Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has discussed his experiences working with Brian Eno, praising the legendary producer's knack for "using the studio as an instrument".

Fielding questions from Guardian readers in a new interview, he detailed how the process of collaborating with the legendary record producer and ex-Roxy Music synth player "changed over the years".

"I felt he was somebody who had a feeling and an understanding for what we were trying to do," Byrne said.

"At first, his goal was to capture what the band was doing. Once that was achieved, he brought ideas such as adding funny sounds, not having the songs all written – so we could improvise – and as he calls it, “using the studio as an instrument”."

He added: "It was fun and we got to things that we’d never have got to if we’d stuck to one way of working. As a producer, he’s very much a cheerleader. Rather than scratching his chin and saying, “I don’t know if this works yet”, he’ll go: “This could be the beginning of something incredible, let’s keep pushing in that direction.”

Eno worked on three landmark Talking Heads albums (More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music and Remain in Light) and famously helped devise the vocal melody for their classic song Once in a Lifetime.

In the interview, Byrne also commented on his interactions with other inspirational musicians like Ramones and Lou Reed. Of the latter, he said: "Lou had seen us in [New York City music club] CBGB a couple of times and said: “Come back to mine afterwards and we’ll talk about your songs.” We were really excited but nervous and in awe because we were big fans of his solo stuff and the Velvet Underground."

Byrne continued: "He proceeded to eat two quarts of the ice-cream he had in his fridge, but was creative as well. He started playing our song Tentative Decisions on guitar and suggested it could be slowed down, and slowed down to the speed of a Velvet Underground song. Which was pretty cool, but we didn’t slow it down as far as he suggested."

It's also this knack for creative insight that he valued most in Eno, who's widely renowned for the psychological impact he makes in studio environments, rather than pure technical ingenuity.

"Besides being a fifth band member on this record, Brian is a wonderful enthusiast," Byrne once said. "He sells the excitement and potential of working in a new way—the upside of stepping into the unknown, experimenting and seeing what might happen."

Japanese company Final Audio has unveiled a brand new flagship closed-back headphone selling for the staggering price of £7,499 ($8,499).

With pre-orders opening on July 9, the first 150 people to purchase the headphone will receive a limited Collector's Edition model, priced at a whopping £7,999 ($8,499).

As the cost indicates, this is one of the Japanese brand's most ambitious headphone projects ever. With a cutting-edge 40mm True Diamond diaphragm dynamic driver, the DX10000 CL is designed to enhance the closed-back listening experience with a focus on "isolation, impact and physical energy."

Final's previous DX model release was the DX6000 CL, which was praised for its comfort and warm sound. But the company sees this new flagship as a genuine upgrade.

"DX10000 CL is designed for listeners who want a private, immersive and physically engaging listening experience, with the clarity, tonal accuracy and resolution expected from a true flagship audiophile product," the company said.

Comfort and warmth remain central concerns on the latest edition, which uses Ultrasuede® for acoustic sealing and support and a 12-point through-bolt construction clamping the outer housing to the front plate. Final is aiming to elevate the listening experience here — if you've got the cash for it.

In addition, those willing to jump on the collector's release of the product will get a range of extra touches including gold-coloured accents, a newly-designed headphone stand, an authentic Japanese paulownia wood box and a Shingen pouch crafted using traditional silk textile techniques with roots in the Tango region of Kyoto.

All that being said, it's the use of lab-grown diamonds, developed using a chemical vapor deposition process, that reflects just how high-end this product is.

"Diamond is grown as a crystalline layer before the substrate is removed, leaving a self-supporting diamond dome," purrs Final's press release. "Diamond combines exceptional rigidity, high sound velocity and strong internal damping

"DX10000 CL has been created to deliver the isolation, impact and physical energy of closed-back listening, while overcoming the resonance and coloration that can limit the format."

As the world’s first purpose-built recording studio – an iconic institution that’s played host to countless legendary artists, from The Beatles and Pink Floyd to Radiohead and Adele – Abbey Road Studios has a long and storied history behind it.

It’s those stories that make the place what it is, but for younger and less experienced artists early on in their career, the weight of that history can be a little intimidating. “Sometimes we’ve found that people find the idea of coming here a bit daunting”, Abbey Road’s Mark Robertson tells us.

Over the past few years, the Abbey Road team has been trying to change that, reimagining the studio in a concerted effort to create a more accessible and inclusive space. Through programmes like Amplify, an artist accelerator that offers workshops and mentoring to aspiring creatives, and Equalise, an initiative aimed at addressing gender imbalance in the music industry, Abbey Road is on a mission to inspire the next generation of music-makers.

Prices have been slashed across multiple rooms, working hours made more flexible, and much of the studio has undergone a significant redesign, as several spaces were reworked to become more welcoming and conducive to creativity. But the next step, of course, was the gear. Drawing up a shopping list of more than 100 instruments and pieces of recording equipment, the team brought in the “most comprehensive collection” of gear that the studio has ever housed.

Installed in Studio Three – the smallest of Abbey Road’s three original rooms – and two of its more intimate spaces, The Front Room and The Gatehouse, the new kit spans everything from vintage essentials like the Roland Juno-106 and TR-808 to oddities like the Suiko ST-50 Poetry Trainer and Suzuki Omnichord, with an emphasis on playful and accessible instruments capable of sparking instant inspiration.

Though there was plenty of classic gear acquired – including pieces previously owned by John Paul Jones and Portishead’s Adrian Utley – the team also sought out contemporary instruments like the Teenage Engineering OP-1 and Telepathic Instruments Orchid. And being Abbey Road, they’ve even managed to bring in some things that haven’t yet been released, such as the much-hyped kid-friendly drum machine Tembo, which now sits proudly in the studio reception.

We sat down with Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing and Creative Mark Robertson and Artist Relations Manager Jack Lintorn to find out more about the extensive collection of new gear that’s been added to the studio and how this fits into their broader vision for Abbey Road in 2026 and beyond.

Can you both give us a little bit of background on yourselves and your roles at Abbey Road?

Jack: “I've been part of the team for about eight years, working with Mark on various different projects we've been running. So that’s our artist accelerator, Amplify, and also programs like Equalize we developed, which gives underrepresented groups opportunities in the studio. Now I'm working in the role of Artist Relations Manager, trying to make Abbey Road into a creative playground and doing lots of work to get younger artists into the studio.”

Mark: “I’m Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing and Creative. I came here to set a new vision for Abbey Road, and Jack and I have created a number of programs to give back, to make this place more accessible and to inspire and inform the next generation, whether that’s people that want to be an artist or a producer.

“The things that we’re doing now are part of a wider vision. We spent a bit of time rethinking our brand purpose and why we’re here, and clarifying the direction and vision for Abbey Road. What we’re doing is coming back to our core purpose, which is about helping people to make music and to realize their creative ambitions. That’s very much what we’re looking to build, a true home for doing that.”

You recently brought a bunch of new gear to Abbey Road. Was this part of your return to that original purpose you mentioned, and this mission to make the studio more accessible?

Mark: “Totally. We spent a lot of time looking at the gear that’s in the room. There are obviously a lot of things that people know we’ve got here, particularly instruments and EMI gear that was invented here by the REDD team. But there were more things that we knew from working closely with artists and producers that we wanted to have in the collection, and that’s really the stuff that Jack’s been focused on finding and sourcing.

“We wanted to have things where, maybe we’ve already got the plugin, or maybe we made the plugin, but we wanted to have the real deal too. And also to find some things that were as unique or as interesting as some of the existing things in the collection, and where possible, they have a bit of a story behind them.

“When I’m in a session, what I really love is – whether it’s a grime artist or whoever else – I love how the engineer can run down the corridor and go and find a bit of outboard gear from the ‘50s or ‘60s that will then change their sound. I suppose what we’re doing is adding more of that.”

Talk us through the decision-making process behind working out what you wanted to acquire?

Jack: “It started with an 18-month process of making an initial list of what I felt we really needed and what would enhance the creative experience for artists coming into the studio. Then I went to the likes of Kid Harpoon, who’s now our Producer in Residence, and Jordan Rakei, who is our Artist in Residence. Khruangbin came in one afternoon, and it was only meant to be for an hour, but we spent about four hours talking through all the gear that we thought would be amazing to have in the studio.

“So we went to lots of different artists, and even the Abbey Road engineering team, and asked: ‘what do you feel like we could really do with here?’ There were a lot of instrumental voices as part of this. It ended up that we collated a list of 100 different pieces of gear and equipment, and now we have 16 new synths and seven new drum machines – it’s the most comprehensive collection we’ve ever housed at Abbey Road.”

Once you had your list together, how did you go about sourcing the gear? With so many pieces, I imagine that was quite a challenge.

Jack: “Tony at Soundgas was instrumental; he was so helpful. We really wanted to have bits of gear that had stories behind them that we could share with artists. That’s what’s amazing about the gear we currently have at the studio, whether it’s John Lennon’s piano or it’s the echo chamber that The Beatles used for the first artificial reverb.

“We ended up bringing in John Paul Jones’ TR-808 drum machine and Adrian Utley from Portishead’s Jupiter-4, and this is all through Soundgas. We wanted to have this old gear coming through that we know has been serviced and maintained to a high level, and that’s where Soundgas is brilliant; they provide a certificate signed by their engineers making sure that something has been signed off and it’s good to go. When you’re buying a 1974 Minimoog, you want to know that it isn’t going to break down in two weeks.”

Was there anything that was particularly difficult to find?

Jack: “We were looking for quite a few pieces. We have a Suiko ST-50 Poetry Trainer, that’s an old Japanese ‘80s synth – that was difficult for us to source, but they managed to get one of those for us, which was great.

“We’ve also brought in a vintage 1967 Ludwig Hollywood kit for Studio Three. That was sourced with Martin Oldham, Nile Rodgers’ drum tech, and Ralph Salmins, an amazing session drummer. We sourced that over many months and that was quite difficult. We already had a new Ludwig in the studio, which sounds great, but we thought, ‘how great would it be if we could have a vintage one too?’

“We’ve already had a few artists playing it, and we had a comment from one of the bands that was in there a few weeks ago – they said it’s the best drum kit they’ve ever played. That’s exactly what we want to hear.”

I imagine that you have a lot of younger artists coming in that may have never used something like an analogue drum machine or a vintage Minimoog, for example. Are you doing anything to help them familiarize themselves with the older gear?

Jack: “We had Soundgas down to help our engineering team. It’s very important that our engineers know how to use this equipment, because for some of them, it’s the first time they’ve used a Juno-106 or an 808. So we’ve had a few training days with our team, and they’ve been very keen to get on board with using all this gear in their own time.

“We’ve had multiple sessions now where an artist wants to use a load of our new synths and the team have felt very comfortable bringing them into the session. It’s one thing having this amazing gear, but it’s about making sure we have the team that can then share how to use it with the artists coming in. So far, it’s been a real success.”

How did you decide which studio space a piece of gear lives in? Is that based on the character of the room, or the kind of sessions that it usually hosts?

Jack: “The rooms which we’re using for this are the Front Room, the Gatehouse and Studio Three. Most of the bigger pieces live in Studio Three: the 808, the Minimoog, the Linndrum. They’re quite iconic pieces of kit. The Gatehouse is very much a writing room, so we have a lot of the synths and drum machines in there; the Korg MS-20, the Moog Grandmother, the Roland Jupiter-4. Those kinds of pieces where you can get started very quickly, it’s not too complicated to get going with those synths. Everything else is just kind of floating, so people can just pick it up and take it into their sessions.”

Mark: “We used to have a lot of tape machines in the corridor, but we created some space, and a lot of this gear is out there now on bespoke racking, so it’s all visible. People are coming along, touching it, playing it and adding it to their session. For some people, it’s like being in a toy shop or a sweet shop. It’s all there, and you can just take it and book it for your session.”

Jack: “On those shelving units now we have different pedalboards ready to go, so an artist can be starting a session and we’ll have a set-up ready for them. We’ve brought in pedals from Hologram Electronics, Chase Bliss, Earthquake Devices… they’re all there and you can just pick them up and add them to your pedalboard. Feedback from artists told us that they want to be ready to go as quickly as possible, and that’s what we’ve helped to create with this.”

You’ve brought in some famous and iconic instruments like the Juno-106 and the TR-808, but can you tell us about some of the lesser-known or unusual bits of gear?

Jack: “We’re in conversations with Soma Laboratory, and we have the whole Soma suite now. Soma Terra was something that I really wanted to bring into the studio; it’s basically a polyphonic synth housed in a block of wood.

“We recently had some Equalise sessions with an artist called Jasmine.4.T in Studio Three. We brought in some young female and non-binary producers who were there to observe the session taking place, and we had the Terra in the middle of the room, and they were all using it and loving it. That’s something which is quite unique and something we haven’t been able to have before in sessions.”

“Another piece which is now living in our reception is by a company called Musical Beings called Tembo. It’s brilliant; it’s a completely wooden drum sequencer, where you have these magnetic discs, and you put them down onto each of the channels and you can build a whole track from scratch. Everyone I show it to, they’re instantly hooked. We now have that in reception, where we used to have magazines, but now you walk through the door and straight away it’s there for you to play with and have fun.”

Can you tell us about the response you’ve had from artists so far?

Jack: “It’s only been a few months, but the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. I think we’re just offering so much more as an overall creative experience, it’s really changing how we operate. Even the engineers, they go past the shelves and start noodling away on an Omnichord or they take a few pedals out to test. It’s not just the artists, but it’s also our internal team that are really so on board with it.”

Mark: “We probably can’t mention the artist’s name, but a young artist that has been coming here for a while talked about how the shift in the synth collection has completely changed his perspective and given him so many more opportunities to explore his sound.”

I’m interested in what you said about some of the younger artists finding the prospect of recording at Abbey Road daunting. A lot of the gear you’ve brought in, like the Tembo and the OP-1, is on the more fun and accessible end of the spectrum. Was that an intentional choice, to bring instruments that feel more playful and inspirational?

Mark: “Yeah, you’re spot on about that. We’d never want this place to be a museum, and it’s always going to be moving forward, and it’s as much for the creators as it is for the other people that come in here.

“One of the amazing things about Tembo has been that everybody who sits down there just instinctively touches it and wants to play with it – it blows people’s minds! We wanted to be able to put things in front of people that surprise them, but they feel they can discover and find their own way with. We never want to dictate; it’s about opening people’s minds and providing them with a range of different things to inspire them.

“Being intimidating is perhaps about thinking about the people that came [to Abbey Road] before. You’re coming to a place where it says ‘no entry’ on the gate, you’re coming up those steps, and the reception before had this enormous black desk – it was almost like you’re confronted by security the minute you come in here. So we’ve redesigned that space and it’s much more relaxed. We wanted to put some instruments and playthings in there, so it’s not this solemn formal space. The last thing we want to do is take somebody out of their creative mindset as soon as they arrive.”

Is this the end of the shopping spree, or are you looking to bring in anything more?

Mark: “There was this chunk that we introduced in January, but the conversations are continuing. When we set out on this journey, as well as looking to the future, we wanted to find a few vintage things that had a degree of providence. We’ve already got the Mrs Mills piano, we’ve got the celeste that was used on the Dark Side of the Moon, the Challen piano that The Beatles used… all these things that have got stories behind them. So finding things like the instruments that belonged to Portishead and John Paul Jones, that’s still interesting to us. We’ll keep an eye out for things that have got a story, because it’s part of the romance of coming here.”

John Mayer may have purchased the historic Henson Studios in Los Angeles, but he freely admits he doesn’t know how to use its mixing desk.

That’s what the 48-year-old guitarist revealed in a new video produced by the LA Times that sees Mayer and his partner in the venture, film director McG, explain why they have bought the complex that was once known as A&M studios. As you can see below, Mayer and McG guide the cameras around their new purchase before they arrive in the control room.

“Can you operate an SSL?” asks McG. To which Mayer replies: “No. I know just enough to let the other people do their jobs"

The business partners paid $44 million to purchase Henson, which they have renamed Chaplin Studios in honour of the silent screen legend who first broke ground on the building over a century ago. “In a day and age where people are seeing a lot of things disappear, it’s nice to be responsible for retaining something that’s a hundred years old,” the guitarist explains. “For as much innovation that there is, I like there being a little more preservation.”

The pair’s vision for the studios is for it to be a creative hub for artists. “We’re doing our best to create kind of a Warhol’s Factory thing of like-minded artists bumping into each other to do their best work possible,” McG told the LA Times.

Henson/ A&M saw many many famous albums take shape within its four walls – Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Tapestry by Carole King and Guns N’ Roses’ pair of Use Your Illusion albums, to name just a few. It was also the location for the star-studded We Are The World session in early 1985.

Mayer and McG aren’t the first investors with Hollywood connections to take over a much-loved studio. Back in 2021 it was announced that Brad Pitt had bought Château Miraval, the studio in the South of France that had been used by the likes of Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Sting.

Preserving an old-school facility like Henson in the face of the music economics of 2026 – reduced recording budgets and the shift to home recording - will be a challenge, as the pair admit: “The real estate guys weren’t necessarily saying what a prudent business move this was,” says McG. “But it’s not about the dividend or the monthly spit-out.”

“I love doing things that people tell me aren’t gonna work,” suggests Mayer. “That’s how I know I’m onto something.”

I probably lust after music gear more than most. Yes, of course I realise that it's not just about the hardware or software you use that makes your music great, and that your creativity, imagination and musical chops are the main factors that open the doors up to successful music making. But as I lack all three of those, I more than make up for it by buying gear, and if I can get the same gear that my heroes use, then all the better.

My particular heroes started out as Kraftwerk, after seeing them at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1981, at the tender age of just 14. That gig changed my life and put me on a path to writing about synths, bands, synth bands, and more synths, which I've been following for the last four decades. And when I met/stalked the band's co-founder, Florian Schneider, at Superbooth a few years ago, I told him just that, during the only conversation I have ever had with a famous musician where I would describe myself as resembling a giddy teenager. (Luckily, security was called and I was led off before I could make too much of a fool of myself.)

So when Florian died in 2022, I wrote this about him, and when an auction of many of his possessions took place this month, including a wide array of instruments and studio gear, I was the first to turn up, credit card in hand. The only problem was, it was my first ever auction, and it would end both brilliantly (gear) and terribly (bank balance).

“Never meet your heroes,” they say. That's wrong, they've all been lovely. They should have said, “never buy your heroes' gear” instead.

To say I got a little overexcited is an understatement. This article is the result, not only because I learned some hard lessons so you don't have to, but because I've had to un-retire, thanks to the bill I now have to pay. So here's the story of how I went to an auction to buy some studio chairs, but came back with loads of the contents of a legend’s studio instead.

Starting sensibly

A wise auction goer – which I thought I was to start with – goes through the entire auction catalogue and decides way before what items to focus on. And with more than 450 in this case, there was a lot to get my head around.

The first ever synthesizer that Kraftwerk bought, an EMS Synthi A Suitcase, was an obvious target, but had a selling estimate of between $15 and £20k, well out of my price range.

So I set my sights on some cheaper items, in what can only be called a random scattergun approach that covered drum machines, synths, outboard gear, even mixers. I recently sold a lot of studio gear so pretty much have to start again from scratch, so why not use some of an ex-Kraftwerk member's gear to do just that, I thought?

This meant I was looking at simple 16-channel mixers, controller keyboards, even sunglasses that lit up (yes, really). As an ex-middle-aged-man in lycra, I even considered a road bike (from the band's Tour De France video), but not the VW Camper that ended up selling for over $40k.

The sensible point I am trying to make is that I plan to actually use the gear, something that Schneider wanted to happen to all of his equipment after he passed away.

So far so good. I made a list of some 43 items I was interested in, even putting my maximum bid next to each. I also chose a couple of items I thought only I would be interested in, including four studio chairs with a sleek, industrial design, that were used in Kraftwerk's legendary Kling Klang Studio. How much closer to the band could you get than by having something each of them sat on while recording?

Before the auction started, then, I was armed with a budget, a list, and some maximum bids. The auction was streamed live with – thankfully – an auctioneer who didn't talk like those ones that sell livestock. The process was clear, calm and collected. Unfortunately, I wasn't.

One… two…

I first realised that things would go too far north price wise when a 1930s Telefunken Volks-Trautonium Pre-Synthesizer sold for $38,400, well above its top estimate of $7k. And that Synthi A? Well that went for $115,000, trouncing its maximum estimate of $20k.

By this time I was also annoyed that I hadn't gone for Schneider's oscilloscope, which appeared in several early pictures of him like this one on the back of the Ralf & Florian album.

That went for a shade under $4k, a price that would eventually seem reasonable in the grand scheme of this auction. Instead, I thought I would take a stab at one of the vocoders that Kraftwerk used – after all, Kraftwerk pretty much invented the robot voice, so these could be fabulous buys. That thought quickly evaporated when one went for a mere $256,000.

Now was the time not to panic so of course, I did, although thankfully the auction would end up being around six hours long and it would be some time before my next targets came up: three drum machines which I had put a £3k limit on each, not expecting them to get close.

The first, a 1979 Korg Rhythm 55, sold for $4,500, and the TR-606 for $4k. That left a Korg KPR-77, which Vintage Synth Explorer kindly describes as a '606 wannabe', but I snapped it up in my first purchase for $2k. Even though they sell for a fraction of that, it is an analogue drum machine from the '80s that Kraftwerk used, and it was half the price of the others, so I was feeling OK. Yes, I'm putting a positive spin on things.

Price wise, things were now getting even tougher. Those 16-channel mixers I mentioned sold for $900 and $1,500, way above my $600 maximum bid. Luckily, no-one seemed to notice a third one sitting in a studio rack lot that I did manage to get for around $1,700 – one of the few items to sell under its estimate – and that also included two other effects and a Yamaha FM synth.

At this point I was happy with my lots. I pretty much had what I wanted: a drum machine, synth and a mixer, albeit not quite the classic gear you'd necessarily associate with the big K. Perhaps I should have departed at this point with a relatively decent bank balance still intact.

Then it went crazy

Prices started to go sky-high after this, with a short wave radio I had my eye on selling for over $10,000, and a couple of Korg PS synths that I had fantasised about getting shifting for around $20k each. Then the 'Ruhe' electric Kling Klang 'Recording' studio sign (which I had thought would be popular) sold for nearly $20k while the studio clock – another item I thought I could snaffle up while no-one noticed – sold for $16,000.

Even a dentist's chair, one of many odd items to feature (including a giant plastic fly) sold for $1,600, although that is about the price of a filling in the UK now, so could be considered 'a bit of an earner'.

Then it was time for the studio chairs. I wanted them so much I even broke my own 'maximum bid' rule, but, alas, was unfortunately outbid by another eagle-eyed studio boffin. After a promising start, things were starting to go wrong.

The next item to catch my eye was a 1950s filter, but that went for over $5k. After way too many saxophones, we arrived at three sets of studio speakers, two of which were actually employed at Kling Klang and have appeared in a couple of rare KK photos.

The first, a set of cinema-style speakers, sold for close to $30k, so I wasn't too confident on my target, some classic JBLs that the band used in Kling Klang from 1980 onwards. However, by this time, I was panicking that I didn't have any actual Kling Klang gear, so when these stalled at my maximum bid, I bought them.

The lesson here is to check the size of the gear you buy… before you buy it. At 80kg a piece and a metre tall, these are not your average nearfields, and will likely cost the same again to ship them to me, but with second-hand prices for the individual speakers being anywhere between $5k and $10k I still think I might have got a bargain, although ask me again once they have arrived.

Synths!

And so we actually get to the point of what I wanted: a synth. Yes, I'd bought a TX81z as part of that rack lot, but that FM module is hardly a Moog is it? Luckily, there were two further options that I was targeting. The first was a reverse key Korg Poly 800, an 8-voice polyphonic analogue synth that is a hidden gem to my ears, and sells for silly money (as in silly cheap). Importantly, it was also the first synth I ever played back in the '80s, so to get Schneider's would be a full circle moment for me, and in more ways than one. Luckily, it snuck in at just under my maximum bid so I managed to get it.

Finally, I had Schneider's Roland XP-80 as my last synth target. Again, this is an undervalued beast, basically a Jupiter 8 in rack form. With those synths selling for anything north of $10k, I was willing to go up to $6k but managed to get it for $4.5k (plus fees).

Lessons learnt?

I ended up with three synths, two pieces of outboard gear, a mixer and some (very large) speakers – a haul that could be construed as a studio, of sorts. Yes, I'd clearly overpaid for some items, and possibly underpaid for some, but there's a big BUT coming right at you… or me. Fees are the killer. In this case you had to add a mighty 28% on top of the selling price for the auction fees, and then there's the small matter of getting the stuff shipped. I've spent a lot, well into five figures from my pension pot. That might increase rapidly with Trump's tariffs and those shipping fees.

I'd say, then, that buying gear from any auction can be a way to snap up bargains, but you need to factor in all of those extras before deciding on your maximum bid – in this case basically doubling the sale price – to get that gear to you.

Obviously, the iconic ex-owner is going to be a future factor in these prices, and is likely only to add value, but in this case, I am also finding comfort in the fact that Schneider wanted his gear used, and I will certainly do just that, even though my pension has vastly diminished and I might end up on the streets busking with it.

Oh, and if you fancy some enormous speakers…

A new music studio complex has opened in a former Cold War-era nuclear bunker in The Hague. Billed as a "cultural hub for upcoming and established musical talent", Subterra is made up of 17 recording studios and rehearsal rooms.

Subterra was a former nuclear hide-out bunker built for the Dutch Ministries of Justice and Interior Affairs. Operational until 2013 and spanning 2000 square meters, the space was designed to house 206 government officials designated to run the country following a nuclear attack.

Following a fourteen-month renovation process, studios have been built inside the bunker's dormitories and infirmary rooms while preserving original structural elements such as steel doors and reinforced concrete walls.

Ranging in size from 11 square meters to 37 square meters, the studios offer access to a shared kitchen and community area. Though they're only equipped with basic soundproofing and no acoustic treatment, three of the larger studios have been constructed with a highly soundproofed room-within-a-room design.

Subterra's studios have been leased out on a yearly basis to "a diverse palette of highly ambitious and talented music professionals" that includes Dutch pop trio Goldband, who called the bunker a "magical breeding ground" for musical collaboration. Those interested in renting a studio next year have been invited to join a waiting list.

Subterra is the brainchild of a collective of makers and entrepreneurs from The Hague. The rehearsal rooms will be managed by the Noodzetel Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting The Hague’s musicians and encouraging cultural entrepreneurship.

"Subterra is a unique place in The Hague, and even in the Netherlands! Here underground, we preserve a special part of The Hague’s history, while at the same time giving local musicians the space to grow and inspire each other," said Saskia Bruines, The Hague's councillor for Finance, Culture and Economic Development.

"The Hague is the cradle of Dutch pop culture, and we are determined to keep it that way. Having good rehearsal rooms and a safe place for equipment is absolutely vital. I am delighted that, together with the Noodzetel Foundation, we have been able to make this a reality."

Visit Subterra's website to find out more.

It’s been over a decade since UK dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood last released an album under his own name, but the On-U Sound founder has hardly been idle in that time.

The 13 years since he released Survival & Resistance have seen Sherwood focused on production work, remixes and collaborations, including full-length reworkings of albums by Spoon and Panda Bear and Sonic Boom, as well as a 2015 collaboration with dubstep figurehead Pinch.

“This new album is the first in 13 years with my name on the front cover, but I think most of the records are kind of mine anyway,” Sherwood says, half-joking. “They're not really, I have to satisfy the singers and the other musicians. On this one though, by being on the front cover, it gives me more focus, more attention, and also the chance to call all the shots myself.”

In some ways, new album The Collapse of Everything picks up where its solo predecessor left off. Sherwood’s ear for atmospheric, haunting effects is as evident as ever, as is his ability to build engaging, vibrant arrangements from a sparse handful of elements.

The concept of Adrian Sherwood as a solo artist is an interesting one in 2025. Sherwood himself is neither a vocalist nor a musician or songwriter in the traditional sense. Rather, he plays his studio gear like an instrument, putting arrangements together through a process of primarily analogue mixing and editing.

On one hand, this doesn’t make Sherwood all that different from a significant proportion of contemporary electronic musicians, whose skillsets lie more in wrangling DAW timelines than traditional musicianship. At its heart though, Sherwood’s music is still very musician-led, and his approach is closer to that of auteur producers of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“I modelled my approach a bit on having a professional rhythm section,” Sherwood explains. “I was lucky to work with Jamaican musicians like Style Scott, who’ve been part of a great rhythm section, providing tracks for the great ones, also Doug [Wimbish] and the Sugarhill guys.

“I try to do that again, to have my little crew, so it gives you a sonic continuity with the production. By having access to a pool of musicians, it makes it seem almost like the vintage house bands.

“It’s like a poor man's Tamla or a poor man's Channel One or something,” he laughs. “I don't mean a poor man's at all, but that's the kind of model I vaguely use. Sadly, we're not as hit oriented as a lot of the other people.”

For all that a lack of personal musicianship might mean relying on the contributions of others, it's clearly been a significant factor in developing Sherwood’s approach to music making.

“I think by not being a musician you feel a little bit of an imposter in some ways,” he says. “But I've got a passion for it, so much that I think a lot of great musicians kind of respect me. I also like beautiful mistakes in the productions, where it's not all perfect. That gives a sense of freedom for everybody playing.”

Although Sherwood’s fundamental approach hasn’t changed drastically over the 13 years since his last album, studio technology has moved on significantly. Despite the analogue hardware and hands-on philosophy at its heart, Sherwood’s setup isn’t some sort of vintage time capsule.

“There's been some good plugins that have come along,” Sherwood explains on how his studio has changed. “Some great bits of outboard have come along too, but I am still using a lot of the vintage stuff I used before.”

Perhaps surprisingly, one of the most significant ways Sherwood’s music making has changed lies in his embrace of AI. As he explains to us, AI-assisted separation tools offer Sherwood a new way to deconstruct music and rework music, in the classic dub fashion.

“There's the AI thing [Hit'n'Mix] RipX, which has the ability to almost make a ghost out of your own work,” he explains. “I've been enjoying doing things where I can maybe take a track we're working on and RipX it, ghost it, slow it down and bend the sound and experiment with the pitching and EQ sweeping and stuff. That has been a big part of the new record, as well as carrying on where I left off with the last one, using tuned percussions to make little sequential noises”

In our new video interview, which you can watch at the top of the page or via our MusicRadar Tech YouTube channel, Sherwood goes into more detail about the vintage gear and inspirations behind The Collapse of Everything, as well as the shifting nature of what ‘dub’ is.

Adrian Sherwood’s The Collapse of Everything is out now via On-U Sound.

What is it?

Adam Audio’s new H200 headphone is the first product from its in-house headphone R&D team and marks a move away from its previous SP-5 model, which was designed in collaboration with and manufactured by Ultrasone.

As you would expect from Adam, the engineering design is paramount and combines a 40mm PEEK diaphragm driver with Neodymium magnet and a patent pending internal airflow system.

PEEK (Polyether Ether Ketone) is considered to be ideal for headphones as it’s both light and stiff, meanwhile Neodymium’s electrical efficiency and light weight make it the best magnet choice. The result is a 40mm driver with an impressive 2Hz to 23.5kHz frequency response (1kHz and -3dB) and 112.5dB maximum sound pressure level.

The H200 is a closed back design aimed at recording, mixing and mastering, and features memory foam earpads with artificial leather covering. We found these provided not only excellent passive isolation but great comfort for long listening periods.

The earpads and headband are replaceable, and are also available in a velour cloth option. The included 3m cable is detachable and can be connected to either earcup. Further design details include black anodised aluminium earcup yokes, braided wiring, in-ear cup left/right labelling, and Adam Audio branding on the earcups and headband.

Finally, once registered, H200 users can access their headphone optimisation plugin. Designed in collaboration with Sonnox, the Adam Audio Headphone Utility plugin (VST3, AU) sits on your DAW output bus and provides some modification options.

Performance

The H200 is a beautifully made headphone that combines sturdy components (PC-ABS earcups and aluminium yoke), understated branding and subtle design details (braided wiring). Nevertheless, with no fold-in rotating ear cups or hard carry case, they’re clearly aimed at studio users rather than DJs. As mentioned the fully over-ear design delivers excellent isolation, but also contributes to a very focused sound that’s slightly forward in the mid to upper mid frequencies. There’s no obvious lift in the high frequencies, meanwhile the low end, although full, is not overbearing. In essence, the H200 seems tuned for a broad range of uses, with the closed back design providing the required isolation for recording.

The Headphone Utility plugin builds on these basics with some excellent features. It has four main options – Earpad Material, Gain Compensation, Voicing and Externalization. Earpad Material optimises the frequency response for the two available options, meanwhile Gain Compensation has two settings (Equal Loudness and Safe) that work in tandem with the other settings to prevent clipping and match input / output loudness. Voicing has two settings – Pure and UNR (Uniform Natural Response). Pure is the more neutral option, while UNR has the more enhanced sound reminiscent of some Adam monitors. It’s worth saying neither is completely flat and both reduce the more prominent mids and upper mids we’ve already mentioned. Finally, the most interesting option is Externalization, which applies a left/right crossfeed algorithm to help reduce the extreme left/right stereo separation that headphones deliver.

This is all excellent stuff and we love the plugin, but would like to be able to individually bypass each component to allow for more focused use. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that to use the plugin outside your DAW, on your system audio output for example, you’ll need a third-party audio routing application.

Verdict

Adam has done a very good job with the H200. It doesn’t sound overly hyped, and is both revealing and engaging to listen to. If you were looking solely for mixing headphones you might not opt for a closed back design, but we feel the H200 does an admirable job whether you’re recording, mixing or mastering. What’s more at £140 these are competitively priced and should appeal to a wide range of users.

Hands-on demos

ADAM Audio

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

The Universal Audio SD-1 is a dynamic microphone designed for versatility. This could mean recording vocals, podcasting, streaming, and music. Being a Universal Audio product, there are expectations to manage here. It says it aims to provide professional-grade sound in an accessible package, making it an attractive option for musicians, content creators, and broadcasters alike. Does it succeed?

At its core, the SD-1 features a cardioid polar pattern, which helps reject unwanted background noise, focusing on the sound source directly in front of it. This makes it particularly effective in untreated rooms where environmental noise could otherwise be an issue. It also includes two onboard EQ switches: a low-cut filter (rolling off frequencies below 200Hz) to eliminate rumble and a presence boost (targeting 3-5kHz) to enhance vocal clarity. These settings allow users to tailor the mic’s response without the need for additional post-processing.

Physically, the SD-1 is built like a tank, with a robust metal body and an integrated shock mount to reduce vibrations. It also comes with a built-in foam windscreen to minimise plosives, making it ideal for speech and close-mic vocal work. Despite being a dynamic microphone, it requires a significant amount of gain from an audio interface or preamp, similar to industry staples like the Shure SM7B, so it’s worth keeping this in mind before you click ‘buy’.

Overall, however, the SD-1 is an excellent choice for podcasters, vocalists, and musicians who need a versatile, high-quality microphone without breaking the bank. Whether you're tracking vocals, capturing guitar amps, or streaming live content, the SD-1 offers a well-rounded feature set tailored to modern recording needs.

Pricing

• Full price: £229

At the time of writing, the SD-1, alongside it's compatriot, the SC-1 have been on the market for a few months and in that time, there has been a slight reduction in the price, compared to launch.

In the UK you can pick on up for about £211, which will be a saving of £88.

Performance

Universal Audio is a known quantity in the world of high-end audio gear. From legendary analogue hardware to industry-standard UAD plugins and interfaces, UA has built a reputation for premium sound quality, usually with a price tag to match. That’s why the SD-1 is such an intriguing product. It’s significantly more affordable than most of UA’s catalogue, but does it still live up to the brand’s reputation?

In our testing, the SD-1 proved a solid performer, punching above its price point in several key areas. The build quality is impressive; it feels professional, with a solid metal chassis and a design reminiscent of the Shure SM7B. It feels like UA wanted to create something that looks and feels premium despite its lower price, and it’d be hard to argue that it hasn’t achieved this.

On vocals, the SD-1 delivers a warm and natural tone with a slight midrange focus, making it well-suited for speech, podcasting, and singing. The built-in low-cut filter is useful for removing excessive low-end rumble, while the presence boost adds clarity, though it can make harsher voices sound a bit brittle. Unlike some budget dynamic mics, the SD-1 avoids sounding too muddy or dull, though it lacks the airy high-end of a condenser mic.

Instrument recording was another pleasant surprise. Used on a small Fender valve amp, the SD-1 captured a punchy, focused sound with good detail. As a dynamic amp, we’d have no hesitations putting it up against the front of a larger cab, but there are probably other mics – like the Shure SM57 – that are better suited to this kind of application. Good to see some versatility though. It also performed well on snare drums, providing a tight and controlled tone. In short, for recording instruments, while it may not be your first choice and its bulky size may preclude it from getting into nooks and crannies, it’s versatile enough to handle multiple recording scenarios.

Where the SD-1 truly shone was when it came to recording voiceovers and podcasts. For us, it’s up there with mics like the Shure SM7B for accurate voice-tracking, with superb high-quality recordings captured which require minimal tweaking in post-production. You might want to consider employing a shock mount for studio work, as it doesn’t come with one in the box, but otherwise, we’d happily recommend the SD-1 for such applications.

However, there are some trade-offs. The SD-1, like other broadcast-style dynamic mics, requires a lot of gain to get a strong signal. If your audio interface has lower-gain preamps, you may need a signal booster like a Cloudlifter or a high-quality external preamp. This is an important factor to consider if you're on a budget, as it could add to the overall cost. You’ll still capture decent results with a more basic interface, but to truly unlock the SD-1's potential we’d recommend pairing it with something that can truly give it the platform to shine.

So, is there a benefit to buying a "budget" product from a premium brand? In this case, yes. While the SD-1 isn't revolutionary, and it’s not short of competition, it offers a level of design, build, and sonic quality that’s hard to find at this price point. It doesn’t feel like a cheap knockoff with a fancy logo. UA could have tried to cash in on its reputation, but instead, the SD-1 feels like a well-thought-out microphone that just happens to be more accessible and easier on the wallet. For those who want a Universal Audio product without spending thousands, the SD-1 is a compelling entry point into its ecosystem.

Verdict

The Universal Audio SD-1 stands out as a versatile and durable dynamic microphone suitable for a range of applications. Its natural sound signature and practical features make it a valuable tool for both professionals and hobbyists. While it requires a preamp with ample gain and has a bulkier design, these considerations are outweighed by its performance and affordability. Whether you're recording vocals, instruments, or podcasts, the SD-1 is a worthy contender in its class.

Hands-on demos

Universal Audio

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

Essentially, the Universal Audio SC-1 is a large-diaphragm condenser microphone designed to grant access to a variety of classic microphone tones from the history of recording through advanced modelling technology. At a basic level, it features a cardioid polar pattern, focusing on sound sources directly in front while minimising ambient noise from the sides and rear, while a frequency response spanning 20Hz to 20kHz ensures the SC-1 captures a wide range of audio details, making it suitable for various recording applications. ​

One of the standout features of the SC-1 is its integration with Universal Audio's Hemisphere Mic Modeling plugin. This software allows users to emulate the characteristics of eight renowned microphones, including models inspired by the Neumann U87, U67, and U47, the Telefunken ELA M 251, the AKG C12 and C414, the Sony C-800G, and the Neumann TLM 103. These names might not mean much to a beginner, but those of us who’ve been around the block will be positively excited by this. It’s ‘kid in a sweetshop’ stuff. This modelling capability provides users with sonic options, effectively offering multiple microphone sounds in one unit. ​

Physically, the SC-1 is a tough cookie, with its metal construction ensuring durability for both studio and field use. It has a self-noise level of 12dB(A), making it suitable for capturing subtle nuances in performances without introducing unwanted noise, and the mic can handle sound pressure levels up to 145dB, allowing it to record loud sources like drums and amplified instruments without distortion should you need to, although we’d argue there are better options on the market for that.

The SC-1 is aimed at musicians, recording engineers, and content creators seeking a versatile microphone capable of adapting to various recording scenarios. Its ability to emulate multiple classic microphones makes it particularly valuable in project studios or for individuals who require a broad range of tonal options without investing in multiple high-end microphones. As a result, the SC-1 excels in recording vocals, acoustic instruments, and as a room or overhead microphone for drums, offering flexibility across different genres and applications. ​But how does it perform in a real-world environment?

Pricing

• Launch price: £399

The SC-1 was first announced at the back end of 2023 alongside UA's Hemisphere modelling software. Since then, the prices have dropped a bit, so you can expect to pick up these up for around £360. Some outlets have been spotted as going as low as £345, so there are some deals to be had.

Performance

In our experience with the Universal Audio SC-1, we found it to be a versatile and reliable microphone that delivers on its promise of providing access to classic microphone tones through modelling technology. Straight out of the box, the SC-1 exhibits a rich and full-bodied sound, capturing speech and vocals with clarity and presence. Its cardioid polar pattern performed admirably at rejecting unwanted noise, making it suitable for various recording environments. ​

The integration with the Hemisphere Mic Modeling plugin significantly enhances the SC-1's versatility. The plugin's user-friendly interface allows for seamless switching between different microphone models, each imparting distinct tonal characteristics. For instance, the U87 model offers a balanced and smooth sound, ideal for vocals, while the C-800G model provides a bright and airy quality, which brought life and shimmer to some acoustic guitar recordings we did. This flexibility means you can tailor the microphone's response to suit your specific recording needs without the necessity of physically swapping microphones. ​You might even find something you weren’t expecting, and isn’t that half the fun of studio work?

However, the SC-1 does have some limitations. Notably, it lacks on-body controls such as a high-pass filter or pad switch, which are common features on many condenser microphones. This omission means that any adjustments to the microphone's response must be made through the – admittedly excellent – Hemisphere plugin or within the recording software, potentially adding steps to the workflow. Additionally, the SC-1 is supplied with a standard hard mount rather than a shock mount. This design choice can result in the transmission of mechanical vibrations and handling noise, particularly when recording in less controlled environments. Investing in a compatible shock mount is advisable to mitigate these issues. ​

Another consideration is the reliance on the Hemisphere plugin to access the full range of microphone models. While the SC-1 performs admirably as a standalone microphone, the modelling capabilities are contingent upon the plugin, which requires appropriate software and hardware compatibility. Users should ensure that their recording setup can accommodate the plugin to fully leverage the SC-1's features.

Despite these considerations, the SC-1's low self-noise and high SPL handling make it a versatile tool in various recording scenarios. Its ability to capture subtle nuances without introducing noise is particularly beneficial for acoustic instruments and delicate vocal performances. The high SPL tolerance also allows the SC-1 to handle louder sources like drums and electric guitar amplifiers without distortion, further showcasing its adaptability.

Verdict

The Universal Audio SC-1 is a commendable addition to any recording setup, offering a blend of solid standalone performance and the added versatility of microphone modelling through the Hemisphere plugin. Its robust construction, low self-noise, and ability to emulate a range of classic microphones make it a valuable asset for musicians, engineers, and content creators seeking flexibility without compromising on sound quality. While the lack of on-body controls and the necessity for additional accessories like a shock mount may require some adaptation, the SC-1's overall performance and feature set provide substantial value, particularly for those looking to expand their tonal palette without investing in multiple microphones.

Hands-on demos

Universal Audio

Alternatives

Specifications

With some ginormous savings of up to 50% off a huge range of music gear, Thomann’s Sweeter Than Chocolate Easter sale features some of the best deals I’ve seen this year. The last time I saw deals this good was around the Black Friday weekend, making it the place to shop if you’re looking for some fresh gear ahead of the Easter weekend.

With 372 items on sale, I can forgive you for not having the time to look through every single one to see what’s there. Thankfully for your hectic schedule, I’ve looked at all of the items available in the sale and using my knowledge as a reviewer and judgment as a regular writer of deals content, picked out the very best deals from the sale you can pick up right now.

Abbey Road’s Studio One has reopened, and to celebrate, the iconic North London studio has thrown not one but two knees-ups.

The second of those took place last night (27 March). This was ‘Synergy In Motion’, a multi-discipline evening of contemporary dance and music, which saw the Royal Ballet choreographer Joseph Toonga create original choreography to the film scores of Daniel Pemberton, which was then in turn remixed and reshaped by Abbey Road's Artist In Residence, Jordan Rakei.

The studio’s Director of Marketing and Creative, Mark Robertson, seemed pleased: “Last night was a celebration of creativity in all its forms, which is at the heart of Abbey Road,” he said. “For the first time ever, we took boundary-pushing expressive dance into Studio One, by devising a concept that sees the worlds of contemporary dance, film scores and cutting-edge music collide. What appealed about Joseph is that he creates choreography that challenges convention by blending styles from ballet to hip-hop and krump, which felt appropriate for the fusion of Daniel and Jordan’s music.”

The first Studio One celebration, which took place on 18 March, was an orchestral tribute to all the incredible film music that has been created in the room over the decades: a long list that includes the scores for Return Of The Jedi, The Last Emperor, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and many, many more.

Studio One has been out of action for six months whilst it’s undergone restoration and upgrading. The 20-year-old 72-channel AMS Neve 88RS SP2 recording console has been replaced by a brand-new 84-channel SP3D console. New 7.1.4 monitoring has been put in, and the live room has seen the introduction of 10 rows of wool serge to replace the 21 rows of acoustic treatment ‘washing line’ that had been there since 1970.

It’s the largest of the three main Abbey Road studios. Indeed, it remains the world’s largest purpose-built studio, with enough space to host a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir. Back in the day it saw classical greats such as Elgar, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Maria Callas pass through its doors. More recently it’s played host to sessions by Noel Gallagher, Little Simz and Harry Styles, as well as ones for the soundtracks to Barbie, Gladiator II and Wonka.

It’s nice to imagine that Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas complete all their albums - from start to finish - in their home studio. The truth is that there are other people involved though, and when it came to mixing Eilish’s third full-length record, Hit Me Hard And Soft, two of those people were Jon Castelli and his co-mixer Aron Forbes.

One of the standout tracks from the record, of course, was smash hit not-a-single Birds Of A Feather, and in a new multipart video series for Mix with the Masters, Castelli and Forbes have been explaining how they made its component parts gel together.

Step one, it turns out, was making sure that they were hearing exactly what Billie and Finneas had created. “The most sensitive part was getting the audio files from Logic to come into Pro Tools sounding exactly the same, because there’s so much inherently baked-in to Finneas’s arrangement and rough mix,” says Castelli.

This involved a bit of gain staging, but it was crucial preparation for the task ahead, because it meant that, if Finneas was ever unhappy with part of a mix, they could get back to the sound of his original.

With this done, it was time to dive into arguably the most crucial part of the mix: the vocals.

“This whole album, Billie went so deep on vocals,” says Forbes, adding that it was his and Castelli’s job to make sure the character of these vocals remained intact. “If you alter it, it starts to become, you’re like, ‘well, that's not the person I know,’” he says.

This meant that the compressor choice was crucial, and in the case of Birds Of A Feather, they chose a Brainworx plugin emulation of a Solid State Logic classic.

“I assume we have the [SSL 4000] G on this one for her,” says Forbes, with Castelli adding: “that’s what’s holding her forward, with a little bit of top-end boost and low-end body on the 200.”

Finding the right tool for the job, though, sometimes required a bit of trial and error.

“We would just A/B different boxes, like, SSL G channel versus J channel; Ozone Tape versus maybe like a Kramer tape - just these like emulation boxes that give tonal shifts and character to things without necessarily changing it.”

It turns out that it isn’t her vocals that Eilish herself likes most about Birds Of A Feather, though: “Billie’s favorite part is when that bass comes in,” confirms Forbes. “John gassed it in the best way.”

“I was like, ‘man - this is the energy,’” says Castelli of that bassline, and it certainly jumps out of the final mix. There was a balance to be struck, though, and Forbes says that they had to ask themselves “between the top end of the bass, how loud can it be without competing with her?”

Elsewhere in the series, Castelli talks about the value of having a co-mixer on a project like this, where neither the artist or producer is there with him.

“Historically you would have the producer in the room, the artist in the room,” he says. “You'd have four hands on the console - six hands on the console. We don't have that anymore.”

Of Forbes - who is also Eilish's musical director - Castelli goes on to say that he really appreciated “having him on the sofa and trading places with me at the desk,” and his co-mixer was happy to take this step back. Sitting on that sofa, Forbes says: “I instantly fell in love with this seat because the low-end made sense to me.”

It was the meeting of minds and perspectives that ultimately made the magic happen though: “there's things you can hear up there I can't hear back here and vice versa,” says Forbes.

Subscribers can watch the full video series on the Mix with the Masters website.

A group of music and film heavyweights led by Hans Zimmer has taken one step further in its plans to transform the BBC's historic former Maida Vale Studios into a "state-of-the-art" music centre.

Following the sale of the building to in 2023 for an estimated £10.5 million, a public consultation took place last year that invited local partners to offer feedback on the proposed development.

That consultation has now ended, and a planning application has been submitted by Mavis Partnership LLC, a group led by Zimmer that includes business partner Steve Kofsky and British film producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan. Westminster City Council will review the application on April 1.

The application details plans to build two separate wings for music and film. The "Audio wing" will feature four "world-class" music studios alongside several additional composer suites and 30 music practice rooms, while the "Visual wing" will contain "high-tech facilities" for film post-production, including sound stages, foley studios, screening rooms and editing suites.

Originally constructed in 1909 as an ice rink, the Grade II-listed Maida Vale Studios has played host to artists such as The Beatles, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse and Beyoncé, and was the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1934. The historic BBC Radiophonic Workshop was based at Maida Vale until its closure in 1998.

In 2018, the BBC announced plans to move its live music hub to a new facility in East London, a decision opposed by a number of artists, including Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and Geoff Barrow of Portishead.

“The proposed studio will be one of the only such facilities in the world and the first in the UK, creating a venue of national importance to UK creative industries," reads a statement on the group's website.

"These proposed upgrades will set new benchmarks for excellence in British film and music post-production, fostering the creation of new jobs, driving innovation, and promoting industry investment."

Although Justin Bieber is yet to announce a new album, his first since 2021’s Justice, sightings at various recording studios over the past 12 months have convinced many fans that he’s working on one. And it seems that he could be collaborating with some of pop’s most in-demand artists.

Most recently, he appeared in a now-expired Instagram story by rising British singer/songwriter Sekou. This featured shots of Bieber sitting at a piano, and who else should be there but heartfelt electronica maven Fred Again. Fred, of course, has worked with Bieber before, having co-written and co-produced I Don’t Care, his 2019 duet with Ed Sheeran.

This apparent reveal comes after, in an interview with the New York Times last year, outré guitarist and producer Mk.gee confirmed that he’d been working with Bieber on new material.

“He’s searching,” he said. “Anything that comes out of his mouth: that’s pop music. You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that, just because it represents something.”

Whether any or all of these collaborations ends up on a Bieber album remains to be seen, but there are certainly some intriguing signposts for the direction(s) the record might take.

Coincidentally, when the star released Justice, in 2021, he was sent a cease and desist letter by the French electronic duo of the same name, requesting that he stop using the “cross” logo that they believe they trademarked some time ago.

When they hear the name Les Paul, those unacquainted with the history of music technology will likely think of the iconic Gibson guitar that bears his name. But while the late inventor and guitarist is perhaps best known for inventing the solid-body electric guitar, he was also a pioneering figure in the world of studio recording.

In recognition of Paul's achievements and innovations, a new recording studio is opening in Los Angeles that honours his legacy. Located in the United Recording Studios on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard, The Les Paul Recording Studio hosts an array of "meticulously restored" equipment that belonged to Paul, including a custom-built mixing console and 8-track tape recorder.

Built by Paul alongside engineer Rein Narma in the '50s, the 8-channel console - nicknamed "The Monster" - was designed to work alongside the world's first 8-track recorder, an Ampex 5258 Sel-Sync tape machine conceived by Paul and built by Ampex engineer Ross Snyder.

Together these formed the world's first multi-track recording set-up, utilized by Paul in his famed Hollywood garage studio. It was in this studio that Paul pioneered many recording techniques still in use today, including multi-track recording, overdubbing, close-mic'ing and tape echo.

Though it plays host to historic gear, The Les Paul Recording Studio isn't a museum exhibit: students and artists are invited to visit the studio and make use of Paul's restored equipment - alongside some "state-of-the-art" modern gear - to record new music, finding inspiration in the "rich history" the studio has to offer.

“We’ve painstakingly restored Les Paul’s original gear to working condition, allowing today’s artists to record using the exact tools that revolutionized popular music," said Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation.

"Combined with the newest technology and digital recording tools, the Les Paul Recording Studio will welcome musical artists, producers, engineers and students to a new and innovative studio environment that is the only one of its kind in the world.”

What is it?

For over 10 years Bastl has been creating a whole host of modular and standalone sound devices in kit and off-the-shelf form. The latest of these is the Kastle 2 FX Wizard, which aims to live up to its ‘magical’ title as an all-round effects box. The name suggests that it might follow in the footsteps of Kastle 1.5, but whilst there are some similarities in terms of format and approach, the Kastle 2 is a new and different beast entirely – and as the name suggests, moves the focus from synthesis to effects processing.

The unit itself is small (about the size of two packs of playing cards) and is powered by three AA batteries or via the USB-C connector. Incidentally, the latter is only for power and firmware updates, so don’t expect any sophisticated audio or MIDI interfacing on this front.

Alongside the aforementioned USB, the rear panel has four mini-jack sockets for audio and analogue clock sync duties. It’s also good to note that audio ins and outs (as well as internal processing) are all stereo.

The top panel is populated with knobs and the odd switch (one dedicated to a ‘shift’ function for accessing additional parameters), and if that were it, it might be considered reasonably spacious. However, the area in-between is filled with lots of extra text and a plentiful supply of miniature patch points. These are where – with the help of the 10 supplied patch cables – you can divert, subvert and expand on the regular signal flow of the FX Wizard. Outputs are labelled with a white outline, but it’s fair to say the smaller your fingers and the better your eyesight, the easier you will find using the ‘Wizard’.

Pricing

• Launch price: $199/€160(excl. tax)/£165

Kastl 2 FX Wizard was announced in mid-November 2024 and then made available to order from the end of November, priced at €160 excluding tax, directly from the Bastl Instruments website.

Prices haven't shifted too far from the original launch price online.

Each unit comes with a pack of 10 short jumper wires included. Batteries are not included.

Performance

Now we have our bearings it's time to plug in some audio and get tweaking. The effects themselves are generally derived from the internal delay, down-sampler or VCA modules which are then routed to an adjustable low- or high-pass filter. From there it gets mixed with the dry signal and routed back on itself via a processed feedback path (all adjustable). The result is nine different (colour-coded) effects taking in delay, modulation, freezing, panning, crushing, shifting and more.

Given some of the quite diverse range of effects it is worth noting that the Time and Feedback controls vary their function depending on which is selected. Luckily Bastl provides a small, quick reference booklet for recalling these and some of the more hard-to-remember features and functions. The effects themselves are all very usable out of the box, but it is once you get patching and use the LFO, Pattern Generator and Envelope Follower that things get more unpredictable and interesting.

Verdict

If you are a Eurorack user, then FX Wizard might be a nice addition to your setup (albeit with its own system of cable patching), but we can see this being most popular with desktop synth and drum machine users looking to expand their setup without going full modular. It also offers a very compact way to get into patchable effects processing, and would therefore be a great addition to Bastl’s own instruments like the Kastle Drum and Kastle 1.5 synth.

Hands-on demos

Bastl Instruments

Alternatives

Specifications

Billed as the final single from The Beatles, Now and Then was always going to be a big deal. The track, which is nominated for Song of the Year at this weekend’s Brit Awards, has its roots in a 1977 demo recorded by John Lennon.

Its mix features all four original members - Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with the late Lennon and George Harrison - and comes with a long history that includes an aborted mid-’90s attempt at a finished release.

There’s another headline-grabbing element to the eventual release of Now and Then though. As has been widely, and on occasion a little misleadingly reported, the track’s creation has been made possible thanks to the use of neural network technology. Or, as how some have more flatly termed it - AI.

This latter fact seems to have led to misconceptions among some fans, as the track’s co-producer Giles Martin (son of late Beatles producer George Martin) demonstrates in an exclusive video for MusicRadar.

“I think there is this supposition that we used AI to recreate something, or to perhaps enhance John Lennon's voice,” Martin tells us. “This simply wasn't the case. All we did was clean a cassette recording he had made all those years ago.”

It’s true that some of the public reaction to Now and Then, particularly in the wake of its recent Grammy win for Best Rock Performance, has led some to raise a suspicious eyebrow. But this perception stems from the entirely false notion that the track has harnessed some form of generative AI. Which it very much hasn't.

That misconception may well stem from a 2023 interview Paul McCartney gave to Radio 4’s Today Programme, in which the Beatle announced that he had recently completed work on a song created with the help of artificial intelligence.

In reality, the innovative technology that allowed for the creation of Now and Then is the same that was used to assemble Get Back - Peter Jackson’s lengthy and hugely revelatory three-part documentary shot during the making of what would become Let It Be in 1969.

Jackson’s team made use of machine learning technology - which they dubbed MAL (in reference to both 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL, and Beatles' long-serving roadie Mal Evans) - in order to isolate instruments, sung vocals and dialogue from the original tapes.

The same technology was later used by Martin to produce the new stereo remix of Revolver. Released in 2022, this pristine-sounding version of the 1966 classic was created using stems separated from the original four-track master tapes.

In our video, Martin addresses the misconception directly by demonstrating the technology in action. First, Giles shows how it’s capable of separating the individual instrument parts of Revolver opener Taxman, and then by playing the separated stems of Lennon’s original recording of Now and Then.

Giles spotlights something vital; “the important thing here is to realise that we're not generating anything. AI is not creating John's voice. John's voice existed on that cassette, and we made the song around him.”

Reviving Now and Then

That original demo on which Now and Then was constructed has its roots in a 1977 demo recording created by John Lennon in his Dakota Building apartment in NYC.

Following Lennon’s death in 1980, two cassettes of demo recordings were given to McCartney containing the unfinished version of Now and Then along with three other work-in-progress songs, Free as a Bird, Real Love and Grow Old With Me.

In the mid-’90s the surviving Beatles worked on completing those demos with producer Jeff Lynne around the release of The Beatles Anthology.

Free as a Bird and Real Love were completed during those sessions, and released as singles to promote a trilogy of expansive compilations of studio outtakes and early demos.

Although an attempt was made to create a finished version of Now and Then - the third in this planned trilogy - the track was ultimately abandoned due, at least in part, to the difficulties of working with a poor quality demo recording.

Thanks to the machine learning technology used on Get Back, it became possible to isolate a clean audio file of Lennon’s vocals from the original demo recording.

The final version of Now and Then, which was eventually released in November last year, was produced by McCartney and Martin based around that vocal recording.

Despite incorporating parts written and recorded across a span of almost 50 years, Martin claims that any challenge involved in mixing these disparate elements was overridden by the natural cohesion between contributions of the four original members.

“There's always a challenge in mixing anything and getting everyone to settle down,” he says. “But as this was all the Beatles playing, they obviously compliment each other beautifully in what they do. There wasn’t too much of a challenge.”

Martin would be right to push back on the perception that AI has made some sort of creative contribution to the song. Although the technology has been instrumental in allowing its creation, there’s nothing that has been written or generated by anything other than real musicians.

Surviving Beatles McCartney and Ringo Starr contributed new instrument and vocal parts, while George Harrison’s guitar parts from the aborted ‘90s sessions were also incorporated into the arrangement, along with a newly recorded string arrangement.

“It was purely Paul's decision to work on this record, and he led that decision based on having heard the work that we've done with Peter Jackson,” Martin tells us.

That’s not to say Now and Then sticks religiously to Lennon’s original vision. Along with the additional instrumentation, the final version adds new lyrics and omits a pre-chorus from Lennon’s demo. These creative decisions were taken by McCartney, though.

While there’s plenty for Beatles fans to debate around Now and Then’s various iterations and its place within the band’s canon, any supposed questions around the ethics of AI are something of a misnomer.

What’s more, while the MAL technology used but Peter Jackson’s team has been trailblazing and is undeniably impressive (as anyone that’s seen Get Back can attest) mass-market technology is already catching up on those capabilities.

The separation tools used in the creation of Now and Then aren’t a million miles away from similar stem seperation tech now included in the likes of Apple’s Logic Pro and Image-Line's FL Studio.

In other words, as much as Now and Then remains noteworthy and is without question an impressive achievement, the 'AI' element is really one of the less interesting parts of its story.

Artificial influence

While Martin and McCartney didn’t employ AI as a generative or creative tool in producing Now and Then, that’s not to say that doing so is beyond the realms of what’s technologically possible.

We’re living in a time where machine learning and AI-driven tech is making a lot of new concepts possible, or at least easier to achieve, from remixing old recordings to creating full ‘deepfake’ versions of late musicians.

For Martin, however, there are definite lines that shouldn’t be crossed when it comes to tampering with the legacy of musicians like Lennon and Harrison.

“It's fundamental that if any technology is used in a recording, it should be done with the artist's approval,” he tells us. “The idea that anyone could generate an imitation or deepfake of an artist without their permission, or even create a deepfake recording of anything is, I think, very dangerous. It's really important that the artist owns their own voice, when it comes to using this technology.”

The discussion around AI’s use in the creation of Now and Then is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg in what we’ll see in the near future, as rapidly advancing AI technology makes its mark on society.

The impact of machine learning and generative tech is likely to be particularly prevalent in creative industries like music production.

“It may provide more of a threat if used in the wrong way,” Martin says. “As someone who embraces technology in the same way that my father and The Beatles did, I think that it's up to the user to make the right decisions based around how they use the technology.”

The link between The Beatles and cutting-edge recording technology is nothing new, of course.

The recording sessions the band undertook with George Martin at Abbey Road pioneered numerous techniques, from double tracking to tape manipulation and early forms of sampling. There’s a solid case to be made that this latest use of cutting-edge tools fits perfectly into their spirit of innovation.

"[Me and my father] actually worked on a John Lennon song together, called Grow Old with Me, which he did a beautiful string arrangement for,” Martin recalls. “At that time, I remember us struggling to get a better vocal out of the cassette recording we had. This is exactly the sort of technology we would have probably used if we were doing the record again.”

The Beatles Now and Then is nominated for Song of the Year at the 2025 Brit Awards.

As a special Valentine's gift, Universal Audio is giving away a free version of its classic 1176 peak limiter/compressor plugin. We have all the details here on how to get it and use it in your mixes!

Yes, you might consider roses, chocolates or expensive champagne as your ideal Valentine's gifts, but here at MusicRadar, we'd rather choose free plugins as the ideal gifts for our partners – which might explain why we're single – and there's none better than this special offering from Universal Audio: the mighty UA 1176 for free!

If you haven't experienced the magic of the Universal AudioA/UREI 1176 peak limiter/compressor, then now is most definitely the time. As a special Valentine's gift, Universal Audio is making a version of its plugin 1176 free for a limited time, and we have all the hands-on advice to make the most of this fantastic offer, and get some incredible 1176 magic going in your mixes.

First up, why is the original hardware 1176 so revered? Like a lot of vintage gear this happened almost by accident as the original unit was designed as a workhorse limiter/compressor, with no legendary status in mind. The original unit was released in 1968 by Bill Putnam, an expert in tube-based audio preamps and compressors, who was just discovering the joys of the all-new (for the time) solid-state transistor technology.

His new 1176 was a solid-state version of his original 175B/176 tube compressor – the '1176' name being a shortened version of the original. Unlike other compressors of the time it was loaded with extras like Attack and Release controls and four compression ratio options: 4;1, 8:1, 12:1 and 20:1.

These became the 1176's most famous feature when engineers discovered that dialling them all in simultaneously resulted in a steep compression and aggressive quality on certain instruments and mixes that became known as The British Sound.

This became one of the 1176's biggest calling cards, along with its fast and aggressive character, and the original hardware quickly became one of the most in-demand studio tools, with many famous users. These included engineer/producer Bruce Swedien who insisted on using 1176s when recording Michael Jackson's vocals for landmark albums like Thriller and Off The Wall, while Andy Johns certainly helped make that 'British sound' by dialling in all the ratio settings for both Led Zeppelin and Free recordings.

Putnam had interests in lots of early audio brands so used both the UREI and Universal Audio names on his gear – along with many others – so the 1176 was blessed with both names throughout its history, which turned out to be a remarkably long one.

There have been 11 versions of the 1176 released since 1968, the first three (A, AB, and B) known as 'Bluestripe thanks to their distinctive coloured facias. Versions C, D, E, F and G were called 'Blackface, with Revision C adding low noise circuitry, hence the '1176LN' name.

The 'Silverface' H was version 9, while Revision 10 is the current Universal Audio 1176LN model, and is used by such luminary producers as Tony Maserati (Beyonce, Alicia, Keys). Version 11 was a very limited edition (500 units) model that UA released the limited edition 1176 AE (Anniversary Edition) which has different ratios: 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, and 20:1; plus a slower attack time setting.

The original 1176 has become one of those legendary pieces of studio history that has an equally legendary price-tag. The latest revision 10 will set you back £3,000/$3.500 for a new unit, but if you want an original, you are going to have to start saving with the earlier the revision meaning the higher price tags. We've seen a Rev B for sale for £16,000/$18,000, while a Rev D is a snip at £7,500/$8,500!

The 1176 in software

Luckily, you don't need to pay top dollar for an original hardware version of the 1176, because you can now enjoy its magic as a plugin, and who better than the original developer's Universal Audio as the team behind it? The company's 1176 Classic Limiter Collection is hands-down the best way to get the 1176 sound into your mixes as it features not one but three versions of the original hardware: the Rev A, E and limited AE.

Well, when we say 'hands-down the best', there is – for a limited time only – one better way to get the 1176 sound, and that's with the free Valentine's Day version from Universal Audio. It has all the features of the original hardware and software versions, bar a couple of extras on the Attack and Release dials, which we explain below.

You simply set levels with the Input and Output dials, choose your compression setting, and it's easy to create dramatic or subtle compression effects on anything from beats to vocals.

We're going to show you how to recreate some vintage 1176 magic using this free version now, so head on over to the Universal Audio website and download it, install it and get ready for our tutorials!

Now you have it and, presumably have it installed, it's time to get dial up some 1176 magic.

Tutorial 1: The Dr Pepper Effect

In the 1960s, Dr Pepper ran an ad in the US saying that its drink should be enjoyed at the hours of 10am, 2pm and 4pm to keep yourself nicely topped up with its sugary ingredients. It was a good way of selling drinks but also – and heaven only knows who made the connection – those numbers made up some decent settings for the 1176, which became known as the Dr Pepper trick!

The first thing to note is that the 1176 has reversed Attack and Release controls compared to most other compressors, in that they give you the fastest setting as you dial right. In other words you get the slowest attack and release character dialling them left. With that in mind, set your first Dr Pepper setting at 10 o clock for the Attack dial. That's a value of around 3 on the dial (see above).

If you have a sugary-pop drink to hand, and it's 2pm your time, now is probably time to take a sip as we enter the second value in our Dr Pepper mode; that's 2pm on the Release dial, around a value of 5.

Take a final swig – feels good right? It's 4pm and that final boost of the day comes by way of the 4:1 ratio setting – 4pm, geddit? So we end up with the Attack at 10 o' clock, the Release at 2 o' clock and the Ratio at 4 o' clock.

You will have to balance your input and output dials to make sure that the gain settings are equivalent and that you can hear the difference. The end result is that the sound is more aggressive with these settings and it certainly allows instruments like the acoustic guitar and vocals to punch through the mix more, adding top end and ambience.

Tutorial 2: The classic 'All Buttons In' mode

The 'All Buttons In' setting or 'British Mode' on the 1176 was discovered by an engineer who accidentally pressed all the ratio buttons in on an original hardware unit. Clumsy, maybe – and what on earth were they doing? However, the result was worth it, as the end result was a lovely up-front sound. First up, press the 4:1 compression setting.

Now press Shift and click on the 20:1 ratio and all of the buttons should go in. Again, you might have to set up the Input and Output dials to keep the gain settings similar, so hear the impact of the 1176 before and after. Keep the Attack and Release dials in the middle to start with.

The result is that the overall compression works between 12 and 20:1, depending on your source signal, and the sound is very overdriven. While Dr Pepper adds a bit of bite, this is more of a colourful, pumping sound. On a drum break, for example, it is a 'smearing' effects where the transients become more blurred. Here we have the Rev A version of UA's 1176 with the Dr Pepper Settings.

Trying it on a kick and you an even more dramatic pumping effect, but experiment with the Release dial and Input level, in particular, to enhance it. It's a very distinctive effect that can add punch and character to pretty much anything – and is best used as a parallel processor – but is most evident on these percussive sounds.

Finally, if you push the Attack dial all the way to the right on an 1176, it is effectively switched off, forcing a ratio of 1:1 and meaning that the 1176 is simply used as a preamp and giving you a little magic colour. An 1176 is well worth trying just for this, although the free version doesn't have this option, so just push the Attack dial as far as you can to the right.

What is it?

When it comes to studio headphone use, we often discuss the various merits of different types of designs, and for good reason. For mixing and mastering you’ll want something that is sonically neutral, but also enjoyable to listen to and comfortable. In contrast for recording we tend to recommend closed-back designs, as although these sound less neutral, they prevent headphone spill and assist with isolation.

Tascam’s TH headphone range has included a variety of designs over the years and although not as highly regarded as market leaders such as Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic or Sony, they are typically very well made and affordable.

Up for review we have the Tascam TH-11 Studio Headphones. These are a closed-back design and as the name suggests are primarily aimed at studio users. They use 50mm drivers and feature mid-sized ear cups. Meanwhile the full width padded headband incorporates the sliding ear cup adjustment mechanism. The cups have reasonable rotation, although not the full 180 degrees, so are not particularly DJ friendly. They also include hinged joints, so that they can be folded away for transport.

Connection is via a reassuringly long 3m captive lead, which attaches to the bottom of the left-hand cup. This terminates in a 3.5mm mini jack and a push fit 6.3mm adapter is also included. The onward cabling to the right-hand cup is completely hidden inside the hinge joint, which keeps it tidy and safe from damage.

Performance

With a list price of £45/€50 the TH-11 is clearly aimed at the more budget conscious, and to help keep that price as low as possible there’s no included carry bag, which is a shame. Construction is also primarily plastic, so you’ll want to avoid careless handling. That said, overall they feel well made and have a quality finish. What’s more, with the Tascam logo across the top of the headband and on both ear cups, alongside some stylish red detailing, they look pretty classy.

Comfort is a key aspect of any headphone design. At 270g the TH-11 is super light and the fit is firm but not too tight. The headband is well padded, although the ear cup padding is quite light and if you’re used to memory foam designs, these do feel a bit lacking. Although, with a light design like this, it’s less of an issue and overall we found them reasonably comfortable over longer listening spells.

Closed-back studio headphones tend to be designed for recording duties and should be able to deliver a clear mid range and plenty of volume. On first listen the TH-11 has a reasonable mid range and a good amount of bass, but clearly has quite restrained high frequencies. This makes them sound quite dull, and if you were planning on using these for mixing, particularly at lower volumes, you’d be advised to look elsewhere. Nevertheless, crank the volume up and the high-frequency tail off can be beneficial, and this is the case here. There’s plenty of volume on offer and they deliver a punchy defined sound when pushed hard. This would make them a good choice when tracking drums, amped guitars or recording a whole band together.

Verdict

Overall, the TH-11 is clearly not a general purpose headphone, and there are better options if you want affordable headphones for mixing. However, for recording duties, particularly if you need a design that’s loud and punchy, it offers good value and really looks the part.

MusicRadar verdict: The Tascam TH-11 is a well-made and affordable headphone that is light, comfortable and reasonably compact when folded up for storage. The sonic signature won’t suit everyone, but for studio recording they are a reliable choice.

Specifications

• Operating design: closed back.
• Transducer: dynamic.
• Driver size: 50mm.
• Impedance: 32 Ohms.
• Sensitivity: 98dB +/-3dB.
• Frequency response: 18Hz to 22kHz.
• Maximum input power: 600mW.
• Cable length: 3m.
• Weight: 270g.
• CONTACT: Tascam

Legendary producer and mix engineer Bob Clearmountain has lost his home and studio in the Los Angeles wildfires.

Speaking to the LA Times, Clearmountain revealed that his Mix This! studio, located in the basement of his Palisades home, has been completely destroyed. The producer made the decision to evacuate on January 7th, packing up several cars full of belongings before retreating to Santa Monica.

"We grabbed everything we could think of," he said. "I had some some things that Bruce Springsteen had given us; he had done a little one of his little stick-figure doodles for my wife’s 50th birthday, which I thought, ‘Well, that’s something pretty special.’

"We just figured we’d be back in a few days," Clearmountain continued. "That once the evacuation order was lifted, we’d just be loading everything back into the house. It really didn’t occur to us that this could be the end of our world."

Home to a vast collection of instruments and gear, Mix This! is a custom-built, Atmos-equipped studio that's been used to mix music by an array of artists that includes The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen.

Though Clearmountain managed to save some of his equipment from the blaze, the majority had to be left behind, including a 72-channel SSL 4072 G+ console and Bösendorfer grand piano.

Clearmountain says he's determined to continue working, despite the loss of his home and studio. “I look at it as a challenge, the next chapter," he said. "I can’t really look back. I can’t spend too much time being bummed out about it. I’ve got to say, ‘OK, what can I do?’

"I’m going to change the style of what I do. I’m gonna do what I do, but do it differently, and hopefully it’ll be good, maybe better than what I was doing. That’s all I can think right now."

In a natural disaster that governor Gavin Newsom is calling one of the "worst in US history", over 180,000 residents have been evacuated and 24 are confirmed to have died. Thousands of residents have lost their homes to the wildfires, including large numbers of musicians and producers whose studios, instruments and gear have also fallen victim to the disaster.

Speaking to Variety yesterday (12 January) producer Greg Wells revealed that his family home and home studio had been destroyed in the Palisades blaze, including a "state-of-the-art, immersive, 7.1 Atmos room" designed by acclaimed studio architect Peter Grueneisen. Known for working with Elton John, Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa, among others, Wells was also the producer for the recently released musical fantasy film Wicked.

“I had such a collection of incredible recording equipment," Wells told Variety, "like a custom-made, 48-channel analog console made by Paul Wolff, who used to own API [...] There were these 1950s RCA tube compressors from the Little Richard/Elvis era, really unique pieces that had always just made me salivate.

“But I just have to remind myself, it’s really down to the people and to the ideas, and none of that stuff makes a song better. So I’m not gonna let it define me.”

Others in the music world that have lost homes to the wildfires include Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, Chris Shifflet of the Foo Fighters, and DIIV's Zachary Smith.

Today, retailer Guitar Center announced the launch of a charitable initiative to help musicians affected by the disaster by replacing lost instruments and gear.

Malibu's Harbor Studios, a residential recording studio that's played host to Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat and Jack Harlow, has been destroyed by the wildfires currently raging through Los Angeles.

In a post shared to its Instagram account on January 8th, studio owner Zach Brandon shared a photograph of Harbor Studio's remains. "I am profoundly sad to announce that Harbor Studios has been lost to the Palisades Fire," Brandon said, before going on to recount the history of the studio, which has been a "staple in the music community" since the '90s.

Founded as a recording space for jazz keyboardist Joe Zawinul and his band The Weather Report, the studio later became a home studio for film composer Paul Dinletir, known for his work on Avatar and The Avengers. In 2021, the studio was rebranded as Harbor Studios, and has since been visited by stars such as Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj, who used it to record her 2023 album Pink Friday 2.

"I cried this morning, but not because Harbor burned down," Brandon continued. "I cried because it settled in with me that Harbor was taken from so many artists who cared so deeply about Harbor. It was a place of musical freedom… a sanctuary in the most literal sense of the word. I loved it."

Brandon has stated that he intends to rebuild Harbor Studios in another location, and has already begun the process of planning its new incarnation. "This is not the end of Harbor," he said. "We are restarting from scratch (again)… nothing we haven’t done before. Not only that, but I have gained so much knowledge and experience from Harbor 1 that I will be implementing into the rebuild.

"I’ve taken the initial steps forward - the original studio builder and I have already begun planning what the new Harbor Studios is going to look like. Thankfully, the magic that has been bestowed upon us by our clients is something that can never leave. It’s in the soil, it’s in the air, and it’s in our souls. We will come back stronger from this."

Described on its website as a "luxury, world-class recording studio and lodging experience", Harbor Studios was designed by studio builders and acoustic designers Steven Klein and Hanson Hsu.

Made up of a wood-panelled A room and three additional recording spaces, the studio was connected to a four-bedroom home and zen garden with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. Among the gear destroyed in the blaze was a collection of vintage synths that included a Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 and Roland Juno-106.

Having a space to create in is, in a word, a privilege. Whether you’ve got a nook for playing guitar in, a home recording/vlogging space to call your own, or even a lock-up with all manner of amps and odd instruments to explore, having that space is a huge benefit for your creativity – unless it happens to be a little boring. In which case, it could well do with an injection of creative color.

Luckily, with sweeping Black Friday deals up to 41% over at Displate - the purveyors of damage-free metal posters covering everything from music to art and culture - you can ensure your studio environment passes the vibe check on the cheap.

Displate is a proud and pioneering purveyor of fine metal posters - poster artworks, printed hardily onto steel sheets for fuss-free ‘hanging’ via an ingenious magnet-based mounting method - no wall damage or angry landlords here. Until the end of Black Friday itself, you can grab some art of your own for up to 41% off.

There are loads of official brands partnered with Displate to provide official steel-printed wall art, including major movie, TV and video-game IPs like Marvel, DC, Cyberpunk and more. If you’re a creative with a big nerdy streak (which, to be real, describes almost all of us), there are bound to be a few pieces here that inspire you. This writer isn’t usually one for fantasy settings, but the Displate designs for From Software’s Elden Ring are hugely tantalizing.

Of course, there are also thousands of music-centered artworks for you to peruse too, from album art variants to collage-y art pieces to functional infographics. For the moodier of indie-heads amongst us (read: me) there’s this ace iteration of Tame Impala’s Currents artwork in glorious Displate format - and for the Gilmour-heads, this rendition of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon art.

If you’re looking to spruce up your guitar-practicing space without making space for other artists, you could do a lot worse than this smart-looking white-on-black patent design for Fender’s tremolo system, which renders everyone’s favorite whammy bar in monochrome splendor. For something altogether more practical - and if your creative space is a work in progress in tandem with your guitar-learning - you might benefit from this Guitar Theory infographic map, featuring the circle of fifths and some useful chord charts too.

Displate’s Black Friday sale is a biggie to be sure, spanning the entirety of the catalog and providing you with an unmissable chance to load up on quality steel-borne prints. However, you don’t have long to fill your basket; the deal’s running until Friday, so act fast!

• Explore more of the best Black Friday music deals

First opened by the legendary Beatles producer Sir George Martin in 1970 (and later moved to Hampstead's Lyndhurst Hall in 1991), AIR Studios has played host to some of the world's most acclaimed artists and composers. Now, it has taken a notable step of tracking its emissions in an effort to set a green example to the wider industry.

Partnering with UK-based carbon accounting platform Climatise, AIR intends to use the platform's detailed and streamlined data collection services to monitor its emissions, and make a point to the wider music production industry that tackling climate change is something that should be of pivotal concern for all major studios going forward.

AIR Studios' CEO Simon Knee stated that "Working with Climatise to accurately measure and manage our carbon emissions aligns with AIR’s commitment to environmental responsibility. Our studios have hosted some of the world's most influential artists and we recognise our responsibility to lead by example in the pursuit of sustainability. Together, we’re charting a course for a greener future in the recording industry."

According to data provided by AIR and Climatise, the music industry is directly responsible for 540,000 tons of carbon emissions each year, while major film productions can emit an average of 3,370 tons of carbon per production.

It's hoped that AIR Studios partnership with Climatise will encourage others in both industries to take action.

The collaboration aims to fulfil the following three-point plan:

1. "Identification of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions data which comprise the direct and indirect emissions resulting from AIR Studios’ daily operational activities."

2. "Identification of Scope 3 emissions data consisting of indirect emissions that occur outside of AIR Studios’ direct operations, such as emissions stemming from within the studio’s supply chain, which account for 90% of total emissions."

3. "Streamlining accumulated data into actionable insights that will allow the studio to determine the best strategies to reduce energy use and easily meet Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) obligations."

In doing this, AIR Studios has become one of the first modern recording studios to embrace sustainability reporting.

The CEO of Climatise, Lennon Harding-Wade stated that, "This collaboration serves as a testament to AIR Studios' commitment to reducing its environmental impact, positioning them as a first mover in the recording industry’s growing efforts to address climate change. We're honoured to support AIR Studios in their sustainability journey. Our platform is designed to provide the detailed insights needed to make meaningful reductions in carbon emissions, and we're excited to see the positive impact this will have on the production and music industry."

For more information, head to AIR Studios' website and for more info on Climatise, and what they do, head here

If you are new to making music then here's where you'll learn about the basics, and how it's easy for anyone to make music with a simple set of tools and a few words of advice. Today, we're looking at the one tool that most music producers use to make music in the 21^st century: the DAW or Digital Audio Workstation.

A DAW is the central software hub wherein all your music-making projects are written, recorded, mixed and finalised. You simply define the instruments you want to use to produce a tune, record them track-by-track and then arrange and mix them into a song, track or simple tune.

Instruments can be real ones, played by you (or your band), and recorded into your computer with an audio interface. More easily, you can also create your tune with virtual instruments, all accessed from within your DAW.

Virtual instruments are capable of imitating any real instrument, you'll be able to find virtual pianos, orchestras, synthesisers, drummers, guitars… you name it, instruments in a DAW can replicate any proper instrument or sound from outside a computer.

The next major advantage of a DAW is that it lets you record these instruments into tracks - usually one track per instrument - and then arrange these tracks into complete songs. And that is essentially it - the crux of music production using a DAW in the 21st century!

What is a DAW?

DAWs: What are they?

In many ways, a DAW is like your own virtual band or orchestra - a set of instruments which you control without needing to actually physically play any of them.

Drums, for example, can be programmed into a DAW using its sequencer, which makes creating complete drum loops and parts easy with a mouse. Similarly, if you can't play keyboards or guitars, a DAW lets you either play the notes in slowly using a MIDI controller or draw each note individually using the DAW editor - most often resembling a virtual piano keyboard.

The advantage of a DAW is that because this is done digitally on your Mac, PC or tablet, you can easily copy or repeat notes, melodies and song parts, record notes in slowly or quickly (depending on your playing skills), and then mix the results using a suite of digital effects.

A DAW simply lets anyone who can use a computer make music regardless of their musical-playing abilities or understanding of music theory.

Every DAW allows you to do this to some degree or another. The biggest DAWs include Ableton Live, Steinberg Cubase, Apple's Logic Pro, Image-Line's FL Studio, Bitwig Studio, Cockos Reaper, Reason Studios Reason and Avid's Pro Tools.

All of these DAWs have instruments, tracks to put them on and ways to arrange the tracks into songs, the very definition of a DAW in a nutshell. Now it's time to dig a little deeper…

Why do you need to know about DAWs?

Why do I need to know about DAWs?

The DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is, we'd argue, the most important tool you will come across if you want to make music in the modern world, It's a lofty claim but if you want to make music with a computer - which the majority of today's music producers use to one degree or another - the DAW really is the central component to any song's production.

While you don't need to know everything that your DAW does (because some have extraordinary feature sets that few people totally master) knowing the basics of how a DAW works will help your music production no end. In fact, if you master these basics - maybe just 10% of your DAW's power - you will be able to create pro tracks in no time, we promise!

Every DAW comes packed with the following:

1. Virtual instruments - these make up your virtual backing band

2. An arrangement area - this is the area where you layout the tracks.

3. A mixer - to mix the above

4. Virtual effects - to use on every track.

A DAW simply makes composing, mixing and arranging music into songs a logical and often inspiring process.

Once you get your head around a DAW's tracks, you will understand the majority of how DAWs work.

DAWs break down song tracks into their individual instruments as we have discussed, but these can also be in two forms: MIDI or audio.

A DAW's MIDI tracks comprise individual notes which can be dragged around an editor to create tunes or alter existing ones. You can change the loudness of notes and a lot of other ways of how they play back, but these MIDI notes can trigger any kind of instrument.

You might create one MIDI track to play and record some notes to trigger a virtual piano, for example. Then you can simply copy this MIDI track and have them trigger a virtual guitar. Or have them trigger both instruments simultaneously - it's up to you!

Audio tracks comprise recordings of real-world audio. This might be your own singing that you have recorded into your DAW via a microphone, for example. Or it might be someone's real guitar playing or drumming, again via a microphone and audio interface.

Audio tracks can also be 'samples' of any sound - orchestras, vocals, bird song, anything! Simply load in a sample from a sample collection you might have bought or downloaded, and mix it with your MIDI track to start making a song.

It's incredibly easy to set these tracks up. Soon you will have all of your song parts as audio or MIDI tracks, and can then arrange them into a complete tune using the DAW's arrangement window.

Track by track (usually from top to bottom) your song will start to take shape, moving from its intro on the left to its outro to the right.

You can mix each track, increase levels, add effects and a lot more - a DAW makes this way of producing a song easy, and that's why you need one in your music production life!

10 DAW key points

10 DAW key points

1. DAWs let you create complete tracks, mixing their own instruments with any sounds, instruments, singing or any audio you like from the outside world. You don't need to be able to play any instrument to do this, nor do you need to know about music theory.

2. DAWs can run on any computer - Mac, PC Linux - most tablets (Android, iOS), and even mobile phones! You can pay anything from nothing to several hundred pounds/dollars for a DAW.

3. The idea of using a DAW is that anyone can make music with one if they can use a mouse and cursor. However, if you are more musical, or prefer a physical playing and recording experience, DAWs work with any MIDI controller so you can play notes in using a proper keyboard if you like, or a vast range of other hardware devices like drum pads and grid controllers.

4. Every DAW comes bundled with virtual instruments to help you create your tunes, and virtual effects to help you mix them. But you can easily add more so called 'third-party' instruments and effects to your DAW studio. Instruments range from incredibly realistic and complete orchestras, to rocking band instruments (guitars, bass, drums etc), to virtual synths for EDM/dance music.

Extra effects might be mix effects like reverb, compression and EQ, or additional creative multi-effects that can give you an incredibly inspirational sound. We have the best instruments and effects rounded up here.

Drums

Guitars

Synths

Free synths

Effects

5. Once you are happy with your tune, you can export some parts or all of it for playback outside of your DAW. You can export individual tracks of the tune (drums, guitars and so on) or several highlighted tracks together, or, of course, the entire song as a complete mix so you can play it to your friends or test to see how well it sounds on other speakers, headphones or music streaming services.

6. All DAWs let you mix down your music into a stereo track for playback - sometimes even a surround sound track which will usually require more speakers to enjoy it.

Most DAWs also let you mix your music down into specific audio formats which include the common .WAV and .AIFF formats, or the lower quality .mp3 file format.

You can also mix music down in other formats that allow you to load it into other DAWs: Ableton Link, GarageBand and more. Other export methods include exporting a MIDI file of a song part or track so you might have come up with a great melody or drum part, for example, and want to send the notes and beats to a collaborator to work on.

7. You may hear DAWs also referred to as 'sequencers'. This is because DAWs started out by sequencing MIDI notes together track by track. It wasn't until computer processor power increased for them to be able to handle audio tracks that they became known as DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations).

8. Which DAW is the best? This is the question we get asked the most. While most let you create pro sounding tracks in similar ways we always say it's best to try out the (usually free) demos to get a feel for each DAW, especially as most offer such similar features that your preference will usually be defined by workflow, something you can only work out by trying before you buy.

9. That said there are distinct DAW styles. Most have tracks laid out top to bottom, but some like Ableton Live focus on clip launching where you will create individual cells of notes or audio loops which can then be linked together to create tunes. Logic and Bitwig also feature this as an option and it's a great way to get tunes together fast, although perhaps suited to more electronic and cycling genres than others.

10. Some of the best advice when using a DAW includes learning the key commands as with most DAWs it is all about having a smooth workflow. Learning a few shortcuts like these really can speed up your workflow and keep those creative juices flowing.

Finally, while we said that you can get a pro tune going with just a fraction of the knowledge of how to use your particular DAW, it is worth further manual reading and deep diving to explore more of your DAW's features. Many come with some great compositional aids like chance recording, arrangement layouts, chord progressions and beat creation options to either stimulate ideas or allow you to turn your own inspirational thoughts into fully-featured songs. Happy DAW music creation!

Further reading

MusicRadar further reading…

Your first port of call should be to establish what the strongest DAWs on the market are right now, thankfully we've got just the thing with our comprehensive list of the best DAWs to buy in 2024

If you want an alternative to the big hitters, or just want to save your money, check out our list of free DAWs

The most recent version of Apple's staple DAW Logic Pro was released earlier this year, want our take? Read our in-depth review here

Similarly, we saw the launch of Ableton Live 12 in 2024, our review of which can be found here

While Cubase 14 has just been released, our most recent review of its 13th version can be read here

Here's a great feature that users of any DAW can get a kick out of: 8 mixing and mastering tips that every bedroom producer should know.

One of our favourite DAWs for getting really creative with sound design is Bitwig Studio - here we pit it against Ableton Live to see which comes out on top.

We spoke to the key minds behind the aforementioned Bitwig to mark the uber-flexible DAW's tenth anniversary - read our roundtable interview here.

DAWs have become incredibly central to modern music production, but how has that affected the creative process? A study from the Queen Mary University in London suggests that the DAW-dominated landscape might have had a negative impact…

As detailed in our Start Here guide to MIDI (which we also recommend you read as an accompaniment to this feature) MIDI and DAWs are natural bedfellows, so you should check our our guide to 7 ways of working smarter with it!

RECORDING WEEK 2024: The Beatles Abbey Road album was released on September 26, 1969, a little over 55 years ago. Join us now on a track-by-track deep dive, alongside a man who was there to witness its making, Geoff Emerick, the Beatles' late chief engineer...

Classic interview: It's one of the most iconic album covers of all time: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr strolling across a zebra-striped street called Abbey Road in St John's Wood, north London.

It is an image as memorable as the moon landing - and one copied by tourists on a daily basis. (Even a few bands have paid homage, most notably Booker T & The MGs.)

Ironically, the shot was a last-minute decision.

During the recording of what was to be their swan song, The Beatles toyed with several titles, and Everest, a reference to the brand of cigarettes their late chief engineer, Geoff Emerick, smoked, was the favourite.

"But the band decided they didn't want to trek to the top of Mount Everest to shoot the cover," Emerick told us, with a laugh when we spoke to him in 2014. "So Ringo said, 'Why don't we just shoot the cover outside and call it Abbey Road?' Like many a Ringo suggestion, it won out."

During his tenure with The Beatles, Emerick had a few good ideas of his own - many of his sonic innovations, starting with the album Revolver, broke new ground and established techniques that are emulated to this day.

But Emerick almost sat out Abbey Road. Having begun his career at EMI Studios at the age of 15 in 1962 as a lowly tape copier and becoming, under the stewardship of George Martin, one of The Beatles' most-trusted sound architects, he quit working with the band during the recording of the double-LP The Beatles aka 'The White Album.'

"The group was disintegrating before my eyes," says Emerick. "It was ugly, like watching a divorce between four people. After a while, I had to get out."

A year later, however, he was drawn back to work with Martin and The Beatles with the promise that the band would be on their best behaviour.

Emerick missed a few sessions for the album that would eventually rename EMI Studios, but in the end, he says, "I'm glad I came back for the final bow. To have missed being a part of the Abbey Road album, I'd still be kicking myself."

Things must have been pretty awful during 'The White Album' for you to up and leave. Walking out on The Beatles - not many people would have done that.

"Oh, it was a nightmare. I was becoming physically sick just thinking of going to the studio each night. I used to love working with the band. By that point, I dreaded it. Getting out was the only thing I could do."

Even so, you returned because the band promised to make nice and get along for Abbey Road.

"That's right. It came about through a conversation George Martin had with Paul. I had left EMI, but I was employed by The Beatles and was overseeing the construction of a new studio for them at Apple.

"After Let It Be, which I understand was not very pleasant for anybody, Paul was very keen to make a record the way the band used to. He wanted George Martin and I behind the console and everybody working together. He said things would be better than what they had been."

Did you take Paul at his word, that there would be a spirit of harmony?

"Yes, I did take him at his word. And John said the same thing to George Martin. In the back of my head I might have had some reservations, like, 'Well, we'll see…' But I was surprised and pleased at how everybody got along."

Did you have any idea while you were cutting Abbey Road that it would be The Beatles' last album? Was anything said to that effect?

"I didn't think it would be the last one. And nothing was said to indicate that, at least not to me. As far as I understood it, we'd be working on another record in the new studio I was building at Apple. The band was getting along better. The mood wasn't bubbly and fun all the time, but it was a hell of a lot better than during the previous year.

"The only hint they gave me or anybody was on the album cover, where they're walking across the street. For people who don't know the geography, they're actually walking away from the EMI Studios - or Abbey Road, as everybody knows it now. This was intentional on their part - they didn't want to be seen as walking toward the studio. When I saw that photo, I did think to myself, 'They're sending a message.'

"By that time, they'd been literally incarcerated at EMI. They grew to truly hate the place. It certainly wasn't the most luxurious studio in the world. It was cold and quite uncomfortable, and EMI was always quite slow to embrace new technologies - we were the last to get four-track and eight-track recording decks. In fact, Abbey Road was the first album where I got to use an eight-track console."

I'm curious: The Beatles were the biggest band in the world - still are, really. Couldn't they have told EMI, "We want a better console, better accommodations"?

"No, it was against the rules at EMI. I remember at one point they wanted some covered lights in Studio Two, a bit of mood lighting, and the word they got back was 'We can't do that sort of thing.' So the band ended up setting up their own little area in Studio Two, with little lamps of their own and things to make it more homey."

Ringo's drumming is extraordinary on Abbey Road, his tom fills especially. But there's a different sound to his drums as well; they envelop the songs.

"I chalk that up partly to the technology. For the first time we were using a transistorized mixing console. Up to this point, all the albums had been recorded on a tube desk. But this luxurious transistorized desk had a limiter and compressor on every channel and selectable frequencies - it was quite a change.

"Regarding Ringo's drums, this was the first time I was able to record his kit in stereo because we were using eight-track instead of four-track. Because of this, I had more mic inputs, so I could mic from underneath the toms, place more mics around the kit - the sound of his drums were finally captured in full.

"I think when he heard this, he kind of perked up and played more forcefully on the toms, and with more creativity."

Ringo was still draping tea towels over his drums, something he started around the time of Hey Jude and The White Album

"That's right. He did that on a couple of things. Come Together, Something…those are the ones that come to mind.

"You know, now that I recall, the transistor desk wasn't without its problems. It delivered a bit of a softer sound - the guitars, the bass, the snare and the bass drum were all a bit softer and warmer. It took a little bit of time for the guys to get used to it.

There wasn't the kind of out-and-out fighting and bickering that you witnessed in '68, but there was tension. Didn't Ringo walk out again, as he did during 'The White Album'?

"Yeah. that was because John wasn't happy with the drumming on Polythene Pam. He had some problems with Ringo's performance and Ringo got pissed off and split for a couple of days. But he came back and redid the track and John was pleased.

"That was the only bit of real tension - well, except for the fact that John absolutely hated Maxwell's Silver Hammer. My word, that song drove him totally mad, and he certainly made everyone aware of how much he hated it." [laughs]

The Moog synthesizer was a new addition to The Beatles' lineup of instruments on Abbey Road. Do you recall any new guitars or drums coming in?

"No. I really couldn't pay attention to that side of things, although I was quite fascinated with what they were doing with the Moog. I was more concerned with tones and getting sounds right. Don't forget, before then, everything was being monitored in mono; this was the first album we recorded in stereo."

Abbey Road: Geoff Emerick's track-by-track

Come Together

"I remember John came in with a basic framework for the song, but at first he played it a lot faster. Paul suggested slowing it down and making it more 'swampy.' John quite liked that idea.

"Some weird things happened, though: Initially, Paul played the electric piano part, but John kind of looked over his shoulder and studied what he was playing. When it came time to record it, John played the electric piano instead of Paul. Paul might have been miffed, but I think he was more upset about not singing on the choruses – John did his own backing vocals.

"Ringo used the famous tea towels on his drums on Come Together, a terrific effect. Loud drums would have destroyed the song's spooky mood."

Something

"George had a smugness on his face when he came in with this one, and rightly so - he knew it was absolutely brilliant. And for the first time, John and Paul knew that George had risen to their level.

"Paul started playing a bass line that was a little elaborate, and George told him, 'No, I want it simple.' Paul complied. There wasn't any disagreement about it, but I did think that such a thing would never happened in years past. George telling Paul how to play the bass? Unthinkable! But this was George's baby, and everybody knew it was an instant classic."

"George really hit a personal best as a guitarist, as well. He played a guitar solo, but a few days later he decided be wanted to redo it. By that point we only had one track left and that was for orchestral overdubs. George cut a new solo live with the orchestra. It was a gamble, but he did it in one take, and it was beautiful."

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

"There were two struggles going on with this song: Paul and John fighting over whether it should even exist! [laughs] John called it 'more of Paul's granny music.' But there was my own struggle coming up with the sounds that should go on it.

"For the hammer bits, we actually had to rent a proper blacksmith's anvil. The thing weighed a ton, as did the hammer used to strike it. Ringo tried but he just couldn't hoist the hammer in a way that allowed him to hit the anvil with the correct timing, so Mal Evans [one of The Beatles' roadies], who was a large man, he wound up doing it.

"The other thing was the Moog synthesizer solos in the middle and end, which sound almost like a Theremin. The Moog was a fascinating new instrument for everybody - George, in particular, loved working with it – but Paul played these solos. He tinkered around until he got a really incredible, spacey sound that worked quite well."

Oh! Darling

"[EMI engineer] Phil MacDonald worked on this one.

"I remember hearing that Paul kept rehearsing the vocal lying on his back, and that he used to come to the studio quite early, before any of the other guys were supposed to be there, just so he could do it over and over again. He was searching for something, a Little Richard vibe perhaps.

"Artists are artists - you never know what drives them to do what they do, but you can't deny the end result, which is one of his most powerful vocals. He cut the final take standing up, I believe. It's something John could have probably knocked out in a couple of passes, but Paul had to work himself up for it."

Octopus's Garden

"George worked a bit on this song with Ringo, but I'm not sure how much he contributed. Ringo always felt shy about showing any of his songs to the other guys, but George was very keen on this number, so that helped. And it was a really good song – one of Ringo's best."

"There's this fun bit where you hear bubbles, as if you're underwater. Ringo tried blowing bubbles into a glass of water which we mic'd very close.

"In the end, I recorded his vocals, fed them into in a compressor and triggered them with this pulse-like tone that created a wobbly, 'bubbly' sort of sound."

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

"A fascinating song, very indicative of John's mood at the time - he was consumed with all things Yoko.

"It goes from hard rock to almost jazzy, bossa nova. Of course, there's the famous ride-out, the riff being repeated many times. George put some very intense Moog sounds down and Ringo played with a wind machine - the whole thing grew louder and louder till it got close to a breaking point.

"I thought the song was going to have a fade out, but suddenly John told me, 'Cut the tape.' I was apprehensive at first - we'd never done anything like that. 'Cut the tape?' But he was insistent, and he wound up being right. The track, and side one, ends in a very jarring way."

Here Comes The Sun

"Another George winner, and again, he knew it - his confidence was growing each day.

"Ringo's tom fills really make the song, but funnily enough, he hated doing them because he could never remember what he was did one take to the next. I think that's why his fills are so spectacular - he felt that he would never reproduce them, so he'd better get 'em right.

"We added some orchestration to it, but nothing that overwhelmed. I think George was starting to like the idea of 'bigness' at that point, something he obviously carried over when he made All Things Must Pass with Phil Spector."

Because

"John said that this was based on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, on hearing Yoko play it and asking her to play it backwards. Personally, I can't hear the connection at all.

"It was an amazing recording, and probably the first bit of real camaraderie between the boys. I think they liked putting down their instruments and just singing together for a change. John, Paul and George sat in a semi-circle to do the harmonies and Ringo sat off to the side to lend moral support."

"We recorded the vocals multiple times until we finally had it right, but the funny thing was, each take was brilliant. They sang flawlessly. So what you have is nine-part harmony: three Beatles' voices times three. They made up their own choir."

The mini-suite: You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came In Through The Backroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End

"Sun King and Mean Mr Mustard were two separate songs, but we did record their backing tracks together.

"The same for Polythene Pam and She Came In Through The Bathroom Window - they were recorded together as well. Of course, the overdubs were done on different days and in different studios.

"Each track could have stood on its own, and I suppose Sun King does sound like it's a complete song in its own right. A concept started to come from Paul to tie the songs together, which helped to make the numbers seamless and unified.

"The same thing held true for Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight: everybody was firmly on board with unifying the songs - well, except for John, who had to be talked into it. He didn't want to do another 'concept album' like Sgt Pepper.

"And then, of course, we get to the famous parts of The End, the drum solo and the three-way guitar solos. The thing that always amused me was how much persuasion it took to get Ringo to play that solo. Usually, you have to try to talk drummers out of doing solos! [laughs] He didn't want to do it, but everybody said, 'No, no, it'll be fantastic!' So he gave in - and turned in a bloody marvelous performance!

"It took a while to get right, and I think Paul helped with some ideas, but it's fantastic. I always want to hear more - that's how good it is. It's so musical, it's not just a drummer going off.

"The idea for guitar solos was very spontaneous and everybody said, 'Yes! Definitely' - well, except for George, who was a little apprehensive at first. But he saw how excited John and Paul were so he went along with it. Truthfully, I think they rather liked the idea of playing together, not really trying to outdo one another per se, but engaging in some real musical bonding.

"Yoko was about to go into the studio with John - this was commonplace by now - and he actually told her, 'No, not now. Let me just do this. It'll just take a minute.' That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he was returning to his roots with the boys - who knows?

"The order was Paul first, then George, then John, and they went back and forth. They ran down their ideas a few times and before you knew it, they were ready to go. Their amps were lined up together and we recorded their parts on one track."

"You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was like they were teenagers again. One take was all we needed. The musical telepathy between them was mind-boggling."

Her Majesty

"Putting that on the album was a complete error. Paul had done a little demo of that, and [assistant engineer] John Kurlander ended up splicing it onto the end of the album's reel by accident.

"It was never supposed to go on at all. But after the acetates were made, Paul heard it and liked it, so it stayed. Quite an odd way to end a record of this nature, but as always, the Beatles made strange things work."

• Get more recording stories and features at Recording Week 2024 here!

RECORDING WEEK 2024: Recording studios tend to be acoustically perfect, atmospherically or sonically sealed, and quiet environments for getting the best recorded take. They also tend to be non-moving and building-based. So why would you consider sticking one on a bus, another in a Nando's restaurant, or yet another on a 100-year old boat on the river Thames? Madness this way surely lies!

From wheels to fried chicken, here are some of the wackiest places that people have built the perfect imperfect places to record music.

1. Timbaland's Bus

The idea of setting up a recording studio on a bus is weird, obviously, especially if you are considering setting it up on one of those public transport-style busses complete with a driver and 1950s-garbed ticket collector.

It's perhaps not so weird if you have the kind of cash to splash as Timbaland obviously did back in 2010 when he decided to convert a bus (actually a luxury touring style coach, if we're honest) at a cost of $1.3million dollars.

He ended up with a fully-fledged, SSL-based pro studio that just happened to have an engine and some wheels underneath.

The studio was fitted out with some of the best gear of the time, including an SSL Matrix desk, a 24-in/24-out interface, and seven SSL XLogic X-Rack preamp, EQ and compressor modules.

Monitors came by way of Genelec and KRK, and there was even a gold-plated Neumann microphone - of course there was!

The studio had all of the other luxuries you might imagine, with multi-coloured strip lighting, gadgets and big TVs galore. It was actually one of the coolest vehicles you could possibly imagine, but we are talking about Timbaland here, so what did you expect?

The MMG (Mosley Music Group, Timbaland’s label) bus first hit the streets (literally) back in 2010, although it's not known whether it's still a-rocking, a-rolling and a-recording these days, but its SSL Matrix desk was reportedly sold in 2021.

We can only imagine that the yearly MOT was not only complicated but expensive, so it's probably unlikely that this is a bus you can still hitch a ride and record on these days, but here's a video tour of the vehicle from 2010 anyway.

2. LMS

Timbaland wasn't the first music maker to think that sticking wheels on a studio was a good idea. Previous to his bus, several mobile studios were trundling around the UK, used more obviously to record live events, but some so well spec'd that they became 'proper' recording venues in their own right.

Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio (LMS) was the Small Faces bassist and songwriter's mobile studio. It was created in 1972 using an America Airstream trailers most often seen camped in by very rich people at music festivals. Or used for the supplying the kebabs and chips at the self same events.

The curved structure of the trailer apparently helped reduce standing waves, making the vehicle excellent for recording bass, handy considering Lane's vocation.

Producer/engineer Ron Nevison kitted out the mobile with a Helios desk, a Studer A80 8-track recorder (later upgraded to 16 tracks) and various bespoke pieces of outboard gear.

LMS was used to record Lane's Anymore for Anymore (1974) and One for the Road (1976) albums, but later attracted other (very) high profile musicians including Bob Marley, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher and The Who.

Lane subsequently sold the studio to Teddy Roffey the owner of Escape Studios in Kent in 1982. The studio was apparently overhauled in 2009 while owned by a company called LMS Vinyl, but now appears to be owned by Mark St John who is a collector of music memorabilia among other things, and can be seen with the studio in the background of this 2022 video.

You can also find our more information courtesy of The Music Locker here.

Or get the full LMS history here.

3. Mobile RAK

In 1974, TV talent finder Mickie Most was also getting in on the mobile studio action. His mobile RAK studio existed before he created his stationary, building-based RAK studios, a beautiful facility based near Regent's Park in London, which is still doing business and winning awards to this day.

The mobile studio was mostly used by RAK along with TV clients including the BBC and Thames Television. However, as it was fitted out with an API desk, a couple of 3M multitrackers and decent outboard including, limiters, compressors, and an echo plate reverb, it eventually attracted artists into its fully air-conditioned environment including Hot Chocolate and Donovan, with the studio operated and engineered by Doug Hopkins and Tim Summerhayes.

RAK Mobile's most notable recording, though, was one of the biggest tracks of the 1970s, Mull of Kintyre by Wings. Summerhayes was an assistant engineer on the recording, alongside Geoff Emerick explaining on Facebook that “we took the mobile to the farm a few days before the sessions and spent some time preparing the control room and recording room. We'd unload the equipment and carry them in a wheelbarrow to an improvised control room supervised by Geoff.”

But as important as that particular mobile recording studio was in the history of music, it didn't get a mention in the finished song. But our next entry most certainly did…

4. RMS

Yes, as famous as LMS and RAK's mobiles certainly were, they don't get the lyrical shout out quite like the Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Studio does, so this takes our 'top recording studio with wheels' award.

Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Studio, or RSM, was created in 1968 and so was the first mobile studio of its kind. It was essentially designed to be a wheely version of the Stones' favourite studio, Olympic, so featured top end gear like a 3M M79 tape machine (itself costing half a million dollars in today's money), and a custom built Helios desk.

The Stones recorded 1971's Sticky Fingers and 1972's Exile On Main St in the truck, but also let it out to other acts including Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Bob Marley, The Who and Black Sabbath.

Deep Purple are the notable names here, as they immortalised the studio on the iconic Smoke on the Water, which includes the lines 'to make records with a mobile' and 'The Rolling truck Stones thing just outside'.

Beat that RAK and LMS!

5. Churches

Next up, there are a surprising number of recording studios located in churches around the world, and why not, when you consider the inspiring atmosphere, the wonderful – if possibly over-the-top – acoustics and the fact that most are empty a lot of the time bar Sundays. Might as well stick some mics up and get some atmosphere recorded, right?

Famous ex recording studio-based churches include Blackwing Studios in London, which was part of a church known as All Hallows. This was a studio created by engineering genius Eric Radcliffe and became the location in which many seminal Mute Records albums were recorded. These included not only Depeche Mode's debut, Speak & Spell, but – and because it was based on the first floor of the building – the aptly-named Upstairs at Eric's debut long player from Yazoo.

The studio building is still there, as is the church garden, but it closed for recording business in 2001. Rumours suggest it might be being turned into flats - grrr.

Currently you can hire hire several holy (or ex holy) spaces to record in across the globe should you wish, including the south Wales-based StudiOwz (based in a converted chapel), The Nave in Leeds or, among many in the States, The Church studios in Palm Springs and The Church Studio in Tulsa.

However, to our minds, the holiest of holy studios – and also rather aptly called The Church Studio – is based in London, it was opened by The Eurythmics in 1984.

Check out Annie Lennox being interviewed in the studio here. She plays the organ, sings in it and everything…

The Church's 40-year plus studio history includes a period when it was owned by singer-songwriter David Gray, but producer Paul Epworth brought the studio up to speed in 2013, adding a 72-channel vintage EMI/Neve console and eventually recording artists including Adele at the facility.

Other artists who have recorded there include Blur, Pet Shop Boys, The Kills and Bombay Bicycle Club.

Find out more here.

6. Boats

Believe it or not, along with wheeled-based transport, boats have also been considered and actually used as mobile options for recording studios.

Before he turned his attention to the initially much more practical (but actually not as it ended up) location of Montserrat for a recording studio, George Martin considered a 160-foot boat to fit a studio out in. His thinking was that it would be a lovely isolated studio, probably away from all of those pesky Beatles fans who were already covering the walls of Abbey Road with hearts at the time.

Common sense prevailed and Martin opted for what seemed like a safer, quieter and certainly warmer bet of the island of Montserrat for his next studio venture. Unfortunately, maybe that boat would have been a better option as two god-like forces of nature in the forms of a hurricane and volcano would eventually close his studio, albeit after he'd produced some iconic recordings there.

One person not to spot the disadvantages of boat-based recording was Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. In 1986, he bought a 1912 houseboat - although it was more 'block of flats' boat, to be honest - called the Astoria. Gilmour and Nick Mason recorded Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason there. Future Gilmour solo albums like On an Island and Rattle That Lock were also recorded on the boat.

“I got it on a mad whim really,” Gilmour says on Pink Floyd's YouTube channel. “Eventually the idea came that we could make a recording studio out of it. When you've spent your life in recording studios where there are darkened windowless rooms, to be in a place like that [the boat] where it's all glass, all windows and you've got the beautiful river flowing outside… It still is a magical place to work.”

The boat has been recently refitted and is still used by Gilmour – you can find out more in this video.

7. Nando's

Finally, you won't believe our last 'out there' recording location… It's none other than a Nandos restaurant. The famous restaurant chain is famous for its spicy chicken-based and good value dishes (yes, we want a discount!) but perhaps not for its musical output. That might well change thanks to the studio based in the basement of its Soho branch.

“All the best ideas start over PERi-PERi (or so we heard),” the chain said in 2018 when they opened the studio. “That’s why we’ve brought together two of our favourite things – chicken and tunes – for our first ever restaurant recording studio.”

We're not sure we quite understand the connection they're making there, but we like chicken and tunes too, so we're going with it.

Apparently the studio has been quite the success. It's free – but you don't get a sharing platter, which would be good – to the point where bookings seem to have ceased. We love the idea, though, and look forward to inevitable copycat ventures like McDonald's Music, Toby Carvery's Tunes and, of course, Burger King's Bangers.

• Get more recording stories and features at Recording Week 2024 here!

RECORDING WEEK 2024: There’s never been a better time to make great music and transforming a spare corner into a home studio capable of sounding as good as the pros is just one short read away.

If you’re completely new to music production, and are looking to set-up your own music-making home hub to begin your journey, then we’ve got all the info and advice you need to get up and running.

Why do I need a home studio?

Firstly, the good news. If you want to create a home recording studio then the chances are you’ve got most of what you need already. Got a computer? Then you’re over halfway there (if you haven’t, then we’re going to recommend purchasing one asap!). If you’re already a guitarist, keyboard player, instrumentalist or vocalist then you’ve done the hard work already, but don’t worry if you’ve never even touched an instrument before…

Recording your own music is now just a matter of getting your music inside your computer so you can make it as great as it can be, before outputting it in a form that the rest of the world can enjoy. And while we’d be foolish to dismiss the world of analogue recording, and the millions of hours of unrepeatable and legendary music recorded using it, the fact is that for 2024 and beyond, digital is the way to go.

Digital recording - recording sound into your computer rather than a tape whizzing through a tape recorder - gives an unprecedented level of control, multiple opportunities to ‘get it right’ (including the ability to miraculously correct your mistakes) and - to all but the most discerning ears - it sounds better too.

What’s the essential gear for a home studio?

In a modern, digital, computer-based studio, sound is digitised on the way in (the ‘recording’ bit) becoming a file on your computer (just like any MP3, movie or image you may have) and then converted back into audible sound on the way out. And, best of all, while it’s in your computer you can chop it, change it, flip and repeat it and do all kinds of things that would have had The Beatles and The Stones agog.

Hearing the music out of your computer is easy, of course. All modern computers have speakers, and yes, if you’re really on a budget they’re always there for you. Likewise the presence of a headphone socket - allowing you to listen with even greater fidelity - and Bluetooth, allowing you to stream audio to your earbuds.

Once you’ve made your music, your computer is also a conduit to the wider world. Whether it’s via social media, streaming services or any of the other routes to getting listeners engaged. But, we digress…

If you were making music completely ‘in-the-box’ (as the expression goes) then you've essentially got all your need (though we’d recommend a sturdy pair of headphones, too). While there are plenty of free DAW options to choose from, you’re going to need a digital audio workstation (DAW) to work within. We’ll talk about these in greater detail later. You’d be amazed at how much music is now made ‘entirely on a laptop’.

However, chances are you’re going to want to record your own voice, instruments and musical performances at some point. If you’re a guitarist or vocalist you’ll doubtless have noticed that your computer lacks that quarter-inch jack input for the plug at the end of your guitar or mic lead…

Fact is, if you’re going to make music on your computer (and, as we’ve discussed, this is by far the best place to make it) you’re going to need a little extra gear to do the job right, and your first purchase is an audio interface.

An external audio interface - a box that plugs into your computer - gives your computer all the essential ins and outs that most everyday computer users don’t need. Rather than loading up their machines with something for every occasion, today (in the pursuit of lower prices and lighter, thinner machines) you just get a few USB-C ports instead…

But no problem. Plug in even the most basic of audio interfaces into a spare USB-C and all the sockets you need are available to you. Today’s basic models hardly break the bank. A simple unit, perhaps featuring two microphone inputs, two ‘line in’ inputs, a pair of outputs and a headphone socket, can be yours for around £100 (and we’ve plenty of buying advice on picking the perfect model for you right here).

Go for an interface with a ‘Hi-Z’ input and you’ll find the perfect place to plug in an electric guitar, allowing you to use virtual amp modelling and get a perfect, controllable clean sound with no mic or external amp required.

And while you may well be buying your interface for those all important (and totally absent) inputs, you’ll quickly find those outputs useful too.

Line outputs - be they on RCA connectors, quarter-inch sockets or XLRs - allow you to plug your computer into some proper speakers. And, once you’ve tried listening via your audio interface’s headphone socket rather than the one built into your computer, you’ll never go back.

Why speakers are vital for a home studio

To make best use of your new interface you’re going to need some speakers to plug into it. We can’t stress this enough. Yes, you can use your computer’s built-in speakers, but for deep, close listening to your music projects, and the fidelity of your final mixes, will hugely increase if you step up your listening game.

Good news. It may be that you already have a stereo device for music listening with a pair of speakers attached, and a pair of free left and right AUX (auxiliary) inputs. In which case you’re up and running. Attach your audio interface’s ‘outs’ to your stereo’s ‘ins’. Turn it on and switch to that AUX input and you’ll find that your audio will emerge from your new speaker set-up, instantly sounding better.

However, if you’re more serious about your music, a pair of dedicated ‘monitors’ (that’s speakers specifically designed for the ‘critical listening’ of music production rather than ‘another screen’) will always reproduce your music better than hi-fi speakers. And you want your music to sound as great as possible as fast as possible, right? Why settle for less?

Like audio interfaces, monitors come in all shapes, sizes and prices. Check out our guide to picking the right pair for your studio here. All they need is a power cord and a connection to your audio interface to get going.

Whether you decide to keep things minimal, or invest in some studio monitors (our recommended route), the next major consideration is the music-making workflow you choose to make music in. It’s time to talk DAWs…

What are DAWs and why are they important to a home studio?

While the term Digital Audio Workstation (and its popular acronym, DAW) sounds like zero fun, opening this particular DAW is your gateway to making your own great music.

A DAW is a bit of software specifically designed to process incoming audio and output it again. It’s a visual and editable insight into the multiple strands and sounds that make up modern music with the ability to change pitches, sounds, tempo and more. Feed it what sounds you like, tweak it on screen until it’s perfect, then output it as audio again so people can hear it.

DAWs come in many forms with the most capable (read: complex) being the most expensive. But rather than wade in and simply ‘buy the best’ it’s very likely that something simpler and easier (and far cheaper) will deliver all you need (at least for now) in a manner that you can get your head around.

Of course, at this point the eternal conflict between PC and Apple Mac (not forgetting iPad) rears its head with some of audio’s biggest players only being on one machine and not the others. Like the sound of Logic Pro? Then you’ll need an Apple Mac. Drawn to the extra features of Cakewalk? That’s PC and Windows only. Meanwhile popular DAWs such as Steinberg’s Cubase and Ableton Live are available for both.

The good news is there are even free DAWs too. Check out Reaper (Mac and PC) or Garageband (Mac) if you want to dip a toe. Both have got the skills to whet your appetite and leave you wanting more.

Choosing a DAW depends on how you want to work and what kind of music you’ll be making, with some more tailored for recording bands while others excel at synths, loops and ‘in the box’ production. Take a look at our guide to DAWs here and you’ll soon spot something that hits your target.

In brief, inside your DAW music is arranged as tracks, tracks contain parts and parts contain MIDI notes which play instruments, be they virtual in-the-box or physically sat in your studio. Equally parts can be audio files of recordings you’ve made or loaded up, allowing ‘real world’ recordings to sit alongside programmed beats and music.

And alongside the DAW comes the concept of plugins, tools within your DAW to make your music sound better. While today’s DAWs come with a huge range of plugins built in (and it’s worth getting to grips with what’s there for ‘free’ before you start branching out) these additional pieces of software are easily installed and appear as extra options within your DAW.

There are softsynths emulating expensive and rare synths and drum machines, effects plugins delivering the sound of famous stomp boxes and rack effects, romplers samplers perfectly emulating the sound of any instrument you can think of, and all kinds of weird and wonderful noise makers and manglers for those looking for inspiration.There are countless free ones out there, too.

Likewise, if you don’t want to record your music or play or program your own instruments, there are countless libraries of drum sounds, synth riffs and chord progressions out there for purchase and subscription, all designed to make short work of making your first tracks with no music knowledge or skills required.

Are microphones important to a home studio?

Of course, you don’t have to use other people’s sounds to make your music. The next component in your burgeoning home studio therefore, has to be a microphone.

Mics can capture vocals, live instruments such as acoustic guitar, or any kind of percussion, handclaps or other live ‘in studio’ jamming that you want to lay down. They’re essential for getting ‘your sound’ into your computer. And, of course, there are mics tailor-made for every purpose.

However, for our needs, a good all-rounder will suffice and while dynamic mics such as Shure’s famous SM58 will work great (especially in loud, gigging situations) we’d recommend a good XLR-equipped condenser mic to get the job done at home. Take a look at our guide here.

And while you're thinking ‘mic’ you might want to consider what kind of mic stand you’ll need. Will you be standing and singing into it? Or placing it in front of your guitar amp? Either way, there’s something for every occasion here.

And consider a pop shield. These are designed to take the sting out of your plosive ‘p’s and ‘b’s. You might even want to purchase a larger vocal shield, curved sound-proofing around your mic that will eliminate the off-axis sound of your room and deliver that up front, clear, ‘just the vocal’ sound you need.

If you’re recording on a mic you’ll need headphones of course, so you can listen to the backing while recording the latest take. While it’s easy to use your existing wired headphones (be aware that next to no audio interface features bluetooth for Airpods etc) a pair of comfortable dedicated recording headphones (with good insulation to prevent sound leakage) needn’t cost the earth. Take a look here.

Line in and MIDI

And while ‘live’ and acoustic instruments can be recorded with mics, never forget that you can plug in your synths and other electronic gear and record at line level too. These can be wired directly into your audio interface and into DAWs brain, no mic required.

If you have anything from a single keyboard to a rig of outboard synths, parts can be played in and recorded as MIDI data (Musical Instrument Digital Interface - our full Start Here guide to MIDI can be read here) and painstakingly corrected before being played back at any speed.

‘Impossible’ keyboard parts become ultra simple therefore as sloppy playing can be tweaked note-by-note towards perfection or snapped into beat-perfect lines with a simple press of the ‘Quantise’ button.

And if you want to work completely with your DAW’s plugin softsynths ‘in-the-box’ there’s no hardware required… But if you don’t fancy ‘drawing’ your music as bars on a grid (and don’t have a keyboard or synth already) consider buying an external MIDI controller that lets you input notes in the manner you’re probably more used to.

MIDI controllers come in all shapes and sizes, with keys, pads, knobs and sliders all giving physical control to the parameters within your DAW and all much nicer than making music with a mouse.

Once again there’s something for everyone, from skilled keyboard players (who’ll appreciate a weighted professional keyboard action) to beat-makers and knob-twiddlers (who’ll favour the use of pads, knobs and sliders to make their music). Find out what’s out there via our guide here.

Your home studio checklist

1. A computer: Good news. Any modern computer has the power to work with audio, MIDI and run the latest and greatest DAW. So the chances are that your current machine will do just fine.
2. An audio interface: Because your computer doesn’t have a mic or guitar ‘in’ socket. And because those outputs will sound so much better than your computer’s speakers…
3. A pair of monitors (i.e. speakers): A pair of powered, dedicated monitor speakers are the perfect companion to your audio interface. You can hear your music clearly, which will make it sound so much better.
4. A microphone: If you want to include vocals, or the sound of acoustic instruments in your music, a mic is a necessity, though not needed if you’re working entirely ‘in-the-box’ or solely with MIDI of course.
5. Some headphones: Any wired headphones will do. Or treat yourself to a new pair with even better sound insulation to prevent leakage between tracks.
6. DAW: The heart of your home studio - your multi-track recorder, mixing desk and effects rack all in one. While any Digital Audio Workstation software will fit the bill, some will be better suited to you than others. Pick the one that’s compatible with your computer and best suits your needs, budget and skill levels. Don’t forget – there are even free ones too
7. A MIDI controller: Not got a keyboard/synth or MIDI-equipped piano already? If you want to play notes into your DAW (rather than draw them on the screen) you’ll need a physical keyboard to get your ideas in there.
8. Plugins: While your DAW will have plenty built-in, covering off all the basics, there are literally thousands of synths and effects plugins out there in a format compatible with your DAW - Including plenty of free ones
9. More keyboards and boxes: Don’t forget that your DAW can ‘drive’ any amount of external synthesizers, drum machines and noise makers via MIDI. Want endless sounds and options? Just add extra kit when you’re ready.

Further reading

Further reading

Picking a DAW
What features you’ll need and what you’ll never touch… Our guide spells out the options and shows you your next favourite software.

Best free DAWs 2024
Budget tight? Or simply wanting to try before you buy? There’s some surprising power out there for zero cost.

How to choose an audio interface
All the essentials you need and the quirky features you don’t… Our guide spells out the state of play for 2024 and beyond

Best studio monitors
Make your music sound great fast with the latest critical listening studio speakers for every budget.

Best cheap microphones
Get great sound into your computer with the minimum of fuss and spend.

Best mic stands
It’s easy to forget those studio essentials… Make sure your mic stands proud.

Best softsynths
Treat yourself to a collection of prized synth classics, all without hitting the auctions or breaking the back.

Best effects plugins
Get the secret weapons that make the pro’s sound great.

Best romplers and samplers
Because there’s a rompler and a sampler library to suit any taste. Get thousands of sound and give the orchestra the night off

Best creative multi-effects plugins
Use the power of effects to make inspirational new music.

Best free music software and VST plugins
Don’t forget. There’s no need to spend a penny when there are hundreds of amazing free plugins to try first.

Best MIDI keyboards
Want to really take control of your music? A MIDI controller will let you really play with the power of your DAW.

The guide to MIDI
Discover the secret sauce that drives your computer’s ability to play, control and command a world of in- and out-of-the box synths and sound makers.

• Get more recording stories and features at Recording Week 2024 here!

Grammy-winning producer Jack Antonoff has announced plans to launch a charitable initiative that will give underprivileged music-makers access to professional recording studios. 

In an Instagram post shared earlier this week, Antonoff said that he intends to spend "the next chapter" of his life bringing studio spaces "to people who wouldn't have access to them", beginning with a plan to build studios in LGBTQ+ youth shelters in partnership with The Ally Coalition. 

In Antonoff's statement, the Bleachers frontman says that he dreams of making the recording studio accessible to anyone, not only those with enough money to use it. "It should be a place that all people can experience," he says, a public facility akin to a park or library. 

"Working with analogue gear and creating sounds that are impossible to recreate is powerful," the post reads. "Knowing you are in a space for a limited amount of time and pushing yourself to the edge is vital. A studio is a rare space and you function different because of it... I've loved home recording but my life changed in a recording studio."

Antonoff's plans will see a network of studio engineers enlisted to train would-be producers in the public studios. "Our plan is to build these spaces, pay for maintenance and engineering and let the centres give out the time slots for people to use them," he says. 

One of the world's most successful producers, Antonoff has worked with Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, The 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo, and taken home the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year the past two years running.

Revisit our 2023 interview with Jack Antonoff. 

Following the purchase of the famous London Maida Vale studio from the BBC, its new owners – a group led by composer Hans Zimmer and Working Title movie producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner alongside long-time business partner Steve Kofsky – have put in plans for a major revamp.

The movie soundtrack master acquired the London facility through 14th Street Music, Zimmer's music production and publishing company, in June last year. The purchase price was believed to be around £10.5 million.

The new plans aim to provide world-class music studios fit for the 21st century plus the creation of state-of-the-art film editing facilities and creative workspaces.

Built in 1909, the Maida Vale building was originally a roller skating venue but the BBC snapped it up in 1933 as a home for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The studios then became a recording history landmark with countless legendary names from Led Zeppelin to The Beatles and beyond using the facility to record one-off live sessions for the BBC.  

New plans submitted for early consultation outline the MVS Partnership LLP’s intentions to maintain the outward appearance of the studio with energy conservation and technical improvements being a top priority. 

“The proposed studio will be one of the only such facilities in the world and the first in the UK, creating a venue of national importance to UK creative industries. These proposed upgrades will set new benchmarks for excellence in British film and music post-production, fostering the creation of new jobs, driving innovation, and promoting industry investment,” the group promises.

“Our vision is to seamlessly blend the legacy of this iconic recording studio with the fast-evolving demands of today’s creative industries, providing state-of-the-art music studios, film production and editing facilities which set new benchmarks in film and music post-production.

“We recognise that the building is located in a residential area, and the sensitive scheme design by local architect Stiff + Trevillion looks to enhance neighbouring amenity wherever possible.”

And, in moves to make the improvements as seamless and popular as possible (following objections to the sale from the likes of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and producer Nigel Godrich at the time) the group is seeking feedback on its plans.

“Ahead of submitting a planning application to Westminster City Council, we want to hear your feedback to shape the development of our plans, and understand how we can work with local partners to promote education and heritage across Maida Vale. 

You can find out more about the plans and have your thoughts heard here.

Rupert Neve Designs has given us a glimpse inside one of the UK's most unusual studio spaces, formerly home to electronic musician Imogen Heap. 

A residential studio located on London's outskirts, The Hideaway Studio is based in a Grade II-listed landmark building built in 1792 called The Round House. This elliptical building houses six bedrooms, a kitchen, and a multi-room recording studio located in its basement. 

Heap purchased the building in 2006 and set up the studio as a personal recording space, but moved out a few years ago after finding that she wasn't making use of the place. Heap now rents it out as a commercial studio space, and the Hideaway has seen the likes of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande retreat to the studio to write and record new music. 

Rupert Neve Designs spoke with resident recording engineer Petra Randewijk about the studio, which she describes as "quirky" and "weird". "It doesn't really look like a studio, even though it is," she says. "It asks for trying odd stuff, for experimenting... it's a wonderful place to get away from everything and be creative."

The Hideaway's studio space is below ground level, which Petra says puts visitors "in another world", while a recessed hallway wrapping around the building's exterior gives musicians an opportunity to record some "amazing" real-world reverb.

The studio is segmented into a control room, a drum room and a piano room, housing a classic Steinway from the '30s. "Because of the house being a round house, actually an oval house, the acoustics in the rooms are quite nice to record - especially acoustic instruments, string quartet sounds amazing in there," says Petra.

"There are lots of weird instruments everywhere, there are lots of weird stuff to make music with. It's basically the collection of everything Imogen collected during her career up until now, and you can try out everything. I'm trying to make all the vocoders work again so you can try out all of them very easily". 

At the heart of the control room is a Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console, which Petra says "sounds amazing... it makes everything instantly sound nice." A completely modular console, each 5088 is built-to-order, with channel strips and processing modules swapped in and out to meet the demands of each artist or engineer.

"If you don't do anything to it and you just put everything in straight, just put it in the computer, play your nice music, use your nice microphone, put it in the right place, put it through a nice preamp and record it, your recording is basically already done," says Petra. "You can only fuck it up after that."

Watch our 2010 interview with Imogen Heap below.

As the sun pokes its head out of the clouds this summer, musicians, performers and DJs are getting ready to take their talents outdoors and share their music with the world.

Whether you’re playing gigs in the park or dropping beats on the beach, JBL Professional’s lineup of portable PA systems promises to amplify your sound with exceptional clarity and power. Designed with versatility in mind and packed with cutting-edge features, JBL’s PAs can help you deliver unforgettable musical experiences in any outdoor setting.

JBL EON ONE MK2

Imagine having your entire setup in one sleek, easy-to-carry package - JBL’s EON ONE MK2 does just that. Boasting a 10-inch woofer and an array of 2” tweeters, it delivers rich, detailed sound that fills any space with a wide dispersion pattern. From crisp highs to weighty lows, the EON ONE MK2 ensures that every note and every beat resonates with clarity, while the 1500-watt amplifier provides more than enough power to make it ideal for small to medium-sized venues and outdoor gatherings.

Getting set up is a breeze with the EON ONE MK2. Its intuitive design allows for quick assembly and disassembly - perfect for musicians on the move. Bluetooth connectivity enables seamless music streaming from your mobile devices, adding flexibility to your performance. Whether you’re a solo act, a duo, or even a small band, the EON ONE MK2 adapts effortlessly to your needs, ensuring the audience hears every nuance of your music.

JBL EON ONE Compact

If you’re looking for convenience and portability without compromising on sound quality, the JBL EON ONE Compact is the PA for you. Despite its compact size, this system packs a punch with an 8-inch woofer and a high-frequency tweeter, delivering clear highs and deep, punchy bass that defies its size. With 112 dB of output, it ensures your performance is heard loud and clear even in busy outdoor environments.

What really makes the EON ONE Compact different is its versatility. Equipped with a convenient 4-channel mixer, it’ll accept microphones, instruments and Bluetooth audio, and its 12-hour battery life means you can play multiple sets or conduct extended rehearsals without worrying about power. Plus, with the JBL Pro Connect app, you have full control over your settings directly from your smartphone, enabling you to fine-tune your performance on the go.

JBL PRX ONE

Step up your game with the JBL PRX ONE, a powerhouse PA designed for musicians who demand uncompromising performance. Featuring a 12-tweeter column array and a 12-inch bass-reflex woofer, the PRX ONE delivers stunning sound clarity with a maximum SPL of 130dB. Whether you’re DJing a beach party or leading worship outdoors, its precise dispersion pattern ensures consistent coverage across the audience area, from front to back.

Equipped with a 7-channel digital mixer and a suite of Lexicon and dbx effects, the PRX ONE offers unparalleled control over your audio. From EQ adjustments to pro-grade effects like reverb and compression, you can tweak your sound to your heart’s content. Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity expands your setup possibilities, allowing up to 10 units to be controlled wirelessly through the JBL Pro Connect app. With rugged construction and useful transport features, including an optional rolling base transporter, the PRX ONE is ready for any adventure.

JBL IRX ONE

Versatility meets simplicity in the JBL IRX ONE, designed to cater to a wide range of users from educators to buskers and everything in between. Featuring a compact column PA design with six 2-inch high-frequency drivers and an 8-inch woofer, the IRX ONE delivers clear and balanced sound with a generous sweet spot. Setup is effortless, and its ergonomic design ensures easy transport, making it ideal for gigs in the park, outdoor events, or impromptu performances.

With a 3-channel mixer, Bluetooth 5.0 streaming, and advanced features like dbx Automatic Feedback Suppression, the IRX ONE delivers professional-grade sound quality without the complexity. Whether you’re amplifying vocals, instruments, or streaming music wirelessly, this system will adapt seamlessly to any setting. What’s more, with JBL’s commitment to durability and customer support, you can be sure that your performances will always sound their best.

Don’t settle for anything less than extraordinary sound this summer. Whether you choose the lightweight yet powerful EON One Compact, the versatile and feature-packed EON ONE, the user-friendly IRX ONE or the class-leading PRX ONE, JBL’s portable PA systems will empower you to put on unforgettable performances in any location. Thanks to robust construction, advanced connectivity and outstanding sound quality, they offer an unmatched blend of innovation and reliability for musicians, performers, and DJs looking to take their sound outside this summer.

Visit JBL’s website today to find out more.

Reports suggest that Hollywood’s iconic Record Plant studios, a fixture in the area since 1969, is set to close.

The Los Angeles Magazine says that the closure has been confirmed on social media and by former employees. It marks the end of a more than 50-year stay for the Record Plant in Hollywood, which saw the studio being used to record a string of classic albums. These include Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, The Eagles’ Hotel California, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction and Beyonce’s Lemonade.

After setting up the first Record Plant in New York in 1968, founders Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone added a Hollywood facility, located at 8456 West Third Street, in 1969. The Record Plant moved to its current premises, on N Sycamore Avenue, in 1985.

If the Hollywood Record Plant does close, it would seemingly mark the end for this iconic name. The New York studio closed in 1987, and another facility in Sausalito, California, was shuttered in 2008.

Discussing the reasons for its demise, East/West and Ocean Way engineer Gary Myerberg told the Los Angeles Magazine: “There is no money in the recording music business. That’s basically like a flyer for your show. I don’t think there’s much hope for the recording industry in LA. If you want to go to the studio and spend $2,000 a day, just take that and buy a laptop and a sample library or tell AI what song you want to make and it’ll make it.”

Of the declining demand for ‘big room’ studios, guitar tech Jesse McInturff suggests that “There are less and less rock bands and you could record Taylor Swift in a vocal booth the size of a closet.”

On the front page of its website, the Record Plant says that “Great artists still make their best music at great studios”. This may be true for some, but the reality is that even some of those artists who could afford to record at a big studio now choose to do so at home.

Explaining why he and his sister Billie Eilish rejected a big-name facility in favour of their own space, producer Finneas told GQ in 2020: “I think it was the clock in, clock out mentality of those places; this didn’t work for us. I'm a big believer in the benefit of a home studio. You're sitting there and maybe you don’t know the next line. So you go outside for a second, maybe. Make a sandwich. Play with the dog. Or watch an episode of The Office, whatever. And then it clicks, you run back into the room, and you’ve got it. It’s not like your creativity is on the clock.”

t.akustik PET Vocal Booth: What is it?

Thomann’s acoustic treatment sub-brand t.akustik has been releasing a slew of PET-based products for some time, with the likes of the Desktop Absorber and Vocal Head Booth already passing through our doors. What has struck us with t.akustik products in the past is that they’re very cost-effective, by and large, its products offer great value for money, so will we be able to say the same thing about this latest PET Vocal Booth?

This is the third phonebox-sized booth to come from t.akustik and at a price that sits between the previous t.akustik Vocal Booth and t.akustik Isolation Booth, although firmly at the former end of the scale. At just over £100 dearer than the polyurethane-foamed Vocal Booth, this PET variant comes in slightly larger dimensions and 4kg heavier.

In isolation

Let’s be clear, there is a huge distinction between a vocal booth and an isolation booth, the latter designed to cut out the external environmental audio altogether. Isolation is achieved by a fully enclosed construction. Of course, whether it achieves that feat or not is another matter entirely. In this instance, a vocal booth is purely to aid in the capture of vocals in sub-optimal acoustic spaces. The main difference here is that this is not a full enclosure. There’s no floor and part of the wall is taken up with a thin curtain, so you’re not going to be blocking out huge amounts of sound from within the booth.

t.akustik PET Vocal Booth: Performance and verdict

The booth arrives in kit form with a build akin to a 3D puzzle, but nowhere near as difficult or time-consuming. From unboxing to completion it took around 30 minutes to construct and even less time to dismantle. All the pieces interlock with no tools required to complete the job and you’ll only need to add six AAA batteries for the two magnetic interior LED lights. The finished article features a small shelf, magnetic curtains, a wall-mounted magnet to attach lyrics or a script, a headphone hook and holes to run cables in from the rear. 

Unlike the previous model, the booth is laid out isometrically, with the curtained opening in one corner and the internal shelf in the opposite corner, which makes it feel a lot bigger than it is. The shelf is big enough to hold an iPad or a small vocal effects unit, but you’ll struggle with getting a laptop on there. 

t.akustik claims that this booth is also suitable for instrument recording although we’re not sure exactly what sort of instrument you’ll be able to squeeze into that space. Trying to wield an acoustic guitar feels very cramped and leaves very little room for movement, let alone a mic and stand.

In conclusion, it really matters where you are placing the vocal booth as it doesn't cut out the room ambience completely. By simply erecting it in the corner of a large warehouse-like area, you will still notice some of the reverberations from that space at high volume. This might have something to do with the very flimsy curtain material used and unfortunately, the PET Vocal Booth’s weakest point. A heavier material here would be much better at curtailing some of the wider ambience. That said, in a close-micing situation with vocal recording it’s barely noticeable on the recordings themselves, with minimal post-production required. It does the job of improving vocal recordings in sub-optimal acoustic spaces.

Its overall size, weight and price beg the question: who is this for? Home-based studios and productions would be better served with something along the lines of the Vocal Head Booth at best and at worst, building a DIY vocal booth using a duvet and a couple of mic stands. The cost and size of the PET Vocal Booth make it far too cost-prohibitive for the bedroom producer. 

So more professional spaces, then? Well, the problem here is that if you’re looking to create a space to record vocals on a professional scale then you’ll want to be dealing with full isolation. Even a semi-professional space would be far better served with a bespoke hand-built solution which might cost less in materials and labour. 

Where the PET Vocal Booth excels is that it’s useful in a temporary scenario. The ease of build and lightweight construction make it the ideal choice should you need to shift its positioning once erected. Now, t.akustik’s blurb states that the PET Vocal Booth is transportable which would elude to the fact this is an easy thing to carry about, which it is not. What would be great is if the company made some kind of bag with wheels, which would also help with storage should you need to pack it down for any length of time.

MusicRadar verdict: If you ever need to record vocals in a large open space then this self-build booth is ideal for creating a useable recording environment.

t.akustik PET Vocal Booth: Video demos

t.akustik 

t.akustik PET Vocal Booth: Specifications

• Simple assembly, no tools required
• Integrated shelf (40 x 40 x 30 cm, distance to the floor 103 cm)
• Headphone holder
• Opening for cable management
• Integrated magnet for holding notes
• Two Curtains with magnetic closure (195 x 45 cm)
• Material: PET 25 mm 3000g/m², Euroclass B1 S1-d0 NRC : 0.9
• Interior dimensions (H x W x D): 204 x 100 x 100 cm
• External dimensions (H x W x D): 206.5 x 110 x 110 cm
• Weight: approx. 29 kg
• Includes two magnetically mountable LED lamps
• Contact: Thomann

The modern array of setup choice is a great thing. There is a problem though. As brilliant as all of these worlds are in their own rights, they do tend to exist in bunkers, happily doing their thing, their way, without talking with ease to one another.

In this feature, we’ll detail how to mix these setups so you can enjoy the best of all of them: to experience the pure ‘analogue-ness’ of Eurorack alongside your digital DAW, to record and control all-in one synths with your DAW, to use your iPad as a gear hub, and to master a rack of MIDI gear alongside modular and keep it all in sync. In short, we’re getting our hardware and software worlds to collide and make beautiful music together. 

Before we start, we’ll assume you have some kind of audio interface. Every scenario we look at requires at least a basic model, and going on you also may require MIDI, MIDI to CV and even a DC-coupled type – more on these later. This is because every example we look at when you are controlling a piece of audio hardware with a DAW will require that audio to be recorded back into the DAW. Then we come to the two main communication standards…

MIDI vs Control Voltage/Gate

The older control voltage (CV)/gate technology was initially employed in the 1970s for analogue synths, in order to communicate by way of voltage changes. The level of the analogue voltage simply determines the level of the data or parameter changed by it. Think of it like turning a knob on a synth up and down; in fact, many knobs on synths actually use that same CV process.

Voltage variations can be measured both positively and negatively over different standards (typically +/- 5v, 0 to +8v, or 0 to +5v). But they all use the same essential theory: that being that the CV part typically creates different values (so it can play different notes, for example) and the gate part switches the process on or off (via note length, for example). 

In a CV/Gate setup you have two types of signal, the control (CV) and audio, but these can be interchangeable so audio signals can control parameters and control signals can become audible – an LFO that falls between the audible range of human hearing, for example. 

MIDI was essentially devised to bring a standard communication method between instruments and is a digital process that breaks everything down into 128 steps (0 to 127) and across 16 different channels. On a basic level, a typical use could be playing notes on different synths or sound modules via different MIDI channels. By assigning MIDI CC (control change or continuous controller) information, again from 128 values, you can send and receive information from different knobs, sliders, mod wheels etc, so control and record pretty much any parameter in a synth or effect. 

Very broadly speaking, MIDI is great for polyphonic, digitally controlled and standard tuned compositions. CV is its more unruly but slightly cooler younger (and older) brother: it’s pure analogue and not made of 128 steps; it’s as fast as electricity and more likely to result in something unexpected; it’s more experimental, differently tuned (if you like) and most definitely waveform-like.

CV has made a comeback in recent decades thanks to it becoming the standard for Eurorack modular synthesis. MIDI is the standard used in DAWs for recording information played on softsynths, and also fitted to most all-in-one hardware synths and sound modules. 

This, then, is how MIDI and CV can work together (and separately) in your studio setups. The following are general hardware and software studio scenarios and setup solutions. There are many (many!) more that might be caused by (or solved by) more specific pieces of gear; indeed, whatever modular compatibility issue you have, someone will have designed a modular solution for it.

The basic MIDI setup

We’ll assume that you are first and foremost a DAW user for the purposes of this scenario, and this first setup allows you to tentatively reach out into the physical hardware world and marry up your softsynths and effects with perhaps an analogue or digital synth or two, each with physical audio outputs. 

Ideally you’ll be needing an audio interface with MIDI, and you’ll simply connect up the MIDI out of the interface with the MIDI-in on the hardware synth, and then the MIDI-out from the synth to the MIDI-in on the interface. Then connect the one mono or two stereo audio outputs of the synth to the audio inputs of the interface. 

Now make sure the DAW is set to a particular MIDI channel and that the hardware is set to the same channel (or all). You then create an input audio channel in your DAW, which is set to the audio inputs of the interface, so triggering notes in your DAW (or on the synth keyboard) should result in audio streaming into your DAW from the synth. You now have external synth audio which can be treated with plugin effects and edited just like any other DAW audio.

The USB MIDI setup

If your synth has a USB connection you could connect it directly to your computer if it has a spare USB slot (on top of the one probably used for your interface). This cuts down the need for two MIDI cables as MIDI will be transmitted via USB. However, audio often won’t be transmitted, so you’ll still need the audio connections described above. 

If either of these MIDI situations results in latency – that is an audible (above 10ms) delay – then you will need to tweak settings in your audio preferences, either increasing the sample rate or decreasing the buffer size (usually from 512 to 256 samples), both of which will increase CPU usage. Recording as an External Instrument in Ableton Live, for example, rather than an individual audio interface input, can also reduce latency.

In some DAWs, again like Ableton, you can compensate for delay by measuring the existing delay and putting it in as a negative value in the MIDI Clock Sync Delay box of its output in Preferences, the negative number acting in a delay compensation capacity. 

Three of the best CV controllers

Increase your setup’s musical flexibility with these options...

Master Eurorack with a MIDI-to-CV converter

Most Eurorack modules adhere to the CV standard and not MIDI (although some, of course, have MIDI connectivity). This means that in order to access that world, you will require some kind of CV ‘in’, and by far the easiest is to purchase a MIDI-to-CV interface (see our box for three recommendations) which takes the MIDI information you are streaming out of your DAW and converts it into control voltage information that your modular system will be more friendly with. 

Typically you can connect up a MIDI-to-CV via USB and then take standard 3.5mm patch cables from it to your modular setup. The MIDI information – which can include note length, pitch, clock information, stop/start and more – is converted to CV.

As with both scenarios above, the resulting audio will need to come back into your audio interface. Depending on how many modules you are triggering, you might need to either up the input channel count on your interface, or buy a separate mixer (which can be a Eurorack module, separate analogue mixer or an audio interface with built-in mixer). You may have to deal with latency when recording audio back in, with methods seen in Tip 2 above. 

Three of the best MIDI-to-CV converters

Convert MIDI from your DAW to CV signals your modular setup will love...

MIDI controller with CV connectivity

One great solution to connecting all of these worlds together is to get one of the increasingly common MIDI controllers with CV connections built in. Arturia was one of the first companies to do this, and products like its excellent Keystep let you simply connect a Pitch CV out into a modular synth device’s 1V/Oct input and the gate out into an envelope in. 

With a Mod output for modulation, a complement of MIDI connectors and even Sync In and Out connectors to lock external sequencers in time, products like Keystep can be the ideal central hardware device for playing modular gear via ‘standard’ MIDI keyboards and sequencing and arpeggiating to your heart’s content via the hardware. 

A word of warning: a CV-enabled controller like this does not necessarily act like a full MIDI to CV convertor for a connected DAW, so a full MIDI-to-CV convertor may be required (see example 3 above).  

Your DAW with a DC-coupled interface

Ableton Live v10.1 onwards came with a new set of Max tools called CV Tools (which you can now download for free). These excellent tools allow you to create CV signals that can be sent to a DC-coupled interface, which is effectively an audio interface that reads and outputs control voltage data. 

The CV Tools let you set up notes and durations easily, though you may need to lock notes into correct pitch positions (also easy). There are also editable LFOs which you can use to modulate your Eurorack modules. 

Other DAWs like Bitwig Studio also come packed with CV options, but if your DAW doesn’t have CV-style tools, then there are a couple of options. You can get third-party CV tools like CV Toolkit 3 ($19.99 to $49.99 from spektroaudio.com) which contain clocks, sequencer, LFOs and so on, but run standalone so you can still control and sequence your modular gear from your Mac or PC.

Again you will still require a DC-coupled interface. Otherwise if your DAW doesn’t output CV-style signals, go for the MIDI-to-CV option above for a more limited solution, again requiring extra hardware.

What’s really great with this method, and in fact any DAW or third-party app that uses these kinds of CV tools, is that they can also send out clock information so that your modular gear will be sync’d to your computer. You may have to deal with latency when recording audio back in with the methods we used in Tip 2 above. 

Three of the best DC-coupled interfaces

These devices are designed with modular synthesis in mind...

Ableton Link and iOS devices

Ableton Link is a fantastic way of connecting, and more importantly syncing devices together so that they can all play in time. A typical example would be an Ableton-Live-hosted computer syncing with an external iOS app. If the app is Link-compatible – and Ableton lists hundreds that are – you simply enable the Link option and the app’s Link feature will connect to a local network. You then enable the Link option in Live and it will detect the app connected in the same network and the two will play in sync.

It’s a great system for syncing mobile and desktop worlds but not necessarily your modular one. If you do want your iPad or other mobile device controlling and sequencing your modular world, that might mean using elements of all of the above scenarios. On a simple level you could use a DC-coupled audio interface like the ES9 and apps that output modulation data like Audulus, Drambo and MiRack, so use your iPad like we used a DAW in Tip 5. 

However, there are many more complex setups that we’ve seen attempting to use a tablet as a central modular controller and sequencer. These may require hardware sequencers rather than the iOS device doing the work, or else use hardware MIDI-to-CV convertors as we’ve already talked about.

Other solutions are MIDI to CV apps like CoVariant or CV generating apps like Silent Way that both spit out control voltage data to DC-coupled interfaces. There are also hub apps like AUM, MIDI Link Sync, Audiobus and Ableton Link attempting to keep things in check. 

Basically, the more you grow, so the complexity can too. Our advice, then, as with any form of communication, is to keep it simple (at least initially) and all your worlds – DAW, MIDI hardware, CV modular and even iOS – will get along fine. Mostly anyway.

Three of the best apps to connect your hardware and iOS worlds

Head no further than the App Store to find these solutions...

Tucked away in the West Country of the UK, Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios is a world-class facility that’s been used by everyone from Van Morrison to Harry Styles, and now you have the chance to experience its unique vibes by way of a four-day residential masterclass.

Set to take place between 11 and 14 July 2024, this will feature guest speakers such as Beatles engineer Ken Scott, Portishead’s Adrian Utley, prog metal maven Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood and songwriter and producer Swindle, with more names to be announced in due course.

As well as learning from these industry heavyweights, you’ll also have the chance to take in Real World’s beautiful surroundings and sample the gastronomic delights that will be supplied by the studio’s resident chef. For the full artist experience, you’ll have the opportunity to stay in the accommodation that’s usually reserved for the rock and pop star clientele, but you’ll need to book quickly if you want to guarantee this (local guest houses will also be used if necessary).

The talks by the aforementioned industry bigwigs will take place in the evenings after dinner, following days spent in classes that you can mix and match based on your musical preferences.

"This masterclass is an amazing and unique opportunity for anyone passionate about music to learn from the best in the industry," says Bob Mackenzie, Real World in-house engineer. "Real World Studios has been a hub for musical innovation, and we are excited to open the doors to a wealth of knowledge with enthusiasts eager to take their craft to the next level."

If you’re interested in signing up for the masterclass, you can find out more and enquire via email on the Real World Studios website.

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by Raphael Chang, who releases music as infinikid. 

Tell us about your studio set-up?

"As an engineer, I'm proud of all of the technical expertise needed behind the scenes, from the power sequencing to the signal routing. 

"The whole studio power sequences itself with the flip of one switch like a spaceship. All the MIDI and audio routing in my studio is very flexible; using the patchbays and MIDI routers, all the keyboards and controllers can be set up to control any hardware or software, and all of the synths and effects can be routed into each other and into the mixer. I also love the RGB lighting from the Nanoleaf panels and of course the sound!"

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I make electronic music with playfully textured beats combined with simple childlike melodies, inspired by the sounds of progressive and electro house, techno, trance, and IDM. My music has been described as 'teleporting into the cutest video game ever', capturing themes of childlike imagination and nostalgia, nature and space exploration, science fiction, and retro video games."

What's your favourite piece of gear and why?

"My monitors (Neumann KH 310A) are probably the most important piece of gear to me. They sound fantastic and music would not happen without them!"

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"The first piece of gear I owned for electronic music was probably a Novation Peak synthesizer."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"A Rupert Neve Designs 5088 mixing console."

Listen to infinikid on Spotify.

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

infinikid's gear list

• Mac Studio
• Neumann KH 310A
• SSL X-Desk
• RME ADI-2 Pro FS
• RME Fireface UFX+
• SSL UF8
• Novation 61SL MkIII
• Ableton Push
• Fractal Audio Axe-FX III
• Linnstrument
• DJ TechTools MIDI Fighter Twister
• DJ TechTools MIDI Fighter
• iConnectivity mioXL
• miniDSP SHD Studio
• Focal Utopia
• AKG C414
• Elysia Xpressor
• Elysia Nvelop
• Elysia Karacter
• Elysia XFilter
• Elysia Mpressor 500
• Elyssia Skulpter
• Analog Heat
• Tascam Portastudio 424 MkIII

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader and music artist Positive Reptile. 

Tell us about your studio set-up?

"I recently purchased a townhouse in Seattle with my wife and already knew going into it that this would not be the 'perfect' acoustically treated room. That allowed for me to focus more on the aesthetic rather than utility, if that makes sense. I also work from home in tech consulting as a day job so it doubles as an office. 

"Since I spend so much time in this space I wanted it to evolve into a room that I don't really feel like leaving. I've put up lights everywhere with plants to give a jungle type of vibe. Even when I look outside the window all I see are trees. 

"One of my favourite parts of the room is my guitar wall. It has acoustic foam, plant panels, and lights that create this really cool vibe. My cats love the room a lot as well and spend most of their day in here with me which is just too awesome!"

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I have been playing guitar for the past 16 years since ninth grade. I joined a metal band in college for five years but grew out of that. The energy on stage with heavy music is insane but I leaned towards writing more easy listening sounds that can be shared with pretty much everyone. 

"I love the peace and stillness that music gives me, especially when I am playing it, and I just want to share the feeling with my friends and family. I have recently started my solo producer journey (one month in!) and I create groovy downtempo synth/guitar tracks."

What's your favourite piece of gear and why?

"My number one piece of gear would be my silver Ernie Ball Music Man JP13 John Petrucci Signature. It is the perfect guitar for me but I've gotta say my Sequential Prophet 5 Rev 4 has recently evolved me to a whole new level of musician. I am relatively new to the synthesizer world but I am lucky to own one of the best ones!"

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"My first 'big boy' guitar would be a Schecter Hellraiser C-1. You can get by with a cheap guitar when you are just starting but when you get your first 'real' guitar, its a game changer!"

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"It's hard to know since I am feeling fulfilled right now, but I think as a whole I would love to have the 'perfect' studio set up. All the gear and wires and routing set to the point where no brains are required to start making sound. Not a studio that people would do crazy mixes in, but one that has great sound and an inviting sanctuary feeling. It's kinda what I have now on a small level but there is huge room for improvement."

Listen to Positive Reptile on Soundcloud.

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

Positive Reptile's gear list

• KRK Rokit 5s 
• KRK 8in Subwoofer 
• Fractal Audio FM3 
• Sequential Prophet 5 Rev4 
• Novation Summit 
• Ernie Ball MusicMan JP15 
• ErnieBall Music Man JP13 
• Sterling by MusicMan 
• Behringer Poly D
• Macbook Pro M2 
• Schecter ATX Solo-6 
• Schecter Synyster Gates Custom-S

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Rob Gibbon.

Tell us about your studio set-up?

"I've treated the room, which gives it this incredibly calm feel when you walk in. The arched picture window behind the desk fills the room with natural light which only encourages me to spend too much time in there! When I'm creating, I feel like I'm at the helm of a starship, especially in the late evenings when it's dark."

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I made the transition from listener to creator late in life - at about the age of 40 I decided to get myself a first synth - a Korg, which I still love despite its limitations. From there I bought a whole lot more outboard gear before finally building a full studio setup. 

"The music I make is a kind of pop fusion of electronica with more traditional funk, jazz and rock. I aim to connect on an emotional level through the lyrics and the arrangement, so my creativity tends to send me to some pretty blue places. I love that technology has made advanced music creation so accessible now, from production tools to education and collaboration everything is within near-instant reach."

Tell us about the gear in your studio?

"There's my wife's Gibson ES-335, a Kramer D-1 bass, an acoustic guitar of no pedigree, a rare Soviet electric piano (Venta EM-17), three Behringer Craves, a Korg Minologue, a MicroFreak and my grandfather's Roland SH-101. In the foreground is a Tandberg open reel tape recorder which I sometimes use to add some low end saturation."

What's your favourite piece of gear and why?

"Out of shot but I have a Hohner Pianet electric piano which I absolutely love. It has such a great sound and the immediacy of playing is incredibly satisfying."

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"The first piece of gear I bought in earnest was the Korg Monologue. I still love it for its dark basslines, wild leads and esoteric FX."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"I've been eyeballing the Rhodes Mark I suitcase electric piano on Reverb, but just window shopping I promise! That and the Vox Continentals."

Listen to Rob's music on Spotify.

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Julian Kleiss. 

Tell us about your studio set-up?

"Output's Platform desk finally made it possible to fit everything in without needing side tables and extra stands, and everything is within arm's reach without needing to move much or turn around. It even fits some of my CD collection - that's actually rack space for analogue audio gear, but I reduced everything to one interface and high-quality digital simulations. 

"Having windows with a view of blue skies and a green park on nice days, plants, wooden diffusers and warm lights (all turned on at once with a single switch) for rainy days and evenings, is great for setting a mood for making music."

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I grew up with the Lion King 1 and 2 soundtrack, the Backstreet Boys and Slipknot, went to a classical music high school and got super into African pop music as an 18-year old. In college I got into songwriting, learned about odd meters from the Balkans and rhythmic concepts from North Indian tabla pedagogy, took an introduction to music production via Ableton Live workshops, did some beatboxing and learned how to sing like Bobby McFerrin. 

"Recently, I've discovered a new love for clawhammer banjo music. Over the years I've been making mostly technically impressive guitar based music (aka percussive fingerstyle) with a focus on catchy melodies and quirky lyric writing. Sometimes I get hired to make music for advertising. I might call my music feel-good folk-pop, but that's probably an oversimplification."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"My favourite piece of gear is currently my newest guitar: a Strandberg 8-string. I had been experimenting with playing guitar and bass simultaneously for a while but using two different instruments was a bit inconvenient. I cancelled an order of a double-neck guitar/bass when I realized I'd have access to the same high and low notes on an 8-string guitar without the inherent playing restrictions of a double-neck. 

"My favourite piece of non-guitar gear is Ableton Push 2. With its pad layout being similar to a guitar fretboard I can use a lot of my fretboard knowledge which makes playing some things easier and quicker than doing it on a piano. A keyboard has its own advantages, of course, but on Push I can play 10ths, or any wide chord voicings, in one hand with ease - and still have my second hand free to do other things."

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"A terribly old and cheap hand-me--down nylon-string guitar from my grandma. On the music production side my first piece of gear (besides my MacBook) many years later was a Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo audio interface and the Aston Spirit microphone, shortly followed by Ableton Push 2."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"Luca Stricagnoli's triple-neck custom made acoustic guitar/bass."

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Peter McCaughan, who releases music under the artist name Alpha Chrome Yayo.

Tell us about your studio set-up?

"For me, gear is important, sure - but equally important is that less tangible, ephemeral quality that makes a space fun and engaging to work in. Call it vibes, aesthetics, or just plain 'stuff that looks nice', this element is essential for me to make the music that I make - especially if I'm spending many long days and late nights in this room. 

"So I've surrounded myself with the gear I need in a way that makes sense to me, but also plenty of inspirational artefacts including paintings, wall decorations, stickers of friends' bands and more. There's a Japanese shoji screen which simultaneously looks pretty, and hides shelves of stuff I don't need ready access to. My studio is in a pretty tight little space (growing ever-tighter with the walls of synths that surround me), so I've really got to think hard about where I place everything. 

"I've got rackmounted synths, computer and effects to my left (including my beloved Roland JV-1080), a big Wakeman-esque stand of instruments behind me (the Prophet Rev 2 gets the most use), guitars on the wall (I like Ibanez stuff, can you tell?) and almost always an Arturia Keystep on my knees. Every corner is filled with tucked-away treats, like an alto sax I've had since I was single-digits-years-old, and some broken instruments that I occasionally harvest for parts. 

"There's plenty of strange stuff in here too, like the Suiko VS-1; an obscure koto synthesizer from the '80s, a Sony PVM that I use for making glitchy music videos and a glorious old phone handset with carbon and dynamic mics inside. I love this space and, despite the countless hours I spend in here, I never get sick of it."

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I release my own music under the name Alpha Chrome Yayo - it's a far-out mix of jazz fusion, city pop, chillwave and '90s-flavoured new age, with hot flashes of metal and ice cold ambient. In the past five years, I've put out about 300 tracks across 39 releases, and the best place to check it out is always Bandcamp. I'm exceptionally grateful for the support I get on there, and I've seen several sold out physical releases, live streams that have turned into wild parties and more. 

"For the past couple of years I've also been working away as lead composer for some upcoming video games (currently NDA, but set for announcement in the not-too-distant future)."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"It's definitely the Suiko VS-1, a fairly obscure '80s synthesizer built in Ikebukuro and originally designed to soundtrack poetry readings. It has that digital joy while also sounding magically acoustic. Tuned to Japanese pentatonic scales, it inspires lateral thinking. I've made a free sample pack from it if anyone wants it."

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"Of the stuff I'm still using, my Trevor Horn alto sax. That being said, I had some glorious '90s Casio keyboards growing up and I loved the sounds out of 'em. I must go digging in my parents' attic next time I'm visiting to see if any are still lurking there."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"I'd love a Yamaha CS-80 if anybody has a spare 50k lying around to help me live out my space-age Vangelis dreams. If they could also come round and service it every time it breaks, that'd be great too, cheers!"

Listen to Alpha Chrome Yayo's And That, My Friends, Is What I Call Golf below or hear more on Bandcamp. 

Peter's gear list

• Moog Sub Phatty 
• Sequential Prophet Rev 2 
• Suiko VS-1 
• Casio CTS-1000V 
• Tascam 424MkII Portastudio 
• Proteus 2000 
• Alesis Midiverb II 
• Roland JV-1080 Roland Boutique D-05
• Roland Boutique JD-08 
• Roland TR-6S 
• Korg Volcas (FM and Modular) 
• Cre8audio East Beast 
• Evan Cook Landline 
• Rotel RD-865
• Sony Trinitron PVM 
• KRK Rokit 5 G4s 
• Ableton Push 2 
• Ibanez guitars (Jem, RG and SR bass) 
• Trevor Horn alto sax

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar readers and musical duo Kassian.

Tell us about your studio set-up? What do you love about it?

"We love our setup because two of us can produce live together without turning on the computer. Everything is synced with MIDI and there is space for us both to stand up and jam together. We record everything through a multitrack desk and edit afterwards in the DAW."

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"We come from different areas of dance music and we bonded over a mutual appreciation for unique production and interesting rhythms in dance music. The music we're making now is close to techno and UK bass."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"We're really enjoying the Erica Synths Perkons HD-01 drum synth at the moment, it sounds so huge and is unbelievably fun to play around with. We love that there's no screen on it, and love its unpredictability."

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"The Roland System-1 synth, which we still use on almost every track five years later. It's amazing for super expressive basslines and acid sounds."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"A real 909 would be pretty amazing, or an original Prophet! Something with tons of character. We're also just scratching the surface of modular synthesis now so a big Eurorack setup would probably keep us busy for a while!"

Listen to Shimmer (Edit) by Kassian below.

Kassian's gear list

• Elektron Digitakt
• Roland SP-404 MKII
• Elektron Octatrack MkII
• Elektron Analog Four MKII
• Roland System-1
• Erica Synths Perkons HD-01
• Behringer 2600
• Korg MS-2000
• Moog Sub Phatty

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Philip Fore.

Tell us about your studio set-up? What do you love about it?

"The gear in my studio has been through a lot of transitions since the early 2000s. My current setup is the trial and error result of finding what tools accommodate my workflow demands the best. What I especially love most about my studio is the accessibility. Everything is clocked/synced via MIDI so I can control the communication to and fro very quickly and precisely. Having all the hardware conveniently routed to a mixer and readily available to play really helps when you’re in the moment and want to grab a certain sound."

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I started playing guitar as a teenager but was more interested in exploring and breaking sonic territories rather learning music. I went from plugging my guitar into a pedalboard arsenal to plugging in a synthesizer and drum machine and never looked back.

"I was heavily influenced by the '90s Warp and '80s Wax Trax! Records era. I love creating electronic music with a flair of structure and unconventionality. This also accommodates my personal spiritual philosophies. I enjoy building things up, breaking them apart and create new and surprising sounds. I can write very quickly and prefer working in an improvisational, live environment. I tend to approach creating from a jazz/experimental angle, embracing unpredictable and accidental results."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"My laptop. My primary tools are a 50/50 split of Ableton Live and Native Instruments Maschine. I use Ableton as an audio/MIDI mix bus powerhouse. It acts as the master clock to sync the hardware and supervise all MIDI information while allowing endless routings and configurations limited only by your own imagination.

"I used Akai MPCs for years as the brains of my setup prior to the Maschine being released. I’m really percussion-driven so I prefer to sequence beats with an MPC-style 4x4 16-step grid rather the traditional linear technique. I use Maschine as a plugin inside Ableton and that’s where it really shines! You can send virtual audio/MIDI channels back and forth with each other and build complex routings to experiment and construct with.

"Essentially I use Ableton and Maschine as glorified grooveboxes on steroids. Endless fun and inspiration. Using computers really opens the doors to incredible and innovative creative possibilities and it’s only going to get wilder!"

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"Outside of my teenage guitar phase it would have to be the original Korg Electribe ER-1 that's in my photo and I still use it frequently. Amazing sounds and functionality. I’m a beat machine/groovebox junkie and a sucker for nostalgia so I will indeed be buried with it!"

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"Definitely one of the newer Moog One synthesizers. I mean come on, just look at that thing! Ridiculous!"

Listen to Philip Fore's track Synapsr below or hear more on Bandcamp.

Philip's gear list

• Korg Wavestate
• Arturia Minifreak
• Elektron Analog Four
• Korg Electribe EA-1
• Korg Electribe ER-1
• Faderfox PC12
• MacBook Pro
• Ableton Live
• Ableton Push
• NI Maschine
• NI Kontrol M32
• AKAI MIDIMIX
• AKAI LPK25
• Tascam Model 12
• MOTU M4

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Tom Adams.

Tell us about your studio set-up? What do you love about it?

"I try to keep things as simple as possible. The studio only has four simultaneous mono inputs - it's amazing how much you can do with just that once you embrace the limitation. I tend to do mono submixes of sounds by their function, then treat each submix as a single new sound.

"My favourite thing with the studio is that the sweet spot for listening is given to the synths and outboard, whilst the computer is hidden away to one side. I find that that the earlier in the signal chain I can get a sound the way I want it, the happier I am with that sound at the end of the day. 

"It is a question of time, when I'm producing I enjoy spending the bulk of my time working on sounds at source, rather than editing or adding plugins to my already recorded sounds later on.

"It made sense to set up the space to reflect this and give priority to the synths and outboard in regards to the optimum listening position There is also an aesthetic thing about not staring at a screen the whole time - I do that enough the rest of my life...!"

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I grew up playing guitar in in local post-rock bands, then moved on to writing more personal songs and working as a solo artist in my early 20s. I have been doing that ever since!

"It's not enough just to write music - if you want to share what you do then people expect to be able to hear it recorded as well. The way something is produced makes such a big difference in how the music comes across that I quickly realised that being able to record things in the way I wanted was an essential part of the creative process for me."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"Definitely the TG2 preamps, they sounds great on everything: mic'd up acoustic sources, vocals, DI electronic sources. They even have an impedance switch that lets you match the impedance with old ribbon mics. It works wonders with a Coles 4038!"

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"It was a Korg ElecTribe R (ER-1), it's actually a pretty decent drum machine!"

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"A Fairchild!"

Listen to Tom Adam's remix of Chris Liebing and Ralf Hildenbeutel's Circles below.

Tom's gear list

• Moog Model 10
• Korg MS-10
• Boss SP-303
• Korg 03R/W
• TC Electronic Ditto
• Arturia Keystep
• Chandler TG1 Limiter x2
• Chandler TG2 Preamps
• Chandler Curve Bender EQ
• Burl B16 Mothership AD/DA Converter
• Coleman Audio Monitor Controller
• Eurorack (various modules)

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Joshua Lutz.

Tell us a little about your studio set-up? What do you love about it?

"After two years of working around the clock to build my home studio, it’s finished. My dad and I floated the control and live room in my basement and even ran tielines throughout. I started with just a couple pieces of high end gear, a Neve 1272 from an old console and a Neumann U87. I flipped them for a little more than I paid and bought some other gear which I flipped for a little more than I paid, and just kept flipping my way up and saved from audio gigs until I have the collection I have now."

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I was an Assistant Engineer at Electric Lady Studios for two years after graduating from the Conservatory Of Recording Arts and Sciences. I'm a multi-instrumentalist, I play over 35 instruments and am a visual designer as well."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"The Altec 436C pair cause it is, to me and many other engineers, the very best vari-mu compressor ever made. It's instant Beatles on everything. Great for tracking, mixing, mastering and 2-bus."

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"Tascam Portastudio 424MKII and a Shure SM58. I made hundreds of songs on it until I upgraded to a Roland VS880!"

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"A Fairchild 670 or a Oberheim FVS-1."

Listen to Joshua Lutz's track Yasmin below.

 Joshua's gear list

• Neve 33609C
• UA LA-2A
• Altec 436C pair
• Altec 1591A
• RetroGrade Stereo Federal Compressor
• Universal Audio 6176
• Hairball Audio 1776 Blue Stripe 
• CBS Audimax pair
• Demeter VTCL-2
• Gates Dynamote
• Binson Echorec, 2
• Telefunken V672 racked pair
• Neve V racked channel strip
• Neve 1073 
• API 512C
• Quad Eight racked pair
• Neotek Racked pair
• BEAG Racked pair
• Studer racked pair
• Eventide DSP4000
• Distressor EL8X Pair
• Stam SA4000
• Chandler Limited TG1 
• dBX 160
• Dolby 361 w/ Vocal Stressor mod
• Apollo X16
• Yamaha NS-10 pair
• Ensoniq DP/4
• Roger Meyer Gates pair
• Neumann Racked Danner EQ pair
• Dangerous Bax EQ
• Moog Ladder
• Roland RE-301
• Magnecorder Custom Pre
• Lexicon PCM90
• Tubetech LCB-2

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Kenneth Brown. 

We have to applaud the ingenuity here - Kenneth has done an excellent job of utilizing the (rather limited) amount of space available to him by stuffing an impressive amount of gear into what's effectively a brightly lit cupboard. The overall effect is what Harry Potter's bedroom might have looked like if he ditched Hogwarts and got into producing drum 'n' bass instead.

Tell us a little about your studio set-up? What do you love about it?

"My “studio nook” is a hall cupboard 1m x 1.5m, so is somewhat cozy. It was an exercise in creating a small ergonomic workspace, with most of my gear to hand and patched to the mixer (which doubles as an audio interface for the DAW). 

"It’s a step up from when I was working out of a writing bureau in the corner of a room with the inspiration-sapping hassle of dragging out and plumbing up whatever gear combination came to mind. Oh, and it can double as a tiny home cinema or sensory deprivation tank."

Tell us a little about your musical background and the music that you make in your studio?

"I’m self-taught with only a nodding acquaintance with music theory. I’m no spring chicken, so it was not long after the spark of Punk that I was inspired by the likes of Kraftwerk, early Human League and OMD to start dabbling with electronic music. 

"After a brief dalliance in the 80s with trying to turn music into a full time career (demo tapes, A&R people, band fights...) I settled into making fuzzy warbles on my own terms. My long-running project Alphabet Dust dabbles with ambient, drone, imaginary soundtracks and found sound."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"At the moment it has to be the MicroFreak, it’s a ridiculous amount of synth for the money and Arturia’s free firmware updates have progressively expanded its capabilities. It also doubles as a surprisingly expressive CV controller for the modular rig."

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"Strictly speaking it was a cheap Jazz Bass copy, but not long after that it was the Korg MS-20 that really lit the blue touch-paper. Umpteen hardware synths have come and gone but I still own the MS-20, although it lives on a high shelf awaiting the repairs I've promised it for years."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"The obvious answer would be a modular rack the size of a wardrobe, but given my lack of space I’ll settle for something small and quirky like an original (completely refurbished) EMS VCS3 Putney Mk1."

Visit Alphabet Dust's Bandcamp or listen to Actually No But Almost below.

Kenneth's gear list

• Korg Minilogue 
• Soma LYRA-8 
• Arturia MicroFreak 
• Make Noise 0-Coast 
• Korg NTS-1 
• Koma Field Kit FX 
• Korg Volca Modular 
• Empress Zoia 
• Soundcraft Signature 12 
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i4
• PreSonus Studio One

Modular rig:

• Expert Sleepers Disting EX
• Expert Sleepers Disting Mk4
• Zlob Modular Skew-Fade LFO
• Tesseract Radioactive
• Mutable Instruments Warps
• Mutable Instruments Clouds
• Happy Nerding 6x Mix
• AMS Listen IO

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Paul Jelfs. 

Paul is a media composer and former music teacher working from a home studio that's been designed to accommodate challenges presented by his disabilities. Paul's synths, controllers and PC have all been arrayed within arms reach to make the music-making experience more comfortable: these include the Roland System-8, a beastly polysynth that packs sounds from the Juno-106, Jupiter-8, JX-3P and more into a strikingly backlit shell, and the Yamaha Genos, an instrument we singled out as the best arranger/performer keyboard on the market in our guide to the best electronic keyboards.

Tell us about your studio set-up?

"I have been composing for just over five or so years, and due to my health challenges, including mental and physical, I am fortunate enough to have a modern music studio set-up where everything is within reaching distance. This friendly and accessible approach means that I do not need to strain my back to use any of my synths, controllers or monitors. I also have air conditioning installed, as I tend to get very warm on my medication, combined with all the electronic equipment. 

"My brother helped set up and build the studio, complete with soundproofing, in vibrant bright colours, which I find helps with my mood and makes for a much more creative environment. I love the mix of in-the-box and out-of-the-box; while in terms of sound quality, no hardware can come as close to recreating acoustic instruments as huge sample libraries do, there is an immediacy with synths and guitars you just don't get with the PC. 

"I love my System-8, as even if I don't often use it in my projects, it's a fun one-knob-per-function synth - you can get lost making the craziest sounds, which then fuels you creatively. My Yamaha Genos, although an arranger, sounds excellent, and as a media composer it very useful for trying different ideas in different styles, and getting ideas down quick; again, something not possible when on the PC.

"The Behringer Wing is probably used more for live sound than studio, but I think for everything you get for the price it is wonderful: 24 motorized faders, 16 effects busses with high quality effects, not to mention the choices of dynamic processors. Again, I love the fact that it's hands-on and everything is within arms length for me, so I can use it from my chair."

Tell us a little about your musical background?

"I am a self-taught musician that got in to the piano at 14, in the 90s, because I loved the band Madness. I was hooked and so learning was not a chore but a pleasure, and learned to play well, long before I could read music. I kind of did things in reverse: I learned the instrument first, then went back and studied all the theory. Me and my best mate wrote Euro-pop songs as teenagers, one of which was spotted by BMG Berlin, but the deal never ended going through. That was a massive blow, and because of my mental health, part of a breakdown. 

"In hindsight I should have kept going as we were so close, but the feeling of rejection made me turn away from composing, and I set up as a private music school and local music shop for many years. It has only been in the last five or so years I have got back in to writing my own music. I write media music, which covers a vast range of things, from orchestral arrangements to EDM songs. I really enjoy it as you are never really doing the same thing twice.

“I am still mastering my trade and will be studying an MA in Media Composition later this year. I had hoped to have started earlier but my mental health issues had gotten in the way and though it still affects me, I am taking each day as its comes. I am fortunate enough to have had some success with my compositions early on in my career, having had one of my songs used as a showcase for Cinesamples Cinewinds library. 

“Just recently I was approached by Spitfire to use another of my compositions to help promote some of their libraries. Last year one of my tracks got through to the semi-finals of the prestigious FMC 2022 international competition. My biggest success was probably winning the Any Genre category at the international Able Artist Foundation competition in 2021, which is a great organisation that helps fellow musicians and composers with mental or physical disabilities. 

“The founder, composer Stephen Letnes, has been really supportive and helpful. He set up the organisation after realising there was no help for musicians trying to get ahead in what is a very expensive industry in terms of tools. I would encourage others to check out the website if they registered disabled.” 

Tell us about the challenges you've faced as a disabled composer?

"My mental health issues have been a huge factor in affecting my ability to make music. I see it as a double-edged sword, as it seems to go hand in hand with creativity with a lot of people. More recently I have struggled also with a physical health problem in my spine, meaning I cannot stand unaided for any length of time. This is extremely frustrating as I used to like to stand and play the piano. 

"My brother Kev has helped make everything in the studio much more accessible for me from my chair. I think a lot of composers with either mental or physical health problems would agree that being a musician - especially if you are trying to develop your own set up for composing - is an extremely expensive affair. 

"Often because of said health issues, many musicians, including myself, struggle financially and that is why fantastic organisations like the Able Artist Foundation and Help Musicians UK, have done some wonderful work. You take your body and mind for granted until it is taken away."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"It has to be the System-8. It's like a toy, and even if I do not feel creative, I know that I can have fun and get lost in the sounds that it can produce. I have no doubt that It will come to be seen as a future classic in years to come. I have VSTs that could probably get very close to the same results, but there is something inspiring about having some many knobs and buttons to play around with. It helps to remind me why I got into creating music in the first place."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"So many come to mind, but I would have to say something like the Moog One. I thought it might be the Jupiter-8, because it does have such a rich amazing sound, but in reality I think something like the Moog One is more impressive taking the best of all things modern (digital effects and stable tuning!) with analogue voices. That would take some beating for me."

Take a listen to Paul's track Back To Where It Began below.

Find out more about the Able Artist Foundation and Help Musicians UK. 

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

If you've already submitted and haven't been contacted, don't despair: we'll be continuing to comb through the emails we've received over the coming weeks, so keep an eye on your inbox. If we've already reached out, keep an eye on MusicRadar as we continue posting entries over the weeks to come.

Paul's gear list

• Roland System-8
• Roland Juno-X
• Behringer Wing 
• Yamaha Genos
• Nektar GX88
• Neumann KH120s
• Behringer DI8000
• 64GB RAM PC 
• Too many sample libraries to count!

This is Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week's studio shot has been submitted by MusicRadar reader Parsoa Khorsand.

Parsoa's studio is notable for a number of reasons: we're a fan of this kind of 360-degree set-up, an arrangement that undoubtedly makes it easier to navigate that many keyboards. 

While our eyes were immediately drawn leftward to the sky-blue UDO Super 6, a favourite synth over here at MusicRadar HQ, the next thing that caught our attention was the Arturia KeyStep Pro, a respectable MIDI controller and keyboard of which Parsoa has not one or even two, but three. Read on to hear more about Parsoa's affinity for all things Arturia.

Tell us a little about your studio set-up?

"I believe I have a rather unique setup which took me a couple of years to develop and perfect. I compose the songs by sequencing everything using three KeyStep Pros and a BeatStep Pro for drum and rhythmic parts. The KeySteps provide a total of 12 sequencing tracks, one of which controls the piano and five others control my synths (PolyBrute, Super 6, Iridium, MiniFreak and OB-6 at the moment). The remaining 6 tracks are available for software instruments  - I use a lot of Spitfire Audio’s plugins.

"The KeyStep Pro controls software drum kits and other rhythmic sounds when needed. I use the Keylab 88 as my master keyboard to play all the other keyboards and to compensate for the small keys on the KeySteps. I’ve got a rather intricate MIDI setup under the desk which includes a bunch of MIDI Solutions modules and a MRCC MIDI interface that lets me control just about anything from either one of the sequencers or the master keyboard. 

"Once everything is recorded using this approach, I’ll overdub the more expressive parts by manually playing the instruments. Finally I add the guitars and vocals if there are any. 

"As evident, I’m a huge fan of Arturia’s gear and musical vision in general. The PolyBrute was my first synthesizer ever and I just love everything about it. And the KeyStep Pro is just such a unique and powerful tool. Hopefully one day I’ll get good enough at this to be noticed by them! The desk is an Output Platform desk which I just love for how large and sturdy it is. It's really the centerpiece of this whole setup.

Tell us a little about your musical background?

"I was classically trained on the piano but never took it that seriously. Nowadays I mostly play —and “collect”— synthesizers and make keyboard-centric music with electric guitars added here and there. My music is usually conceptual and deeply cinematic with strong experimental elements. I’m a huge science fiction nerd, so the music usually leans that way conceptually. 

"I have released two full-length concept albums, an EP and a few singles so far. My latest release, the Odyssey EP was fully recorded using the setup you see here. It's an epic and symphonic story of a hero's odyssey. I also have an upcoming album The Past is an Undying Beast in September. This one’s more experimental and personal with each song being about a memory of mine. I’m currently releasing singles from it every 15 days. The second single Summer Green just dropped on June 1st."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"As mentioned earlier I'm a huge fan of Arturia's gear. I'm somewhat at a tie between the KeyStep Pro (of which I have three) and the PolyBrute for my favourite gear, but I'll just go with the KeyStep as it really changed how I look at production and writing music. It's very powerful and intuitive to use albeit with some limitations that you can mostly work around. 

"I find it a lot more intuitive to use than software MIDI sequencers as it allows you to work on the song one part a time and arrange and re-order things on the fly. Using a sequencer with hardware synths also allows me to adjust my patches on the fly so that they sound good together. I'm really curious to know if anyone else uses the KeyStep Pro the way I do!"

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"My PolyBrute synthesizer is the first real piece of gear I got when I decided to record my first album Eulogy for a Fallen Moon in 2021. I've used the synth on basically everything I've recorded since then. I love the warm analog sound and it's very easy to modulate things and just come up with new sounds. I'll be keeping the PolyBrute forever."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"That's a tough one. A Yamaha CS-80 is perhaps my dream synthesizer, in part because it's such an important part of the synth history. I also love the aesthetics and sound of Roland's Jupiter-8 and would love to own one. However my real dream piece of gear is this sequencer that I've been designing in my head and I hope to be able to build one day! I have no idea where to start with it right now..."

Take a listen to Parsoa's track Cryptomnesia below.

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

If you've already submitted and haven't been contacted, don't despair: we'll be continuing to comb through the emails we've received over the coming weeks, so keep an eye on your inbox. If we've already reached out, keep an eye on MusicRadar as we continue posting entries over the weeks to come.

Parsoa's gear list

Keyboards and synths

• Nord Piano 5
• Arturia PolyBrute
• Arturia MiniFreak
• Waldorf Iridium
• UDO Super 6
• Sequential/Oberheim OB-6
• Moog Claravox Centennial Theremin

MIDI controllers and sequencers

• Arturia KeyStep Pro x3
• Arturia BeatStep Pro
• Torso T-1
• Arturia KeyLab 88 Mk2
• MRCC 880 MIDI interface
• MIDI Solutions modules

Guitars

• Charvel Pro-Mod DK22 - Electric Blue
• Fender Player Precision Bass - Capri Orange
• PositiveGrid BIAS FX 2 for amp, cab and effects simulation 

Recording gear

• Behringer UMC1820 audio interface
• Berlinger ADA8200 ADAT interface
• sE Electronics X1 A with Reflexion Filter
• Roland VT-4 Voice Transformer
• PreSonus Eris E3.5 3.5-inch Powered Studio Monitors
• Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro
• Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro
• Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro
• Ableton Live 11 on Mac Studio with M1 Max

Last month, we announced Show Us Your Studio, a chance for our readers to show off their set-up, shout about their gear and invite the world into their home studio. This week, we're keeping things moving with our next set-up, sent in by reader Samuel Bridgewater.

Samuel's home studio packs an impressive range of gear into a desk-based setup: at its heart are two of Elektron's best-loved instruments, Digitone and Digitakt, an FM synth and sampler that make friendly bedfellows. 

These are complemented by Roland's modern digital recreation of their beloved TR-909, the Boutique TR-09, alongside a towering stack of semi-modular Moog goodness that includes the Mother-32, Subharmonicon and two DFAMs. All of this runs through 1010Music's Bluebox, a compact digital mixer that lets Samuel mix and record his array of gear without having to open up the DAW. 

Here's what Samuel has to say about his studio...

Tell us a little about your studio set-up?

"I love the immediacy of music hardware and my studio is at a point now where everything just works well together. The Bluebox in particular really ties everything together nicely."

Tell us a little about your musical background?

"I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 16 and progressed to electronic music when I was about 20. Since then I’ve been collecting hardware rather than going down the purely DAW route to make mainly house, garage and breakbeat influenced dance music, with some of my inspirations being Burial, The Bug, Lindstrøm, Foul Play, SOPHIE, and Blawan."

What's your favourite piece of gear in your studio and why?

"My favourite synth would be the stack of Moog semi-modulars, you never know exactly how it’s going to sound until you start fiddling around with the patch cables and knobs: the Subharmonicon in particular feels like it’s alive."

What was the first bit of gear you ever owned?

"I got a Roland TR-09 for my 21st birthday."

What dream piece of gear would you love to own if money was no object?

"Moog Matriarch or a Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field."

Take a listen to Samuel's track Maybe One Day below.

If you'd like to be featured on Show Us Your Studio, email us today with a clear and well-lit picture of your studio space. 

If you've already submitted and haven't been contacted, don't despair: we'll be continuing to comb through the emails we've received over the coming weeks, so keep an eye on your inbox. If we've already reached out, keep an eye on MusicRadar as we continue posting entries over the weeks to come.

Samuel Bridgewater's gear list

• Elektron Digitone
• Elektron Digitakt 
• Roland TR-09
• Korg Volca Drum 
• Korg Minilogue XD
• Moog Mother-32
• Moog Subharmonicon 
• Moog DFAM x2
• Various pedals 
• 1010Music Bluebox 
• Behringer U-PHORIA audio interface 
• Ableton Live
• Asus Zenbook

Hans Zimmer has purchased the legendary Maida Vale Studios from the BBC, it’s being reported. 

The Daily Mail believes that the Hollywood composer has acquired the London facility through 14th Street Music, his music production and publishing company. The price is believed to be in the region of £10.5 million.

Built in 1909, the Maida Vale building was originally a roller skating palace. The BBC purchased it in 1933, and it became home to the BBC Symphony Orchestra the following year. The studios have played host to countless artists as they recorded sessions for BBC Radio - notably John Peel’s Radio 1 show - including David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and Beyonce.

The BBC announced its plans to close the studios in 2018, leading to criticism from the likes of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and producer Nigel Godrich. 

The Daily Mail quotes unnamed sources who say that Zimmer plans to use the building - which houses seven studios - as a British base for writing film scores.