Synths, drum machines, controllers, and studio gear.
Best drum machines and grooveboxes in 2026, compared by sound, use, and price: Roland TR-8S, Elektron Digitakt II, Akai MPC One+, and more.
Best laptops for music production in 2026: MacBook Air and Pro M5, the M4 value pick, and top Windows machines matched to your workflow.
Best MIDI keyboards in 2026. Compare Akai, Arturia, Novation, and Native Instruments on keybed feel, pads, DAW control, and MPE.
Best studio headphones in 2026 for mixing and tracking. Compare Sennheiser HD 600/650, Beyerdynamic DT 770/990, AKG K371, and ATH-M50x.
An 808 is two things: the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the tuned sub-bass kick named after it. The full story, the signature sounds, and how to make 808s.
A practical guide to routing outboard analog effects through Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Cubase, and Pro Tools — send/return loops, plug-in delay compensation, and the gain staging that keeps everything clean.
Practical tips for the Roland TR-8 and TR-8S drum machines — sound design, sample loading, performance techniques, and the hidden features that take your patterns from generic to musical.
Choose the right audio interface in 2026. We cover connection types, specs that actually matter, the best models from $99 to $5,000, and the buyer mistakes to avoid.
Make Noise and Tom Erbe's Plexiphon is a 16HP Eurorack module that morphs continuously between reverb and multi-tap echo, with no mode switch in sight.
Teenage Engineering's EP-136 K.O. Sidekick is a $179 two-channel mixer, USB interface, and performance FX unit that snaps onto the EP-133 and EP-1320.
Buchla Ziggy is a $999 desktop analog monosynth built around a complex oscillator, low-pass gate, and the Cycler — announced ahead of Superbooth 2026.
Maschine 3.5 redesigns the Sampler UI and adds Sound Focus, while Maschine+ 2.2 brings the Kontakt 8 engine and more Play Series instruments to standalone.
