept made it to production”: Fender and Brad Paisley introduce the 1967 ‘Lost Paisley’ Telecaster
- “At last, we get our first album to sound as we imagined it should sound… Phew!”: 52 years later, Queen have finally got their debut album right, says Roger Taylor
- Definitely not a complete unknown: Hollywood star rumoured to be playing a ‘secret’ set at Glastonbury
- The LIVE Trust charity just made its first £500,000 from voluntary ticket price contributions
- “It’s a $20 plugin…I love it because sometimes the problem with digital sounds is they just lack a little bit of character”: Steven Wilson reveals his favourite plugin is a lo-fi cassette emulator and it is on all the guitars on his latest prog epic
- “I sat down, gathered all my historical track sheets about everything we did each day during the production of the album": Ken Caillat, the producer of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, on writing the book that he believes inspired a hit Broadway musical
- If you’re struggling creatively, don’t make owning that $2,000 synth your primary objective: Why tech isn’t to blame for your lack of inspiration
- Years after Thom Yorke told her that she was “the only one doing anything interesting these days,” Billie Eilish has covered Radiohead’s Creep
- “A half-million dollars of tone at your feet”: Nail the sound of a holy grail tube amp with a pedal you made yourself – JHS Pedals unveils the NOTADÜMBLË solderless DIY kit
- “All Strats aren't equal… Then it’s how you smack it, or zing it or strum it… A lot of it is that too”: Session guitar legend Michael Thompson reveals how he created the famous clean tone that’s on countless '80s and '90s hits
- ‘Artist centric’ music streamer Deezer just made €134 million in the first quarter of 2025
- Ever wondered if you need a subwoofer and which one to buy? Kali Audio has the perfect options for producers
- The Faces have completed 11 tracks for an album, says Kenney Jones and “most of them are good”
May 5
- "This is a guitar that proves affordability can still bring looks that stun": Gretsch G5230T Electromatic Sparkle Jet FT review
- “I was frightened, but I was like, ‘ok, big boy pants time. Step up to the plate, here comes the pitch and you can either knock it out or you can strike’”: Bob Dylan's live engineer Jason Frankhouser on mixing front-of-house for The Never Ending Tour
- “There are very few artists whose best work was the very last thing they ever did in their lives”: Ronnie James Dio is the exception that proves the rule, says ex-Skid Row star Sebastian Bach
- “You have everyone from senior citizens to little kids who like heavy metal music. It's a very friendly community”: Scary? Moi? Ghost’s Tobias Forge reckons you've got metal all wrong
- "I have a very emotional relationship with my machines”: Djrum on how a catastrophic technological failure led to one of 2025’s best electronic albums
May 4
- “The groove was so thick, and what am I playing? A simple, Boom-Bop-Tish-Bop-Boom-Bop? It was unbelievable”: The making of Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love
- One man spent an entire year recording a pine tree. Hear the results as FOUR album epic is released
- “It was just fun, and if you ask me how I did it I don't know, because I think I was in a flow process”: Rihards Zalupe on composing the music for the Oscar-winning animated movie, Flow
May 3
- “It’s one of the most affecting responses to death ever put on record”: 9 fresh long reads on tracks with astounding musical moments
May 2
- “Listen closely to your mistakes, are they really mistakes? Many of the best ideas on our album came from these happy accidents”: 50 production secrets from the pros
- “We’d do a soundcheck and everything would be great, but when we came to do the show, it wouldn’t turn on”: 10 more things producers can learn from our In The Studio With... series
- “When I started I didn't really know what a producer was. I just thought artists would produce themselves, because that's what I would have done”: Adele, Stormzy and Kae Tempest collaborator Fraser T Smith on the shifting definition of a ‘producer’
- “There's no wrong way to record. Like, people say, ‘oh, this is a good mic and this is a bad mic.’ There is no such thing”: Rafa Sardina on a career producing, mixing and engineering for the stars
- “The amount of streams on a song isn't indicative of the quality or effort put into it”: And Doja Cat says that those who disagree with this “could be having an episode and should seek love from the outside”
- “He was a great hero to all of us, and because he wore glasses this even allowed John Lennon to wear his in public and not have to whip them off if there was a girl passing by!”: Paul McCartney salutes a rock ’n’ roll legend
- “I’d urge anyone wanting to make music to avoid waiting around for others to give you permission”: Eli Keszler on staying true to yourself as an artist, working with Skrillex and Oneohtrix Point Never, and his self-titled new project
- “If you’ve never encountered modes before, this one tip could change your musical outlook forever”: 10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
- “The whole essence of why the sound was so interesting is because it is going from all to nothing in milliseconds”: The classic hit that defined the sound of the ’80s — and features the most famous drum break in rock
- “I thought: Oh, f_____g hell, she’s got an idea. Here we go. Then everyone and their f_____g mate started jumping on board”: Ozzy Osbourne confirms his attendance at this summer’s Back To The Beginning mega gig
- “Miles runs into the studio with his horn and shouts ‘hit the record button,’ and we were recording. We wrapped that album up by midday”: Billy Cobham on Miles Davis’s agile approach to recording
- “PC Music was just two guys in a room making stuff and uploading it to the internet - that’s where it starts”: Danny L Harle on self-discovery, success and helping unsigned artists find their sound
May 1
- “You could take everything away from me but leave the laptop and I'm confident I could make interesting music quite happily for the rest of my life”: Lone on the gear behind his technicolour, rave-adjacent electronica
- “One of the concepts we are exploring is whether an artist could continue to create work after they have passed away”: The groundbreaking tech that will shape the future of music production
- “If you messed something up on a production, admit it, fix it, and move on”: 8 cost-free tips to improve as a producer in 2025
- "I switched to a Stratocaster - I got a really good deal in the middle of the night for $120 - and then in 1972, Lowell George showed me his MXR compressor pedal”: Bonnie Raitt on how she developed her famous slide guitar style
- “The melodies work so well in this CGDGAD tuning. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with this arrangement”: Magic Mike Dawes is at it again – he’s turned a Sleep Token track into a work of solo acoustic guitar genius
- “He’d start, ‘You’ll never guess what I dreamed last night…’ and the groaning would begin”: How Rush marshalled Alex Lifeson’s dreams to write a bona-fide prog-rock classic
- “I pulled this Moog bass forward… we were like, ‘OK, that feels kind of trashy’”: Lorde says that she needed to find “just the right amount of dirt” to finish her new single, What Was That
- PreSonus’s Quantum HD interfaces can be the heart of a powerful, convenient recording setup
- Soundtoys just dropped the best free reverb plugin we've tried in years - grab it now before it costs $99
- “I knew since I first listened to the music that it was gonna be big - because the music was incredible”: Charli XCX's Brat mastering engineer Idania Valencia on finalising a modern classic
- “He stopped writing, I think, because he just ran out. He had used that guitar neck up. He did everything and anything that neck could do”: Sammy Hagar explains Eddie Van Halen's lost years
- “After every take, Mutt would say, ‘Check the tuning, man!’ This went on and on for almost a year. One day, I just gave him the guitar and said, ‘You tune it. I can’t take this anymore!’”: How legendary producer Mutt Lange drove the Cars half-mad
- “Last time I saw my mother alive was at her own father’s funeral. It sounds almost too Irish": Bono shares trailer for his Apple TV+ documentary
- “If it’s not all samples, what did those people do to get that credit on the song?”: Diane Warren on the trend for hit songs having multiple writers, and why she prefers to work alone
- “We could see John begin smiling. At the end of the first verse, he gave an exuberant thumbs-up and McCartney and Harrison began slapping each other on the back”: How one Beatles track spawned a recording technique revolution
- ‘Ain’t Going Down Without a Fight’: Michael Bolton confirms he has incurable brain cancer
- “Some of the greatest musicianship right now is young and female... If you want to take a course in great songwriting, go study at the college of Taylor Swift”: Sheryl Crow heaps praise on Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan and Phoebe Bridgers
- “All the albums I did with Metallica were recorded on 24-track analogue tape. There’s not a computer in sight”: How Flemming Rasmussen produced Metallica’s classic Master Of Puppets