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MusicRadarGear“There’s no hyped low end, and the highs are crisp and detailed without sounding overly harsh at higher listening levels”: HEDD HEDDphone Two headphones review What is it? Berlin-based manufacturer HEDD Audio is well known for its quality studio monitors , so the move into premium headphones with their original AMT driver HEDDphone came as no surprise.

MusicRadarGearWhen Kirk Hammett paid a nerve-wracking visit to his blues hero Peter Green Kirk Hammett knew that paying a visit to Peter Green was the right thing to do and yet the Metallica guitarist couldn’t shake the feeling that it could all go wrong.

MusicRadarGear“I learned not to use a producer again”: Tony Iommi on what he took from working with Rick Rubin Tony Iommi has been shedding more light on what a difficult fit Rick Rubin was as producer for the final Black Sabbath album, 2013’s 13.

MusicRadarGearJimmy Page and Sundragon unveil the Dragonette – a $9,000 tube amp to nail his Led Zeppelin tone Ordinarily, if a friend were to tell us that they were about to part with $9,000 on a new six-watt tube amp , we would try to talk them out of it – maybe stage an intervention.

MusicRadarGear"This isn't a spec refresh – it's a completely new technology platform": Audient launches next generation of iD audio interfaces with onboard DSP and built-in monitor correction Audient has unveiled the next generation of its iD series of audio interfaces , built on what the company is calling the Analogue Intelligence platform, bringing together Audient’s analogue mic…

MusicRadarGearYou can now vibe code plugins for your MPC with the help of Akai’s official SDK AI-assisted ‘vibe coding’ is rapidly changing the music technology landscape and established brands are being forced to make quick decisions about how they are going to react.

MusicRadarGearBlackstar just gave its ID:X Floor amp modellers Neural Amp Modelling support We are big fans of Blackstar Amplification’s ID:X Floor series. These agreeably priced amp modellers have all the sounds of the ID:X guitar amps in a pedal format – and, crucially for those of use…

MusicRadarGearADDAC’s Rotary Exciter and Resonator Clamps can transform your guitar into a drone and ambient texture machine The 21st-century guitar player does not lack options for manipulating electric guitar tone. Go into any music store the world over and the pedal cabinet is packed with all kinds of gizmos for taking…

MusicRadarGearMatt Bellamy thinks that "Instagram-type" guitarists are the future Matt Bellamy has praised social media guitarists as “the future”. Instagram, YouTube and TikTok players who clearly have the chops but have yet to establish much of a reputation in the real world…

MusicRadarGear"Ever wanted to play a piano that’s 14 feet tall? Now you can": 5 new plugins you need to know about Never has there been a better time to be an in-the-box producer than 2026. Modern processors are lightning-fast , DAWs are more powerful than they’ve ever been, and the sheer breadth and variety of…

MusicRadarGearGet first dibs on seriously discounted gear with up to 50% off in Musician’s Friend massive Pre-Black Friday Sale - including favourites from Alesis, Kawai, Warm Audio, Martin and more If you’re looking to upgrade your home studio setup, expand your pedalboard, or grab top-tier gear for your upcoming gigs next year, the early Black Friday deals at Musician’s Friend have arrived in…

MusicRadarGearJoe Satriani and Steve Vai on The Sea Of Emotion: a guitar album 50 years in the making Steve Vai and Joe Satriani had begun work on their first studio album together some 50 years ago, only they didn’t know it at the time.

On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

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This week, from that corner the newest stories from the corner of the industry you picked

The wire their own posts, translated

How records get made in 2026 from the industry's own reports

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About

Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

More than three hundred sources, in sixteen languages: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.