PC Music’s Pop Crypt at London’s HERE was an unforgettable spectacle – a fantastic farewell from the hyperpop labelHordes of PC Music diehards entered the maze of London’s new venue, HERE at Outernet, for Pop Crypt, a Halloween showcase held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the widely influential label and collective that has, over a decade, shifted and reshaped the pop and electronic landscape.

READ MORE: How CRSSD Festival is using synths to transform electronic music fans into producers

Following the announcement that 2023 would be the label’s final year for new releases, the sold-out party hosted newcomers, well-known names and several surprise guests.
Experimental producer felicita, who sported ghoulish white and back face paint, set the tone early on with demonic soundcapes that could easily soundtrack an exorcism. From nowhere, rapper YoungQueenz hobbled on stage – with his face concealed by a pair of tights, his ear-splitting screams were paired with obliterating trap snares. “I don’t know what the fuck just violated my ears, but I kind of liked it,” said MusicTech’s friend who was being indoctrinated into the PC Music world for the first time.
felicita performing during PC Music’s POP Crypt at London’s HERE
Moments later, Denzel Himself rattled through his breakbeat-driven ‘aggressive rap music’ while dressed as a cowboy. “This is a song about wanting to blow my fucking head off,” he said, casually.
As is typical of a PC Music show, no two performances were the same. French singer caro

ROLI is back with the Seaboard BLOCK M, a $350 compact MPE keyboard
ROLI, the 2009-founded company known for its pioneering role in MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression), has returned with the launch of the Seaboard BLOCK M. It’s a refined and redesigned take on its flagship Seaboard RISE gear line, in a more portable – and notably more affordable, priced at just below $350 – form. ROLI’s reappearance may […]
The post ROLI is back with the Seaboard BLOCK M, a $350 compact MPE keyboard appeared first on DJ TechTools.

Ford shutters company building an app for plumbers, electricians and other tradesFord has shut down VIIZR, a software-as-a-service company that along with Salesforce built an app to help tradespeople like plumbers, locksmiths and electricians to schedule field appointments, send invoices and manage customers, TechCrunch has learned. About 40 people who worked at VIIZR were laid off. VIIZR, which was announced in December 2021, was a separate […]
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Marathon Digital will use landfill methane to mine Bitcoin in Utah pilot projectThe BTC miner has partnered with startup Nodal Power for a green, off-grid project that is a small start for a potentially big advancement.

Talking ‘garbage’: How can Spotify and co sort the dregs of the music business from the hidden treasures?On Sir Lucian Grainge's bluntness, Believe's rebellion, and why a careful balance is required to find a true 'artist-centric' formula
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Metalliance book is finalist for NAMM Technical & Creativity (TEC) AwardsThe METalliance book "Recording and Mixing Drums" is a finalist for the 39th Annual NAMM(r) Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Awards in the category of Audio Education Technology. The book is authored by award-winning audio engineers/producers Al Schmitt, Chuck Ainlay, Ed Cherney, Elliot Scheiner, Frank Filipetti, George Massenburg, and Niko Bolas. 

Presented at The NAMM Show, The NAMM TEC Awards are bestowed annually in celebration of the pro audio community by recognizing the individuals, companies and technical innovations behind today's sound recordings, live performances, films, television, video games and other media.

Click here to vote: https://www.tecawards.org/2024/voting 

Don Was, in the foreword, says, "METalliance Drums is the holy grail of a century's worth of drum recording knowledge."

"Recording and Mixing Drums" features specific in-depth sections with photos and diagrams from each of the METalliance members and their detailed takes on the art of recording drummers. For more information and where to buy the Recording And Mixing Drums eBook & Paperback click: 

http://www.metalliance.com/academy-resources/recording-and-mixing-drums

All finalists will be celebrated at The 2024 NAMM Show at the TEC Awards, a special, communal reception designed to gather the crossroads of the industry to applaud the achievements of the researchers and developers, product designers, marketers, and innovators behind the innovations. The event will be held on the campus of the Anaheim Convention Center on the evening of Saturday, January 27. Learn more about the TEC Awards at www.tecawards.org. 

ABOUT THE METALLIANCE

Established in 2005, The METalliance (Music Engineering and Technology Alliance) is composed of top award-winning audio engineers/producers Chuck Ainlay, Niko Bolas, Jimmy Douglass, Frank Filipetti, George Massenburg , Sylvia Massy and Elliot Scheiner. The METalliance works with producers, engineers, educators and manufacturers to further the best practices and technology developed in modern recording and to help insure the skills and techniques that have developed through the history of recording are carried forward. 

METalliance

METalliance: strategic union of music producers and engineers dedicated to the highest standards of audio and delivery of music, securing the art through recording technology in all its evolving modern forms.

ABOUT THE TEC AWARDS 

Presented annually by NAMM during The NAMM Show, The NAMM TEC Awards recognize the individuals, companies, and technical innovations behind the sound of recordings, live performances, films, television, video games, and other media in Technical and Creative Achievement Categories. The Innovation Award is given at the event in tribute to musical artists and others whose work has exemplified the creative application of audio technology. Through its Hall of Fame, The TEC Awards also honors the pioneers of audio technology and the music industry's most accomplished producers and audio technicians. The NAMM Foundation's TECnology Hall of Fame celebrates innovations and groundbreaking technical achievements of the past. For more information, visit www.tecawards.org or follow TEC on Instagram and YouTube. For photos from last year's event, visit https://namm.pixieset.com/ns23_texc/

About NAMM

The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) is a not-for-profit association with a mission to strengthen the $17 billion music products industry. NAMM is comprised of approximately 15,000 member companies and professional members located in 104 countries and regions. NAMM events and members fund The NAMM Foundation's efforts to promote the pleasures and benefits of music and advance active participation in music-making across the lifespan. For more information about NAMM, please visit www.namm.org or follow the organization on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Concord acquires Round Hill’s UK fund, after $469m sale was approved by latter firm’s shareholders last monthDeal includes over 150,000 songs and 51 catalogs
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ILIO Heatseeker Heatseeker is handcrafted with energetic, sizzling sounds for high-intensity music. This sonic toolkit of new sounds includes overdriven and punchy basses, searing leads, blistering pads,... Read More

Rast Sound Dark X Step into the shadowy realm of sound with "Dark X," the sound library that dares to delve into the dark. From eerie ambiences to pulsating rhythms to bold, haunting instruments, each sound... Read More

Cubase 13 lets you produce “more naturally, intuitively, and conveniently”Steinberg has launched the latest version of its flagship DAW, Cubase 13, giving it a significant user interface redesign and new features.

READ MORE: ROLI unveils the Seaboard Block M MIDI controller, offering all the elements of the original in a more portable package

This update introduces a sleeker MixConsole interface for improved mixing focus, Steinberg’s new VocalChain plugin for professional vocal recordings, enhanced MIDI composition tools, and redesigned Chord Pads.
Credit: Steinberg
It also features Iconica Sketch, a compact orchestral library for scoring film, games or TV. This includes 140 articulations for 34 instruments in a 5 GB library.
Cubase 13 also sees the return of its renowned Steinberg Vocoder, letting you craft vintage robotic vocals or infuse analogue character into instruments. With extensive features including 24 filter bands, sidechain input, and precise control, the possibilities are broad. Additionally, two new equalizers, EQ-P1A and EQ-M5, contribute a touch of sophistication to productions. Notably, the inclusion of Black Valve, a classic tube compressor renowned for its warmth, character, and sonic richness, pays homage to an iconic studio processor, making it a standout feature of this release.

New effects in Cubase 13 include the Black Valve compressor and EQ-P1A and EQ-M5 equalizers. Additionally, the software offers Spectral Warp modes in the Sampler Track and exclusive sample packs.
The new DAW also prepares for MIDI 2.0 adoption and offers improved video handling on Windows. Steinberg, with tusi update aims to introduce a more balanced approach to music making, combining workflow improvements and new creative tools to enhance the music production process.
Steinberg’s product marketing manager Matthias Quellmann says on the release of Cubase 13, “Cubase 13 is the result of many conversations and interactions we had with our user base in the last years. Our primary goal was to help our users to stay in the flow when they are creative and we are very happy about the balance of workflow improvements and new creative features in Cubase 13.”
Cubase 13 comes in three forms: Cubase Pro 13 is priced at €579, Cubase Artist 13 at €329, and Cubase Elements 13 at €99.99. Grace period updates are available for customers who activated Cubase Pro 12 or earlier from August 23, 2023.
Find out more at Steinberg.
The post Cubase 13 lets you produce “more naturally, intuitively, and conveniently” appeared first on MusicTech.

Why artist subscriptions are the perfect partner to two-tier licensingWith two-tier licensing now a thing, it is time to focus the discussion on how to add new components to the DSP ecosystem that will help long-tail artists continue to thrive in this brave new world. There are many positives that two-tier licensing will bring (helping mid-tier artist remuneration, attaching an appropriate premium to lean-forward listening, etc.) even if the streaming fraud efforts will likely soon be offset by bot farms increasing their minimum streams thresholds. But the potential downturn to long-tail artist income is a very real prospect. Not only could artist subscriptions re-level the playing field, but self-releasing artists (artists direct) also have an opportunity here that label artists do not.

For more years than we care to remember we have made the case for artist subscriptions, most recently in this MIDiA report. The data in the report shows that what fans want to pay for most (and by some margin) is early access to music, exclusive merchandise, and songs. On one hand, this makes artists subscriptions relatively low effort, as there is no need to produce backstage access videos or host live Q&As, among other things. On the other hand, it is problematic for record labels that have to consider factors such as release campaigns driving large stream volumes to trigger the algorithms, and commercial agreements with DSPs that can complicate exclusives. Artists direct, however, have no such constraints. 

MIDiA’s data shows strong willingness among fans to pay, up to $5 an artist. But, if a long-tail artist was to price their subscription at just fifty cents, it would only take five fans to subscribe to generate the same amount of income a thousand streams would. Get that to ten fans (surely eminently achievable for many long-tail artists) and they would be earning double the minimum stream threshold of the two-tier system. It is a mechanism that enables DSP streaming to deliver on the elusive long tail promise and, to boot, everyone wins:

Artists direct get income that is more meaningful income than in today’s one-tier system

Bigger artists continue to get a more meaningful share of streaming royalties

The beauty of this approach is that the infrastructure is already in place, it just needs a little tweak. In August, Spotify and Patreon announced a new initiative for podcasters, enabling them to create premium subscriptions for exclusive podcast content. Artist subscriptions thus already exist on Spotify, they are just not called artists subscriptions, yet.

Starting in 2024, Spotify and other DSPs face a delicate balancing act. They must navigate the demands of larger rightsholders – a term that covers not only major labels but also a very large number of indie labels and publishers of all shapes and sizes. At the same time, they are going to have to convince the wider creator community that they are there for them. 

This is particularly pertinent because DSP streaming no longer hold a monopoly over music creators. In 2022, the number of creators releasing outside of the traditional digital supply chain grew twice as fast as those releasing into streaming. This is the second successive year that this has been the case. A forking is taking place. These creators are choosing share their music on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Soundcloud, BandLab, Discord, Twitch, Instagram, etc. rather than risk getting lost in the DSP ocean. From a creator economy perspective this is no bad thing, in fact, it will probably be a good thing. However, from a DSP perspective, they will want to utilise every resource at their disposal to position themselves as the most attractive platform for artists.

Max MSP Beginners Guide: Creating a filter for a software synthesizerIf you haven’t caught up on the previous three tutorials where we go through the basic tools needed to use Max MSP, how to build an input/output and oscillator, and how to build an envelope system, please do so before following this tutorial.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to create and insert a filter system into your synthesizer to ‘cut off’ certain frequencies to tame your sound.

READ MORE: Max MSP Beginners Guide: How to build a monophonic software synthesizer

The first step is to open up your patch from the last tutorial and ensure that the page is set up correctly before we start patching as unfortunately these do not save, and need to be reset each time you open up Max MSP. You can refer back to Part 1 of this tutorial series if you need any guidance.
Next, create a new sub header on your patch and name it Filter. Due to its function, it is best placed to the right of the Oscillator.
The Filter
Max MSP provides plenty of filter choices and options, but to continue with the ethos of finding simple multi-purpose objects to help us build the monophonic software synthesiser, we’re going to use the object ‘svf~’.
This handy object allows you to choose between a low-pass filter, a high-pass filter, a band-pass filter, and a notch filter. So, all you have to build is a means of selecting between the four options, plus a controller for the cut-off frequency.
Before we move onto the selection system, which will be a lot simpler to set up than the envelope pre-sets, you’ll want to create a slider to control the filter’s cutoff frequency. This isn’t a gain slider like we’ve used in the past, but the object called ‘slider’.
This object allows you to set the slider to move between values, rather than just scaling signals.
Once you’ve created the object, you need to connect it to the middle inlet of ‘svf~’, named Cutoff Frequency. The values for the slider now need to be set.
Highlight the object, and open up the inspector on the right-hand side of the patch. If you scroll down to the bottom, you can set your range to a desired frequency, (we’ve set it to 1,000 Hz). The output minimum should be 0, and the output multiplier should be 1.
Selection system
The filter object and cutoff frequency object have been placed in the patch, but now you’ll need to find a way to select the individual filters so they can eventually be connected to the rest of the synthesizer.
Firstly, you’ll need the object ‘selector~’. If you open up the help file for the object, you can see that we need to tell the object how many inlets and outlets it needs to create. As we have four different filters, plus the dry unfiltered signal, we need five inlets, and only one output.
The four filters need to wire into the first four inputs (not inlets) of the ‘selector~’ object, leaving the fifth empty for the dry signal. If you get confused about what each inlet does, you can hover over it with your mouse, and it will tell you. Therefore, the object should look like this:
Four filters wired into the first four inputs of the ‘selector~’
Instead of using messages and bangs to tell the selector what to do, we’re going to use a ‘radiogroup’. We need to establish a way to pick between the five options, so this provides a list of choices that will send our selector a number that will tell which input to ‘open’ and ‘close’.
After you have put the object ‘radiogroup’ into the patch, open up the inspector window on the right-hand side of the patching window. Scroll down to where it says ‘number of items’ and replace the number ‘2’, with the number ‘5’. This is because we want to have five options: the four filters and the dry signal.
Next, you need to connect your ‘radiogroup’ to the first inlet of the ‘selector~’. However, because you want to see what number the radiogroup is sending to the selector, you need to add a ‘number’ object in between. If you hover over the inlets on the selector, it should also tell you what is open and what is closed.
When tinkering around with the radiogroup, you might see that it isn’t sending the selector ‘1-5’, but instead ‘0-4’. This means that it’s not lining up with the five filter options we want, and won’t work for your synthesiser.
There’s a simple fix for this. As we want our radiogroup to choose between the five inputs on the selector rather than just the first five inlets on the ‘selector~’ object, we need to tell it to add one on to every number, making it read 1-5.
To do so, add another object named ‘+1’ below the radiogroup, but above the number. Once this is done, it will only select the five inputs that are connected to the filter options. Don’t worry that the fifth input is empty – this will be connected to the oscillator in the next section.
At this point, your patch should look like this:
After adding another object ‘+1’ below the radiogroup and above the number
Connecting the Filter to the patch
You now need to hook the filter object to the oscillator, and to the output.
Due to the nature of the filter object and how it will manipulate the sound generated by the oscillator, the oscillator no longer needs to be connected to the output, but instead to the filter.
You need to send the oscillator not only to the filter object but also to the selection object – you’ll want the raw signal to be a filter option. Connecting the filter to both objects would require eight wires, so you’ll use send and receive functions to reduce the clutter on the patch.
These send and receive objects act as a routing system but without the need for wires. They’re most effective when you need to send a signal to multiple places.
To create a send object, type in the letter ‘s’ followed by what you want to name the signal route. In this case, it’s called ‘s Osc’ as the signal is being sent from the Oscillator. This needs to be attached to the outlets of the Oscillator.
Next, you need to make a receive object by creating an object and typing in the letter ‘r’ followed by the exact same signal route name. So, it should be ‘r Osc’. This will be attached to the input inlet of ‘svf~’. A second ‘r Osc’ object needs to be created and attached to Input 5 on ‘selector~.

Now the oscillator is connected to the filter, a wire from the outlet of the ‘selector~’ needs to be connected to the right inlet of the signal multiplier in the output. All five of the filter options have been wired correctly and should be triggered when selecting the right button on the radiogroup.
If you want to see what the filter and the cutoff frequency controller are doing to your signal, you can connect a ‘spectroscope~’ to the outlet of ‘selector~’.
You’ve now built your own software synthesiser! There is one more step to go as we turn it into something that actually looks like a synthesizer, and add the all-important presets, but the hard work is now over. Go and enjoy the fruits of your labour and feel free to tinker with all of the components until you find something you’re happy with.
If you haven’t yet downloaded Max MSP, Cycling 74 is offering a four-week free trial.
The post Max MSP Beginners Guide: Creating a filter for a software synthesizer appeared first on MusicTech.

Slate & SSL to help Gobbler customers Slate Digital and SSL have announced the launch of a migration programme that will allow Gobbler users to transfer their existing accounts to a new shared platform.

Lewitt launch LCT 440 Pure VIDA edition Lewitt have announced the release of the LCT 440 Pure VIDA, a limited edition version of their popular true condenser studio microphone that sports a rather fetching green finish.

Reverb makes a horror soundtrack using a children’s toy – and the results are as terrifying as you expectOnline gear marketplace Reverb made Halloween that much creepier by making a horror soundtrack out of a child’s toy and a collection of stomp boxes, and the result is as spine-chilling as you’d expect.

READ MORE: Will Apple’s “scary fast” M3 chips boost speeds for music producers?

Children’s toys are commonplace in the world of horror soundtracks, such as a music jack in the box, toy pianos and much more.
Reverb has taken it one step further by connecting a Playtime Engineering’s Blipblox kids synthesiser to a host of stomp boxes, and it sounds like something straight out of a horror film.
According to the website, they used a Walrus Audio Slo Fathom, a Dreadbox Darkness, a Matthews Astronomer V2, an EQD Spires and a Walrus Audio Canvas DI and connected it to the children’s synthesiser in a single chain, before routing it back into the speaker integrated into the synthesiser.
You can listen to the spookiness below:

In other whacky synthesiser news, a blue marble synthesiser that only works when it is in space, is attempting to make its ascent into the stratosphere.
Yes, you did read that correctly, the Blue Marble Synthesiser Kickstarter Project is aiming to launch the first ever music synth that can only work in space (and is playable from earth).
Interactions between the floating marble and various sensors occur inside a capsule. Those interactions, along with audio and video, are then sent back to earth in real-time, where they can be accessed via a web-based interface.
The Kickstarter campaign for the Blue Marble Synthesiser Project is now live. If the goal is met, the system will be launched at the beginning of November, aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket.
Learn more at Kickstarter.
The post Reverb makes a horror soundtrack using a children’s toy – and the results are as terrifying as you expect appeared first on MusicTech.