Moog has a deep history with modular synthesis. Bob Moog’s original pioneering synth design was a modular instrument, the patchable elements of which laid the blueprint for over 60 years of hardware synth design.

Despite a history of pioneering modular instruments, Moog was slightly slow to capitalise on the Eurorack boom that happened in the early 2010s. It took until the release of the Mother-32 in 2015 for Moog to properly wade into the modern modular waters.

That first entry into the ‘Mother’ range was a fairly straightforward instrument, a single oscillator monosynth equipped with a 32-step sequencer, 32-point patchbay and classic Moog ladder filter. But it brought the core of the classic Moog modular design to the masses.

In the decade since its release, the Mother-32 has been joined by four siblings, creating a range of Eurorack-compatible, analogue modular instruments designed to compliment one another and provide a jumping off point for modular experimentation. As this ‘Mother’ range approaches its 10th birthday, we’ve put the range head-to-head to rank them from worst to best.

Let’s start with a major caveat here – we are not ranking every one of Moog’s semi modular synths here. Even in the current line-up, the company has the likes of the keyboard-equipped Matriarch and Grandmother, plus the DIY Werkstatt and Mavis. While these are all impressive instruments, we’re excluding them here in favour of focussing on a side-by-side comparison of the five instruments that share a form-factor, design approach and similar price point.

In the video above, you can watch MusicRadar’s Reviews Editor Simon Arblaster and Managing Editor Si Truss argue about our choices.

Of course, while all synths in the range can be used standalone, these patchable instruments are designed to be in combination with each other and other modular gear. In that spirit, in our video we challenge ourselves to convince one another of the best two-synth pairing, and each put a patch together to make our case.

Honestly, we’re fans of the range as a whole, but which is the least essential and which is the cream of the crop? Let’s count them down…

There’s a lot we really love about Subharmonicon. Its unique sequencer design puts an emphasis on polyrhythms and subharmonic frequencies. Two sequencer lanes can be driven in a mix-and-match fashion by four rhythm generators, the combination of which can create patterns that evolve and move in hard-to-predict ways.

These sequencers can be routed to the synth’s two oscillators, each of which comes accompanied by two sub oscillators, which can be tuned to pitches quantised to either equal temperament or just intonation tuning systems. The result creates evolving chords with up to six tones, encouraging harmonic and rhythmic experimentation.

For all its experimental tendencies though, the actual sound of Subharmonicon can be a little vanilla for our tastes. The oscillators have square and saw modes, and there’s an A/D envelope and resonant ladder filter on offer to shape the sound, but compared to some of the other machines in this line-up, there’s not masses of sound design potential without patching in some external gear.

For our money, Subharmonicon comes alive when drenched in reverb and delay. Great for evolving ambience, but a little one-dimensional when it comes to sound design.

Spectravox is the least self-contained of Moog’s semi-modular range. Billed as an analogue vocoder and filter bank, while Spectravox does pack a single oscillator that allows it to be played as a simple synth, it really comes to life when fed an external input.

We’d argue that Spectravox is best when not being treated like a traditional vocoder. The Program input can be fed a variety of sources as well as the human voice, and can do some fascinating things when fed distorted drum beats or resonant acid-like synths.

This is a theme for Spectravox as a whole – the more hardware you have to pair with it, the better it becomes. Of all Moog’s semi-modulars, this is the one that makes the least sense as a standalone purchase.

The ability to use each filter band as a CV envelope follower, routed to modulate other hardware, is a highlight and has the potential to keep you entertained long after the novelty of the ‘robot voice’ vocoder sound wears off.

The newest addition to Moog’s semi-modular lineup is one of the most experimental synthesizers we’ve seen in recent years.

Moog describes Labyrinth as a ‘parallel generative analogue synth’. In practice, the first two of these words refer to two distinctive elements of Labyrinth’s design – its unique dual-path synth engine, and its sequencer, which uses randomisation tools in order to create some unpredictable, polymetric patterns.

We love its West Coast sound and experimental design. While some of Moog’s semi-modular instruments are only likely to appeal in specific contexts or paired with other bits of modular gear, as with Spectravox or Subharmonicon, there’s a lot to recommend Labyrinth, whether it's used as a self-contained desktop synth, as a part of a wider Moog rig or installed as a synth voice-come-sequencer in a Eurorack system.

On the downside, we find the interface here fiddly – a running theme with these compact synths, but it’s particularly evident here with the cramped UI and annoying sequencer buttons. The slightly out-there design of the signal path won’t suit everybody either. For those happy to look past these factors though, there’s a lot of inspiration to be found here.

Mother-32 was Moog’s first foray into this Eurorack-friendly, semi-modular format. In many ways, Moher-32 is the most traditional instrument in the range, based around a fairly straightforward semi-modular design.

With just a single oscillator and fairly basic modulation sources, Moog’s Mother-32 might look a little under-powered compared to some of its semi-modular rivals – both from Moog and elsewhere – but its handy patch bay and excellent sounding components give it more punch than you might expect.

If nothing else, Mother-32 offers the easiest way to get that classic ‘Moog sound’ – and the audio input lets your route signals through its gorgeous-sounding ladder filter. Its sequencer and MIDI input are handy too, both for use with its internal sound engine and for acting as a base when paired with other semi-modulars.

Potentially, this is a great gateway into the world of modular synthesis for those looking to dip their toes in the water for the first time. So be warned - buying one may lead you to purchasing another two, and then shelling out on a full Eurorack rig.

An initialisation of Drummer From Another Mother, DFAM sits in the space somewhere between drum machine and synthesiser. On the one hand, its monophonic signal path with dual oscillators and resonant ladder filter is classic Moog synth fodder. However, the snappy envelopes – with control over just the decay length – combined with its routable noise generator and basic eight-step sequencer, means the instrument is particularly well-suited to punchy, percussive sounds.

Core to DFAM’s character is the way its oscillators interact. The two VCOs have a particularly wide range, and can be synced as well as used for audio rate modulation. Each oscillator also has its own punchy pitch envelope, all of which makes the synth capable of excellent metallic perc tones, tuned drums and sweeping kicks that can really cut through a mix.

It’s not perfect. The sequencer can be annoyingly fiddly, and the lack of MIDI sync makes incorporating it into a wider setup a pain – although it’s arguable that both of these aspects contribute to its unique character.

When we’re out in the real world visiting artists in the studio, DFAM appears to be one of those synths almost everybody seems to own. A must-have and a modern classic.

Previously, it seems, albums very much took a back seat to the band’s gigs.

“I guess the first few years of our life as a band, we were like, ‘We’re touring musicians who need to make adverts for our live shows’. That’s what the records are,” frontman Marcus Mumford told the newspaper.

He continued: “I remember I said that to Neil Young once, and he was like, ‘You’ve got it all wrong, man. Your live shows aren’t the things that are going to last. They’re moments in time and experiences that are beautiful and great, but your recordings are going to last. So you need to pay attention to how you record music.’”

The band have certainly paid attention and taken care over their new record. Rushmere is their first album for seven years and the first since the departure of Winston Marshall in 2021.

Announcing the new album in a press release earlier this year, Mumford said: “I think we always felt like we knew we were going to release some more music, but we wanted to wait for the right music. We’ve never been in haste, I don’t think. But when this music came around, we had a sense of urgency.”

Mumford also revealed that he and his bandmates deliberated logged off from social media to avoid unwanted distraction during the making of Rushmere. "This is the first time I've put anything out and actually done what artists always say they're going to do, which is not to read anything or look at anything. So I'm off it all. I feel really great.

"I took Twitter off my phone. It's one of the best things I've ever done. I haven't looked up any of it - and I'm like in blissful ignorance. I'll see the feedback at the shows when we start playing. Historically, our band has always judged our success on ticket sales more than anything else, not comments."

The band have recently completed a tour of small venues across Europe, North America and Australia, but if you weren’t able to catch them then they return for arena dates in Britain and Ireland later in the year.

And Dog Paws’ new weighted controller hits all those spots bang on the nose.

Dog Paw is a new company, only just establishing itself a boutique builder of tech gear aimed to fit broad niches, and its self-titled first offering is a first public foray into the crowded world of MIDI controllers. It’s a device that’s currently looking for support via Kickstarter so that the team, based in Oakland, California, can make it a reality.

And don't let appearances be deceptive. This is not just another controller.

At a passing glance the Dog Paw looks like any other set of drum pads. Like the front surface of an Akai MPC, or the pads off stage right on a Roland Fantom. Hit them, trigger a sound, you know the score.

But it’s only when you take a closer look via video that Grid’s special features set it apart.

Instead of each large, square, pad being a simple ‘button’, they’re weighted in much the same way as a weighted piano keyboard giving a much more tactile approach to playing what can broadly be considered a new type of instrument, or, if you want the touch but not the sound, for adding more depth and feel to the inputs in your DAW.

For while this is a new type of controller with 'the feel of a piano with the versatility of a grid controller,' its makers claim it’s also an entire musical instrument all-in-one, with a built-in Raspberry Pi-based computer and audio outputs giving it synth and sample capabilities with no extra gear required.

“Dog Paw bridges the gap between traditional instruments and modern controllers," explains Bill Bartke-Croughan, the creator of Dog Paw.

"Musicians coming from acoustic backgrounds will find an intuitive way into electronic music production, while producers and digital creators can add a new layer of expression to their workflows.”

Not only are the instrument's pads sensitive to the degree of velocity with which its pads are struck, but also they’re also pressure and movement sensitive allowing the player to introduce vibrato and pitch bend just as you would a stringed instrument.

Press and shake for vibrato. Bend the pad left and right… Bend the pitch up and down.

And all on a device that – rather than being stuffy old piano key shaped and requiring a degree of keyboard skill (as per Roli’s multiple takes on similar heightened means of control) – looks and plays like a set of finger-friendly drum pads instead.

“Avoid the confusing finger gymnastics of traditional instruments. With our grid layout, the pattern you learn for one chord or scale will work everywhere,” its makers claim.

And rather than simply being a front end to getting digits into your DAW (it needless to say offers full MIDI and MPE compatibility) it’s audio outputs and audio sound engine mean you can leave the laptop at home too.

Find out more about Dog Paw and help make their dream a reality here.

Wireless audio was once the stuff of magic until the development of Bluetooth. So why is it that it’s not everywhere in music production and DJing? Well, put simply, Bluetooth sucks for anything other than music listening. Try to mix or produce anything using Bluetooth and you’ll quickly discover that the latency is utterly unusable.

But the future is bright. Imperceptible, ultra-low latency wireless audio has long been out of reach for musicians, DJs and producers. Until now…

AlphaTheta has developed a new wireless protocol called SonicLink, which has a greater range than Bluetooth and latency figures 20 times faster at just nine milliseconds.

While an emerging technology, ultra-low latency wireless audio over WiFi isn’t new. However, AlphaTheta’s approach with SonicLink will change the way you mix and produce music within its DJing ecosystem.

AlphaTheta’s current range of SonicLink-equipped products deliver everything you need to go fully wireless, whether that’s in the studio, performing live or just out and about.

HDJ-F10 TX

The HDJ-F10s are AlphaTheta’s flagship do-it-all DJ headphones, complete with Bluetooth and SonicLink connectivity. They are perfectly set up to be just as at home on the commute as they are in the DJ booth.

The closed-back F10s feature 40mm drivers that can deliver a very wide frequency response of 5 Hz – 30 kHz at 32 Ohms. You also get Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency listening modes that will help you tailor your monitoring experience, depending on the noise levels around you. While ANC completely blocks out all external noise, the Transparency mode allows some of the natural ambience of your surroundings in, so at least you’ll still be able to hold a conversation.

The HDJ-F10 TX package includes the F10 headphones but also comes with its own transmitter (HP-TX01), much like the Wave-Eight. However, this transmitter only works with the F10s, which can also be said of the Wave-Eight and its transmitter.

The range is the same as the Wave-Eight at 15 metres, but it benefits from a slightly longer battery life at 9 hours. Bluetooth, however, can last up to anywhere around the 30-hour mark, depending on conditions and that’s even with ANC activated.

Wave-Eight

The Wave-Eight is quite possibly the ultimate portable DJ speaker. A battery life of up to 8 hours, IPX4 waterproof rating, a retractable handle, and wheels are just the half of it. Combined with a wireless all-in-one system such as the Omnis-Duo and you can DJ anywhere.

Not only that, Wave-Eight can be configured with up to three speakers to create a complete sound system. A single unit will provide a basic mono setup, whereas two can create a stereo system, and you can add a third to use as a sub, courtesy of the low-cut and subwoofer options within the onboard EQ control.

This portable party PA also features inputs of two XLR/TRS combo jacks, a 1/4″ TRS jack, a 3.5mm stereo mini jack and a single XLR output

The SonicLink transmitter can be neatly stored and charged in a protective side compartment. The unit has an RCA input to connect your mixer or DJ controller for wireless connectivity with the Wave-Eight speaker system with an unobstructed range of up to 15 metres.

Alpha Theta XDJ-AZ

Finally, in the SonicLink lineup, we have the latest all-in-one club-ready controller, the XDJ-AZ.

As well as inheriting the same layout from the flagship CDJ-3000 and DJM-A9, the XDJ-AZ also features compatibility with rekordbox CloudDirectPlay, StreamingDirectPlay, rekordbox and Serato DJ Pro for Mac/Windows.

This is the first AlphaTheta product that features an integrated SonicLink transmitter, giving you one less thing to worry about. You can directly pair your HDJ-F10 headphones to the AZ, giving you the freedom to roam the booth when playing live.

To find out more about the Wave-Eight, HDJ-F10 TX, XDJ-AZ and SonicLink, head over to the AlphaTheta website.

The second of those took place last night (27 March). This was ‘Synergy In Motion’, a multi-discipline evening of contemporary dance and music, which saw the Royal Ballet choreographer Joseph Toonga create original choreography to the film scores of Daniel Pemberton, which was then in turn remixed and reshaped by Abbey Road's Artist In Residence, Jordan Rakei.

The studio’s Director of Marketing and Creative, Mark Robertson, seemed pleased: “Last night was a celebration of creativity in all its forms, which is at the heart of Abbey Road,” he said. “For the first time ever, we took boundary-pushing expressive dance into Studio One, by devising a concept that sees the worlds of contemporary dance, film scores and cutting-edge music collide. What appealed about Joseph is that he creates choreography that challenges convention by blending styles from ballet to hip-hop and crunk, which felt appropriate for the fusion of Daniel and Jordan’s music.”

The first Studio One celebration, which took place on 18 March, was an orchestral tribute to all the incredible film music that has been created in the room over the decades: a long list that includes the scores for Return Of The Jedi, The Last Emperor, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and many, many more.

Studio One has been out of action for six months whilst it’s undergone restoration and upgrading. The 20-year-old 72-channel AMS Neve 88RS SP2 recording console has been replaced by a brand-new 84-channel SP3D console. New 7.1.4 monitoring has been put in, and the live room has seen the introduction of 10 rows of wool serge to replace the 21 rows of acoustic treatment ‘washing line’ that had been there since 1970.

It’s the largest of the three main Abbey Road studios. Indeed, it remains the world’s largest purpose-built studio, with enough space to host a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir. Back in the day it saw classical greats such as Elgar, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Maria Callas pass through its doors. More recently it’s played host to sessions by Noel Gallagher, Little Simz and Harry Styles, as well as ones for the soundtracks to Barbie, Gladiator II and Wonka.

Are you looking to finally start learning the keys? You’re in luck! Guitar Center is currently running a fantastic sale on keyboards and beginner digital pianos, offering amazing discounts of up to 30% off on popular brands like Alesis, Casio, Yamaha, and more. This is the perfect chance to take your first musical steps; whether you're searching for an affordable starter keyboard or a high-end piano that'll last you a lifetime, Guitar Center has a wide selection to cater to every musician's needs. 

More into live sound equipment? Well, Sweetwater's live sound month is still in full swing, but be warned, it will end soon. Imagine snagging top-notch gear that makes you sound like a rockstar, even if you're just trying to impress your cat during practice sessions. Whether you want to upgrade your PA system, grab some shiny new microphones, or stock up on cables - which, let’s face it, tend to disappear - Sweetwater has you covered!

If you're in the UK, you're in for a guitar-shaped treat. Andertons is still running a massive electric guitar sale featuring over 200 items. You'll find an incredible selection of electric guitars from top brands like Gibson, PRS, Fender, ESP, and Ibanez, among others. Whether you're a seasoned musician or just starting out, this sale is a fantastic opportunity to snag your dream guitar at a great price - but be quick, it ends Monday. 

US Editor's picks

UK Editor's picks

Looking for more bargains? Check out more recommended sales below:

• Thomann: Shop hot deals
• Andertons: Here's the very best offers
• Guitar Center: Save big on guitars & more
• Fender Shop: Shop discounted Strats & Teles
• Sweetwater: Latest deals at Sweetwater
• IK Multimedia: Save on iRig and AXE I/O
• Musician's Friend: Save big at MF
• Plugin Boutique: Save big on plugins
• Positive Grid: Smart amp sale
• Reverb: Save big on top brands
• Guitar Tricks: One-year sub just $99

How we choose our deals of the week

Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear-related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our deals.

Our mission is simple - to help you make the best buying decision, find the right gear at the right price, to make the best music you can.

For us to recommend a deal it has to be a product we rate that’s been reduced to a genuinely great price or part of a truly fantastic bundle. It’s also important that we only recommend retailers that we trust.

You can see more of our product recommendations in our buyer's guides and reviews.

Why you can trust our choices

Our editors and writers are all experienced musicians and experts in their fields. They have a deep understanding of the categories that they cover, which means that you can trust their choices when it comes to recommending products.

We pride ourselves on the independence, quality and reliability of our testing processes and the reviews it produces. It’s what has made us the world’s leading music-making publishing company. You can find more details on how we test some specific key product categories, but the principles apply across the board, rigorously assessing build quality, functionality, playability and, of course, sonic performance.

We cover a lot of the big sales events throughout the year, including Memorial Day, Black Friday, 4th of July sales and Amazon Prime Day, and we have a good view of which products are likely to receive the biggest discounts and when, the prices they’ve been in the past and which deals are genuinely worth a look.

Where are the best places to shop?

Online shopping is definitely a lot easier and more secure than it used to be, and we like to recommend a small handful of online retailers who have a sterling reputation and offer fantastic benefits like fuss-free returns, great customer service and, in some cases, full checks and setup of guitars before they are dispatched. So, all the deals we’ll recommend on this page are from retailers that tick these boxes.

What sort of deals should I look for?

Great deals come in all shapes and sizes. There are a few key types to look out for:

• Single item - A single product with a great discount
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• Added value deals - These include multi-buy discounts, or additional products or software for free when you buy certain items

One of the standout tracks from the record, of course, was smash hit not-a-single Birds Of A Feather, and in a new multipart video series for Mix with the Masters, Castelli and Forbes have been explaining how they made its component parts gel together.

Step one, it turns out, was making sure that they were hearing exactly what Billie and Finneas had created. “The most sensitive part was getting the audio files from Logic to come into Pro Tools sounding exactly the same, because there’s so much inherently baked-in to Finneas’s arrangement and rough mix,” says Castelli.

This involved a bit of gain staging, but it was crucial preparation for the task ahead, because it meant that, if Finneas was ever unhappy with part of a mix, they could get back to the sound of his original.

With this done, it was time to dive into arguably the most crucial part of the mix: the vocals.

“This whole album, Billie went so deep on vocals,” says Forbes, adding that it was his and Castelli’s job to make sure the character of these vocals remained intact. “If you alter it, it starts to become, you’re like, ‘well, that's not the person I know,’” he says.

This meant that the compressor choice was crucial, and in the case of Birds Of A Feather, they chose a Brainworx plugin emulation of a Solid State Logic classic.

“I assume we have the [SSL 4000] G on this one for her,” says Forbes, with Castelli adding: “that’s what’s holding her forward, with a little bit of top-end boost and low-end body on the 200.”

Finding the right tool for the job, though, sometimes required a bit of trial and error.

“We would just A/B different boxes, like, SSL G channel versus J channel; Ozone Tape versus maybe like a Kramer tape - just these like emulation boxes that give tonal shifts and character to things without necessarily changing it.”

It turns out that it isn’t her vocals that Eilish herself likes most about Birds Of A Feather, though: “Billie’s favorite part is when that bass comes in,” confirms Forbes. “John gassed it in the best way.”

“I was like, ‘man - this is the energy,’” says Castelli of that bassline, and it certainly jumps out of the final mix. There was a balance to be struck, though, and Forbes says that they had to ask themselves “between the top end of the bass, how loud can it be without competing with her?”

Elsewhere in the series, Castelli talks about the value of having a co-mixer on a project like this, where neither the artist or producer is there with him.

“Historically you would have the producer in the room, the artist in the room,” he says. “You'd have four hands on the console - six hands on the console. We don't have that anymore.”

Of Forbes - who is also Eilish's musical director - Castelli goes on to say that he really appreciated “having him on the sofa and trading places with me at the desk,” and his co-mixer was happy to take this step back. Sitting on that sofa, Forbes says: “I instantly fell in love with this seat because the low-end made sense to me.”

It was the meeting of minds and perspectives that ultimately made the magic happen though: “there's things you can hear up there I can't hear back here and vice versa,” says Forbes.

Subscribers can watch the full video series on the Mix with the Masters website.

It’s directed by Susan Lacy, who’s also helmed HBO docs Jane Fonda in Five Acts and Spielberg. Billy Joel: And So It Goes is a full career retrospective job that includes never-before-seen performances, home movies, personal photographs and one-to-one interviews.

Joel has been the subject of documentaries before, but 2010’s The Last Play At Shea was, as the title suggests, centred around his 2008 concert at Shea, the final one before the iconic baseball stadium was demolished. There was also A Matter Of Trust: The Bridge To Russia, which looked at his late-'80s trip to the Soviet Union.

He’s certainly an interesting subject for a documentary. Joel was one of the generation of American musicians whose lives were changed forever by seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964. Aged 16, he reputedly played on The Shangri-Las’ Leader Of The Pack, but it wasn’t until the rise of adult-orientated rock in the mid-1970s and albums like Turnstiles (1976) and The Stranger (1977) that his solo career began to catch fire.

He’s always been an artist to follow his own nose, unafraid to do whatever he wants, whether that means writing a belligerent response to punk (It’s Still Rock N’ Roll To Me) or a homage to the Four Seasons and pre-Beatles pop (the 1983 album, An Innocent Man). Or indeed stopping recording pop albums entirely after 1993’s River Of Dreams - his only new album in the last thirty years has been a collection of classical piano pieces, Fantasies and Delusions, though he did release a new single, Turn The Lights Back On, in 2024.

Susan Lacy said, “For those who think they know Joel’s story, as well as those who are not as familiar, I believe this two-part film is both a revelation and a surprise. I was drawn to his story as someone who knew little at the outset, and was astounded at how autobiographical his songs are and how complex his story is. We are gratified that Bill trusted us with his story, which we have told as honestly as possible, diving into territory which has not been explored before.”

Now, in an interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Sheeran has been explaining how he discovered loopers and demonstrating how he uses his current rig to perform his 2017 number one hit, Shape Of You.

Describing his first exposure to live looping, Sheeran says: “I went to go and see a band that I loved when I was about 14, and the guy who was opening up for them, a guy called Gary Dunne, he was sort of hitting his guitar and recording and it sounded like a drum. And I remember watching it being like, ‘That looks really cool, and also, he doesn't need a band.’ And at the time, I wasn't, like, the coolest kid, and people didn't want to be in a band with me.”

Seizing the moment, Sheeran says that he reached out to Dunne via social media.

“I messaged him on MySpace, and he taught me how to use one, and he's still my mate now,” he explains. “So, that was like the first time - when I was like 14 - I started using one. And then, as my career has progressed and it's gone from, you know, small bars to stadiums, the pedal has sort of grown with us.”

Dunne told his side of the story to the BBC back in 2017, just after Sheeran had headlined Glastonbury and TV viewers were left wondering how he managed to perform the entire set on his own.

"I was playing a gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire and I played solo, with a loop station. At the time I was a struggling musician, so I made a lot of my living through doing concerts in fans' houses,” he said.

As he remembers it, the contact came via an email from Sheeran’s father, who asked if Dunne would be willing to play at Ed’s 15th birthday party.

"Ed and his Dad picked me up from the train station and I did a gig to Ed and his teenage buddies,” he recalled. "Then we stayed up late looking at live looping and the basics of how to use it - and that was the beginning of our friendship. Little did I know he'd become the biggest star in the world."

Such is his synonymity with looper pedals, of course, that Sheeran now has his own range of them, though it looked like own custom model that he used to show Fallon the live cyclical recording ropes. He even got him to sing at one point.

In another part of the interview, Sheeran confirmed that not only Shape Of You but also Love Yourself - a song that eventually went to Justin Bieber - were written with Rihanna in mind.

“Rihanna has the best taste out of anyone,” he says. “She always picks just really, really great songs. So, as songwriters, you know, within the songwriting community, you're always writing songs to pitch to Rihanna. Like, every single album that I've ever done, I've always gone ‘right, on the side, let's try and write a song that we can pitch to Rihanna.’”

Sheeran believes he’s not alone in this, either, and that having the Barbadian star in mind has probably helped others to raise their games, too.

“I promise you, there'll be so many songwriters out there that their best song came from trying to write a Rihanna song,” he says.

Sheeran also confirmed that his new album will be called Play. He was recently spotted debuting what’s believed to be the first single from it, a song called Azizam, as he busked his way around New Orleans.

Following the sale of the building to in 2023 for an estimated £10.5 million, a public consultation took place last year that invited local partners to offer feedback on the proposed development.

That consultation has now ended, and a planning application has been submitted by Mavis Partnership LLC, a group led by Zimmer that includes business partner Steve Kofsky and British film producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan. Westminster City Council will review the application on April 1.

The application details plans to build two separate wings for music and film. The "Audio wing" will feature four "world-class" music studios alongside several additional composer suites and 30 music practice rooms, while the "Visual wing" will contain "high-tech facilities" for film post-production, including sound stages, foley studios, screening rooms and editing suites.

Originally constructed in 1909 as an ice rink, the Grade II-listed Maida Vale Studios has played host to artists such as The Beatles, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse and Beyoncé, and was the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1934. The historic BBC Radiophonic Workshop was based at Maida Vale until its closure in 1998.

In 2018, the BBC announced plans to move its live music hub to a new facility in East London, a decision opposed by a number of artists, including Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and Geoff Barrow of Portishead.

“The proposed studio will be one of the only such facilities in the world and the first in the UK, creating a venue of national importance to UK creative industries," reads a statement on the group's website.

"These proposed upgrades will set new benchmarks for excellence in British film and music post-production, fostering the creation of new jobs, driving innovation, and promoting industry investment."

Asked by the Sunday Times if either she or her teenage kids were onboard the Brat bandwagon, Murphy said: “Not really, no”. Explaining her reasoning, she added: “It’s too pop, y’know? When things are very processed, it’s like… processed cheese.”

Charli XCX is, of course, one of the most famous exponents of hyperpop, which tends to push the dial in a consciously exaggerated way in terms of both sound and production. As such, Murphy’s criticisms do make a certain amount of sense… though it’s all a matter of taste, of course.

Murphy has more time for the likes of Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey, it seems, but can’t see the similarities between their career paths and her own.

“They’re all really great - but straight out of club culture? I don’t know. In terms of real characters, there are not that many, no.”

This isn’t to say that she’s not willing to step out of her club-focused comfort zone in the future, though: “More voiceless instrumentation, maybe, working with different forms - why not?” she says as she considers her future direction. “As I get older, I don’t wanna fight so much with genre and clutter in the music.”

This week, Sennheiser has announced Dear Reality will be closing up shop as it consolidates its "immersive audio initiatives", and it's making 11 of the company's plugins available as a free download until July 31.

Dear Reality's catalogue covers a range of applications within immersive audio: among the titles up for grabs are dearVR Pro 2, a spatialization plugin equipped with 46 virtual acoustic presets, dearVR Mix, a monitoring tool that emulates a stereo mix room in headphones using spatial audio, and Exoverb, a reverb that promises to add "three-dimensional depth and width perception" to stereo productions.

Also available are dearVR Spatial Connect, a VR controller for spatial audio productions, Miya, an experimental re-synthesizer with adjustable harmonics, and a number of slimmed-down 'Micro' versions of Dear Reality plugins. We've copied a full list below.

If you're someone that works in immersive audio, or you're simply curious about experimenting with it, the Dear Reality catalogue is worth downloading: all you'll need to do is subscribe to Sennheiser's newsletter here.

Sennheiser has stated that Dear Reality products will no longer be developed or maintained, and their licenses will be deactivated on July 31.

Dear Reality plugins

• dearVR Pro 2: A state-of-the-art spatializer plugin whether mixing in stereo, multi-channel up to 9.1.6, binaural, or Ambisonics.
• Exoverb: Stereo reverb plugin offering 50 true-to-life sounding acoustic scenes with unheard three-dimensional depth and width. 
• Exoverb Micro: Compact reverb plugin powered by the same proprietary reverb engine as its bigger brother, EXOVERB. 
• dearVR Ambi Micro: Mix, monitor, and render Ambisonics tracks up to 3rd order right out of the box.
• dearVR Micro: Easy-to-use spatializer plugin. Fully immerse your listener with mind-blowing binaural tracks.
• dearVR Mix: Monitoring plugin to turn any studio headphones into a world-class stereo mix room. 
• dearVR Mix-SE: Ultimate mixing environment for your HD 490 PRO reference studio headphones.
• dearVR Spatial Connect: A revolutionary and intuitive VR controller for spatial audio productions.
• Miya: Creative re-synthesizer plugin using adjustable harmonics. 
• dearVR Music: Turn your DAW into a 3D audio powerhouse. Start creating stunningly realistic 3D music productions and go beyond the limitations of stereo sound.
• dearVR Unity: Create ultra-realistic acoustic environments in Unity with a true perception of direction, distance, reflections, and reverb.

Now, before I worked at MusicRadar, writing about music gear for a living, I used to sell pianos and keyboards in a busy music store. So, I’ve used my background in music retail to come up with my pick of the very best keyboard and piano deals from across this mammoth sale. 

Below, you’ll find my expert choices from a wide range of price categories and styles. Whether you’re a newbie looking for your first beginner keyboard or an experienced player seeking a new digital piano, you'll find it in this epic sale.  

But not a boyband, it seems. “It was not a boyband,” he insisted in an interview with Alexis Petridis of the Guardian. “It was the cast of a television show, like when the cast of Glee made albums.”

The drummer always seemed the Monkee most at ease with their peculiar situation, a ‘band’ of four actors who were pretending to be a band. Less so his colleague Mike Nesmith, who from quite early on chafed against his puppet masters.

“I knew what he was going through,” remembers Dolenz. “He was frustrated because he was misled. He was not an actor, he was a singer-songwriter, and they told him he was going to write and record his own music. And basically, he was not allowed to do that.

“In the very early days of the show, he went to the producers with his guitar and played them a song he’d written that he wanted the Monkees to record. According to him, they said, ‘Thank you, but no thank you - it’s not a Monkees song.’ He said, ‘Wait a minute, I am one of the fucking Monkees. What are you talking about?’ But they blew him off.”

That song was Different Drum, which Nesmith gave to the Stone Poneys (which featured a young Linda Ronstadt) and who promptly took it into the US Top 20.

Eventually, The Monkees were granted their wish, and from their 1967 Headquarters album onwards, played on their own records and recorded their own songs. And Dolenz himself supplied one of their biggest UK hits, the brilliantly-inventive Randy Scouse Git (or ‘Alternate Title’), which reached Number 2 in the UK in July that year.

And Dolenz was also an early synth adopter. Indeed, he bought the third one that was sold commercially (the first two were owned by Wendy Carlos and, rather more incongruously, country singer Buck Owens). You can hear the Moog Modular III on some tracks on the band’s late 1967 album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd, in particular, Star Collector and Mike Nesmith’s Daily Nightly.

You can even make a claim for the Monkees’ use of the Moog as being an influence on the Beatles. In an interview with the LA Times in 2009, Dolenz revealed that “I threw a party for John Lennon one night, and he sat there at the Moog for four hours making flying saucer sounds.” Two years later came Abbey Road and tracks like I Want You (She’s So Heavy) and Because, both of which use the Moog.

Not that Dolenz is ever the sort to boast about such things. Indeed, as he mentions in the interview, it was his ability to maintain a distance from his onscreen persona that helped him maintain his sanity.

“I think because of my upbringing in the business, I always attempted to separate the person from the persona," he says. "I wasn’t always successful, but that’s incredibly important if you want to survive. To some degree, I’ve always known that Micky the wacky drummer on television was who the girls were in love with - not me, Micky Dolenz.”

Today, Output unveils a new plugin that's designed to speed up that process, which the company describes as "one of the biggest challenges in music production". Billed as "the fastest way to find samples that fit your music", Co-Producer is an AI-powered plugin that sits on your master bus and listens to your project, analyzing its rhythm and harmony before suggesting royalty-free samples from Output's library to augment the track.

Open up Co-Producer and you'll be given the option to play either four or eight bars of audio into the plugin to be analyzed. Before searching for appropriate samples, you're asked to provide Co-Producer with your track's key signature, and given the option to add a text prompt that tells the plugin what instrument, genre or vibe you're looking for.

Once you've hit the search button, Co-Producer will return a list of samples that should match up harmonically and rhythmically with your project. You're able to preview the sounds from within the plugin, with sounds synced to the appropriate key and tempo, before dragging and dropping to your timeline. Samples can also be dropped into Output's sampler plugin Arcade to be transformed into playable instruments.

Co-Producer is a subscription-based plugin that gives users access to a regularly updated library of "premium, musician-made" samples. Output gives all subscribers unlimited access to its entire sample library, rather than operating a credit-based system like sample platforms such as Splice.

"We built Co-Producer to address the real frustrations of music makers. After talking with thousands of writers and producers, it was clear that endlessly scrolling for samples held back creativity," says Output CEO Gregg Lehrman.

"Artists want sounds that fit their track from the start, with the ability to preview them in context and drag-and-drop directly from within their DAW. They also don’t like the credits system that many companies have."

"We're not using AI to generate audio—we're using it to improve how music makers work," adds Spencer Salazar, Output’s Head of R&D. "By combining language models, audio analysis, and a scalable engine, we deliver high-quality, musician-made results that are 100% free and clear to use."

Output Co-Producer is available now for $9.99/month and a 7-day free trial is available.

Find out more on Output's website.

That’s not to say that streaming isn’t a thing in the DJ realm – the likes of Beatport, Beatsource and Soundcloud each offer streaming subscriptions aimed specifically at DJs, and AlphaTheta’s recent emphasis on Cloud services means that Rekordbox users can access their library of tracks remotely. But for the most part there’s been no way for users of streaming giants Spotify or Apple Music to make use of their subscriptions for DJing.

That’s set to change with the launch of DJ with Apple Music, a new functionality for the streaming service aimed at making the platform’s library available to DJs.

This manifests in a few ways. Firstly, as a new section within Apple Music’s own interface that hosts a variety of curated DJ-focused playlists. This has playlists built around genres, as well as those curated by DJs and DJ gear brands.

More significantly, it also means that Apple Music will now be integrated into a variety of different DJing platforms including Serato, AlphaTheta’s Rekordbox, and inMusic’s Engine DJ, Denon DJ, Numark, and RANE DJ.

While functionality is a little different across different platforms, this means that Apple Music subscribers can mix with tracks from the service’s library within their chosen DJ platform, as well as apply tags, set cue points and build playlists.

On the AlphaTheta front, Apple Music arrives in the desktop version of Rekordbox (v7.1), along with rekordbox for iOS, and will also be implemented into two of the brand’s all-in-one DJ systems, the XDJ-AZ and Omnis-Duo.

The company also tells us that integration should roll out for the CDJ-3000s and Opus-Quad in the near future, and will be present in all future product releases.

With Serato, users can access Apple Music tracks from the downloads pages of both Serato DJ Lite and Serato DJ Pro.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Apple Music has been integrated into a DJ platform – users of Algoriddim Djay can already stream tracks from Apple Music. Rival streaming platform Tidal is already integrated into several DJ platforms too. However, today’s announcement is certainly the most high-profile crossover we've seen between a streaming platform and the DJ realm.

A notably absent name from the list of integrated applications is Native Instruments’ Traktor, which is a shame, as the latest iteration – Traktor Pro 4 – impressed us when it finally arrived last year.

“Apple Music is committed to supporting DJs,” says Stephen Campbell, Global Head of Dance, Electronic & DJ Mixes at Apple Music. “With this latest integration, we’re taking that commitment even further – seamlessly connecting Apple Music with the industry’s leading DJ software and hardware. This innovation brings the full power of Apple Music into the creative workflow, making it easier than ever for DJs to access, play, and discover music in real time.”

It’s worth noting a couple of major caveats that mean this functionality is likely to appeal primarily to beginner and hobbyist DJs, at least for the time being.

Firstly, there’s no offline functionality for DJing with Apple Music tracks. This means you can’t download and save tracks added to your DJ platform of choice, and won’t be able to access them without a stable internet connection – something we’d be wary of when it comes to playing any high-profile sets.

Secondly, Apple Music’s terms of service state that music can only be used for noncommercial purposes, which means that using streamed tracks for any paid DJ gigs – including weddings, club gigs, parties, etc – would be a violation of said terms.

To point out the obvious too, making use of Apple Music within any DJ platform will require both a subscription to Apple Music and subscription to/license for your DJ software of choice.

On the positive side, closing the gap between the streaming services we use for listening to music and DJ software libraries is a massive step forward for beginner and at-home DJs. In the past, when DJing relied on physical media like vinyl or CDs, or even in more recent times when a library of purchased tracks or dedicated subscription was required, getting started as a DJ could be a prohibitively expensive process.

Integration like this will certainly make it cheaper for beginners to try their hand at DJing, as well as explore new styles and genres.

Speaking as somebody that no longer DJs in public regularly, but has been roped out of retirement to play at a few friends' weddings in recent years, this functionality would have saved me hours of prep time if it had been available a few years ago. (It's not a violation of the terms of service if you're getting paid in free drinks, right? – I'll have our lawyers look into this).

The launch of DJ with Apple Music follows the platform’s introduction of DJ Mixes back in 2021, which integrated streamable mixed sets into the library.

Explore Apple Music’s new DJ playlists at the DJ with Apple Music homepage.

Find out more about specific platform integration with Serato, Rekordbox, Engine DJ and Djay.

The news has been broken by Swedish producer and songwriter Carl Falk who last month posted a picture on Threads of the two in the studio and wrote: "Slightly unreal moment to sit with Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood to play Lindsey the album we have been working on.

"And to see his genuine happiness for Mick to finally do his own album and offering to play guitar and to sing on it. Can’t wait to finish this one."

Post by @carlfalkmusic

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Now Falk has posted more images from the sessions, including one captioned "Mick and Lindsey together again, what a flawless guitar player" as well as another with Fleetwood and Adam Granduciel from the Philadelphia band The War On Drugs.

So it seems a Fleetwood/ Buckingham record of some description is in the works. If so, it will be the first time that the two have worked together since 2018. Back then, you may recall that Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac over issues relating to the band’s final tour.

Post by @carlfalkmusic

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Those issues seemed to revolve around Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, rather than the band as a whole. Nicks herself now seems to have burned her bridges with her ex-partner. "I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could,” she told Rolling Stone last year. "You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances.”

Fleetwood for his part simply seems to want his friends to repair their friendship before it’s too late. "I always have a fantasy that (Stevie) and Lindsay would pal up a bit more and just say everything’s OK for them both,” he revealed to US Weekly last month.

“I miss playing as much as we used to. I’m hoping next year, one way or another, some band somewhere will say, come and play with drums or something. So I always love to do whatever I can do working on an album that next year we may tour with it. I don’t know, (but) not Fleetwood Mac."

Pictured in a brochure distributed at London's Synth & Pedal Expo over the weekend, the Synclavier ORK II builds on the legacy of New England Digital's pioneering and stupendously expensive '80s synth, sampler and music workstation, and is named after that instrument's ORK keyboard controller.

After ceasing operations in 1993, Synclavier returned in 2019 with an iOS version of the instrument, before the newly-founded Synclavier Digital released Regen, a desktop synth equipped with an enhanced version of the Synclavier II's DSP engine, in 2022.

ORK II has yet to be officially announced and appears to still be in development, but the brochure suggests that the instrument will combine FM, additive and subtractive synthesis with a sophisticated sequencer that offers multi-track recording of ORK II's synth engines, external MIDI instruments and audio. A variety of onboard effects offer reverb, delay and a range of modulation effects that includes flangers and phase shifters.

Like the original ORK, the instrument will feature a full-size 61-key keyboard, ribbon controllers and a large silver encoder on the interface's left-hand side, bringing things into the 21st-century with a touch-screen display. A bank of 16 sockets on the right-hand panel suggest that ORK II will have extensive connectivity options and may have semi-modular capabilities.

"The ORK Il is envisioned as a groundbreaking instrument that builds on the acclaimed capabilities of Synclavier Il and Regen," reads the brochure. "Designed for professional musicians, producers, and sound designers, this keyboard fuses cutting-edge technology with legendary Synclavier sound quality to deliver an unparalleled creative tool."

We've no word yet on pricing or availability; when we know more, so will you.

Most recently, he appeared in a now-expired Instagram story by rising British singer/songwriter Sekou. This featured shots of Bieber sitting at a piano, and who else should be there but heartfelt electronica maven Fred Again. Fred, of course, has worked with Bieber before, having co-written and co-produced I Don’t Care, his 2019 duet with Ed Sheeran.

This apparent reveal comes after, in an interview with the New York Times last year, outré guitarist and producer Mk.gee confirmed that he’d been working with Bieber on new material.

“He’s searching,” he said. “Anything that comes out of his mouth: that’s pop music. You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that, just because it represents something.”

Whether any or all of these collaborations ends up on a Bieber album remains to be seen, but there are certainly some intriguing signposts for the direction(s) the record might take.

Coincidentally, when the star released Justice, in 2021, he was sent a cease and desist letter by the French electronic duo of the same name, requesting that he stop using the “cross” logo that they believe they trademarked some time ago.

On the one hand, she told Rolling Stone in a new interview, she felt the experience allowed her to be embraced by the Black community for the first time (Giddens is mixed race), but on the other she felt her playing was part of a ‘transaction’ of sorts.

“What was hard for me was to feel that gift treated as any other transaction in the music industry,” she said. “That’s what was really hard. Because I certainly didn’t do it for the money, I can tell you that. I did it for the mission.

"So, my idea of what the mission is and somebody else’s idea of what the mission is are not going to be the same thing.”

“There are two examples I could pull out, in my entire 20-year career, where I feel like I had to make a compromise in order for a greater good. This was one of those times. I knew it was going to be difficult.

"I knew I was releasing my banjo out into this huge world. And there were definitely benefits: I’ve heard from people saying more people are taking banjo classes and dancing to it because of (Texas Hold ‘Em).”

There were other positives. “It also gave me an entrée into the Black community that I’ve never had, to be honest. Because of all the things I’ve been fighting for my whole life, it’s been difficult to be seen as a Black musician, especially since I’m mixed, all this shit.

"But for the first time, I felt acceptance from the mainstream Black community, which made me weep. Because this is what I’m doing it for, and it’s hard to feel ignored by the culture you’re defending. I’ve come to terms with it, it’s fine. All of us Black people who do these things - who are opera singers or old-time singers - we all have our relationships with this. So that was really beautiful.”

Clearly a musician with principles, Giddens also mentioned that she’s recently cancelled a show at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC after the Trump regime took over the running of the institution’s board. “I wanted to stay and stick it out,” she admitted.

“Then, as things unfolded, I thought, ‘What good is it going to do sticking around? Who am I going to be playing for? Who is actually going to come?’ The money is whatever. For me, money is never an issue in these kinds of things. It’s really, ‘What am I trying to say? How am I serving my fans? How am I serving my message?’

The sale includes PA systems, mixers, microphones, monitoring, wireless systems, and loads more. You haven’t got long to take advantage of the deals though as the sale ends on 03/26, so act fast if you see something you like!

We’ve had a look through the sale already to see what’s in it, and picked some of our favorite items for you here. If you’re looking for a new mixer, whether it’s for a rehearsal space or a home studio, the Yamaha MG10XUF has got an awesome $70 discount at the moment. It’s a ruggedly built bit of kit that features 24 built-in effects covering everything from reverb to pitch shifting. Four Yamaha D-PRE preamps ensure that your sources are captured with clarity, and it’s also got a built-in audio interface for recording.

Next up we spied an excellent discount on the NUX C-5RC wireless guitar system. With a huge 20% reduction on the regular price taking it well below the $150 mark, it’s a great entryway into wireless systems if you’ve never used on before. We love that it uses the 5.8GHz band which is typically less busy than the more common 2.4GHz one, so less chance of any interference. Its simple plug-and-play setup also means it's a breeze to set up if you’ve never used a wireless system before.

Our final pick will be a shoo-in for live sound engineers, with the Digital Reference DRDK7 7-Piece Drum Mic Kit seeing a nice $33 discount to drop the price below the $200 mark. It’s insane value for money for so many microphones, and with kick, snare, and tom mics taken care of alongside two condenser overhead microphones, it's ideal for miking up the kit at your local venue. It even comes with a handy carry case with foam cutouts to ensure you keep everything neat and tidy once you’ve set them down.

For music listeners, the new wired functionality will “unlock 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, preserving the integrity of original recordings and allowing listeners to experience music the way the artist created it in the studio,” says Apple. However, it will also enable low-latency performance, which is essential if you want to use the AirPods Max for music making.

If you happen to be using Logic Pro, you’ll also be able to create and mix using Personalized Spatial Audio with headtracking. Support for these features was implemented in Logic Pro for AirPods users back in 2022, but only now can you take advantage of them using a wired, low-latency connection.

In fact, Apple claims that “AirPods Max will become the only headphones that enable musicians to both create and mix in Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking.”

On another note, plugging in a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter (Apple is now selling its own all-in-one cable for $39/£39) means that you can also now use your AirPods Max with old-school minijack ports, such as those you’d find on an aeroplane or a multitude of synths and other music-making gear.

The firmware update will be available in April via iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 and macOS Sequoia 15.4. You can find out more about the AirPods Max, which cost $549/£499 and are available in five colours, on the Apple website.

Although v3.0 added features including stem separation, new MIDI edit tools, custom tempos per scene and audio bounce in place, many considered it a fairly lightweight update, particularly given the 11 year wait for a full version upgrade from Maschine 2.

Combined with a lack of new Maschine hardware and controversy over the discontinuation of some older units, NI has some work to do keep the Maschine community onside.

To that end, the company is now back with another update – Maschine 3.1 – which is free for existing version 3 users and offers a much-requested user chords feature. This allows users to save banks of chord progressions for use across projects or to share with others.

3.1 also notably adds a new fullscreen mode in the standalone app version – something that has, incredibly, not been included until now.

The release is likely to please some users more than others though. While the new update will be coming shortly to PC and Mac, users of the standalone Maschine+ will have to wait a little longer.

NI is promising that Maschine+ will receive the 3.1 update later this year, but bearing in mind that users are still waiting for version 3.0 to arrive, this might sound like a slightly hollow promise.

The 3.1 update does, however, add Ableton Live integration for Maschine+ when used in controller mode.

Quiet obsolescence

The recent history of Maschine has been something of a mixed bag for users.

Back in October NI ditched support and compatibility for its latest Maschine software with the Mk1 and Mk2 Maschine controllers (having previously quietly ditched Komplete Kontrol compatibility for its Mk1 keyboards). While this isn't an uncommon practice for hardware brands, it does leave users of older controllers unable to upgrade to the latest version of the software.

More jarring is the lack of significant updates for the standalone Maschine+, which is now a version behind the desktop software, and has had little in the way of new functionality since it arrived in 2020.

What's more, given the constraints of the Maschine+ hardware, it's unclear whether Maschine 3's headline feature – stem separation – will be available on the hardware at all. In recent updates, NI has indicated that, at least initially, Maschine+ will be able to play but not generate stems when the v3 update arrives.

It’s understandably something that owners of the pricey Maschine+ (£1019) aren’t happy with, particularly since it follows soon after the news that Maschine+ wouldn’t be getting access to the software version’s Play Series instruments and Expansions sound packs. This despite the fact that the company's hardware rival, the similarly standalone Akai MPC, would.

The move seemingly tipped Maschine+ users over the edge, claiming that NI were fracturing and planning to abandon their beat-based DAW altogether, an uproar which prompted a rapid backtrack by NI.

However, with this update NI is promising full 3.1 and reinforced Play Series compatibility with Maschine+ for later this year.

As to how long the existing Maschine+ can keep up, and when a yet-to-be-announced update to the Maschine+ hardware may surface, remains to be seen.

Read full details of the Maschine 3.1 update at Native Instruments' website.

While its RRP is typically £999.99, The good folks at Currys are offering £600 off a USC9S worth £999 when purchasing any LG TV

The 97.5cm USC9S notably brings a trio of up-firing channels - a world-first.

These three drivers provide a hyper-detailed Atmos/spatial audio response, well beyond what others in this price-point are capable of.

These three channels work to build what is - in essence - a fully three dimensional sound-dome, enveloping you and everyone in the room in an immersive, 360 degree sonic experience. This speaker has been especially calibrated with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and IMAX Enhanced technology.

In terms of that often-misplaced ‘dialogue’ channel, that’s been specifically allocated to the central speaker. This means voices remain clear and intelligible regardless of the context of a busy or action-packed scene.

If you’ve already got an LG C series OLED TV, then you’ll be especially blown away by how tightly the USC9S integrates with your television.

With an LG TV in tandem, you’ll be able to harness the special WOW Orchestra feature. This dynamic allows viewers to bring the TV’s in-built speakers into the mix too, locking them in-sync for even greater detail and clarity across the frequency spectrum.

With every soundbar comes a custom mounting bracket which has been carefully designed to fit the 55”, 65” and 77” size televisions in LG’s OLED C series range. The end result of this combination is both aesthetically pleasing and sonically incredible.

Beyond physical integration, LG’s AI Sound Pro is constantly analysing the incoming signal, making smart audio decisions on the fly.

That ‘leaning in’ to hear dialogue that I mentioned at the start of this piece will become a thing of the past. AI Sound Pro will make sure that you hear the most important parts of any sound mix clearly and audibly at all times.

All of these features are easily set and controlled by the WOW interface, easily accessible directly from within any LG TV’s main menu, negating the need for a separate remote. That’s one less thing to lose down the side of the sofa!

Beyond serving as the impressive heart of your home cinema's audio, this soundbar is also a fantastic all-purpose music streaming station.

Supporting high-resolution audio playback (up to 24-bit/94kHz), the soundbar provides Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect functionality out of the box, and is fully supportive of Apple AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth 5.0.

So that’s film, television and music covered, but what about gaming? The USC9S is no slouch there either. It features VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode). These features bring a zero latency response and extraordinarily smooth gameplay at all times. Those features are also a massive boon to high-octane sport, where motion blur, pixellation and compression artifacts are a thing of the past.

With the Summer of Sport looming, that’s certainly something to bear in mind.

In short then, if you own an LG OLED C series TV then you really must get your hands on an USC9S - it’s been carefully designed with your television in mind. And, if you’re in the market for a new television, you can do far worse than an LG TV - a purchase of which will grant you 50% off the USC9S’s standalone price. A sweet deal.

But more and more of us are listening to more and more audio discreetly and, while wireless headphones have become the norm, there’s always the need to purchase, connect and ‘wear’ them in order to hear what’s going on.

So how about a new technology that will allow you to leave the headphones at home (or on the shelf entirely) and listen to discreet music in your own ‘enclave’ without disturbing anyone else, and without having to purchase (or wear) any additional hardware?

That’s the promise coming from American university Penn State's 'Audible Enclave' research, a new tech that uses ultrasonic waves to provide private listening without headphones.

It works in a similar way to the 3D beamforming and wave field synthesis technology used at cutting-edge music venues such as The Sphere.

There, music and sound effects can be placed anywhere within the arena's physical space, giving a personalised ‘it’s coming from over there’ audio experience no matter where the actual speaker and no matter where you’re sat.

Audible Enclave’s ultrasonic curved waves are inaudible, but can be fired and focused by metasurfaces – acoustic lenses that incorporate submillimeter-scale microstructures that bend the direction of sound – and where the two beams cross an audible air vibration generated, allowing the tech to create pockets – or enclaves – of sound that only ears present at the exact right physical position will be able to hear.

Pardon?

The tech has been developed at the Pennsylvania State University and so far they’ve been able to place sound within a room and even accurately bypass obstacles such as heads or pieces of furniture, reaching their intended targets as if they weren’t there.

“We essentially created a virtual headset,” said Jia-Xin “Jay” Zhong, a postdoctoral scholar in acoustics at Penn State. “Someone within an audible enclave can hear something meant only for them – enabling sound and quiet zones.”

Of course, the technology isn’t ready for primetime (and eradicating the multi-billion dollar headphone industry) just yet.

So far the sound can only be transmitted around 1m at around 60 decibels, aka speaking volume. But given that most discreet audio listening is done at this kind of range – from a phone to a pair of wireless headphones, say – it looks like they’ve cracked the most extensive use case already.

Indeed, the most obvious application would be on board devices such as mobile phones, being portable devices that are carried with the user and never usually more than one meter away.

However, developers of the tech believe that by increasing the intensity of the ultrasound being used they can both increase the range and its loudness, in theory making it possible to transmit sound to individual audience members at a gig or – at some point in the future – provide discreet audio while you’re walking down the street or sitting in the park, sparing you the need to ‘plug in’ and allowing you to leave any kind of playback device at home entirely.

Plus, without the associated ‘detachment’ of wearing headphones, listeners would be able to listen to their selected audio and still be ‘present’ in their physical space, able to hear what’s going on around them and engage in interaction and conversation.

It’s certainly exciting tech with multiple potential uses.

Doubtless there’ll be more than a few mobile phone makers and headphone brands watching this one with interest.

On the hardware front it's like the 1970s all over again, with historic names such as Moog, Sequential and Oberheim back in action, completely new creations from the likes of Arturia and Dreadbox, many homages to (not to mention copies of) classic instruments of the past, and a resurgence of interest in modular systems.

With none of the physical and financial constraints of hardware - and all the benefits of modern CPU power - there's an even greater diversity when it comes to software synths. Models of classic instruments abound, but there are also many entirely original synths, a good number of which boast capabilities that would have made Don Buchla throw down his soldering iron in despair.

The thing is, despite this vast range of choice, there’s a common thread running through practically all of these instruments, hardware or software. With only a few exceptions, the vast majority essentially follow a subtractive synthesis model, and so present a fundamentally similar set of features and controls. Even those synths that eschew conventional oscillators in favour of some alternative tone generation method are, more often than not, subtractive in every other respect.

This is all well and good – it works! – but do you ever feel it can all get a bit... well... samey? Do you ever wish you could break away from the technical dryness of oscillators and filter types, and approach sound design in a more intuitive, abstract and novel way? Music is all about creative expression, after all, so surely there are ways to conceptualise and craft sounds without worrying about frequencies and cutoffs and cross-modulations and all the rest of it? Indeed there are!

The unconstrained freedom enjoyed by software synth designers means that, every now and then, a new instrument will pop up that flies in the face of convention. Do such instruments open up new and exciting avenues of inspiration and creativity, or are they just distracting gimmicks? To find out, we set aside our Falcons, Pigments and piles of Minimoog emulations, and sought out five instruments that approach synthesis in their own thrillingly singular fashion.

1. Madrona Labs Sumu

Additive synthesis, the conceptual opposite of subtractive synthesis, is theoretically capable of producing acoustic instrument emulations that are indistinguishable from the real thing - and indeed, any other sound you can imagine.

It works on the basis that all sounds consist of layers of sine waves (also known as partials) that combine to create shifting tones and timbres as their relative volume changes over time. The fly in additive's ointment is that a stack of partials (and associated envelopes) large enough to fulfil the theoretical potential is too unwieldy to program and manage, hence its rarity.

The related technique of resynthesis aims to tame these cumbersome complexities by analysing a source sound and creating from it a template or map of sorts that can be used to govern the partials generated by an additive synth engine. But resynthesis never really caught on, either, because in the hardware age, its technical requirements made it very expensive at a time when the cost of samplers - which can easily deliver such realism - was tumbling.

Sumu, then, is built around an additive engine capable of generating 64 partials per voice, and comes with a companion app, Vutu, that analyses audio to create resynthesis data for loading into the plugin. The synth is modular too, so its different stages can be patched in any way you like. These interconnections carry each partial as a discrete signal, allowing the modules to do their work on a per-partial basis.

Thoughtful interface design and visualisation makes all of this workable. You do not, for instance, have to configure 64 individual envelopes. Rather, Sumu twists a regular ADSR graph into three dimensions, with the Z dimension representing each individual partial. Scaling controls shape the base ADSR values across this Z dimension.

Sumu's modular patching system unlocks a wide vista of sonic possibilities, making it as good at creating deep, solid, percussive bass sounds as it is light, tinkling, evolving pads. The inclusion of Vutu gives Sumu sampler-like capabilities too, allowing patches to be built from audio recordings and snippets. The synth's processing stages are very different to the subtractive architecture of a regular sampler, though, so the creative possibilities are very different too.

There's a distinctly digital flavour to the sound produced by Sumu, but this is richer and smoother than the characteristic coldness of an FM synth, or indeed of other modern additive implementations.

On the downside, with up to eight simultaneous voices each consisting of 64 partials that are, in effect, individually routed and processed, Sumu is exceptionally resource-hungry. Even a powerful machine will struggle to serve up more than a couple of simultaneous instances, so you'll be forever bouncing or freezing your Sumu tracks.

Also, despite clear visualisations, straight-forward controls, and the manual's largely successful efforts to keep things light and approachable, Sumu is inherently complicated, and takes quite some time to get to grips with.

Overall, then, Sumu is a powerful synth with a fulsome sound that delivers an extensive sonic palette that's as distinctive as it is diverse, but if you're looking for an instrument that masks the deeper technicalities of synthesis with a user-friendly interface then Sumu is certainly not for you.

2. MOK Waverazor

The synth engine underlying MOK Waverazor is, perhaps, the most conventional in this roundup: the output of three oscillators (and optional external input) is routed to up to three filters, can be controlled by a wide range of modulators, and can be polished with three effect processors. What makes Waverazor different, and qualifies it for inclusion in this roundup, are its oscillators and user interface.

Conceptually, Waverazor's oscillators are much like any other, producing regular, repeating waveforms to feed to the rest of the synth. However, in Waverazor's case, that waveform can consist of up to 16 segments, each based on any of 162 preset shapes which can be further shaped and distorted via the oscillator's controls. As well as doing a good line in classic synth tones, these oscillators lend the instrument huge potential for creating original and interesting timbres.

Construction of these segmented waveforms is performed in an advanced view where all the synth's other modules and controls are also accessed. The layout of this view is crisp and logical, but with so many modules and options, and few visual cues to help differentiate between them, it is easy to get a bit lost – some module-specific colour-coding and styling would certainly help here!

Conversely, Waverazor's main view is much more approachable and intuitive. Here, Waverazor's plethora of parameters is boiled down into an easy-to-manage collection of nine macro dials, three buttons and two large X/Y pads, each of which can be mapped to up to 16 destination parameters. Additionally, the large central oscilloscope view can also serve as an interactive panel for modifying the oscillator waveform shapes.

Waverazor's voice and character is impressively varied thanks to its clever oscillators and detailed underlying architecture, but it is short a bit of oomph in the lower end of the frequency spectrum and so lacks a certain sonic sumptuousness – nothing that a bit of EQ can't fix, of course.

The synth's generous library of presets can be extensively modified via easy and intuitive controls that are ideal for both sound design and performance, but things become somewhat less intuitive when delving into the advanced view.

3. Native Instruments Reaktor

Native Instruments Reaktor is a deep, complex and powerful environment in which synths, audio processors and other sound-wrangling tools, referred to collectively as "ensembles", can be created and hosted. (Yes, we know the last significant update to Reaktor was released in 2020, and this is primarily a list of shiny, new synths - but we believe Reaktor still holds up five years on.)

The ability to design custom synths from the ground-up is as unconventional as its possible to get and, for a certain type of nerdy inquisitive mind, can be a hugely satisfying thing to do. Raw synth design isn't everybody's idea of a good time, but this isn't the only reason we've included Reaktor in this roundup – we're also interested in the collection of synth ensembles that it comes with.

There are conventional synths here, such as the basic-yet-satisfying 2-Osc, or the Minimoog-inspired Monark, but many of Reaktor's synths take a more leftfield approach. Some have a familiar appearance but unusual underlying architecture; some are more sonically conventional but feature novel control panels; and some simply defy all explanation (we're looking at you, Gaugear).

If you ever get bored with the bundled synths then hundreds more are available in Native Instruments' Reaktor User Library. Here, alongside some conventional fare, you will find all manner of inventive, experimental and off-the-wall instruments to explore. And, if you are yourself inclined to unleash your inner synth designer, you can upload your own creations to the library so that others can marvel at your genius (or madness!).

Reaktor can also operate as a virtual modular environment into which specially designed ensembles, called Reaktor Blocks, can be loaded and patched together in whatever way you like. This is infinitely more immediate and intuitive than creating a synth from scratch, but still allows your sound design imagination to run wild. It's a lot cheaper than putting together a hardware modular system too!

No matter what you load into it, Reaktor delivers a consistently rich and detailed sound and, given its open-ended nature, its sonic palette and potential for unconventionality is limited only by your imagination.

4. Dawesome Myth

There are loads of synths that use sample-based sound generators, and most of these are happy jumping between basic sample triggering and granular playback, but there are none that come at things in quite the same way as Myth.

The synth is based around a pair of "Iris" sound generators, so called because their circular visualisation looks like the iris of an eye. Dragging or loading a sample into an Iris triggers Myth to analyse that sample, decomposing it into component parts (tonal, noise, transient, etc.) that each has its own colour-coding within the Iris's visualisation.

Below each Iris is a set of 14 "Transformers", these being small draggable discs that influence the sound in different ways. Each has a predictable outcome – adding frequency modulation, making the sound more saw-like or more string-like, and so-on. This masks the deeper synthesis complexities that are happening under the bonnet, thereby allowing you to focus purely on the sound.

The Irises can be crossfaded together or, for a more dramatic result, can be switched to ring modulation mode. Their combined signal is then passed to a series of processing stages, each aimed at a particular purpose: additional oscillators, filters and effects.

Each stage can host multiple modules, chosen from a list of appropriate options, which allows Myth to serve up a whole host of different configurations and architectures. All of this is topped-off with a flexible and easy to manage modulation section for bringing life to the Transformers and modules.

This makes for a very versatile synth that is exceptionally easy to work with, and that delivers beautifully clear and full-bodied timbres. Myth's level of abstraction isn't as far-out as that of Synplant, featured below, but it successfully hides the complexities of its synth engine behind an instinctive and easy to master GUI which lacks nothing in its ability to shape and sculpt sounds. It's a true gem of a synth!

5. Sonic Charge Synplant 2

Although built on familiar two-oscillator subtractive synth foundations, Synplant's approach to sound design is both unique and, quite literally, organic.

Sounds start life as a seed and, just like an actual seed, this has a genetic makeup that determines the characteristics of whatever will grow from it. The parameters that define a seed's genetics are familiar enough – waveforms, filters, envelopes, cross-modulation, and so-on – but the magic comes from the unfathomable ways in which these parameters influence and impact on each other when the seed grows.

A sound's seed is shown at the centre of Synplant's main view, and is surrounded by a ring divided into 12 segments. Depending on operating mode, these segments can be triggered by base note (I.E. all A notes, all A# notes, all B notes, etc.), a note range, a velocity range, or can simply be a layer within the final sound.

Dragging in a segment causes leafy branches to grow (or recede) within that segment – the longer and leafier the branch, the more the parameters of the seed's gene will interact and evolve, and so the more complex the sound produced by the segment becomes. It's also possible to grow all segments simultaneously. And, just as in real horticulture, if you create a sound that has characteristics you find particularly pleasing, you can capture its evolved DNA as a new seed and then grow new sounds from it.

Synplant also includes Genopatch. This analyses a given snippet of audio and generates from it a selection of seeds that recreate the sample through subtractive synthesis. You can then select one of these seeds as the basis for a new sound, with each seed having the potential to grow into radically different sounds.

It may seem that Synplant's unique approach to synthesis doesn't exactly lend itself to focussed sound design that seeks to create a specific sound. However, if you embrace the concept and, over a few generations, evolve a sound towards what you originally imagined, it's possible to end up with exactly the sound you were looking for without once thinking about frequencies, filters and all the rest of it. There's also a good chance that the sound you evolve will be more interesting than the one you were aiming for, and may itself inspire new musical ideas.

Synplant is by far the most abstract and original synth in this roundup. It sounds amazing, and its concept turns the studio-bound process of sound design into a highly intuitive, fun and relaxing spot of gardening!

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.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Collins, now 73, talked about The Godfather of Funk's policy of fining band members who missed a note and suggests that it was a positive thing.

“James felt the fines would make you work harder. He was using that reverse psychology on us, and we didn’t understand at the time. ‘Why was he saying we wasn’t happening? Why would he have to fine us?’ And so I learned from that experience with him. When we got there, he just stopped fining us.”

Bootsy later graduated to George Clinton’s band where he became an integral member of the Parliament/Funkadelic lineup; the man with the star-shaped bass.

Collins remembers how he managed to get that iconic instrument made: “I found the guy to make the ‘Space Bass’ in 1974 in Warren, Michigan, and his name was Larry Pless, and he worked in an accordion shop. I had been going all the way up and down 48th Street in New York, and nobody would say yes to making it.

"Everybody had all of these things that wasn’t going to work: ‘The wood is not shaped right. It ain’t going to sound right.’”

“When I asked the guy who owned the accordion shop if he could build the bass, he said, ‘Well, why would you come into an accordion shop?’ To me, it was just a music store, and you just never know what’s going to be happening.

"And sure enough, he said, ‘Oh, wait a minute, there’s a guitar player in the back room that works on the accordions, but he also makes guitars.’ And I said, ‘Well, can I meet him?’ He introduced me to him, and then it was on from there.”

Collins and Clinton were estranged for years, but the two icons of P-Funk are now reconciled and a collaboration is in the offing. Collins reveals it was actually Kamala Harris who brought the two men back together: “What happened was I seen Kamala on TV saying, ‘I found a George Clinton doll. And I love Bootsy Collins.’

"For some reason, that touched me. Like, ‘He’s still your friend. No matter what happened, you got to be the one to take the high road.’ So I called him up and said, ‘Let’s do this track together.’ And he was all over it.

"So we’re going to carry on and see where we go, because when you’re dealing with the funk, you never know what the funk’s going to happen.”

She was talking to Lauren O’Neil of the Chicago Modern Rock station Q101 for their Women Who Make Q101 podcast. Armstrong described the last six months as “the craziest that I’ve ever experienced”. The 38-year-old vocalist with LA rockers Dead Sara was unveiled as the reformed Linkin Park’s new singer back in September, a brave move for both her and the band. Many of the group’s fanbase would have struggled to accept any replacement for the late Chester Bennington, yet by all accounts, From Zero, the album they brought out last autumn, has been well received and the majority of fans are on board with the reconfigured line-up.

Armstrong revealed that she was a fan of the band back in high school. “Hybrid Theory came out and nu metal was everything. I bought the album and showed it to everybody at school and I was like ‘you guys this album is so f**ing good.’ I was like ‘oh man, if he could do that, I could do that’, cos I was learning to sing. I can scream and sing, hell yeah!”

Fast forward 25 years and Armstrong explained how she made the transition from fan to colleague. “We didn't [run] in the same circles,” she said. “It was so far and few between. But when we started writing again for the second time in the studio, things started to really click in a way where we found so many similarities that didn't quite click before. I don't know if this makes any sense, but there was so many things of being, like, 'Wait, you worked with this guy? We did that with our first album.' Literally so many things started to like come together where it's just the synergy that is a kismet. Everything was just aligning in a way where it was so surreal to me.

“I'm, like, how have I never met any of these people before, and then all of a sudden at this point where everything starts to really make sense and where we are in our lives as them as people in their band and me as an artist and in my band, how it really came together at a time where we both were looking for this. We found so many similarities that it just started bringing us closer and closer together. It was, like, 'OK, this is it.'"

Fans will get a chance to see Armstrong and the reformed Linkin Park when they play their only UK date of the year at Wembley Stadium on June 28.

If you have ever ventured on stage as a keyboard player, you will be well-versed with the complexities of keys-based performance; the need to have access to a wide breadth of sounds, has never been more of a challenge.

The new Roland V-Stage is embracing this head-on. It’s a feature and sound-packed instrument, which includes just about everything that a keyboard player could need, in order to perform music from the last 60 years, whether amateur or professional.

Pricing

• 88-note $3,999/£3,459/€3,999
• 76-note $3,499/€3,499/£3,027

The V-Stage range was announced at NAMM 2025 and was one of the biggest releases from the Japanese giant at the show.

Both the 76 and 88 were available for sale from launch, with prices not budging in the short time since the announcement and the writing of this review.

There's not much difference in price, but then, there's not much difference between either model, really. Although 76 semi-weighted keys come out nearly 7kgs lighter than the flagship 88, fully-weighted model.

Performance

It’s difficult to ignore the fact that the V-Stage looks fairly familiar, with its considerable number of red flashes and beautiful red end cheeks. We’re very sure that didn’t happen by accident, but placing visual aesthetic to one side, we had the opportunity to examine both the 88-note fully weighted model, and the smaller 76-note semi-weighted version.

Both models are identical, with the obvious exception being the keyboard size. Housed within a beautifully engineered metal casing, V-Stage comprises four clearly defined sections, which act as the sound sources, described by Roland as Parts: Organ, Acoustic Piano, Electric Piano and Synthesizer. The Synth section is doubled, meaning that you can generate two sounds simultaneously. It’s worth noting that many of the audio effects associated with these Parts, are included within each section, but there is a further separate Total Effects section, residing alongside a Master section, handling the attributes relating to the V-Stage output.

88-note good

Choosing the right size of keybed, for gigging purposes, normally comes down to the singular issue of whether you want a fully weighted keyboard or not? (And will your back cope with the weight, assuming that you don’t all have a roadie to lift it for you!)

The 88-note version is predictably a fully-weighted affair, with a hammer action and escapement, specifically designed to accompany the Acoustic V-Piano section. The semi-weighted 76-note offers a refined velocity detection system, aftertouch and a ‘waterfall’ feel. NB, there’s no aftertouch on the 88-note!

Apart from the missing 12-notes between models, there is a 7kg difference in weight. Undeniably, the piano experience of the weighted keybed is sublime, but that might not be enough if you just need a lighter keyboard. The 76-note playing experience is good, but the keyboard does feel predictably lively, and there is a sense of considerable ‘thudding’, when you find yourself playing with heavy hands.

Pianos, pianos, everywhere!

Turning to the sound engines, we start by engaging with the V-Piano section. This section offers unlimited polyphony, so you’ll never get a sense of note-stealing. Unlike many competitors, the Acoustic Piano section is modelled, rather than sampled. From the player and listeners’ perspective, this means that there is a certain organic nature to the sound, but moreover, you have capacity to change every element of the timbre, down to the most subtle nuance. In editing terms, it is a programmer’s dream. It also means that you can extend beyond simple EQing, which can be really important when playing through a large PA. Big sound systems don’t always respond well to acoustic pianos.

There’s a considerable collection of pre-ordained piano instruments. Alongside the more usual Grand and Upright models, there’s a beautiful new Felt Piano, which has become something of a ‘ballad’ and ‘soundtrack’ favourite in recent years.

The large central display guides your path at all stages, with the electric piano section, located to the right, mirroring the acoustic section to the left. Included here are various incarnation of Rhodes (dictated by year), with Dynos, Wurly’s, various digital and FM-styled pianos, and finally Clavinets. Interestingly, there is no CP-80 Electric Grand here, but you will find representation of this patch within the synthesiser section. It seems strange not to include this in the electric piano section, but there we go!

The EPs are mightily impressive too, but are extended further by the inclusion of Tremolo, MFX and Amp simulators, within the EP section. Selecting sounds is an easy process, through the pressing and turning of a dedicated pot. The crystal clear display tells you everything that you need to know, with the ability to quickly assign Favourites, for speedy retrieval.

Hammonds and more

The organ section also offers unlimited polyphony, as well as hosting a number of different organistic options. There are plenty of Tone Wheel and Transistor-based organs, as well as church-like Pipe organs. Much like the EP section, distortion is baked in to this section, with a dedicated pot to increase the amount of drive.

The Organ section is also equipped with real drawbars. These perform beautifully, although there is no notching on these faders. Slightly disappointingly, these faders are not assignable to MIDI, for use as MIDI controls. However, there is full rotor control, both within the organ section and from two chunky assignable buttons, located on the left-hand side. The Rotor can also be placed under pedal control. We also have to mention that the Hammond playing experience on the 76-note, is really quite exceptional! Runs and glissandos are exceptionally easy to manifest, so this might be a consideration, when choosing model size.

The Synthesiser section could be regarded as fairly basic, but not in sonic variety. The V-Stage ships with 400 ZEN-Core tones, opening a wealth of possibilities through the Roland Cloud. Thanks to the V-Stage’s USB connectivity, you can load model expansion titles, such as the Jupiter-8 or Juno-106. Importantly though, it’s really easy to just activate the section, for the purposes of placing a pad or string sound behind a piano. It’s the kind of thing you can do easily, on-the-fly, which is exactly what you need when playing live.

The onboard synth controls are however a little basic. There are two Attack/Release envelope pots and solitary pot for filter cutoff. You can control filter resonance, but this requires pressing the shift button, while turning the filter cutoff pot! Yep, we know! Why, Roland, why? However, you do get two synth engines for the price of one, and in doubling, you can create some exceptionally large textures.

Practical control

As each section is so clearly defined, it’s very easy to immediately switch sections on and off. Control backlighting is mostly in white, with the part on/off buttons illuminating in red, so you can clearly see where to go to deactivate a part.

With so many sounds and parts in play, you can store any overall patch in what is described by Roland as a Scene. This stores all active sounds and settings, including applied effects. There are 512 Scene locations available, but you can also chain together up to 128, which will prove very useful for building a set list.

In the quest to create the perfect stage keyboard, Roland conducted plenty of research, in discussion with professional players. The net result is a number of useful additional features, such as connectivity for Apple’s MainStage package, which becomes controllable from the V-Stage. MainStage connection is simple, thanks to the USB-C socket on the rear, although there are also USB-A ports, for connecting additional controller keyboards or thumb drives.

Once back home, the V-Stage also provides a built-in audio interface, which connects directly to your computer. There is even a microphone connection on the rear, which you could use live, or use to record at home.

Verdict

The V-Stage is undeniably a superb-sounding and well thought out pro-end keyboard, which clearly has aspirations of capturing part of the market. In use, the sounds are very effective and highly authentic. As a playing experience, it’s right up there!

There is a wealth of live-inspired control, allowing keyboard zoning and layering, guided by the central display. Splits can be instigated anywhere on the keyboard, unlike some competitors, which dictate split points.

Ultimately, whether you choose a Roland V-Stage over anything else will probably come down to the feel of the keyboard. Sonically, it’s as impressive as you would expect it to be, and for our money, we would consider the 88-note model, if you’re playing, is more pianistic. If you are more of a synth and Hammond player, the 76-note could be a game-changer.

Hands-on demos

RolandChannel

Alternatives

Specifications

It’s his first album since 2022’s ForeverAndEverNoMore and as it’s released via Apple, the electronic pioneer has given an exclusive interview to Zane Lowe of Apple Music and discussed the album, his new-ish book What Art Does, as well as his thoughts about artificial intelligence.

Eno was dabbling in ‘generative’ AI technology long before you, I and the dog next door and as you’d expect has some interesting thoughts about it all.

Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Eno mused, “Talking about AI itself, I’ve always been happy to welcome new technologies and to see what you could do with them that nobody else thought of doing with them, and what things they could do other than those that they were designed for...

"With all music technology, it’s always very interesting that stuff is designed for one reason; and then people start to find new things they could do that are completely beyond what the designer was thinking about".

“The biggest problem for me about AI is not intrinsic to AI. It’s to do with the fact that it’s owned by the same few people, and I have less and less interest in what those people think, and more and more criticisms of what the effect of their work has been.

Turning from AI to social media, Eno says, "I think it's been a catastrophe and mildly useful at the same time. It’s possible for both things to coexist, but I think in terms of what it’s done to societies, it’s been a catastrophe.

"What it’s done to politics has been completely toxic.”

The interview also reveals the sheer scale of Eno’s musical archive – it spans around 10,500 tracks, which he estimates “equates to a listening time of 44 days, 8 hours, 38 minutes, and 28 seconds.”

OK, so you might not have much of an interest in drum machines (especially the sampled variety), and you may have even lost interest from the moment that we mentioned the return of an ’80s classic! So why should you take note?

IconDrum is an accurate and detailed reincarnation of the machine generically described as the LinnDrum. This machine has adorned more classic music from the last 40 years than just about any other drum-sound source. It’s one of the reasons that the LinnDrum’s designer, Roger Linn, was awarded a Grammy in 2011, in recognition of his substantial technical contribution to music.

If this hasn’t sold the concept to you, you’ll need to line up behind a plethora of artists, from Michael Jackson and Prince, through to The Human League, Daft Punk and The Weeknd. Moreover, these artists didn’t just use the onboard sounds; they made the sounds their own.

Pricing

• Full price: £49.99 (ex. VAT)

GForce Software launched IconDrum in December 2024 with a special introductory offer of £29.99 (ex. VAT), but is now back to full price at £49.99 (ex. VAT).

You can try before you buy by downloading a free trial. The trial is active for seven days but doesn't include any bundled MIDI content.

Performance

IconDrum is a very faithful recreation of the sounds included with the Linn LM-1 and LM-2 models of drum machine. Famously, these original sounds were sampled, resulting in a sonic construction that was particularly realistic for the ’80s, as well as becoming hugely desirable for current production.

Once installed, it doesn’t take more than a quick sojourn through the default sound-set to remind us just how big and impressive these sounds are. GForce has included 100 sounds, distilled through the faders on the left of the interface. While most of these categories are made up of single timbre (such as bass drum, snare or cowbell) some categories include multiple sound sources, such as open and closed hi-hats. In keeping with the original unit, the included sounds are a wonderful cross-section between a conventional drum kit and various forms of percussion.

The Kick is packed with bottom end, but with a nice edgy click which cuts through a mix. The snare is as fat as you always remembered, and the hi-hats can easily handle anything from a gentle acoustic swagger, to a more aggressive accent-laden pattern. All this before we’ve moved on to the percussion classics, such as the cowbell, sidestick (rim click), tambourine and cabasa.

A bank of 15 faders forms the mixer section, which controls individual sample volume. Our previously mentioned hi-hats occupy a single fader, making perfect sense!

While the faders provide overall volume control, GForce has replicated one of the many useful features from the Linn interface, via the sample-trigger buttons, located on the right. Most of the samples come pre-equipped with more than one trigger, with degrees of accent applied across them. This is replicated across the mapping of your MIDI keyboard, meaning that it’s possible to recreate those classic Linn-like crescendos, particularly via the three available dynamic layers relating to the snare. It’s also possible to engage Velocity control, should you prefer to handle dynamics in a pianistic sense.

Sound selection

Immediately above the sample trigger section, are a series of sound selection locations. These are categorised by instrument, and you are invited to select a sample from a drop-down menu, captured from the original LM-1 or LM-2 models of machine.

There are a number of timbral options, in part formed by the inherent signal path, during the sampling process. This includes the use of classic ’80s hardware, modern signal paths utilising digital EQ, and a set of sounds that have been run through a relatively well-used tape machine. The LM-2 samples also include A & B options, which have been drawn from two different machines, where the aging process has clearly infiltrated their sound. The revision A samples are slightly brighter, while the B revision exhibits a greater mid-range content. It endorses the attention to detail, for which GForce is noted.

Pitch techniques

Moving back to the mixer section, there are a substantial number of parameters open to exploitation, which could change the playback of the samples considerably. Immediately above the volume faders, a smaller set of faders allow for L-R panning. A decay pot provides a simple envelope parameter, for controlling the tail of the sample.

Immediately above this, we have the ubiquitous pitch control, which allows the variance of the timing of each sample, which in turn changes the pitch. It was impossible for us to visit this section, without immediately reaching for the pitch control relating to the Sidestick sample. By lowering the pitch, we were immediately able to conjure the spirit of Prince, with one of the many sounds which he made his own. Keeping the pitch parameter in a more sensible location, the subtlety of control proved exceptionally useful throughout, while working in a production setting. The ability to easily adjust the pitch of a hi-hat or cowbell was very useful for keeping tones in check, alongside the tonality of a track.

At the very top of the mix section resides a low-pass/high-pass see-saw filter pot; useful for refining individual sounds, within the construct of a kit. It’s a little like having basic EQ available at the instrument level.

Getting effected

Unlike the original hardware, GForce has included delay and reverb effects, available at the instrument level. Alongside this, there is a global section for adding EQ, distortion and compression. Unsurprisingly, all of these effect elements perform incredibly well, with the delay allowing synchronisation to your DAW.

Verdict

The IconDrum is a pretty sizeable sum of its parts; through the 100 included samples, the ability to sonically alter and align these within the construct of a patch (which may be saved), is everything we would have wanted on the original unit.

One point that we have to conclude as a slight disappointment though, is the lack of inclusion of an onboard sequencer. GForce has addressed this absence by including a host of patterns, in the form of MIDI files. This serves a purpose (while being hugely programmable from within the DAW environment), but half the fun and nostalgia of this product relates to the programming onboard. In our minds, this makes the standalone version slightly redundant, unless of course you have a hardware sequencer to patch into your computer.

However, this small grievance is more than made up for by the astonishing quality of the overall product sound and design. It looks totally iconic and sounds all killer… and an absolute Thriller!

Hands-on demos

GForce Software

Alternatives

Specifications

UJAM and the Bob Moog Foundation have teamed up to release a plugin that recreates the sound of the Polymoog's Vox Humana preset, a sound made famous by Gary Numan's 1979 hit Cars.

Vox Humana features sounds directly sampled from the Polymoog 280A by musician and YouTuber Alex Ball. Once recorded, a virtual instrument was designed around the samples and based on UJAM's proprietary Gorilla Engine.

The plugin has four timbral settings - Original, Bright, Hollow and Octaves - that offer subtle variations on the original sound. Attack and Decay sliders provide envelope control for dynamic shaping, while a trio of built-in effects that includes chorus, phaser and delay yield additional character and modulation.

The first preset on the Polymoog 280A, Vox Humana features prominently in Gary Numan's Cars. "The Vox Humana sound that plays the lingering high string part was the reason I bought a Polymoog," Numan told Synth History in 2020.

"I loved that sound. The reason that first high note lingers for so long on the song is because I hit that note first when I was trying to come up with a part for the the intro and couldn’t think where else to go with it.

"So I just held it for way too long before finding the descending line that followed, and it worked, so that long held note became a key part of the song."

All proceeds from the Vox Humana plugin will be donated to the Bob Moog Foundation to support its work in science education and the preservation of Bob Moog's legacy.

Priced at £18/$19/€22, Vox Humana is available for macOS and Windows in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats. Find out more on UJAM's website.

Watch a video from Alex Ball on the Polymoog below.

Moog has announced the release of the Geddy Lee Minimoog Model D, a special edition of the iconic analogue synth that pays tribute to the Rush frontman's enduring influence on progressive rock.

The Geddy Lee Minimoog sports a custom satin red finish with metallic flecks that echoes the look of the keyboard rig used by Lee around the time of the 1984 album Grace Under Pressure, and the synth is adorned with a custom badge and sticker featuring Rush's "Starman" logo.

There's more to Lee's Minimoog than the fresh paint job, though: its VCA circuit has been "hot-rodded" to produce a smoother, richer tone, and the instrument benefits from a number of modern features shared by the 2022 Model D reissue, such as MIDI integration, aftertouch and a dedicated LFO.

The Geddy Lee Minimoog arrives with a bundle of Rush merch, including an exclusive 10" red vinyl featuring Xanadu and Jacob's Ladder, a collectible poster, commemorative manual and gift box. Each instrument is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity hand-signed by Lee and individually numbered.

In a video shared to Reverb's YouTube channel, Lee tells the story of Rush's introduction to synthesizers in the mid-'70s, beginning with the Moog Taurus and then the Minimoog Model D. "It was the first time that a schlub like myself could dream big with an instrument that was easy to get around," he says.

"You could get your head around it; you could learn about waveforms by just clicking the dial and blending them and playing with the modulation wheel. That's the legacy of the Minimoog; not only does it sound fat and sophisticated but it's not daunting to get your hands on."

Lee goes on to discuss how the Minimoog was utilized on classic Rush tracks such as Tom Sawyer, Xanadu and Subdivisions: "For Tom Sawyer I played around with sawtooth and square waves, trying to blend the two of them so that I got a fatter sound from the square and a bit of rizz from the sawtooth".

The Geddy Lee Minimoog Model D is exclusively available at Reverb (US), Andertons (UK) and Thomann (EU) and is priced at $5,499.

The man accused is one Joseph Strange of Holly, Michigan who has been charged with copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods. Strange worked at Eminem’s studio in Ferndale, Detroit until 2021 when he lost his job. If convicted he could be looking at up to 15 years in jail.

At least 25 tracks are alleged to have been stolen. The theft was reported to the FBI in January when studio employees were alerted to the fact that some of Eminem’s unreleased music was already up on Reddit and Youtube.

A review found that files were transferred from a hard drive that had been in a safe to another external hard drive sometime between October 2019 and January 2020, a period when Strange was employed by the studio.

Then a Canadian resident with the screen name ‘Doja Rat’ told FBI investigators that he had purchased 25 songs from Strange for around $50,000 in Bitcoin, a frankly staggering amount for what were/are sound files. The Canadian has also revealed that Strange had offered him some of Eminem’s handwritten lyrics.

There is also, apparently, another group of fans, organised by someone with the screen name ATL who have purchased a “couple” of songs from Strange for the princely sum of $1,000.

Strange’s attorney Wade Fink has issued a statement defending his client, saying he is a married father of two with “decades of dedication to the music industry.”

Fink described the charges as “untested”, adding that: “We will handle the matter in a courtroom and we have great faith in the judges of our district.”

Designed to dramatically expand the toolkit of music producers, composers, sound designers and musicians, SonicBundle opens up a vast universe of sonic potential, giving you access to a veritable cornucopia of software and sounds that includes more than 1,000 instruments and effects, 37,000 expertly-designed presets and 2 million samples, totalling a value of over $12,000. (Yes, you read that right.)

If you’re a musician or producer searching for a new and exciting set of tools to reinvigorate your sound and spark new creative possibilities, this is the only resource you’ll ever need. An inspiring catalogue of sonic diversity, SonicBundle features innovative music production tools, essential effects, authentic sample instruments, an extensive selection of sound FX and foley instruments, spanning instantly recognizable titles such as Falcon - the industry’s most powerful hybrid instrument - and a breathtaking collection of vintage synths, featuring a meticulously crafted selection of hundreds of iconic instruments - from the TR-808 and Minimoog to the PPG Wave and DX-1 - faithfully sampled and enhanced with modern features.

Falcon

Updated to its third version last year, Falcon is UVI’s flagship instrument, and it’s a beast. This absolute powerhouse of sound generation utilizes a combination of synthesis, sampling and a flexible semi-modular architecture to achieve things that no other instrument can dream of: from virtual analog to FM synthesis, wavetable to physical modelling, Falcon packs 20 oscillators, 100 effects, 1000 presets and an array of modulators, sequencers and scripted MIDI processors into one monumentally powerful tool.

What’s more, SonicBundle arrives with 26 varied expansions that expand Falcon’s possibilities even further: from the gritty textures of LoFi Dreams, to the vintage grooves of Eternal Funk, to the abstract bleeps of Modular Noise, there’s an expansion here for every kind of music-maker.

Innovative studio effects

For those who want to take their sound design even further, SonicBundle’s innovative studio effects can help. UVI’s been perfecting their effects game for more than a decade, and they’ve gradually developed an impressive stable of high-end processors that brings together advanced DSP and highly creative features, from reliable workhorse EQs and compressors to inspiringly versatile reverbs and delays.

There are plenty of highlights: we’re particularly impressed with Tape Suite, a set of four effects plugins that work in unison to deliver emulations of everything from pristine reel-to-reel machines to battered old cassette recorders, and Drum Replacer, an AI-powered drum replacement and processing utility that’s game-changingly useful for fixing or enhancing drum tracks in a pinch.

Award-winning soundware

That’s not all, folks. SonicBundle also gives you access to UVI’s award-winning collection of soundware, augmenting sought-after products like Mosaiq, Key Suite, Augmented Orchestra, Synth Anthology 4 and World Suite 3 with an array of unique and experimental instruments that’ll help you set your music apart with flair and originality.

Cult classics like the IRCAM Prepared Piano 2 prove UVI’s avant-garde credentials, while the Orchestral Suite makes SonicBundle a no-brainer for anyone working in television or cinema. Our pick of the bunch, though, is Beatbox Anthology 2, a formidable arsenal of hardware drum machines that squeezes five decades of rhythmic innovation into a single, endlessly tweakable instrument.

UVI’s ecosystem makes the creative process easier and more intuitive than ever before, with everything designed to help you work faster and more efficiently. Both the free UVI Workstation and Falcon come with the same optimized browser, so whether you’re searching, tagging, or previewing audio, everything feels seamless.

Need a sound? You can instantly hear it before having to load it. Add to that the UVI Portal, which lets you access, manage, and download your library with minimal effort, and you’ve got a system that keeps you in the zone, out of the weeds, and laser-focused on your creativity.

Find out more and purchase SonicBundle at UVI's website.

In the early 2010s, hardware FM synths were something of a rarity. Despite the massive success of Yamaha’s DX7 and its various siblings throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, and the impact those synths had on popular music, by the turn of the millennium frequency modulation synthesis had largely fallen out of fashion.

While it made something of a resurgence in the plugin realm, primarily via Ableton Operator and Native Instruments’ FM7/FM8, for most of the ‘00s and early ‘10s hardware FM synths were thin on the ground.

Around a decade ago, that all changed, with a new wave of modern, affordable FM synths ushered in by the arrival of Yamaha’s Reface DX and Korg’s Volca FM.

One of the key drawbacks to traditional FM hardware was how awkward it was to program. With its ratio-based operators, algorithms and multitude of envelopes, FM synthesis is inherently more fiddly and mathematical than the free-flowing knob twiddling of analogue hardware. Key to the success of the contemporary wave of FM synths is their ability to make interacting with the sound engine more expressive and hands-on.

It’s on this front that Elektron’s original Digitone, released in 2018, really stood out. Its four-operator engine is neither the most powerful or innovative take on FM we’ve seen in recent years, but its approach to sound shaping, which combined elements of traditional FM and subtractive design, along with Elektron’s powerful, dense sequencer, makes for a formidable combination.

Now, following on the heels of last year’s Digitakt II, Elektron has released a direct follow up.

Whereas the update to Digitakt expanded the capabilities of the sampler without fundamentally changing its design – doubling the audio tracks and adding stereo sampling, but not altering the fundamental workflow – Digitone II is a more significant and transformative update to the original.

Pricing

• Full price: $999 / €1049 / £899

Digitone II sees a significant price jump compared to the original at launch, but bearing in mind the increased polyphony, multi-timbral layers and synth/sequencer capabilities, we feel it's fairly priced.

Performance

As with Digitakt, Elektron has doubled the audio capabilities here, increasing the overall polyphony of Digitone from eight voices to 16. Digitone II also significantly enhances the multi-timbral capabilities too though.

Whereas the original featured four independent synth layers, this version allows for up-to 16 independent synth tracks to be programmed using the onboard sequencer, more akin to the 16 audio tracks found on Digitakt.

This has the effect of making Digitone II feel less like a pure synth and more like a full-on groovebox than its predecessor, which is a smart move. I’ve spent a fair amount of time using the original Digitone over the past few years, and increasingly I’ve ended up using it primarily for percussive sounds and rhythmic patterns.

FM synthesis is particularly well suited to creating drum sounds thanks to the way it uses several stable digital waves, each equipped with its own envelope generator. That combination allows for the creation of complex tones with plenty of low-end presence, but also fine control over shape and transient of a sound.

That’s not to say that the original Digitone is only capable of drum sounds – it works very well as a more traditional synth too – but for my money the combination of that percussion-friendly sound engine and the versatility of Elektron’s deep, flexible step sequencer is where you’ll find Digitone’s sweet spot.

Spreading Digitone II’s voices across up-to 16 tracks makes it quicker to program complex multitimbral patterns that combine numerous elements of percussion and melody. This was something that the original could do using various workarounds, allowing the user to go beyond the limit of four available synth layers, but the design here makes for a quicker and more intuitive workflow.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that users are forced to use all 16 tracks. For a more traditional polysynth workflow, it's possible to sequence or play patches using a smaller selection of channels, and Digitone has options for controlling how the 16 voices are distributed and stolen (or not) across multiple tracks.

Ghost in the Machines

As with other recently upgraded Elektron gear, Digitone II now makes use of a system of ‘machines’. These are interchangeable elements that make the instrument function more like a virtual semi-modular.

Here that setup is used to significantly expand the capabilities of the instrument, adding four interchangeable synth engines that can be paired with a new range of filters in a mix-and-match fashion.

The first of these synth engines is named FM Tone, which is the four operator FM engine from the original Digitone, carried across here with no notable changes. As before, it offers a nicely modernised way of interacting with a classic ‘80s-style FM engine.

Although crafting sounds from scratch within the multi-page menus can still be fiddly, the top level controls are well-chosen. These allow the user to do things like make broad changes to operator waveshapes, introduce feedback and blend between A and B output operators. These options make it easy to alter or modulate the timbre of an FM patch without needing to dig too deep into the architecture of a sound.

The remaining three machines add new capabilities to the synth. Elektron is clearly with me when it comes to seeing Digitone’s potential as a drum machine, as the first of these new synth machines is named FM Drum.

Elektron has prior form on this front, as FM synthesis is used as a core element of the company’s Syntakt and Model:Cycles drum machines.

Fundamentally, the FM Drum engine isn’t all that different to FM Tone. Once again, it makes use of a four operator FM setup with envelope controls for each operator. The main differences come in how users can interact with it.

Here, the envelopes for each operator are simple decay-based designs well suited to percussion. The engine also introduces additional features including waveshaping, as well as an additional noise/transient source.

Wavetone, meanwhile, is a two-oscillator synth that looks fairly traditional at first glance, but has a multitude of tricks up its sleeve. Each oscillator can make use of one of two wavetables, allowing them to morph between various waveshapes. The first table consists of simple virtual analogue waves while the second contains waves with more complex harmonics.

These two oscillators can also make use of a phase distortion function that warps the shape of the waveform in a manner similar to pulse width modulation, albeit for any waveform. The Wavetone engine also benefits from a multitude of other interesting features including linear tuning offset, ring modulation and oscillator drift.

Particularly when paired with the synth’s modulation and sequencing tools, it makes for a formidable combination that’s considerably more powerful than a standard two oscillator VA synth.

The final synthesis engine is named Swarmer. This is focused around a primary oscillator accompanied by a cluster of six additional oscillators that can be spread out across the frequency range around it.

Detune and Mix controls allow the user to adjust the balance of this oscillator swarm, while Animate and Noise Modulation options can introduce movement, driven by a hidden array of LFOs or a white noise source, respectively.

In a nice touch, the primary oscillator of the Swarmer machine can be tuned to sit one or two octaves below that of the swarm itself, allowing it to act as a weighty sub beneath the more fuzzy and animated oscillator swarm.

Much like Digitakt II before it, this new Digitone also benefits from an expanded range of filter machines. Here the filter from version one – renamed Legacy LP/HP – is joined by a new morphable multimode filter, a more abrasive 4-pole low-pass, + and - configurations of comb filter and an EQ module.

Only one of these filter modules can be used on each track at any one time – although each track also has a simple Base-Width filter, which is a basic non-resonant low/high pass filter that proves handy for controlling frequency bloat.

The ability to mix and match filter designs with synth machines significantly expands the sonic range of Digitone though. The original’s FM synthesis capabilities were already hugely capable, but the ability to pair oscillator swarms with comb filters or combine percussive synthesis with modulated filtering, for example, creates a hugely deep well of sound design potential.

On the subject of modulation, Digitone II also gains a third LFO per voice – another feature addition that mimics the updates on Digitakt II. The effect is more transformational here though. The original Digitone had two available LFOs for each of its eight synth voices, whereas II now has three available for each of the 16 voices. As a result, the total number of LFOs available rises from 16 to 48.

I’ve always really liked the implementation of LFOs in Elektron gear. The array of features for each modulator strikes a nice balance between immediacy and depth. The additional modulation sources are very handy here too, since many of the new machines – particularly the comb filters and Wavetone synth engine – really benefit from a little movement and modulation.

Effects and connectivity

Along with these sound-creating machines, Digitone II also sees refinements to the onboard effects. Digitone II has delay, chorus and reverb effects, which function as sends. These are fairly simplistic in their design, but each offers enough sound shaping parameters to tailor the effect to your particular project, from tight room reverbs to out-there dubby effect washes. As well as sending individual tracks to these effects – or an external audio feed – the effects can also be sent to one another, which is a nice touch.

Each individual synth track features a digital distortion effect, which can be placed pre- or post- filter. For Digitone II, that’s also joined by new bit rate and sample rate reduction effects, which add an additional, digital flavour of grit to the sound engine.

The synth also features a master compressor, which works well for tying together disparate sounds when using Digitone to simultaneously create beats and melodies. Again, the audio inputs on the rear allow for external audio to be compressed alongside the internal sounds.

This means that Digitone II can function as a pretty neat effects processor even if you disregard its internal sounds (although, given the price point, it’s not worth buying for this purpose alone).

On the subject of external gear, each of Digitone II’s 16 tracks can also be repurposed as a MIDI machine, which allows it to sequence and control external gear, making use of things including the internal LFOs (although MIDI tracks have two of these, rather than three). MIDI has gotten a slight bit easier to use since v1, in that the machine now automatically picks up MIDI CC values.

There are a couple of missing features on the MIDI front that currently hold it back ever so slightly. The arpeggiator and chord mode, both available to internal synths and great for inspiring ideas, can’t be routed to external gear, which is a shame.

It’s arguable that Digitone could benefit from some extra I/O too. Its rear panel has a stereo pair of main outs, stereo pair of inputs, along with MIDI in, out and through. While it’s obviously possible to chain and route things creatively to use Digitone as a hub for multiple hardware instruments, I’d love a few more inputs and outputs to both process multiple tracks of external hardware and individually route Digitone’s own synth layers.

Both of these things are set to be facilitated by Elektron’s Overbridge software – the company’s desktop plugin that allows for full control and audio routing from its hardware to your DAW via USB. As has become standard with Elektron releases though, Overbridge compatibility is yet to be implemented for Digitone II and, at the time of writing, is still in an invite-only Beta phase.

What else?

Beyond these headline changes to the sound engine, Digitone II also adds a number of sequencer upgrades, many of which won't be too surprising to regular Elektron watchers. As with Digitakt, the overall length of the step sequencer is upgraded here from 64 steps to 128. The Euclidean sequencer that has been added to both Digitakt II and Syntakt features here again too, and as with both those machines, it makes a fun and well-suited addition to the Elektron workflow.

There are numerous workflow refinements throughout the design too. Presets are now a little easier to access – although I still find the menus a little clunky, and the various divisions of projects, presets pools etc feels needlessly convoluted for a non-sample-based machine.

As with many of Elektron’s releases, Digitone II walks a fine line between being deep and powerful and needlessly convoluted. What side of that line it sits on will likely come down to personal opinion, to an extent. There are undoubtedly more immediate synths out there – even once you’ve got your head around its multiple views, shift presses and hidden options, Digitone II is an instrument that can easily confuse.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the depth and flexibility of Digitone II’s synth engines and step sequencer – particularly when it comes to the wealth of sonic shaping accessible via the addition of modulation, automation and randomisation. I must admit that I tend to bounce off of Elektron gear when it comes to creating longer compositions though.

While the extended 128 step length and song mode make it possible to create lengthy, evolving compositions – as many of the stock presets demonstrate brilliantly – keeping track of multiple pages of triggers and pattern variations can feel a little fatiguing. Personally, it’s at this point I tend to bounce ideas down to a DAW to keep things more manageable.

One new feature that does help significantly on this front is the page loop functionality, which makes it easier to focus on a single sequencer page in order to make edits and refinements before moving on.

That said, there’s no shortage of capabilities, and I’m sure those that prefer the hardware workflow – or aim to use Digitone as a hub for live performance – will appreciate the ability to create complex arrangements using the hardware alone.

Verdict

Regular readers won’t be surprised to learn we rate Digitone II very highly. We crowned it our favourite synth of 2024 at the end of last year, and now that we’ve had several months to get to know if properly, that opinion hasn’t changed.

As much as the instrument can feel occasionally overwhelming and confusing, that’s only the byproduct of how much Elektron has crammed into the instrument.

Whereas Digitakt II felt like an expanded take on its predecessor – stuffed with luxury extras and more capabilities, but still fundamentally the same sampler – Digitone II is an exponential upgrade. Not only does it double down on what made the original impressive, but it’s added copious new capabilities.

Version 1 already offered a lot of depth through its capable FM engine, which was built to design a range of modulated synth textures and also a dark horse for drum design. Digitone II can still do all of what its predecessor could, but adds a variety of new flavours to the sound palette.

The new synth engines are at once better for more traditional, virtual analogue sounds, as well as rich digital textures. Although the FM Drum mode doesn’t necessarily add much the original couldn’t do, it certainly speeds up the design of percussive sounds.

In all, this is one of the most varied and powerful hardware synths on the market. Yes, you might get a little confused by the workflow at times, but there are worse places to get lost.

Hands-on demos

Alternatives

Sample platform Splice has launched an update to its mobile app that lets songwriters and producers record vocal ideas over tracks sketched out using its AI-powered Stacks feature.

Stacks can be used to generate track ideas by layering samples from Splice's library. Pick a genre, and the app will instantly create a Stack that layers multiple samples in that genre that share the same key and tempo; these can then be mixed, muted or swapped out for new samples from Splice's library, while the global key and tempo can be adjusted across the whole Stack.

Splice Mic lets app users record over ideas generated using Stacks, and it'll even analyse the vocal recording to find additional samples that match it harmonically. After recording a loop of up to one minute in length, users can then trim it using the app's audio editor before snapping it to the beat grid.

If they're not happy with the results, they can pick a new genre and Splice will select new samples to work alongside the vocal take. Multiple takes can be layered together, with a maximum of eight layers in a Stack. Finished ideas can then be exported as mixes, stems or Ableton projects to be polished in a DAW later.

“The phone is already a huge part of music making," says Splice's SVP of Content Kenny Ochoa. "About 1 million users have made more than 28 million stacks so far, and now songwriters and producers can record vocal ideas over stacks of samples. They can experiment with vocal, lyric, and genre and have even more control over their creative vision. and now those stacks can be merged with vocals”.

To celebrate the launch of Splice Mic, the company invited two opposing teams of songwriters and producers to create tracks in 60 seconds using Splice's mobile app. You can watch that video below.

"We got the team together to see who could start the best new Stacks," said artist and producer Leland.

"These creative tools are fun to use, and the results take songwriters so much deeper into the finished process. Before we even get to the studio, we can sketch out melodies and even hooks. This is so valuable to our community".

Find out more on Splice's website.

But while he embraces innovation, he remains wary of its pitfalls. In a recent radio appearance, Eno reflected on how modern production techniques might, if used unimaginatively, be homogenizing music.

Eno recently joined hosts hosts Brian Cox and Robin Ince for an episode of the BBC Radio 4 radio show Infinite Monkey Cage - billed as a “witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists’ eyes” - alongside Sam Bennett and Trevor Cox, two leading academics working in music and acoustic engineering.

In the episode, the hosts walk listeners through the history of music technology and recording, drawing on insights provided by their trio of educated guests. It’s a fascinating and informative listen for anyone even remotely interested in the science of sound and music.

After the conversation touches on the flexibility afforded to musicians and producers by modern multitrack recording, Eno points out how few records are now made that faithfully capture a singular performance by a musician or group, without editing or overdubs.

“It’s really quite unusual to have an actual performance recorded now - and I don’t see anything wrong with that,” he says. “Nobody would expect every painting to be done on the same day it was started. We’re quite used to the idea in other media that you do something over an extended period of time, and that you can retract steps as well.”

While Eno values the convenience offered by contemporary recording techniques, he questions whether our modern methods might ultimately be draining the soul from the music we create: “The problem with all of this is that you end up with super-pasteurized music where everything has been nicely finished and ironed out, and there’s no fiber left at all,” he adds.

Eno singles out Auto-Tune, the vocal tuning plugin, as an example of this, suggesting that thoughtless use of the popular vocal production tool can strip the unique qualities of an artist’s voice away, rendering them unrecognizable.

“I love the sound of Auto-Tune when it’s used for what it can do that human voices can’t do; I hate the sound of it when it just turns a voice into every other voice,” he admits.

Earlier in the episode, Eno reflects on the first electronic music gear he ever purchased, a test oscillator that he picked up all the way back in 1967. “I was fascinated by trying to make an electronic instrument,” he says.

“I bought a signal generator, which was just a way of producing a sine wave from 0 to 40 kHz,” he continues, before doing a crude impression of his test equipment: “I was quite pleased with that“. Did this rudimentary set-up feature on any of his records? Yes, Eno says: “It gave me a musical career”.

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

The Crimson III’s main tweak is in its drum module – previously perhaps the weakest aspect of the Crimson II given the quality of the rest of the hardware.

The Crimson III once again offers nine pads in total. There’s a 12″ snare, two 8″ toms, a 10″ floor tom, a 14” ride cymbal and two 12” crashes and a 12” hi-hat set up. The 8” kick pad comes mounted on a stand.

All the toms are pleasingly dual-zone – allowing for the triggering of different sounds depending on where you hit them – with the ride featuring three zones for ultimate playability. While there is a hi-hat pedal supplied the unit once again comes without a kick pedal, allowing the user to spec their own favourite.

Elsewhere the entire kit comes mounted on a four-post tubular rack and the snare stand is pleasingly double-braced for durability.

In fact, the only visible upgrade to the kit itself are improved mesh heads, the giveaway upgrade between the II and III variants being that the new heads are white, rather than black as previously. Doubtless these ‘more realistic-looking’ heads will turn a few… er… heads, when compared to the fake and functional black finish previously.

The brains of the operation

However, the main upgrade comes in the shape of an all-new Crimson III drum brain. The new Crimson module has 80 kits on board with 40 presets and a further 40 being user definable. All in all there are now 470 multi-sampled individual sounds, all of which are lifted from the BFD libraries.

InMusic – the giant European gear brand – bought Alesis in 2001, of course, and subsequently snapped up FXpansion, the makers of the much-loved BFD drum plugin in 2020. The Alesis Crimson III sees the company putting the pair together at last, representing a major hike in the quality and range of the III’s on-board sounds.

Additionally, there’s even a set of 100 songs to play along with, plus room for 10 user-programmed songs recorded using the module’s built-in sequencer.

And physically the Crimson III brain has had a number of upgrades too. There’s now a quick and easy six-fader mix section (beating the one-knob menu diving required on the less control-laden mkII) and upgrades to the number, size and quality of the screen and surrounding buttons.

There’s the familiar D-Sub connector for plugging in the pads and round the back there's the option to add more pads via two more triggers (assigned to Tom 4 and Crash 2) and the usual complement of MIDI, USB, stereo out and headphones.

There’s also a stereo AUX in so you can play in music directly from your choice of source and play along and Bluetooth compatibility so you can do the same without even needing a connection.

There’s an SD card slot so you can record your performances as audio (in WAV or MP3) or as MIDI files for exporting to a DAW for further tweaking. Plus – all new – you can now import your own samples into the unit, if that expanded BFD library doesn’t hit the spot.

Want more? How about a thrown-in 90 day subscription to top tuition site Drumeo and a copy of the BFD Player software that comes with the core BFD Player library plus the Dark Mahogany expansion pack?

Looks like Alesis and InMusic have thought of everything, with the kit available now for a keen €1,199.00.

Find out more here and purchase from Thomann here.

The reason? They’ve become the latest group whose music has been purloined by Donald Trump. Their late '90s hit Closing Time has been used to accompany footage of United States Customs and Border Protection officials handcuffing and searching detainees, which has been posted by the White House’s official Twitter account. Semisonic have confirmed that they did not “authorise or condone” the use of the track.

“We did not authorise or condone The White House’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask,” the band told Consequence in a statement. “The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.”

Why use Semisonic’s innocent ditty? Because of the lyrics "you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here," which have been taken out of context and repurposed by White House officials.

Still, it puts Semisonic in good company. They join a long list of more famous artists that have already spoken out about Trump’s unauthorised use of their music. The roster includes - deep breath - Abba, Adele, Aerosmith, a-ha, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen (of course), Celine Dion, Elton John, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, the estate of Isaac Hayes, Linkin Park, Neil Young, Ozzy Osbourne, Pharrell Williams, Phil Collins, Prince, Queen, the Rolling Stones, the estate of Tom Petty, The White Stripes and the Village People.

The odd one out among that little lot is, of course, the Village People. Or at least their frontman Victor Willis, who changed his mind and played one of Trump’s inauguration balls in January. In a Facebook post, he and the group defended their decision, saying that they hoped Y.M.C.A would "help bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost."

In the motion, filed in a New York district court, Universal - which represents both Drake and Lamar - claimed that Drake “lost a rap battle that he provoked and in which he willingly participated.

“Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds. Plaintiff’s complaint is utterly without merit and should be dismissed with prejudice.”

It’s coming up to a year since Drake and Lamar first began trading diss tracks on what initially seemed like a daily basis. But the immense success of Lamar’s Not Like Us - breaking Spotify records, winning Grammys and becoming a global talking point - has proved unanswerable.

Instead, Drake decided to file a lawsuit against Universal, claiming that it “approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” that was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable, and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”

Universal, in the motion to dismiss the case, argues that Not Like Us “conveys non-actionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole, not fact.” It also points out that Universal has promoted Drake’s own diss tracks against Lamar, and indeed other rappers.

Drake’s action, it argues “disregards the other Drake and Lamar diss tracks that surrounded Not Like Us as well as the conventions of the diss track genre… diss tracks are a popular and celebrated artform centred around outrageous insults, and they would be severely chilled if Drake’s suit were permitted to proceed.”

The Canadian rapper doesn’t appear to giving up, though. In a statement released to Variety, his attorney Michael J. Gottlieb responded by saying: “UMG (Universal) wants to pretend that this is about a rap battle in order to distract its shareholders, artists and the public from a simple truth: a greedy company is finally being held responsible for profiting from dangerous misinformation that has already resulted in multiple acts of violence.”

It’s hard to see what Drake stands to gain by pursuing the case. Any victory, in the unlikely event that it ever comes to court, will surely be pyrrhic. As ever, the only winners will be the lawyers.

We’ll get to that shortly, but what we can confirm right away is that the GO:PIANO 88PX (to give it its official title) is a lightweight, portable (you can run it on batteries) 88-note portable keyboard with ‘box-shape’ velocity-sensitive keys (no hammer-action here). There are five types of touch sensitivity - up from three on its predecessor, the GO:PIANO 88P - and a huge number of extra tones.

Ten times as many, in fact, as the limited four-preset palette of the 88P has been expanded to include 40 built-in sounds, spread across piano, electric piano, organ and ‘other’ categories. There are new ambience, brilliance and (for the organ tones) rotary speaker effects, too.

As a further bonus, you can also access a further 256 GM2 tones via the Roland Piano App. This also gives you access to the Piano Designer, which enables you to adjust the likes of lid position, damper resonance, tuning, volume and temperament.

Other features include a metronome, a MIDI recorder for capturing your playing, dual/split functions and wireless audio and MIDI over Bluetooth 5.

Strangely, however, the maximum polyphony has been halved from 128 to 64 - not that most beginners will notice this, it should be said - and the quoted amplifier power has dropped from 10w x 2 to 6w x 2 for the 15 x 6 cm speakers. The maximum quoted battery life is significantly down, too: from 20 hours on the 88P to around six hours on the 88XP (using alkaline batteries). That’s quite a drop - perhaps the switch from D to AA batteries has something to do with it.

In better news, the new model is very slightly smaller than the old one and weighs a bit less: 5.8kg as opposed to 7kg. The look has been refined, too, and Roland says that the top-panel interface is easier to operate.

Like the 88P, the 88PX has a pedal input, audio output, USB port and AC adapter socket. A USB-C port replaces the USB type B port, though, and the phones/output socket is now minijack rather than 1/4-inch size. A music stand is included, but other accessories (a stand, for example) are optional.

Based on the spec sheet alone, then, the GO:PIANO 88XP is a bit of a headscratcher, but if it sounds good and plays well, we’re guessing that a lot of people will be inclined to let those spec quirks slide. What’s more, the price is competitive for a full-size digital piano: $380.

Find out more on the Roland website.

This week, the British company, headed up by former Spitfire Audio CEO Will Evans, has released another Kontakt instrument developed in collaboration with Richter under the SRM Sounds banner. Valley Forge is a sci-fi inspired virtual instrument and "celestial toolkit" based on the sounds of a 15-piece timpani ensemble, an original Minimoog and an array of analogue effects processors.

Recorded at Richter's personal studio, Studio Richter Mahr, the timpani recordings were made using a number of different microphone types and placements that can be be blended together on Valley Forge's interface. The timpani library features hits, rolls, and clusters performed with a variety of mallets and percussive objects.

Those recordings were run through a selection of Richter's analogue effects to produce cinematic and textural drones, while his own Minimoog Model D has been sampled and included as a synth accompaniment. There are also a range of built-in effects onboard for further processing, including delay, chorus, phaser, saturation and tape emulation.

"Valley Forge is a place of sonic exploration," Richter says of the instrument. "Like all musical instruments, it's an act of the imagination. And in this case, it's a place where these strange sounds exist.

"Named after the spaceship in Douglas Trumbull’s prescient 1972 sci-fi eco-parable “Silent Running”, these sounds are evocative of a spaciousness, with a darkness about them. There's resonance and memory, and a sort of alien warmth in this material. And that comes from the fact that it has mostly organic origins. In a way Valley Forge is a kind of ode to an imaginary spaceship. And this is what it would sound like."

Find out more on the SRM Sounds website or watch a walkthrough video below.

Serum 2 vastly expands the capabilities of its predecessor with new spectral, granular and sample-based oscillators, enhanced effects, expanded modulation options, an updated interface, clip editor and built-in arpeggiator, along with a host of minor improvements. This is a colossal update that makes Serum 2 a serious rival to powerhouse hybrid synth plugins like Arturia Pigments 6 and Kilohearts Phase Plant.

Serum's arsenal of oscillators has been expanded to include a total of five oscillator types, and the OG wavetable oscillator has been upgraded with dual warping, a new smooth interpolation mode and a raft of extra warp modes, including true FM and phase distortion. Three primary oscillators can now be utilized in a single patch, opening up a wide range of possibilities for experimentation with FM routing.

Two sample-based oscillators turn Serum 2 into a flexible sampler and multisampler equipped with a library of stock samples that spans orchestras, keys, guitars and more, and you can load in your own .sfz files. The new granular oscillator can create complex and evolving textures by breaking down samples into tiny grains of audio, while the spectral oscillator conjures up new sounds by harmonically resynthesizing imported samples, wavetables or even image files in real time.

Serum 2's dual filter section has been bolstered with eleven new filter types, including emulations of classic ladder filters and a disperser-style "diffuser" filter, while the effects section has been overhauled with new flexible routing and several new processors, including an analogue-style frequency shifter and convolution reverb, and new signal splitter modules can be used to get deep into multi-band and mid/side processing.

The synth's modulation capabilities have also been improved, with the number of available LFOs taken from four to ten, and an additional envelope bringing the total to four. Any oscillator or filter can now act as a modulation source, and LFO modes have been expanded with two chaos modes, an S&H generator, and a Path LFO mode for vector-based modulation that follows a path drawn on an XY grid.

If as if that wasn't quite enough for you, Serum 2 has also been equipped with an enhanced mod matrix, new mixer panel, multimode arpeggiator and a sophisticated clip sequencer and MIDI editor with automation and probabilistic sequencing. The plugin's revamped preset browser can be used to preview, categorize and tag its 626 factory presets, and long-time users will be pleased to know that Serum 2 is backwards-compatible with existing presets for its predecessor.

Xfer Records Serum 2 is available now for macOS and Windows in VST3/AU/AAX formats. It's currently priced at an introductory discount of $189 until June 1st, when it'll bounce back to $249.

Find out more on Xfer Records' website.

It’s a tune, alright, but one that, in musical terms, is actually very simple. Explaining how she wrote Messy on her acoustic guitar in a new Behind The Track video from Mix with the Masters, Young says: “It was just the C shape, moved up, and it’s literally just that - that’s the whole song”.

Young goes on to explain that Messy was written at a lower tempo than it ended up being recorded at. With the original idea crystallised, she headed to 64 Sound studio in LA, where she worked on it with producer Jared Solomon, William Brown (drummer and co-producer), and Conor Dickinson (co-writer and producer).

As so often seems to be the case, work on Messy began in earnest as the group’s studio time was drawing to a close, and when all else seemed to be failing.

“The last day, we attempted three songs that were all horrible sounding,” says Solomon. And we were all like ‘dude, this is not working’. We were struggling.”

It was at this point that they turned to Messy, but Dickinson was keen to switch up the arrangement. “We wanted to do something with energy and she wrote it like slow and folky,” he recalls. “It was kind of a sad thing, and I was like ‘why don’t we take that and speed it up and put some ‘70s drums on it and then we’ll have something with energy and just see how it feels?”

Despite a slight concern that the increased tempo could make the “wordy” lyrics difficult to sing, the team recognised that they were onto something as soon as they started playing it. In fact, such was the vibe in the recordings they made that day, some of those takes made it onto the record, despite the fact that Young was tired and losing her voice.

“Even in my vocal take there’s a little bit of slight imperfection, but that massively just makes the song what it is and also relates back to the meaning of the song, which is that imperfections can also be - in some ways - really special, and even more enticing and interesting than something that’s perfect,” she says.

In fact, Young suggests that she wanted the finished song to sound as ‘live’ and spontaneous as possible, and that meant recording in a more old-school way. “It’s not like one part that we’ve looped; we’ll play the whole track, so there’s a lot of different moments, special moments that poke out,” she points out. “Someone will be playing and there’ll be just like a little lick or a little riff that kind of pokes out throughout the song.”

Messy is just a two-chord pattern, though, so Solomon says that everyone was focused on dynamics to ensure that interest was kept up. There’s plenty of ear candy in the mix, too, some of which comes from a Yamaha CS-60 and a Korg MS-20, which creates the kind of swell that could easily be mistaken for a guitar. A spring reverb was used to concoct that effect.

Backstreet's back (sort of)

There is plenty of actual guitar on Messy as well, though: a country chug and a melody line that Solomon says sounded uncomfortably familiar.

“As soon as I played that I was like, ‘damn, it sounds like Backstreet Boys’. I just remember playing that and I’m like, ‘that sounds like I Want It That Way’. And then I didn’t do the ‘way’, because if you do the ‘way’, you gotta pay them a lot of money.”

Listen out, too, for an arpeggiated Roland Juno-106: “There was a cool little Easter egg that happened, I remember,” says Solomon. “It was kind of at the end of the day. We had a Juno-106, and we had Will play chords and we were doing like an arpeggio. The 106 doesn’t have an arpeggiator on it, but I guess our engineer, Tyler, he hooked it up to Pro Tools, so it was like clock-synced, arpeggiated or something with Pro Tools.

“It was a weird thing, but instead of an arpeggiator playing only one note at a time, it was playing the whole chord and arpeggiating the chord up octaves instead of just doing a normal one-note arpeggiation. It was so weird.”

Weird or not, Messy has resonated with a lot of people since its release, and is unlikely to be disappearing from the airwaves any time soon. And for Young, the lesson is not to overthink things.

“You don’t need to be so super perfectionist,” she says. “You can just put songs out and see what happens. I think that is really important to do.”

Hans Zimmer has appeared on musician, producer and YouTuber Rick Beato's channel to take part in a wide-ranging, almost two-hour interview in promotion of Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert.

Diamond in the Desert is a concert film and documentary that weaves footage of two Dubai shows from the Hans Zimmer Live Tour together with candid conversations with a varied list of collaborators that includes Billie Eilish, Christopher Nolan and Pharrell Williams.

In the Beato interview, Zimmer digs deep into his creative process, sharing anecdotes around his work on films like Inception and Dune and recounting how, after years of struggle, he eventually overcame stage fright - with a little help from Paul McCartney.

Perhaps the most intriguing insight, however, arrives when Zimmer claims that 90% of his work is done using a single software instrument: u-he ZebraHZ. A spin-off from u-he's widely beloved Zebra 2 synth, ZebraHZ is Hans Zimmer's custom-built version of the instrument, featuring a bank of presets - named The Dark Zebra - designed by Zimmer and used in films such as The Dark Knight.

"I was one of the first people to really get into computers and music," Zimmer tells Beato. "But there came a point where there's a new operating system every few months. I just gave up. I just went: 'I need to concentrate on my music'.

"So I started to subtract things out of my life, and I started getting very good at the things that I kept. For instance, software synthesizers. 90% of what I do is done on one software synth. I've been working with that thing for so many years now, and I still haven't run out of ideas.

"What is that? That's u-he Zebra, the Dark Zebra HZ. It's the Hans Zimmer model. I suddenly get an idea that needs six resonating filters, and he's going: 'why do you guys need this?' Well, I can't explain it, but when you hear it, you'll see why!"

Zimmer goes on to highlight another synth plugin that features heavily in his work - a plugin that also happens to bear his initials - Synapse Audio's The Legend HZ, a virtual analogue synth based on the Minimoog. Zimmer's version of The Legend bolsters the plugin's specs with additional oscillators, expanded polyphony and a fixed filter bank based on his own vintage Moog Modular 914.

The Legend replaces the Minimoog's ADS envelope, which lacked a dedicated Release control, with a more familiar ADSR version. "It's basically a Minimoog, with one important improvement" says Zimmer. "You don't have to do that switch for the release, you actually have a release; a proper release. But it sounds as good as the real thing."

Being the world's most celebrated film composer, you'd expect that Zimmer wouldn't have to plump for software emulations of expensive hardware synths. As it turns out, he's got "a few of the real things" around the studio, too.

"I can shut my eyes, and I can just go up to them, and I'm at home," adds Zimmer. "What makes them sound great is that I'm so familiar with them. I'm not a big analogue versus digital guy - if it sounds good, it sounds good."

Subscribe to Rick Beato's YouTube channel.

This came about after De Telegraaf, the Dutch daily newspaper, reported that Alex Van Halen was working on a load of unreleased Van Halen recordings and that Lukather was helping him complete the project. The drummer said: "Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together. There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can."

In the same article, Lukather, is quoted as saying: "Did Alex say that? Oh, in that case the news is true. Ed, Alex and I were very close for years. It is true that we worked on it together."

However, over the weekend the Toto man took to Instagram and cleared up what all this means - whilst he’s involved, he is absolutely not playing guitar on any ‘new’ Van Halen tracks. "For the record: Ever since Alex Van Halen dropped some we were gonna work together I think there is a huge misunderstanding. "I will NOT EVER play a guitar note on a VH song ever!

"Al asked me to help him go thru a ton of unfinished recordings of Al and Ed writing and recording that never saw the light of day. As of now that's all I got.

"The fact that ANYONE would think for even a second that I would play anything on this is ridiculous. I have too much love and respect for that and ... I play nothing like Ed.. more as a co-producer or something. I am honored Al would ask me though.”

So that’s that sorted out.

Lukather and Van Halen go back a long way. The two guitarists both played on Michael Jackson’s Beat It and Eddie contributed to both Lukather’s 1989 solo album and his 2003 Christmas album SantaMental.

When this unreleased material will see light of day is unclear. Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020. His brother has talked about there being enough unheard tracks for another “three or four records.”

Speaking on Steve Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Alex Van Halen said: "I've talked about it loosely, and I am rather superstitious, but I can say a couple of things that I've mentioned before. We're gonna go through the 'vault' and go through some of the musical ideas that were there."

He added: "There was some good stuff in there. And you have to remember, when in the thick of it, sometimes the really great stuff kind of passes you by. And it's not until you revisit it going, 'Whoa, I forgot about that. This kicks ass.' But that takes time. And you wanna do it right. I wanna do it right."

This year’s finalists formed a striking range, some engaging with sound through raw physicality—breath, bowing, plucking—while others channeled electromagnetic forces or algorithmic intelligence. But whether digital or analogue, acoustic or electronic, this year’s instruments foregrounded the relationship between performer and instrument, inviting touch, resistance, and direct interaction.

At a time when music technology often prioritizes seamlessness and automation, Guthman remains a space where invention thrives in unexpected places: sometimes in high-tech circuitry, sometimes in the simple act of striking, scraping, or coaxing sound from an object.

Since its inception, the competition has evolved dramatically. It began in the 1990s as a piano competition, founded by engineer and Georgia Tech alum Richard Guthman, in honor of his wife and pianist, Margaret Guthman. Over the years, it has evolved into something broader and more conceptually rich—a reflection of how musicians, engineers, and inventors approach musical expression in an era of rapid technological change.

As Georgia Tech’s music technology program grew, the decision was made in the mid-2000s to expand the focus to include new musical instruments. Today, it exemplifies Georgia Tech’s mission of merging technical expertise with creative expression: “This competition is really about taking advantage of what we do well at Georgia Tech: bringing together engineering, design, and music technology to create something that exists at the intersection of science and art,” says Jeff Albert, associate music professor at the university and head of the competition. For those who enter, it’s a chance to showcase their work in front of a panel of experts, as well as a curious niche of the public eager to glimpse the future of music.

Each year, the competition brings together some of the most forward-thinking minds in music technology, design, and performance. This year was no exception, with judges including King Britt, the veteran producer, composer and performer who has worked with the likes of De La Soul, Madlib, Miles Davis and Solange. (Britt also works as an educator at UCSD, where his Blacktronika course explores the contributions of people of color to electronic music.) Also on this year’s panel is Paul McCabe, senior VP of research and innovation at Roland, who has played a key role in shaping the future of music technology, particularly in his leadership of Roland’s Future Design Labs.

Finally, Laetitia Sonami is a sound artist and educator known for her innovative instruments, like the elbow-length Lady’s Glove, laced with 30 embedded sensors and social commentary, and which in many ways predated today’s wearable tech. Her experimental approach to sound and performance, including her ongoing experiments using neural networks for realtime audio synthesis, keeps her at the forefront of cutting-edge music creation. Past judges for the event have ranged from Laurie Anderson and Young Guru to Roger Linn and Tom Oberheim.

The competition attracts inventors from around the world, submitting designs that range from advanced digital controllers to reinvented acoustic instruments. Past winners have included everything from brainwave-controlled synthesizers to mechanical ensembles powered by robotic actuators—and even the occasional breakout commercial hit in the music tech world, like the original Teenage Engineering OP-1 and Roli Seaboard.

Yet for all its technological ambition, the competition has always maintained a deep focus on human expressivity; instruments that don’t just dazzle with their engineering, but fundamentally expand the way musicians interact with sound. The competition has always endeavored to answer an essential question: What makes a great musical instrument? Is it the richness of its sound, the intuitiveness of its design, or its potential to revolutionize musical expression? For Sonami, the answer is all of the above: “It is exciting that one may use different paradigms and not only think of orchestra, stage, or studios, but of networking and relationship to places, people, and environments,” she says.

Among this year’s winners, an instrument called the Chromaplane took the top prize, embodying a retro-futuristic vision of musical interaction. Developed as a collaboration Passepartout Duo & KOMA Elektronik, the Chromaplane was the one instrument in the competition that’s actually been manufactured for wider audience than just the creator—albeit for a relatively small number of crowdfunders, when it was released in 2024.

It’s an analogue, polyphonic instrument played by moving electromagnetic pickup coils over a field of electromagnetic signals, and is equally adept at both drones and more agile melodies. A 4-pole low-pass filter and lo-fi delay add depth and atmosphere, while adjustable tuning screws and an online tuner allow for custom, sharable tunings. With its unique interface—essentially an array of sensors translating hand movements into sound—it transforms gesture into melody, allowing for fluid and expressive musical performance.

This year’s second place prize went to the Mulatar, which bridges centuries of instrument-making traditions with modern digital control. Inspired by classical stringed instruments but augmented with electronics, it allows for microtonal exploration and seamless timbral shifts, opening new expressive possibilities while remaining deeply rooted in the tactile experience of playing its strings.

The event’s third-place winner, Dinosaur Choir taps into something arguably even more primal, evoking the sounds of ancient worlds. Using neural networks to generate vocalizations that mimic prehistoric creatures, it’s more whimsical and conceptual than the other winners. Blurring the lines between instrument and sound installation, it turns speculative paleontology into an accessible and intuitive form of musical expression.

As Sonami points out, at the end of their selection process, the judges noticed something of a historical arc to the instruments they’d chosen: “The prehistory with the Dinosaur Choir, then the Mulatar, which is really about tradition incorporated into a new instrument—it puts hundreds of years of instrument-making into this one instrument. And then [finally] the Chromaplane, which was more futuristic. So there was this interesting arc from prehistory to sci-fi.”

As for why the latter came out on top, she says, “I think because at the end, you're still looking for new ways of making sound.” For them, it was ultimately the innovation that moved them, not just in the building and performance of the instrument, but also the technology that drives it. “Coils and magnetic fields alone are not innovative—it's been done for a long time—but turning them into a tunable instrument [was].”

Beyond the top three winners, the competition also honored instruments that reimagined musical control and accessibility. The 3 Axis MIDI Guitar earned the Judges' Special Award for its innovative approach to multi-dimensional expression. With a pressure-sensitive trackpad and unique effect control implementation, it allows guitarists to manipulate sounds and effects in natural ways that go beyond traditional fretting and bending.

The Udderbot, a playful and highly expressive breath-controlled acoustic instrument, and ModuMIDI, a polychromatic MIDI keyboard designed for ergonomic performance of microtonal music, with magnetic keys that can be removed or rearranged into customizable layouts, both received commendations for their unique contributions to the evolving landscape of instrument design.

Together, these winners highlight the competition’s ability to balance innovation with playfulness and tradition with experimentation. This year’s entries underscored an impulse to reconnect music with the body, the moment, and the audience.

Whether through touch, breath, or gesture, the winning instruments seemed to prioritize physicality and play over abstraction and automation; while digital and algorithmic processes are certainly present in several, they function in service of more tactile forms of performance, rather than replacing them. This is particularly evident in the Chromaplane: despite its futuristic, touchless interface, the instrument relies fully on the performer’s gestures to shape sound in real time. Similarly, the Mulatar and 3 Axis MIDI Guitar enhance traditional instrumental techniques rather than attempting to automate them.

Perhaps this focus on performance over novel or groundbreaking technology aligns with a broader shift in music creation and culture. In recent years, music production and consumption has of course been increasingly dominated by software workflows—DAWs, massive online sample libraries, and AI-assisted composition and sound generation tools—that optimize for convenience and efficiency. Many of this year’s Guthman finalists, by contrast, seem to push back against that very paradigm, emphasizing unpredictability, embodied control, and the physical presence of sound.

That emphasis may not be accidental. As Sonami notes, this year’s entries had a distinct performative energy, fostering connection between musician, instrument, and audience. “Maybe creating community and connecting with people, that kind of performative activity, is coming back in music,” she suggests, reflecting on how the pandemic, and perhaps even the broader social and political landscape, have shifted creative priorities. “If it means blowing the bottle or blowing through pipes or just making it accessible … I just think that people spend so much time creating tracks, and I’m hoping that maybe music is coming back to the stage, or if not the stage, to the street.”

It’s an observation that seemed to echo throughout the competition. Whether through new instrumental interfaces, unconventional tuning systems, or speculative sonic concepts, the 2025 Guthman finalists seemed less concerned with efficiency or automation and more invested in fostering friction—the kind of creative resistance that sparks genuine musical exploration.

It’s certainly something Sonami thinks about often. She herself has long explored the boundaries of machine learning in the context of musical expression, but over time she’s grown increasingly wary of how these technologies can shape artistic practice. “I don’t use the word AI anymore because it’s so loaded,” she says.

“I use [the term] machine learning because AI implies so many things that aren’t actually happening.” From her perspective, the value of machine learning in instrument design lies not in its ability to optimize performance, but in its capacity to create new creative tensions. “So much of technology is about being frictionless, and I’m for friction. I think we learn through friction.”

She sees a growing divide between machine learning as a tool for accessibility—which can help musicians with physical or cognitive limitations express themselves more freely—and its role in adaptive technologies that seek to theoretically “improve” performance. “Technology has a way of being restrictive,” she explains. “Like, my little machine learning model is going to understand how you play, so it can make you play better tunes. And you go: ‘No! See, I don’t want that!’

“One worry I have is that this kind of exciting exploration that can be done with machine learning gets more and more into ‘adaptive technologies’—which can be great, but also, ‘let me make you a better this and better that.’ I don't like what you call ‘better’. I'm not interested in what you call ‘better’! It's not artistically relevant.”

Regardless of the form that it takes, for Sonami, the magic of a new instrument lies in its subtle unpredictability—this essential friction of creativity. “It should surprise you—how it engages the body, the sounds it creates or allows you to make, the interaction with other instruments or with the environment. While you want to master it, you also want it to teach you, make you discover.” Albert, the head of the competition, agrees: “The best instruments aren’t just tools—they’re collaborators in the creative process. And that’s what makes this competition so exciting every year.”

This shift feels particularly resonant in an era where digital tools increasingly mediate musical creation. While so many of today’s creative tools, services, and listening platforms attempt to push us towards a frictionless future, the Guthman finalists remind us that friction—fingers against strings, breath through air columns, feedback loops between performer and instrument—is where human expression lives.

As technology races forward, musicians continue to seek ways to anchor themselves in the immediacy of sound. This year’s competition suggests that the future of musical innovation may not be about removing barriers but embracing them: the rough edges, the resistance, the unpredictability that makes music feel alive.

Take for example long-standing audio specialists Electro-Harmonix who’ve been making analog and digital audio signal processing pedals, boxes and gizmos since 1968.

Now, speaking to Bloomberg Electro-Harmonix founder Mike Matthews has spelt out the dire situation Trump’s measures have placed his company in.

“The hope is that with very deep inventories on most all of our pedals we make, we can ride out this storm,” says Matthews hopefully. “[But] we’re gonna have to continue to buy our raw materials from overseas, even with the tariffs.”

The fact is that simply not manufacturing in, or purchasing from, abroad isn't an option for most American-based music instrument makers.

“The global supply chain has allowed us to make high-quality, affordable products, and it’s taken decades to do that," explains John Mlynczak, president and CEO of NAMM (the National Association of Music Merchants) in another interview with Billboard.

"When you start raising the price everywhere of what it costs to import goods, it’s challenging, and it really threatens everything we’ve learned to do as an industry."

Brother, can you spare a dime?

And price rises across the board seem inevitable at this stage. The founder of boutique tube amp maker Morgan Amps, Joe Morgan took to Instagram to spell just what the tariffs will mean for his business and your next Morgan Amps purchase.

“Not trying to be political but just did some hard math last night trying to determine how these 25% tariffs will affect my business,” Morgan begins. “For every dollar I spend in manufacturing it costs the consumer $3.50. Manufacturing costs + my profit margin + dealer profit.

“So when my parts cost increase by 25% for the materials coming from Canada (transformers, aluminum, wood) it increases the cost of an AC20 DELUXE by $300. This $300 in manufacturing costs ends up costing the consumer $1050.”

“I work on a THIN margin,” he continues. “I do not factor in my labor on any amp I build as I see my profit margin pay for my salary and all ancillary costs.

"To increase my costs by $300 for goods I would need to recover these costs in margin. I will not work for free.”

And it’s not just the ‘boutique’ US gear brands that seem set to suffer. Even giants such as Fender – thanks to its international supply chain and major Mexican business – are feeling the brunt with credit ratings analysts Moody’s downgrading their prospects and sending shock waves throughout the industry.

Its re-rating amounts to a slam on the anchors for future investment with the company predicting a rise in operational costs of “approximately $20 to $25 million” purely due to the increased cost of their requirement on overseas components.

So while Fender still has “strong brand recognition and market position in the acoustic and electric guitar categories” and “benefits from good geographic diversity and a long-standing reputation for high-quality products… these strengths are offset by the company's narrow product focus and earnings volatility.

“This volatility is further exacerbated by the current challenging economic environment and exposure to new US tariffs," Moodys explains.

Fact: Overseas manufacturing makes the US gear business work

“One thing we’d like people to understand is the reason why we have companies that can afford to build their highest-end products in the US is because they have the revenue from the mid-to-entry level products from overseas," reckons NAMM’s Mlynczak

Sure enough, the latest figures from the US International Trade Commission state that 989,621 acoustic guitars were imported from China and 187,722 acoustic guitars were imported from Mexico in 2024.

“Our supply chain is deeply interconnected. It’s not like an instrument is solely made in China or Mexico.

"What happens is you have certain components that are made really well in China that are then imported for final assembly. Or you have a factory in Mexico that has a specialty in making certain components that are imported. Then they are assembled in the U.S. This happens because this work is highly specialised.

So isn’t the answer to simply bring manufacturing into the States, as President Trump would like?

“It’s not that easy,” says Mlynczak. “What we’re building are not generic widgets that come off a line. These workers around the world are trained to understand how to test musical products, to buff the bell of a brass instrument perfectly, to tune the strings on a violin.

"There are handmade components to these instruments that take – in some cases – decades to do right. These factories often have multi-generational workers. This isn’t a skill set you pick up overnight.”

“Trump’s policy on tariffs will definitely bring very big companies into America for manufacturing, but small and medium companies, their volume will not be big enough,” agrees Matthews. And bringing EHX entirely within the States? “That would be a really huge investment,” Matthews worries.

Indeed, EHX has already been moving their sourcing to avoid dependence on a Chinese component market made uncertain through Trump’s trade tariffs. Meanwhile the company owns a vacuum tube facility within Russia – a country which already has a 35% tariff against its imports and has its own worries…

And now having successfully sourced components from Taiwan, the company's profits and ability to trade are now back in the firing line again.

And this cuts both ways

“American-made instruments are really coveted by musicians around the world. It’s a double whammy. The squeeze is really real," worries Mlynczak.

“Our customers’ buying habits are like a pyramid. There is a very, very small market for the highest tier, custom instrument models, but it is very wide at the bottom. You can’t have that custom shop model at the top without the support of a very wide entry-level bottom.”

And the squeeze on long-established American brands such as Electro-Harmonix is now, it seems, likely to push the company over the edge. So much so that Matthews has been seeking a way out.

“I am open and have been in the process of trying to sell the company. It’s a difficult time,” he says. “I’ll have to scratch my chin to think about it – you know, can I still make a profit?