Excite Audio Bloom Bass Groove Lite is FREE on Plugin Boutique during the holidays
Excite Audio has made Bloom Bass Groove Lite free for a limited time on Plugin Boutique as part of its holiday promotion (ends on January 11). You can get Bloom Bass Groove Lite using the coupon code PB-XMAS-25, which drops the Lite version’s usual price ($29) to zero for the duration of the deal . [...]
View post: Excite Audio Bloom Bass Groove Lite is FREE on Plugin Boutique during the holidays

Travelling with a portable music-making setup: A holiday guide for music producersFor many, producing music is both a job and a passion. Even when commissions pause during the holidays, the urge to create doesn’t. In fact, a change of scenery often leads to a refreshed perspective. This is why many musicians travel with a laptop and a pair of headphones.

READ MORE: Best gifts for musicians and producers this holiday season

But that sounds quite limiting, doesn’t it?
This holiday season, rethink your alternative studio setup. With portable audio interfaces, compact MIDI controllers, and a host of small gadgets, you can make any place feel like your home studio.
Items that fit each travel scenario
Any modern musician should be well-equipped to make music remotely. Refine your setup now, so that you’re ready for the exciting projects coming your way in 2026.
For example, if you’re a self-producing artist, you might opt for a USB microphone, closed-back headphones, and a laptop.
If you’re a beatmaker, a standalone sampler or drum machine may suit you better.
And if you’re a visual media composer with a looming deadline, you probably won’t want to leave your MIDI keyboard and portable screen behind.
To decide which items belong on your essentials list, consider your priorities. Build both maximised and minimised versions of your travel rig to see what works best.
When I travel with a carry-on, I usually pack a dynamic microphone, a small audio interface, a 25-key MIDI controller, and studio headphones. Combined with my laptop, these devices are ideal for producing demo tracks away from home. When space is tight, I simplify even further.
Your setup may vary depending on your workflow. Let’s explore which pieces of equipment deserve a place in your bag.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4th Gen. Image: Focusrite
A compact and durable audio interface
Audio interfaces are essential for capturing high-fidelity recordings. And if you own an expensive interface, the last thing you want to do is travel with it. What you want is a compact device with a solid build that handles life on the move well.
Focusrite’s Scarlett Solo fits these criteria and comes with a budget-friendly price tag. But there are even smaller options that make packing easier.
Zoom’s palm-sized AMS-22 has a TRS/XLR input, phantom power, and a loopback function for livestreamers. It can be bus-powered when used with a computer, or battery-powered when paired with a tablet or smartphone. It also includes an AC adapter.
IK Multimedia’s iRig Pro is a similar unit with a slimmer design. It costs roughly twice as much as Zoom’s AMS-22 and doesn’t include a loopback function. But it has a MIDI I/O, which is rare in an interface of this size.
For those seeking a single interface suitable for both studio and tour life, Apogee’s Duet 3 is a strong compromise. It provides near-zero latency monitoring and dual mic/line inputs.

A MIDI controller that fits in your backpack
Even if you’re comfortable programming MIDI, playing with a controller can help you create more freely. A two-octave keyboard is far better than no keyboard at all.
Arturia’s MicroLab MK3 is as small and affordable as it gets. But for a controller that not only has keys, but also pads, knobs, and sliders, check out the MiniLab 3. Both come with perks like access to Analog Lab Intro synth presets and Ableton Live Lite.
For finger-drumming or triggering chords, Novation’s Launchpad Mini will suffice. Small enough to fit into your backpack, it features 64 pads and 16 buttons that can be mapped easily in any DAW. It works particularly well with Ableton Live and Logic Pro. It also comes with a bundle of software instruments and effects from XLN Audio, Klevgrand, and more.

A pair of studio headphones that fit every situation
Headphones are the cornerstone of any portable setup. They provide privacy and sonic detail you won’t be able to hear otherwise.
High-end open-back headphones are great for producing music in quiet environments. But their transparency means that anyone nearby can hear your music. And you can hear all the chatter in the house, even if it’s coming from another room.
Closed-back headphones are not the best choice for critical listening, but they’re better for travelling than open-back. In fact, if you’re a frequent flyer, you might want to invest in noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones.
I know what you’re thinking — those headphones are made for listening to music, not for making it. Their coloured sound may influence your mixing decisions. But a pair like Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM 4 can transform a dull flight into a productive writing session. You can adjust the EQ in the Sennheiser Smart Control app to make the headphones sound much flatter if needed.
Still, Bluetooth headphones are unsuitable for recording due to latency issues. For tracking, you’re better off with a pair of studio headphones like Audio-Technica’s ATH-M50x. They’re foldable, which leaves room for cables and other accessories.
With today’s technology, you also have access to fully customisable headphone monitoring. For instance, Sony’s 360 Virtual Mixing Environment creates a digital copy of your studio’s acoustics. And Sonarworks’ SoundID lets you calibrate both studio monitors and headphones.
Image: Roland
Microphones and instruments
Microphones may not be a priority in noisy locations, but you never know when you’ll want to record scratch vocals or sample found sounds. Having a sturdy dynamic microphone with a hypercardioid pattern, like the Audix OM5, can save you from missed opportunities.
If you’re interested in field recording but want to travel light, Zoom’s iQ7 Rotating Mid-Side Stereo Microphone will do the trick. It plugs directly into iPad and iPhone models with Lightning connectors and records in 16-bit/48 kHz resolution. With so many music creation apps available, such as Logic Pro for iPad, Ableton Note, and BandLab Studio, you may even be tempted to leave your laptop at home.
If you want to take a break from screens altogether, a standalone sampler can motivate you to build beats differently than you would with a DAW. Roland’s SP-404MKII has velocity-sensitive pads, mic/guitar inputs, a sound library, and a wide range of audio effects to choose from. You can record, loop, layer, and arrange in real time.
Once you solidify the basics of your travel rig, don’t forget to consider some fun add-ons. Pocket-sized synths from Teenage Engineering and Korg’s Volca series both provide rich, analogue sounds with little effort. They’re easy enough to understand for beginners, but also flexible enough to fit into modular setups.
With the right combination of compact gear and thoughtful planning, your holiday travels can become an extension of your studio.
Read more music technology buyer’s guides
[Editor’s Note: BandLab and MusicTech are both part of Caldecott Music Group.]
The post Travelling with a portable music-making setup: A holiday guide for music producers appeared first on MusicTech.

PSI Audio introduce Custom Pro line PSI Audio's large main monitor systems will now be available exclusively through approved, specialised retail partners, helping to ensure optimal integration of the systems into customers’ listening environments.

A rough week for hardware companiesiRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes were very different companies, but they faced some similar challenges.

Pause Print, Add Hardware, and Enjoy Strength3D Printing is great, but it is pretty much the worst way to make any given part– except that every other technique you could use to make that part is too slow and/or expensive, making the 3D print the best option. If only the prints were stiffer, stronger, more durable! [JanTech Engineering] feels your plight and has been hacking away with the M601 command to try embedding different sorts of hardware into his prints for up to 10x greater strength, as seen in the video embedded below.
It’s kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it? If the plastic is the weak point, maybe we could reinforce the plastic. Most concrete you see these days has rebar in it, and fiber-reinforced plastic is the only way most people will use resin for structural applications. So, how about FDM? Our printers have that handy M601 “pause print” command built in. By creatively building voids into your parts that you can add stronger materials, you get the best of all possible worlds: the exact 3D printed shape you wanted, plus the stiffness of, say, a pulltruded carbon-fiber rod.
[JanTech] examines several possible inserts, including the aforementioned carbon rods. He takes a second look at urethane foam, which we recently examined, and compares it with less-crushable sand, which might be a good choice when strength-to-weight isn’t an issue. He doesn’t try concrete mix, but we’ve seen that before, too. Various metal shapes are suggested — there are all sorts of brackets and bolts and baubles that can fit into your prints depending on their size — but the carbon rods do come out ahead on strength-to-weight, to nobody’s surprise.
You could do a forged carbon part with a printed mold to get that carbon stiffness, sure, but that’s more work, and you’ve got to handle epoxy resins that some of us have become sensitized to. Carbon rods and tubes are cheap and safer to work with, though be careful cutting them.
Finally, he tries machining custom metal insets with his CNC machine. It’s an interesting technique that’s hugely customizable, but it does require you to have a decent CNC available, and, at that point, you might want to just machine the part. Still, it’s an interesting hybrid technique we haven’t seen before.
Shoving stuff into 3D-printed plastic to make it a better composite object is a great idea and a time-honored tradition. What do you put into your prints? We’d love to know, and so would [Jan]. Leave a comment and let us know.

GRAMMY Nominations 2025: Best Americana AlbumThe 2025 GRAMMY nominations are here and we're going to help you to untangle it all right up until the big event, continuing with the Best Americana Album category.

Take a listen to the nominated albums below--who do you think will win?

See the full list of nominees in every category here.

BIG MONEYJon Batiste

BloomLarkin Poe

Last Leaf On The TreeWillie Nelson

So Long Little Miss SunshineMolly Tuttle

MiddleJesse Welles

Molly Tuttle photo by Fletcher MooreThe post GRAMMY Nominations 2025: Best Americana Album first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Karanyi Minipol virtual analog synthesizer is FREE during the holidays
Karanyi Sounds announced that Minipol, a virtual analog synthesizer for macOS and Windows, is available for a limited time during the holiday season. You can grab your free copy by visiting the promo page on Karanyi Sounds’ website and entering your name and email address. Once you do that, Minipol lands in your inbox, no [...]
View post: Karanyi Minipol virtual analog synthesizer is FREE during the holidays

Release Title:
Так будет лучше
Main Artist:
Pchelsh
Release Date:
26/12/2025
Primary Genre:
Dance
Secondary Genre:
Electronic
https://publme.lnk.to/405831
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #dance #Electronic

GLT Audio announce the PM-80 GLT Audio are currently in the process of developing the PM-80 (or Poor Man’s CS-80!), a dedicated MIDI controller that aims to replicate the experience of playing and programming the real thing.

Kushview PulseDial DTMF SynthesizerPulseDial - Authentic DTMF Synthesizer. Transform classic telephone keypad tones into a playable musical instrument with modern features. PulseDial is a professional-grade DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) synthesizer plugin designed for musicians, sound designers, and telecommunications professionals. Key Features: Authentic DTMF Synthesis: Precisely generated dual-tone frequencies with ±1.5% precision, meeting ITU-T Q.23 compliance standards. Interactive Keypad: 4×4 telephone-style keypad for mouse/touch operation with visual feedback. MIDI Compatibility: Full MIDI note and controller support with 16 consecutive notes mapping to keypad keys. Multiple Tone Modes: Hold, OneShot, and ITU-T Spec compliance modes for different playback behaviors. Advanced Arpeggiator: 8 pattern slots with up to 16 steps each, featuring multiple play modes (Forward, Reverse, PingPong, Random). Phone Line Simulation: 6th-order bandpass filter emulating authentic telephone line frequency response (300Hz to 3400Hz). Creative Effects: Noise, saturation, quantization, and stereo width controls for sound design possibilities. Multiple Plugin Formats: Available as VST3, AU, AUv3, CLAP, LV2, and standalone applications for maximum compatibility. Sound Design Capabilities: The arpeggiator transforms PulseDial into a pattern sequencer, perfect for creating rhythmic sequences, "phone number melodies," and generative compositions. Layer multiple keys simultaneously for complex harmonic content, or use the Lo-Fi preset with arpeggiator for glitchy sequences. The stereo width control adds spaciousness to your productions, while saturation and quantization create vintage digital aesthetics. Telecommunications Accuracy: Perfect for sound designers creating retro communication sounds, vintage tech simulations, or authentic DTMF signaling. The Spec mode enforces ITU-T Q.23 timing requirements with minimum 40ms tone duration and 40ms gap between tones, ensuring compatibility with telephone systems. MIDI Integration: Full MIDI support includes omni input mode (all channels accepted) with note mapping from C4 (key "1") across 16 consecutive notes, CC1 for temporary gain boost, CC71 for phone filter mix, and CC74 for saturation amount. Arpeggiator output can be routed to specific MIDI channels (1-16). Program Change 0-3 instantly recalls factory presets during performance. Technical Specifications: DTMF Frequency Accuracy: ±1.5% (ITU-T Q.23 compliant). Polyphony: 12 simultaneous voices. Sample Rates: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 96kHz (and others). Parameter Range: Output Gain (0.0-2.0), Attack (0.5-100ms), Release (1-1000ms), Tone Duration (40-1000ms). Effects: Noise (0-0.1), Saturation (0-1.0), Bit Depth (8-16), Stereo Width (0-200%). Arpeggiator: 8 pattern slots, 16 steps per pattern, 60-240 BPM tempo range. System Requirements: MacOS 10.13+, Windows 10+, or Linux. Intel or Apple Silicon / Intel or AMD 64-bit processor. Compatible DAW supporting VST3, AU, AUv3, CLAP, or LV2 plugins. 1GB free disk space. Presets: Clean: Pure DTMF tones, no coloration (perfect for precise signaling). Phone Line: Authentic telephone line emulation with subtle noise and light saturation. Lo-Fi: Heavy phone filtering, increased noise, and high saturation for creative textures. Wide: Full bandwidth with spacious stereo presentation. Read More

Google and Apple reportedly warn employees on visas to avoid international travelLaw firms representing Google and Apple have reportedly warned that employees who need a visa stamp to re-enter the United States should avoid leaving the country due to longer-than-usual visa processing times.

Bitcoin's apparent demand shrinks, signals new bear market: AnalystsMultiple factors, including ETF outflows, contracting demand, and price falling below key support levels, indicate the start of a BTC bear market.

The ‘Hidden’ Microphone inside the Sipeed NanoKVMRecently, [Jeff Geerling] dropped into the bad press feeding frenzy around Sipeed’s NanoKVM, most notably because of a ‘hidden’ microphone that should have no business on a remote KVM solution. The problem with that reporting is, as [Jeff] points out in the video below, that the NanoKVM – technically the NanoKVM-Cube – is merely a software solution that got put on an existing development board, the LicheeRV Nano, along with an HDMI-in board. The microphone exists on that board and didn’t get removed for the new project, and it is likely that much of the Linux image is also reused.
Of course, the security report that caused so much fuss was published back in February of 2025, and some of the issues pertaining to poor remote security have been addressed since then on the public GitHub repository. While these were valid concerns that should be addressed, the microphone should not be a concern, as it’d require someone to be logged into the device to even use it, at which point you probably have bigger problems.
Security considerations aside, having a microphone in place on a remote KVM solution could also be very useful, as dutifully pointed out in the comments by [bjoern.photography], who notes that being able to listen to beeps on boot could be very useful while troubleshooting a stricken system. We imagine  the same is true for other system sounds, such as fan or cooling pump noises. Maybe all remote KVM solutions should have microphone arrays?
Of course, if you don’t like the NanoKVM, you could always roll your own.
Top image: the NanoKVM bundle from [Jeff]’s original review. (Credit: [Jeff Geerling])

GRAMMY Nominations 2025: Best American Roots SongThe 2025 GRAMMY nominations are here and we're going to help you to untangle it all right up until the big event, continuing with the Best American Roots Song category.

Take a listen to the nominated songs below--who do you think will win?

See the full list of nominees in every category here.

Ancient LightSarah Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan & Sara Watkins, songwriters (I'm With Her)

BIG MONEYJon Batiste, Mike Elizondo & Steve McEwan, songwriters (Jon Batiste)

Foxes In The SnowJason Isbell, songwriter (Jason Isbell)

MiddleJesse Welles, songwriter (Jesse Welles)

SpitfireSierra Hull, songwriter (Sierra Hull)

I'm With Her photo by Alysse GafkjenThe post GRAMMY Nominations 2025: Best American Roots Song first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Release Title:
Future (Remix)
Main Artist:
VLCAM
Release Date:
10/12/2025
Primary Genre:
Electronica
Secondary Genre:
Pop/Rock
https://publme.lnk.to/405057-FutureRemix
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #Electronic #pop #rock