Jessica Monroe

Wavetable synthesis has quietly become the engine driving modern electronic music. From Hans Zimmer’s cinematic scores to the gnarliest dubstep basses you hear on the radio, wavetable synths deliver the morphing, evolving tones that static analog oscillators simply cannot produce. After spending eight weeks running patches, dragging modulation curves, and breaking every parameter on eight … Read more

I have spent the last three months testing 12 different drum machines with sampling in my home studio, and the results surprised me. Some machines that cost four times as much as others turned out to be less fun to actually play, while a couple of budget units ended up on my desk more than … Read more

I’ve spent the last three months testing every major standalone DJ system you can buy in , and the category has never been more exciting. Standalone DJ systems, also called all-in-one DJ controllers, let you leave the laptop at home entirely. They run full DJ software on internal processors, read tracks from USB drives, SD … Read more

Our team spent the last three months testing eight of the most popular DJ mixers on the market. We ran each one through bedroom sessions, party gigs, and club-style practice setups, pushing faders until they squeaked and beating the FX section into submission. If you are shopping for the best DJ mixers in , this … Read more

Picking up DJing for the first time feels overwhelming. I remember staring at rows of knobs, faders, and glowing buttons wondering which gear would actually teach me the craft without crushing my wallet or my motivation. After spending three months testing eight different controllers in our home studio, I can tell you the best DJ … Read more

I have spent the last six months testing speakers in bedrooms, basements, and outdoor events to find the best DJ speakers for . My team logged over 200 hours of side-by-side comparisons with 12 different models, and we narrowed it down to eight picks that genuinely deliver. The right DJ speaker depends entirely on where … Read more

Last I watched a vocalist strain to stay in tune because she couldn’t hear her own voice over a 12-piece horn section. The mains were loud, the mix was clean, but the floor wedge behind her was barely cutting through. That night taught me something every working sound engineer eventually learns: the best stage monitors … Read more

If you run live sound for a band, church, or small venue, you already know why analog mixers still matter in . An analog mixing console lets you reach for a knob and shape the sound in real time, with zero menu diving and zero perceptible latency. I’ve mixed hundreds of shows on everything from … Read more

I have been testing audio gear for over a decade, and nothing kills a great performance faster than a bad mix. After running our team through dozens of live shows, church services, and streaming sessions, I can tell you the difference between a forgettable night and a legendary one often comes down to your mixer. … Read more

I’ve been testing column PA systems for over a decade, from pub gigs to wedding receptions, and I can tell you this category has changed completely since the early Bose L1 days. The best column PA systems in deliver pro-grade sound, weigh less than a full PA stack, and set up in under three minutes. … Read more