Cre8audio’s new PROGRAMM sequencer “bridges the gap between human performance and algorithmic chaos”Cre8audio has unveiled PROGRAMM, a new MIDI and CV sequencer positioned to be the “beating heart of any electronic music setup”.
Designed for modular addicts, MIDI enthusiasts and producers in between, PROGRAMM is a 12-channel sequencer compatible with both MIDI instruments and Eurorack synthesizers, with four monophonic melodic sequencers (two with dedicated analogue pitch, CV and gate outputs), plus eight drum sequencers, all with dedicated gate outputs.

READ MORE: Is agentic AI coming to Pro Tools? Avid announces “strategic partnership” with Google Cloud to further integrate AI into its portfolio

The unit also features dedicated parameter controls for pitch, gate length, ratcheting, CV/CC, note offset and step conditions, as well as customisable randomisation of all parameters. 
Each sequencer can be programmed up to 64 steps, while the 32-step grid on the right-hand side functions as a step programmer in Step Mode, a grid keyboard in Live Mode, and as a dynamic information display while adjusting parameters.
Elsewhere, there’s six groove modes, four customisable pattern generator algorithms for idea inspiration, plus the ability to save up to 64 patterns and 32 songs.
“We built PROGRAMM because we’ve used every sequencer under the sun,” says the Cre8audio team.
“We loved the speed of some and the randomness of others, but the workflow was never just right. PROGRAMM is a creative playground where you can step it in, play it in, or let the machine take the lead, but no matter what, the creative flow is always going to be there.”

“Electronic musicians often face the frustrating choice: the rigid precision of step sequencing or the unpredictable “happy accidents” of generative tools. PROGRAMM eliminates the compromise,” says Cre8audio.
PROGRAMM is available now, priced at $349.99/€319.99. For more info, head to Cre8audio.
The post Cre8audio’s new PROGRAMM sequencer “bridges the gap between human performance and algorithmic chaos” appeared first on MusicTech.

Is agentic AI coming to Pro Tools? Avid announces “strategic partnership” with Google Cloud to further integrate AI into its portfolioPro Tools developer Avid has announced a “multi-year strategic partnership” with Google Cloud, aiming to integrate generative and agentic AI in Avid’s portfolio of tools and products.
Avid is most notably the company behind industry-standard DAW software Pro Tools, but also makes video editing platform Media Composer, data platform Avid Content Core and notation software Sibelius.

READ MORE: “Delivering where other closed-backs fail”: Sennheiser’s HD 480 PRO headphones promise better closed-back bass response than ever

To start with, the partnership will see Avid integrating Google Cloud’s AI and data analytics capabilities into Media Composer and Avid Content Core.
There’s no mention of integration with Pro Tools just yet, but as Avid describes its mission to “transform video editing from a mostly manual process into an intelligent, AI-assisted experience”, it’s probable the same approach to Pro Tools might be on the horizon.
By leveraging Gemini and Vertex AI, Avid says, Media Composer and Content Core can “analyse and understand media context automatically”, allowing producers and professionals to make queries using natural language.
It also makes possible agentic AI workflows – meaning AI-powered digital assistants can autonomously manage complex tasks, like matching visual styles or identifying emotional cues in raw footage, with reduced human oversight.
“Customers are asking for intelligent tools that plug into existing workflows and scale with their creativity,” says Wellford Dillard, CEO of Avid.
“This partnership with Google Cloud strengthens our ability to deliver secure, AI-driven innovation–while keeping Avid interoperable and adaptable across the broader production landscape. Through our collaboration with Google Cloud, Avid is redefining what’s possible in modern media production by expanding intelligent capabilities across our products.”
“By embedding agentic AI directly into the tools video editors live in, we’re moving beyond simple automation,” says Anil Jain, global managing director, Strategic Industries, Google Cloud.
“With Avid Media Composer and Google Cloud, an editor can now collaborate with an intelligent agent to create assets on the fly and handle the heavy lifting of matching styles and filling timelines, enabling them to focus on storytelling instead of infrastructure.”
So is this announcement a sign that Pro Tools might soon have similar agentic AI integrations? At present, the DAW does have a ChatGPT-style chatbot to help with tasks called Session Assistant, but the introduction of agentic AI would be a significant upgrade.
Learn more at Avid.
The post Is agentic AI coming to Pro Tools? Avid announces “strategic partnership” with Google Cloud to further integrate AI into its portfolio appeared first on MusicTech.

Soundtoys FilterFreak is 73% OFF (plus SuperPlate and Softube Transient Shaper deals)
Plugin Boutique has Soundtoys FilterFreak on sale for $39, which is 73% off the regular price of $149. The deal runs until April 28th. FilterFreak is still one of my favorite filter plugins for sound design. There are plenty of newer filter modulation plugins around, but I keep coming back to this one. I love [...]
View post: Soundtoys FilterFreak is 73% OFF (plus SuperPlate and Softube Transient Shaper deals)

“Embrace the sound of real instruments” with up to 94% off plugins for Plugin Boutique’s Band MonthPlugin Boutique currently has a huge range of deals across instrument plugins, gear simulators, and mixing and mastering tools for its Band Month promotion.
Including top-rated plugins like IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube and Universal Audio’s Sound City Studios, you can save up to 94 percent on some of the most popular tools for “embracing the sound of real instruments and capturing the collaborative magic of a live performance” all within your DAW.
[deals ids=”6TypNTB5cRZDX8rDbsiLY0″]
The biggest deal is the Band Month Mixing Bundle from Antelope Audio. Reduced from a massive £1,518, it’s now just £89 until 30 April. The bundle features 12 plugins in total, bringing “the world’s most iconic hardware” to your DAW, including beloved British consoles and famous American tube amps. The 12 plugins are broken into sections, with three plugins each for drums, guitar & bass, vocals, and the mix bus.

READ MORE: FREE PLUGINS: Universal Audio is giving away a bundle of eight classic UAD plugins for nothing – here’s how to get yours

Also included in Band Month is IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 5, reduced to £29.99 with 84 percent off. We rated this amp simulator a 9/10 in our 2021 review, and it has a 4.6 rating out of five on Plugin Boutique itself. It packs in over 180 gear models, including stomps, amps, cabs, speakers, mics, and rack FX.

You could even go all out with IK Multimedia’s TOTAL Guitar MAX. With a whopping 89 percent off, it includes AmpliTube 5 MAX, which steps things up with over 400 gear models. Inside you’ll also get a number of its TONEX and MODO tools for guitars, bass, and drums.
UAD’s Sound City is now just £36, which gives you the key to one of the most famous recording studios in history, including the same room, mics, iconic console, and outboard gear as heard on records from Nirvana, Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Rage Against the Machine, and more.

Other highlights include Applied Acoustics Systems’ Lounge Lizard EP-5, LANDR Guitar, Waves’ CLA Bass, and Roland’s DW Soundworks virtual drums.
View all Band Month deals over at Plugin Boutique.
The post “Embrace the sound of real instruments” with up to 94% off plugins for Plugin Boutique’s Band Month appeared first on MusicTech.

Tuğrul Akyüz releases TugPhonon, a FREE vintage rotating tape delay plugin
Developer Tuğrul Akyüz has released TugPhonon, a free vintage rotating tape-delay plugin. We’ve covered a few very interesting delay plugins recently, including Timerift Audio’s Oh My Grain and TiagoLr’s Sirial. When plugins like those two come up, I often refer to them as something a little bit different, and that’s true. This time, we might [...]
View post: Tuğrul Akyüz releases TugPhonon, a FREE vintage rotating tape delay plugin

“Delivering where other closed-backs fail”: Sennheiser’s HD 480 PRO headphones promise better closed-back bass response than everSennheiser has unveiled its new closed-back HD 480 PRO headphones, promising to deliver a “tight, accurate bass reproduction” where other closed-back cans fail to do so.
Described as Sennheiser’s “most versatile professional headphones to date”, the HD 480 PRO are aimed at producers, mixers, musicians, recording engineers and even content creators, with the goal of tackling “two most-cited pain points” of closed back headphones: low-end response and comfort.

READ MORE: I’ve finally found a pair of closed-back headphones I don’t want to EQ straight away

The headphones feature multiple stages of passive sound shielding to ensure fully detailed audio, with a frequency response ranging between 3 and 28,700 Hz, with a max SPL (sound pressure level of 130 dB.
Meanwhile, they feature comfortable ear pads with soft grooves for the temple area of glasses, ensuring a precise sound seal for all users – a necessity for accurately working with audio. 
The headphones also feature a number of design measures – dubbed by Sennheiser the “Vibration Attenuation System” – to eliminate unwanted vibration, reflections and distortion, ensuring the clearest, purest possible signal. Ultralight voice coils also deliver “remarkably authentic and dynamic reproduction”, Sennheiser says.
Credit: Sennheiser
But the measures for comfort don’t end there; the HD 480 PRO also sport a Special Axes Geometry design, allowing them to maintain equal contact pressure and adapt to the shape of any user’s head.
Additionally, the HD 480 PRO’s connection cable features a coiled section near the earcup, reducing any handling noise, like when the cable hits against the desk, for example.
Adaptability and accessibility were high on the design agenda, too. The connection cable is detachable and can be worn on both left and right sides, while the left and right earcups are braille-marked, also.
“Compared to other closed-back headphones, they are a lot tighter on the bass, their low-end is super-accurate and realistic,” says Jimmy R. Landry, Category Market Manager, Music Industry at Sennheiser.
“Comfort is of paramount importance when headphones are a work tool,” adds Gunnar Dirks, Sennheiser’s Senior Product Manager for professional headphones.
“Engineers often spend hours on end in their sessions. They need a lightweight, ergonomically designed pair of headphones to keep focus and concentration up. The HD 480 PRO eliminate any pressure points and fit every head precisely and comfortably – even if you’re wearing glasses.”
Credit: Sennheiser
The HD 480 PRO is priced at €399, and comes with recording earpads, a three-metre coiled cable and a carrying bag. You can also go for the HD 480 PRO Plus, which trades the bag for a hardier travel case. This will set you back €439.
Learn more at Sennheiser.
The post “Delivering where other closed-backs fail”: Sennheiser’s HD 480 PRO headphones promise better closed-back bass response than ever appeared first on MusicTech.

I’ve finally found a pair of closed-back headphones I don’t want to EQ straight awaySennheiser’s new closed-back headphones, the HD 480 Pro, have arrived, and they complement the near-identical open-backed HD 490 Pros we looked at in 2024. MusicTech reviewer Hollin Jones celebrated the impressive comfort and tonal presentation of the 490s, and they’ve been a firm favourite ever since.
The HD Pro series represents Sennheiser’s commitment to producing new and innovative products for the studio in the wake of its consumer headphones division — which, perplexingly, includes studio staples such as the HD 600 in its offering — being sold to an external buyer in 2022. HD Pro headphones are developed by Sennheiser at its German headquarters and are constructed in Romania.
The new HD 480 Pro is intended to be a comfortable, dependable closed-back set headphone for any professional user, in applications ranging from composing, to recording and mixing. While this challenges established norms — with open-back models usually considered most suitable for some of these jobs — in terms of producing a capable all-rounder, Sennheiser has squarely hit the target with the 480s, and then some.
Sennheiser HD 480 Pro: Features and form
Credit: Sennheiser
Just like the 490s, the form is over-ear, with 38 mm drivers contained within the ear cups, which swivel for easy storage. The supplied three-metre coiled cable can be attached to either side via a mini XLR connector — useful for left-handers or when holding specific instruments. A grommet is included to keep crud out of the spare port, and there are braille marks on one of the ear-cup brackets to indicate the left side.
Also on accessibility, frame and ear cups are shaped to support glasses wearers, which I greatly appreciate. The Pro variant comes with a soft bag, but our Pro Plus review model has a soft-shell zipped case that offers solid protection while being supremely compact. The premium case is a big win when throwing the headphones into a bag for work on the move, so it’s worth the extra $40, but it seems tight that this isn’t included as standard. We’re talking about a pro model, after all.
Credit: Sennheiser
With a combination of soft, deep ear cup pads, and a gentler-than-most clamping force, the HD 480 Pros are supremely comfortable. They remind me of the £599 HEDDphone D1s I recently reviewed in this regard and, in stark contrast, my Adam Audio H200s really feel like they’re out to get me. I test sound isolation while a family member has a hairdryer on turbo, and I’m pleased to report results are in a similar ballpark to the H200s; they’d work well for tracking instruments. There’s an impressive balance of comfort and noise isolation at play.
The only potential sticking point is a relatively high impedance of 130 Ohms, which possibly might require a stronger headphone amp than some devices provide, particularly with corrective EQ, that leads to a net level loss. In practice however, I can go really loud on my MacBook’s headphone out.
How do the HD 480 Pros sound?
Credit: Sennheiser
There’s an immediate impression of a full and punchy bass end. On Is There Someone Else? (The Weeknd) there’s a tight and punchy kick, followed by sub-synths that have reassuring weight and warmth in the very lowest octaves. Nice!
In the ever-crucial mids, there’s accurate separation between the various parts of the range, without the unnecessary or uncomfortable hype at the low or high extremes that are often built into headphone voicing. Other headphones push low mids to enhance vocal proximity, or have more pronounced high-mid boosts to make vocals and transients more audible when tracking parts in the studio; a sonic signature that is tiring over long listening sessions. Nevertheless, high mids are still articulate on the HD 480 Pros. My evergreen reference track, Sharpness (Jamie Woon) demonstrates the HD 480 Pro’s mid-range prowess, with clear separation of the multitude of synth parts fighting for the low-mids, and just the right amount of presence at the top of the range to add sheen to the relatively smooth lead vocals.
Highest frequencies seem relatively soft and velvety, yet never dull — a welcome contrast to my planar headphones, where high frequencies can poke out and can even sound anaemic. In Steely Dan’s seminal Aja, the grand piano has just the right amount of sparkle without ever appearing harsh. At the same time, there’s an assured articulation of transients on snare drum and bombastic tom fills during the sporadic drum solos.
I use a Harman target curve on all my headphones to facilitate easy switching between different sets, and to help with translation in the realms of speaker playback. The Harman curve has plenty of bass (which can shock the uninitiated), a full yet smooth mid range, plus an even high end without spiky peaks or dips. To my ears, the HD 480 Pro gets fairly close to this listening ideal straight out of the gate and doesn’t make me want to reach for EQ straight away; a rare thing.
Should you buy the Sennheiser HD 480 Pro?
Credit: Sennheiser
I have two pairs of £100-odd closed backs in my home studio. The Sennheisers may be over three-times the price of each of these sets, but their stock voicing is infinitely superior. Both my normal sets have a trashy sound quality that I cannot un-hear once I’ve done A-B comparisons with the HD 480 Pros.
Granted, I have better quality open-backs than the two pairs above for critical listening, but the idea of closed-backs that would be sufficiently capable in such an application — without disturbing everyone else around me — is certainly compelling.
If you’re in the market for one pair of headphones that can cover every job, or you need a comfortable solution for tracking or mixing on the move, then the HD 480 Pros should be at the very top of your list.
Key features
Credit: Sennheiser
Over-ear, closed-back headphones
38 mm drivers
Dual-sided cable entry (3 m coiled cable and size adapter included)
Grooved ear pads for glasses
Frequency range: 3 Hz – 28.7 kHz (-10 dB)
Impedance: 130 Ohms
Distortion:

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Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver says he won‘t placate prediction markets usersPrediction market platforms took center stage on HBO‘s Last Week Tonight on Sunday as host John Oliver addressed regulation, laws and market manipulation.

At Tallinn Music Week 2026, electronic artists are making the case for human-made musicFor the past century, electronic music has become a prolific platform for genre-bending experimentation. At Tallinn Music Week (TMW) 2026, talent in this arena is overflowing, from mainstream genres to niche underground scenes you wish you knew more about. Spread across four days in the surprisingly sunny capital of Estonia, Tallinn, the festival welcomed a plethora of such artists at this year’s edition.
MusicTech spent the weekend in Estonia as a guest of TMW to chat with some noteworthy acts, experience left-field sonic works, and discuss the current climate of electronic music.

The ambiance of TMW
Playing a 30-minute stint in Fonoteek, the festival’s designated space for all things avant-garde electronica, was Estonian minimalist duo V4RL. The setup for this was extremely cosy, the DJs playing to a candlelit room of music fans nodding their heads solemnly to the minimalist electronica. A little later, Kiwanoid took to the same stage with the complete opposite energy. Opening with TV static as visuals and a fuzzing loop of glitchy electronica, Kiwanoid transformed the room’s energy with a dizzying charge of hard-hitting experimental cuts.
French producer S8jfou then took to the stage with a rather unusual setup. The artist sat down with a table and chair, facing away from the crowd, and performing with just a keyboard and mouse. “I created a computer interface because I’m shy,” the artist typed on-screen. The performance blended atmospheric ambience with breakbeats and drum ‘n’ bass. It was an unusual but admittedly thrilling experience, and was emblematic of the kinds of digital experiments that artists at TMW were showcasing.

Indeed, this year’s TMW was packed with such acts. While some projects, such as Apparatus&Apparata and K-X-P, brought dark shows, weaving in hints of metal and punk into electronica, others like heleenyum and IKARVS leaned more towards the electro-pop side.
Estonian industrial trio Apparatus&Apparata’s set was a theatrical performance of ominous sounds. Between the dark, earthy vibrations coming from composer Jürgen Reismaa’s desk and sombre vocals/spoken word split between Reti Pauklin and Taavi Eelmaa, Apparatus&Apparata put on  an experience that was almost ritualistic.
Despite playing just two songs, this trio needn’t more time to impress us. Each track stood around 10 minutes in length and summoned you with cryptic sirens and snake-like flutters. Their songs often drove into breathtaking climaxes before dropping to solemn, eerie noise.
We managed to briefly speak with them at the festival, to ask what gear and techniques empower them to create such an experimental, avant-garde show:
“Our concerts are mainly playback, with live vocals,” says Reismaa. “We sometimes collaborate with musicians who play guitar, but it’s mainly playback, which I use Ableton Live for. I’m not even on the stage, either. I mix front of house, using a Behringer Wing Compact. Reason is also my main tool for writing. I have used it forever. Since the very first Reason, which I think was 20 years ago now.”
Two decades of Tallinn Music Week
Celebrating its 18th edition, TMW has for almost two decades prided itself on championing the next wave of emerging artists — and community is at the heart of it all. Outside of the festival, Estonia has made a name for itself as the home of many weird and wonderful electronic projects, from the flamboyant chameleon Tommy Cash to electronic-pop superstar NOËP, and others.
“For me, [TMW] is an opportunity to present my music to a big international audience,” says singer-songwriter and producer, heleenyum. “It means I can meet many different industry professionals who can maybe book me for their festivals. I also met quite a lot of super cool artists here. I haven’t been meeting with a lot of professionals, but artists; we share a lot of common ground.”
Weaving sounds of pop, soul, jungle and more, heleenyum’s approach to electronica is unpredictable. She usually plays solo, comfortably, but some musicians have recently shown interest in joining her on stage. “Lately, a lot of drummers have come [up] to me after my show and said they want to play live drums,” heleenyum tells us. “Because it’s interesting for drummers to play my crazy drum ‘n’ bass breakbeats.”

The AI conversation
The music industry’s climate has been heavily influenced by the AI discourse over the past few years. Unsurprisingly, at TMW it was a topic raised across numerous panel talks, including ‘Music and AI in 2026 – Entering the Operational Era’ and ‘Too Much Music. AI Is Flooding the Market. Who Survives?’
While human-made creativity arguably has more integrity and influence than artificial intelligence, who’s to say that this new era of technology is or isn’t a threat to this scene? And how does it affect emerging electronic artists who are trying to establish themselves?
SFISTIKATED, a multi-genre electronic duo, weigh in on the matter during our conversation with them: “Truly, sometimes I think that technology owns us a little bit, but it’s mostly 50/50,” they say. “Imagine playing your keyboard with some plugins. Sometimes, you go with the flow with everything that it gives you, and other times, you play your own cards. Technology lets you get to somewhere that you’re unable to on a piano…It gives you another perspective.”

The question of technology’s role in electronic music isn’t exactly new. In 1995, during the making of Björk’s Homogenic, the artist put the essence of electronic music perfectly: “If there’s no soul in the music, it’s because nobody put it there,” she said. It’s a gentle reminder that, while the technology is just an asset, it’s the manipulation of those tools that makes the art.
K-X-P lead singer Timo Kaukolampi thinks AI will never be able to match the sounds and tactility that our current landscape of electronic instruments provides.
“AI is alright when it’s not exploiting creativity,” says Kaukolampi. “For example, I have a vintage Oberheim Two Voice from, 1975, and it’s one of the most modelled analogue synthesizers out there. Every manufacturer has a digital version of it. People have been analysing it and saying that AI can make great [technology]. But for me, I don’t think that there’s any way that any AI can model that synthesizer. I think it’s impossible.”
While the point of where AI stands in the music industry as a creative entity is a no-go for Kaukolampi, heleenyum is both cautious and optimistic. “AI can only create what has been created before. I’ve heard very good quality music from AI,” she says. “But for me, I’m more [interested in] boundary pushing. I want to discover new things. [AI is] not for me right now, but I don’t know. Maybe I will find a way to use it in my music one day.”
This era of technology in music isn’t something to be feared entirely. The industry is changing rapidly, but there are plenty of emerging artists producing organic work. Even if they don’t all agree on what AI means for music, they’re proving that electronic music is beaming with potential, and music showcases like TMW continue to spotlight the next best grassroots projects.
Learn more at tmw.ee.
The post At Tallinn Music Week 2026, electronic artists are making the case for human-made music appeared first on MusicTech.

MMPR Technologies BoomBapDustyA focused drum sample pack built for boom bap, dusty hip hop, and raw beat-driven production. It is positioned as a direct, ready-to-use collection for producers who want character quickly without digging through oversized libraries. Read More

Tim Cook stepping down as Apple CEO, John Ternus taking overSenior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus will take over as CEO at the start of September.

Vintage Chyron TV Hardware? Of course It Runs NetBSDPerhaps at this point, getting NetBSD running on an obscure piece of hardware is a dog-bites-man story, and not worth reporting– their motto, after all, is “Of course it runs NetBSD”. So, the fact that [RetroComputingRanch] has got NetBSD running on a vintage Chyron Maxine broadcast computer is perhaps remarkable only for the fact that few people have even heard of Chyron before.
He’s already done a series of videos in which they explore this odd, old computer, which is powered by a Motorola 68040 on a VME bus and was once used to generate digital overlays– text and the like– on broadcast TV. NetBSD does have a port for the Motorolla VME SBCs, so he was able to vibe it onto the specific vme168 board that the Chyron is based on. It happens off screen, but apparently it was AI agent work that went into condensing the documentation for this machine as well as getting the NetBSD port set up. That’s a bit ironic, since NetBSD would never allow that in its commits. 
Again, the Chyron Maxine was never intended to be a general-purpose-computer, and certainly never intended to run UNIX– it was meant to overlay text onto TV signals. With 4 MB of RAM, NetBSD leaves very little free once booted in single-user mode, but he realized that with a few extra chips the proprietary RAM board could become an 8 MB module. It seems like a pittance nowadays, but anyone who’s played with classic UNIX knows you can do a lot in 8 MB– even if only about 3MB is ‘free’ according to TOP.
There’s work still to be done– right now, it boots, but he wants to use NetBSD to really own this machine, so that’ll mean getting the vintage video hardware set up. Last time we saw a NetBSD user, they were doing game dev on a G4 Macbook, but nothing will ever match the legendary NetBSD toaster– not even toaster-shaped callbacks.

Chord Music-linked ABS vehicle plans $500M deal, backed by $830M catalog led by Suicideboys, Morgan Wallen, and Ryan Tedder rightsDeal collateralized by royalties from a catalog of more than 3,750 works
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The story of Focusrite ISA Focusrite's latest video project traces the full story of the their renowned ISA preamp design, covering its origins and evolution, and exploring the impact it still has on today’s professional audio standards.