Latest articles by Andy Jones
6 of the best free plugins for sound design
Need some extra sound design firepower but lack the funds? Here are six to download (actually more!)
“An almost overwhelming synth in terms of its scope”: Tone2 Icarus 3 review
This under-the-radar synth has just received its biggest update ever, and if that doesn’t make it ‘over the radar’, what will?
“Great value, great features and a very slick workflow”: Tracktion Waveform Pro 13 review
After a series of big updates, Waveform hits v13 and it might be lucky for some. This could be the DAW you’re waiting for
How to sound like The Prodigy: "The organ style intro stab of No Good (Start the Dance) is a ’90s classic, and can be emulated with a detuned saw"
Rave stabs, detuned saws, a frantic pace and gnarly bass. Let’s toast the 30th anniversary of one of The Prodigy's best tunes
"A great set of workhorse 'phones to use for monitoring, recording and AB mixing": AKG K271 MKII review
AKG's reasonably priced cans make a bid for a place in your studio
"It was crap until I played on it": The fractious story behind Every Breath You Take
"Come on, do you have to kick the shit out of one another?" - The making of one of the biggest hit songs ever made, in the words of The Police and producer Hugh Padgham
Best MIDI keyboards for beginners 2024: Entry-level controllers for those starting out in music production
Get producing your own music with our pick of the best MIDI controller keyboards for beginner musicians
How to sound like Jack Antonoff: "He puts Minimoog through a fuzz pedal for an absolutely massive sound"
These tricks won't land you an instant invite to the Swift, Lorde or Del Rey HQs but he certainly knows his stuff
“It’s compact, it’s live-ready… but it’s still an engine from an older synth”: Korg KingKorg Neo review
KingKorg Neo is a bi-timbral VA synth packed into a small-form 37-key compact body, and is not as ‘Neo’ as the name implies
Best DJ laptop 2024: our pick of PCs and M3 Macs for playing out and performing
Our hand-picked laptop choices for DJs, all perfect for Serato, rekordbox, Traktor, Ableton, Virtual DJ and more
"70 years on, it’s a sound that is still in demand": The producer's guide to the EMT 140 plate reverb
In the '60s and '70s, you needed a cumbersome metal plate strapped to some springs to create quality reverb, but it was so good that we still yearn for that EMT 140 sound today. Here’s how to recreate it, without a plate in sight…
How to connect studio monitors to your audio interface
Here's our step-by-step guide to making your speakers and interface work in perfect harmony
Make a modern soft synth sound like a dusty old ’70s vintage synth… for free!
Get those vintage vibes without the price tag…
7 underrated VST synths you might not know about
We celebrate some of the great softsynths that may have flown under your radar
The 5 vintage synths that gave us synth-pop
These are the machines that rocked the 1970s and popped the 1980s…
"It's a great synth, but $25,000 great?": 5 stupidly expensive vintage synths (and how to get their sound for free)
Synthflation means you can pay nearly six figures for some of these synths (but also get most of their sounds for free)…
6 underrated hardware synths that you can still buy today
Incredibly, some of these under-the-radar beauties are over a decade old, but still available (and still very good)
"We can’t deny that going back to it after a few years away has been a joyful experience": Reason Studios Reason 13 review
Nearly a quarter of a century after v1, Reason reaches the not so unlucky v13, but is this once influential DAW still relevant?
“Can make subtle harmonic changes or be a hugely creative plugin, but either way it makes your mixes sound better”: Plugin Boutique Scaler EQ review
Scaler EQ delivers harmonic processing we didn’t know we needed, but once heard, we might just apply it to everything
6 ways to get more from Waves Tune
Waves Tune is the fast way to tune your vocals naturally or get that hard-tuned, robotic effect - here’s how to become a power user
Best PCs for music production 2024: Apple Macs and Windows machines for your home studio
Discover the power that a desktop PC or Mac can bring to your music-making, with our expert pick of the best desktops for music production
Hear how Waves vocal effects can transform your recorded and live vocals - we've demoed and tested 10 plugins
From tuning to bending, listen to what these plugins can do to your vocals!
“If you’d always yearned for atmospheric ‘proper’ guitar but lacked the playing skills and banks of effects, this is it”: E-instruments Desolate Guitars review
Desolate Guitars could be the guitar library you didn’t know you needed, and is one of the most inspirational tools we've used this year
