Cleerly raises $106M from Insight Partners for AI heart health early detectionAlthough heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, a significant portion of people who experience heart attacks are unaware that they have the underlying condition. Cleerly, a cardiovascular imaging startup, hopes to fix this. By analyzing CT scans of the heart, the company’s AI software aims to identify early stage […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Runway-to-Space No More, Reaction Engines Cease TradingIt’s not often that the passing of a medium sized company on an industrial estate on a damp and soggy former airfield in southern England is worthy of a Hackaday mention, but the news of hypersonic propulsion company Reaction Engines ceasing trading a few weeks ago is one of those moments that causes a second look. Their advanced engine technology may have taken decades to reach the point of sustainable testing, but it held the promise of one day delivering true spaceplanes able to take off from a runway and fly to the edge of the atmosphere before continuing to orbit. It seems their demise is due to a failure to secure more funding.
We’ve written about their work more than once in the past, of their hybrid engines and the development of the advanced cooling system required to deliver air to a jet engine working at extreme speeds.  The rights to this tech will no doubt survive the company, and given that its origins lie in a previously canceled British Aerospace project it’s not impossible that it might return. The dream of a short flight from London to Sydney may be on hold for now then.
Writing this from the UK there’s a slight air of sadness about this news, but given that it’s not the first time a British space effort has failed, we should be used to it by now.
Header: Science Museum London / Science and Society Picture Library, CC BY-SA 2.0

The 21 biggest music business deals of 2024: From Irving Azoff to Daddy Yankee, Hipgnosis, and Queen.The year's biggest deals were dominated by private equity, securitization of music assets, and some blockbuster acquisitions by Sony Music
Source

FLOSS Weekly Episode 812: Firefox and the FutureThis week, Jonathan Bennett and David Ruggles chat with Sylvestre and Brian about Firefox! What’s up in the browser world, what’s coming, and what’s the new feature for Firefox on mobile that has Jonathan so excited? Watch to find out!

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/developer/
https://briangrinstead.com/blog/firefox-webcomponents/
https://browserbench.org/announcements/speedometer3/

Subscribe to catch the show live, and come to Hackaday for the rest of the story!

Did you know you can watch the live recording of the show Right on our YouTube Channel? Have someone you’d like us to interview? Let us know, or contact the guest and have them contact us! Take a look at the schedule here.

Direct Download in DRM-free MP3.
If you’d rather read along, here’s the transcript for this week’s episode.
Places to follow the FLOSS Weekly Podcast:

Spotify

RSS

Theme music: “Newer Wave” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Disney Music Group Needs a Digital Sales and Marketing SpecialistThe Sales and Digital Specialist focuses on and supports multiple verticals within the Sales and Digital Department. This includes guiding DMG's efforts in opportunities with voice technology and marketing for smart speakers, handling the editorial placement of music on fitness applications and being the liaison with select digital accounts. They are responsible for the delivery of podcasts produced by DMG to podcast platforms via the corporate distribution agreement, ensuring accurate lyric delivery to DSPs, facilitating UGC sound delivery and claiming, oversight for pertinent Wiki pages, as well as managing pivot pages and QR Codes as needed.Apply via EntertainmentCareers.net.The post Disney Music Group Needs a Digital Sales and Marketing Specialist first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Stevie Wonder demoed the Apple Vision Pro, according to CEO Tim Cook: “It’s always great to get feedback from Stevie”While one might assume the Apple Vision Pro is marketed squarely towards users who are not visually impaired, CEO Tim Cook says getting feedback from visually impaired users was integral in the design process.
In a new interview with Wired’s Steven Levy, Cook explains how blind music veteran Stevie Wonder had a demo with the Vision Pro, and that his feedback was “key” in designing the headset.

READ MORE: “I did not get a penny back for any of this”: Producer’s studio robbed of $40,000 worth of gear through Peerspace booking

Describing Wonder as a “friend of Apple”, Cook explains: “It’s great to get feedback from Stevie. And of course, his artistry is just unparalleled. He’s so fantastic. But accessibility was always important for us, from designing all of our products. One of the common threads through Apple over time is that we don’t bolt on accessibility at the end of the design process; it’s embedded in the design process. And so getting that feedback was key.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by WIRED (@wired)

Cook is also asked about poor Vision Pro sales, to which he replies: “It’s an early adopter product, for people who want tomorrow’s technology today. Those people are buying it, and the ecosystem is flourishing. The ultimate test for us is the ecosystem. I don’t know if you’re using it very much, but I’m there all the time. I see new apps all the time.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Cook speaks once again on Apple’s desire to ensure accessibility is at the heart of its products. Asked about the company’s AirPods Pro 2, which sport a clinical-grade hearing aid feature, Cook says: “The vast majority of people with hearing issues have not been diagnosed.
“For some people, hearing aids have a stigma, and we can counter that with AirPods. And we can have people diagnose themselves. It’s the democratisation of health.”
The post Stevie Wonder demoed the Apple Vision Pro, according to CEO Tim Cook: “It’s always great to get feedback from Stevie” appeared first on MusicTech.

Maximizing Spotify Wrapped 2024 to Connect with Fans (even if you missed the deadline)Spotify Wrapped 2024 is finally here and it is not too late for every musician to hop on board this global cultural phenomenon - even if you forgot to update your profile before last week's deadline.
The post Maximizing Spotify Wrapped 2024 to Connect with Fans (even if you missed the deadline) appeared first on Hypebot.

Why Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans Isn’t Enough in 20241,000 True Fans Isn’t Enough in 2024. Kevin Kelly’s "1,000 True Fans" theory is outdated in today’s digital world. Learn how creators must adapt to thrive in the age of streaming and fan-driven content.
The post Why Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans Isn’t Enough in 2024 appeared first on Hypebot.

TikTok reveals its top songs of 2024; says that 13 of 16 No.1 hits in the US this year are linked to trends on its platformTikTok has published its Year-End Music Report for 2024. Gata Only by Chilean artists FloyyMenor and Cris Mj was revealed as the platform's top track globally.
Source

The Resurgence of Record Stores: Exploring the Vinyl RevivalDive into why vinyl has become so popular in the digital age and driven a resurgence of record stores.
The post The Resurgence of Record Stores: Exploring the Vinyl Revival appeared first on Hypebot.

Behringer to attend NAMM for the first time in 10 yearsFancy meeting Uli Behringer? Well, you may be able to do just that in January, as Behringer is heading to The NAMM Show for the first time in 10 years.
NAMM is set to take place on 21-25 January at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. Behringer will join brands like Casio, Pioneer DJ, NORD, and a whole lot more in showcasing their next and best products.

READ MORE: Best speakers to buy in 2024: 11 best small studio monitors for any budget

Behringer has not explained why it took a NAMM hiatus, or why it’s now decided to return. Breaking the news in a post on social media, the budget brand states, “Behringer is back at NAMM after 10 years! Don’t miss the chance to meet Uli and the team, and be among the first to experience our groundbreaking new products!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Behringer (@behringer)

So, what new products might we be able to expect at NAMM? Well, Behringer has recently just launched its Centaur Overdrive stompbox, inspired by the iconic and highly sought-after Klon Centaur. Given that NAMM is heavily attended by guitarists and guitar-oriented merchants, this could well make an appearance. In a statement on the pedal, Behringer said it can provide “legendary transparent boost overdrive with huge dynamic range”, and it retails for only $69.

Back in October, it also launched Grind, a hybrid semi-modular synthesiser. With a price tag of $199, the synth was launched as a new addition to Behringer’s Producer series — featuring the Edge, Crave and Spice. It was described as a “jack-of-all-trades synth” that can do anything from “percussion, searing leads to dreamy soundscapes.”

Other recent launches include its 69 VIBE pedal – an emulation of the Shin-Ei Uni-Vibe from Japan which aimed to recreate the sound of the Leslie rotating speaker – and the WAVES tidal modulator and function generator for Eurorack. Given that Behringer is an absolute machine when it comes to the pace of its new launches, perhaps there may even be some unannounced products due to launch at the event too.
Behringer will be at booth 10902 in Hall A. Find out more about NAMM, or check out the full product range from Behringer.
The post Behringer to attend NAMM for the first time in 10 years appeared first on MusicTech.

Design Series Acrylic Shell expansion for DW Soundworks The latest expansion for DW Soundworks captures the sound of a popular DW kit range that’s said to be a great choice for genres such as punk, hardcore and metal. 

Geeking out with Douze & Lo Galbo about the analogue gear on their 80s-inspired soundtrack albumIt might sound challenging to compose a soundtrack for a film that doesn’t exist, but French and Dutch producers, Douze and Lo Galbo have come together to test their imaginations. With their new album, Dawn, they’ve sculpted an original motion picture soundtrack to a fictional movie set in the 1980s.
The pair have been collaborating for the best part of two decades, displaying their clear admiration for the 80s with expertly executed synth riffs and vocoder vocal lines that would give Cher a run for her money. If you’ve ever wanted to get an insight into what went through the minds of musicians and producers during the 80s, this duo just might be your looking glass.

READ MORE: “We get too lost in the gear, plugins and processes… they need to have a specific purpose”: Oliver Patrice Weder

 
Your latest project, Dawn, is out now. Where did the inspiration for an 80s-themed movie and soundtrack come from?
Lo Galbo: We were both born in the 80s and feel very nostalgic about that era. As kids, we connected with every 80s movie soundtrack that includes synthesizers. For example, the track Love On A Real Train by Tangerine Dream from the Risky Business soundtrack is a huge inspiration.
Douze: Radio, TV shows and commercials, anime… We’ve been heavily influenced by the 80s, even unconsciously. It’s written in our DNA. Most of the soundtracks back then were not only scores but also had real songs, and that’s what we tried to recreate: pop tracks mixed with contemplative background music. Listening to Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, and Giorgio Moroder soundtracks really helped us find where we wanted to go.
Linndrum. Image: Press
What pieces of gear really let you tap into the 80s? Were there any that you thought were going to be magic but turned out not to be quite right?
Lo Galbo: For Dawn, we rented a fully analogue studio located in the centre of Paris. We brought in a few of our classic synthesizers and drum machines that we thought would work on the soundtrack. These included the Moog Minimoog, Roland Juno-60, Oberheim OB-Xa, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, and the Roland SH-2.
To get a gritty and lo-fi sound, some synth and drum takes were re-recorded on our Akai X7000 sampler (proudly upgraded with a Gotek floppy drive emulator!), or the Tascam Porta One 4-track for extra grit. The main drum machine on most tracks is the Linndrum. There is a Maestro Rhythm King MRK-1 on our track In the Shadows (with Yota) too.
Douze: Renting that place was a bit like a midlife crisis caprice. You could compare it with renting a Porsche for two hours and taking it out to the racetrack. We knew how to drive as we’ve used the plugin emulations, but working with the real deal brought some extra magic. Working on a pad sound from scratch on a vintage synth has so much more charm than tweaking presets with our mouse on a computer.
Douze in the studio. Image: Press
Tell us more about your studio.
Lo Galbo: Douze’s is located in Paris, whilst mine is in Amsterdam. However, for Dawn, we rented out a studio in Paris where we stayed for a month to write, record and mix the entire record. For other projects we often collaborate remotely, sending back-and-forth demos and synthesizer takes.
Douze: Our studios are a bit different, Lo Galbo loves to purchase old-school analogue and digital synths and outboard gear, while I mostly sketch in the box and replay whatever needs to be.
What’s your latest gear or plugin purchase?
Douze: I recently bought the U-he Repro 5 plugin, which is the best Prophet-5 emulation out there. It sounds wide and full and I find the filter stunning. Whenever a new emulation of the OB-Xa gets out, it’s always an instant purchase — even if the most convincing to me remains the OP-X PRO ll by SonicProjects.
Lo Galbo: A Roland D-50. The synth is currently loaded with 64 presets created by our friend Legowelt by request of Roland for the 30th anniversary of the synth. Legowelt’s presets really show what the synth is capable of: it can make some super interesting, airy, drifting, ethereal, spacey, ambient sounds. It’s perfect for 80s-inspired soundtracks.
Fun story; when I went to pick up the D-50, the seller convinced me to buy his pristine-condition Korg DW-8000 too. I’ll admit I’m easy to convince when it comes to buying synths. For the nerds: I managed to find the MEX-8000 Memory Expander to store extra patches, which also works perfectly with my Korg DW-6000, and even my Korg Poly 800 MK1 since I had that synth upgraded with the MIDI Dump Kit (MDK).
Roland D-50. Image: Press
What’s the best free plugin you own? Why?
Lo Galbo: It has to be the Tal-Chorus-LX. We both own various emulations of the Juno chorus, but the one by Tal somehow just sounds best. Lo Galbo has a Roland Juno-106 in his studio and will have his tech modify it with an external input to the chorus to compare sounds. Whatever the outcome, we will probably keep using the Tal plugin, since it’s so easy to use.
What’s been the biggest investment in your career/studio? Was it worth it? Why?
Lo Galbo: The biggest investment so far was the Oberheim OB-Xa. That thing is going for absurd prices these days. Ours wasn’t cheap, but we managed to buy one when prices were ok.
Aside from analogue gear, were there any go-to mixing and mastering techniques that gave the tracks a more 80s sound?
Lo Galbo: We mainly mixed the album in the box. To achieve that 80s sound, we used digital recreations of analogue 80s compressors and tape machines such as the Fairchild 660 clone by Slate Digital, and the Ampex ATR-102 tape machine by UAD. The Dawn soundtrack was mastered by Jonas Pinnau, aka Tonebox. He really added the final layer of 80s sound to the album.
Oberhaim OB-Xa. Image: Press
Were there any techniques you weren’t familiar with that you had to learn to allow you to create something authentic to the time?
Douze: Tape machine plugins were something we would sometimes play around with, but started to use a lot for Dawn. We toggled between the UAD Ampex ATR-102, the Waves Kramer Master Tape and the Waves J37. The Ampex can really bring some nice saturation to the mix, while the J37 glues everything together (and can smash the whole mix if you go 1db too hard).
Do you have a dream piece of gear?
Douze: Never had the chance to mess around with a Korg Trident. They are not that expensive, but I’m a bit afraid of being disappointed after fantasising about them for too long. Maybe it should remain a dream…
Lo Galbo: I’ve always dreamed of owning an Elka Synthex. I think I’ve seen every YouTube video about the synth at least five times (I highly recommend the video in which Jean-Michel Jarre presents an homage to the synth). It’s such an interesting instrument, and I believe it’s one of the best synths to get that brassy pad sound similar to some sounds Alan Braxe has on his tracks. However, Douze and I have only recently discovered that the pad sound on Alan’s track Palladium was done on a Moog Opus 3. So yeah, would love to own an Opus 3 too one day, just for that sound.
Tascam Porta One. Image: Press
What’s a music production myth you think needs debunking?
Lo Galbo: It may sound weird coming from us who brought in so much vintage gear for this record, but in general, we believe anyone can make a similar album fully in the box, or with one or two analogue synths.
Douze: The same goes for mixing: we could have had everything mixed on an SSL desk, but with the right few plugins the same sound can be easily achieved. We really believe there are only like 20 people on earth who can hear the difference between analogue and digital.
Who gave you the biggest lesson in your career? Can you tell us about how it impacted you?
Douze: All the people I have worked with have shown me tricks and shared their experiences. What I always try to keep in mind is to not overthink things. Keep it simple.
Lo Galbo: I have learned so much from my production partners Douze, E-The-Hot, and a few others. The best lesson was that there is no outlined approach to reach a certain sound. Whatever works, works.
Read more music tech interviews
The post Geeking out with Douze & Lo Galbo about the analogue gear on their 80s-inspired soundtrack album appeared first on MusicTech.

Ableton Move review: A supreme balancing act£399 / $449, ableton.com
Ableton hardware used to feel serious. Ever since the release of the original Push, the company’s physical offerings have catered to a class of professional musicians who are dedicated, skilled, and ready to invest in an instrument that can match their ambitions.
With the release of Move, Berlin’s premiere music tech company is sending a wholly different message. Portability, affordability, and accessibility are now on the menu.
To be clear, despite its almost toy-like size and feel, there is nothing frivolous about this instrument – the build is rock solid, the onboard sounds are fantastic, and the narrow yet powerful feature set has clearly been given a lot of thought. But, from the second you switch it on, Move has an addictive feeling of fun that borders on gamification.

READ MORE: “We wanted to make something simpler, more immediate, more joyful”: How Ableton built Move

It achieves this in several ways, starting with randomisation. Move has over 1,500 presets and each new Set you create is assigned a dice-roll assortment of drums, bass, melody, and pads. Not only is this a genuinely effective way to get you playing immediately, but it also makes you want to start the next tune – if only to see what new combination you’ll get.
Ableton could have taken this a step further: If you’re unhappy with one of the randomly selected instruments, you’ll have to resort to scrolling through samples and sounds via Move’s 1.3-inch screen and clickable jog wheel. This is a tiresome exercise on any hardware instrument – so why not add the ability to randomise a single instrument independently? An idea for future updates perhaps.

There’s been a lot of online discussion about Move’s number of tracks being limited to four and, for some, this will definitely feel creatively stifling. In my experience, each new random combination of instruments provides a surprisingly expansive set of musical possibilities. This is, in part, a testament to the quality of Move’s included presets – using only Drift, Wavetable, and Drum Rack, it offers a diverse but cohesive sound palette.
You’re not limited to sounds on the device, however. Sampling via Move’s tiny built-in microphone is effective for lo-fi sonics, and there’s a 3.5mm stereo line input if you want to capture external audio. Offering the combined power of the new Drum Sampler introduced in Live 12.1, the venerable Simpler melodic sampler, plus a dedicated button for sample recording and a reliable transient detection function, the whole process of grabbing and manipulating audio is fast, fluid, and, once again, abundantly fun.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Laying down performances is a similarly streamlined experience. You can play live and overdub, but Ableton’s MIDI Capture feature preserves the last few notes you played whether recording or not. In a marked departure from other groove boxes on the market, there’s also a step sequencer that accommodates up to 16 bars and 64 steps per bar.
Taking cues from Live’s Session View, you can build up an arrangement of clips with different variations and switch between them on the fly. Making those variations will mostly involve a new performance – you can copy and paste clips easily enough but, with extremely limited options for editing MIDI, it’s much faster to play something new than try to change things manually.
The effects selection is middling. There are some expected dynamics, pitch, and time-based processes taken directly from Live, but audio samples get a more interesting selection of playback effects – including FM, Ring Modulation, and Granular Time Stretching. A bigger constraint is that each instrument can only have one effect insert and one effect send, while samples get one playback effect.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Learning how to make simple beats and melodies is a relatively pain-free experience. Move has nine dedicated single-function buttons to cover essential features: play/stop, MIDI and audio recording, MIDI capture, loop mode, copying, deleting, muting, and undo/redo.
Somewhat less obvious though are the more advanced features. The shift button, labelled with three dots, opens up a set of extra controls located below the sequencer. Rather than use text labels, Move instead opts for ponderous hieroglyphs – you’ll easily be able to deduce some if you’re already a Live user, but others will require a trip to the manual for further explanation. That said, after an hour or so of tinkering, navigating Move quickly settles into muscle memory.
Overall, Move excels at sparking and capturing ideas. Extending those ideas is where you’ll start to bump up against its limitations. To be fair, Ableton has made this totally clear in its promotional material; Move is for quick-fire ideation, and if you want to go further your next destination will be Live.
Facilitating such a transition is the new Move Manager, a web browser-based interface that enables wireless communication with Move over your local area network. Here, you can load and offload samples and presets, bounce out audio from your sets in WAV or MP3 format, and export project files.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Once you’ve moved a project over to Live, Move works wonderfully as a dedicated controller via a USB-C connection, with encoders auto-mapped to device and instrument parameters. It might be obvious but it’s worth stating: This is Ableton hardware designed to slot into the growing Ableton ecosystem. If your main DAW is Logic or Cubase, then look elsewhere.
It’s also important to know while Move is a standalone device, it won’t get you all the way to a finished track. To really get your money’s worth out of it, a licence for Live is a must-have. Live Intro, which retails for £69/$99, is included for free with Move, and while this is a solid starting point, an upgrade to Live Standard is all but certain for anyone who is serious about making music.
Last but not least, there’s the portability factor. As the name implies, Move is built to travel. It’s hard to overstate how enjoyable and easy it is to take this standalone instrument on the train, to the park, or just to the couch. Under 1kg, with four hours of battery life and a built-in speaker, it has the feel of a musical camping kit, ready to accompany you to strange and exotic locations. Sure, its speaker won’t impress any audiophiles, but knowing that, in a pinch, no headphones, no charger, and no peripherals are needed is really liberating.
The hardware may feel sturdy but, after a few days of throwing it into a backpack, the need for a case becomes obvious. The lack of any official, or even third-party, carry cases at launch is a frustrating oversight on Ableton’s part, but one that will surely be remedied.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Ableton has plenty of competition in the groovebox market. Novation’s Circuit-Tracks’ solid beat-making and similar standalone features come at a lower price of $300/£200. If on-the-go sampling is what you’re after then Roland’s AIRA Compact P-6 offers a more expansive feature set, again at a lower cost. If all you want is a portable Ableton controller, then the Launchkey Mini 25 MK4 will probably meet your needs.
But none of those options manages to pull off the supreme balancing act that is Move. In one box, you have premium-feel hardware at an affordable price, a highly intuitive and musical interface, workflows finely tuned for speedy creativity, take-it-anywhere portability, and a sense of fun that ensures this instrument will not gather dust on a shelf.
On the other hand, this is an instrument with significant drawbacks. Limited I/O prohibits any serious use as a performance device, its symbiosis with Live is great if you’re already aboard the Ableton train but leaves you hamstrung if you’re not. Move’s conception and execution are narrowly tailored to a single use case – generating ideas to be continued on its associated desktop DAW.
That said, if you take Move on its own terms, and meet it on its home turf, it offers a music-making experience that is fast, frictionless, and seriously fun.

Key features

32 velocity-sensitive, backlit soft silicone pads
9 high-resolution, touch-sensitive encoders
16 backlit multifunctional buttons for sequencing and accessing secondary features
1500+ presets
Built-in speaker
Internal microphone
Rechargeable battery with four hours of playtime
64 GB built-in storage
3.5 mm stereo line in and outs
USB-C port for charging and control surface connectivity
USB-A port for MIDI in/out

The post Ableton Move review: A supreme balancing act appeared first on MusicTech.

How Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” Made History and Became the Biggest Song in the WorldThis week, Ari is joined by alt-pop singer, rapper & multi-hyphenate Noga Erez to discuss the creative process and working with labels.