Queens of the Stone Age are masters in the studio; the guitar and drum sounds on No One Knows were instant classics. We talk to the band and engineer Mark Rankin about getting snares to sound like they’re yelling ‘c**k!’, using contact mics to get ultra-close drum sounds, and all the latest from the their album Villians. We also spend time with Spoon drummer and producer Jim Eno, chat to Nick Didia and Bernard Fanning about his latest ‘wanky’ double concept album, and find out how Bieber’s Despacito was mixed in transit on a laptop. We review Antelope’s DSP FX, put Yamaha’s TF-Rack live mixer through its paces, and more.