It’s Like LightScribe, But For Floppies!Back when CD-Rs were the thing, there were CD burner drives which would etch images in the unoccupied areas of a CD-R. These so-called LightScribe drives were a novelty of which most users soon tired, but they’re what’s brought to our mind by [dbalsom]’s project. It’s called PNG2disk, and it does the same job as LightScribe, but for floppies. There’s one snag though; the images are encoded in magnetic flux and thus invisible to the naked eye. Instead, they can be enjoyed through a disk copying program that shows a sector map.
The linked GitHub repository has an example, and goes in depth through the various options it supports, and how to view images in several disk analysis programs. This program creates fully readable disks, and can even leave space for a filesystem. We have to admit to being curious as to whether such an image could be made physically visible using for example ferrofluid, but we’d be the first t admit to not being magnetic flux experts.
PNG2disk is part of the Fluxfox project, a library for working with floppy disk images. Meanwhile LightScribe my have gone the way of the dodo, but if you have one you could try making your own supercaps.

Saving a Samsung TV From the Dreaded Boot Loop[eigma] had a difficult problem. After pulling a TV out of the trash and bringing it home, it turned out it was suffering from a troubling boot loop issue that basically made it useless. As so many of us do, they decided to fix it…which ended up being a far bigger task than initially expected.
The TV in question was a Samsung UN40H5003AF. Powering it up would net a red standby light which would stay on for about eight seconds. Then it would flicker off, come back on, and repeat the cycle. So far, so bad. Investigation began with the usual—checking the power supplies and investigating the basics. No easy wins were found. A debug UART provided precious little information, and schematics proved hard to come by.
Eventually, though, investigation dialed in on a 4 MB SPI flash chip on the board. Dumping the chip revealed the firmware onboard was damaged and corrupt. Upon further tinkering, [eigma] figured that most of the dump looked valid. On a hunch, suspecting that maybe just a single bit was wrong, they came up with a crazy plan: use a script to brute-force flipping every single bit until the firmware’s CRC check came back valid. It took eighteen hours, but the script found a valid solution. Lo and behold, burning the fixed firmware to the TV brought it back to life.
It feels weird for a single bit flip to kill an entire TV, but this kind of failure isn’t unheard of. We’ve seen other dedicated hackers perform similar restorations previously. If you’re out there valiantly rescuing e-waste with these techniques, do tell us your story, won’t you?

This Apple laptop is perfect for music production – and you can save $100 during Cyber WeekendWhether you’re a hobbyist bedroom producer or a professional pumping out tracks to millions, you need a fast-performing and reliable computer as the heart of your production rig.
There’s a reason so many producers use Apple laptops for their music production; they feature an intuitive user interface which doesn’t get in the way of your creative workflow, and have top-quality processing power so you don’t need to worry about bottlenecking. And right now at Sweetwater, you can grab a 15-inch MacBook Air M3 in a Midnight finish at a $100 discount.
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So let’s dive into some of the specs that will make this your best choice of machine for music production. First up, it’s got a “blazing-fast” M3 chip – meaning it can handle whatever mix you throw at it – a super-portable, lightweight design and up to 18 hours of battery life so you can take it on the move no problem, a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display driven by a 10-core GPU, and two thunderbolt ports for plugging in your audio interface and any other external gear.

READ MORE: Black Friday music deals 2024: These deals on synths, DJ controllers and plugins are still live – don’t wait to grab a bargain

We don’t expect this deal to last long, so don’t wait around if you want to get your 15-inch MacBook Air M3 for only $1,199 down from $1,299.
For more information, head to Sweetwater.
The post This Apple laptop is perfect for music production – and you can save $100 during Cyber Weekend appeared first on MusicTech.

Music Industry News Last WeekIt was another busy week in music industry news with StubHub pushing states to pass onerous ticketing laws, a new MIDiA streaming report, presales from Bandsintown and more.
The post Music Industry News Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.

Last Week in DIY and Independent Musician NewsLast week, DIY and independent musician news ranged from Bandsintown High Notes to a Superfan debate, botted playlists and more…
The post Last Week in DIY and Independent Musician News appeared first on Hypebot.

You can now save $61,227 on this Yamaha CS-80 this Cyber WeekendYamaha’s CS-80 is among the most sought-after synthesizers in the world. Released in 1977 and used most famously by Vangelis on the original soundtrack for Blade Runner (1982), it’s revered for its expressive playability and incredible sound. Any synth nerd looking to pick one up should check out this listing on Reverb, which slashes the price of a second-hand CS-80 by a whopping $61,227. Does it make it any more affordable?…Eh.
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The savings bring the price down by exactly 50 per cent to $61,227. It’s definitely a luxury purchase, but you’ll be getting a bona fide piece of vintage synth history. Polyphonic aftertouch, a rich, warm and beefy analogue sound engine with a dual-layer voice architecture, and deep patch editing parameters all make this legend the king of pads and cinematic sounds.
Speaking to Electronics & Music Maker magazine in 1984, the late Vangelis said that the CS-80 was “the most important synthesizer” in his career.
“And for me the best analogue synthesizer design there has ever been,” he added. “It was a brilliant instrument, though unfortunately not a very successful one. It needs a lot of practice if you want to be able to play it properly, but that’s because it’s the only synthesizer I could describe as being a real instrument, mainly because of the keyboard — the way it’s built and what you can do with it.”
And speaking to us in 2022, Imagine Dragons’ Wayne Sermon said: “I had the chance to buy a CS-80 a while back for a great price. And I didn’t pull the trigger, and I regret it so much. Now, they’ve doubled in price. It’s just the coolest, most expressive, most impractically designed instrument ever conceived.”
Maybe we should drop him a message.
CS-80 alternative?
If you’re looking to keep the budget a little lower, we can recommend the Cherry Audio GX-80 plugin, which is currently discounted by 16 per cent on Plugin Boutique for Cyber Weekend. It emulates not only the CS-80, but also the Yamaha GX-1.
In our review of the GX-80, we said: “It’s an incredibly powerful instrument, not least because it’s actually two huge synths in one, and that means a lot of controls to contend with. This isn’t a criticism – you wouldn’t expect to buy a massively powerful piece of kit and breeze through it in an hour – and indeed you are quite free to just change the odd thing here and there and still get amazing results.”
Looking for more Cyber Weekend deals on music gear? Check out our guide to the best deals we’ve found so far. 
The post You can now save $61,227 on this Yamaha CS-80 this Cyber Weekend appeared first on MusicTech.

Ginger Audio Sphere V2 Sphere V2 supports all major DAWs, and has been designed to provide users with a streamlined, software-based monitor control solution that simplifies speaker control, calibration and communication. 

New York regulator set to approve Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin: ReportAccording to data from CoinGecko, the total stablecoin market capitalization is over $196 billion as of Nov. 29.

Simple Pen Plotter Rolls On The TablePen plotters are popular builds amongst DIY CNC enthusiasts. They’re a great way to learn the fundamentals of motion control and make something useful along the way. In that vein, [Maker101] has created a neat barebones plotter for tabletop use. 
The basic design relies on familiar components. It uses a pair of MGN15 linear rails as the basis of the motion platform, along with NEMA 17 stepper motors to run the X and Y axes. These are assembled with the aid of 3D-printed parts that bring the whole frame together, along with a pen lifter operated with a hobby servo.
The neat thing about the design is that the barebones machine is designed to sit upon an existing tabletop. This eliminates the need to integrate a large flat work surface into the plotter itself. Instead, the X axis just runs along whatever surface you place it on, rolling on a small wheel. It’s likely not ideal for accuracy or performance; we could see the machine itself skating around if run too fast. For a lightweight barebones plotter, though, it works well enough.
If you dig building plotters, you might like to step up to something more laser-y in future. Video after the break.

Canadian news companies sue OpenAIA group of Canadian news and media companies filed a lawsuit Friday against OpenAI, alleging that the ChatGPT maker has infringed their copyrights and unjustly enriched itself at their expense. The companies behind the lawsuit include the Toronto Star, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Globe and Mail, and others who seek to win monetary damages […]
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These producers swear by Soundtoys plugins — here are the best deals on them this weekendIt feels like every producer we interview at MusicTech has something to say about Soundtoys plugins. Whether it’s John Summit using Soundtoys for melodic house or Kevin Saunderson and The Blessed Madonna using Little AlterBoy and Decapitator on techno tracks, these plugins are used by producers both famous and novice. This weekend’s probably your best chance to get in on the action with up to 75% off on Plugin Boutique.
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Over this Cyber Weekend, all of Soundtoys hits are on offer. That includes the saturation plugin, Decapitator, which is down 75% to $50; the venerable Little AlterBoy vocal processing unit, which is down to $42, and EchoBoy, which is down 75% to $50.
If you’ve been tempted by the whole Soundtoys 5.4 collection which packs in all 21 plugins, then we’ve got good news for you: it’s discounted by $295, bringing the price to $215. That works out to just over $10 a plugin — not bad at all.
Speaking about Soundtoys plugins, The Blessed Madonna said “half the tracks on [my album, Godspeed,] are just run through Decapitator 25 times. I also used [SoundToys’] Radiator on everything,” adding that Atlanta-based wildcard DJ/producer Nikki Nair uses it with a “complete lack of fear around distortion and saturation.”
Check out the Soundtoys collection on sale at Plugin Boutique.
Want more deals on music gear? We’ve got a running list of all our favourite deals this weekend, from headphones and MIDI controllers to plugins and synthesizers. Plus, all the biggest retailers are offering discounts, including Thomann, Amazon, Guitar Center and Reverb, and if you’re a plugin enthusiast, Plugin Boutique is hosting some of its best deals of the year.’
Find more deals on music production gear. 
The post These producers swear by Soundtoys plugins — here are the best deals on them this weekend appeared first on MusicTech.

Native Instruments, iZotope & Plugin Alliance Black Friday Sales Native Instruments, iZotope and Plugin Alliance are all currently offering their biggest discounts of 2024 as part of their Black Friday Sales.

Building a Generator That Runs Off Hose Power[Paul Junkin] bought a curious product off the Internet. It was supposed to generate electricity when hooked up to a running hose. Only, it didn’t do a very good job. His solution was straightforward—he built his own hose-powered generator that actually worked.
The design uses a turbine hooked up to a small motor acting as a generator. To maximize the transfer of energy from the stream of water to the blades of the turbine, the hose is hooked up to a convergent nozzle. [Paul] does a great job explaining the simple physics at play, as well as the iterative design process he used to get to the final product. He calculates the best-case power coming out of his hose around 50 watts, so for his turbine to collect 22 watts is a win, and it’s good enough to charge a phone or run some LED lighting.
Of course, this isn’t a practical generator if you have to pay for the water, and there are other solutions that will get you less wet. Still, credit where it’s due—this thing does make power when you hook it up to a hose. We’ve seen some slightly less ridiculous concepts in this space before, though.

From Drake’s legal action to Spotify execs’ big cash-out… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest stories from the past week – all in one place…
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