Best free plug-ins this week: Three awesome free synths for your DAW

This weeks selection of free plug-ins is all about synths: A semi-modular vintage synth and pattern sequencer, a drum synth and an awesome Roland Jupiter emulation for NI Reaktor.

Make your Cheap Squier sound like an American Fender: Upgrade your Potentiometers!

The tonal secrets of your guitar are often hidden in the controls and this is where cheaper guitars often fall down. The humble potentiometer can unleash your guitar's potential!

Make your cheap Squier play like an American Fender: Three easy upgrades

Make your Squier Stratocaster play like an American Fender with a few simple upgrades - these three tips focus on tuning stability to help propel your Squier guitar into the big leagues.

How to make a cheap Squier play like an American Fender

With this easy to learn guitar setup trick you can really make your cheap Squier play like an American Fender and you won't need any specialist tools to do the job either!

Andrew Huang does Burial – with beats from a crashing piano

Andrew Huang uses audio sampled from a piano being dropped from 20 ft to create a cool beat, and makes the whole process look so impressively easy, spontaneous and intuitively musical.

How to replace the knobs on a Roland Boutique SE-02

Many people are finding the knobs on the Roland Boutique SE-02 a bit too tiny and fiddly. Don't worry, there are alternatives that could make the synthesizer experience a much happier one.

Top 5 Eurorack modules of 2017

So many modules, so much voltage to be controlled and audio to modulate. What sort of splicing, morphing, sequencing, gristleizing and filtering delights have caught my attention in 2017?

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier vs Line6 Helix: Can you hear the difference?

Take this blind test and see if you can hear the difference between a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier and a Line 6 Helix LT.

Jef’s Tips to help your Gibson Les Paul play like a dream, Part 3: Lock it down

When you want to lock down your tone and add extra stability to your Les Paul, locking hardware is the perfect upgrade for your guitar and won't damage your guitar

DeepMind 12 and Jupiter 8 Shoot-out: How close can you get?

How close can Behringer's low-cost synth get to the sounds of classic instruments like the Jupiter 8? A new video pits the DeepMind 12 against Roland's classic, and offers tips on how to mimic the original.

Build Your Own Record Player!

Making your own record player - what could be easier? These audio wizards use household materials like Lego, Knex or just paper to build real, working record players.

Black Rooster Audio – Cypress TT15 Free amp plugin

Free guitar amp plugin for Mac and PC which looks very familiar indeed!

How to spot a fake Fender Stratocaster

Kennis Russell shows how to avoid getting duped into buying a 'fake' Fender Stratocaster.

Budget guitar recording, Pt. 4: Free amp software plugins

OK, you cannot always mic up a guitar amp at home. Here is my list of my favourite virtual guitar amps - best of all they all cost nothing!

Budget guitar recording, Pt. 3: Recording your guitar amp

This week I cover some microphone techniques and share my love for small guitar amps!

Budget guitar recording, Pt. 2: Choosing an audio interface

Time to look at your room and choose an audio interface for your recording. But what should you be looking for?

‘Brexit-busting’ budget guitar recording Pt. 1: Software

Want to record some of your great guitar tones? Crashing pound left you without the cash for a recording studio? Here are some great tips for recording guitars on very, very low budget...

Top 5 Audio Interfaces for 2016

Choosing the best audio interface can be a really difficult decision. Here's our selection of the Top 5 Audio Interfaces out this year, that we recommend.

Plugins for knobs

How many more 'one-knob' style plugins do we need? Who needs a professional anyway? Check out my latest 'Perfectizer' plugin!

Browser music making for the Bank Holiday

Want something to fiddle with over the Easter bank holiday? Then give these browser based musical machines a try.

Recording on your iPad? New Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter available

It's not for everyone, but DAW's exist for the iPad range and they're getting better and better. But how do you connect your audio interface and charge your iPad at the same time?

Audiofile update Sample Manager with a “Myriad” of improvements

Sample Manager was one of the very best audio file and batch processing tools available, and now offers a significant set of updates under a new name: "Myriad".

Check out this interesting insight by Focusrite into high-quality AD/DA’s

Focusrite have just published a fascinating web page, including an exclusive interview with Dr Dave Malham in which he describes the development of their AD/DA converters.

Sonnox’s new Oxford Envolution on trial

Sonnox released their new Envolution plugin before the new year, so I put it through its paces to see if it's worth the old-school price tag.