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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.

← XLR Archive

Guitar PlayerGuitars

The Beatles share an early recording of “Norwegian Wood” — Hear the moment the sitar changed rock

September 14

The Beatles have shared an early version of “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” from the forthcoming expanded special edition of Rubber Soul , which comes out October 2 . Titled “Second Version — Take 2,” the recordin

Read at Guitar Player ↗

Guitars"Money, it's a gas…” Pink Floyd collaborates with the UK's Royal Mint to release $6,400 18-carat gold guitar pick Guitar Player

GuitarsGuitar Center is inviting players to test its new in-house guitar brand – but you’ll need to sign an NDA Guitar Player

GuitarsRick Springfield: I played for the troops in Vietnam and ended up killing a man Guitar Player

Guitars“George was my favorite Beatle, but the music was very simple…” Why Robben Ford’s dream gig with George Harrison turned sour Guitar Player

"That Echoplex sound Eddie did at the end of Eruption was such an old trick. I thought it was cheesy. But Eddie was from the NEXT generation…" Joe Perry looks back over a lifetime of guitar playing

Guitars"That Echoplex sound Eddie did at the end of Eruption was such an old trick. I thought it was cheesy. But Eddie was from the NEXT generation…" Joe Perry looks back over a lifetime of guitar playing Guitar Player

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