Latest articles by Matt Mullen
"How real can drums feel inside a plugin?": Klevgrand promises to "redefine what a drum sampler can be" with OneShot 2
OneShot 2 features a new Motion Engine designed to create phrases that "breathe and evolve" by morphing through multiple samples, such as cymbal swells, brushed textures or foley elements
“I’ve spent so many thousands of hours wasted on plugins – it just doesn't matter”: Fred Again says all mixing plugins sound the same
"In terms of your reverb, compressor, EQ, all these things – it doesn't matter what you choose. They're all great"
“I have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with my Prophet ’08”: Art School Girlfriend on new project Lean In
Download the stems for Art School Girlfriend's track The Peaks and create your own remix
“A lot of people got a hard drive full of music and they don’t know how to finish… just tell everybody, ‘Hey, that’s what I got – hope you like it!’”: Watch Saba, No ID and Jimmy Douglass build a track from scratch
Universal Audio documents Chicagoan rapper Saba's free-flowing session with two veteran producers
Bitwig Studio 6 is here with improved automation, Clip Aliases and tons of workflow enhancements
Promising users a "big step up", Bitwig Studio 6 builds on core DAW functions to help music-making become faster and more intuitive
Harry Styles outed himself as an unlikely modular synth fan in his new Netflix special, but was all that knob-twiddling for real?
Styles' setup also included a Roland SP-404 MKII sampler, Roland RE-201 Space Echo tape delay unit and a Sequential Prophet-6 analogue synth
"I put it on everything": Jasper Tygner on the Soundtoys plugin behind the "filmic" sound of debut album Blue
We visited Tygner in his London-based studio ahead of the release of his cinematic, rave-inspired new project
“I use it on absolutely everything": Art School Girlfriend on the second-hand mic that shaped the "intimate" sound of new album Lean In
Polly Mackey walks us through the making of The Peaks from her London-based studio
Chompi's latest firmware update turns this cutesy sampler into an "entirely new instrument" with an arpeggiator, sample-slicing and more
Tempo turns Chompi into a groovebox designed for tempo-synced, pattern-based beatmaking
Tembo is a kid-friendly magnetic drum machine and sampler that promises "unforgettable family jam sessions"
Designed to empower "everyone to create music from the very first touch", Musical Beings' debut product hopes to make beatmaking accessible for all ages
Novation unveils Launch Control 3 with OLED screen and expanded connectivity
The popular DAW controller opens up to hybrid and DAWless set-ups thanks to 5-pin MIDI I/O
We visit the LA house where Lily Allen made West End Girl, and explore the home studio of Blue May
We take a look at the vintage gear-packed home studio of Blue May - the environment where Lily Allen created West End Girl
Dawesome's Love 2 granular multi-effects plugin promises "instant beauty for any sound"
"When you are in love, everything feels more intense, more alive, more beautiful. This is exactly what Love 2 does to sound"
"Spark ideas in your DAW, pilot any synth or patch modular without breaking your flow": Arturia unveils KeyStep 37 Mk2 with redesigned interface, extended connectivity and generative tools
KeyStep 37 Mk2 brings many of the new features from the recently released KeyStep Mk2 over to its 37-key big brother
Google's ProducerAI can create customized instruments and effects in your browser
ProducerAI is a chatbot that generates songs, album art, music videos and even music-making apps
PinkPantheress becomes the first woman to win Producer of the Year at the BRIT Awards
The artist reflects on her journey from bedroom beatmaker to chart-topping producer
Abbey Road releases its first virtual instrument in collaboration with fashion house Charles Jeffrey Loverboy
The Big Nessie is a free Kontakt instrument that gives producers "warped percussive textures, tonal fragments and experimental rhythms to play with"
Supermarket goes viral for the chilled ambient drones of its freezer section
“These freezers are live on BBC Radio 1 right now”
“I’ll be having fun with this for a long time to come”: UJAM's Voxcraft delivers creative vocal manipulation without the menu-diving
Designed to be fast, intuitive and idiot-proof, this affordable multi-effects plugin is a quick-and-dirty tool for spicing up your vocals
Eventide releases reimagined version of Laurie Spiegel's Music Mouse, four decades on from its release
This groundbreaking piece of software is a fun, playful and accessible way for anybody to generate unexpected chords, melodies and arpeggios with nothing more than a humble mouse
"I’d be in the booth and Charli would walk in like ‘what the...?’”: Charli xcx and Finn Keane on the Wuthering Heights soundtrack
Finn Keane says his deliberately "bad, raspy playing" lent a rough and textured sound to the film's evocative music
Ableton Live co-creator Robert Henke updates a classic Live effect with free M4L device Filter Delays
"I wrote the original Filter Delay for Live 1, released in 2001. Recently, I rediscovered it and wanted to add a few more options that were missing"
Hack your disposable vape into a mini wind synth with this DIY guide
“We have to use the low pressure sensor. Which means to play it, you must suck”
