Splice Blog

7 stories

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsWatch Madlib craft samples in the studio with Soul Surplus Watch hip hop legend Madlib and the Soul Surplus team as they craft a sample pack and discuss the creative process.

September 15

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsGet free industrial drums for Splice INSTRUMENT Download our free industrial drums preset for Splice INSTRUMENT—grab these presets during the drop window and they’re yours to keep forever.

September 11

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsOliver and dwilly react to your beats Watch acclaimed producers Oliver (BLACKPINK, Megan Thee Stallion) and dwilly (KATSEYE, bbno$) react to the Splice community's beat submissions.

September 10

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsFire-Toolz on unconventional sound design, go-to plugins, and her new sample pack Prolific producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Fire-Toolz shares her insights on sound design, sample creation, and more.

September 9

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsHome music studio setup: An essential equipment guide From non-negotiables to powerful add-ons, learn about all the equipment you'll want to consider for your home music studio setup.

September 4

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsThe 13 best vocal microphones of 2026 Whether you’re singing, rapping, or podcasting, these are 13 of the best vocal microphones to consider in 2026.

September 2

Splice BlogDAW & pluginsAn exclusive studio tour with dwilly (TWICE, KATSEYE, bbno$) Producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist dwilly (TWICE, KATSEYE, bbno$) gives an exclusive tour of his studio.

August 31

XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.