News archive
March 2026
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33 articles
- March 5
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- “Until now, creativity has been stifled by the need to acquire playing skills. Now, using the computer, any child can play": Unearthed BBC video from 1986 shows what music technology in the classroom used to look and sound like
- “I’m sure there are players that don’t have an interest in playing dynamically and just want to be on or off… that’s cool, and there’s a lot of pickups that do that. But not mine”: How Mark Morton and Gibson reinvented the Les Paul for modern metal
- “Six highly collectible amplifiers valued at more than most homes are worth”: Looking for the holy grail tube tones of Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Carlos Santana and Robben Ford? IK Multimedia just put $300,000 of Dumble mojo into a Tonex One mini pedal
- “A happy bending of the rules of nature”: Elektron’s latest Syntakt update adds sample synthesis and new sequencing tools to the hybrid drum synth
- “The magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price”: Apple’s new MacBook Neo might be cheap, but for music producers, could it be a false economy? It’s complicated
- March 4
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- “Afterwards he sent David an invoice for $10,000. I don’t know if David actually paid him that much”: Tony Visconti on Dave Grohl’s “ludicrious” Bowie session fee
- “I wanted to recreate it, being lost in instrumentation and the musicality”: Harry Styles says that “hypnotic” electronic music by the likes of Floating Points and Jamie XX has influenced not only his new album, but also his marathon training
- “We set out to honour the soul of these iconic instruments while making them accessible to every kind of player”: Epiphone raises the bar for its acoustic guitar range with all-solid builds, rosewood fingerboards and affordable takes on Gibson classics
- Chompi's latest firmware update turns this cutesy sampler into an "entirely new instrument" with an arpeggiator, sample-slicing and more
- “For the past 30 years it has been the quintessential backline amplifier on stages and in studios around the world”: Fender celebrates three decades of the Hot Rod Deluxe with a stunning anniversary edition
- “MTV in 1997 or 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out - it was replaced by rap… People were waving guns. Some people assert the CIA was involved... above my pay grade, but I saw it happen”: Billy Corgan says rock was “dialled down” in the late ’90s
- “Every time I play a Les Paul or anything I just wanna do, like, AC/DC”: Sam Fender releases behind-the-scenes footage of him working on a guitar part for Rein Me In, his hit single with Olivia Dean
- “Dolly said ‘Can you just make it, like, reds and greens and sparkles?’. I played as many notes as I could while the other hand was working the transposer. She was going, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s it. Whee!’”: Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter on his life as a session player
- "An analogue FM synth that is actually fun to play": Frap Tools’ debut polysynth Magnolia might be the most exciting new instrument of 2026
- Tembo is a kid-friendly magnetic drum machine and sampler that promises "unforgettable family jam sessions"
- March 3
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- “I’m watching this sort of genius develop right in front of me, and he seems he has no physical barriers”: Joe Satriani on what it was like to teach a teenage Steve Vai
- “A couple of the lyrics turned out to be AI-generated… I thought, ‘Okay, I like the music. The lyrics are still in the spirit of what I’m going for, and so I’ll go for it’”: How Paul Gilbert accidentally wrote a song using an AI hallucination
- “It blew me away, and I felt things that I hadn't felt before. And also, more than that, I felt like I was listening to something I'd never listened to before”: How PinkPantheress’s meteoric rise has been aided and abetted by Basement Jaxx
- Hello Old Friend: Clapton heads out to Midwest for September US tour
- Novation unveils Launch Control 3 with OLED screen and expanded connectivity
- “This is a love and friendship story I have with Mexico that can’t be compared to anything. Thank you for all the excitement, all the joy you’ve made me feel”: Shakira breaks record for the largest gig in Mexico City’s Zócalo
- “There’s a box for the band, and if we’re lucky and they want to jump on stage, great”: Could Billy Joel make a live comeback at his own tribute night?
- “Independent venues aren’t just part of music history – they’re where the future is written”: Marshall launches membership scheme and pledges percentage of online sales to support grassroots music venues
- Lights Up: Harry Styles one-off cut price Manchester show is to be made into a Netflix Special
- “Ignore the cameras, and ignore the Hall Of Fame drummer sitting next to you”: When some drum students find out their regular teacher’s been replaced by Chad Smith
- 10 of the best Roland TB-303 tracks of all time: Aphex Twin, Fatboy Slim, Voodoo Ray and more
- March 2
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- “It’s my legacy as a human - like raising my kids, marrying my wife, and honouring my parents”: Brandi Carlile on helping Joni Mitchell return to the stage
- “I’d been in and around music since I was 15, so I guess I wasn’t surprised. I just started to become conscious of it”: Pete Tong admits he has to wear a hearing aid these days
- "If you watch closely, the cello’s slipping and I’m pulling it up while playing. It was so embarrassing. I think I faked it but it didn’t sound that great": Laufey reveals that she suffered a cello malfunction during a Grammys performance with Billy Joel
- “Then Tim said something that changed everything: ‘There’s clearly still an audience. Fans still love these games. Just start by making a guitar’”: Guitar Hero's spiritual successor is on the way
- “The advice I give to all aspiring songwriters and performers is ‘Don’t repeat yourself. Develop and grow. Raise the bar”: Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka has died, aged 86
- Dawesome's Love 2 granular multi-effects plugin promises "instant beauty for any sound"
- March 1