6 of the best new DAWs in 2023 By Andy Price published 13 December 23 Ableton, Bitwig, Logic and FL Studio all received major updates this year, but who'll take our crown?
8 of the best new plugins in 2023 By Andy Price published 13 December 23 Gear of the Year continues with our round-up of the finest soft synths, effects processors and mixing tools that 2023 had to offer
How Meduza almost abandoned billion-streaming global hit Piece of Your Heart: “We couldn’t figure out what to do with it - we were actually close to junking it” By Andy Price published 7 December 23 Driven by a gift for euphoric hooks, big-room beats and deft vocal processing, this Milan-hailing trio have become Italy's most-streamed artist. We spoke to Meduza about the making of their eclectic debut LP
We've been testing out Ableton Live 12 for a month - here's what you really need to know By Andy Price published 14 November 23 What's new in Live 12? New synths, effects, MIDI tools, a refreshed interface and more
The best free VST drum plugins 2023: drum machines, samplers and grooveboxes for budget-friendly beatmaking By Si Truss published 6 November 23 Top quality free drum synths, ROMplers and percussion plugins
Infekt: "I start off by thinking how I can make the craziest bass sounds, and build everything else around that" By Andy Price published 1 November 23 We sit down with the bass music behemoth to talk studio secrets, AI and why Bitwig is his DAW of choice
What's it really like to record an album at Abbey Road? We spent a day in the studio with The Clockworks and Bernard Butler to find out By Andy Price published 1 November 23 RECORDING WEEK 2023: We’ve all dreamt of making a masterpiece at Abbey Road. For this Galway four-piece, the iconic studio became the real-life HQ for the recording of their debut, produced by Bernard Butler
Gregg Kowalsky: "I was feeding all kinds of weird stuff into Ableton's audio-to-MIDI converter. Something just clicked, and I ended up building a whole album around it" By Andy Price published 31 October 23 The LA-based multi-instrumentalist and producer embraces the unpredictable chaos of generative MIDI data on new album Eso Es
Audiomovers is helping sound cross borders: "A mastering engineer said to us, 'thank you for single-handedly saving the music industry'" By Andy Price published 30 October 23 This Abbey Road-backed company is making audio professionals' lives easier with an ecosystem of innovative software tools
8 of the best immersive audio plugins By Andy Price published 30 October 23 RECORDING WEEK 2023: Here are our picks of some of the slickest routes to create and mix in both Sony 360RA and Dolby Atmos
Sound Particles, the maker of the world's first spatial audio synthesizer, on SkyDust 3D: "The future is spatial" By Andy Price published 26 October 23 The sky is not the limit for Sound Particles. We catch up with CEO Nuno Fonseca about the company's plans for a spatial future
Apashe: "Ableton became a reason to give up on your old DAW and switch - now Bitwig is starting to get that same traction" By Andy Price published 18 October 23 Blending the world of classical music with a hard-hitting, electronic ethos, Apashe is operating within a uniquely epic sonic universe. We find out more about the scope of his ambitions
Digit Music is making music tech more inclusive with its joystick MIDI controller: "It's the power of a keyboard in a device you can play with one finger" By Andy Price published 12 October 23 We sat down with Digit Music founders Owain Wilson and Simon Tew to find out more about the Cmpsr controller
Beatie Wolfe: “It’s the imperfections that move us - Leonard Cohen’s weird voice or Nina Simone’s timing. It’s humanity that we respond to, not the perfect sheen” By Andy Price published 22 September 23 The visionary multidisciplinary artist and composer on the profound power of music and the 'sonic self-portrait' that is her latest installation, imPRINTING
DAACI is the AI-powered 'meta-composition' software that writes music like a human: "It's interpreting what comes from a composer’s brain, rather than trying to imitate something that’s already been made" By Andy Price published 21 September 23 DAACI CEO Rachel Lyske talks us through how this Abbey Road-backed startup is taking "the next step in the evolution of music creation"
5 of the best classic compressor emulations By Andy Price published 15 September 23 We round up a selection of the worthiest analogue-modelled recreations of vintage dynamics processors
6 of the best classic EQ emulations By Andy Price published 12 September 23 We pick out the finest software recreations of classic and vintage EQs from Neve, Pultec and more
Keir on the power of GarageBand, his 'magic' AKG C414 microphone and writing a song a week for five years By Andy Price published 12 September 23 We spoke to the rising singer-songwriter alongside writing partner and producer George Glew to learn about the lengthy process of making his debut album
How to perfect your kick and snare with Arturia's Neve 1073 emulation By Andy Price published 5 September 23 Get the sound of the most revered preamp and EQ circuit ever designed with this faithful software emulation
How to use the Pultec 'low-end trick' to improve your bass and kick By Andy Price published 4 September 23 This classic trick, recreated with an emulation of the vintage hardware, delivers a tight and characterful low-end
Chris Lake on teaching himself to produce with a laptop and nothing else: "I’ve released music that I’ve only monitored on laptop speakers" By Andy Price published 18 August 23 Fresh from the release of the pumping, Aluna-featuring Beggin’, we seized a rare opportunity to sit down with modern house titan Chris Lake
How joan recorded a million-streaming debut album in their bedroom: "Every melody matters. If the melody isn’t undeniably singable, the song isn’t going to stick" By Andy Price published 17 August 23 With tens of millions of streams, a blossoming global fanbase and a knack for gleaming pop production, Arkansas duo joan are poised to become a very big deal
Django Django on the dance music-inspired Off Planet: "I started making music in the ’90s with an E-mu sampler, so part of my brain is still stuck there" By Andy Price published 14 August 23 Django Django’s retro house-influenced new project is a flurry of hypersonic colours and energy. We spoke to the band’s cofounder David Maclean about the record’s inspirations, tech and evolution
Baby Audio's Caspar Bock on their "evolution" of the cult classic Yamaha CS01: "We wanted to make a synth that sounded as musical, gritty and ‘real’ as the original" By Andy Price published 8 August 23 Hot on the heels of the launch of its very first soft synth, we speak to Baby Audio to find out more about why the company has sidestepped into synth-craft with BA-1
Nektar Aruba review By Andy Price published 25 July 23 £255 €329 $299 Sprucing up its MIDI drum controller with a raft of new features, Aruba offers a slick new way of performing your software drum instruments
