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  • “Rock and roll stocks and shares”: Dune is a new app where fans can invest and trade shares in artists – could it be the future of music monetisation?From traditional shares to the digital cryptocurrency landscape, stocks come in many shapes and forms. But what if you could invest in an artist? Well, Dune is an app which allows fans to do just that.
    Conjured up by music entrepreneurs Paul Bowe and Paul Knowles, has essentially set up an artistic stock market. The app transforms fans into “stakeholders”, allowing them to browse through artist metrics, buy “stakes” and trade them with other fans.

    READ MORE: Suno says “accessibility” is the reason for its success — but I think accessibility is the problem with AI music

    Through these stakes and shares, Dune allows artists to earn more from their streaming figures. While streaming platforms like Spotify have been criticised for its low per-stream payouts and changes to its royalty model, the app allows artists to earn extra royalties from the stakes fans buy and trade.
    In terms of the stake prices, Dune’s marketplace stocks fluctuate in value depending on a musician’s streaming metrics. This means that fans have to keep an eagle eye on whether they should trade during an artist’s low listening period, or to cash in when they’ve had a particularly impressive chart-topper.
    The system is also apparently AI-proof, so you won’t be able to rely on a bot to keep your stocks in check.
    While the system will help put some extra pennies in artists’ pockets, Dune is mutually beneficial for both the artist and the fan. It allows its ‘stakeholders’ access to multiple benefits, such as exclusive events, discounted ticket sales, backstage passes and merch giveaways.

    “Dune acknowledges the fact that income from streaming simply isn’t enough to sustain most artists and that 99.9% of them face a funding gap,” Knowles explains in a statement. “Data shows that only 0.1% of artists generate enough revenue from streaming to cover modest monthly outgoings.”
    The pair of entrepreneurs have also sat down with journalist and Membranes frontman John Robb to add more insight, with Robb branding Dune as “rock and roll stocks and shares”.
    “Essentially, Dune is a way of monetising the streaming data effectively for artists and fans,” Knowles says in the interview. “It’s something that’s never been attempted before. We’re not trying to take money from the streaming – we’re literally monetising it in a new way.”
    “What we’ve tried to do with Dune is to remove the legwork from the artist,” he later adds. “An artist has got four or five profiles they have to maintain… it’s great for the fan, but it’s a lot of work the artist has to do. Our ethos is how can we make it easier for the artist? And the software that we’ve designed in the back end, is that user-friendly that you can do everything with the touch of a button.”
    “Rather than commodifying the music, we’re commodifying the artists,” Bowe adds.
    To find out more, head to Dune.
    The post “Rock and roll stocks and shares”: Dune is a new app where fans can invest and trade shares in artists – could it be the future of music monetisation? appeared first on MusicTech.

    The Dune app allows fans to buy 'stakes' in an artist, which fluctuate in value based on the artist's listening stats.

  • Here’s why Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000 headphones cost £3,000£3,000, audio-technica.com
    Audio-Technica’s audiophile range of headphones has a new flagship model, an open-backed design to complement the closed-backed ATH-AWKG that has a distinctive wooden design. The ATH-ADX7000’s UK price is similar to the closed-back model – a cool £3,000. For comparison, that’s less than Focal’s flagship Utopia model and Meze’s Elites, which I reviewed in 2024, but it’s still a significant chunk of cash. So if you baulk at paying more than a few hundred for a pair of cans, read on to find out why some people think it’s worth it.

    READ MORE: RØDE’s NTH-50 headphones are $100, but sound like twice the price

    It’s fair to ask if there’s something of a law of diminishing returns with gear once you start getting into these big numbers. Is a £3,000 headphone ten times better than a £300 one? Plainly not – but these things can’t really be measured so simply. Anyone who has experienced true audiophile quality can attest to the fact that it can be a transformative thing, a way of listening to music that is a wholly different experience from what most equipment provides. It’s often just ‘better’ – and not in a way that you can quantify using simple multiples. Yes, there are the stats – more on these shortly – but the way an incredible pair of headphones can make you feel is also a part of it.
    Headphones such as the ATH-ADX7000s are better used for leisure listening rather than intense studio use, but could be useful for checking final masters or mixes. This model has an incredibly high impedance of 490 Ohms, meaning it prefers to be connected to an amplified source for best performance and highest gain. Audio-Technica says that this high impedance delivers fast transients, a defined low-frequency response and an expansive dynamic range. The headphones work fine with more consumer-grade sources, too, in my testing. The open-backed design leaks sound, as do all open backs, and they are designed to be neutral and not colour the signal.
    Image: Press
    The headphones come in a hard carry case with two cables – both three-metre nylon-wound, with small A2DC connectors at the cup end and one with a 6.3 mm unbalanced gold-plated jack plug and the other, a balanced 4-pin XLR connector. While the jack connector is the most widely compatible, the XLR is found on higher-end dedicated headphone amplifiers and other hi-fi separates, speaking to the premium systems people may be plugging into when spending this much.
    The headphones themselves are surprisingly lightweight at just 275 grams, thanks to a honeycomb aluminium build and magnesium frame and come with two pairs of swappable ear pads. The design is remarkably comfortable, with the large pads sitting over your ears and remaining pleasant even for longer listening sessions. The lightweight and open design makes them less noticeable during wear than is usual with headphones this size.
    AT has taken immaculate care in designing the 58 mm drivers, with an integrated driver unit featuring enhanced alignment of circular driver components (baffle plate, magnet, voice coil, diaphragm) for “more accurate, dynamic, and detailed sonic performance” according to Audio Technica. The brand has developed a new process for manufacturing that it calls the ‘High-Concentricity X Dynamic Transducer’. The open-air design is also intended to allow free movement of air out of and around the housing, reducing internal pressure and resulting in a fatigue-free experience.
    Image: Press
    This stuff is all impressive on paper, but how does it translate to real-world listening experience? Extremely well indeed. Tested with several different systems, including a dedicated Cambridge Audio headphone amp, the ADX7000s provide a superlative listening experience across a wide range of genres and formats. The claim of neutrality is well-deserved, with the headphones revealing the many different treatments, levels and mastering processes used on different tracks of different ages rather than imposing any EQ or sound profile onto the music.
    The balance of frequencies and the soundstage are exemplary, each element of a mix finding just the right prominence and amount of space that they need in the stereo field. Despite the open-backed design and the expressly-stated design decision to allow air to move out of the cups (rather than trapping it for a fake ‘bass boost’), the low end is particularly well-defined – robust and rich but also perfectly balanced. This is where open-back headphones tend to fall short, and it’s a testament to AT’s design that these don’t.
    The top end sparkles with life, and the mids are powerful, without anything ever becoming overpowering or, conversely, feeling lacking. The frequency response of 5 Hz – 50 kHz is far beyond the range of human hearing, but, as I have noted before, it means you know nothing is present in the signal that you’re not getting to hear.
    Image: Press
    Running through a brace of reference tracks ranging from Underworld’s punchy techno through Nils Frahm’s spiky compositions and more, I’m struck by the extra small details these headphones reveal when compared to the perfectly serviceable models on which I listen day to day. The piano damper pedal noise here, the arpeggiated synth buried in the mix there, that I’d just never heard before. This, really, is where that extra care taken in design and manufacturing pays off.
    It’s worth a quick look back here to Focal’s Bathys headphones I reviewed in 2023. At £699, they are significantly less expensive and boast a ton of modern technology, including hi-res Bluetooth, noise cancelling and a USB-C DAC mode for wired listening at up to 192kHz. While their sound wasn’t quite as razor-sharp as the ATs, the margins are pretty fine and are still extremely impressive. Someone spending £700 on the Focals is not losing much in terms of fidelity for the £2,000 or so less that they are paying compared to the Audio Technicas.
    It’s a fair bet that anyone buying headphones like these is not only serious about their listening but also likely to pair them with equally high-end gear in order to really experience them to the fullest of their potential. If you do take the plunge, you will be rewarded with a superlative listening experience that reminds you of the joy that a really well-produced piece of music can inspire.
    If you’re a musician or producer, the nuances and balance evident here add an extra layer of satisfaction beyond the enjoyment that every listener will get. For audiophiles, the choice between headphones at this price level can be a matter of personal preference. The margins of difference are slim, which is why an in-person test is often recommended. These headphones are a serious investment, but one that will reward you with an exceptional listening experience.
    Image: Press
    Key features

    Open-backed dynamic headphones
    58 mm drivers
    HXDT driver technology
    Frequency response of 5 Hz – 50 kHz
    490 Ohms impedance
    XLRM and 6.3 mm jack cables
    Magnesium and aluminium body
    275 g weight
    2 pairs of ear pads
    Hard carry case

    The post Here’s why Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000 headphones cost £3,000 appeared first on MusicTech.

    The Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000 headphones deliver stunning detail and clarity – but at a considerable price

  • Luxora Audio releases free Titan Tube Compressor plugin for macOS and Windows
    Luxora Audio has released Titan Tube Compressor, a free vari-mu compressor plugin for macOS and Windows. Titan is described as a detailed software model of a high-end, $7,000-class vari-mu hardware compressor. As you’d expect from that topology, the focus is on relatively smooth, program-dependent compression and harmonic richness instead of aggressive gain control. If you recognize [...]
    View post: Luxora Audio releases free Titan Tube Compressor plugin for macOS and Windows

    Luxora Audio has released Titan Tube Compressor, a free vari-mu compressor plugin for macOS and Windows. Titan is described as a detailed software model of a high-end, $7,000-class vari-mu hardware compressor. As you’d expect from that topology, the focus is on relatively smooth, program-dependent compression and harmonic richness instead of aggressive gain control. If you recognize

  • Acon Digital offers the Limit limiter plugin for FREE until March 1st
    Acon Digital is offering Limit, a transparent limiter plugin for Windows and macOS, free of charge until March 1st. This is a time-limited promotion, so anyone interested can download and activate the plugin at no cost before the deadline. After March 1st, Limit will return to its regular status as part of Acon Digital’s premium [...]
    View post: Acon Digital offers the Limit limiter plugin for FREE until March 1st

    Acon Digital is offering Limit, a transparent limiter plugin for Windows and macOS, free of charge until March 1st. This is a time-limited promotion, so anyone interested can download and activate the plugin at no cost before the deadline. After March 1st, Limit will return to its regular status as part of Acon Digital’s premium

  • ‘I opened my mastering studio 14 months ago — here’s what I’ve learned’: Kevin TuffyBritish mastering engineer Kevin Tuffy scored big as a resident at London’s Metropolis and Alchemy studios, winning a Grammy and an MPG Mastering Engineer of the Year award. Leaving the commercial studio ecosystem and building a studio from scratch was high stakes — particularly as AI mastering tools are becoming more commonplace.

    READ MORE: Inside the LA studio using breathwork to inspire creativity in musicians

    But his bold move is paying off. Since relocating to Berlin’s Kreuzberg district in November 2024, Tuffy has mastered a Kylie Minogue number one and has found that his best clients are still returning for his expertise. The studio, situated in a converted coach house, has become “a bit of a community space,” he says, with more in-person mastering sessions than expected, a regular vinyl listening club, and more events to come.
    One year in, the engineer has learned that care and attention still beat automation, that clients will follow you across countries if you solve their problems honestly, and that doorless room design borrowed from Steve Albini can solve his low-end challenges better than conventional acoustic treatment. He tells us what else he’s learned since Tuff Mastering began.
    Kevin, since opening Tuff Mastering, you’ve worked on a number-one album and a Christmas number one. Is that validating for you and the studio?
    Kevin Tuffy: “Definitely. Leaving the big studio ecosystem to set up something independently was always going to be nerve-racking, so being able to shout about the chart successes we’ve had, particularly when the artist is someone as legendary as Kylie Minogue, relatively early into the studio’s lifecycle was important for putting us on the map.
    “I opened Tuff Mastering to compete with the very top studios around the world so a couple of early number ones definitely go some way to backing up that mission statement.”
    Image: Press
    You’ve worked with a ton of iconic artists over the years, and have picked up a few prestigious awards. How did this success lead you to founding Tuff Mastering?
    KT: “Honestly, it’s been a succession of happy accidents rather than the culmination of any great plan I had. Obviously, if you work on a great record, people’s ears start to prick up, and maybe some new requests from new artists or labels find their way into your inbox, and that can lead to a bit of a snowball effect. But, for the most part, my client base has grown steadily and organically over many years, and I realised that there was probably enough of a base there for me to sustain something on my own. From there, I needed to work out financing, property… It was a pretty enormous undertaking and, whilst the idea of running my own company was never that high on my agenda, ultimately I’m really picky about how I want my studio to be; I realised that no company was ever going to build it for me and that I was going to have to build it for myself.”
    Opening a mastering studio in the 2020s feels like tough business, given how accepted AI mastering tools are. Did that make you nervous at all when opening the studio?
    KT: “Mastering, to me, is about care and attention to the tiniest detail and, for the impressive things that AI can do really well, it’s not exactly revered for its accuracy. Even though AI services like LANDR have been around since 2014, they haven’t demonstrated much improvement since they launched, they still can’t identify and remove a click from a mix or even use automation, so they’re still nowhere near to how a human listens to music or the moves a human mastering engineer makes and that’s without even considering that the job is still very much a service industry role that’s about problem solving for clients quickly and efficiently.
    “‘If AI does improve to the point that it can replace mastering engineers entirely, then it’ll be able to replace a pretty sizeable majority of the entire workforce, and if that happens, we’ll be looking at such a revolutionary societal restructuring that my mastering studio won’t even feature that high on my list of problems.”
    How do you decide what gear goes in the studio? Is there anything you picked up for Tuff Mastering that has made a difference in your work?
    KT: “The gear’s a bit of an amalgamation of my favourite equipment I’ve used from the various studios I’ve worked at over the years.
    “The ATC150s were Ray Staff’s at Alchemy, then Matt Colton’s, then I inherited them in 2019, and I just totally fell in love with them immediately. I’d worked on some really great loudspeakers before them, but the ATCs are clinical enough to allow me to hear precisely everything going on in a mix down to the tiniest high-frequency transient. But they also still make music sound fun in a way that it’s enjoyable to work on them all day.
    “At Metropolis, Pierce Rooms and Alchemy, I was lucky enough to always have a Sontec MES-432 as my main equaliser so when I first moved to Berlin and didn’t have one at my disposal anymore, I quickly realised how dependent I’d become on it in my workflow and how much of a signature part of my sound so that was the first item on the shopping list for outboard. It’s a bit of a hackneyed observation at this point, but I’ve tried lots of the Sontec copies or emulations, and there really is nothing like the real deal. The UnFairchild was a welcome addition for the new studio.
    “George ‘Porky’ Peckham cut a lot of my favourite-sounding records from the late 70s to the 2000s through an original Fairchild, so I’d always wanted one in the hope of recapturing a bit of that magic. It’s the most beautiful-sounding valve limiter I’ve ever had in my rack.”
    Image: Press
    Can you talk me through a specific mastering decision you made in the past year that you’re proud of – not the whole project, just one technical move?
    KT: “I don’t really want to snitch on anyone specifically, but I did have a bunch of album mixes that came in sounding absolutely beautiful, except the lead vocal. It was over-de-essed, and you could really hear both lisping and also this strange suck of the compression in the phantom centre whenever the threshold of the vocal de-esser was triggered. I was able to use iZotope’s RX to restore enough amplitude to the transients in the high-mids that I could give the sibilants back their clarity and got it all sounding really natural again, and that was oddly satisfying to do.”
    The studio seems like an interesting shape! How did you treat the room, and what considerations did you have to make when designing the studio?
    KT: “The room acoustics were probably the aspect of the studio that I lost the most sleep over. I did tons of reading and research, and I have to say a huge thanks to Bazza, my old boss at Alchemy, for his guidance and advice, and my friend Karl, who’s an architect who really helped me out with design choices, too. My studio occupies the top floor of a two-storey converted coach house, so none of the walls are parallel; this structural irregularity means there are no obvious amplified standing waves, which was a great base to work from.
    “The first challenge was to reduce the reverberance of the space. This is achieved with a false wall directly behind the listening position that’s filled with rockwool, plus three corner bass traps that hugely reduced the reverb time in the room and kill any nodes in the corners. There are a bunch of a prefab panels and clouds from GIK Acoustics that kill off any first reflections and, finally, I wanted to incorporate something I heard Steve Albini talk about in relation to his Electric Audio Studios in Chicago: I made my studio doorless to allow the big low end that the ATCs generate to travel along the top floor down the stairs and dissipate into the lounge room downstairs. It gives the sound quite a natural and balanced low end.”
    How does the relationship with clients change when you have your own business?
    KT: “Maybe it’s because I started out independently, then went down the route of being a staff engineer before going independent again, but, honestly, I’ve always tried to maintain the same degree of professionalism in my work throughout my career. Whether working for another studio or now for my own, I’ve always just been myself around clients. The ones that like my way of working and my sense of humour have been coming back (in some cases for over a decade), and they’ve stayed loyal to me through a couple of studio changes and even moving country, so I’ve been incredibly lucky in that regard. Some clients turn into friends in the long run, but I think if you try to do right by people, be constructive when you need to be critical, be diplomatic when you’re giving your opinion, you’ll find some nice people who are fun to work with. That’s really all we can hope for from a career in this industry.”
    After a year of Tuff Mastering, what’s the biggest gap between expectation and reality?
    KT: “We’ve had loads of in-person sessions recently — it’s been so nice! These started to tail off once COVID-19 hit, and the normalisation of remote sessions was a big factor in my decision to swap London for Berlin in 2022, but the trend has definitely started to reverse recently.
    “I’m glad about that, so I’ve tried to make Tuff Mastering not just a mastering studio but also a bit of a community space. We started hosting a record club for listening to classic albums on vinyl once a month towards the end of last year, and that’s been a big hit so far. We’re talking about what other events we might be able to branch out into in the future, too. The human connection is one of my favourite parts of my job.”
    The post ‘I opened my mastering studio 14 months ago — here’s what I’ve learned’: Kevin Tuffy appeared first on MusicTech.

    Situated in Berlin, Tuff Mastering is the brainchild of a Grammy, MPG and multi-platinum award-winning mastering engineer.

  • AI inference startup Modal Labs in talks to raise at $2.5B valuation, sources sayGeneral Catalyst is in talks to lead the round for the four-year-old startup, according to our sources.

    General Catalyst is in talks to lead the round for the four-year-old startup, according to our sources.

  • Live Review of RIIZEPeacock Theater Los Angeles, CA

    Web: shop-us.riizeofficial.comPlayers: Anton, Eunseok, Shotaro, Sohee, Sungchan, Wonbin, all vocals.

    It was a night of celebration for K-pop group RIIZE as they concluded their first-ever North American tour, RIIZING LOUD, with an impressive performance in Los Angeles. The show began with a dramatic VCR showcasing each of the six members: Anton, Eunseok, Shotaro, Sohee, Sungchan, and Wonbin. The fans (endearinglynicknamed BRIIZE) shrieked in loud excitement when their favorite appeared onscreen. Soon after RIIZE walked onstage in matching white and black outfits and kicked things off with the fiery track “Ember to Solar,” showing off their impressive, synchronized dance moves. Focusing all their energy on hyping up the fans, the group followed up with the obnoxiously fun “Siren” and the euphoric track “Odyssey.” The group finished the first segment of their set with “Combo,” a fan-favorite due to its highly catchy chorus that had everyone screaming, “I’m such a loser, she such a weirdo.” 

    What makes RIIZE stand out from amongst the rest of the emerging K-pop boy groups are their high-energy pop tracks, fun wordplay and enjoyable harmonies. They’re a group that oozes with youthful charisma. The group knows where their strength lies and do a good job of showcasing their talents on stage. Wonbin and Sohee are the strongest vocalists, as their versatile delivery and impressive high notes could be heard loud and clear throughout the night. Anton’s husky vocals fit perfectly for the lower tempo moments in their songs, while Shungchan, Shotaro, and Eunseok rounded things out with their impressive rapping and vocal delivery. The group used minimal backtracking, letting us hear their raw vocals shine. 

    Their set also featured memorable moments showcasing their impressive dance moves. During the melodic R&B song “Honestly,” each member took turns performing dance solos and as duos. The electronic track “Impossible” featured intense choreography with lots of fast leg moves and impressive kicks. While “Bag Bad Back” incorporated fun hip-hop choreography that had everyone dancing along. 

    The fun transitions and interesting visuals kept things interesting and lively. One of the most memorable moments was before “Get A Guitar,” when Wonbin and Anton appeared on stage holding a bass and an electric guitar. Channeling their inner rock star, they performed an instrumental duet, which earned loud cheers and screams. 

    In between songs, the group would take breaks to engage with fans and keep the energy up. They egged everyone to be as loud as possible, even challenging us to be louder than their previous show in San Francisco. Anton acted as the leader for the night as he hails from New Jersey and is fluent in English. As RIIZE’s North American tour leg came to an end, the group was humming with triumphant energy. Each member took time to thank fans for all the support and reminisced on their tour journey—sharing that they initially had fears and worries of crossing into the North American market. But thanks to all the love and support from fans, the tour turned out to be a grand success in their eyes. The post Live Review of RIIZE first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

  • Chainlink feeds go live for Ondo tokenized US stocks on EthereumPrice feeds for SPYon, QQQon and TSLAon are now live on Ethereum, allowing the Ondo-issued tokenized equities to be used as collateral in DeFi lending markets.

    Ondo Finance has integrated Chainlink price feeds for SPYon, QQQon and TSLAon on Ethereum, enabling the tokenized US stocks to be used as collateral in DeFi lending markets including Euler.

  • How to make a song instrumental: Stem separation explained
    In this introductory guide, we overview how to make a song instrumental with stem separation techniques.

    Learn how to make a song instrumental with stem separation. Discover techniques for isolating instruments and creating clean instrumental versions.

  • Thermoforming: Shaping Curvy Grilles With No SupportsMaking sure the heatgun is on ‘low’ and gloves are on while pushing on the mold. (Credit: Zion Brock)
    Although hobbyists these days most often seem to use thermoplastics as a print-and-done material in FDM printers, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from taking things further with thermoforming. Much like forming acrylic using a hot wire or hot air, thermoplastics like PLA can be further tweaked with a similar method. This can be much less complex than 3D printing the design with supports, as demonstrated by [Zion Brock].
    For this classically styled radio project the front grille was previously 3D printed with the curved shape, but to avoid an ugly edge it had to be printed with most of the grille off the print bed, requiring countless supports and hours of printing time. To get around this, [Zion] opted to print the grille flat and then thermoform its curved shape. Of course, due to the unusual shape of the grille, this required a bit more effort than e.g. a spherical form.
    This is similar to what is used with sheet metal to get detailed shaped, also requiring a mold and a way to stretch the flat shape over the mold. With the flat form designed to have all the material in the right places, it was able to be printed in less than an hour in PLA and then formed with a heatgun aimed at the part while the two-section mold is slid together to create the final form.
    You can find the design files and full instructions on the website for the radio project.

    Although hobbyists these days most often seem to use thermoplastics as a print-and-done material in FDM printers, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from taking things further with therm…

  • Olivier Chastan’s Iconoclast in sale talks at price tag of around $500 millionMultiple sources tell MBW that Iconoclast is in talks with approximately 10 different parties
    Source

    Multiple sources tell MBW that Iconoclast is in talks with approximately 10 different parties…

  • Artists in DSP releases FREE AI-driven Amorph plugin that lets you create plugins
    Artists in DSP released Amorph (open beta), their free AI-prompt-driven app, for macOS and Windows. AI has been a relatively hot topic around here recently, with the release of projects like Noizefield’s Audio Plugin Coder (APC). The conversation continues as we take a look at Amorph by Artists in DSP. Before we look at Amorph [...]
    View post: Artists in DSP releases FREE AI-driven Amorph plugin that lets you create plugins

    Artists in DSP released Amorph (open beta), their free AI-prompt-driven app, for macOS and Windows. AI has been a relatively hot topic around here recently, with the release of projects like Noizefield’s Audio Plugin Coder (APC). The conversation continues as we take a look at Amorph by Artists in DSP. Before we look at Amorph

  • FRCTL SWRL LiteSWRL Lite is a free movement effect plugin that adds organic depth, space, and character to any audio with just two simple controls. Feed it vocals, drums, synths, or anything else and watch static sounds come alive with chorus, reverb, spatial rotation, tremolo, rhythmic pump, and warm saturation — all blended into one knob. No effect chain stacking, no menu diving, just immediate creative results. TWO CONTROLS AMOUNT - Controls all six motion characters (Drift, Wash, Orbit, Flutter, Pulse, Heat) at once. One knob for instant movement. MIX - Dry/wet blend. That's it. Drop it on a track, turn the knobs, create. WHAT IT'S GOOD FOR Adding instant depth and movement to flat sounds. Creating evolving, animated textures. Quick spatial effects without routing multiple plugins. Sound design and experimental processing. Features VST3, AU, CLAP formats. Windows 10/11, macOS 10.13+, Linux. Low CPU usage, zero latency. Works in all major DAWs (Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, Bitwig, Reaper, etc.). Free forever, commercial use allowed. WANT MORE CONTROL? Upgrade to the full version of SWRL for independent control over each character's AMOUNT, adjustable RATE and WIDTH, crossover protection, output filters, spectrum analyzer, and I/O meters. Download SWRL Lite free and start adding movement today. Read More

  • Extinct Audio launch MoMics MoMics, or the Museum of Microphones, brings together an array of photographs, documents and sound recordings for over 200 mic models. 

    MoMics, or the Museum of Microphones, brings together an array of photographs, documents and sound recordings for over 200 mic models. 

  • Deadmau5 discovers DJ using an AI-generated version of him to promote his own music: “This is just the beginning for talentless f**ks abusing this tech”Deadmau5 has railed against AI after discovering a DJ using an AI-generated version of his likeness to promote his own music.
    In a new post on Instagram, deadmau5 – real name Joel Thomas Zimmerman – hesitates to call out the offending DJ by name, but expresses his thoughts on generative AI – and he’s not happy.

    READ MORE: Suno says “accessibility” is the reason for its success — but I think accessibility is the problem with AI music

    “Welcome to that dystopian future we only dreamed about three years ago,” he writes in the post’s caption, before going on: “Woke up to some idiot DJ’s Instagram story (whose name I’ll redact because I don’t care to promote him), that depicted me standing there promoting him and his music. FULLY AI-generated, voice wasn’t quite 100% but pretty damn convincing. Fucking scary as fuck.”
    He continues: “And I’m sure this is just the beginning for talentless fucks to abuse this tech to further themselves while violating others’ rights in one of the worst ways possible. I’m sure we’re all going to be seeing much more of this. AI is fucking great; generative AI not so much; but we need to stop idiots like this from abusing it.”

    View this post on Instagram

    Deepfakes and the erosion of authenticity have long been a point of concern for those sceptical of generative AI. Minimal legal guardrails – like a policy which enforces the clear labelling of AI-generated content – combined with the increasing sophistication of generative AI models means convincing videos can be created depicting others doing things they wouldn’t do, with limited or no repercussions for the creator.
    AI tool Grok – owned by Elon Musk’s X – recently came under fire after it was discovered users had been using it to create sexualised images of real people, with the EU launching an investigation last month. 
    Alongside his statement in his Instagram post, deadmau5 includes a photo, which we can presume has been taken from the AI-generated video he is referring to, and it certainly looks very convincing.
    Deadmau5 has been a vocal sceptic of AI in the past, telling MusicTech in 2023: “[ChatGPT] is good. But it’s only as good as what it knows. It’s a huge training model, right?
    “So take the collective stupidity of the world and make a robot fucking barf it out. It’s not gonna be that genius, but it’s gonna get you what you want.”
    The post Deadmau5 discovers DJ using an AI-generated version of him to promote his own music: “This is just the beginning for talentless f**ks abusing this tech” appeared first on MusicTech.

    Deadmau5 has spoken out against AI after discovering a DJ using an AI-generated version of his likeness to promote his own music.