Sophie Lloyd has marked the first anniversary of Ozzy Osbourne’s death with a full-shred YouTube tribute to the late Prince of Darkness.

If you are familiar with the English virtuoso’s treatment of the popular canon of rock and pop, then you know the drill. This is Lloyd, backed by Marshall and Randall half-stacks, her Kiesel signature guitar in hand, reworking a classic as a guitar instrumental.

She has done Oasis, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden and Metallica – she’s reimagined the Pokémon Theme Song, too. Now you can add Black Sabbath’s Paranoid to the list.

It’s been a minute since Lloyd has posted one of these Shred videos. There has been a lot filling up her calendar, not least her touring schedule as Machine Gun Kelly’s guitarist. Yesterday, one year after we lost Ozzy, was a fitting time to return.

“In loving memory of the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne,” writes Lloyd. “Thank you for being such a huge inspiration to me from such a young age. Thank you for everything.”

Lloyd’s version is far removed from the eponymous single from Sabbath’s 1970 sophomore album, Paranoid. Her guitar assumes Ozzy’s role as vocalist. Her style is more pyrotechnic than Iommi’s. But as Lloyd explained to MusicRadar in 2022, her process always preserves the melody.

“It’s like having reference points to go back to,” said Lloyd. “I’ll venture out and then go back so the melody is still there. We did Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, and I really stripped back my shredding and played a lot more melody stuff, and I’ve been playing more with harmonies as well, so that’s been quite fun. It’s something new I’m trying out a little bit because, you know, a lot of those things you don’t want to oversaturate with shred, even though it’s fun.”

Lloyd wasn’t the only player to post a solo guitar tribute on social media. Alex Skolnick of Testament performed a medley of Randy Rhoads’ classical piece Dee and Ozzy power ballad Goodbye To Romance for solo nylon-string guitar, performing it on his Cordoba Iberia GK Studio through a Henriksen Bud 6.

Lloyd is one of the most high-profile YouTube guitarists to have landed high-profile gigs after building a huge audience on the platform.

Her advice to any young player looking to grow their online following: find your own niche and go for it. Posting your first video is the hardest part.

“My first videos look like they were filmed on a potato and the audio quality is awful,” she said. “You’ve got to start somewhere, so I’d say, just go for it as much as you can and have fun with it. Try and develop something unique to you. Look for some sort of gap in the market and try and fill that.”

Lloyd released her debut album, Imposter Syndrome in 2023. You can join 1.27 million others and follow her on YouTube.

Harley Benton has unveiled a new signature guitar for YouTuber Carlos Asensio and, well, it really is quite something. Available in Cactus Green Ice Blue or Metallic gloss finishes, this is as high-end as the brand gets.

Okay, in a sense, it is a typical Harley Benton guitar, a lot of spec for the price, and all that chat. There are Tesla HSS pickups, a toggle switch for tapping the coil on its bridge OPUS-X humbucker.

It has a roasted Canadian maple neck – shaped into a “Smooth D” profile, bolted to the body, it has deep caramel colour, and judging by the press shots, that roasted maple is generously flamed, too.

There are locking tuners with vintage-style buttons. That 3-ply parchment ‘guard gives this hotrodded S-style a more classic Stratocaster vibe.

From a more fundamental perspective, it is just nice to have an alder body here, too, and while it largely conforms to the doublecut paradigm there are generous cuts to the back of the body and neck heel to enhance comfort and upper-fret access respectively. Hey, it’s a ‘superstrat’.

But here’s the best bit; it has a Vega-Trem VT1 Ultratrem vibrato unit on an electric guitar that retails for around $700. Sold separately, this is a $289 unit that you’d typically see on guitars such as Alex Lifeson’s Godin-built Lerxst Hentor Sportscaster replicas. It is a serious bit of gear. No wonder Asensio is proud of this ST-Modern.

“I truly believe this is one of the best guitars ever made when we talk about quality for the price,” he says. “I couldn’t be more proud of this instrument… I am pretty sure this is the first mass-produced guitar that comes with a Vega-Trem.”

Some of the details here are comparable with Charvel’s Pro Mod series, i.e. the 12” to 16” compound radius rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges and glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side markers, stainless steel frets, the dual-action spoke wheel at the top of the fretboard.

It will be similarly versatile two, pairing that high-output humbucker with the spanky Tesla Time Machine 57s at the middle and neck positions.

When you consider the five-way blade-style pickup selector, the coil-tap switch, plus volume and tone controls, you’ve got tones to play with before you touch your guitar amp or pedalboard.

As per its siblings in the ST-Modern series, Asensio’s model has a Fender-esque 25.5” scale length. It has a 42mm graphite nut, chrome hardware. Guitar case is sold separately.

The ST-Modern Carlos Asensio is available now via Thomann, priced £527/approx $704, or via the Harley Benton Official Shop on Reverb. For more details, head over to Harley Benton.

Few players have helped sell more stompboxes than David Gilmour. He was one of the original masters of fuzz. He would use tape echo and mechanical devices such as the Binson Echorec to suspend notes in the air, seemingly indefinitely.

And then there was his use of the the Uni-Vibe, the disorienting swirl of rotating speakers to cast a spell on his audience.

Not that it was always to his benefit. As many early adopters of cutting-edge electric guitar technologies can attest to, incorporating these effects live brought their own issues.

Upon the release of On An Island and his bravura performance at Live8, The former Pink Floyd guitarist admitted to MusicRadar in 2006 that playing a Fender Stratocaster through a bunch of effects at high volume was a recipe for disaster. The single-coil pickups kicked up a fuss.

“For many years one of the problems of touring was [RF] interference – especially if, like me, you're the sort of bastard who tends to use a huge pedalboard,” he said. “Those effects pedals really tended to pick up interference, as did the dimmers on the lighting rigs. And with Pink Floyd we did have extensive lighting rigs, which buzzed horribly.”

Over the years, Gilmour made modifications to his Strats to tackle the issue, and by and large they worked. Active EMGs stopped the hum “dead”. “They sounded great – a very full and rich tone – but they didn't sound quite as ‘Stratty’ in some ways,” he said. The pedalboard grew. Gilmour would refine his mastery of it would come to the fore.

So when he joined YouTube’s Rick Beato for an expansive, nigh-on two-hour interview, there was bound to be some insight for today’s pedal freak. There is a lot else besides, such as Gilmour’s recollections of first seeing Jimi Hendrix perform live at a club in London, with the Beatles and the Stones and anyone who was anyone among the crowd. He talks about fuzz, and about how he got turned onto it playing with Blue Cheer in the States – and how his parents got him a fuzz pedal for his birthday.

But when the conversation turned to Comfortably Numb, and Gilmour’s approach to that first solo – not the second one that was comped together solo – he shared some insight that might change how you think about dialling in your delay. Or at least it will give you something to keep in mind if you’ve got a delay pedal on the ‘board.

“That solo was a very early thing, and I don’t think it changed at all,” says Gilmour. “That particular first solo in Comfortably Numb was a one-off.”

Listening to that first solo, it’s pretty much as majestic as you can get, with big elastic Strat notes floating off into the either. It’s what you think of when you think David Gilmour.

Beato presses Gilmour on his technique: how much work is his left hand doing when it comes to vibrato, how much work is the whammy bar doing?

“I always wondered how much this changed in your playing over time,” says Beato.

“I have no idea how that happens. I do know that, when I get on a Tele or something without a whammy bar, I’m fine too, and the vibrato is still my vibrato,” says Gilmour. “But Hank Marvin from the Shadows always used the tremolo arm, and I liked to think that I refine it a lot, and take it down to almost inaudible.”

The trick for Gilmour, however, is in appreciating just how your delay reacts to your vibrato – and if you are playing a Strat, as he does, how the whammy bar movements affect the repeats. Gilmour demonstrates how a reasonably upfront delay set with long repeats can be subtle, but manipulating the whammy bar gives it the illusion that you've just turned up that mix dial and the repeats become more pronounced.

“When you have a delay or something on a guitar. [Plays a chord tab]. So there’s a long, very positive delay. Doesn’t sound really wet, but if I go [works the whammy bar] then suddenly you are in a huge chamber, and that’s the effect of a little bit of delay with using the [whammy bar],” he explains. What he can’t explain is how he arrived at this epiphany. “But how that all developed, I can’t work that out,” he continues. “They work together, hopefully in perfect cohesion.”

Watching Gilmour demonstrate this, it seems perfectly obvious. A ‘Why didn’t I think of that!?’ moment. But then sometimes you don’t, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to a hardtail.

If you are using delay on a Strat, or any guitar with a tremolo, however, it might be an invaluable approach that allows you to keep your signal quite dry, with your delay’s repeats in the background, with the option of making them more intense by manipulating the bar.

The more vibrato you apply, the deeper the ensuing psychedelic, seasickness you get from having those manually pitch-shifted repeats playing out even as your guitar has returned to standard pitch.

Working the bar like that could give you some of that wow and flutter effect not dissimilar to a mechanical tape echo. Even subtle movements on the bar can yield a dramatic effect. And as Gilmour says, it’s a similar idea when you’re applying vibrato manually, i.e. the old-fashioned way, fretting a note and shaking it.

Looking for delay inspiration? Check out MusicRadar's 10 tips for getting more out of your delay pedal.

Rick Beato has offered his take on the scandal engulfing the disgraced Instagram guitar star Giacomo Turra, admitting that he filmed a video for his YouTube channel with Turra but ultimately decided against publishing it because his playing was not good enough.

Turra had enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent years, amassing a huge following on social media – primarily on Instagram, where more than 723,000 people follow him. His profile as a neo-funk guitar influencer saw him attract a number of endorsements, including a signature guitar from D’Angelico.

But since April, he has been at the centre of a social media storm after YouTuber Danny Sapko released a video accusing Turra of multiple instances of using other players’ arrangements for his own Instagram videos without crediting them, or hiding credits in the small print, and also of selling tabs of their work.

D’Angelico then pulled Turra’s signature model off its website. Other commercial partners nixed content with him, including UK retailer Andertons. At present, the official Giacomo Turra website is offline. Beato reveals he shot a video with Turra but decided against publishing it because Turra's playing was not good enough.

Beato, who has 4.96 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, says he has been inundated with requests for comment about the Turra controversy.

“People are like, when are you gonna say something about this, Rick?" said Beato. “Okay, I’m saying it. I didn’t post the video because Giacomo couldn’t play well enough to be on my channel. I have standards.”

“Giacomo Turra I had in my studio a few months ago. I had him on because in his Instagram videos he presents himself as a great player,” explained Beato. “This is before I figured out from Danny Sapko’s video that he had stolen other people’s – some friends of mine’s – music.

“When he came in here and played, I realised he couldn’t play well enough to put the video out, and then I was like, ‘Oh well, obviously all his videos were fake.’”

This was something Sapko had also complained about. It was obvious that Turra was miming to a backing track (the preposterous whammy bar dive-bombs on a guitar with the fixed bridge, etc).

But then isn’t this part of the artificiality of social media, the presentation of this idealised version of the self? Beato argues that it incentivises a certain fakery.

But far as musicians miming goes, Beato argues that this is no big deal. The half-time show at the Super Bowl is prerecorded. Even Wes Montgomery did it back in the day to promote his album.

Then again, that was Wes Montgomery, and he was promoting his album on TV before a live audience – emphasis on his – and there is plenty of documentary evidence of Montgomery's genius as.

Turra, however, is not Wes Montgomery, and furthermore, he was using other people’s music, and that, argues Beato, is the “really egregious” behaviour at the heart of the scandal. “The faking, okay, that’s one thing, but the stealing other people’s music is completely not cool,” he said.

Turra released an apology video on YouTube in the immediate aftermath of Sapko’s video, though you might say it fell into the sorry-not-sorry category, with the Italian guitarist denying that he sold tab of other artist’s work and sharing a link to a DropBox folder with screenshots of credits.

Turra's apology video has subsequently been taken down from YouTube. Beato argues that it was insufficient, and didn't address the accusations directly. Plus it should have been on Instagram because that is where all Turra's followers are.

Can Turra make a comeback? Beato does not rule it out. But he has some advice. Come clean and apologise fully, and come back as a better player with some great music. “Everybody likes a great redemption story,” says Beato.

The Italian funk guitarist and electric guitar social media influencer Giacomo Turra has been accused of using other musician’s arrangements without crediting them, using them to grow his online following and then monetising other artists’ work via downloadable tabs and audio.

Turra’s rise in recent years has been meteoric. He has over 741,000 followers on Instagram, and a string of endorsements, with a signature guitar from D’Angelico, his own gold-foil electric guitar pickups from Mama, a signature envelope filter from SolidGoldFX, and he uses Laney guitar amps. He released The Groove Sessions EP in 2021, a mix of covers and originals, and a number of singles

But YouTuber Danny Sapko alleges that Turra has made a habit of “stealing” other artists songs for his online content, and posted a video with side by side comparisons of Turra’s versions and the originals. Sapko’s video begins with a couple of examples from Jack Gardiner.

“It turns out, from the very start of his social media rise Giacomo has been using other people’s compositions, not properly crediting the artist, passing them off as his own, and selling them tabs and isolated tracks on his website and Patreon,” said Sapko. “On this video there was initially no credit to Jack – and as you can see here [Turra] replied to every single comment apart from the one mentioning Jack.”

Responding to the allegations, Turra posted an apology video, acknowledging that, circa 2021, he had in fact used a Jack Gardiner solo to Luther Vandross’ Never Too Much without crediting Gardiner.

But he argued that since then he had credited the artists whose work he had used. “Since then I’ve been really careful in trying to credit every guitar player or artist that I was playing the arrangement from,” said Turra.

Sapko cited another instance when Turra used a solo from English online guitar teacher and jazz guitar maestro Alex Hutchings. Sapko says Turra “buried” the credit in video description.

“He repeated this song when promoting his signature pickup with someone else’s signature style,” said Sapko. “Looking at the number of views, Giacomo could make a comfortable living from the videos alone but the real crime is that these were for sale as Giacomo’s original transcriptions, with none of it going to the original source. This is especially bad when you consider that [Gardiner and Hutchings] sell their own tabs and music scores – and some videos he is copying have barely any views.”

Such videos would include Marco Baldi’s jam over Incognito’s Don’t You Worry About A Thing. Again, the credit is included in the YouTube Shorts video description, and as Sapko notes, it is part of the small print, and not sending traffic or money Baldi’s way.

Some of the arrangements that Turra has covered over the years were written by players with little to no public profile.

Turra used YouTuber Kenny Lu’s guitar solo for Daft Punk’s Bring Life Back To Music. The original video on Lu’s YouTube channel, Kenzo Slice (153 subscribers) had 57 views by the time of Sapko published his video. On YouTube alone, Turra’s video has more than 66,000 views. “The credit says ‘inspired by’ when the truth is it is 75 per cent identical,” said Sapko.

He also alleges Turra removed links to his tabs after there were complaints in the comments section. But screenshots show Turra apparently telling his followers to DM him on Instagram for tab info – on one instance for a Christone “Kingfish” Ingram solo that Turra had used in a video.

Turra admits that the credits for the arrangers were not prominently displayed below the videos, and for not coming clean to his followers when the arrangement was by someone else.

"If I got a comment saying, ‘Hey, great arrangement!’ I should have specified, ‘Hey, thank you so much, but this arrangement is by Kahil Ferraris’ or anyone who I was covering," said Turra.

Furthermore, Turra has posted a DropBox folder of screenshots with credits on them. He also denies selling tablature of other people’s arrangements.

“When it would come to playing a full arrangement by someone else, since that thing with Jack Gardiner happened, I have always been really attentive to credit the artist but apparently these credits must not be evident enough,” said Turra. “I really want to apologise to the guitar community for this kind of behaviour and I will put a link with a DropBox folder.

“I don’t know, it feels like I am justifying myself, and definitely, I am, but I just want to put some screenshots from the credits from those videos mentioned by this content creator, and even messages from the original authors of these arrangements, just to show that I was not doing it to scam them or take advantage of them. Again, I am really sorry and I hope that I will be able to do better moving forward.”

Many in the comments section remain unconvinced by Turra's apology, which was more of a rebuttal. You can watch it and Sapko's original video above.

Okay, so generative AI is this great gaping black hole at the edge of our pop-cultural universe and we’re just waiting for it to swallow us whole, taking down the creative industries, music, film, art, white-collar jobs and whatever else it can fit into its great digital maw. But there has to be something good about it, right?

And by something good we mean something good beyond helping to plan a dinner party menu with seasonal ingredients and calendar scheduling.

How about something for guitar players to get excited about? Maybe it could transcribe our favourite songs, delivering 100 per cent accurate tabs. That could be a valuable learning resource.

Well, it might do, but we are not there yet, as Mike G. of the online guitar lessons site The-Art-of-Guitar and its eponymous – and essential – YouTube channel has just found out.

He has thrown his curiosity into the digital gray matter to see if it could improve upon the contemporary canon of tab books and websites. If you’ve followed Mike G. on The-Art-of-Guitar channel, you might have caught one of his “Bad Tab” series, where he pores over the some of the errors in popular tab books.

His plan here is to get the AI to tab the songs, then he’ll use the tab to play along with the original. What could go wrong?

“When people started talking about AI taking over everything I thought about what if AI started transcribing songs, and doing it perfectly,” he says. Besides, could it be worse than some of the old books? “I learned so many things the wrong way out of the official books that it took me sometimes years, and maybe even decades, to get rid of old habits,” he adds.

Haven’t we all. And some of those errant transcriptions are so engrained in our mind that it feels like it could take successive rounds of therapy to expunge them from the memory.

Take Blackened, from Metallica’s …And Justice For All. That opening riff was infamously tabbed in the second position on the D string when it really should be played at the seventh on the A string. The Justice tab book has its fair share of wrong turns, so much so that Mike G. dedicated an entire video to it [see above], and the book was reportedly republished with an improved version of the tab. But even its first edition is not even close to being as bad as the AI.

Remarkably, a lot of the the instructions around the music are correct, the context – band names, etc. But the music is a mile off. “It’s not even the same song!” says G. “It sounds like some kind of Slayer riff or something.”

AI’s attempt at Blackened’s verse riff is no better. It’s just as weird. “It sounds like Testament, Disciples Of The Watch or something” says G. The chorus, again, is like an AI hallucination of late ‘80s thrash era.

Enter Sandman, a change of pace, a little easier, is another transcription from the back end of never never land. It's not even close. That said, the riffs the AI has transcribed should worry some of the rank-and-file of metal guitar. We have heard similarly rote material from real living humans.

“Now, don’t get me wrong,” says Mike G. “I don’t want to piss off the AI because some day it’ll come after me for sure, but some of these riffs would sound cool – like that Blackened riff – in a different song, if it was an original tune. But to say that that’s Blackened, and that’s Enter Sandman, is criminal.”

Sweet Child O' Mine and Smells Like Teen Spirit fare little better. Should we be surprised. These large language models are trained on data, and can only process what they have been fed. Garbage in, garbage out. This video makes an interesting case study in how today’s LLMs don’t yet have the training to produce tabs that are close to being accurate.

But then they could probably help you plan that dinner party, and we can think of at least 10 ways to use generative AI in your music production.

You can subscribe to The-Art-of-Guitar channel on YouTube and get lessons from an actual human – Mike G – at The-Art-of-Guitar.

NAMM 2025: Harley Benton and YouTube star and shred phenom Maxxxwell Carlisle have teamed up once again for a trio of high-performance electric guitars that present a heap of premium specs for an instrument that comes in around the magic $500 price point.

This 2025 refresh reimagines the MAX Fusion as a hard-tail with a walnut cap, offers an eye-popping holographic finish option, and refreshes the high-speed S-style in Purple Flame.

Carlisle, host of the Guitar MAX YouTube channel, says the Purple Flame model, which turns the green figured maple veneer of the original MAX Fusion purple, was a little bit of fan service.

“I asked people what other colours they would like to see and their number one choice was purple,” he says. “Just look at this purple flame maple burst guitar.”

The MAX Fusion range is top of the line as far as Harley Benton guitars go, and you’ve got plenty of premium appointments. Carlisle is going for the upscale, boutique vibe here. We have contoured nyatoh (aka eastern mahogany) bodies, with bolt-on roasted figured maple necks and matching roasted figured maple fingerboards.

Those fingerboards have a 12” radius and seat 24 jumbo stainless steel frets. Reverse headstocks come as standard.

The electric guitar pickup configuration sees a Tesla Plasma-RS2 rail-style humbucker at the neck partnered by a Tesla Plasma-X1 humbucker at the bridge.

These are hooked up to a three-way pickup selector, a mini-toggle for splitting the humbucker for single-coil tones, plus master volume and tone controls.

The Purple Flame and Holographic versions are equipped with a Floyd Rose 1000 Series vibrato, so dive-bombs are very much go with these two. The latter has all-black hardware, the former gold hardware because, well, when you’ve got that high-end look from the figured maple you’d best complement it with something fancy.

That walnut version of the MAX Fusion swaps out the Floyd Rose of its siblings in favour of one of those super-tidy Babicz Z-Series bridges. You’ll find Black Jinho J03 mini Rotomatic-style tuners on all three models.

As is the style for contemporary shred machines, you can make quick adjustments to the truss rod via a spoke wheel at the summit of the fingerboard.

This is an impressive S-style guitar for under $1000 and Carlisle believes that it is further evidence that we are living through another “golden age” of guitar design.

“I have said so many times we are in the golden age of guitar manufacturing right now because it is so easy to get a wonderfully made instrument,” he says. “There are a lot of good options out there.

“But when I wanted to come up with a signature guitar that I thought was going to not just be a great guitar for me but also represent my philosophy about guitars – and affordable instruments especially – this is it. This is what I came up with. This is the guitar, and I couldn’t be happier with it.”

The MAX Fusion signature model is available exclusively via Thomann. It is priced £425/$529 for the Holographic and Purple Flame models, £382/$475 for the Walnut.

For more details, head over to Harley Benton. Pick one up over at Thomann, where the German retail giant is offering them as a bundle with a variety of hard-shell guitar cases and gig bags.

Guitar Tricks is going all in this Black Friday, offering its annual membership plus hundreds of dollars worth of extras for an incredible $99 - which works out at $8.25 per month. With savings totalling $800, this deal is designed to inspire everyone, from brand-new players picking up a guitar for the first time to more experienced players refining their craft. If you’ve attended the school of YouTube so far - much like I did - now is the perfect opportunity to introduce some structure and a fresh perspective from a wealth of tutors with years of experience. Guitar Tricks is one of our top-rated online guitar lessons platforms, too.

At the heart of this offer is Guitar Tricks’ highly-rated annual membership, typically priced at $359. This includes access to their Core Learning System, which guides beginners through essential skills and techniques before exploring advanced concepts. All of this is presented in a slick and attractive user interface that is a joy to use. It’s a proven path used by over 4 million players worldwide to transform their skills. With over 11,000 expertly crafted lessons spanning everything from blues to metal, the platform caters to every style and ambition.

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Lo-fi: it’s a term that’s become inescapable in 2024. This vibe-based musical style, which has gained millions of streams via various study and focus playlists, is not to be confused with the traditional attribution of the term. Originally dating back to the 1960’s, the expression ‘lo-fi’ was first used to define a rising trend in imperfect, incomplete or shabbily recorded releases from artists such as The Beach Boys’ (particularly their twelfth studio album, Smiley Smile) and Paul McCartney’s eponymous 1970 solo debut, which was recorded at home.

Though the term 'lo-fi' was thrown around, back then, it was more of a descriptor of a no-frills sonic aesthetic than any sort of blossoming genre. The threadbare recording approach reached something a pinnacle in the early 1990s, when the slacker-attitude of artists like Pavement and Beck was underlined by a DIY recording style that was charmingly free of big budget production finesse.

But, this type of lo-fi is a far cry from the hypnotic, cosy, nostalgic and warm sounds that you’ll now find dominating those ubiquitous lo-fi playlists. Some of today’s leading lights in the field are self-releasing artists such as Purrple Cat, Yasumu and Jhove, all of which share a penchant for a style that meshes elements of downtempo, dream-pop and hip-hop with a characteristic homemade quality.

While that older lo-fi-tinged music could be quite abrasive, today's lo-fi's concern is to place listeners into a certain mood - enhance their focus or set them into a breezy, carefree mental state. Stylistically, it blurs the lines between electronic music, jazz and hip-hop, cribbing the chordal flavours favoured by many of the earliest sample-based hip-hop acts with the dreamier washes of synth-pop.

Really, we have the YouTube generation to thank for modern lo-fi’s explosion, with numerous live-streaming playlists gradually starting to appear from the turn of the 2010s onwards. This really ballooned when YouTube introduced continuous streaming in 2013.

These playlists could - and still can - run to thousands of hours long, and therefore became perfect, accompaniments to studying, working or just shutting your eyes after a long day at school or work. They reached a notable boom during Covid. A time where we all had to face long hours of wallowing in our own isolation - whether we wanted to or not.

These days, the term lo-fi has lost its association with those alternative acts of yesteryear, and now firmly conjures these types of functional listening experiences in the public consciousness.

One of the most popular streamers, 'Lofi Girl', first began broadcasting unbroken compilations of lo-fi tunes in 2021. The channel uses a partially animated image created by artist Juan Pablo Machado of a manga-style girl hard at work, this has become perhaps the most recognisable visual signifier of the genre.

Lo-Fi: Key Elements

What are the key elements of lo-fi?

Let's break down the core elements that define a typical lo-fi track. While artists might vary their compositional toolkit, some fairly standard ingredients you’ll find cropping up frequently on any lo-fi playlist will include:

1: Beats
At the heart of the majority of lo-fi is a beat, this is commonly ultra-simple (limited fills and time signature variation) and sets the slow, meditative pace of the track.

There’s undoubtedly a BPM sweet spot for lo-fi somewhere between 60-80bpm, anything more than that and the track can feel a little too intense, while slower can creep more into the ambient domain (see ambient lo-fi). We're nearly always in 4/4 here.

The steady pulse of the beat is essential, and snare, kick and hi-hats are vital drum components to have in play. Typically sub-frequencies and low-end information is filtered out, so the throb of the kick doesn’t become too oppressive.

Fills and human-like performance should be avoided, but so also should perfectly synchronised, snapped-to-grid patterns - you want to keep things relatively loose but resigned and steady in terms of energy. There’s a mountain of sample packs which will provide you with the raw material for your lo-fi beat. Not to mention our very own free collection.

2: Synths
Often what defines a lo-fi track is a sense of enveloping warmth, smothering the listeners ears. Warm, crackly synth pads can deliver this in spades.

As well as being comforting to listen to, cushiony synth pads can also serve as the primary dictator of harmony, or the track’s chord structure. The chords themselves are quite often on the jazzier front, with lots of emotionally neutral sevenths and straighforward progressions (e.g: ii-V-i and V-i).

Synth leads tend to be treated with reverb and spatial effects to isolate them further from the rhythm section. More traditional synth lead parts can tip your track into the 'vaporwave' domain (see our breakdown of lo-fi subgenres, later).

3: Ageing and distressing
When you think of the lo-fi genre, you're predominately going to think of a sound characterised by hiss, saturation, crackle, hum and digital processing errors (or a reduced bitrate). These elements can transport the listener back in time to a time when information and playback errors like this were the norm, or an imagined, stylised version of the past.

This type of treatment is core to the genre’s sense of timeless nostalgia - evoking an era of unreliable playback apparatus as well as the much cited ‘warmth’ of classic analogue gear and recording techniques.

4: Reverb/delay
A sense of space and sample-colouration via delay is commonly found in today’s lo-fi. While you don’t want your lo-fi track to be overly smothered in spatial effects, a light touch can enhance the sense of the track being played within a space (particularly if it accompanies a visual of a location, on a YouTube playlist) this can enhance the mood and evoke the feeling of loneliness and isolation.

5: Samples
Mentioned earlier, jazzier chords, played by samples of real instruments (clean guitar, organ, or piano) can be pivotal to nailing this genre. The use of regularly repeating samples (ideally aged and treated) will add to the repetitious lull that you’re wanting to get across, and sending the listener into something of a hypnotic - or hyper-focused - state.

6: Production
The key aspects to remember in your lo-fi mix is to welcome imperfections and daube everything with the hazy, rickety qualities described above (particularly hum, wobble, crackle and lower-fidelity attributes). Tape emulation plugins can be your friend here

Keep your chord sequences fairly neutral – no dramatic choruses or hard, unexpected swings. Keep a steady plod, and interweave the more emotional melodic elements with subtlety.

Your mix should be free of extremes too, no booming low end or ear-piercing leads, your EQ bands should be fairly mid-range-accentuating throughout.

Sub-Genres

Some key lo-fi sub-genres

Vaporwave
The sub-genre known as ‘vaporwave' is characterised by an increased reliance on wonky, VHS-like analogue distortions, as well as digital glitches and 'aspirational' type melodies. It's typically juxtaposed with imagery that evokes a longing for a future imagined by people living in the 1980s or 1990s. It also adds in many of the lo-fi elements described above into its stew, and has generated a thriving sub-community.

Lo-fi house
This spin on lo-fi incorporates more aspects traditionally associated with house music. Faster-paced upbeat rhythms and a generally more positive strand of melodic content is processed with many of the same techniques as described above, while vocals are often more likely to appear.

Future funk
Growing out of the vaporwave movement, future funk takes elements from classic disco tracks of yesteryear and constructs new, retro-tinged arrangements, with many of the same aesthetic and sonic qualities of the aforementioned sub-genres.

The key difference is, that instead of lulling the listener into a neutral, relaxed state, future funk intends to trigger joy. It also takes some cues from 80s British synth-pop. You’ll often find a lot of anime imagery in the videos of future funk artists…

Ambient lo-fi
Melding the qualities of lo-fi with a cinematic, glacial aesthetic, ambient lo-fi is usually slower paced and more heavily reliant on sound design techniques and evolving sounds than the often quite dusty, dry loops of its parent genre. These sonic qualities are typically spaced out in the mix, creating a feeling of desolation which can put the listener in a wide variety of moods.

Chillhop
Perhaps the biggest of the lo-fi sub-genres (and all-too-often confused with the parent genre) but chillhop make a case for its distinctiveness by having a generally cleaner production (vinyl crackles and lo-fi elements are used sparingly) as well as - something common with many of these sub-genres - a more life-affirming bent. There's also a more traditional reliance on hip-hop's rhythmic structure.

Jared James Nichols has shot another tabbed video lesson for the Gibson App, this time teaching us how to play the guitar solo to Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love.

Eric Clapton’s Sunshine Of Your Love solo is an all-time classic, and makes for a valuable case study in phrasing, feel, and ultimately great tone – something that Nichols need not worry about, choosing his 1952 Gibson Les Paul Standard, “Dorothy,” for video that is streaming now on the Gibson App YouTube channel.

Even if you know how to play Sunshine... already, we’d say it’s worth checking out this out if only to hear this miraculously resurrected electric guitar in action. 

No guitars have a back story like Dorothy; Nichols’ Les Paul was one of the first Les Pauls ever created, but was destroyed in a tornado, with only its body recovered, before being brought back to life. This remarkable instrument is an able stand-in for Clapton’s 1964 “Fool” Gibson SG for this lesson.

“It’s really awesome because you have to focus on the bending, the vibrato, having the right tone, the right attack – that’s what this solo is all about,” says Nichols. “Really make your guitar sing throughout this solo.”

That’s the idea. That’s what Clapton did back in 1967 with Sunshine Of Your Love officially inaugurating one of the most recognisable guitar tones in rock, the “woman tone”, so called because Slowhand thought it made his guitar sound like a female singer. There have been many attempts over the years to recreate it. 

Aclam Guitars even put it into a guitar effects pedal, appropriately named The Woman Tone, with presented a two-stage drive that can add some vintage Plexi flavours to your pedalboard. 

It’s pretty neat, with an enclosure design courtesy of Marijke Koger, the leader of the Dutch art collective, The Fool, who give Clapton’s iconic Cream-era SG its psychedelic makeover.

But you don’t really need a pedal. Clapton has hardly kept the secrets to the woman tone under lock and key. Just crank up an old Marshall Plexi until its screaming – most overdriven guitar amps should get you in the ballpark – roll the tone control back to find the sweet spot, where there’s a nasal, vocal quality, and you’ve found it. 

Many will say to use the neck pickup for this but if you’ve got a single-pickup guitar – as Nichols often does – you can just roll the tone off that bridge pickup and you’re there.

“The woman tone is produced by using the bass pickup, or the lead pickup with all the bass off,” explained Clapton. “In fact, if you use both pickups [middle position] you should take all the bass off on the tone control. That is to turn it down to 1 or 0 on the tone control, and then turn the volume full up.”

As Nichols says, tone is crucial to recreating this solo. Biting, scratchy treble is not what we’re after. But once you’ve got the tone, there’s a plenty of wiggle room to add your own interpretation to this, and by that we mean not everything has to be exactly like the record to make this sound cool. 

“Don’t worry if you’re kind of in between,” says Nichols. “That’s kind of the beauty of the sound. It’s like the notes in between the notes.”

Watching this, and his lesson on Mountain’s Mississippi Queen, it strikes us that Nichols is a pretty good teacher. You can find more of him and more online guitar lessons on the Gibson App, which is available now for Android and iOS.

If you're a producer that likes to work with samples, YouTube is a goldmine, but there's so much music on the platform that it's often tricky to know where to start. 

That's where Samplette can help. This browser-based tool essentially allows you to shuffle YouTube, serving up a randomly selected song with a click of your mouse. Samplette's selections are compiled in a convenient playlist below the player, and you're able to view Discogs metadata for each track by clicking the record icon on the left-hand side.

What's more, you can filter Samplette's selections by categories such as genre, style, key and tempo, or even choose a maximum amount of views, ensuring you're only served up obscure and unknown tracks that other producers may not have sampled before.

It's a simple idea, but a hugely useful tool if you're looking for some instant inspiration. For maximum convenience, we recommend opening up Samplette in WebSampler, a browser that runs in a VST plugin, so you can record your samples directly to the timeline without faffing about with one of those dodgy YouTube-to-mp3 download sites.

Of course, if you plan on releasing any tracks you've made using samples of copyrighted music, we'd suggest that you seek permission from the artist or label that owns the rights first. 

Visit Samplette's website.

Most luthiers have their favourite materials to work with, the tone woods that get them going, the hardware, finishes. Others will make a guitar out of anything. 

Newspapers, colour pencils, aluminium cans, these are some of things YouTube luthier Burls Art makes his electric guitars out of, ut for his latest build he has went further, smelting down 50lbs of copper wire to make a bronze custom electric that he says is his most difficult project yet.

“This project is not simple and it is not safe,” said Burls Art in 2023, when he made a baritone guitar out of epoxy and copper. We could say the same about this one, too.

So, just how do you make a guitar out of 50lbs of copper wire? Well, it starts with the neck, on account of it being a little easier to cast than the body. 

“Considering I have never cast copper before I figured this would be the right thing to start out with and experiment if needed,” he says, making the mould for the neck. The neck will have a similar profile to his aluminium guitar – which, finished in January 2023, was the best use for 1,000 drinks cans we have ever seen. At this stage, however, Burls Art has a caveat about this build; copper weighs three and a half times as much as aluminium. This is going to be heavy. 

He estimates the neck is going to weight 12lbs. “If you think that’s heavy, just wait to see what the body’s gonna weigh,” he says.

How many luthiers can say their process is brought to a halt by heavy weather? These are the sorts of issues you have to deal with when making a guitar like this. 

The final result, a T-style with a pair of Custom Lace Horsepower humbuckers, is beyond impressive. The aesthetic is reminiscent of the aluminium Veleno guitar that Kurt Cobain used on In Utero, or perhaps a kissing cousin of Kevin Burkett’s work at the Buzz Osborne-approved Electrical Guitar Company. The sound is exceptional, particularly that clean tone.

The only drawback [certainly for MusicRadar’s guitars editor who draws the line at 8lbs, no exceptions] is the weight. This is a monster, weighing in at just under 40lbs – so heavy that Burls Art decided against putting strap buttons on it for fear that it would fall off the guitar strap and do him an injury.

“It’s kind of a shock to the mind because visually it is such a small guitar,” he says. “And, honestly, playing it, it feels like it starts to cut the circulation on my leg after a couple of minutes. Although it does function like a normal guitar – and if it weren’t for the weight I’d actually say it plays pretty well – it’s probably the first and last of its kind. But it does look cool so I’ll give it that.”

And maybe next time, someone will give him that Honduran mahogany, the figured maple, the rosewood, just to see what he can come up with. But that’s not really his style. You can subscribe to Burls Art on YouTube, and you can actually buy some of the guitars he has made, including this one. Asking price for the Steampunk Bronze is $7,000. Head over to Burls Art for more.

One terrifyingly motivated YouTuber has detailed the samples featured on every official Prodigy album track and sliced them together into nearly 2 hours of A/B sample and Prodigy madness.

By our count that’s at least, ooh, a bazillion samples, so we salute YouTuber/Instagrammer/maniac Eightminutesdown and are happy to recommend you subscribe to any and all of their channels at the earliest opportunity.

There, you’ll find - if you dig past a LOT of Prodigy deep-dives - lovingly stitched videos exposing 1000s of samples taken from and used by artists like Led Zep (source, obvs), Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Kanye, and many, many more.

Check out their Prodigy masterpiece above, but if you have the energy after that, check out our personal favourite (so far), the meticulous dissection of Beastie Boys’ sample-riddled Paul’s Boutique, below (that’s a relatively slim 34-minute joint).

Find and follow Eightminutesupsidedown on YouTube, or Buy him a coffee - they deserve it.

There’s something about Polish bassist Julia Przybysz - the player behind the Julia Plays Groove channel on YouTube - and Dua Lipa. Her bass covers of Don’t Start Now, Break My Heart and Levitating (all lifted from Lipa’s 2019 album, Future Nostalgia) have racked up more than 20 million views between them, and now she’s back with her take on Training Season, the British-Albanian star’s recent single.

This time, though, there’s a twist: rather than simply covering the song on bass guitar, Przybysz has enlisted the help of drummer and guitarist Mateusz Klepacki to create a rock version. 

It definitely works, with Julia’s playing undoubtedly remaining the star of the show. If Dua Lipa ever needs a new touring bassist, she’d surely be a shoo-in.

Following a recent controversy, Lee Anderton, owner of UK music gear seller Andertons Music Co. and figurehead of the shop's popular YouTube output, has issued a statement saying that he will be “declaring any personal financial interest” in products he covers on camera.

The statement follows the release of a video last week, in which YouTuber KDH highlighted what he saw as a potential conflict of interest. As KDH pointed out, Anderton is a part-owner of Victory Amps, a brand he has featured (along with many others) in demo and promo videos, without declaring his personal stake in the firm.

As KDH saw it (below), "They [Andertons] are not going to be too critical of the products that they stock – that is to be expected. But what is also expected is a level of equality among the products.

“If a store is selling three different amplifiers that are in the same price range – a Marshall, an Orange and a Victory – there’s no incentive to sell one over the other... but there absolutely is an incentive to sell one brand over the other if you co-own one of them.”

Anderton initially responded in the Instagram video you can see below, in which he said "I do accept that perhaps I could have been more open about it to the people watching our YouTube videos."

"I had no reason to lie about anything," he continued, "because I certainly don’t regret making the investment that I did when Victory started."

Now, Anderton has gone further, sending a direct statement to KDh revealing that UK regulatory body, the Advertising Standards agency had "been in touch following your video as they received three complaints about Anderton's promoting Victory amps without me disclosing my interest in the brand."

The statement continues, “The ASA have asked me to add a line in all future videos declaring any personal financial interests I have in any brands we promote, which I will start doing from today.

“They've confirmed that this action will resolve the complaints and no further action will be taken and they also confirmed that I did not have to retrospectively add this disclosure to any videos released prior to the advice.”

MusicRadar generates some of our revenue through affiliate relationships with many companies, including Andertons. Here’s how it works.

On first listen, hearing a disembodied, low-bitrate Johnny Cash perform Aqua’s 1997 Eurodance hit Barbie Girl is a pretty good laugh. 

The sound of Cash’s grizzled, stately voice singing the words “you can brush my hair, undress me everywhere” makes for an undeniably funny contrast; much like hearing Eric Cartman take on Evanescence’s Bring Me To Life, or Donald Trump and Joe Biden team up for Sultans of Swing. 

There’s a reason why teens in their thousands have been creating and sharing these so-called AI cover songs over the past year; at first glance, it’s high-grade silliness. Using AI-powered software, fans can transform any song’s vocal into a 'deepfake' version of another singer’s voice through a process called AI voice cloning. 

Voice cloning lets them mix and match any voice with any song, no matter how preposterous the combination. Real people’s voices, unique timbres once tied inextricably to a person’s identity, become mere tools, new colours with which to paint over the canvas of popular music in any which way we please. “Life in plastic, it’s fantastic”, the song goes. “Imagination, life is your creation”. 

As we continue listening, though, it's hard not to feel a twinge of unease. The tech is advanced enough that the ‘cover’ sounds almost exactly like Cash; the creator has even supplied a convincingly bluesy backing track. But something doesn’t sit right, and it’s more than just the uncanny valley. 

The joke quickly gets old, and we're left considering the implications of the fact that anyone’s voice can now be lifted from their music and used in anyone else’s, freely, easily and without permission. It soon becomes apparent that popular music is on the brink of a radical transformation, one in which AI compels us to reconsider the very notion of what a singing voice represents.

Every day, thousands are training AI voice models on the work of well-known artists and using these models to mimic their voices, whether that’s by remixing existing music or transforming their own. All it takes to train a model is to strip the vocals from a handful of an artist’s songs using stem separation services, then run them through free and open-source AI voice cloning software. 

It’s not a simple process, but as the technology develops, it’s only going to become more accessible. Though the majority of homemade AI cover songs aren’t monetized by their creators - just uploaded on TikTok and YouTube for fun - some have taken things a step further.

Earlier this year, an anonymous producer called ghostwriter977 cloned the voices of Drake and The Weeknd on a track called Heart on My Sleeve before uploading the song to streaming services. The song went viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of streams and millions of views on TikTok before disappearing as quickly as it arrived. 

Billboard estimates that the track may have brought in close to $10,000 for its creators before being removed, but it’s not known whether these royalties were paid out. Heart on My Sleeve’s video was also taken down from YouTube, reportedly due to a claim from UMG, Drake and The Weeknd’s label and the world’s largest music company. The song has since reappeared on YouTube, hosted across a number of different channels.

In a statement given to Music Business Worldwide, UMG did not confirm whether it was behind the song’s takedown, but was clear in its condemnation of the broader practice of AI voice cloning, describing it as “a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law”. 

The unprecedented situation that the industry now finds itself in, UMG claims, “begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”

In the months since Heart on My Sleeve's release, major industry players have doubled down on their efforts to stamp out unauthorized voice cloning. In June, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) issued a DMCA subpoena to chatroom platform Discord, asking them to reveal the identities of individuals using the Discord server AI Hub, who they claim have shared datasets of copyrighted songs for use in training AI voice models. 

Despite the RIAA's demands, Discord have yet to shut AI Hub down. The server is home to an online community for those experimenting with voice cloning. Until recently, AI Hub hosted a bot that enabled its users to quickly and easily access voice models of artists such as Drake, Kanye West and Justin Bieber by uploading vocals to be processed automatically. In July, that bot was taken down. 

One of the server's moderators, who goes by the username Mosh, claims that they shut the bot down because UMG threatened them with legal action, accusing them of "profiting from the likeness" of Juice WRLD, a now-deceased rapper whose voice model was available to be used through the AI Hub bot. Mosh says that the case was later dropped after they made clear that they weren't making any money from voice cloning, just experimenting with it for fun.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the major labels view unauthorized voice cloning as an existential threat. Much like when digital piracy threatened to upend the music industry in the ‘00s, the rise of an easily accessible new technology is enabling anyone with a computer and an internet connection to take something that belongs to the labels and the artists they represent. But where Napster allowed its users to illegally download copyrighted music, voice cloning lets people appropriate something that, arguably, isn't protected directly by copyright: the sound of an artist’s voice.

As is often the case when new technologies appear, our legal systems aren't well-prepared to deal with the misuse of voice cloning. Copyright law deals with copyrighted works; songs, lyrics and melodies that can be identified and protected. Musically, a voice is a timbre, and musicians share timbres all the time. 

Instruments are used across thousands of different songs, and you wouldn’t sue somebody for imitating your guitar tone. While AI voice cloning software is trained using copyrighted material (the ethics and legality of which is a separate, and no less knotty, issue) its output only lifts the vocal timbre from that material, not the copyright-protected melodies or lyrics. 

More than just a timbre, though, a voice forms part of a singer's identity, and it’s on that basis that the law can protect those whose voices are being cloned without permission. Most countries recognise a person’s right of publicity; the right to control the commercial use of certain aspects of their identity, such as their name, image and likeness. In the US, this isn’t enshrined in federal law, but instead through a patchwork of state legislation and common law. But there’s legal precedent to suggest the unauthorized mimicry of a voice can be challenged successfully in the courts by asserting these rights.

In 1988, Ford tried to hire actress Bette Midler to voice a commercial, but she declined. Instead, they hired one of her backing singers and asked her to impersonate Midler’s vocal delivery on a song of Midler’s they’d obtained a license to use. Midler then sued Ford, claiming that her voice was protected as a property right; while an initial hearing found that there was no legal principle protecting the use of her voice, on appeal, the court ultimately ruled that under California law, a famous individual’s voice is essential to their personal identity, and that it’s unlawful to imitate it without their consent. 

The US courts doubled down on this four years later when Tom Waits sued Frito-Lay for using an impersonation of his voice in a commercial. Confirming that “when voice is a sufficient indicia of a celebrity’s identity, the right of publicity protects against its imitation for commercial purposes without the celebrity’s consent”, the judge clarified that in order for a voice to be misappropriated, it must be distinctive, widely known and deliberately imitated for commercial gain. These judgements could seemingly protect big names from voice cloning, but what about smaller, independent artists who would struggle to argue that they’re “widely known”? 

The majority of AI voice cloning currently taking place is happening below the radar; tech-savvy fans making use of open-source software at home and experimenting by making AI covers to show their friends. But as the technology becomes more accessible, the industry will be forced to adapt to the fact that anyone will be able to clone the voices of world-famous artists in their music. 

As was the case with music piracy in the ‘00s, only so much can be achieved by chasing down individual offenders and threatening legal action. The solution, in the end, will be to offer a legal alternative that can be monetized by labels and artists. The industry’s answer to piracy was music streaming; its answer to voice cloning is likely to be something equally revolutionary.

Last week, it was revealed that UMG and Google were in talks over licensing the voices of artists in UMG’s catalogue for use in AI-generated music. While talks are still in their early stages, it appears that the goal is to develop a paid-for tool that anyone can use to clone the voice of artists from UMG’s catalogue. Artists will be given the choice to opt in to the platform and earn royalties from the licensed usage of their voice. The world’s biggest record label, Universal Media Group is home to artists like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Harry Styles and Kendrick Lamar. 

In a statement shared today to the Google-owned YouTube's blog, UMG CEO Lucian Grainge outlined a plan for their "artist-centric approach to AI innovation". "Today's rapid technological advancements have enabled digital manipulation, appropriation and misattribution of an artist’s name, image, likeness, voice and style", Grainge says, "the very characteristics that differentiate them as performers with unique vision and expression."

In the face of these challenges, UMG plans to "establish effective tools, incentives and rewards – as well as rules of the road – that enable us to limit AI’s potential downside while promoting its promising upside". The first step in UMG's collaborative venture with Google is the launch of the Music AI Incubator, a working group of UMG artists, songwriters and producers tasked with providing feedback to Google on the development of its AI-powered musical tools. 

Warner Music, another of the 'big three' major labels, has also reportedly been discussing a partnership with Google on AI. In a statement to investors, Warner’s Chief Executive Robert Kyncl said that "with the right framework in place", AI voice cloning could "enable fans to pay their heroes the ultimate compliment through a new level of user-driven content [...] including new cover versions and mash-ups". Once these tools are developed, an artist’s voice could become a new form of merchandise; singing in their voice will become another way for fans to connect with their favourite stars. 

Though it seems likely that they will attempt to monetize the AI cover songs trend through their own platform, it’s not clear yet how much further the major labels will take their venture into voice cloning. In recent months, a handful of fledgling services have popped up offering music-makers the opportunity to legitimately clone the voices of artists on their roster; these give us a glimpse of the direction the majors might take. myvox, launched earlier this month, allows artists to license their AI voice model to users of the subscription-based platform and receive a share of royalties from any tracks released that use it. 

myvox’s first ‘AI artist’ is named Dahlia, and its voice is based on a voice model created using the singer, songwriter and producer Sevdaliza's voice. Myvox users can transform their vocals into Dahlia’s, distribute those tracks on streaming services through myvox, and 50% of the royalties will go into Sevdaliza’s pocket. According to myvox’s founders, this not only gives Sevdaliza’s fans the opportunity to collaborate with her, but also helps aspiring music-makers get noticed by using the vocals of a well-known artist in their music.

Myvox not only benefits its users, the founders tell us, but also opens up new opportunities for artists. “We’re creating a new revenue stream and passive income for artists,” says myvox founder Arianna Broderick. “They’re able to participate in the benefits while retaining control.” Previously, anyone in need of vocals for their music might typically hire a session vocalist and shell out for studio time. Platforms like myvox offer a cheaper, easier alternative; one where the featured vocalist doesn’t have to sing a single note, let alone turn up to the studio. 

Moises.ai is another platform that’s recently begun offering voice cloning alongside a suite of other AI-powered tools. “We’re seeing professional producers use vocal models of different singers to test and demo new tracks,” Moises.ai founder Geraldo Ramos tells us. “Not all musicians have access to talented vocalists or have the means to invest in their performances during the creative process. We see artists using this as a tool to expand their creative reach and try different approaches, the way you might score a melody for a different instrument.”

Currently, voice cloning platforms like these are browser-based; you log in, upload a vocal recording and download the processed version. This might be an impractical workflow for those producing on a professional level, but both Moises.ai and myvox are developing VST plugins that bring voice cloning technology into the DAW. Soon, it’ll be possible to record some scratch vocals in your own voice, open up a plugin and browse a library of potential voices to clone. “We see myvox as another part of people’s vocal chain, just like pitch correction, compression, or reverb”, says myvox’s Arianna Broderick.

Rather than partnering with services like myvox, some artists are taking things into their own hands. Earlier this year, Grimes launched Elf.Tech, an open-source software tool which can be used to clone her voice, proclaiming: “Grimes is now open source and self-replicating.” Anyone can release the music they’ve created using the software, but Grimes has asked that she receive 50% of any royalties. Elf.Tech has already been used by thousands of artists; Australian DJ and producer Kito recently released Cold Touch, an official collaboration with Grimes’ voice model, which was credited as GrimesAI.

Musician, producer and academic Holly Herndon has been miles ahead of the game on voice cloning for several years. In 2021, Herndon unveiled Holly+, the first AI voice model ever made available to the public by an artist. In order to “decentralize access, decision-making and profits” made from Holly+, Herndon set up a DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organization) co-operative that owns the IP and votes to approve its usage. Any funds generated from the use of her voice model will be redirected to the DAO to be shared amongst the artists using it and support further development.

“Vocal deepfakes are here to stay,” reads a statement on Herndon’s website. “A balance needs to be found between protecting artists and encouraging people to experiment with a new and exciting technology. That is why we are running this experiment in communal voice ownership. The voice is inherently communal, learned through mimesis and language, and interpreted through individuals. In stepping in front of a complicated issue, we think we have found a way to allow people to perform through my voice, reduce confusion by establishing official approval, and invite everyone to benefit from the proceeds generated from its use.”

While Herndon’s vision of an equitable future for voice cloning is admirable, it’s doubtful that the major labels will adopt such a community-minded approach. Where exactly their adoption of the technology could lead isn't clear, but it’s entirely possible that in a few years, it could become common practice for artists to license the use of their voice model on a grand scale. 

Turn on the radio, and you won’t know if you’re hearing Taylor Swift or officially licensed AI Taylor Swift; is that really a guest verse from Jay-Z, or is it just his voice model? You may even be able to boot up your DAW, record a vocal, open up a plugin and scroll through a list of famous artists (living and dead) before deciding who’ll ‘feature’ on your next track.

Like many recent developments in artificial intelligence, voice cloning threatens to create as many problems as it solves. If its usage becomes widespread in popular music, will the charts become oversaturated with cloned voices? How will listeners tell the difference? And with 120,000 new tracks uploaded to streaming services each day, how will we identify and remove songs that feature unlicensed voice clones? Platforms like Moises.ai claim to have developed technology that enables artists and labels to detect tracks that use their voice model without permission, but it remains to be seen whether this functions effectively in practice on a broader scale.

Moreover, the issues raised by voice cloning are not only practical but ethical. In a world where anyone can duplicate Taylor Swift’s voice, is that voice - one of the defining features of her artistry - devalued? For professional vocalists and songwriters, the singing voice is not only an essential element of their personal and artistic identity, it’s the tool through which they make their living. Until now, voices have belonged inalienably to their owners; they could be impersonated but not stolen outright. But by digitizing, decontextualizing and commodifying the voice, voice cloning strips it away from its owner and transforms it into a tool like any other - a tool that can be misused. 

We already see artists signing away the rights to their master recordings early on in their career, eager to get a foot in the door; it’s easy to imagine aspiring vocalists signing away the ownership of their cloned voices to labels for the same reason. If UMG and Warner are developing voice cloning tools for their artists, it begs the question of whether they believe that artists’ voices belong, at least in part, to record labels, and if the money generated by those artists’ voice clones will be shared out equitably. 

Though questions like these are necessary, it’s worth remembering that voice cloning differs significantly from purely generative AI in the sense that it’s not creating something from nothing. Instead, it’s transforming something that’s already there. In its current form, at least, the technology requires an existing vocal recording on which to graft its cloned voice. As long as the owners of both voices are compensated, voice cloning won’t be putting vocalists out of a job - in fact, it might be making their job easier. 

Earlier this year, Ice Cube was accused of hypocrisy when he described AI as “demonic”; as a hip-hop forefather, his success was partly built on the use of sampling, another innovative and revolutionary technology that empowered us to transform musical material made by others into something new. Sound familiar?

Sampling provoked its fair share of scepticism in its early days and more than a few have fallen foul of its misuse in the years since, their work sampled without recognition or compensation. Ultimately, though, the industry adapted to accommodate the new possibilities that the technology created, and sampling became a powerful tool that shaped the sound of modern music for the better. As we prepare for voice cloning to disrupt the music industry, let’s hope that its story has a similar ending. 

“This project is not simple and it is not safe,” admits Burls Art, whose latest project involves taking flame to a maple blank, using epoxy and copper to make an electric guitar, but then the YouTube artist-cum-luthier doesn’t do simple. 

This sort of thing shouldn’t work but this is the brain behind some of the weirdest – and most wonderful – builds we’ve seen in recent years, the builder who turned coloured pencils into a guitar, and took 700 sheets of newspaper and made a guitar from them, a thousand aluminium cans, Radio Shack dollar coins… 

The list goes on. Somehow, they always turn out looking cool, and furthermore they sound cool, too.

Flame-roasting a maple blank was not even the most ambitious part of this latest build. There was the question of the copper top and what to do with it. There is a lot of cool things you can do with metal and guitars, he says. In this case, he was going to cut it into a sort of aerial view of a river system. That, again, required applying an inventive treatment to the materials.

“I wasn’t sure whether this was going to come out looking like a river or just kind of like an artistic blob on the face of the guitar. One thing that’s going to help with that, though, is that I can patina the copper to turn it blue-ish green, kind of like the Statue of Liberty, so I am hoping once I have got the copper inlaid into the body and patina’d blue, it’ll look somewhat like a river.”

At this stage, with just a copper blank and a sketch, it’s hard to see how this will turn out. Things soon take shape. Burls Art conducts a few experiments to see how best to age the copper.

He has a bottle of lemon scent ammonia, a bottle distilled white vinegar, saltwater, everything you need for a cocktail bar at the hour of the apocalypse. With some freezer bags and copper scraps as guinea pigs, he has his mise en place sorted.

The copper is left overnight, then soaked in water, et voila, there’s some distressed blue on the metal. But getting it to be a lasting effect was not easy. More fine-tuning of the ammonia fuming method is needed.

Is this the sort of thing that goes on in R&D departments of Fender and Gibson custom shops after dark? It’s hard to say, hard to predict whether these off-menu builds could be refined into commercial production, whether anyone would be crazy enough to try. But Burls Art gets results, and by the end he has an incredible baritone guitar by the end of it. And viewed in profile, that indeed looks like a river. 

This was Burls Art's 30th guitar build and you can check it and others out at the Burls Art YouTube channel.

Harley Benton has unveiled a super-shreddable signature guitar for YouTuber Max Carlisle, the man behind the Guitar MAX channel, and he describes it is “the guitar of his dreams”.

The budget brand might have made its bones with cheap electric guitars and a range of gear that defies fiscal reality with what it offers players for the money, but every now and again the brand digs out the good stuff. The Guitar MAX Fusion Signature is one such occasion. As Harley Benton guitars go, they do not get much more upscale than this. 

Just look at it. Finished in an Emerald Green stain, this high-performance S-style’s top is a veneer that is described as “ultra-flame” maple, and it really is that – three dimensional, luxurious, ultra, and only just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the spec.

This decadent veneer sits atop a solid nyatoh body, contoured for your ergonomic satisfaction, bound in wood for your aesthetic gratification. Harley Benton has also – surely – blown the tonewood budget on a roasted figured maple neck and 12” radius fingerboard, giving this a whiff of the Ernie Ball Music Man or Suhr. 

The reverse headstock gives it that N4 Nuno Bettencourt vibe, and with those gold tuners, it looks exquisite. As does the gold hardware against the Emerald Green stain. Very nice.

And what about that hardware? A Floyd Rose 1000 Series double-locking vibrato is not to be sniffed at on a guitar retailing at £442, presenting a stable platform for divebombs, flutters and all kinds of whammy-bar self-expression.

Tone-wise, the Guitar MAX Fusion Signature should prove versatile enough, with a Tesla Plasma-X1 humbucker at the bridge position and a Plasma-RS2 single-coil at the neck.

There are controls for volume and tone, a three-way blade-style pickup selector, and a mini-toggle switch to activate a coil-split, giving you some Stratocaster-esque cut at the bridge.

The feel should be similarly luxurious, with Carlisle convincing Harley Benton to splash out on 24 medium-jumbo stainless steel frets, and that neck is carved into a Modern C profile which, by anyone’s translation, means “Slim C” and thus speed. Speed, performance, versatility and a 25.5” scale length – yup, that’s a Superstrat for you.

The Guitar MAX Fusion Signature is available now via Thomann and is priced £442. Head over to Harley Benton for more details.