Introducing Spitfire Audio Originals, Craft, and more on Splice INSTRUMENT
The latest update to Splice INSTRUMENT brings breathtaking sounds from Spitfire Audio Originals, new sample transformation capabilities via Craft, and more.

Big Man Labs Big ListenBIG LISTEN. Big Listen is a referencing and A/B tool for mixing and mastering. Load up to six tracks you know well and keep them one button away from your own mix. Hit MATCH and it trims the selected reference to your mix's loudness, so the louder track doesn't win the comparison. Flip between MIX and REF on one button with both sets of meters live the whole time. Full metering when you want it: LUFS, true peak, LRA, crest, PLR and PSR, a dual analyzer with the reference overlaid, goniometer, correlation, and mono, side and difference monitoring. Poser shows all of it, Pro strips back and switches the analysis off for lower CPU. VST3, AU, AAX and CLAP on Windows, macOS and Linux. $32 one-time, 14-day free trial. Read More

Tesla driver in fatal Texas crash pressed accelerator 100%, NTSB confirmsThe safety board confirmed Tesla's account of the crash, which the company shared days after it happened last month.

Cut And Fold Your 3D Printer’s Next Cover[cmh]’s ultra-simple top cover for the Snapmaker U1 3D printer has a 3D model, but don’t let that fool you. There’s no 3D printing at all involved in this project. Rather, the model is a reference shape for making an effective top cover out of cardboard or corrugated plastic sheet (also known as Coroplast) which is what [cmh] used.
The pattern can be cut from a single sheet, or from multiple pieces taped together.
Corrugated plastic is a versatile option for things like printer enclosures. It’s cheap, a good insulator, easy to cut, and available from just about any plastics supplier. We’ve made the case that they’re a good alternative to acrylic sheets for printer enclosures, but [cmh] goes even further with a design that requires no additional hardware whatsoever. Assembly doesn’t even require more than tape, really.
He provides a cutout diagram for pieces that, when assembled, make a sort of hat that is just right to cover the top of the Snapmaker U1 without obstructing the extruders. One can even lift the front panel to access the inside without removing the cover, which is a nice touch. Should one wish to add a viewing window anywhere, just cut out a square and tape a sheet of clear plastic over the hole.
For a 3D printer, an enclosure and top cover helps retain heat, block drafts, and keep dust (or curious fingers) away from the printer’s build area. The cover doesn’t need to be completely sealed to deliver those benefits, but if you do prefer your covers completely enclosed, a carefully-chosen IKEA storage box makes a conveniently great cover for the U1.

UJAM and Rhodes offer UFX LOFI plugin for FREE
UJAM and Rhodes are offering UFX LOFI, UJAM’s retro degradation effect plugin, as a free download for newsletter subscribers. This is a separate Rhodes/UJAM giveaway page, and the process was a bit smoother than the V-Rack offer I covered earlier today. I entered my email on the promo page, and about a minute later, I [...]
View post: UJAM and Rhodes offer UFX LOFI plugin for FREE

Andi Arya Dwi Putra promoted to Head of TuneCore, IndonesiaHe will lead the Believe-owned distributor’s growth strategy, artist roster and partnerships in the market.
Source

Baby Audio SubCulture Baby Audio’s latest release has been designed to augment the low-frequency content of any monophonic input signal, allowing users to craft deep and powerful bass sounds from just about any source. 

This website turns any recorded guitar audio into MIDIThe US-based digital audio company Eldoraudio has added another tool to its arsenal: Guitar Audio to MIDI. Incredibly easy to use, simply drag an audio file into the portal on this website, set the proper BPM, and the guitar part will be converted to MIDI.
Without required software downloads, anyone can get their MIDI guitar lines in moments regardless of which DAW they’re using or where they may be physically located. As long as there’s an internet connection, it works.
Similar to Eldoraudio’s Piano to MIDI function, the Guitar to MIDI converter captures even the most complex passages. It can dissect dense chords, find the tiny little grace notes, and adjust the velocities to ensure accurate dynamic response. Then, once everything is in MIDI, users can make any subtle changes they need to in their chosen DAW.

READ MORE: BandLab Technologies acquires AI-powered music making platform Aiode

Currently, the converter is designed for clearer tones, such as steel-string, nylon-string, clean electric, and jazz guitar. A distorted version is coming soon, though, according to the website.
“Guitar is one of the hardest instruments to transcribe accurately, and most tools cut corners to get there,” says Daniel Johnson, founder of Eldoraudio. “Our piano converter has shown us that musicians notice the difference when accuracy is treated as non-negotiable, not an afterthought, down to details like pedal nuance. We held the guitar model to that exact same standard. Our mission is to turn audio into musical gold, and this is another step toward giving musicians full editable control over anything they play.”
Eldoraudio’s business model is about convenient ways to work with digital audio. Beyond the guitar and piano tools, the company has developed a stem splitter and vocal remover with the same website functionality.
Up next is an Audio to Sheet Music site for the more traditional players and an Audio to MIDI function for any type of recording. The latter mentions a “multi-instrument model,” but it could well be possible that even field recordings of the most random sounds could be converted to MIDI for some exciting creative results.
For more information, head to Eldoraudio.
The post This website turns any recorded guitar audio into MIDI appeared first on MusicTech.

Get Rhodes V-Rack for FREE via UJAM’s newsletter
UJAM is giving newsletter subscribers a free copy of Rhodes V-Rack, but there are a few hoops to jump through. The offer is available until July 19, so I’m posting this one literally minutes after getting the plugin so that BPB readers catch this on time. I received an email from UJAM with the subject [...]
View post: Get Rhodes V-Rack for FREE via UJAM’s newsletter

BandLab Technologies acquires AI-powered music making platform Aiode[Editor’s note: BandLab Technologies and Guitar.com are both part of the Caldecott Music Group.]
BandLab Technologies – the company behind BandLab, Cakewalk, ReverbNation and Airbit – has acquired Aiode, an AI-powered digital music studio that lets creators make music with fully-licensed audio by professional session musicians and producers.
Aiode now joins BandLab Technologies’ portfolio of music-making platforms, as the third entry alongside BandLab and Cakewalk.
Aiode essentially allows music creators to begin with a blank project or import their own audio, before selecting from a choice of musician and style-based models to play across the track. These performances can be directed section by section, with alternate takes generated for individual parts without affecting the rest of the song. Finished projects can then be downloaded as stems or a complete mix.

READ MORE: “We’ve learned what schools, teachers and students want – and we’ve gone further than ever to deliver”: BandLab for Education 2.0 brings new learning tools, streamlined project management and more

With a focus on ethical AI, 100% of the audio used to train Aiode’s proprietary AI models – including performances by professional musicians – is licensed and traceable to its source.
Aiode will continue to exist as a standalone product, with service uninterrupted for existing users.
“Aiode shares BandLab Technologies’ ethos of innovation and giving music makers every opportunity to find success,” says Idan Dobrecki, CEO and Co-Founder of Aiode.
“Since Aiode was founded in 2022, we’ve worked side by side with professional musicians to create technology that respects their artistry and keeps them involved in how their musical identity is represented. BandLab Technologies gives us the opportunity to bring that approach to more creators.”
Aiode COO and Co-Founder Blue Dobrecky also praises the perfect fit of Aiode and BandLab Technologies.
“For Aiode, joining a group that understands both accessible creation and professional production is a rare fit,” he says. “BandLab Technologies breadth of experience gives us a much broader foundation for where Aiode can go as the ways people make music continue to evolve.”
“What sets Aiode apart is that it was made hand in hand with musicians, who share in the value their work helps create,” says Drew Silverstein, Senior Advisor, AI, Innovation and Strategy at BandLab Technologies.
“That makes Aiode a natural fit for BandLab Technologies. We believe responsible technology and a product creators actually want to use should go together.”
Idan Dobrecki and Blue Dobrecky will continue to lead Aiode as CEO and COO, respectively.
Native audio recording and additional DAW functionality are planned for future versions of Aiode, and we’ll bring you more details on those as we have them.
The post BandLab Technologies acquires AI-powered music making platform Aiode appeared first on MusicTech.

Baby Audio releases SubCulture pitch-tracking bass enhancer plugin
Baby Audio has released SubCulture, a pitch-tracking bass enhancer plugin for macOS and Windows. SubCulture is designed to add low-end weight that stays in tune with a monophonic input signal. In other words, instead of boosting a fixed frequency or adding a static sub-layer, the plugin detects the incoming pitch in real time and uses [...]
View post: Baby Audio releases SubCulture pitch-tracking bass enhancer plugin

Peel Stems 2 from zplane Peel Stems 2 boasts improvements across the board, offering increased speed, audio quality and usability over the previous version.

How Lee “Scratch” Perry taught Mouse on Mars to stop controlling soundLee “Scratch” Perry may be one of the most quietly influential producers in history. Upon his death in 2021 at the age of 85, numerous publications rushed to elucidate his indelible contributions to music. His vast catalog includes works with everyone from Bob Marley to The Clash and Beastie Boys. Then he was one of the first to experiment with recording a toaster speaking over a beat, which was the precursor to an artform known as rapping.
Perry’s final album, Spatial, No Problem (2026), came to life in the Berlin studio of the electronic experts, Mouse on Mars. Given how ostensibly different Perry’s production on Bob Marley’s Soul Rebels (1970) sounds from Mouse on Mars’ Iaora Tahiti (1995), it doesn’t seem to make sense that these cross-continental musicians worked together.

READ MORE: How Auntie Flo’s Plants Can Dance compilation celebrates a new species of producers

Well, it still doesn’t make sense to Mouse on Mars either.
“I don’t know if he had ever heard of Mouse on Mars,” says Jan Werner, half of the duo. He mentions a friend of theirs who “constantly connects people” and who knew Perry, but he’s not sure if that was what brought them together. “I don’t know why Lee came, to be honest.”
Regardless, Perry did make the trip to Germany, and he was ready to work right when Andi Toma, the other half of Mouse on Mars, picked him up upon arrival from the US to Berlin. Other than being shocked at the stamina of this octogenarian, Perry was forcing them to violate their agreed-upon condition of his presence.
Lee “Scratch” Perry and Mouse on Mars. Image: Constantin Carstens
“We had one assignment. We could work with him for three hours per day. [Perry’s wife Mireille told us] ‘Please take care. ‘He’s an old guy. I want him back complete.’ Unfortunately, it was not possible to stick to this,” Werner says. They worked until the early hours of the morning, and Perry assured them he would be ready again by 10 am. the next day.
The experience was already surpassing all their expectations. “He was basically more durable than us. We were more 80 years old than Lee,” Werner admits. Then Perry flouted another when he started making music outside the reggae spectrum.
“We perceived him much more as a conceptual artist than a representational figure of a specific genre or even music in general,” Werner says. “The guy was just a catalyst for everything that human beings can produce that isn’t shitty.”
Spatial, No Problem isn’t a reggae album or an electronic album. The only constant is Perry’s voice, whether it’s delivering clear messages or floating around the edges. Song structure is not a concern. There are no verses, choruses, or much of any repetition. Some of the tracks even sound like jams.
“Everything is a first take,” Werner says. “It wasn’t like, ‘1, 2, 3, 4, let’s jam.’ It was listening to what we had already recorded, and a new idea would come.”
Horn choirs subtly raise the temperature of Fire Dali as Perry beckons them: “More fire! More fire!” Spatialee leans into Mouse on Mars’ electronic palette with synth drips and drops, gradually expanding into ambient metallics. Economic Train cacophonizes both of these qualities over loose, flailing drums.
Lee “Scratch” Perry. Image: Constantin Carstens
Perry was the leader of this relaxed, yet explorative approach. He rarely gave specific directions, instead encouraging everyone to listen instead of play.
“It was much more about stepping back and trying to understand what happened. Contributing something whenever it seemed appropriate,” Werner says.
Usually, Werner and Toma fall into the endless pit of manipulating the knobs to find a sound they deem worthy of Mouse on Mars. Perry alleviated this pressure by reminding them to trust themselves.
“Control versus trust,” is how Werner describes it, then linking trust to another essential concept for creative success: self-confidence. “You cannot trust when you’re unsure, unstable, or in panic mode. If you’re really rooted in yourself, you can let things happen. You’re open to the unexpected, and that is what Lee brought.”
There were moments when trust played out more literally. When the studio was truly packed with people, sometimes Werner and Toma were handed cables without knowing the source of the sound. If they wanted to trace it back, they would be disrupting the creativity happening in the moment.
Mouse on Mars. Image: Roberto Andrés Zamora Figueroa
“We had to listen to a lot of those recordings, figuring out what is actually on those tracks,” Werner says. One time, he actually followed a cable, which led to what looked like a cigar box with rubber bands. “It was like a bass type of instrument. I don’t know.”
With this philosophy of letting go, Werner and Toma used a lot of room mics to capture everything happening in the studio. While everyone was listening and recording, Perry was floating through the space. They needed to capture him wherever he went.
“Let’s have as many microphones as possible, because you don’t know if Lee will move around, or what’s going to happen. Let’s just see that we can record as much as possible,” Werner explains. When he talks about Perry “moving,” he doesn’t just mean within one room. Perry went to different rooms with different mics set up. Some had six. Others had one. “The album is totally crafted as a stereo production, but it really transcends the idea that when you try to control sound, it always goes wrong.”
The only option to relinquish as much control as possible was to present the album in spatial audio. Yet ironically, a lot of spatial productions do incur a significant element of control. Mics are often placed in specific parts of the room to have an individual channel for the complete 9.1.4 configuration (which is a very common setup for Dolby Atmos spatial recordings).
However, in the case of this album, the title says it all: Spatial, No Problem. Perry said those exact words to Werner and Toma during the session, and the spirit of his workflow allowed them immense freedom when they were processing the album into immersive audio.

“The room is basically the mixer. We don’t have to mix to stereo. We can just assign sounds to different locations,” Werner says.
If Lee was moving around the room, they could have his audio encircling the space. If he was lying down, they could accommodate that, too. Not to mention all the unknown sounds they dug up in the recordings. They had no idea what the source was, so they had no idea where it originated in the room. Where it fit in the 3D spatial rendering was completely at their behest. Sometimes they even lost track of the downbeat.
“You just have to jump into this vagueness, somehow. It’s all variables. None of that shit is really controllable,” Werner says. “If you do object-based mixing, you can try to comprehend all these aspects of sound, and do the narration, spatially.”
Lee “Scratch” Perry was the narrator of this album, one last time. But then again, maybe not.
“Sometimes, we wanted to get a clearer voice of Lee, so we sent him through some AI tools,” Werner says. “We asked Mireille if it was okay to do this. Because if you feed an AI the voice of whoever, it’s in the machine. And she was like, ‘Lee would have loved this. He wanted to be a machine.’”
The post How Lee “Scratch” Perry taught Mouse on Mars to stop controlling sound appeared first on MusicTech.

I swapped Ableton Live for Fender’s Studio Pro 8.1 DAW – but is it compelling enough for the change to stick?Perpetual license (with one year of updates): £170
Perpetual license upgrade: £90
Pro+ annual subscription plus perpetual license: £160
Pro+ monthly subscription: £20
fender.com
Studio Pro 8.1 arrives with baggage. Once known as PreSonus’ Studio One, Fender’s acquisition of the audio brand in 2021 is firmly reshaping the production community’s perception of its flagship DAW. We’re now at the second major version under the guitar titan’s stewardship, and the 2026 rebrand to Studio Pro certainly ruffled some feathers.

READ MORE: I swapped Ableton Live for Renoise 3.5 — here’s what I learned

Studio One 7 previously received a mixed response from long-term users, particularly around update cadence and a revised pricing model. Others had concerns about the DAW’s future – would Fender preserve Studio One’s depth, or reshape it into something simpler and more commercially convenient?
Fortunately, with plenty of new features and workflow improvements, 8.1 hardly seems the work of a company stripping things back. As an Ableton Live evangelist myself, I have no pre-existing skin in the game – could Studio Pro 8.1 make me jump ship?

First impressions and Studio Assistant
Opening Studio Pro 8.1 for the first time, I’m thrown off slightly. I’m used to Ableton’s tight immediacy; Studio Pro feels broader and more configurable from the off.
Fortunately, I’m not entirely on my own. One of 8.1’s main additions is Studio Assistant, a chatbot currently in beta that’s part interactive manual, part creative collaborator. It requires a Studio Pro+ subscription, but as someone learning the DAW from scratch, I’m glad to have my hand held through the process – even if it is by an LLM.
Having seen the feature demonstrated at the Studio Pro 8.1 launch event, I’m optimistic that I’ll be fast-tracked through orientation.
Studio Assistant. Image: James Langley
I start simply, attempting to create an eight-bar loop, and Studio Assistant’s main shortcoming immediately reveals itself: no images. It tells me the name of the button I need, but not what it looks like, and there are certainly plenty to choose from. Other times, it misunderstands my question, misses a small detail, or is sluggish to reply.
Later, Studio Assistant helps me enable my QWERTY keyboard for note entry. That’s often default behaviour in other DAWs, but here it must be configured as an external device first. It speaks volumes of Studio Pro’s design: powerfully flexible, but in a way that sometimes puts small hurdles in front of newcomers.
For now, Studio Assistant can only instruct; it can’t take action inside the DAW, which feels like the obvious next step.
Studio Pro interface and workflow improvements
The transformation from Studio One 7 to Studio Pro 8 included a minor facelift on top of the rebrand. The visual change isn’t a full redesign – but there are two more meaningful enhancements.
Arrangement Overview provides a tactile way to navigate large sessions, while Channel Overview puts control of your entire signal chain alongside the timeline. Direct access to all your devices from a single panel is a serious timesaver, removing the need to open separate plugin windows to tweak settings.
Workflow improvements. Image: James Langley
The Clip Launcher added in Studio One 7 continues to provide a more performance-friendly, idea-sketching dimension, while smaller touches—like the option to use a drum loop as your metronome—make Studio Pro feel particularly welcoming to songwriters.
I really like Fender’s approach to workflow. Nothing is forced upon you: Studio Pro gives you the tools, lets you use as many or as few as you please, and even lets you hide the ones you don’t need entirely.
Other handy refinements in 8.1 include pitch curves directly on audio events, and improved Extract Beats and Extract Notes algorithms. Some changes may feel overdue, but it’s a positive sign that Fender is listening to the existing user base.
Moises integration
In Studio Pro 8.1, Fender’s masterstroke is a partnership with Moises, bringing its cloud-powered AI tools straight into the DAW: stem separation, stem generation, and voice replacement.
The native stem separation introduced in Studio One 7 remains available, but Moises is a clear step up. In fact, it’s among the best I’ve heard, producing surprisingly clear results with minimal artefacts.
While stem separation may have its more questionable uses, for personal study it’s invaluable: I’ve learnt tremendous amounts about arrangement, sound design, and mixing by breaking existing songs into their constituent parts.
Voice replacement is also impressive, if slightly uncanny, though you’ll need to use a clean performance for the best results – I have to further split my isolated vocal stem into lead and backing for my new singer, Amelia, to sound her most convincing.
Moises. Image: James Langley
Stem generation is more of a mixed bag, requiring several rounds of prompting before I get something workable, but the concept is powerful. It feels like sample hunting on Splice, but the sounds are entirely unique and context-aware.
What makes these tools especially compelling is how seamlessly they’re integrated. Although Moises is also available via the web, Studio Pro eliminates the tedium of exporting and uploading audio, processing and downloading it, and lining it back up on the grid.
Here, it’s all completed in a couple of clicks, with a convenience that makes the tech feel less like a utility and more like a genuine creative tool.
Love them or hate them, in-the-DAW AI features are already table stakes, and given Moises’ quality, Studio Pro 8.1 may now be leading the pack.
New effects for guitar and voice
With Fender taking over, a stronger guitar-centric offering was only a matter of time. Studio Pro boasts Mustang Native and Rumble Native, dual smorgasbords of amps and effects pedals for guitar and bass.
The interface is clunky, forcing me to swipe through amps and effects one at a time, but I quickly forgive that once my guitar is chiming through a Deluxe Reverb. Unsurprisingly, Fender’s own amp models are the standouts, particularly for cleaner sounds. High-gain tones are workable too, albeit with the slightly brittle fizz heard in many amp sims.
Mustang Native. Image: James Langley
The effects are the biggest joy. In particular, the 2290- and Space Echo-inspired delays sound fantastic. I quickly regress into a teenager in a guitar shop, patching ridiculous pedal chains into shoegazing walls of sound.
As for vocals, Studio Pro 8 introduced Voice FX, a six-piece suite for more creative vocal processing that aids compatibility with the Fender Studio mobile app. It’s not especially remarkable, and as it stands, you can only use one effect at a time within a single plugin instance.
More useful is 8.1’s new Vocal Tune plugin, capable of highly natural pitch correction all the way to aggressive, robotic hard tuning. Want to get more surgical? Studio Pro 8.1 continues to include a Melodyne Essential licence, which usually costs €99 by itself.
Alternatives to Fender Studio Pro
Today, choosing a DAW is mostly a question of personality, as raw feature sets are broadly comparable. Logic Pro is the obvious value play for Mac users, while Cubase is the closest rival for composers and post-production workflows. Ableton Live still leads for performance-led creation, and Bitwig Studio remains the more experimental playground for sound designers.
Studio Pro 8.1 is competitively priced, with its £170 perpetual licence including almost every core feature and one year of updates. For those who want to fully buy into Fender’s platform, a £160 annual subscription adds Studio Assistant, the Notion scoring software, the Fender Studio mobile app, cloud-based storage, collaboration tools, and extra bundled content.
All things considered, the best DAW buying advice remains simple: pick one, learn it inside out, and move on to more important things – like actually creating music.

Should I buy Fender Studio Pro 8.1?
I’m highly impressed with Studio Pro. It’s a seriously powerful production environment, with more than enough depth to serve as the centre of a professional setup.
Will I swap from Ableton? Not outright, no. I’m simply too entrenched to justify learning another DAW from scratch – but were I choosing a platform today, I’d happily use Studio Pro.
And while I’ve tried plenty of other DAWs over the years, Fender’s is the first to earn a permanent place in my setup, primarily for Moises’ convincing stem separation. The more traditional studio workflow feels better suited to tasks like mixing and mastering as well.
To an outsider at least, the Fender rebrand is not an existential threat. If anything, the 8.1 update is reassuring evidence that the DAW remains in capable hands. For anyone choosing a new DAW, Studio Pro is easier than ever to recommend.

Key Features

Full suite of tools for recording, mixing, and mastering
39 guitar amps in Mustang Native and 18 bass amps in Rumble Native
New Moises Studio integration in addition to native stem separation
New Vocal Tune plugin
New Studio Assistant chatbot (Pro+ subscribers only)
Channel Overview panel for accessing device parameters
9 virtual instruments
Over 45 native effects
Splice integration
Clip Launcher view
Native vocal tuning plus Melodyne integration

The post I swapped Ableton Live for Fender’s Studio Pro 8.1 DAW – but is it compelling enough for the change to stick? appeared first on MusicTech.

How Major Label A&R Has Evolved and How Hit Songs Are WrittenThis week, Ari is joined by legendary A&R executive Pete Ganbarg to discuss artist development, hit songs, publishing, and AI.