News archive
December 2023
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80 articles
- December 11
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- Ex-Slipknot drummer, Jay Weinberg makes first live appearance since split, sitting-in with The Bouncing Souls
- Plogue’s Chipsynth C64 plugin promises to be “the SID synthesizer you’ve been waiting for,” and a dream for lovers of ‘80s 8-bit music-making
- How Lee "Scratch" Perry's studio magic shaped popular music: “The studio must be like a living thing. The machine must be live and intelligent, then I put my mind into the machine and the machine perform reality”
- 5 songs you need to hear by Tom Petty
- A free chord lesson from one of the greatest guitarists on the planet
- “I really wanted the whole thing to sound like Animal Crossing”: Billie Eilish and Finneas reveal that Barbie song What Was I Made For? Has a Nintendo influence as they break down the track together
- Matteo Mancuso channels Eddie Van Halen on a cover of You Really Got Me
- The perfect Christmas gift for guitarists is on sale right now – save $65 on the Positive Grid Spark with free bag
- "It's got a very particular sound”: The soundtrack to Ridley Scott’s Napoleon movie features a piano that was once owned by Napoleon himself
- December 8
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- Sepultura announce split, so does this mean Eloy Casagrande is going to be the new drummer in Slipknot?
- Learn guitar for the price of a coffee - Fender Play is only $3.13 per month with this colossal 75% discount
- Learn a great warmup exercise for the winter holidays with this acoustic guitar lesson
- Damon Albarn slams The Rolling Stones and their new album Hackney Diamonds: “Making exactly the same music but not that good. There must be no joy in doing something like this"
- The classic clip of Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby playing the 1985 Grammy Awards is not just the most '80s thing ever, but - thanks to John Denver - a lesson in synth history
- The launch of Suzuki’s new Omnichord has been "postponed", but the good news is that it will be at the 2024 Winter NAMM Show
- Thank you for the Glaze: Native Instruments' holiday giveaway is a $49 Play Series instrument packed with free vocal samples for pop, hip-hop and R&B
- "Hell, let’s do it": John Lennon wrote and recorded Instant Karma in one day. Here's how it happened
- John Lennon's 10 greatest songs with the Beatles and beyond, ranked by you
- Nile Rodgers, Justin Hawkins, Katie Melua and more advice on how to deal with life on the road
- It's game on for Roland and its all new Ice White Edition Bridge Cast
- The story of Fairytale Of New York: “I sat down, opened the sherry, got the peanuts out and pretended it was Christmas…"
- BOSS celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a collectible supplement in the new issue of Guitarist magazine – plus a special interactive online timeline
- December 7
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- There’s something missing in your monitor setup and Kali Audio might just have the answer with the WS-6.2 Sub
- Jackson expands its Japanese made MJ Series with a pair of high-end shred-ready RR24MGs in two classic pinstripe finishes
- Ableton’s Push 3 Upgrade Kit is here, and It looks like it’s incredibly easy to turn your MIDI controller version into a standalone instrument
- Nevermind the other festive guitar deals, the iconic Kurt Cobain Jag-Stang has 20% off at Fender
- How Meduza almost abandoned billion-streaming global hit Piece of Your Heart: “We couldn’t figure out what to do with it - we were actually close to junking it”
- Lzzy Hale and Kramer team up for one of the loudest looking electric guitars you’ll see – a Voyager finished in high-voltage Black Diamond Holographic Sparkle
- Nail David Gilmour’s Wish You Were Here tones with Crazy Tube Circuits’ Hi Power, an amp-in-a-box drive pedal based on a Hiwatt amp and Coloursound Power Boost
- "It was the machine that made electronic music accessible": The 5 vintage synths that gave us synth-pop
- Wampler has made a new version of its wonderful Tumnus overdrive pedal – so is this Germanium version better or just different?
- Bitwig Studio 5.1 is now available and adds "10 new characters": is this the most creative DAW ever?
- 6 of the best new Eurorack modules in 2023
- Catalinbread opens up the Sinkhole, “a harmonically-rich ‘hole’ reverb with an impossibly deep four-voice chorus” for other-worldly guitar sounds
- Ubisoft’s Rocksmith+ can now teach you to play piano as well as guitar: use the 'falling notes' method or the sheet music view
- 6 of the best new controllers and sequencers in 2023
- Has guitarist Andy Wood just made the ultimate Eddie Van Halen pedalboard?
- December 6
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- “This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt”: Taylor Swift is named Time’s Person of the Year
- An Alex Lifeson signature pedal has arrived much sooner than we expected: you can get the Lerxst By-Tor Drive pedal right now
- How Gary Numan's unexpected discovery of the Minimoog paved the way for The Pleasure Principle and the birth of synth-pop: "I just pressed a key and it made that famous Moog sound, that low growl and the room vibrated. It was the most powerful thing"
- “The union passed a motion to ban the use of synths, drum machines and any electronic devices”: the day the 'Loony' Musician's Union tried to kill the synthesizer (which also happened to be Bob Moog’s birthday)
- Marta Salogni: "Seeing a mixing desk for the first time lit up something inside of me - it's the meeting point of music, art, science and engineering"
- We tried to make a Beatles track using AI-generated vocals - here's what happened
- 4 of the best new drum machines and grooveboxes in 2023
- December 5
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- "He was an outstanding vocalist and guitar player" – Paul McCartney leads tributes to Denny Laine as the Wings and Moody Blues founder passes away aged 89
- Love Floyd Rose vibratos, hate Allen keys? The Graph Tech Un-Lock Nut could be the electric guitar mod for you
- Japanese ambient musician Michiru Aoyama has woken at 5am to record a new album every day since 2021 – he's now earning $3,000 a month from his music on Spotify and Bandcamp
- “If you want authentic Soldano tube tone with the modern flexibility of digital control, the Soldano Astro-20 is the amp for you”: Mike Soldano’s latest tube amp is a versatile 20-watter with IRs and MIDI
- Max Richter unveils new piano plugin based on the renowned composer's Steinway D SPIRIO | r: "If you want to evoke the intimate stories we all carry inside us, then you will be well served by this instrument"
- Meet XLN Audio's AI-powered "happy accident machine": Life is a potentially highly addictive field recorder and plugin that makes instant beats from found sounds
- Fender marks 70 years of the Stratocaster with new colour options, and limited edition American Professional II and Player Series Anniversary editions
- Moog takes a deep dive into the world of bass sounds with the new Mariana soft synth, and the good news is that it runs on iOS, Mac and Windows
- “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called soundcheck”: Watch Prince shred on his Yellow Cloud guitar as the NPG warm up for their Special Olympics 1991 set
- 7 free plugins you need to know about this month
- "I don't think it ever really goes away" – Brian May admits he still suffers with imposter syndrome
- “I don’t want to generalise and say that he made everything sound good, but he did”: Joe Satriani reveals his strategy for replicating Eddie Van Halen’s tone on upcoming Sammy Hagar tour
- Modalics releases MINDst Drums, a new sampled drum kit plugin that promises realism and authenticity
- RØDE acquires rival Mackie to create audio powerhouse: "Their origin story is uncannily similar to ours"
- 7 of the best new hardware synths in 2023
- December 4
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- "This video is what happens when you spend your time practicing instead of arguing about gear online" – Julia Przybysz proves groove is in the hands with a stunning bass workout of Michael Jackson's Get On The Floor on a $350 StingRay
- Vince Clarke: "Martin Gore brought along his synthesizer, we looked at the thing and thought, this is a lot easier than learning chords on a guitar and you only need one finger to play it"
- The 7 ways I learned to improve my guitar tone – that won't cost you money
- Believe it or not, the Behringer UB-Xa synth is now on sale - and it’s even cheaper than we thought it was going to be
- 10 Christmas gift ideas for the music-maker in your life under $100
- Cherry Audio kicks off the festive celebrations with a free plugin emulation of Oberheim’s classic SEM synth module
- "It's just a good-looking toy": Is it worth buying a Teenage Engineering EP-133 KO II when you can do everything that it does (and more) on a free app?
- Expressive E's software instruments push the boundaries of physical modelling and MPE. Get up to 65% off in their Black Friday sale
- December 1
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- Watch Dave Grohl unleash a 36-minute live version of his Play instrumental
- “I am always able to come up with brand-new chords that no one has been stupid enough to sing over”: Page Hamilton on harmonic curiosity and the aggressive expansion of Helmet’s musical vocabulary
- Gretsch Drums launches new beginner-friendly Renegade Series drum kits
- DW unveils limited edition 14”x5” DW MFG True-Cast Snare
- Why does the Epiphone Greeny Les Paul cost $1,500?
- Buy a Taylor guitar and get a second one absolutely free
- Chroma chameleon: Arturia’s limited-edition KeyStep Pro controller comes with blue LEDs and lets you customise the colours of your tracks
- Arturia’s KeyLab Essential mk3 MIDI keyboards live up to their name, giving you all the control you need
- How to create drumless jam tracks or isolated drum tracks of your favourite songs for free
- “It covers my utilities bill”: German electronic musician Hainbach reveals how much his 1 million Spotify streams earned him in 2023
- Manson Guitar Works announces its most affordable UK-made guitars to date with the "very high-spec" one-pickup MA and Verona Junior models
- We tested 4 of the most popular online e-mastering services and compared them to a real mastering engineer. Here’s what happened
- How Gear Acquisition Syndrome almost ruined my life: "I love synths so much that I've lost my grip on reality. Why did I let myself spend 20k on sh*t I don’t even use?"
