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

Audio Plugin GuyGear

FREE Plugins Report Score FilterSolo Synthwave Kits Downtempo Breaks and More – 2026-10-30

10.31

Every few weeks we will let you know about the latest free audio plugins. Check those expiry dates because some won’t be free forever.

Synths Plugins & DAWs

Read at Audio Plugin Guy ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

FREE Plugins Report Score FilterSolo Synthwave Kits Downtempo Breaks and More – 2026-10-30

Related

GearNews: Fat Berry DSP has released Work Horse, a four-source synthesizer with ten synthesis engines per source for Windows VST3. Audio Plugin Guy

EuropeDecent Sampler 1.40.1, el sampler gratuito estrena autosampler y carga de instrumentos Kontakt Hispasonic

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

AI toolsBest Drum VST Plugins in 2026: From Drum Machines to Virtual Kits & Stem Separation LALAL.AI