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September 2025

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131 articles

September 18
- Thomann's Guitar Days sale just hit up to 70% off with £474 off an Epiphone semi-hollow, £132 off a Death By Audio pedal, plus loads more massive savings
- "One day everyone will have always been against this": Brian Eno, Eric Cantona, Damon Albarn, Neneh Cherry and many others come together for Palestine
- “The Life of a Showgirl takes center stage”: An exclusive paid-for download version of Taylor Swift’s new album has sparked a high-kicking, unexpected iTunes revival
- “We got about an hour in, and I was like, ‘I haven’t even pulled the slide out of my pocket yet!’” Derek Trucks is one of the greatest slide guitar players of all time but sometimes forgets he even has one – here’s how he decides when to use it
- Teenage Engineering leak appears to reveal dub reggae-themed EP-2350 Riddim Supertone sampler and EP-40 mixer
- “Look for one that says ‘80’s Icon on the case and another one that says ‘Woke As F**k’”: Johnny Marr says UPS has lost his guitars
- “He says to Mick Jagger backstage ‘They hate me!’ Mick told him, ‘if you’re going to play to a crowd this big, you have to have a rock band. You have to have a big sound’”: Did Prince’s "humiliating" Rolling Stones experience inspire his later success?
- Guitar Center’s massive Guitar-A-Thon sale has landed, and it includes $900 off a special Taylor acoustic and a host of exclusive models from Epiphone, Marshall, and more
- “I used to take pills for fun. Now I take them to stay alive”: Two intimate Ozzy Osbourne documentaries set to drop in early October
- “It’s pretty rancid! That brain mulching sound they put on vocals makes me feel slightly sick”: The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon isn’t a fan of modern pop music
September 17
- “100 per cent tour-worthy right off of the shelf, with bulletproof American construction”: All Rhoads lead to California as Jackson brings one of its most-iconic metal guitars home for a high-end upgrade
- “I wanted to design something that would not only be capable of but excel at any tone I might need”: Prog metal trailblazer Misha Mansoor teams up with Neural DSP for Archetype plugin suite that nails his Periphery tone – but does so much more
- “It’s policing Black music… Hip-hop was born from sampling. And now sampling is synonymous with theft”: Lizzo argues that the origins of sampling law are "racially charged"
- “I was having some issues with three-hour shows and constant touring and stuff": Matt Cameron explains why he left Pearl Jam and insists that the final Soundgarden album is coming... but not yet
- SampleRadar: 497 free modular percussion samples
- With A Little Help From His Friends: Jack White joins Ringo Starr on stage for a performance of a Beatles classic after going Toto with Steve Lukather
- “The whistling was a result of me having no guitar when I was writing it. The record company called me and said: 'You have to take the whistle out.' I said: ‘No way’": The Scorpions' Klaus Meine on the making of Wind Of Change
- "It’s been such a privilege to work with Daphne’s sounds": Daphne Oram's centenary celebrated in compilation featuring previously unheard archival material
- "You’d be like, ‘Nah. I like him a lot, but I don’t love him.’ That would be the messaging if I didn’t play left-handed": Actor Paul Mescal reveals the lengths he's going to to perfect his portrayal of Paul McCartney in the upcoming Beatles biopics
- “Players have asked us to push further – into more adventurous, exploratory delay and reverb”: Source Audio dials up the ambience with the Encounter – six reverbs, six delays, one tricked-out pedal for “deeply immersive soundscapes”
- Music studio complex opens in former nuclear bunker in The Hague
September 16
- Teenage Engineering is giving away a free EP-1320 Medieval sampler to anyone that spends $999 in its online store
- “He was the sun which all planets rotated around”: Joe Bonamassa announces all-star album celebrating life of BB King on the King of the Blues’ 100th birthday
- “It was a lovely sight to look up occasionally and see them both there. Him dancing and her sitting”: Why did Fred Again play an extra set after his festival appearance in Naples – to two people?
- “The SG and the Les Paul, reimagined in short-scale, 3-string versions”: Gibson teams up with Loog for beginner and child-friendly electrics based on its most famous guitars
- “As soon as we played that, I screamed. I could tell right away that it was a smash”: Nile Rodgers breaks down how he and David Bowie made Let’s Dance
- “There’s just one catch. The kid with the PC in the bedroom can’t play his instrument”: Back in 1999, Prince offered his opinion on the new generation of DAW-based musicians and producers
- “The authentic broken-in feel players love”: Aged nitro finishes, “era-correct” pickups and neck shapes, Fender’s limited run Vintera II Road Worn series presents Golden Era tone for modern players
- “A unique, talented, and innovative musician who leaves a rich back catalogue of Eastern-influenced electronica as his legacy”: Tributes paid to Blancmange's Stephen Luscombe, who has died
September 15
- “All major keys are created equal, but Eb is the best”: Jon Batiste answers the internet’s piano queries and agrees with one potentially controversial musical statement
- "I thought I was amazing at making garage – then I tried to make DnB": Flava D on why drum & bass is the toughest genre to produce
- “The kids! This is what music is for. I am so proud of them”: Students at Flea’s music school pay tribute to him and the Chili Peppers
- "Before this plugin, the only way to get this tone was by chasing down old hardware or buying boutique pedals": Audio Hertz's Mk.pre emulates the Tascam Portastudio preamp that colours Mk.gee's sought-after guitar tone
- “I finally get the opportunity to say, ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome, the most badass mother, Ilan Rubin”: Dave Grohl introduces new drummer at Foos' secret gig
- “I missed a couple of things which I would have loved to get better”: Brian May suggests that he wasn’t completely satisfied with his Bohemian Rhapsody guitar playing at The Last Night of the Proms
September 14
- “Imagine if Paul McCartney dies and there’s early 16-year-old Beatles recordings, and then right up to the 10 best of his entire career”: Ed Sheeran reveals that plans for posthumous album are already in his will
- “Striking design”: Zultan add two new models to their effects cymbal range
September 13
- “In the actual song you hear today, the guitars, the riff, the bass, the drums and all the vocals are from those initial takes I did in my bedroom”: Sombr on the making of viral hit Undressed, and his formula for creating "a legendary indie rock song"
September 12
- "Not being a musician you feel a little bit of an imposter, but I've got a passion for it and I think a lot of great musicians respect me for that": Dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood on embracing AI and playing the studio like an instrument
- “They still maintain these ridiculous hours. After lunch until, like, two in the morning”: Marlon Richards says that the Stones have been putting together a new album in London
- “One of the things I’ve wanted to really focus on, and zone into, is the limitation of a single instrument”: Using his signature ‘DAEAD’ tuning, Jacob Collier recorded a 5-string acoustic guitar album in just four days
- MusicRadar deals of the week: Score a mind-blowing $1,000 off the stunning D'Angelico Excel SS, $500 off the gorgeous Heritage Standard H-535, and so much more
- “An attempt to deliver tickets as fairly as possible directly to fans at the prices the band intended”: Radiohead defend ticketing system as up to 1,000 dodgy tickets advertised online before the general sale
- Slop of the pops: Over 30,000 AI-generated tracks are being uploaded to Deezer every single day
- “The Sphere? I’m hoping, one of these days, to go there and sit and watch myself doing it, so I don't have to": David Gilmour says he’d be open to a Floyd avatar show at the Sphere
September 11
- “Memo for radio show - list of favourite records": Jeff Beck, Roxy Music and Miles Davis all make the list of David Bowie’s 15 favourite tracks
- “We’re rebuilding the middle class of artists and giving fans the power to shape what gets heard. It’s a return to authenticity, driven by community”: New streaming platform launches - and it promises fair compensation for artists
- “All of this posturing is Jim Morrison meets the bloke from Stone Temple Pilots meets everybody else who’s ever owned a pair of leather trousers”: Justin Hawkins backs up his brother’s criticism of Yungblud’s VMAs Ozzy Osbourne tribute
- "The wait is finally over": Spotify finally offers lossless streaming to its Premium subscribers
- Five basses! Spinal Tap recruit Tal Wilkenfeld and Thundercat for bottom-heavy Jimmy Kimmel performance
- “As much as it sucked to start over, I saw Dave become a vastly better guitar player pretty quickly after Metallica”: Dave Ellefson has his say on whether Metallica did Dave Mustaine a favour by sacking him
September 10
- “Tonverk is made for expansive sound design and immediate play”: Elektron’s stereo sampling workstation is real, and it’s out now
- “These guitars empower metal artists with the authentic, crushing tone that built Jackson’s legendary reputation”: Jackson takes us back to the heyday of shred with the Pro Origins 1985 San Dimas series – and what about that Two Face finish?
- “I’ll never forget, he did the whole thing, like the hand out with the snap, and started to sing this bassline”: How a teenage Mark Ronson convinced Michael Jackson to write him a bassline so he could make a hit song out of it
- "It shows the breadth of talent from across the country and all of our nations”: The Mercury nominations are out with the usual mix of established names and niche outsiders
- "I looked on Reverb for a Yamaha CS-80 – we drove out to get it and its sound became a key part of the movie’s soundtrack": The classic synth heard on the Barbie OST was picked up in "an hour and a half" on Reverb, says Mark Ronson
- "I figured out a way to make it sound like an old wooden door": Transform your MacBook into a theremin! Or a creaking door!
- “Light lacquer checking, light dings, pick trails, and rounded fretboard edges, with all five encapsulating the tone, look, and played-in feel of a vintage original”: Gibson expands acoustic Murphy Lab collection with five Light Aged classics
- “That’s one of the key things that most people don’t get when they hear the song. But when I sang it with her, we nailed it”: Bryan Adams explains why the only person to do justice to Summer of '69 was Taylor Swift
- With the Carbon 8X, Modal Electronics has completed its three synth families so that it has an instrument for every kind of user, and there’s still more to come
- “I don’t think it found its true voice until now”: PRS revives and refreshes the Mira as an S2 model with 58/15 LT vintage-voiced humbuckers, coil tap switches and an array of aesthetically pleasing finishes – including on-trend Matcha Green
- King Gizzard annex Bandcamp's top 27 album spots after bold ‘name your price’ move
- Minimal Audio drops Formant, a free formant-shifting plugin for creative vocal production
September 9
- “Now you can power your rig off of a USB-C cable or rechargeable battery pack!” Walrus Audio’s Canvas Power USB is the super-compact device for powering your rig with a laptop or phone charger
- “They’re kind of singing along… but no one knows the words:” Derek Trucks says Tedeschi Trucks Band have completed their next studio album – and they’ve been sneaking in some of the new tracks live
- “The way that the algorithm is set up, no one can serve the masses anymore”: Lizzo puts out TikTok vid blaming social media for absence of crossover mainstream hits
- “I never saw something as completely mind-bendingly ridiculous and intriguing as what went down”: Hold on to your cheese sandwiches – it’s Fyre Festival: The Musical!
- “I’m a big preset guy. If a preset’s called Fat Bass, there’s a 90% chance it’s actually a fat bass”: Rico Nasty and Benson Boone producer Imad Royal on saving time and staying focused in the studio
- "Not to disparage older artists who still want a piece of the spotlight and to stay in the spotlight... there comes a time when you're just not yourself anymore": John Oates explains why there’s no chance of a creative reunion with Daryl Hall
- AlphaTheta’s CDJ-3000 gets an X upgrade that allows DJs to access their libraries with the tap of a smartphone
- “It serves as proof to me that performing Friday I’m In Love and Just Like Heaven with The Cure’s Robert Smith wasn’t a dream”: Olivia Rodrigo is releasing her highly acclaimed Glastonbury set on vinyl
- “It has one of the highest outputs of any passive humbucker, ever”: Seymour Duncan celebrates imminent release of Spinal Tap sequel with a custom pickup – and it has an “eye-watering” DCR reading of 111K
- "She comes up while I am talking to my wife, saying: ‘Hey, can Sebastian give me a hug?’": How a seemingly innocent request led to an explosive rant from potty-mouthed '80s rock hero Sebastian Bach
- “I’m still in shock that he’s gone… I treasure every moment we shared”: Baroness confirm death of ex-drummer Allen Blickle
- "The iLoud Precision MKII redefines what's possible in modern monitoring": IK Multimedia upgrades its pro-level studio monitors with redesigned hardware and enhanced room correction
- “It doesn’t sound really wet… then suddenly you are in a huge chamber”: David Gilmour shares an essential tone tip for guitarists using a whammy bar with a delay pedal
- “Maybe I was being unprofessional, and, for sure, Mike feels that I was always unprofessional to him”: White Lotus composer wins Emmy for third time despite fallout with show’s creator
September 8
- “People sometimes expect me to be an audio snob because I exude ‘music snob’ sometimes, even though I’m not a snob. I’m not a snob at all": Laufey says she’s happy to make do with voice memo recordings and doesn’t pay much attention to the mics she uses
- “It's the pre-eminent instrument in the world. Every culture has accessed it and made something of their own of it” Andy Summers to co-produce and front new docu-series about the cultural impact of the guitar
- “We’ve like whittled it down to about 70 songs”: Colin Greenwood suggests Radiohead will have an anything-goes approach to the setlists for upcoming gigs
- “I’m not trying to alienate my audience. As an artist in Deep Purple and even before Purple I was an R&B-based rock artist”: Glenn Hughes says he's still taking inspiration from David Bowie
- "Colossal response": Morrissey’s Smiths sale plot thickens as singer says email for potential buyers has been switched off
- “I think a certain amount of friction is inevitable when you’re involved in a creative process. It’s like two people are painting a picture on the same canvas”: How Rick Davies described the conflict that ruined Supertramp
- “Babies’ heart rates are 50% faster than adults', hence the drum ‘n’ bass”: Meet the DJ who’s produced the first rave album for babies
- MTV VMAs 2025: Doja Cat goes back to the ‘80s with a keytar and Kenny G as Yungblud, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Nuno Bettencourt perform a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne
- "I've never sung with no tuning before – this is really scary": PinkPantheress almost pulled out of Tiny Desk concert after being told she couldn't use Auto-Tune
- “The largest intellectual property theft in human history”: Big tech companies accused of scraping millions of copyrighted songs to train AI models
- “It was kinda like punk rockabilly. We were trying to bring Nebraska into the electric world”: Springsteen to release electric versions of some Nebraska tracks
September 5
- Warm Audio promises studio-quality sound without the price tag with three new vintage-inspired condenser mics
- “Young men of high social status basically getting drunk in the evening and then attacking people on the streets of London": David Bowie’s secret theatrical project was to be set in 18th-century London
- "Please don't put it on the internet": Limp Bizkit tease new song with the help of a young drumming social media star
- “Crafted from 1.2oz of solid 18K gold, the hand-engraved crown is set with nine natural diamonds”: Gibson gives the “King of the Flat-Tops” a whole new meaning with the release of the $99,999 SJ-200 Monarch #100 Brazilian Rosewood
- “We know what love is. We spent 40 years figuring it out”: Foreigner pitch to be Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding band
September 4
- "These places are legendary”: Sam Fender’s arena tour raises over £100,000 for UK’s small venues
- “It just went off into the universe and it left us thinking, where did it go?” The hunt for Paul McCartney’s stolen Höfner bass was one of music’s biggest mysteries – and now they are making a documentary about it
- WAVS launches "first-of-its-kind" AI-powered sample discovery tool, AI Sample Finder
- “I’ve always been a huge fan of relics. They look like they have a story to tell”: Charvel and Rick Graham team up for new Pro-Mod series signature model, featuring a distressed nitro finish in a cult classic Fender colour
- "It's a classic... one of the best rock songs ever”: Which 2013 track could Brian May be talking about?
- “An interesting and creative potential solution to the current crisis”: Collective of grassroots promoters announces new festival and organisation
- "I am burnt out by any and all connections to Marr, Rourke, Joyce”: Morrissey says he wants to sell his half of the Smiths’ business interests
September 3
- “Creating the tribute to Randy Rhoads with the polka dots back in 2009 was something special, so it’s nice to pay homage with this”: Jackson and Phil Demmel salute late Ozzy guitarist with limited edition Pro Series signature King V
- “AI helped me create something I couldn't before”: BTO Kid, who spent 4 months in a coma, hails the technology that enabled him to express emotion
- “I want the guitar to play fast… to communicate a degree of aggression and forward-thinking”: Sterling By Music Man unveils affordable version of Tosin Abasi’s groundbreaking EBMM Kaizen signature model – and yes, there's a 7-string
- Revealed! (Some of) the lyrics to REM's It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
- “I plugged my guitar in, and it was just like instant feedback”: John McLaughlin on how his jam with Jimi Hendrix ended in “disaster”
- “Who knows where this will all lead?”: Radiohead confirm five European residences for November and December
- Ever wanted to knock up an ambient pad on the bus? Good news – you can now access the full version of Ableton’s Drift synth in Note and Move
- “Unlocking the impossible without compromising on creative control”: iZotope Ozone 12 adds new machine learning modules and a more musician-friendly AI assistant
- "Just clip on to a leaf and play": Instruo's Pocket Scion is a handheld biofeedback synthesizer that makes music from nature
- “The first run sold out quickly, leaving fans clamouring for another chance at those iconic tones”: Good news for Randy Rhoads fans – his MXR Distortion+ is back, and you have got to see its stunning special edition “Concorde” finish
- “My father always thought you were a ... Thanks for proving him right": Which rock legend has been on the other end of a tongue-lashing from Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack?
- “A pristine direct interface and a killer built-in headphone amp to make sure that what you’re sending to the PA or recording rig is exactly what you intend to”: Strymon unveils the PCH Active Direct Interface – the missing link for your amp-less rig?
- Streaming prices to rise 'every 12-24 months', predicts finance report, as global music revenue set to double to $200 billion in next decade
September 2
- “It’s analogous to Napster, for those who remember that”: Brian Wampler says digital modelling and profiling tech is taking “a big chunk” of the pedal and tube amp market
- “The hardest hitting synthesized drums ever put in a plugin”: Baby Audio’s new drum synth Tekno isn’t pulling its punches
- David Byrne has shared his actual wedding playlist, featuring “buoyant instrumentals... that folks can ignore"
- "This is every last plugin we've ever made": Purafied Audio puts $473 plugin bundle up for $2.38 in response to Guitar Center pricing error
- “I have guitars at my cheese shop. You can come in and trade guitars for cheese, or vice versa”: Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel is open to swapping guitars for artisanal cheese – but here’s why you won’t sell him on amp modellers
- No cats were harmed in the making of Will Smith's AI controversy response
- “The most immersive, intuitive headphone amp on the market today”: Blackstar Amplification unveils the BEAM SOLO – has the Fender Mustang Micro Plus found a rival?
- Crazy Sheep? Anthrax become the latest victims of AI slop impostors
- "There is no one better to turn real humans on to new music than other real humans": Bandcamp launches subscribe-to-own music discovery service Clubs
- Stem separation! Splice integration! Ableton is playing catch-up with Live 12.3… but its best new features are the ones hidden beyond the headlines
September 1
- Murder investigation underway at Nevada’s Burning Man festival
- “That first record has a crazy amount of falsetto… definitely related to the drugs I was taking”: Damon Albarn lets slip secret about the debut Gorillaz album
- I've been through Waves entire Labor Day plugin sale and these 5 gems at $34.99 each are unmissable - plus get 2 free when you buy 2
- “I haemorrhaged my vocal cords - they exploded... The doctor was like, ‘I’ve never seen a miracle like this’": Ava Max reveals how her vocal cords grew back – in a fortnight
- Sonicware’s retro Lofi-12 XT sampler’s v1.5 update makes it more creative and versatile than ever
- “I don’t know why I keep believing that I could keep a secret in Ireland”: Fatboy Slim secret gig cancelled after too many people find out about it
- Three of our highest-rated in-ear monitors just got a massive discount in the Thomann In-Ear Days sale - IEMs starting from just £91
- “The magic happens when you start adjusting its parameters, making every turn feel like a discovery”: The Doppler is a desktop FM synth designed for ‘ultra-tweakability’