What's On Your Hard Drive?

Incognito Frontman Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’ Maunick and programmer Richard Bull pick a few jazz-funk-friendly plugins from their hard drives

CM Producer Masterclass Klute

Eclectic drum ’n’ bass legend Tom Withers deconstructs his production style

Ableton Live - The Ultimate Guide

Whether you’re switching to Live 10 or an existing user, we’ll tell you everything you need to know

Waves Abbey Road Studio 3

Monitoring on headphones can be frustratingly different to loudspeakers. This plugin aims to bridge the gap – and throw in a classic mix space, too

Designer Distortion

Whether you’re looking for subtle smoothening, analogue warmth or full-blown sonic decimation, we’re on hand to help you turn up the heat…

Sander Van Doorn

The Dutch house/trance producer wonders if the overly-commercial days of dance are coming to an end – and what that means for musicians

Stark CM

Turn up the heat with Klevgrand’s rip-roaring guitar amp/cab distortion effect, yours with this issue

Bitwig Studio 3

We take our place on The Grid with the latest version of this inventive DAW, and discover that good things really do come to those who wait…

Arturia MiniLab MkII £89

With a reduced library of bundled sounds, can the second version of this miniature keyboard make up for software losses with hardware gains?

Straight from the Hooksmith's Mouth

Hear first-hand how a pro songwriter gets her results

How To Sidechain The Sidechain

The signal a compressor listens to is called the sidechain signal. Processing a compressor’s external sidechain input can provide a huge range of ways to tweak behaviour. Here are a few suggestions…

Ultimate Mixdowns

So you know how to balance a mix, how to use EQ and compression to get the sound you want… but how can you take it further? We’ll take your skills to the next level!

Sonic Academy ANA 2

If the original version of this ambitious hybrid synth was a diamond in the rough, the five-years-in-the-making follow-up is the Koh-i-Noor…

Waves Bass Slapper $69

The uniquely percussive sound of slap bass is something that every producer should have in their pocket – particularly at this price!

PPG Infinite Pro 149

Combining morphing and additive-style technologies to dazzling effect, Wolfgang Palm’s new instrument takes synthesis to the limit

Delta Heavy

When it comes to writing crowd-rockin’ riffs and melodies, DnB outfit Simon James and Ben Hall are two of the best in the biz. We grilled them for their top hook-writing tips…

Dom & Roland

Fresh from dropping his enormously well received album on Metalheadz, the dark lord of DnB invites us into his studio to watch him work on a new track

Rob Papen​​​​​​​ SubBoomBass 2 £80

Based on the superb Predator 2 and geared up to get those cones rattling, this second-gen synth adds more than one new String to its bow

Arturia V Collection 6 €499

Adding four more legendary analogue and digital instruments to the 17 already in place, this bolstered bundle just about has it all…

What's On Your Hard Drive?

Techno meets house in Oliver Schories’ music, but only with the help of some old-school plugins

Erick Morillo

The happiest (and sweariest) man in house music talks dark days, lucky breaks, and staying true to his art.

Apollo Twin MkII £590+

 One of our favourite products of the last few years gets a tidy if not transformative upgrade. So this is how you improve on perfection…

xln audio rc-20 retro color €80

a one-stop shop for all your old-school signal degrading needs, this imaginative new plugin is the antidote to modern digital coldness

rob papen predator 2 £124

nearly ten years after version 1, can the new incarnation of this legendary synth rekindle the magic of the past?

Kevin Saunderson

The techno pioneer has fondmemories of his 808, but he’smore than happy with amodern digital studio

IK Multimedia Modo Bass $299

The masters of software amplification have poured their modelling expertise into this virtual bass guitar – have they strung it up right?