Arturia go back to black for Keylab 88 and MiniLab MkII

Arturia are trying to get you excited by a change of colour to their Keylab 88 and MiniLab MkII MIDI controllers. We asked leading style experts for their view on a move to black.

Jef’s Tips for making your Gibson Les Paul play like a dream, Part 2: Truss Rod

A lot of guitarists are more scared of truss rod adjustment than they are of an angry bear after hibernation. This week we take the fear out of the dreaded truss rod adjustment on a Gibson Les Paul.

Fender reissues another amp for Europe: FSR Black Western Blues Deluxe

Yee-haw! This limited edition 40-Watt FSR combo probably has all you need for live and studio work, with an upgraded speaker and a leather-bound look that looks like it's straight out of a rodeo.

DMG Audio TrackComp: five compressors in one, with a modern interface

TrackComp looks like an iZotope Ozone design prototype and packs in five compressor simulations - VCA, bus VCA, FET, Opto, and Digital - priced way below the $99 mark.

Ableton Live 10: Full details and screenshots, it’s official!

Ableton Live 10 details and screenshots! We now have the official new and approved Ableton Live 10 features, devices, instruments and workflow - check them out.

Epiphone Richie Faulkner Flying V Limited Edition: Über-cool?

This limited run Flying V for Judas Priest's Richie Faulkner looks every bit the part and has some serious hardware and looks like it rocks hard, so where is the catch?

Demon 80, a cheap multi-band compressor plug-in with an analogue soul

Developed for Windows, the Demon 80 effect plug-in by Synthblitz Audio is a three-band compressor with a preamp and limiter thrown in. And at this modest price, its "analogue" sonics might be worth a punt...

Halloween freebie: Horror Box is full of intensely spooky sounds

Horror Box is a free rompler, of sorts, featuring nine presets and four layers of audio with the ability to combine them in ways you musically enjoy while they horrify others...

HD CART reverb plug-in dusts off an old cartridge

HD•CART simulates an expansion cartridge from a "sought after, expensive" reverb unit that made the rounds in the 80s. It contained a program with Surround and HD modes doing powerful things to stereo ...

Midi Quest: the ultimate synthesizer editor librarian arrives on iPad

Midi Quest is the editor librarian for decades worth of MIDI synthesizers and devices. MidiQuesti is bringing over 630 instrument editors to the iPad but is the interface touch friendly enough?

Jimi Hendrix-owned original ’67 Arbiter Fuzz Face up for grabs!

The legend that was 'the man with the guitar' Jimi Hendrix made the Arbiter Fuzz Face the sound of psychedelic acid rock and now you could own his very own '67 Fuzz Face for real.

Synth Art Vol1: Last chance for this synthesizer coffee table art book

Synth Art Vol 1 is a wonderful piece of work that every lover of synthesizers should have on their coffee table. Time is running out on Ste Holme's Kickstarter so get in quick to grab yourself a copy.

Rabid Elephant Natural Gate: dual LPG for evocative acoustic responses

Natural Gate takes the Low Pass Gate and creates something uniquely earthy and inspiring. Your plucks and strikes will have never sounded so organic before.

System80 850: LFO, S&H, Noise and Slew limiter in one Eurorack module

The System80 850 module is a multi-functional utility module for Eurorack with an LFO, Sample & Hold, Noise generator and Slew Limiter in one rather nice looking module.

000 to present 3 new Eurorack modules at We Are Robots festival

Module makers 000 are premiering their Ykinmkato Distortion Lab, EQ69 British EQ and 8ct8 8 channel mixer Eurorack modules at the We Are Robots festival. They'll also show you how to build them.

Best free plug-ins from last week: HY-LoFi 2, Nabla synth, Chronopolis sequencer

Last week's free stuff features some high-quality plug-ins by HY, Full Bucket Music, and programmer Micah Frank. We're talking about a digitizer for creative sound mangling, an ancient Korg synth emulation...

Mercuriall ReAxis gives you Mesa/Boogie TriAxis preamp sounds in the box

Mercuriall Audio introduced an interesting take on modeling the Mesa/Boogie sound with ReAxis - an emulation of the Triaxis rack preamp that's based on classic Mark series circuits...

Music technology performances and workshops at We Are Robots festival

We Are Robots brings together an industry conference, live performances, workshops, seminars and an exhibition of future-facing music technology awesomeness in the East End from 2nd to 5th November

Korg Gadget coming to Nintendo Switch for thumb based music making

Game engine developers Detune who brought Korg synthesizers to the Nintendo 3DS have revealed that they are porting Korg Gadget to the Nintendo Switch hybrid console.

Boss introduces Katana 212 guitar cabinet with 2×12″ speakers and 150 Watts

Boss has just released a premium 2x12 speaker cabinet designed specifically for their 100 watt Katana amp head, with variable porting and plenty of grunt.

G-Sonique spotlights trap & hip-hop producers with Trap Illuminator

Trap Illuminator is geared towards trending trap music styles and their distinctly alarming sounds like booming bass drums, tense synth lines, gutter FX, vocal chops, and anything else that drops hard...

Details emerge of XIRID XS2 hardware sequencer to be revealed at Soundmit

With just a few days to go until the Italian Soundmit show XIRID have revealed more details of their XS2 hardware sequencer. Key features are things like 64 tracks and 256 steps with more to come.

Jef’s Pedal Round-up this week: Spitfire VT-1 preamp and Specular Tempus delay/reverb

This week we have found you a cool new UK-made all-valve preamp, overdrive and EQ - then we travelled around the globe to find you a lush new Indonesian Delay and Reverb pedal.

The Submarine Pro: A split personality for your guitar?

No tools, no damage, no mess. Just lots of cool extra pickup sounds for your favourite acoustic or electric six-stringed guitar. This new pickup system will give your instrument a split personality.