Top 12 Strategies to book more (and better) music gigsWant to book more live shows? Here are 12 essential strategies for increasing gig opportunities with more gigs that matter.....
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Transform audio with Sampleson Scaper Scaper has been designed to save users hours of work by generating atmospheric soundscapes using any audio recording. 

What musicians and creators can do to get ready for the TikTok ‘ban’Biden signed a bill last month that could leave U.S. consumers and creators TikTok-less nine months from now. Here are some steps you can take to prepare for the worst.. Continue reading
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Decent Samples Release FREE Korg Phase 8 Sample Library
Decent Samples has released a new free Korg Phase 8 library for the free Decent Sampler.  As many of you know, Superbooth 2024 was recently held in Berlin. Superbooth is an annual event at which new and innovative synthesizers and music production gear from various manufacturers are announced. We have covered several synthesizers introduced this year [...]
View post: Decent Samples Release FREE Korg Phase 8 Sample Library

KIT Plugins release BB Chamber A KIT Plugins’ latest collaboration with Nashville’s legendary Blackbird Studio has just arrived, and becomes the first of the company’s offerings to utilise AI technology

‘Hacker’ identified in celebrity memecoin scams, says crypto sleuth RoxoA person associated with Caitlyn Jenner’s JENNER coin launch rugged five other prominent figures, but not her, according to Roxo.

The Emperor’s New ComputerYou walk into a home office and see an attractive standing desk that appears bare. Where’s the computer? Well, if it is [DIY Perk]’s office, the desk is the computer. Like a transformer robot, the desk transforms into a good-looking PC.
He starts with a commercial desk and creates a replacement desktop out of some aluminum sheets and extrusions. The motion uses some V-slot profiles and linear rails. The monitor and keyboard shelf pop up on invisible hinges. When closed, there’s no trace of a computer.

The mechanics of the pop-out hatch are complex, but they worked the first time. At least, we think it was the first time. Video editing is a possibility! He did have to add some springs and pneumatics to keep it from slamming down. A magnet gives a positive lock feeling when you open the hatch.
The monitor is an ultra-wide OLED that can be curved or flat. He removed the electronics from the panel and mounted the screen on the inner part of the hatch. Half of the electronics went back into the desk. A small but powerful PC with an Intel I9 and a graphics card fit in the desk. A conventional power supply would be too large, but a pair of very thin GaN power supplies come to the rescue.
Surplus server heatsinks keep the system cool without breaking the bank.
Thermal management is also something that could easily be too thick. The solution was a custom brass heat spreader that runs the length of the desk, onto which he mounted 40 surplus server heatsinks paired with laptop fans. But when they failed to get the job done, larger heatsinks and fans were brought in. These stick out below the bottom of the desk, but you wouldn’t notice unless you were laying on the floor.
Honestly, the build is amazing. If you are on the fence, watch the first few seconds of the video where the desk transforms, and you’ll be hooked. The final step was to make the aluminum desktop look like wood with oak planks and some optical illusions.
We doubt our woodworking and machining skills are up to duplicating this, but we wish he’d take our money. Desk computers aren’t really a new idea, of course. Be glad you don’t have to build a 1965 “desktop” computer into a desk.

A System Board for the 8008Intel processors, at least for PCs, are ubiquitous and have been for decades. Even beyond the chips specifically built by Intel, other companies have used their instruction set to build chips, including AMD and VIA, for nearly as long. They’re so common the shorthand “x86” is used for most of these processors, after Intel’s convention of naming their processors with an “-86” suffix since the 1970s. Not all of their processors share this convention, though, but you’ll have to go even further back in time to find one. [Mark] has brought one into the modern age and is showing off his system board for this 8008 processor.
The 8008 predates any x86 processor by about six years and was among the first mass-produced 8-bit processors even before the well-known 8080. The expansion from four bits to eight was massive for the time and allowed a much wider range of applications for embedded systems and early personal computers. [Mark] goes into some of the details for programming these antique processors before demonstrating his system board. It gets power from a USB-C connection and uses a set of regulators and level shifters to make sure the voltages all match. Support for all the functions the 8008 needs is courtesy of an STM32. That includes the system memory.
For those looking to develop something like this, [Mark] has also added his development tools to a separate GitHub page. Although it’s always a good idea for those interested in computer science to take a look at old processors like these, it’s not always the easiest path to get original hardware like this, which also carries the risk of letting smoke out of delicate components. A much easier route is to spin up an emulator like an 8086 IBM PC emulator on an ESP32. Want to see inside this old chip? Have a look.

EU’s ChatGPT taskforce offers first look at detangling the AI chatbot’s privacy complianceA data protection taskforce that’s spent over a year considering how the European Union’s data protection rulebook applies to OpenAI’s viral chatbot, ChatGPT, reported preliminary conclusions Friday. The top-line takeaway is that the working group of privacy enforcers remains undecided on crux legal issues, such as the lawfulness and fairness of OpenAI’s processing. The issue […]
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Earth, Wind & Fire legal fight offers lessons for tribute acts, cover bandsEarth, Wind & Fire's lawsuit against a tribute band could redefine legal boundaries for all cover bands......
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2 Days Left to weigh in on Mechanical Licensing Collective’s futureThe MLC's (Mechanical Licensing Collective) sometimes controversial first five years are almost up, and the US Copyright Office is asking for public comment before May 29th as it considers the organization's future......
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Last week’s most-read posts: Live Nation breakup • State of Music Data survey • Spotify vs music publishers • MoreCatch up on what you need to know with this week’s most-read Hypebot posts. We’ve got topics ranging from the breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster to the State of Data in The Music Industry survey tips for an album release, Spotify sued by publishers, and more...
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Hit the Decks! It's Nation BeatScott Kettner of fusion Afro-beat/hip-hop project Nation Beat got his start in music when he was just eight years old.

"I got serious about it when I was about 13 years old when I joined the school band and started my own garage band where we played school dances and parties," he says.

Kettner describes the Nation Beat sound as, "a mix of Brazil meets USA through the lens of jazz improvisation and sensibilities. Our music is uplifting, fun and surprising. It's not like anything you've heard before yet there is a familiar element to the sound. Its carnival meets Mardi Gras. Dr John meets Chico Science. Forro, Funk, Bop and Brass."

The latest release is Archaic Humans.

"We recorded mostly at Mercy University in their state of the art recording studio," he says. "We also recorded some tracks in Brazil and at my studio in NJ, Jumbo Sounds. The album features special guests: South African vocalist Melanie Scholtz, D.C. Beatbox master Christylez Bacon, Brazilian percussionist Luca Texeira and master percussionist Michael Spiro. The concept of Archaic Humans is carrying the past to the present while we look to the future. As humans we all carry the DNA of our neanderthal ancestors. Our music is the same. Nothing is new. It all comes from something before it. Our music aims to carry the past musical traditions into the current day while we also imagine how it would sound in the future."

As for gear:

"I'm fortunate to be endorsed by some of the greatest drum companies in the world: Tama, Sabian, Vic Firth, Meinl and Remo."

Looking ahead, Nation Beat has plenty planned for 2024.

"We're currently preparing to tour on and off all summer to support the release of the album," he says. "We'll also be dropping music videos between now and the end of the year."

Archaic Humans is out May 31.

Photo by Jason Gardner

The post Hit the Decks! It's Nation Beat first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Master & Dynamic’s MW09 are premium wireless earbuds with a stunning battery lifeAluminium case £319, kevlar case £369, masterdynamic.com
Master & Dynamic, based out of New York, has always prioritised quality over quantity. As such, its relatively small lineup of audio products has won over many audio pros as well as everyday listeners.

READ MORE: JLab Epic Lab Edition earbuds boast crisp highs and deep bass but basic EQ leaves gritty mids

The latest generation of its MW series wireless earbuds builds on earlier successes but also enters a crowded market with many companies having got in on the act. A couple of generations in, can they still stand out?
This reviewer has a long-serving pair of MW07s that are still going strong, and tested the MW08s on their launch which saw a big change to the design of the case. The MW09s have a similar case to their predecessor but a significant weight saving has been achieved and though the case is still very robust it is much lighter than before – 50g to its predecessor’s 81g. This makes an appreciable difference when you factor in the other things you carry around, and is very welcome.
MW09 right earbud
The cases and buds come in a range of colours, all very modern and stylish, and there’s a kevlar case option that adds £50 to the price – our review pair had the aluminium case. The buds themselves are very light, secure and comfortable, with a choice of seven pairs of tips. There’s also splash resistance for the buds and case so taking them on a run shouldn’t be an issue.
Despite the weight-saving, M&D has dramatically increased the battery life and you now get up to 16 hours in the buds (or 12 with ANC on) and an extra 32 in the case, for a total of 48 hours. There’s USB-C charging for the case that gives you 50% in 20 minutes and 100% in 60 minutes via a cable. Or pop it on a wireless charger and you’ll get 50% in 70 minutes and 100% in 160 minutes. A quick five-minute charge will also give you up to two hours of listening in an emergency. These numbers easily beat Apple’s Airpods Pro 2 with their six hours of listening time in the buds and 30 in the case. In practice, battery life like this means you will never really run out of juice if you remember to just drop the case on a wireless mat every few days.
Connecting the buds is simple and they have multipoint support, meaning you can switch for example between your phone and your laptop without re-pairing. A range of 100 feet means we’re able to wander between rooms without ever losing signal from our desktop Mac. Bluetooth 5.4 is supported as are multiple codecs including AptX Lossless up to 16-bit / 44.1 kHz, AptX Adaptive up to 24-bit / 96 kHz and AptX Adaptive for low latency gaming. As ever, Apple users only get the basic AAC and SBC codecs whilst Android users may be able to take advantage of the higher bitrates.
MW09 sound settings on the Connect app
M&D’s Connect app for mobile devices lets you manage settings and while there’s not the galaxy of tweaks you get with some apps, there’s everything you really need. One thing you’ll want to do is run the acoustic seal test to optimise the noise cancelling for your particular ear canals – out of the box we find even the max level of ANC isn’t quite as strong as we’d hoped for, however running the test seemed to tighten it up.
Adaptive ANC did a good job of modifying cancelling levels as we navigated the tube network, and Ambient mode provided useful pass-through for when walking in public. ‘All Day’ ANC is a mode for quieter environments though we personally prefer our cancelling nice and total. All this is powered by a six-microphone array with wind reduction that also enables the AI-enhanced talk mode, providing one of the clearest phone call experiences we’ve ever had on wireless earbuds. The buds use buttons for interaction rather than touch surfaces, which helps prevent accidental triggering in our experience.
M&D has always been about the sound quality and here the MW09s don’t disappoint. One thing that surprised us however was that these are the first M&D model we’ve found necessary to use EQ with. The app provides some presets as well as a manual five-band equaliser; out of the box we find the buds a little on the bassy side, with the mid and upper-mid ranges slightly lacking. This was easily remedied by using the ‘audiophile’ EQ preset or indeed dialling in a little more mid in the manual section which really brought things back into balance and added a lot of life to the sound.
MW09 in use
Your ears will have their own preferences of course – you may prefer a different treatment. When you have tuned them to your liking you’ll find the custom-designed 11 mm beryllium drivers deliver a rich and warm soundstage, tackling the nuances of neoclassical music just as well as the punch and drive of drum’n’bass. While lesser wireless buds can sometimes remind you that you saved a few quid on them by sounding or feeling a bit lacklustre, the MW09s sound natural, sweet and powerful.
To return to our initial question – these buds do indeed stand out in a crowded field. They’re beautifully designed and built, putting the popular Sony WF-1000MX5s, Bose QuietComfort 2 and even AirPods Pro 2 in the shade in terms of looks and build quality. They also comfortably outclass all three (admittedly less expensive) models in terms of battery life, though the Bose has slightly better ANC. There’s also none of the spatial and head tracking stuff you get from Apple but that will only be a dealbreaker for some listeners.
Despite our mild surprise at having to make an EQ tweak which we haven’t had to do before with M&D gear, the MW09s still offer superlative sound, just perhaps with that one extra step. Battery life is excellent, recharging is quick and they’re lighter than the previous generation while significantly extending playback. The cancelling is very good and if not perhaps best in class, certainly adequate for all but the very noisiest environments.
Most of all though it’s the playback that gets you. There are buds around the £230 mark that come close and even offer a wider range of features, but can’t touch the MW09s for sheer fidelity.
Back of MW09 earbud
Key features

11 mm beryllium drivers
48 hours total battery life
USB-C and wireless case charging
Active and adaptive noise cancelling
Six-microphone array
AI-powered voice clarity
Companion app with manual and preset EQs
Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint connectivity
AptX Adaptive up to 24-bit, 96kHz codec
Splash proof

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