Flame Sound celebrates 5th anniversary with $5 Firestarter SFX deal
Flame Sound is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a limited-time $5 offer on the Firestarter SFX cinematic sound effects collection. I launched Flame Sound five years ago as my cinematic sound label, and at the time, it was pretty much a passion project, much like Bedroom Producers Blog was in the beginning. I was not [...]
View post: Flame Sound celebrates 5th anniversary with $5 Firestarter SFX deal

Paul McCartney says smartphones have made songwriters less likely to finish songs: “You always had to finish a thing because there was nowhere to put it”Between voice note apps, mobile DAWs and AI assistants capable of generating lyrics and even demos on demand, modern musicians have no shortage of ways to preserve an idea before it disappears.
The result is a creative process that’s arguably never been more convenient – but also one that’s made songwriters less likely to finish songs, according to Paul McCartney.
Speaking in a recent conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the Beatles legend discusses how modern technology has fundamentally changed the songwriting process, by making it easier to capture ideas but harder to complete them.

READ MORE: “I think it’s the most underrated plugin on Ableton Live”: The simple tool Chris Lake used in his Taylor Swift remix

Asked whether he always aims to ‘finish a song’ once he begins writing, McCartney explains that the process was very different before musicians had pocket-sized recording devices at their disposal. The arrival of smartphones, in particular, has removed the pressure that once forced songwriters to see ideas through to completion.
“The trouble is nowadays with phones,” Macca begins. “[In the past] you always had to finish a thing because there was nowhere to put it. You had to put it in your mind. So you had to finish it. So you did.”
Today, however, the 83-year-old has no shortage of half-formed ideas waiting to be revisited.
“Now I must have over a couple of thousand sketches on my phone because I’ll put it down and think, oh yeah, okay, I’ll come back to that. I’ve saved it. It’s okay.”
“Because of the luxury of a phone, if you don’t have long but you got an idea, you’ll put it down,” says McCartney.
According to Macca, some of those recordings eventually become fully realised songs, while others remain useful fragments waiting for the right project.
“There’ certain ones in that list of sketches that I will finish, that I know, ‘Oh, that is a good one’, so I will finish that,” he says. “And there’s certain ones that I kind of think, ‘It’s a piano melody’. If I ever get asked to do a film score, that can be the theme, you know? Whatever. Well, I like just putting them down in case.”
Later in the conversation, McCartney recalls working with four-track recorders, where every creative choice came with consequences.
“With the four-track, you’ve got to wipe things because there’s only four tracks and you may want to do eight things,” he explains. “You take two tracks where you’ve got, let’s say, drums and bass, and you reduce them to one track, which frees up these tracks so you can keep recording.”
Lowe notes that by doing so, you’re effectively committing to those decisions because “you can’t change anything”.
For McCartney, those restrictions were not obstacles but creative tools.
“That’s actually a great thing,” he says. “I say to young bands nowadays, don’t rely too much on the sort of gadgetry. Just play it all, learn it all, write it all because it’s better.”
While he remains enthusiastic about experimenting with technology – citing his love of tape loops and unusual recording techniques – McCartney believes there’s a difference between using tools creatively and becoming dependent on them.
“What will happen is a lot of people rely on it,” he says. “So you get records that sound like they’ve been made by gadgets. I don’t like that.”

The post Paul McCartney says smartphones have made songwriters less likely to finish songs: “You always had to finish a thing because there was nowhere to put it” appeared first on MusicTech.

Carbon Electra 2 is a soft synth designed to stay in key with your sessionScaler Music has introduced its new software synthesizer: Carbon Electra 2. This upgrade emphasises “musical intelligence” in addition to raw sonic power. In this particular instance, “musical intelligence” refers to integrating music theory into its functions, which makes sense considering Scaler Music’s title product is a music theory workstation.
The primary feature of Carbon Electra 2 is Scale Lock. This allows users to select scales of all qualities – major, minor, diminished, augmented – and modes – dorian, aeolian, lydian – and apply them to the oscillators. Scale terms are as complex to a producer who never studied music theory as terms like “wave-terrain oscillators” and “subtractive synthesis” are to classical musicians.

READ MORE: Suno has raised over $400M in its latest funding round – and is now valued at a staggering $5.4B

By locking an oscillator on a specific scale, every twist of the knob will adjust the sound within that scale. This makes experimentation much more fun. Instead of needing to know the specific theoretical framework of what makes a minor vs. major scale, users can simply try different options and see which sound they prefer.
Filter 2 also acts in key with Scale Lock, emphasising root notes as different frequencies are cut out. But the filter scale lock can also be set to chords and different intervals to maintain selected harmonies. Plus, the sequencer information will be updated to reflect the notes in the chosen scale.

Once everything is in key, the Carbon Electra 2 has a huge number of options for more technical sonic manipulation. There are wave terrain oscillators for adjusting waveforms over a 3D-modelled surface to get more intricate sounds. Three LFOs and two envelopes are available as well, with the three LFOs able to work individually or be routed together.
Carbon Electra 2 is available now in VST3, AU, and AAX for Mac and PC. Price-wise, the soft synth clocks in at a starting price of $79, which will rise to $99 on 13 July. Existing Carbon Electra users can upgrade to the new version for just $39.
For more information, head to Scaler Music. You can also get Carbon Electra 2 now at Plugin Boutique.
The post Carbon Electra 2 is a soft synth designed to stay in key with your session appeared first on MusicTech.

sonible learn:bundle is on sale for €49 until June 8th
sonible is offering its learn:bundle for €49 instead of €199 until June 8th. The learn:bundle includes five AI-assisted mixing plugins made to help newer producers improve their mixes while learning what each processor is doing. The included tools are learn:EQ, learn:comp, learn:limit, learn:reverb, and learn:unmask. It helps producers who want help getting started with core [...]
View post: sonible learn:bundle is on sale for €49 until June 8th

Filtr is a new privacy tool that blocks ads in almost every iPhone and Mac appThis popular ad blocker app for iPhones, iPads, and Macs can now block ads from loading inside apps, including web browsers, thanks to a new feature in the latest Apple software.

Bitcoin fell 21% after Strategy’s debt buyback news— Is a Terra Luna-style doom loop next?Bitcoin price collapsed as Strategy faced tighter liquidity conditions and paused its BTC buying. Is it time to jump ship, or buy the dip?

Michael Gilas at The Cutting Room New York, NYWeb: michaelgilasmusic.comContact: sotthuggermusic@gmail.com Players: Michael Gilas, lead vocals; Allan Phillips, musical director, keyboards, guitars; Natalya Phillips, guitars, background vocals; Daneen Wilburn, background vocals; Draeh Jirnae, background vocals; Shirly Ace, drums; Angelica Yamada, bass; Brian Kennedy, keyboards

It's hard to put a period on Michael Gilas’ music. His influences run the gamut from legendary artists like The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Carole King, and Steely Dan to as current as Billie Ellish. Those influences run through the set which was comprised of songs from his current release, 231 Kensington Road. 

Pouring all that musical diversity into the show, Gilas delivers a blend of mostly up-tempo, groove-laden songs staying in an adult contemporary lane, with his seven-piece band (including three backup singers) rounding out the sound. 

He kicks off the set with “Convenience Store,” a clever comparison between his open heart and a store that never closes: “There’s something ‘bout that neon glow/I can see so through ya/I can’t say no to ya/You go and get what you need/anytime you need it/my heart’s open 24/7.”

In “Sigmund Freud Girlfriends,” we hear tongue-in-cheek quips about past girlfriends dissecting their relationships and why they failed: “Tell all your Sigmund Freud girlfriends the damage, the savage/there’s always another chapter about the baggage we never unpacked…cheaper than a couch confession/ I’ll even pick up the tab for the session.”

Gilas surrounds himself with a coterie of excellent musicians and background singers. Though they offer strong support, an interlude or two of an instrumental breakdown, putting Gilas further out front would have given us the chance to hear more of his voice unfettered by the size of the band.

At the start of the show, a woman stepped up to the mic with a brief but cryptic comment alluding to the bravery of the performer we were about to witness. We never find out what that comment meant but what it most likely amounted to was a missed opportunity for Gilas to connect more profoundly with the audience. After a life-altering horseback riding accident that left him with a broken neck, unable to walk and limited use of his hands he took stock of his life. “Music became my therapy, my escape, and my way forward. I wrote song after song from my bed, never knowing they’d turn into my first album.”So, the question is how did this near-tragic event fuel the songs on the album? Audiences love to know these backstories.

Still, the show was entertaining with all its bells and whistles, though Gilas unfortunately omitted sharing these songs shaped by his life experiences, most notably, the riding accident. While many of us have been in a dark place at some point in our lives, we welcome hearing how others have overcome insurmountable obstacles. The post Michael Gilas at The Cutting Room New York, NY first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

M Media Audio Violet CrownViolet Crown is a heavy-iron buss stereo channel strip built to do what expensive rack hardware does on a mix bus: nicely squish the dynamics together, add presence to the top end, and make the whole thing feel bigger and completely glued together. It combines a three-band parametric EQ with a custom RMS compressor engineered specifically for bus work but does extremely well in other areas, drums, bass, etc... a little goes a very long way. Six filters, one bus compressor, zero dollars. Three independent EQ bands, custom RMS compression, analog-style VU metering, and no attacks on your wallet. The compressor uses a 10ms RMS detector per channel - the same approach that defines the sound of classic British and American bus compressors. RMS detection responds to the energy of the program, not the instantaneous peak, which means it catches the body of a mix rather than just the loudest transients. The result is compression that feels solid and deep. The release section includes a full auto-release mode, engaged by turning the Release knob fully to the left. In auto mode, the release adapts continuously - pulling back quickly when the compressor is working hard, then settling into a slow, transparent recovery as gain reduction lightens. Set it and it sounds right immediately. The EQ offers six independent filters across three bands. Low Boost and Low Cut are separate shelf filters with independent frequency selectors. Mid Boost and Mid Cut are independent peak filters sharing a Q control. The high band extends from 800 Hz to 16 kHz for the boost shelf, with a separate cut filter for high-end control. EQ and compressor can be routed in either order - honestly, I'm still experimenting... Dual VU meters with 300ms ballistic RMS response show output level independently on L and R. No activation. No account. No internet connection. Free forever. Enjoy. Cheers! :D. Features Three-band parametric EQ with independent boost and cut filters per band. Six EQ filters total: 2 low shelves, 2 mid peaks, 2 high shelves. Low band: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 Hz. Mid Boost: 200 / 400 / 700 / 1.5k / 3k / 5k Hz. Mid Cut: 300 / 400 / 500 / 700 Hz. High band: 800 Hz to 16 kHz. Shared Q control per band: 0.6 / 0.8 / 1.0 / 1.4 / 1.7. Custom RMS bus compressor - per-channel independent processing. Threshold: -60 dB to 0 dB, default 0 dB. Ratio: 1.5:1 to 8:1 (Harder/Softer knob). Attack: 1 ms to 200 ms. Program-dependent auto-release (fully left) - fast under heavy gain reduction, slow when barely touching. Fixed release: 50 ms to 2000 ms. Makeup Gain: -10 dB to +10 dB, 0 dB at 12 o'clock, double-click to reset. EQ-first or Comp-first routing toggle. Input level trim: -8 dB to +8 dB. Dual VU meters, 300 ms ballistic RMS, independent L/R. Hardware bypass switch. Resizable UI (1000x373 to 2000x745). No activation, no internet, no telemetry. Free. Free. Freeeeeeeeee. System Requirements Windows: Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit. macOS: macOS 11 Big Sur or later, 64-bit (Apple Silicon + Intel universal binary). Linux: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or equivalent, 64-bit. Format: VST3 (all platforms) + AU (macOS). Read More

Ways to Embed Magnets in 3D Prints and Not Ruin PrintersAdding magnets to a 3D print can be very useful in a design, but there are some things that can trip you up if you’re not aware of them. In a recent video by [Lost in Tech] some of the essentials are covered, including why you shouldn’t get magnets near most extruder nozzles or the printing bed.
The easiest method is of course to add magnets in after printing, using friction fit with or without ribs, or with a dab of glue. Here making sure that the magnet stays in place is the trick, as you do not want the magnet to get lost or end up in the tummy of a curious pet or toddler.
The magnetic pattern on an FDM printer’s magnetic bed.
Things get spicy when you’re talking about adding magnets during the printing process, as some extruders are made of a ferromagnetic material and thus a magnet will happily stick to said nozzle if it’s not pure brass or similar. As seen in the video even some purported ‘brass’ nozzles aren’t pure enough to not be significantly ferromagnetic.
Another issue is that of heat, which is something that magnets generally do not like much. Using magnets like you’d use heat inserts for bolts is a recipe for disaster, as the heat from a soldering iron will demagnetize the magnet, which for the typical magnet is less than 200°C. At least this should mean that the magnet stuck to your extruder nozzle will eventually fall off by itself after it demagnetizes.
With the bed of the typical FDM printer these days you’re talking about magnetically attached plates, with the underlying heated bed using a Halbach array configuration as is typical of flat magnets, yet with the gotcha that these aren’t typically real Halbach arrays, but knock-offs with simply alternating north-south pole magnets. As it turns out, these types of magnetic arrays can be disturbed by another magnet, such as a powerful neodymium magnet near said printing bed, flipping polarity in a way that cannot be easily undone.
You can still install magnets during printing, but it’s recommended to use something like side-insertion, where the extruder nozzle cannot pull out a magnet. Regardless of your approach, it’s good to know of the risks with ferromagnetic nozzles, the magnetic bed and treating magnets like they’re just heat inserts. While you can get higher-temperature magnets, many of the same issues still remain here.

Remember ‘Say No To Suno’? Someone just hired a plane to fly it over an AI investor summit… featuring Mikey Shulman.Its location in the skies was significant – directly over the UBS AI in Entertainment Summit at the Shutters on the Beach hotel, where Suno CEO Mikey Shulman was among the speakers.
Source

DAWJunkie releases Peggio Jr, a FREE arpeggiator synth for macOS and Windows
Developer DAWJunkie has released Peggio Jr, a free arpeggiator synth for macOS and Windows. Whenever we speak about a new freebie from DAWJunkie, we rarely have to wait too long before the next one comes around. It has only been a few weeks since we covered Mini-Menace, DAWJunkie’s free nod to the Arturia MicroBrute, and [...]
View post: DAWJunkie releases Peggio Jr, a FREE arpeggiator synth for macOS and Windows

Positive Grid launch Reactor amp range Available in 50W and 100W models, the Reactor series introduces a new Amplifier Intelligence engine that makes it possible for users to create new sounds based on a voice, text or image prompt. 

Sweetwater Studios announce Guitar Recording Workshop The sessions will take place on Friday 17 July and Saturday 18 July at Sweetwater Studios on the Sweetwater campus in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

2B Played Music QFX Color plugin is FREE until June 26th
2B Played Music is offering QFX Color as a free download until June 26th, 2026. QFX Color normally costs €19.99 and is currently listed at €14.99 during the developer’s June sale, but you can get it for free by using the coupon code “JUNE26” at checkout. We covered QFX Color before, and we have also [...]
View post: 2B Played Music QFX Color plugin is FREE until June 26th

Former Native Instruments owner Francisco Partners has exited its investment in another large music companyFrancisco Partners, the investment firm which owned a majority stake in Native Instruments until it declared insolvency earlier this year and was sold to inMusic, has exited its minority investment in global music technology and publishing company Muse Group.
The news has been announced by Muse Group, as it looks forward to the “next chapter in its growth journey”.
The Muse Group is a global music company which owns and develops some of the world’s leading music software and platforms, including Hal Leonard, Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore, Audacity and more.

READ MORE: Suno has raised over $400M in its latest funding round – and is now valued at a staggering $5.4B

So why is Francisco Partners’ exit significant? Until earlier this year, the investment firm owned a majority stake in leading music technology company Native Instruments, which declared insolvency in January, and was later sold to inMusic, the company that owns Moog and Akai Professional.
So its move to withdraw investment from Muse Group could signal its shift away from music companies as an investment focus. That said, Francisco remains an investor in ticketing platform Eventbrite, as well as a vast number of other companies specialising in areas from cybersecurity to payment systems.
“It has been a privilege to work with Eugeny, Mo, and the Muse Group team over the course of our partnership,” says Lee Rubenstein, Managing Director at Francisco Partners. “Since our initial investment, the company has delivered impressive growth, completed its transformational acquisition of Hal Leonard, and built a leading global music technology platform. We are proud of the company’s accomplishments and are confident Muse Group is well positioned for its next chapter of growth.
Muse Group says it will continue to seek businesses with “loyal communities, strong product foundations, high-intent users, and the potential to become more valuable as part of the Muse Group ecosystem.
“I founded Ultimate Guitar in 1998, driven by a passion to improve the lives of musicians every day,” says Eugeny Naidenov, founder and CEO of the Muse Group.
“Francisco Partners helped us expand that vision to more markets, more products, and more creators around the globe. Muse Group is now ready for its next phase. We have the products, the team, the community, and the ambition to keep building technology that helps musicians do even more with their creativity.”
Learn more about Francisco Partners and Muse Group.
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