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.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: 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.

← XLR MAG Archive

Premier GuitarGuitars

50 Synth Sounds and 70+ Instruments Without a MIDI Pickup | Melofty Axom Max

10.27

Melofty is a new name for most guitar players, and the Axom Max is a big first statement. The company calls it a hybrid audio processor, which in practice means an amp modeler, effects unit, guitar…

Synths Electric guitars & amps Ai-modeler Audio-processor Effects Amp-modeler

Read at Premier Guitar ↗

Also covered by: Studio (SE)

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

50 Synth Sounds and 70+ Instruments Without a MIDI Pickup | Melofty Axom Max

Related

GuitarsTom and Roman Morello: Fully Equipped Premier Guitar

GuitarsEsoterica Electrica: Too Many Boxes to Check Premier Guitar

GuitarsSeymour Duncan Refreshes Iron Maiden Pickup Collection for 2026 No Treble

DAW & pluginsNative Instruments Launches Massive XL Synth and Software

JapanNative Instruments、新世代フラッグシップ・シンセ「Massive XL」を発表…… オーディオ・ファイルからプリセットを生成する画期的な『Generate』機能を搭載 ICON (icon.jp)

DAW & pluginsRob Papen Introduces QUAD-2 Virtual Instrument Plug-in Synth and Software