All content archive

June 2025

Filter

Year
Month

284 articles

June 30
- "It’s just $50, and it’s the best reverb for the buck": Video game soundtrack composer Jason Graves reveals his go-to reverb plugin behind the sounds of Still Wakes the Deep
- “There is a special place in hell for those people that went for this business model”: Are plugin subscription services really as bad as some people say?
- How to record virtual and live instruments more smoothly by taking stock of your DAW's sample buffer
- "It's a stupendously powerful tool": 10 of the best sampler plugins in 2025
- “I won’t miss being in a sh** band with horrible humans”: Mastodon guitarist slams ex-bandmates
- “She thought anything could be pop - she wanted pop to be pushed to its extremes”: Sophie’s brother and studio engineer talks completing her final album and the legacy she left behind
- Fantastic (free) plugins and how to use them: The Wave Warden Odin 2
- PreSonus at Plugin Week 2025: Studio One Pro 7.2 takes you all the way from idea to finished track - without adding a single third-party plugin
- “He is perhaps the best songwriter to come out of England, he is a Glastonbury legend and a personal hero of mine”: Olivia Rodrigo surprises fans during her headline Glastonbury set by duetting with The Cure’s Robert Smith
- “Eddie told me, ‘Roth is driving me nuts. I can't take it. I gotta leave. I know you're looking for a lead guitar player. Do you want me in the band?’”: When Eddie Van Halen asked to join Kiss — and they turned him down!
- “It’s one of the greatest cities ever, it’s given the world so much”: Black Sabbath have been awarded the freedom of Brum
- Excite Audio collaborates with KSHMR to create a new Bloom instrument that brings the sound of Indian music to any DAW, and you can grab the Lite version for just $5
- “It's absolutely not necessary – people can get by their whole careers without knowing music theory": Producer Lawrence Hart on the mixed blessings of classical training and the importance of being ‘scrappy’ in the studio
- The beginners guide to virtual instruments: What are 'VIs', 'plugins' and 'VSTs' anyway? And how can you make the best use of them in your music?
- “The idea that singing with deliberate Auto-Tune makes you a fraud or that not having a traditional band means you must not be a ‘real artist’ is like, the most boring take ever”: Charli XCX addresses "boomer vibe" criticism of her Glastonbury performance
- “They are the three classics that I love to listen to, and they all remind me of certain times in my life”: McCartney names his all time top three albums
- The ultimate soft synth showdown: Serum 2, Pigments 6, Phase Plant, Vital and Massive X: But which is best?
- Roland at Plugin Week 2025: TR-707/TR-727 - Buy one, get one free!
- Eventide at Plugin Week 2025: Eventide H3000 Factory MK II Brings the Legendary H3000 Harmonizer® to Your DAW
- Expressive E at Plugin Week 2025: Discover Soliste — A next-gen MPE string plugin suite for real-time expression
- Sonible at Plugin Week 2025: Rewriting the reverb rulebook with the intuitive, AI-powered smart:reverb 2
- EastWest Sounds at Plugin Week 2025: Introducing LO-FI & Ancient Kingdom PLUS get ComposerCloud+ for its lowest price ever
- Dreamtonics at Plugin Week 2025: Add vocals to your songs with Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro – No singing required
- Antares at Plugin Week 2025: AutoTune's AI-Powered vocal chain delivers pro results without the guesswork
- u-he at Plugin Week 2025: u-he's MFM2 More Feedback Machine is a sound designer's dream with four independent delay lines, multimode filters, a flexible mod matrix and more
- IK Multimedia at Plugin Week 2025: Total Studio 5 MAX v2 is an all-in-one production toolbox that offers unbeatable value and convenience
June 29
- “It was the height of our popularity. And of course, when you’ve peaked there’s nowhere to go but down”: How the ‘Worst Band In The World’ had their revenge with the noisiest No.1 album of all time
- “We're talking about measurable increases in dopamine, reduced anxiety, and better emotional resilience”: Why making music is actually good for you
- Plugin Week 2025: Exhibitor A-Z
June 28
- “Mick came in with a song, but it was very Dylan-esque. It was like a ballad. ‘No, no. Let’s rethink. What if we push the beat up a bit?’”: How The Rolling Stones created their Satanic, samba-fuelled masterpiece Sympathy For The Devil
- "I like childlike exploration. Maybe it's a bit of ego, but it feels good to discover things": Tresor resident Nadia Struiwigh on why she avoids tutorials and keeps things 'loose' in the studio
- "I woke up the next day and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s over. I know it’s over'": Lorde used MDMA therapy to cure her stage fright
June 27
- “Neil Young’s career has been conducted on his own terms”: BBC confirm that they won’t be showing his Glastonbury set “at the artist’s request”
- “I pretty much haven't worked since 2020”: How the effects of Long COVID have harmed professional musicians and DJs
- "In a blind test of 100 musicians, it beat the $200 plugin 3-to-1. Not bad for a free app": AudioKit releases Synth One J6, a free Juno-inspired synth for iOS
- "He thought of all the sounds we chose as my voices - these machines are singing and crying and talking or laughing in the same way that we do”: Lorde on the Frank Ocean collaborator who helped to humanise the synth sounds on her new album, Virgin
- "There's not a shred of evidence on the internet that this band has ever existed": This apparently AI-generated artist is racking up hundreds of thousands of Spotify streams
- “The energy on that train was unreal”: Sam Ryder performs an impromptu set for passengers on a Glastonbury-bound train
- Glastonbury 2025 secret act rumours: odds shorten on Lewis Capaldi and Robbie Williams enters the fray
- “We were even encouraged to dig out some particularly gnarly old stuff that hadn’t seen the light of day in years”: Freqport FreqInOut FO1 review
- "On this particular occasion, I dropped some beats, apparently. I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find them!": Zak Starkey on his Who sacking, plus advice for new Oasis drummer and Ringo-playing actor
June 26
- “These all-new models are packed with the performance and attitude that defined the electrifying sound of the ‘80s!”: Harley Benton erupts with retro shred fever as it launches the Floyd-equipped ST-80FR Series
- “My head was full of, ‘it’s going to be a disaster’”: Bob Geldof looks back at Live Aid in new trailer for 40th anniversary documentary, When Rock 'n' Roll Took On the World
- “The guitar is like a spaceship, like a Formula 1 car”: Uli Jon Roth says his Sky Guitar’s “Mega-Wing” active pickup system had so much output that it blew up his amps one by one
- “No, I would be honoured...”: Who would Ozzy Osbourne like to do a duet with?
- Excite Audio and KSHMR team up for South Asian-inspired software instrument based on authentic recordings
- Digitakt II’s new firmware update adds a major user-requested feature – and finally lets it step out of the shadow of the original
- “Okay, there’s not really an easy way to describe what this thing does”: Behringer launches the BM-15M Murf Box, a $129 animated filter pedal inspired by a Moog classic from the ‘00s
- “He played a chord and I was like, ‘this might be the best chord I’ve ever heard in my life’”: PinkPantheress on the pop star who she says is like “AI in a person, musically”, and has also been praised by Taylor Swift and Elton John
- “Your passport to deep vibes and low-altitude cruising. No turbulence, just pure vibes”: Deadmau5 launches his own 24/7 Youtube stream
- “Bowie gave them the song but Mick wrote the intro — and it’s the lick of all licks”: Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott pays tribute to ex-Mott The Hoople and Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs
- “The Tritone was universally loved by the crew but the vibes clashed with the palette of the Soft Focus Deluxe”: Catalinbread is selling off its prototype guitar pedals, and the first is a “B-side” pitch echo from its smash-hit shoegaze stompbox
- “The show can go on even in the midst of sheer, utter embarrassment”: LeAnn Rimes' teeth fall out but she finishes her set
- Best guitar VSTs 2025: Get the best simulated guitar tones for your next production
- “She sang it once. That was it. That’s the record, that’s the vocals. From a vocal standpoint, no one has that much courage. And of course it was spectacular”: How Alanis Morissette made You Oughta Know — with a little help from two Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Start your Independence Day weekend with a bang, as the Musician's Friend 4th of July sale lands early - score up to $850 off Music Man, $200 off Elektron and more
June 25
- “Unbeatable... A guitar built for sessions, ready for all occasions”: Duesenberg Alliance Series Tom Bukovac Session Man review
- “I had a raincoat with a squiggly design on the back and I thought it would cool on a guitar”: Strandberg and Plini team up for signature version of Boden Standard with glow-in-the-dark Mirage graphic finish
- “We were thinking… how loud could this place get?”: Taylor Swift’s first live performance since taking ownership of her original masters was of one of her biggest hits
- 8 things you can do with Ableton Live's updated Auto Filter device
- “She got them to think a little bit about what their rights were”: Five Finger Death Punch take Swift action
- “When you talk about just knowledge of music and of instrumentation, he is a literal genius”: Shinedown frontman Brent Smith on what makes Rick Beato a great producer
- “He was the leader of the band, he would write the setlist, he would deal with the fan clubs and the merchandise, co-produce the albums and co-write the music. He, to me, was a role model”: Which A-list metal drummer could Mike Portnoy be talking about?
- "There’s been all kinds of backstage wrangling": Emily Eavis “does not believe” that Neil Young’s Glastonbury set will be shown on the BBC
- New data reveals The Beatles song that most guitarists, pianists and drummers want to learn to play - but bassists have a different favourite
- Roland finds inner peace with Mood Pan, an electronic percussion instrument designed to help you "discover the restorative power of music"
- These huge drum deals at Sweetwater are about to disappear – here’s your last chance to bag up to 60% off electronic drums, cymbals, sticks and more
- “I really hope the patchwork is a hint about Glastonbury”: Fans might have worked out the identity of at least one Glastonbury secret act
- “Its voice is earthy, honest and uncomplicated… seasoned and soulful”: Taylor adds all-new Grand Pacific models to its state-of-the-art but vintage-voiced Gold Label range
- "An honest pair of compact, affordable monitors that are easy to set up": KRK Systems Kreate 5 review review
- “McCartney masterfully works his way around this theoretical dead end”: The lesser-heard theory tricks that lay behind the magic of the Beatles' Yesterday
- “Seriously, I recorded half of that album in my underpants”: How Daniel Bedingfield's bedroom-produced No. 1 rewrote the rules of pop - before he disappeared for decades
June 24
- “We spent more than four years in research and development, working closely with Herman to get everything exactly right”: PRS activates total shred mode for the launch of Herman Li’s feature-packed Chleo signature electric
- “Don’t miss this rare opportunity to own an accessible tribute to one of the world’s most famous, cherished, and valuable electric guitars”: Epiphone unveils Inspired By Gibson Custom version of Jeff Beck’s iconic 1954 Oxblood Les Paul
- "Everyone knew it would be carnage from the moment it was announced": PinkPantheress drops out of Glastonbury set with last-minute replacement
- “Got a sharp pain in my stomach, thought it was food poisoning, turned out to be appendicitis”: Steven Van Zandt to sit out next few Springsteen dates due to emergency surgery
- “I hit guitars really hard, and sometimes it makes them sound small”: Yungblud reveals his secret to making acoustic guitars sound massive – and drops a hint as to what his next signature electric might look like
- “We are the inventors of electro”: Emmanuel Macron wants French house to be added to UNESCO heritage list
- “Hildur’s instrument kind of occupies the typical guitar frequencies, and it feeds back. She often calls it a Jimi Hendrix cello”: Osmium - a new collective featuring Hildur Guðnadóttir - talk self-built instruments and exploring wild frontiers of sound
- “It's a big, warm, beautiful thing that surrounds you with gentle weirdness, essentially”: Glastonbury’s ambient-focused Tree Stage returns, complete with a quadrophonic sound system and Jon Hopkins’ Embodiment Breathing experience
- “Digital Bath is the most complex pedal we have ever developed. It took us nearly two years to get it absolutely perfect”: KHDK teams up with Chino Moreno for a delay that promises “immersive, melancholic textures” and an iconic Deftones tone
- "Hal heard one of the older guys say to another older musician, ‘These guys are going to wreck the business playing this rock & roll'": Wrecking Crew director explains how the group of LA’s elite session musicians got their name
- GForce Software makes FM synthesis simple with Halogen FM
- “Nothing prepares you for having it snatched away. My life was torn apart”: Missing – £150,000 18th-century violin. Last seen in a North London pub
- “Our Mick has passed, my heart just hit the ground”: Mick Ralphs, guitarist for Mott The Hoople and Bad Company, has died aged 81
- “It was not necessarily the record that in my mind I had planned on, but that’s the way creativity works”: Springsteen explains why he “wasn’t happy” with Born In The USA
June 23
- “It’s my favourite synth ever, but it takes a few days to program”: Jamie xx on the ultra-rare vintage synthesizer that shaped the sound of some of his biggest hits
- “And let me tell you... she is the biggest brat I have ever known”: After a surprise duet with Jamiroquai, Dua Lipa brings out Charli XCX at the second of her Wembley Stadium shows
- “It’s a cheap guitar, it sounds very direct, I did everything wrong, but I think they’re perfect notes”: Mark Knopfler names his favourite guitar solo
- “We wanted to, but they weren’t interested”: Pulp are not one of the ‘secret’ acts playing Glastonbury
- “I’d done way worse than just licking the bass. Humping and stuff like that!”: The raunchy video that powered a hair metal anthem all the way to No.1
- This unreleased Korg synth will be making its first live appearance in Floating Points' Glastonbury set
- “They are not powerless in the face of human monstrosity”: Greatest Hits Radio to broadcast 10-hour recreation of Live Aid
June 22
- “The smashing glass, the police sirens — it’s telling a story with sound. You’re seeing a movie running through your head”: In a house that was home to two Beatles, a heavy metal masterpiece was born
- “It took 400 audio tracks for me to get it to throw an error, which is frankly insane”: Asus ProArt P16 review
June 21
- “When I asked him what he thought of what I was doing, glam rock, he said, ‘Yeah, it’s great, but it’s just rock ’n’ roll with lipstick on!’”: How David Bowie and John Lennon bonded to create a funky No.1 hit that slammed celebrity culture
- "It was like I had died and gone to heaven. It was a really emotional moment”: Jimmy Page and the Robinson brothers tell the story of Live At The Greek
- “A worthy addition to Moog’s long history of analogue synths”: Moog Messenger review
June 20
- “At times it can really feel like more of a multi-effects pedal rather than just a straight reverb pedal”: Electro-Harmonix Oceans Abyss review
- “We’ll push the boat out here and say that this could be its finest synth plugin to date”: Cherry Audio ODC 2800 review
- “Although it might not feel natural, when you translate what he does for guitar, it sounds different”: Adrian Smith on how Steve Harris is the secret to Iron Maiden’s triple-guitar attack – and the prog instincts driving their sonic evolution
- Did Sabrina Carpenter “switch it up like Nintendo” and incorporate a melody from Zelda’s Lullaby into Espresso? We’re not so sure
- “I think Roger just got lost. Roger’s finding it difficult. I have to be careful what I say about Roger because he gets angry if I say anything about him at all": Pete Townshend has his say on Zak Starkey’s protracted dismissal from The Who
June 19
- “I was never a ‘wrecker’ at all… that’s a terrible insulting name”: Legendary bassist Carol Kaye says she’s “turning down” the invitation to be at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony later this year
- “You bought it, you put it into the charts, not us": How a novelty sample almost derailed the Prodigy's fledgling career
- The unlikely encounter between a pre-fame Freddie Mercury and David Bowie at a London market
- “I love the show - I love the show more than I did the gig”: The Who’s Pete Townshend says he’s more of a fan of the Live Aid musical than the historic event that inspired it
- Expressive E launches its all new super-realistic virtual strings collection
- "He was one of the most talented people I've worked with. He went in the mic booth, put the headphones on, I let the track run down one time, instrumental, and when I rewound it he said he was ready”: The making of 2Pac’s era-defining hit California Love
- “Did he expect to find us as we had been seven years earlier, ready to start to work with him again?”: The strange, sad day that Syd Barrett unexpectedly showed up in the studio when Pink Floyd were making Wish You Were Here
June 18
- “There was talk about doing a pedal release in conjunction with the album, and the Dirt Transmitter was the perfect fit”: EarthQuaker Devices joins forces with Dave Catching of Rancho de la Luna to bring back an old EQD fuzz classic
- “Don’t need to be perfect. I want it to feel like I’m in the room by myself”: The first trailer for Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere shows The Boss recording Nebraska on his 4-track PortaStudio
- “That is so huge, and I wish somebody would have told me that when I was a kid”: Jason Isbell has some advice for any young player who has just bought their first acoustic guitar
- "There was this huge existential threat of what it meant for the world of songwriting”: Thinking Out Loud plagiarism case is finally dismissed and Ed Sheeran’s co-writer breathes a sigh of relief
- “You could clone me - but why the [eff] would you want to?”: Iced tea laced with Ozzy Osbourne’s DNA, anyone?
- “The greatest rock ballad of all time!”: The classic song that set a record by holding the No.2 spot in the US for 10 weeks without ever hitting No.1
- "Splice is now built directly into Pro Tools": Avid launches Pro Tools 2025.6 with Splice integration, AI speech-to-text engine and more
- “In the ’80s, MTV buttered our bread. But after Kurt Cobain wore his grandfather’s sweater in the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit, there was no place on MTV for bands like us and Mötley Crüe”: The life and death of the thinking person’s hair metal band
- “Use each side on its own or stack them for a wall of sound that’s articulate and powerful”: Cornerstone’s revamped Imperium V2 is a Dumble x TS-style stompbox that really is the definition of a 2-in-1 overdrive
- "There’s also an entitled, spoiled aspect to this": Josh Homme on his subterranean Alive In The Catacombs gig to 6 million skeletons
June 17
- Sonicware's LIVEN Evoke is a "nostalgia-evoking ambient music box" fusing acoustic and electronic sounds
- “Listings are getting taken down everywhere, so grab it before it disappears”: $2,000 for a $69 Klon clone? Some people are selling Behringer’s "Lawsuit" era Centaur Overdrive for crazy money online
- “That shouldn’t be a headline, but if you would like to make that the headline of this article...”: Haim push back again against people who question their songwriting, production skills and musicianship - despite a glowing endorsement from Bono
- Universal Audio's Anthem synth plugin promises to "put the biggest, baddest analogue sounds at your fingertips"
- “The most important thing is to be true to yourself so that, when you play, it sounds like you”: Fender gives Richie Kotzen’s head-turning MIJ signature Strat a global release
- Wanna be Their Man?: The Bootleg Beatles are after a new Paul McCartney
- “This modern version captures the look and vibe of his original, with only the features that Marcus finds essential”: Marcus King’s new signature Gibson ES-345 is the evolution of a family heirloom and offers a stripped down take on the original
- “Perfect for on-stage performance, in-studio recording or at-home practice”: Supro teams up with Two Notes for the IR-equipped Airwave – a vintage-voiced 25W tube combo with 21st-century functionality
- Who are Glastonbury's secret acts for 2025? Here's what the bookies reckon
- “I said to those guys, ‘I would like us to do something where you become Marlon Brando — where you can still be bad boys but there has to be an element of vulnerability’”: How producer Bob Ezrin added a new dimension to Kiss
- “It’s really kind of a miracle cure for those that have the Klon blues”: Keeley Electronics’ new Manis Overdrive remixes the classic K-style drive recipe for those who don’t like the original (and those who do)
- Here comes the sons: Zak Starkey, James McCartney and Sean Lennon unite on Rip Off
- “Every time I sing it I feel so honored”: Beyoncé wraps up her London residency by thanking Paul McCartney for writing “one of the best songs ever made”
- “There’s a freedom of thought that doesn’t exist elsewhere”: How and why California became the heart of the synthesizer world
- “It sounds like I’m making this up… but something happened”: How a sudden weather event help shape the sound of Richie Hawtin’s ‘90s Warp Records classic
June 16
- “An absolute disgrace”: Sam Ryder channels Brian May with a stadium-sized electric guitar performance of God Save The King, but not everyone's happy about it
- "I was gobsmacked. I said 'it's OK, it's fine', but Noel insisted I take it": How an Oasis recording engineer ended up with Noel Gallagher’s Wonderwall acoustic guitar after Liam Gallagher had smashed his '70s Fender at Abbey Road
- “No one ever knew the number, so it never rang”: The intriguing mystery of the ringing phone captured at the end of David Bowie’s Life on Mars
- “I got it right and Roger got it wrong... he came in a bar too early”: Zak Starkey offers a detailed explanation of the on-stage incident that led to him being fired from The Who
- "In previous years, due to wearable tech issues, we saw a rise of nearly 700 extra 999 calls in a weekend": British Police encourage moshing festival-goers to take off their smartwatches
- “In my opinion, as someone who was there, Randy never reached his peak. He was just getting started. I’m laughing at the thought of Randy reaching his peak with just two albums!”: The genius of Randy Rhoads — by his former bandmate
- "If you're tired of being one of the only women in the room when it comes to music production, we know how you feel": Music Production for Women announces free workshops in London, Dublin, Amsterdam and Berlin
June 15
- “At the heart of our band is...three musicians. And a salesman”: Bono suggests next U2 album will have a looser, less produced feel
- “They told me to start playing along, but I didn’t even know what key the song was in. And by the end they said, ‘You’re the only one who made it to the end of the song — you’re hired!’”: The madness of Captain Beefheart’s masterpiece Trout Mask Replica
- “One of the most iconic synthesizers of all time, in a highly usable and great sounding piece of software”: GForce Software Oberheim TVS Pro review
- “It’s about reconfiguring what a human voice is so it’s not just aesthetic, but political”: Lyra Pramuk turns vocal processing into protest on new project Hymnal
June 14
- “They said, 'how can you possibly do this, Brian?' I said, 'something got inside of me - I had to do something'”: Unpicking the Beach Boys' classic that confirmed Brian Wilson’s creative genius
- Sack The DJ: Apple Music now uses AI to mix tracks
- “I grew up in the greatest time in the history of mankind to be a musician. But now the deck is heavily stacked against old farts like myself!”: The classic rock singer exiled by his old band after writing their biggest hits
- “A good all round headphone suited to recording, mixing and mastering”: Adam Audio H200 Headphones review
June 13
- You don't need to be a music theory expert to make electronic music, but it helps - here's our guide to the basics
- “I met Dylan’s manager and they were just like, ‘Bob’s very grateful for all the sync money of that song’”: How Ed Sheeran generated royalties for Bob Dylan by borrowing from Jimi Hendrix
- “I dragged George Harrison in to listen to it on the way back from a Beatles session. He didn’t get it at all”: When the first Led Zeppelin album confused a Beatle — and was ignored by Mick Jagger
- "It’s been a tough few years": UK gear retailer PMT closes its doors, makes 96 staff redundant and sells £2.4m of stock to Gear4Music
- “I’ll cry if I go... I’d have done that gig for nothing, you know?” Zak Starkey on why he won’t be at any of the Oasis comeback gigs
June 12
- “Built for full-spectrum sound at high volume, providing the flexibility and control you need to explore new sonic territories”: Gretsch’s unveils new MIJ high-end semi-hollows with redesigned bodies and Pro Twin Six humbuckers
- “I don’t know if there’s any other artists in the world who make me so happy. They understood how to make fun music without it feeling cheesy or corny”: Sabrina Carpenter on her musical heroes, why she decided to release a new album so soon... and Rush
- Tick, tick, tick, tick, boom! Camtronome is the essential musical metronome app that you didn’t know you needed
- “They came up to my father and said ‘your son is brilliant at music, he’d be an incredible musician... I could’ve been a flutist”: Donald Trump is claiming musical bones
- “One of the most organic, alive-feeling synths I’ve tried – even if it occasionally feels like it’s trying to pick a fight”: Erica Synths Steampipe review
- Arturia's Mix DRUMS is an "all-in-one" drum processor that promises punchy, pro-sounding drums without the fuss
- “It doesn’t get anywhere close to The Dark Side Of The Moon, but a few years ago it had clocked up 12 million sales. That’s pretty big!”: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson on the band’s classic album — with the “bloody awful” cover
- “A bold new take on a classic metal machine”: Having ridden the wave of popular demand, Jackson’s Surfcaster offset has landed – and it’s built for speed
- “There is no question that there’s enough quality audio here to cater for every musical taste and presents a massive amount of editing options”: Alesis Strata Club review
- “The single biggest leap Line 6 has made in its near 30 year history of modelling amps”: Line 6 debuts all-new AI tech as it supercharges its amp modelling platform with the Helix Stadium series
- “A true gentleman and a great artist”: Tributes paid to Nitzer Ebb frontman Douglas McCarthy
- “It's the best song we ever did - It proves the best that you do isn't always the most successful”: 10 underrated Air tracks you absolutely need to hear
- “I said, ‘Rick, I’m playing one note, how do I play less?’ He said, ‘I know you can do it’”: Tom Petty keyboard player Benmont Tench says that being produced by Rick Rubin on Johnny Cash’s American IV album was like solving a puzzle
- “The world mourns a genius today”: Bandmates, friends and stars pay tribute to Brian Wilson
- “There is really only one chord in the whole song. E… something”: A music professor breaks down the theory behind Sly & The Family Stone's Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
- “The recording of Appetite For Destruction eventually cost $365,000. It was an outrageous amount to spend on a debut. I worried that we would never dig out of that hole”: Guns N’ Roses’ former manager Alan Niven on the making of a rock classic
June 11
- Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys and one of the most influential writers and producers in pop history, has died aged 82
- “I’ve actually performed it with him, and I’m afraid to say that during the soundcheck, I broke down”: The story behind The Beach Boys’ timeless masterpiece God Only Knows, a Brian Wilson co-creation that had a profound emotional impact on Paul McCartney
- “A fresh, distinctive kind of guitar that feels like the perfect introduction for those that only know us for our acoustics”: Orangewood teams up with TreeTone Guitars for its first-ever electric, and it’s a baritone semi-hollow offset priced just $695
- Paul McCartney unwittingly met the girl who’d later inspire the Beatles’ She’s Leaving Home years before writing the song
- “If you see me in my music, I haven’t done my job, but if you see yourself, my job is done”: Brandi Carlile reveals the songwriting maxim that Joni Mitchell lives by
- Teenage Engineering's TX-6, TP-7 and CM-15 are back in black
- “I’ve personally taken a lot of inspiration from the UK dance music scene": Mixwave just captured Sleep Token’s drummer – II – and trapped him inside a plugin
- “I get anxiety because I believe guitars should be played”: Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has too many guitars and has been anonymously selling them online
- “The engineer was so happy with the sound, he was not even mad about it. You know if an engineer likes a piece of gear, it must be pretty good”: Jack White says his new Fender amp sounded so good that he rerecorded half of the guitars on No Name with it
- "I wanted to sit down, open any plugin, and just start turning knobs": Dialr takes the headache out of MIDI mapping with "world's first" AI-powered plugin controller
- “I just do want to say that I know I can never, ever, ever, ever, ever attempt to replace or imitate Amy. I’m in awe of her”: Raye on her decision to work with Amy Winehouse producer Mark Ronson, and dealing with those inevitable comparisons
- Neil Peart called him 'the Wood Whisperer' and now he's blended metal and timber in DW's new SonicPly shells
- “We’re celebrating the fact that we survived this! What remains is the true essence of what this music is about”: Ozzy Osbourne's '80s bandmate says it was "a blessing" to work with the singer
- Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
- "They’ve got 13 songs they’re happy with and they are discussing when they can release it”: The Rolling Stones are busy recording a new album in London
- “Let’s go nefew! It’s time!”: Snoop Dogg’s biopic is flying high with a young Netflix star set to step into the seminal rapper’s sneakers
June 10
- "Up there as one of the better value for money metal guitars that you can currently buy": Spira S-450 TPP review
- “It features a smaller, parlour-sized body that is reminiscent of a scaled-down SJ-200 in overall shape”: Gibson has just unveiled a new Les Paul like no other
- “And so the first thing I do is put it in the middle position and play Oh Well”: Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr on that time he brought Duane Allman’s 1957 Les Paul to a Metallica show and ended up playing Kirk Hammett's Greeny
- “He’s now going around making up lies because I threw his band off the bill”: A band just got booted off the line-up for Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Sabbath Back To The Beginning megagig… But who?
- "A tape delay plugin that finally sounds like the real thing": Heritage Audio takes on the legendary Echoplex with its TAPEoPLEX plugin
- “Pigments is becoming so powerful it risks making the V Collection look obsolete”: Arturia Pigments review
- “Midnight, I got the call: come down to the studio. Finally, he’s ready. We’re talking. And then…”: British neo-soul pioneer Omar recalls the unusual reason why his first attempt to record with Stevie Wonder came to nothing
- “You’re used to Ozzy running around, but he certainly won’t be doing that for this show”: Tony Iommi has “excitement mixed with fear” ahead of Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s farewell gig
- "And then this Tumblr comes out and says all this stuff. And I was just, like, shocked:” Scooter Braun says he didn’t see the Taylor Swift feud coming
- “Mark and Laura had built their trademark sound with some unique specs and features on their primary instruments… we wanted to be able to share that”: Fender unveils DiMarzio-loaded signature Strat and Jazz Bass for Khruangbin’s Mark Speer and Laura Lee
- Arturia launches MiniFreak Vocoder Edition and drops firmware update for existing owners
- "From the moment his music reached me in the early 1970s, it became a part of my soul": Music stars align to pay homage to Sly Stone who died yesterday, aged 82
- “So yeah, we caused an earthquake - something to go on the CV”: The beloved British band whose comeback gig actually made the earth move
- “I said, ‘Damn, I wish I could have cut that song faster!’ So what we did was speed the tape up, which took the pitch up. If you listen to it, it’ll make sense!”: How a master guitarist made a cult classic instrumental album
- “I’m trying not to get angry, but it’s very difficult”: Richard Hawley to play one final show at renowned UK venue next week
- From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
- The ultimate guide to the circle of fifths and how it can help you make better music
- “Encouraged billions of users, all wilfully, and without a license”: Eminem is suing Meta for a potential $1million
June 9
- “A groundbreaking innovator, and a true pioneer who redefined the landscape of pop, funk, and rock music”: Sly Stone, leader of Sly and the Family Stone, has died aged 82
- “He said to me, ‘Hey man, your upstrokes are weak!’ I’m like, ‘You effin’ what?’ But he was right”: Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith says you never stop learning as a player
- “Do you really want to know why we stopped Netflix? You will not disrespect Prince on my watch": Prince Legacy representative speaks out on cancelled documentary, and outlines future release plans
- “Due to digital, music now has a terrible sort of housewifely tidiness. It's possible to fix absolutely everything”: Brian Eno on sonic perfectionism, Bowie and his new collaborative double album with Beatie Wolfe
- Olivia Rodrigo and David Byrne ignore the nasty weather and get down at the New York Governor’s Ball fest
- “Warner Brothers wanted another Layla. I thought, 'well, if you sit down and write a song in a formatted way, it's not so hard’”: The Grammy-winning hit that Eric Clapton wrote to order, with a little help from Foreigner’s Mick Jones
- Your chance to win Kurt Cobain's plectrum — used during Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged show
- “Thank you, Scousers”: McCartney joins Springsteen to play Can’t Buy Me Love at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium
- Codec, one of our favourite free lo-fi plugins, just got an update
- “If you were to look at his amp settings onstage, you’d be like, ‘Why is he doing that!? Turn that down”: Lifeguard on adventures in improvised sound, creative epiphanies, and how they found the balance between abstract noise and pop hooks
- “I was like - there has to be a different way to express how I’m feeling”: How Lorde established herself as Bowie's creative heir with her weirdest and most brilliant single
June 8
- “Never let your publishing go. You look at where your songs could end up; you could get a couple of million each time your song is used in an advertisement”: The best music industry advice Sharon Osbourne has ever been given
- Have you seen this woman? The Menendez Brothers are searching for the thief who stole their record bag from Fabric
- “It wasn’t just my decision to fire Ozzy. It was a band decision. It was either we break up or we carry on without him”: Tony Iommi says they had to get rid of Ozzy Osbourne to make Black Sabbath great again
- “A highly flexible yet portable unit that is easy to use but can also be configured to taste”: Zoom H6 Essential review
June 7
- "They should’ve been honoured. It would have sounded better than any rubbish song they wrote": The unbelievable story of Aphex Twin's laziest remix
- “When I'm listening to Dear Prudence or those other great Beatles songs, you’re aware of what the bass is doing. That doesn’t happen with the Stones”: Why Gene Simmons calls Paul McCartney the king of bassists
June 6
- “Ribbon tweeters are sometimes criticised for their limited vertical dispersion, here this is not noticeable unless you are sitting very close”: Adam Audio D3V Monitor review
- ”TaTa is a living, learning, autonomous music artist built with AI. She’s the first artist of a new generation”: Timbaland just created an entirely artificial artist and its debut single is out soon
- "I booked an arena tour and a lot of those shows were, like, half full. There were some nights where I was like, 'This is awkward'": Lorde reflects on the "damage" she suffered when her Melodrama tour was hit by low ticket sales
- After decades of rumours, Madonna finally confirms the Ray of Light remix album, 27 years after it was shelved
- "No complicated signal routing, no phase issues, no stress": Time Off Audio's Dime [ms] makes mid/side easy
- “They’ll go, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t tell you what to do.’ But then you hear the record later and you’re not on it! They took you off and there’s a saxophone solo on there instead”: Ace session guitarist Brent Mason reveals how he made it to the top
- “I wrote Manchild on a random Tuesday with Amy and Jack”: Is synth-pop-country a genre? Sabrina Carpenter’s new single suggests that is, and she’s positioning it as a song of the summer contender
- "I’ve been a Live user for around 20 years, and it’s probably the effect I turn to most regularly": Ableton Live 12.2 gives this "incredibly versatile" device a much-needed refresh - and rectifies Push 3’s most notable missing feature
June 5
- “Will definitely please those who are a fan of the sound already, but standalone price is expensive”: Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus plugin review
- “I immediately heard the melody in my head. I just felt intuitively, ‘This is gonna be something’”: How Madonna created a dancefloor classic — with a sample that other artists could only dream of using
- "I loved it so much that I hunted down the synths he used": Ethel Cain's ethereal new song features a Yamaha DX7S heard on the Twin Peaks soundtrack
- “The big take-home is the overall playability of this wonderful keyboard, we simply got lost for hours in the enjoyment of playing”: Nord Piano 6 review
- “They start the song and then they just… it feels like a run-on sentence to me. I can’t find the hook. I can’t find the chorus. It just keeps on going, and then it ends”: Barry Manilow says that songwriting has changed, but he won’t be changing with it
- “Studio-grade tone shaping in a compact pedal format that is purpose-built for low-end instruments, not just adapted from guitar gear”: Empress Effects unveils the Bass ParaEQ, the world’s first parametric EQ pedal designed especially for bass
- “It creates a tone that you can't find in Guitar Center”: Disiniblud on the self-built instruments, obscure Eurorack modules and marathon Ableton sessions behind their wildly imaginative self-titled debut
- “Designed to be featherlight without compromising tone”: Kiesel debuts the Kyber – a customisable, super-shreddable and radically contoured electric guitar that weighs as little as 6lbs
- “The end result - rights holders get paid even less, nobody has the right to opt in or out and as artists we have zero visibility on what these license details will entail”: The reaction to a report that major labels are in talks with AI firms
- “I got to know her music pretty well, Houdini and the like. I just think she’s great and it was such a great thing to get up with her. The band were fantastic - they played it really well”: Neil Finn on how his unlikely duet with Dua Lipa came about
- “I'm never going to get there. I might get to where I can try to, and I'm not going to give up. I'm going to try”: Huey Lewis hasn’t given up on making new music
- AI-BBA – Björn Ulvaeus is using AI to write a new musical: “It usually comes out with garbage, but sometimes there is something in it that gives you another idea”
June 4
- “Looks, feels and sounds far more expensive than it actually is”: Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom 1960 Les Paul Special Double Cut Reissue TV Yellow review
- “For the record, I have never been consulted in any way about this pedal, it has never been authorised by me”: Bill Finnegan sues Behringer parent company over Klon Centaur clone
- “The people I’ve met, the stories I’ve heard and the places I’ve wound up in has been an absolute odyssey”: Exhibition featuring life-sized photos of 100 legendary artists' guitars to open in London
- “The baritone Tele was made uniquely for me, and Paul’s mandolin has been with him for decades. We’re heartbroken": Someone just stole Heart’s gear on the eve of their comeback tour
- "You can absolutely craft some great mixes on these": JBL 305P MkII review
- "This is an experiment": Teenage Engineering is letting you choose your own price for the OP-1 Field (no, we're not kidding)
- “They were just asking for it”: When Kurt Cobain deliberately sabotaged Nirvana’s Top of the Pops appearance
- “After I’d finished with the food mixer, I threw it over the balcony and it hit some kid on the head - he found me afterwards and said ‘can you sign this’”: How Aphex Twin almost knocked out a fan at his weirdest gig ever
- The vocals on Billie Eilish’s Birds Of A Feather are consistently out of tune, says this musician, and he thinks he knows why
- “This is the new rock ’n’ roll Metallica. The riffs are greasier, bluesier, dirtier”: How the heavy metal heroes shook things up with Load
- “Not just Wayne’s sound but Wayne's attitude, and the grit and the rawness of Detroit and of the MC5”: Two gain circuits, one knob, one punk legend – MXR launches limited edition Jail Guitar Doors Drive in memory of Wayne Kramer
- “He said, 'You can tell people I’m not dying'. He wants people to know that”: Howard Stern gives Billy Joel fans a good-news update following the star’s brain disorder diagnosis
- “So as I record this video, just know it's not for a transaction, it's not for an Apple card, it's not for a favor… It's for you”: Joe Bonamassa just posted a creepy deepfaked love letter and is understandably freaked out by it
- “No one has seen this guitar since 1985, and we need to find it”: Gibson teams up with Back To The Future cast to launch global hunt for Marty McFly’s lost ES-345
- This AI-powered plugin could be a game-changingly useful tool for drum production
June 3
- “1956 marks the year that Ted first had guitars made with his newly coined 'humbucker' pickups. It also happens to be the year I was born”: PRS pays tribute to a legend of guitar design with the limited edition McCarty SC56
- "If you've been unsure of making the jump to Bitwig Studio, then Connect might just be the sweetener to seal the deal": Bitwig Connect 4/12 review
- “We’d gone backwards. We still enjoyed playing, but I did wonder how much longer the band would last”: Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray on the highs and lows of the band’s 50-year odyssey
- "I said, ‘I have this other idea!’ and that I wanted to work on this song with guitar. They were just like, ‘Let’s do it’": Natasha Bedingfield on how she made the 2004 hit that became a viral sensation 20 years later
- “This natural sounding overdrive pedal can work as a clean boost, ‘on the edge’ crunch, or a sweet singing overdrive”: Mad Professor’s refreshed Dumble-inspired overdrive pedal is here
- Spotify says it got your Wrapped 2024 wrong. But this year it's going to fix it
- "Raw, warm, and beautifully expressive": Rhodes releases Wurli, a virtual instrument based on the Wurlitzer 200A
- “Robbie came to us in 2022 with an idea... His favourite guitar was the 1953 Esquire he used for many years with Paul McCartney”: Robbie McIntosh and Monty’s unveil pickup set offering best of both worlds for Tele and Esquire fans
- Glastonbury 2025 line-up times: Who's on when, where and how you can watch them from anywhere. And who the hell are Patchwork?…
- Reference tracks can be your secret weapon when mixing - but be mindful of replicating other artists' creative decisions
- “It’s always a guy... It’s like, we’re playing with wireless. Are you an idiot?”: Haim hit back at keyboard warriors who accuse them of not playing their instruments live on stage, and the rock establishment’s refusal to accept them
- “Ableton allows me more room for playful experimentation - it’s more creatively fulfilling than Logic”: Maria Somerville on the DAWs, uilleann pipes and vintage Korg drum machines behind new album Luster
- “As far as we’re concerned, the band never really broke up”: Are Talking Heads about to announce a reunion 50 years to the day since their first gig?
- “Each time I pressed Enter on the Akai S1000 I saw my life changing”: Air’s Nicolas Godin reveals the secrets of their Sexy Boy
- “He was a master of the cryptic instruction. He’d say, ‘This song, can you loosen its tie a little?’”: How The Strokes created the most influential rock song of the early 21st Century
- “When we first opened, we never imagined that we’d still be in London three years on”: Abba: Voyage just got four new songs to mark its third anniversary
- “Well suited for everything from bluesy porch pickin’ to speakeasy swingin’”: Gretsch drops two limited edition Jim Dandy parlour and concert acoustics with solid spruce tops and off-the-charts vintage mojo
June 2
- “A good-looking kit which won’t break the bank”: DrumCraft Urban Beats review
- “It's built in Jack White's spirit, with abundant potential for dialling in sounds that range from the practical and useable to wild and anarchic”: Donner x Third Man Hardware Triple Threat review
- David Lynch’s collection of studio gear is up for auction, and it includes a classic ‘80s sampling keyboard, a Fender Rhodes and the original affordable pocket synth
- “Gracefully injects authentic grit and harmonic girth into our developing tracks”: Arturia Tape J-37 review
- "No menu diving. No friction. Just expressive control at your fingertips": Excite Audio's Motion: Fractal plugin is a granular powerhouse for twisting, stretching and scattering sounds
- SampleRadar: 533 free MIDI orchestra samples
- "It’s a weird kind of tech-bro nightmare future... the economic structure is morally wrong": Thom Yorke says AI steals from artists and devalues humanity
- “You know, I could sing into the stratosphere. Now, I've lost a little of that, but I've gained other things”: Daryl Hall reflects on how his singing voice has changed, and why he thinks it’s now “more appropriate sounding”
- “My hair caught fire, and my hearing was never the same again”: When Keith Moon overdid the pyrotechnics for the Who’s most explosive television moment
June 1
- Fantastic (free) plugins and how to use them: TDR Nova