XLR

Latest

On the calendar

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

On view

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

Sources

Fetched every three hours, linked to the original

About

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.

← XLR Archive

Tape OpStudios & pros

New Music From Floating Points and Turnstile

August 31

In April of this year, Sam Shepherd, aka Floating Points, was in San Francisco for 11 performances of his piece for the San Francisco Ballet , Mere Mortals . I caught one of the shows and it was...

Blog

Read at Tape Op ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

New Music From Floating Points and Turnstile

Related

Studios & prosMaking Music: Our Tape Op Book Reviewed Tape Op

Studios & prosNew Weezer: Gold Album Tape Op

Studios & prosNew Vinyl Reissues from Skip James and Jimmy Reed Tape Op

Studios & prosEpisode 121: Maryam Qudus of Spacemoth Tape Op

Studios & prosCatherine Anne Davies: is Still The Anchoress Tape Op

Studios & prosNew Album and Video from Porcelain, Produced by Scott Evans Tape Op