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

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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.

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SonarworksMakers

Studio Monitor Frequency Response: What the Specs Mean

May 12

Studio monitor frequency response is one of the most-cited specifications you will see on speaker datasheets, sales pages, and reviews. It is also one of the most misunderstood. You will see numbers like “20 Hz–20 kHz ±3

Monitors & headphones Studios & rooms

Read at Sonarworks ↗

MakersPersonalized Dolby Atmos Headphone Monitoring Is Now in Your Pocket Sonarworks

IndustryProducer Darrell Thorp discusses his Focal Trio6 ST6 workflow Audio Media International

MakersDigital Piano TORCH T01 and TransAcoustic™ Guitar TAG 3C/TAS 3C Win Prestigious Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 Yamaha Music News

VoicesThe Acoustic Worlds of Radiolab Creator Jad Abumrad Twenty Thousand Hertz

EuropeBitwig Studio 6: a truly different DAW or just an evolution? Audiofanzine

Makers2nd Generation of Guitars Featuring TransAcoustic™ Technology Expanded with New Lineup Yamaha TransAcoustic Guitar TAG1 C, TAS1 C, TAG1E, and TAS1E Yamaha Music News

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