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News, reviews, and hands-on tutorials for music producers and DJs. Browse every article — sorted newest first.

Showing 1–12 of 81 articles

Insert Tape plugin interface from Insert Session showing saturation and tone-shaping controls

Insert Session's Insert Tape Plugin: A Focused New Saturation Tool With a $39 Intro Price

Insert Session's new Insert Tape plugin pairs tape-style saturation with a Vintage DSP mode, 32x oversampling, and full mid/side processing for $39 intro.

Dubspot TeamMay 26, 20266 min read

Stable Audio 3 from Stability AI showing the open-weight generative audio model family for music and sound effects

Software

Stable Audio 3 Is Stability AI's Most Useful Audio Release Yet — With One Big Caveat

Stable Audio 3 brings open-weight music generation, six-minute tracks, ComfyUI integration, and on-device inference. The trade-off: no vocals, no lyrics.

Dubspot TeamMay 26, 20268 min read

Suno v5.5 Custom Models interface for training a personalized AI music model on your own catalog

Software

Suno Custom Models Review: Tuning AI to Your Own Sound — and the Questions It Leaves Open

Suno's v5.5 Custom Models let Pro and Premier users train the AI on their own catalog. We test what works, what doesn't, and the copyright questions Suno hasn't answered yet.

Dubspot TeamMay 26, 20269 min read

Suno AI music generator interface representing the AI music lawsuits with Warner, Universal, and Sony

Production

The Suno & Udio Lawsuits, Label Settlements, and What 'AI Music Tags' Mean for Producers in 2026

Warner settled with Suno, Universal settled with Udio, and Sony is still fighting. Here is what the AI music lawsuits, Deezer's tagging system, and Spotify's verified badge mean for producers in May 2026.

Dubspot TeamMay 19, 20267 min read

Software

u-he Zebra 3 Review: A Ground-Up Rebuild, Spline Oscillators, and an Adaptive Modular Interface

u-he released Zebra 3 on April 20, 2026 for €249. The cult-favorite synth has been rebuilt from scratch with spline-based wavetables, additive synthesis up to 1,024 partials, and an adaptive modular interface.

Dubspot TeamMay 19, 20265 min read

Bitwig Studio 6 interface running on a producer's laptop

Software

Bitwig Studio in 2026: A Producer's Honest Look at Where It Stands

Bitwig Studio 6 review — modulation system, hybrid Linear/Session view, live performance strengths, and how it compares to Ableton Live and FL Studio for producers in 2026.

Dubspot TeamMay 10, 20268 min read

Hardware

808 Day: How the Roland TR-808 Became the Most Important Drum Machine Ever Made

August 8th is 808 Day. A look at how a commercial failure at launch became the foundation of hip-hop, electro, house, techno, and trap — and why the 808 still defines modern music.

Dubspot TeamMay 10, 20267 min read

DJing

DJ Tips: 12 Techniques That Will Improve Your Live Sets

12 practical techniques working DJs use to improve live sets — from set construction and cueing to crowd reading, EQ mixing, and the soft skills that separate good DJs from great ones.

Dubspot TeamMay 10, 20269 min read

Comparison of key detection accuracy across DJ tools

DJing

Mixed In Key vs Beatport Key Detection: Which Is More Accurate? (2026 Lab Report)

We tested Mixed In Key 12, Beatport's auto-detected key data, Rekordbox's built-in detection, and KeyFinder against a 200-track reference set. Which one gets the most tracks right?

Dubspot TeamMay 10, 20269 min read

Fibonacci spiral overlaid on a musical waveform

Music Theory

The Fibonacci Sequence in Music: Composition, Production, and Practical Use

How the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio show up in music — from Bartók and Debussy to modern producers using golden-ratio arrangement timing in their tracks.

Dubspot TeamMay 10, 20268 min read

Mixed In Key analyzing tracks for accuracy testing

DJing

Harmonic Mixing Part 3: Is Mixed In Key Actually Accurate?

We tested Mixed In Key 12's accuracy across 200 tracks spanning dance, pop, hip-hop, jazz, and ambient. Here's where the algorithm gets it right, where it doesn't, and what to do about the misses.

Dubspot TeamMay 10, 20266 min read

DJing

Harmonic Mixing: A Practical Guide for DJs (Part 1)

Harmonic mixing in 2026: how the Camelot wheel works, why some key changes feel right and others jar, and the practical workflow for using key info in Rekordbox, Traktor, and Serato.

Dubspot TeamMay 10, 20268 min read