Top Music Gear News Stories of 2017

In 2017 Ask.Audio continued to grow from strength to strength. It's been another record-breaking year with more of you than ever reading articles here and watching video courses in the largest audio & music production video learning library online, The Ask.Audio Academy... and we're continuing to grow thanks to your support and the efforts of our 20+ authors!

Let's focus in on the News category - no politics here, just press releases, rumors, scoops and everything in between for the discerning musician, producer and DJ.

Thanks again for your support during 2017. Hope you enjoy 2018 at Ask.Audio even more!

Here's the top 10 news stories published in 2017 (excluding our $103,000 Music Gear Contest & Black Friday Deals articles). 

1. These Adidas Roland TR-808 Shoes Look Great & Make Beats

These fab Mi Adidas concept trainers not only bring the Roland TR-808 design to life for your feet, but they also play actual beats too. Sonic shoes? We wonder if these will become "a thing"...

By far this scoop on the concept Adidas Roland TR-808 shoes grabbed our attention and yours more than any other story. The best thing these shoes went viral afterwards and the story isn't over yet... stay tuned to Ask.Audio for more news when it comes in...

2. Eleven Top Synths, Sequencers & Controllers From NAMM 2017

Here's our selection of our favorite 11 new synths, sequencers, controllers announced, previewed or released at NAMM 2017.

Understandably, after the announcement of plenty of tasty new hardware synths at the NAMM show in January 2017, our roundup piece got a lot of hits.

3. Spotify Drops Loudness Target to -14 LUFS. What Does This Mean For Producers?

Good news, with Spotify's latest announcement, the loudness wars may finally be coming to an end. So what does this mean for producers?

This was such a good read we should have perhaps included it in our Tutorial articles section. But, being easy to grasp and timely it quickly became one of our most read articles of 2017.

4. 52 FREE Audio Effect Plug-Ins For Musicians And Producers

There are some excellent audio effect plugins available, and incredibly many of these are free. Here's a list we've compiled of 52 that'll make you and your music productions happy.

People like freebies. Musicians love free plugins. It shouldn't come as any surprise then why this excellent piece by Hollin Jones was the fourth most popular of our news pieces and continues to be a great resource for the 2018 producer too.

5. The 6 Most Expensive Hardware Synthesizers Available Today

These six synthesizers in production now that you can buy today fall into the category of 'look, but don't touch'. Even if your finances don't stretch far enough... it's nice to have a dream synth.

Just as we all like free stuff, it appears we also appreciate that which might be beyond our reach finanically. These synths are very much a case of "look, but don't touch".

6. Samsung CHG90 Is The Widest Computer Monitor Available. Imagine This In Your Studio!

The new 49 inch Samsung CHG90 is the widest monitor available. We're talking seriously wide! So how useful will this be for music producers? Would you consider using this in your music studio?

Apparently, a lot of us we're enthralled by the "widest ever" 49 inch monitors and could think of novel ways to use them in the studio...

6. Behringer Reveals ARP 2600 And OSCar Synth Clones

Uli Behringer continues to rock the synthesizer industry with news of plans to create clones of two more synth classics, the ARP 2600 and the OSCar. Here's what we know now.

With so many teasers and announcements from Behringer in 2017, this one captured your imagination more than even the video demo of their upcoming MiniMoog Model D clone! 

7. Behringer Announces $400 Minimoog Model D Synth

Uli Behringer reveals the latest design and features of their upcoming clone of he iconic Moog Minimoog Model D analog synthesizer. It looks great. Features look good. The price? Simply stunning!

Enough said!

8. Could This Incredible Triple Screen Laptop Be Your Mobile & Studio Production Computer?

What could be better suited to music production than a blazing fast 17.3 inch 4K laptop? Answer: A laptop with three 4K displays and 32 GB ram.

Imagine this as your portable studio... never run out of screen real-estate again. Not great for Logic Pro X users though...

9. Is This What Ableton Live 10 Will Look Like?

While Live 9 users begin to wonder what new features and design Ableton Live 10 will incorporate, one designer, Nenad Milosevic, has gone the extra mile with this stunning redesign.

Now that Live 10 has been officially announced we can, sadly, confirm this isn't exactly what Live 10 will look like... but Nenad Milosevic tapped in to the collective Live consciousness with these super popular designs he made.

10. New Apple MacBook Pro Rumor Will Upset Some Musicians & Please Others

What could make creatives and musicians upset about a new, more powerful and capable MacBook Pro? Forbes are predicting a price drop from Apple could do the trick.

Sadly this one should be filled under pure rumor mill unless there's a significant price drop anytime soon...

Thanks for Reading!

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