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March 2022

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284 articles

March 31
- Sonicware’s SmplTrek is a handheld pad sampler for self-contained music production
- Red Hot Chili Peppers: Anthony Kiedis talks about John Frusciante’s on/off tenure in the band
- Kemper's new Profiler Rig Manager allows you to control your Kemper from your iPhone
- Boss President, Yoshi Ikegami announces retirement from role at the effects giant
- Chase Bliss' bonkers Habit is an all-in-one delay pedal, looper, sampler and musical sketchpad
- Ableton releases free Microtuner MIDI device for Live: import, edit and generate microtonal scales
March 30
- Queen drummer Roger Taylor dedicates OBE to Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins
- Universal Audio Spark gives you native UAD plugins on subscription: use them in your DAW without UA hardware
- Prince and The Revolution: Live - legendary 1985 gig from the Purple Rain tour gets lavish vinyl, Blu-ray and Dolby Atmos reissue
- ROLI returns with Seaboard RISE 2: “easier to play, more durable and a more beautiful, expressive experience than ever before”
- Jenny Hval: "There are not all that many women in the mixing and mastering game - there’s such a lot of work to be done"
- A new poll to decide the greatest guitar riffs of all time has surprising results
- Dyson’s eye-popping Zone headphones promise “pure air and pure audio”
- Harley Benton demos its new FRFR active guitar cab with its flagship multi-fx
- Here's a super compact guitar rig with just four pedals – including the amp!
- Getting started with FL Studio 21: everything you need to know
March 29
- KMA Machines unleashes the Wurm 2, a fierce HM-2-style distortion pedal with expanded EQ options
- Fender launches compact black panel Frontman 20G practice guitar amp
- How to finish an EP in 30 days: sending a demo submission to labels
- Gibson unveils the much-anticipated Adam Jones Signature Les Paul Standard
- Behringer pins its hopes on its VCS3 synth clone: “we’re getting close with this beauty"
- Remembering Mira Calix, acclaimed electronic musician and visual artist: “I almost can’t believe how lucky I’ve been”
- Rode says that its new NTH-100s are “the most comfortable headphones ever”
- How to finish an EP in 30 days: self-releasing your EP
March 28
- Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood "dissected" Kraftwerk's Computer World over dinner with the band
- Jamz Supernova: 10 records that changed my life
- The BOSS Katana Bass amps feature bags of tone-shaping capabilities - see them in action
- "After tonight, we've gotta get real jobs" - Phil Collins bows out after final Genesis gig
- Billie Eilish and Finneas win Best Original Song Oscar for No Time To Die, as Hans Zimmer accepts Best Original Score award in a bathrobe
- A new way to learn guitar, drums and production online for players of all levels with MLC Powered By Marshall
March 26
- 5 key Taylor Hawkins albums you should hear
- Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters drummer, dies aged 50
March 25
- Smoke On The Water at 50: The story of Deep Purple Mk II and the most famous guitar riff of all time
- Animals as Leaders' Matt Garstka: "I can't stop, and I won't stop trying to push forward”
- Watch Norwegian classical guitarist Christina Sandsengen pay tribute to Randy Rhoads with a stunning performance of Dee
- Best compressor pedals 2023: Make your clean tones really stand out
- Watch Wata from Boris reveal her signal chain secrets in EarthQuaker Devices’ video tour of her pedalboard
- Interview: Talking big riffs, old school fuzz pedals and tips for guitarists with Feeder's Grant Nicholas
- Ernie Ball Music Man rolls out Spring 2022 Ball Family Reserve collection
- Gibson launches Metal And Monsters YouTube series
March 24
- John Mayer praises Slipknot guitarist Jim Root's signature Tele, talks about owning Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood Dumble
- Best music notation and composition software 2023: Composing, transcribing and educator tools for every level
- Fender names its Fender Next class of 2022, featuring the emerging artists it thinks will define the guitar industry
- It looks like Behringer’s free DAW will come with free VST synth plugins that integrate with their hardware counterparts
- Electronic guitar: the joy and inspiration of micro-looping
- Wolfgang Van Halen confirms EVH semi-hollow signature model, tells Chris Shiflett that he broke Eddie’s Gibson ES-335
- The stats say that Jack Antonoff is the most successful music producer of the past year
- Shure MV7 vs SM7B: which mic is right for you?
- The ‘Morgan’ Gibson 1959 Les Paul sells for £172,000 at auction
- IK Multimedia launches Modo Bass 2 plugin: the best way to get authentic electric and upright bass sounds in your DAW?
- Little Boots: "I was put in with so many big producers from day one that I lost all faith in my ability"
- Universal Audio teases Spark, “the next chapter of UAD”, but what is it?
- Boss has not one but two new Space Echo pedals out today
March 23
- Learn the essentials of great guitar palm muting with this short tutorial
- Native Instruments releases Playbox, “an instant solution to writer’s block”
- Duran Duran’s John Taylor casts doubt on whether the band would have existed if GarageBand had been around when they got together
- “Inspired by Behringer”: CME’s SWIDI is a Bluetooth MIDI keyboard and step sequencer that looks very familiar
- Classic album: Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch a Fire, track-by-track
- SampleRadar: 199 free hybrid beats samples
- M-Audio releases BX3BT and BX4BT studio monitors: affordable speakers get Bluetooth connectivity
- What is physical modelling synthesis? The ultimate beginner's guide
- See Gibson and Triumph's unique guitar and motorcycle collaboration
- Can’t get no sleep? Try this 27-minute remix of Faithless’s Insomnia
March 22
- Watch Joe Bonamassa put the new Gibson Theodore through its paces
- Aimi is the generative music platform using AI to reimagine how we listen to and produce electronic music
- Spun Loud Effects promises “mild gated drive to screaming octave fuzz” from its newly launched Shuksan Fuzz
- Line 6 officially reveals the DL4 MKII Delay modeller pedal
- Akai’s MPK Mini Play mk3 is both a compact MIDI controller and a portable keyboard with 128 built-in sounds
- Thomann just knocked 11% off the Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro headphones - our studio cans of choice
- The “beautiful and uniquely impractical” Solar Sound from Mattoverse is an overdrive pedal powered by the sun
- Sterling By Music Man updates bass and guitar lineup with new and improved StingRay SR50 plus fresh finishes galore
- Korg releases Wavestate and Opsix soft synths: hardware keyboards are now available as native plugins
- How to finish an EP in 30 days: Week 4 - mixing and mastering
- Antelope Audio's redesigned Discrete 8 Pro Synergy Core is everything producers need in a rackmount audio interface
March 21
- Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye piano/keyboard player John Barnes has died, say reports
- KRK Rokit 5 G4 vs Yamaha HS5: Which budget studio monitors are best?
- Mark Tremonti announces Frank Sinatra covers album for charity
- Behringer’s JT-4000 sound demo will put you in a ‘90s trance
- SampleRadar: 503 free synth arpeggio samples
- The Prodigy: 10 tracks that define their genre-smashing sound
- How Leo Fender started the guitar company that changed the world
- Tracktion Software says that Waveform Pro 12 is “the most creative, inspirational and affordable DAW ever created”
- Mike Paradinas: “When I did Lunatic Harness, I was using a Casio FZ-1… now I do everything on the laptop - I just want to open it and start working”
- Les Claypool confirms new Primus music and documentary in the works: "What I wanted to do was record one giant song"
March 18
- Slash shares his 7 tips for recording live: “Being in a rock ’n’ roll band is to be able to go in and be as good as any of those people that didn’t have the luxuries of what we have today"
- Meet Theodore, the (kind of) all-new electric guitar from Gibson
- James Blake partners with Endel to release an adaptive soundscape that promises to improve your sleep
- Harley Benton launches bold nylon and steel-string hybrid models and a trio of affordable solid-topped acoustic guitars
- 'What if we could put a Yamaha CS-80 synth voice into a tiny box?' asks Behringer
- Save 25% off the Arturia MiniLab MkII controller and bag $/€400 worth of free software with this mega bundle deal
- Steve Vai: “Joe Satriani has an ear like none other. When I was a kid he would say, ‘No, don’t vibrate it out of tune. You’ll sound like an idiot!’”
- Electro-Harmonix says export ban on Russian tubes has been lifted, warns of tariffs, higher prices and shortages
- Tom Middleton’s new wellness album is designed to reduce your anxiety and help you sleep
- Is it better to hire or buy a PA system? We weigh up the pros and cons of purchasing vs renting
- Breakbot & Irfane: “You'd expect hardware synths to fill in the blank better, but sometimes they simply don't”
- Cherry Audio’s Dreamsynth plugin is inspired by analogue/digital hybrid instruments from the ‘80s
- 10 power tips to help you get more out of Cubase 11
March 17
- 10 annoying things we don't miss about old recording studios
- Robotic Bean’s Portatron promises old-school mojo in a 4-track tape loop plugin
- SampleRadar: 357 free Prodigy-style samples
- Envy Of None's Alex Lifeson and Maiah Wynne on the post-Rush album that was Lifeson's "life-saver"
- Create more content with up to 24% off iRig microphones and interfaces in IK Multimedia’s sale
- Coming soon: Synth Week 2022
- Boss introduces Katana Bass amps for the first time with Katana-110 and Katana-210 Bass combos
- 8 power tips to help you get more out of Ableton Live
- Chrome Canyon: “The Korg PE-1000 is a fantastically quirky synth - they put an oscillator under every single key. That’s insane!”
March 16
- Best online singing lessons 2023: Our pick of remote tuition platforms for aspiring vocalists
- “It’s like a $1500 piece of outboard gear in a pedal” – see Earthquaker Devices' Afterneath Retrospective film and special editions revealed
- SampleRadar: 619 free stereo FX samples
- "A setup is everything to a guitar" – tips, career advice and the dangers of overthinking fretbuzz with Architects and Devin Townsend guitar tech Martyn Evans
- Bruce Hornsby - the 10 albums that changed my life: “Elton John burst into the room wearing a Tina Turner wig”
- 6 ways to get more out of Logic Pro
- Behringer takes you back to the sound of 1986 with a revealing Pro VS synth jam
- Roland’s featherweight Fantom-0 synth workstations come with heavyweight specs
March 15
- Apple updates Logic Pro, MainStage and GarageBand: spatial audio head tracking for AirPods and Mac Studio optimisation are among the new features
- Blackstar launches the JJN 3, the Jared James Nichols signature mini-amp you can take anywhere
- Fender reaches into its Parallel Universe to bring its offset cult classic Meteora models to the Player Plus Series
- SolidGoldFX goes retro with the slider-equipped, BluesBreaker-inspired Commodore Overdrive
- SampleRadar: 165 free '00s synth samples
- ESP celebrates centenary of F.W. Murnau’s classic horror with the Nosferatu Eclipse
- Classic album - Addictive TV on Orchestra of Samples: "From top-end studios to field recordings, the album was literally recorded in hundreds of places"
- How to finish an EP in 30 days: Week 3 - creating an arrangement
March 14
- Best acoustic pianos 2023: Budget to premium instruments for home and studio
- Learn to play online with Harry Connick Jr at his new Piano Party
- How to choose the right acoustic guitar strings and upgrade your tone
- Dave’s Starlight is the first UK number 1 to be written and produced by one person since 2014
- SampleRadar: 273 free rhythmic inspiration samples
- Best DI boxes 2023: A studio and stage staple for acoustic guitar, bass and keyboards
- Sound Magic’s Drum One is a free drum kit plugin that doesn’t need a massive sample library
- Best online piano lessons 2023: Recommended piano lesson apps, websites and software
- Quincy Jones: “My proudest achievement? It would be like having to name my favourite child"
- In the studio with Tangerine Dream: “When digital synths came out, Edgar got rid of all the analogue equipment. Now they sound more dated than the '70s synths"
- Are tube amps in serious trouble? Electro-Harmonix confirms no more Russian tubes in 2022 after export ban
- See Michael Anthony take on leads vocals for Van Halen classic Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love live performance
March 13
- 10 reasons why The Yardbirds were the greatest rock cradle ever
March 11
- Neural DSP offers a digital solution for vintage black panel and tweed sounds with the Tone King Imperial MKII plugin
- The best VST/AU synth plugins 2022: the top analogue, wavetable, modular and free synthesizers
- You might not be able to afford the new Rhodes MK8, but you could win a “stunningly beautiful” limited-edition model
- Best DJ turntables 2023: 8 top decks for vinyl DJs
- A short history of electronic music: the instruments and innovators that defined a genre
- Solar debuts “more metal” humbuckers on flagship Type A six and seven-string electrics
- Watch Jeff Loomis demo his new signature Pro Series Jackson Soloist SL7
- Goldie & James Davidson: "I’m really not about presets, because if I’ve got them some other f*cker’s got them"
- KHDK and Trivium team up for the limited edition In Waves clean boost
March 10
- Squier updates Contemporary series with new Jazzmaster, Starcaster, Precision Bass and Jazz Bass additions
- Bitwig Studio 4.2 lands with new modulation effects, and they’re quite literally bursting with Character
- Best Positive Grid Spark deals November 2023: Save on the Spark, Spark Pearl and Spark Mini
- Casually Here: “I don’t use VST synths any more. I experiment with hardware synths in ways I never did with plugins”
- TikTok has launched its own music distribution platform, and it’s promising to pay artists 100% of royalties for the first year
- On our radar: Cage Fight's James Monteith
- 6 different types of remix, explained
- Harley Benton’s PowerPlant ISO-3AC SAG pedalboard power supply simulates a dying battery
- The Breakdown: How Ploy reshaped a Bollywood sample into an experimental club banger
- Buchla reissues its classic 200 series modules, which “defined West Coast synthesis”
- 5 songs producers need to hear by… Rick Rubin
- A Gibson '59 Les Paul with a consecutive serial number to Jeff Beck’s is going up for auction next week
- How much do you know about ‘90s drum ‘n’ bass? Take the BBC Mastermind quiz and find out…
- SampleRadar: 477 free ultimate hi-hat samples
- 6 of the best free mastering plugins
- Dire Straits keyboard player Alan Clark: “When Mark Knopfler first played Money For Nothing, there was no ‘I Want My MTV’... the idea was mine”
- Paul McCartney: "I had been able to accept Yoko sitting on a blanket in front of my amp… but then when we broke up, John turned nasty"
March 9
- Make music... for free! It’s the freeware issue of Computer Music!
- Wambox is a free online drum machine that teaches you how to program beats
- 6 money mistakes made by musicians, and how to avoid them
- 9 ways to add that lo-fi goodness to your productions
- Fender reveals 16 Hot Wheels car-inspired Custom Shop guitars
- Trevor Horn on mixing in Dolby Atmos for the first time: “it was an interesting experiment”
- Roland’s new plugin delivers a “genuine recreation” of the Juno-60 chorus
- Best DJ speakers 2023: Recommended monitors for home and the DJ booth
- Deftones part ways with bassist Sergio Vega following contract dispute
- Seven-year-old British drummer plays Slipknot on the Ellen DeGeneres show, then gets given an SJC Jay Weinberg snare
- Slipknot's Jay Weinberg on his SJC 48-ply, vented maple signature snare drum
- Classic U2 interview: "Edge is very guitar-specific – last night he used 21 different guitars for 24 songs"
- Apple’s iPad Air gets an M1 performance boost: is this now the best iPad for music makers?
- SampleRadar: 210 free Berlin beats samples
- 6 of the best free mixing plugins
- Hail to the king: Gibson introduces two special Elvis acoustic guitars with the Dove and SJ-200
- Watch Tool’s Danny Carey and his tech swap his snare drum mid-song
March 8
- Apple’s all-new Mac Studio looks like a music production monster
- Best online drum lessons 2023: Our pick of tuition platforms for new to advanced drummers
- Catalinbread’s Many Worlds welcomes you to the phaser pedal multi-verse with sounds ranging from the vintage to cosmic from six selectable LFOs
- Add throb and wobble and save ‘board space with Electro-Harmonix’s Nano Pulsar Variable Shape Stereo Tremolo
- Klevgrand says that its Borsta brushed percussion plugin is “a stroke of genius”
- Saffron is creating community and opportunity for female producers and women in music tech
- The Fender Custom Shop rolls out stunning master-built Prestige range and limited edition Annual Collection
- 10 things we miss about old-school music production
- SampleRadar: 265 free starting point samples
- Les Claypool says performing Rush masterpiece A Farewell To Kings in its entirety was like climbing Everest
- Issue 381 of Future Music is out now
- Steve Vai says he wept tears of joy when he finally figured out how to play his beastly, triple-necked Hydra guitar
- Softube’s Vocoder plugin does what you’d expect, and possibly a bit more
- Stratocaster vs Telecaster: how to choose between Fender's iconic electric guitars
- How to finish an EP in 30 days: week 2 - generating ideas
- How to mint and trade your music as an NFT with NFTON
- Waves promises “a new standard in noise removal for vocals” with its Clarity Vx plugins
- The Breakdown: Ploy on how he produced the rising synth tones in Garys
- Alex Paterson of The Orb: 5 things I’ve learned about music production
- How to get a better live electro-acoustic guitar sound - 10 tips
- Ginger Baker, the reluctant rock god
- Classic guitars: Gibson Les Paul Special profiled
March 7
- 5 absolutely free tools for soundtracking
- Stage 54 is a new electric piano plugin that emulates a rare Rhodes you might never have heard of
- Here’s how to get IK Multimedia’s Syntronik V-80 plugin, which gives you the sound of the Yamaha CS-80, for free
- SampleRadar: 275 free retro drum machine samples
- Classic interview: Pearl Jam's Mike McCready on working with Mark Lanegan in Mad Season: "I’d been wanting him to sing on it for 16 years"
- Have you tried Heardle, the musical Wordle?
- The Crystal Method: "Even though they're unpredictable, I really wanted to get back to plugging in my old synths and analogue gear"
- Greatest synth sounds: New Order - Blue Monday
- "I thought the name Smith was a terrible name for a guitar so I put the bird in the headstock instead" – Paul Reed Smith reveals the first PRS guitar with Bird inlays
- Behringer unveils the miniest of Moog-style synths, as its Model D gets downsized
- Get over $1300 worth of free plugins with a new Focusrite audio interface
March 6
- Sting gives rare performance of his song Russians: "I never thought it would be relevant again"
March 4
- Waldorf’s Iridium Keyboard is a “high-class synthesizer” with polyphonic aftertouch
- Welsh band Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy release majestic new single in aid of Unicef and Ukraine
- Check out our 9 favourite guitar and bass tones from the BOSS GX-100
- Best XLR microphones 2023: Superb sound for studio and stage
- One of the Korg MS-20 synth designers has created a new $99 analogue groovebox for Behringer
- Josh Homme says Billy Gibbons once played a harmonic with his beard
- Chris Buck makes a very good case for buying a new Yamaha Revstar with these demos
- Tangible Waves’ VMIX10 could be the Korg Volca mini synth mixer you really need
- Sam Fender on Paul Weller: "He's like a mentor"
- Best open-back headphones 2023: top choices from Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, Philips and more
- Gretsch’s 2022 Electromatic hollowbodies have been officially launched – hear the new FT-5E Filter’Tron pickups in action
- Machine Head's Robb Flynn and Architect's Josh Middleton demo Colin Richardson's new STL VST guitar pack
- My fingers just stop working! How I deal with performance anxiety when I’m playing the piano
March 3
- Save over £800 on Komplete 13 and iZotope Music Production Suite 4.1 with this epic plugin deal
- Yamaha unveils whole new wave of enhanced, lighter Revstar guitars
- Roland50 Studio packs a TR-808, TB-303 and SH-101 into a free online music-making tool, and there could be more synths and drum machines to come
- Squarp Instruments’ Hapax is a powerful hardware step sequencer that could serve as the centrepiece of your studio
- "It is the doomiest thing we've ever done" – Robert Smith reveals the title of the new Cure album
- “We’re just warming up”: Behringer launches $49 Oberheim-style UB-1 mini synth and hints at more to come
- SampleRadar: 252 free 303-style acid samples
- 10 of the best Roland TB-303 tracks of all time
- Epic Games acquires Bandcamp with vision to create “the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world”
- 6 absolutely free tools for podcasters and YouTubers
- The new Boss GX-100 is its first multi-effects and amp modeller with a touchscreen
- How hearing loss almost silenced Paw Patrol vocalist Scott Simons: "Admitting you have hearing loss is the first step"
March 2
- Ritchie Blackmore honoured with plaque at Weston-super-Mare nursing home
- SampleRadar: 441 free techno atmosphere samples
- Steinberg Cubase 12 arrives with new features, a finessed workflow, simple sign-in and Apple silicon support
- Johnny Marr rules out Morrissey reconciliation saying there’s “zero chance” he’ll ever work with him again
- Watch Rick Beato break down Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants To Rule The World
- The beginner's guide to: cloud rap
- ToneGym’s free interactive circle of fifths could improve your music theory knowledge and your songwriting
- Classic interview: Rory Gallagher - "Jimmy Page makes a point of it and congratulations to him and Keith Richards, some of their best notes are the ones that are fluffed"
- Dave Grohl says he once got electrocuted on stage, and pulled a muscle trying to learn The Police on guitar
- Eventide promises “a complete sonic universe” with its Anthology XII plugin bundle
- 6 absolutely free software tools for singer-songwriters
March 1
- ThorpyFX unveils The Boneyard, a compact fuzz pedal housing every Tone Bender variant
- Les Paul Foundation appoints Slash, Joan Jett, Nile Rodgers and more to new Advisory Council
- IK Multimedia X-GEAR effects pedals bridge the gap between hardware and software
- Arturia introduces Efx Fragments, an accessible granular plugin that will reshape your sounds
- How to finish an EP in 30 days: Week 1 - inspiration and ideas
- Trace Elliot launches the TE-1200, a bass amp with “1200 Watts of bone-rattling true RMS power”
- Sinevibes finds a reverse gear as it releases the “unique” Skew plugin
- Dean rocks the Floyd-on-a-singlecut look on its classy new Thoroughbred Select
- Millenium’s super-affordable NonaPad aims to make hybrid drumming easy
- Snarky Puppy’s Bill Laurance performs What’s Going On on the new Rhodes MK8
- The Fall Of Troy’s Thomas Erak teams up with CMC Guitars And Effects for the Triple Octave Manipulator octave fuzz
- Modal Electronics unveils the Cobalt5S, a portable virtual analogue synth
- Best Roland TD-1DMK deals November 2023: find the best prices on a beginner-friendly Roland electronic drum set
- Best Boss RC-1 deals November 2023: make major savings on an iconic looper pedal
- Best KRK Rokit 7 G4 deals November 2023: find a top studio monitor bargain
- Best Boss GT-1000 deals November 2023: the best prices for this versatile multi-effects pedal
- Best MacBook Pro M1 deals November 2023: make significant savings on a slick music production laptop
- SampleRadar: 301 free percussion loops
- Best Focal Listen Professional deals November 2023: find the best prices on our number one studio headphones pick
- Best Yamaha Pacifica 112V deals November 2023: find the best prices on this killer beginner-friendly electric guitar
- Best Audio-Technica ATH-M50x deals November 2023: bag our favourite studio headphones for less
- Best Audient iD4 MKII deals November 2023: cheap prices on this top-rated budget audio interface
- Best Rode NT-USB and Rode NT-USB Mini deals November 2023: find a desktop USB microphone bargain
- Best Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen deals November 2023: score a budget audio interface bargain
- Best Sennheiser HD-206 headphones deals November 2023: find the best prices online for these cheap studio cans
- Best Shure MV7 deals November 2023: the latest bargains on this do-it-all XLR/USB mic
- Best Novation Launchkey Mini Mk3 deals November 2023: find the lowest prices on this top budget MIDI keyboard
- Best Alesis Nitro Mesh deals November 2023: make big savings on our number one budget electronic drum set
- Best Casio Privia PX-770 deals November 2023: bag a top digital piano deal today
- Best Yamaha Piaggero NP-12 deals November 2023: learn to play today with these compact keyboard bargains
- Baby Audio brings its free Magic Switch and Magic Dice plugins to iPhone and iPad
- Classic interview: Tommy Thayer - my top 10 KISS songs
- Music for Peace: Erica Synths to donate to Ukraine
- Gábor Lázár: "Why does most music technology still offer almost the same techniques that we already had 30 years ago?"
- The simple drum mic technique used on Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Rolling Stones albums
- Solar drops hot neon colours on its made-for-metal 2022 bass guitar lineup