“An important tool regardless of how you make music”: Novation Launch Control XL MK3 review£190, novationmusic.com
The third generation of Novation’s Launch Control XL MK3 is, in some respects, “a LaunchKey without the keys,” the company tells me. That’s a simplification – there are differences – but the idea of carrying over much of the work done developing the latest generation of keyboards to a new dedicated controller just makes sense.

READ MORE: Best MIDI controllers to buy in 2025: 12 best Ableton Live controllers to buy

Novation has rebuilt the Launch Control XL from scratch, and it covers a lot of ground for a reasonable £190. If you’re using a mainstream DAW, the Launch Control XL can get you a lot more hands-on control as soon as you hook it up to your computer. Even if you’re a hardware-only artist, this controller still gives you plenty of flexibility.
There’s powerful competition in the DAW controller market, but most of it’s either a little dated, like the Nektar Panorama P1, or is just way more expensive, like the £400 PreSonus FaderPort 8 and Softube’s Console 1 Channel.
But how much control can this low price tag actually get you?
Image: Press
Launch Control XL out of the box
Novation’s Launch Control XL is sleek and minimal, which is starkly different to the bright colours of the MK2. It’s smaller than you might imagine, slipping easily into a backpack and running via your computer with a single USB-C cable for power and data. As we’ll see, it can work in standalone mode too, in which case a standard USB-C charger will work.
The interface’s elements are backlit in RGB, and there’s now a dedicated OLED monochrome display, which is invaluable for navigating, providing visual feedback without having to truncate words. However, the printed text on the unit is illegible in low-light situations, so a bit more contrast would have been welcome here.
Joining the USB-C port on the rear panel are three 5-pin MIDI ports: one In and two Out, one of which also works as a MIDI Thru. The MIDI outputs also have a MIDI merge or ‘soft thru’ capability; this is handy for combining signal flows between devices. All of this lets hook up the Launch Control XL to MIDI-equipped gear, like synths, drum machines or effects.
Plus, by building custom maps, you can assign different controls to different connected devices, effectively working with multiple synths from a single control surface patch.
Throw in the ability to stream MIDI through or back to a computer, and this makes it a remarkably powerful controller that can communicate with software and hardware from a single setup. With some prep work, it’s easy to see it being a lifesaver for the increasing number of musicians using a combination of triggered and live-tweaked MIDI in software and hardware live performances.
Image: Press
How do you use Launch Control XL 3?
Launch Control XL 3 has two main modes: DAW mode and Custom.
DAW mode maps the hardware to parameters in your selected DAW. Most of the major DAWs are supported, with Ableton Live being the most tightly integrated and recognising the controller with no setup at all. If you are running the latest versions of Cubase, Logic Pro or FL Studio, the controller is also automatically supported. Owners of older versions need to install a small script located on Novation’s website, but this is quick to do.
Bitwig support is currently in development, and there is currently no native Pro Tools support.
Within DAW mode are two sub-modes: DAW Mixer and DAW Control. These will alter the way various banks of controls relate to your DAW of choice, and you can flip between them easily from the controller. The exact mappings vary by software and are all detailed in the documentation, so after familiarising yourself with them, they quickly become second nature.
The 60mm, long-throw faders are large enough to feel accurate with mixer channels, while the buttons and encoders can tweak sends, panning and more. Most people usually stick to one or two DAWs at most, so you’re not going to have to memorise many layouts.
Navigating projects and tracks is straightforward, as is controlling the transport. The Shift button gives you a bunch of secondary features for most controls, all made easier to follow thanks to the screen. There’s handy stuff like zooming in and out pre-mapped to hardware, too.
The potentiometers of the previous model are now 24 endless rotary encoders, meaning they don’t physically have start or end points. This feature makes them suitable for any kind of variable, especially where you only want to be able to go from values 20-50 rather than 0-127, for example. Another nice touch is that you’re able to see a knob’s current value without having to change it just to make it appear on screen.
The Components app. Image: Press
The controller will detect when it’s connected to a DAW, but you’ll also spend a lot of your time in Custom mode, and this is where the Components app comes in.
Running on macOS or Windows or in a MIDI-capable browser such as Chrome, the Components app lets you manually upload and download instrument-specific templates, plus the setups you create yourself. Up to 15 can be stored onboard, so again, if you do the work in advance, creating live performance maps and switching between them would not be a problem.
Novation says that the most powerful way to use the controller with hardware synths is where a synth buries lots of its parameters behind menus, making them hard to get at during a performance.
With Components, you can easily map and label custom controls straight through to the targets you want. And as noted, you’re able to mix and match multiple devices in a single template, perhaps controlling cutoff and pitch on one synth and envelopes and triggers on another. Novation uses Components with many of its devices, so if you are already a customer, it’ll all be fairly familiar.
What software comes with Launch Control XL?
Novation throws in some software that you can download after registering your unit, including entry DAWs Cubase LE, Ableton Live Lite, plus plugins Output Movement, Baby Audio Parallel Aggressor and Klevgrand Fosfat. That means you’ll be able to get started putting tracks together even if you don’t already own any other gear.

Should you buy Launch Control XL?
Launch Control XL 3 is exceptionally versatile, especially for the price. It’s adept at DAW control, mapping easily onto some leading applications and featuring control and mixer modes, making up somewhat for its relatively small size without becoming confusing.
But the Custom modes and Components open up a whole other world, not only with bundled templates for other devices but the ability to create your own, including controlling several devices from within a single setup. While both modes work very well, it’s likely the latter that gives it the edge, the unit acting as a highly programmable hub from which you can get hands-on with virtually any combination of instruments.
These two similar but distinct capabilities mean that the Launch Control XL3 should find a home in many studios or live setups, quickly becoming an important tool regardless of how you make music.
Key features

24 endless rotary encoders
16 programmable buttons
8 long throw faders
Backlit OLED screen
USB-C data and power
MIDI in, out and thru DIN plugs
DAW control and mixer modes
Custom modes via Components software
Maps onto leading DAWs
RGB backlighting
Software bundle

The post “An important tool regardless of how you make music”: Novation Launch Control XL MK3 review appeared first on MusicTech.

Fake artists, real opportunities: Hoaxes and scams are holding back the potential of AI musicIt started with a rising country band that hit 576,000 monthly listeners on Spotify for their debut album. The four handsome cowboys had an air of nostalgia about them, and a perfect collection of star-quality names too; Gabe Farrow, Lennie West, Milo Rains, and Orion “Rio” Del Mar. The only thing stopping their meteoric rise was a lack of physical existence — none of these guys were real.
By now, we all know the story of Velvet Sundown, a band that was revealed to be a complete AI fiction. Listeners suspected it, and Rolling Stone confirmed it. The mastermind was one pseudonymous Andrew Frenlon, who went as far as he did because he was “interested in art hoaxes”. What you might not know is this guy wasn’t real either, and the true Velvet Sundown, whose identity still remains a mystery, were pissed off, telling Rolling Stone: “We ask that reporting on us be based on verifiable sources — not fabricated accounts or synthetic media.”
This was an AI hoax within a hoax. Frenlon, or whatever their real name is, went on to publish a lengthy account of how this whole farce was pulled off, just to point out who the real genius was in all of this. “Suddenly, I had the crazy idea, what if I inserted an extra layer of weird into this story?” they wrote. “This is an example of social engineering… humans are usually the weakest link in any technological system, and often quite easily fooled.”
Events like these paint a picture of AI music as a big bait and switch, a space where listeners are left debating whether what they just heard is real or not. The funny thing is, you don’t need to fool anyone. One study showed that 60 per cent of music consumers would willingly listen to AI-generated music, while another survey revealed that 46 per cent of artists would consider using AI music tools in the future. The problem is: an even larger number are unwilling to admit it. In the same survey, more than 50 per cent of artists said they would hide their use of AI, fearful of how their audience might react.
All of this secrecy around AI music poses some interesting questions: Who exactly is creating AI music? How many AI bands are there on streaming platforms? How many people actually listen to AI music? And crucially, are these AI bands earning royalty payments?
If Spotify knows these answers, they aren’t willing to tell us. Without a clear policy on AI music, Spotify is starting to look a lot like the Wild West of AI, and harbouring a decent population of AI-generated country bands to boot. In spite of this, Spotify believes that the numbers don’t justify concern. “[There is] infinitely small consumption of fully AI-generated tracks on Spotify… there is no dilution of the royalty pool by AI music.”
The tools to identify AI music do exist, however, and Deezer is using them. It discovered that 20,000 AI-generated tracks were uploaded to its platform every day, and that 70 per cent of streams for AI music are in fact from bot accounts. Once again, AI music has led us to another case of fraud. This time, however, AI-generated music definitely was taking a bite out of the royalty pie.
To protect its royalty pool, Deezer have moved to tag music on its platform with an AI label while also barring AI music from landing coveted spots on curated playlists.
From all of this, we’re left to wonder—are we all being fooled by jokers like Frenlon? And should we believe Velvet Sundown when they update their biography (post-scandal) to assure us that: “This isn’t a trick, [it’s] an ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the future of music itself in the age of AI”?
The AI music debate is often positioned as technology vs. the luddites too stubborn to embrace it, but this argument is a flagrant red herring. History tells us that artists are the first to put new technology to the test. Kraftwerk didn’t hide the fact that they were making music with synthesizers, and Run-DMC weren’t ashamed of using innovative sampling techniques, which then delivered a golden age of hip-hop. History tells us that artists aren’t afraid to test the limits of technology when there’s powerful music to be made. So it’s highly unusual that AI music technology continues to be concealed in its creation and distribution — not to mention the underlying data that makes generative AI possible.
Several years into the “AI revolution”, and notably, all we have to show for it are poor quality riffs on existing music genres with nothing coming close to the explosion of genres that accompanied previous technological revolutions. Of course, that’s not to say that AI technology isn’t making a difference.
Stem separation software is hitting near-perfect levels of precision, and the same AI technology has unexpectedly led to the creation of powerful and novel new DAWs like RipX. Music companies are exploring the use of AI in mastering and reverb plugins, while indie developers are pushing the creation of completely new sounds in AI timbre transfer software.
AI isn’t inherently bad technology, it is possible to train AI models in an ethical way. But by letting it remain a shady secret, artists and listeners are becoming increasingly sceptical of any potential benefits it has to music —and you can see why. Since being caught, Velvet Sundown has rebranded as a “synthetic music project”, meanwhile, Suno, the software likely used to create the AI album, is being sued for copyright infringement “on a massive scale”.
It’s not too late for AI to find its legitimate place in music history, but it’s high time we bring it into the light of day so there can be greater transparency around its use. With that we can dispel the shadowy practices that concealing its real impact. There are many artists ready to experiment with AI, and plenty of listeners who will be the first to judge how good it really sounds. But only with an open culture between everyone involved will we find out what AI can actually offer music, and what it can’t.
The post Fake artists, real opportunities: Hoaxes and scams are holding back the potential of AI music appeared first on MusicTech.

Elton John:  55 Years On -- His Week-Long United States Booking at Doug Weston’s TroubadourI was an avid reader of Melody Maker since 1964. I first became aware of Elton John’s Empty Sky DJM record label first LP in June of 1969. I ordered it as an English import from Lewin Record Paradise on Hollywood Blvd.His piano playing, voice and some numbers were impressive but the album only hinted at his greatness. [It was later released in 1975 on the MCA Records label in the US].The next year in Melody Maker there was a review from deputy editor writer Richard Williams about Elton’s second long player simply titled Elton John in the April 25, 1970 issue.   The astute scribe wrote, “It’s nice to see Cat Stevens and Elton John providing the British answer to Neil Young, and Van Morrison. And make no mistake Elton is up in that class.“This is his second album, and is considerably meatier and more substantial than the first. He and Bernie Taupin craft superb songs, strong in every department (words, music, moods), and Paul Buckmaster's sumptuous arrangements. Gus Dudgeon's brilliant production lifts the result almost beyond words. If Elton has a fault, it's that he sometimes sounds rather too much like Feliciano in the way he turns and ornaments phrases, but once you get past that it's beauty all the way.“A truly great record.”I really dug Jose Feliciano’s vocal delivery on his hit RCA recordings besides the dazzling arrangements and re-workings of “Light My Fire” and “California Dreamin’.”After reading Williams’ praise, I immediately ordered the Elton John UK LP from Lewin Record Paradise.UNI/MCA label Vice-President and visionary A&R man Russ Regan acquired the disc for North American territories.   I met talent scout Regan in September 1967 at the Whisky a Go Go one evening when Hugh Masekela was cutting a live album for UNI in the venue. I was well under age 18, and looked 12, but Elmer Valentine and Mario Maglieri at the club graciously allowed me to enter their temple of sound and sit in the balcony wearing a wrist band and not near the dance floor.    In the summer of 1970, I ran into Russ on Hollywood Blvd. at C.C. Brown’s ice cream parlor. We ordered two hot fudge sundaes in tin bowls.Regan started talking about Elton John. “You are gonna hear this guy on the AM and FM radio dial!” Regan exclaimed. “Three Dog Night has already done his tunes ‘Lady Samantha’ and ‘Your Song’”  I didn’t quite know how important or essential cover versions actually meant at the time. Regan has played a major role in the careers of the biggest names in the music business, including the Beach Boys, Neil Diamond, Elton John, Barry White, Olivia Newton-John, and the Alan Parsons Project-all of whom credit Regan as a major force behind their success. In my 2014 book, Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop, and Roll in Los Angeles 1956-1972, Regan talked at length about his discovery of Elton John and guiding his career in the US during the first part of the seventies.   “UNI Records was on 8255 Sunset Boulevard.“Lenny Hodes was a song-plugger for Dick James Music. I knew of Dick James—he was the Beatles’ publisher—but had never met him. Lenny bought me this [Empty Sky] record and said, ‘DJM [Dick James Music] has a licensing deal with Larry Uttal of Bell Records, and they passed. I’ve shopped this everywhere, and it’s been turned down by five record companies. They think he sounds like Jose Feliciano.’”  Songwriter Roger Greenaway also lauded Elton John to Regan at the Continental Hyatt Hotel at that breakfast supporting Regan’s impulsive decision to seriously consider signing Elton John to the UNI label.     “I took it, and around six o’clock that night, I put it on,” recalled Regan. “It was the Empty Sky album. ‘Oh my God,’ I thought, ‘this guy is good. What the hell is the problem?’ I loved his voice and the songs. ‘Skyline Pigeon’ and stuff like that. ‘Lady Samantha’ was in there. I called Lenny and said, ‘I like this artist. What’s the deal?’ He said, ‘If you like him, Russ, you got him for nothing.’ So, I said, ‘I want him, and I want to sign him.’“He calls me the next day and says, ‘I just talked to Dick James, and we have a deal. But Dick wants you to buy another act along with this kid. We’re giving you Elton John for nothing, and Dick wants $10,000 for a band called Argosy; I replied, “because you guys are so nice to give me Elton John for nothin’, I’ll buy this other master for $10,000.’“Then, before I could put out Empty Sky, the advance of the Elton John album came to me in the mail. That’s when I shut the record label down for a couple of hours [and] brought [in] the employees, sales and marketing, A&R, everybody—thirty people sitting on the floor of my office. I looked up to the sky and said, ‘Thank you, God.’    “Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, if you analyze them, were incredible. He was way ahead of everybody. For a 21 year old kid at the time he was amazingly talented.      “Paul Buckmaster the arranger. The arranger is important. Sometimes you have to play the song to a skeleton without any meat on it. The arranger comes along and puts the meat on the skeleton. It all comes together. An arranger takes a song for what it is and builds something around it and gives it life and dynamics.” Elton John was recorded at Trident Studios which had a 16-track machine, Sound Techniques boards plus a Bechstein piano. In 1975 I visited Trident, and during 2016 I interviewed Paul Buckmaster and asked about the studio.    “I was an outside client of Trident Studios in London, sometimes coming in as an arranger or an arranger/producer. Playing on sessions on cello or as a keyboardist. Or all of it as production work.“I had been doing a lot of pop work. I had already done ‘Space Oddity’ with David Bowie in 1969, and then a couple of albums with Elton John, his debut US LP, Tumbleweed Connection and the Friends soundtrack. The movie score. It was not just strings and horns. I was responsible for arranging the rhythm section on the Elton John album, most of Tumbleweed Connection, and most of Madman Across The Water.“I had a room upstairs that was sound proofed. We had a huge living room below that could easily contain her Bechstein seven-foot grand piano. I had my tape recorder and my score paper. I didn’t have a piano. I wrote head arrangements to paper. I had to hear the orchestra in my mind to write it out.“The Trident Studio in Soho was as an anechoic as it could get. When you shut the heavy doors of the studio your ears compressed. It was so dead in there. Every surface was totally absorbent. Not one reflective surface. Even the Steinway piano had a ‘car cover.’ And the studio floor was as dead as a doornail. And the sound which was great was a combination of the studio and the genius engineer, Robin Cable. He was a brilliant engineer. He was the guy who made drums sound as if they were bitchen’. It was saturation tape. What was there was a proper echo chamber and a plate. That was the only reverb that existed there.”   “Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night used to tout Elton in 1969, and earlier [he] was my driver,” record producer/songwriter Kim Fowley reminded me in a 2014 interview.“I recorded him for Challenge and Invictor Records. I did a record by the Alpines with Danny Hutton. We co-wrote it and produced it and Ray Pohlman arranged.  His mother was my landlady. Danny was, and is, cool. He told me about Elton being this great artist before I went to Europe for a music festival.“In the late summer of 1970, I was living in Sweden. I was at an outdoor music festival and onstage with P.J. Proby. We followed the Move. Elton was there and playing piano with Blue Mink at the time. They followed us. Elton said to me, ‘I remember you when you were on Tops of the Pops, singing [a re-recording of Napoleon XIV’s] ‘They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!’“I was on that 1966 TV show in England, with Los Bravos and the Small Faces. I told Elton, at that 1970 festival in Sweden, ‘Pay attention to Danny Hutton when you come to town. He will steer you through L.A., and you will survive because of him.’ “I wished him luck. That was a Saturday night, and on the following Monday he left for Hollywood.  “Before his Troubadour shows, Elton did come up to Danny’s house in Laurel Canyon.”    The pianist and singer Elton John landed in Los Angeles in late August 1970, along with drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray. John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin was also there.Before meeting Russ Regan, Elton immediately visited Danny Hutton at his home.  In Canyon of Dreams The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon, my 2009 book, Danny Hutton discussed his initial encounter with Reg Dwight pka Elton John.  “I first met him in 1969 in England when I was looking for songs for Three Dog Night. So, I phoned Dick James Music and Reg Dwight came up to my room and had some demos, which I still have. Reg or Elton, I really liked him. He was so sweet and sincere.“I invited him to a small club where we are doing a show. The bouncer came up and said ‘Did you invite somebody because I don’t have him on the list.’ He’d come with Bernie Taupin. They were downstairs in the bar and I went down and he was humming something. I said, ‘You’re a great singer.’ And Elton said, ‘Nah. I’m a songwriter, not a singer.’ Maybe he was working me,” Danny suggested.  “Later on, I couldn’t get him on the list for our show at the Marquee Club so we brought him in as our roadie. Reg knew my resume. We were a hot band.“I heard ‘Lady Samantha’ and brought it to the group. Our producer, Gabriel Mekler, had all three of us sing it and had Chuck [Negron] do the lead vocal. I liked the song. We also did ‘Your Song.’ And then I got a 3-page handwritten letter from Elton thanking me for helping him and Bernie out.   “Elton then phoned from London and said ‘I’m coming to town.’ He arrived and the first place I took him to eat was Billy James’ Black Rabbit Inn. Then I brought him up to the house. I phoned Van Dyke Parks to come up. Elton played the piano at my home on Lookout Mountain,” Hutton fondly remembered.           Russ Regan asked UNI/MCA label mate Neil Diamond to introduce Elton for his first performance at The Troubadour. Diamond had earlier heard about John from David Rosner who was working for Dick James Music.       The following day while Elton John was preparing for his life/career-changing opening at the Troubadour, Regan was overseeing a record company and just couldn’t attend his sound check at the club.“And then the next day there was Elton’s sound check at the Troubadour and I was so busy at the label I couldn’t make it,” lamented Russ. “Rick Frio was working for me at MCA and I sent him. After the sound check, Rick calls me and says, ‘Russ, you’re not gonna believe it. We got one here. We got one!’”Regan then went beyond the call of duty, and as Elton John’s advocate, telephoned everybody in his personal rolodex and invited them to the 300-seat Troubadour in West Hollywood on August 25, 1970, the first evening of a historic six-night engagement where John opened for David Ackles.Russ was ringside for Elton’s launch, along with Danny Hutton,  Ray Williams, Neil Diamond, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Chris Darrow, Micky Dolenz, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Randy Newman, Don Henley, Van Dyke Parks, T-Bone Burnett, Nancy Retchin, Linda Ronstadt, John’s booking agent Jerry Heller at the Chartwell Agency, KPPC-FM program director Les Carter and his deejay wife Susan aka Outrageous Nevada, members of Bread, Roger Greenaway, Don Black, Ray Williams, music publisher David Rosner, art director David Larkham, Odetta, photographers Ed Caraeff and Kurt Ingham, Jacoba Atlas of Circus magazine, the Beach Boys’ Mike Love, Elton John’s publicist Norman Winter of Totem Pole, GO! magazine columnist Rodney Bingenheimer, John Gibson of The Hollywood Reporter, and pop music critic Robert Hilburn from the Los Angeles Times, who subsequently penned the enthusiastic August 27, 1970 review with the headline “Elton John New Rock Talent,” positioning the star to the regional and national entertainment media.  Reporters from TIME and Newsweek were in attendance and hailed Elton John’s new stardom. Leon Russell, Denny Cordell, Blackie Dammett, Gordon Lightfoot, and Brian Wilson came other nights.  I subsequently saw Elton at the Troubadour and met the manager, Robert Marchese.In 1968 Robert produced the live Richard Pryor album at the club, which was issued on the Dove label, and won a Grammy. Photographer Henry Diltz took the LP cover. Marchese introduced me to Pryor and we saw Richard at Redd Foxx’s club. I still talk to Henry and Robert. Grateful.    This is the setlist for Elton’s Troubadour engagement beginning August 25, 1970: “Your Song,” “Bad Side of the Moon,” “Sixty Years On,” “I Need You To Turn To,” “Border Song,” “Country Comfort,” “Take Me To the Pilot,” “Honky Tonk Woman,” and a two- song medley of “Burn Down the Mission” and “Get Back.”“I’m at The Troubadour opening,” reflected Hutton. “I’m with Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, and Randy Newman came over to the table and said, ‘Hey, thank you for putting my kid through college with ‘Mama Told Me Not to Come.’”“Danny Hutton brought Elton up to my house in Bel-Air in 1970,” Brian Wilson told me in an interview for his 2007 Pet Sounds tour program.  “Three Dog Night earlier did ‘Your Song,’ still my favorite of Elton’s, and he had just played The Troubadour. I heard he was nervous to meet me when they rang the intercom system. I was nervous to see him! So, I answered the buzzer and sang ‘It’s a little bit funny’ from ‘Your Song’ to them before they came up.”After one Troubadour set, Elton and Bernie were invited to Leon Russell’s house.  “I was there at Elton John’s first show at the Troub,” recollected Micky Dolenz in a 2016 interview I conducted with Gary Strobl.  “[My wife] Samantha and I were invited over to a party at a little, oh, that’s a great little story. So, we hear about this new kid in town, Elton John from England and he’s getting a buzz, and he’s doing a show at the Troub. It’s his first show. Samantha and I were there and we knew his L.A. record company rep, I can’t remember the guy’s name, got a little house in Hollywood and invited us to the after party.“It was quite a crowd of the typical Hollywood at the time. Elton John, of course, was not well known at the time. Well, Samantha had gone to England recently to see family, I guess, and had come back with cool clothes for me from Carnaby Street, or wherever, new, hip, cool London fashion.""And one of the things was a T-shirt, an Andy Warhol T-shirt with all the Marilyn Monroe. He did that poster or a painting of Marilyn Monroe in all different colors. Well, I guess somebody got the rights to do that as a T-shirt. So, it was a very cool T-shirt of that Andy Warhol, I guess it was multiple Marilyn images. And I wore that T-shirt. We see the show.

“I remember Elton only had three pieces with him at the time. Then we go and we drive over to the after party. We walk in and everybody’s ‘Hello, hello, hello.’ And I remember actually quite clearly walking into the kitchen, and this is like a really kind of typical three-room Hollywood, stucco little house on Fairfax Ave. And I remember walking around saying hi to everybody and I walked in the kitchen and there’s Elton John. He turns around. He has on the same T-shirt. And he looks at me and he goes, ‘Oh, fuck!’ (laughing) Like two women showing up with the same dress.“I didn’t give a shit. I laughed. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, man, cool shirt!’ But I think he was really, he was like, must have been so pissed off. Samantha laughed. That was fun.”“This Elton at The Troubadour was something euphoric. I was on a high for three days,” confessed  Russ Regan. “I couldn’t believe I was so lucky to have an artist like Elton John. It wasn’t a feeling like when Brian [Wilson] would play me his singles before [‘Good Vibrations’] they were released. It was beyond that.”“In September 1971 I went to see Elton play at the Greek Theatre,” Danny Hutton happily reminisced. “After the show, he’s kind of short with me and I’m a little bummed out and I’m with a guy from grammar school. I went home and there’s all these cars parked near me. Elton tossed a surprise party.  It was very cool. So, Elton John did not forget me.”   Last decade I spoke with Russ Regan about Elton John’s Troubadour booking.“I went out of my mind. I couldn’t believe I was so lucky to have an artist like Elton John. It wasn’t a feeling like when Brian (Wilson) would play me his records before they were released. It was beyond that. Brian playing me his records in advance was a great thrill. And a wonderful experience. But this was something euphoric. That evening was totally euphoric. I was so high naturally that I didn't come down for three days.“I met Elton after the first show along with Bernie and the band. I went every night. I called everybody in town. Robert Hilburn’s review of the show in The Los Angeles Times was incredible. It happened at a time where a great review in a paper could help radio exposure. I didn’t realize Elton John was a superstar until the Troubadour.   “Don’t forget we went from the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard to the San Francisco Troubadour North that Doug Weston also had. And Elton didn’t do that well in San Francisco. He did all right but it wasn’t the same magic.“Here’s the bad news. We then went to New York and they put us in the Playboy Club for a luncheon for everybody. By the time Elton went on, half the people had left. And Elton was so disheartened that his performance was not that great. OK. He didn’t do very well at the Playboy Club, and I don’t blame him.“So, the next day we’re on a train going to Philadelphia to play at the Electric Factory. We get there and check into the Marriott Hotel and all the radio people are there. Kal Rudman of the music industry trade magazine Friday Morning Quarterback came up. ““I had picked up the phone in advance for my people. I’m having them up to a big suite at the Marriott, people are coming by, and I’m ordering 20 club sandwiches at a time. ’Cause club sandwiches are cut up in fours. Right? I’m having drinks brought up.“So, all of a sudden, Elton’s room is next door to my suite, I get a call from one of MCA President Mike Maitland’s assistants, who runs me down and says, ‘Russ, you’ve gone out of your mind. We all think you’ve lost your mind with this Brit that you’re promoting.’ He called him ‘a Brit.’ ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You’re out there spending all this money and we’ve sold about 3,000 records. It hasn’t translated into sales. We aren’t selling shit and you’re spending this money!’“I said to him, ‘It’s just a matter of time before he pops loose. This guy is gonna be big!’ So, he says, ‘Well, you know what they call your big-time superstar?’ ‘What are they calling him?’ ‘They’re calling him Regan’s Folly.’“By the time Elton got to Philadelphia he was Regan’s Folly. I called the guy every name in the book and hung up on him. I walked next door and went to Elton and told him what had just happened. And Elton looked at me. I will never forget these words, ‘Russ, tonight I’m gonna burn the city of Philadelphia down.’“He had a song called ‘Burn Down the Mission,’ right? So, we get to the Electric Factory. He does his set and the last song was ‘Burn Down the Mission.’ And he did it for 20 minutes. He was under and on top of the piano. He was out in the audience. He was everywhere. People were going out of their minds. I said, ‘This is it.’ And we finally got out of there about midnight and called room service for a couple of banana splits.“I got to bed at 3:00 in the morning. I was awakened by Sam Passamano, who was the MCA branch manager.“He called me at 10:30 and said, ‘Russ, I have to wake you up and I know you were up all night. But I have to give you some news. I just had to order 5,000 Elton John albums. Something happened last night.’ ‘Thank you very much,’ and I went back to sleep.“Two hours later Sam calls me again; he woke me up again. ‘I know you’re still sleeping and not checking out until 2:00 p.m. But I had to order another 5,000 albums.’“I then called the MCA office and asked for the Maitland’s assistant and he picked up. I said, ‘This is what just happened. Sam Passamano has ordered 10,000 Elton John albums and you can go fuck yourself and tell everybody they can go fuck themselves ’cause Regan’s Folly is coming home!’ And I hung up.“Then what happened was Elton John took off. And don’t forget we hadn’t put out the single yet. When I came back, we released ‘Your Song’ as the single. I loved that song.“Now get this. I was being second-guessed. Everybody was going with ‘Take Me To The Pilot.’ I loved that too, but ‘Your Song’ is the hit. So, guess what, that 45RPM, if you can ever find one, ‘Your Song’ as the A-side and ‘Take Me To The Pilot’ as the B-side. ‘Cause everybody thought I was crazy putting out ‘Your Song.’ ‘They’re gonna flip it!’ And they never did because ‘Your Song’ was a smash.“I knew the combination of (producer) Gus Dudgeon and (arranger) Paul Buckmaster was fantastic. There were always arrangers on the hits I promoted in the late 1950s and well into the ‘60s. And, Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, if you analyze them, were incredible. He was way ahead of everybody. For a 21year old kid at the time he was amazingly talented. I also knew FM radio would embrace Elton John. Absolutely.“I also helped arrange the 11-7-70 Elton John syndicated FM radio broadcast that was done out of New York. Phil Ramone’s studio. I gave it the green light to do it and that’s why it happened. It was later released as an LP. I then got accused of putting out too much product. I said, ‘Look, with this kind of artist you can never put out too much product.’ [In 2017 the album was reissued with bonus tracks from Universal Enterprises Inc.]  “I’m at UNI/MCA until the summer 1972, including Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, and the single of ‘Rocket Man.’”In the seventies I saw Elton at Weston’s Troubadour. I caught his June 21, 1975 UK Wembley stadium concert with the Eagles and Beach Boys where he unveiled Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. I was invited to Elton’s October 25, 1975 Dodger Stadium show in Los Angeles.While writing for Melody Maker in 1975, Elton and I chatted inside Cherokee Studios on Fairfax Avenue at the Rocket Records release party of Neil Sedaka’s The Hungry Years. It was obvious EJ was a record collector. He cited British singer Julie Grant and singles from the Immediate Records label.   Later, as MCA Records West Coast Director of A&R during 1977-1978, I encountered Elton again. We discussed Tamla-Motown, Billy Stewart, Jackie Wilson, the Chi-Lites, Laura Nyro and the Hollies. Elton confirmed he played piano on the Hollies’ session for “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” a tune Tony Hicks of the band found on Denmark Street.On October 14, 1978, Elton gave a solo set recital for MCA executives and staff in Los Angeles at the Century Plaza Hotel. It was the occasion to premiere his A Single Man album. John chided the label, and did some selections from A Single Man not usually found in his 1978 live repertoire. The rendition of “Sixty Years On” was stunning.During 1976-1986, I would see Elton occasionally at Gaylord Indian Restaurant at 50 North La Cienega Blvd. on Restaurant Row near Beverly Hills. Gaylord became a destination spot for British transplants desperately needing their weekly Indian meal.In 1980, Russ Regan became PolyGram Records' General Manager of West Coast Operations. He was the music consultant on the Flashdance soundtrack that sold 14 million copies. Regan was also Music Supervisor for Breakin, A Chorus Line, This is Spinal Tap, Karate Kid, and Chariots of Fire. In 1986 Russ was hired as President of Motown’s Creative Division. He worked on Smokey Robinson's comeback album, One Heartbeat, which went platinum and spawned two top 10 singles. Regan remained with Motown until the company was sold in 1988.“Sometimes I fill a void out there,” underlined Russ in a 2016 interview. “When I signed Elton John, or Olivia-Newton John my basic and number one philosophy in A&R, then and now is that I look for something that no one else is doing at the moment. A song is like movie. But a movie-without a great script you can’t get a great movie. I don’t give a damn how good your actors are. It’s the same thing with a singer. If a singer doesn’t have a great song.""It’s always about the song. It goes back to Brian Wilson when I named the Beach Boys. I met him and said this kid is unreal for age 19. And Bernie Taupin is a great story teller/lyricist, and he was about 21. All these guys wrote great lyrics and great songs. Some great writers that have come into my life,” Russ summarized.    I do wish that in the Elton John Rocketman biopic and Elton’s autobiography, Me, Russ Regan was given some sort of acknowledgement.If not for song sniffer Russ, we may have never heard the delightful early career Elton John albums in the United States.When Russ Regan passed away in May 2018 at age 89, Elton John on twitter offered this condolence. “RIP Russ Regan. Thank you for believing in me and helping launch my career.” Elton John (@eltonofficial) May 29, 2018.(Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015's Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016's Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017's 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love. Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 the duo wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble. Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters. His Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll TV Scenes) is scheduled for 2025 publication.     Harvey wrote the liner notes to CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival.During 2006 Kubernik appeared at the special hearings by The Library of Congress in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2017 he lectured at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in their Distinguished Speakers Series. Amidst 2023, Harvey spoke at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles discussing director Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz music documentary.Kubernik was interviewed for the August 2025 documentary, The Sound of Protest now being broadcast on the TVOD Apple TV broadcasting service. https://tv.apple.com › us › movie › the-sound-of-protest. Director Siobhan Logue’s endeavor features Smokey Robinson, Hozier, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Two-Tone's Jerry Dammers, Angélique Kidjo, Nina Simone, Holly Johnson, David McAlmont, Rhiannon Giddens, and more.Harvey is also an interview subject with Iggy Pop, Bruce Johnston, Johnny Echols, the Bangles' Susanna Hoffs and Victoria Peterson, and the founding members of the Seeds in director Neil Norman’s documentary The Seeds - The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard due in November 2025, a DVD with bonus footage is scheduled for release via the GNP Crescendo Company.The New York City Department of Education is scheduled to publish in 2025 the social studies textbook Hidden Voices: Jewish Americans in United States History. Kubernik’s 1976 interview with music promoter Bill Graham on the Best Classic Bands website Bill Graham Interview on the Rock ’n’ Roll Revolution, 1976, is included). Album art courtesy of Universal Music EnterprisesThe post Elton John:  55 Years On -- His Week-Long United States Booking at Doug Weston’s Troubadour first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Next set of VC judges locked in for Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025The Startup Battlefield 2025 judging panel is getting even stronger. Our first wave of VCs brought serious firepower, and now we’re adding more top investors who will grill founders, unpack the big questions, and help crown this year’s $100,000 champion at TechCrunch Disrupt, October 27–29 in San Francisco’s Moscone West.

Bitcoin futures demand rises even as BTC sells off: What gives?Bitcoin’s recovery hinges on the resumption of the spot ETF inflows and investors’ ability to compartmentalize the whale selling and focus on fundamentals.

Butta Melta Stops Rock-solid Butter From Tearing Your ToastEver ruin a perfectly serviceable piece of toast by trying (and failing) to spread a little pat of rock-solid butter? [John Dingley] doesn’t! Not since he created the Butta Melta to cozily snug a single butter serving right up against a warm beverage, softening it just enough to get nice and spreadable. Just insert one of those foil-wrapped pats of butter into the Melta, hang its chin on the edge of your mug, and you’ll have evenly softened butter in no time.
The Butta Melta is intentionally designed with a bit of personality, but also has features we think are worth highlighting. One is the way it’s clearly designed with 3D printing in mind, making it an easy print on just about any machine in no time at all. The second is the presence of the hinge point which really helps the Butta Melta conform to a variety of cup designs, holding the payload as close as possible to the heat regardless of cup shape. A couple of minutes next to a hot beverage is all it takes for the butter to soften enough to become easily spreadable.
You may remember [John] (aka [XenonJohn]) from his experimental self-balancing scooters, or from a documentary he made about domestic ventilator development during COVID. He taught himself video editing and production to make that, and couldn’t resist using those skills to turn a video demo of the Butta Melta into a mock home shopping style advertisement. Watch it below, embedded just under the page break, then print one and save yourself from the tyranny of torn toast.

Review: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 4th GenIn this review, we put the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 4th Gen to the test. With 18 ins, 20 outs, clean preamps, loopback, and auto gain, it delivers pro-studio flexibility for producers, DJs, and streamers at an affordable price.
The post Review: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 4th Gen appeared first on DJ TechTools.

W. A. Production NoizzerMake Some Noise Punchy drums and crisp percussion are the heartbeat of every great track. But sometimes your snares might lack snap, or those hi-hats just don't cut through the mix. Don't spend hours tweaking transients and layering audio - just reach for Noizzer, the noise-layering secret sauce for giving your beats that extra snap, crackle and pop. Clever music producers have been manually pulling off this trick for years, crafting complex white noise profiles and using side-chain gating to blend them into their drums. Now Noizzer puts that entire process at your fingertips in one simple, powerful plugin by intelligently injecting noise into your signal in a musical way. Noizzer adds brand-new frequency content that wasn't there before - fattening, sharpening, and energizing your sound in seconds. Simply activate Noizzer on any percussion track, adjust a few parameters, and listen as your beats transform from mid to massive. Noizzer is designed for speed with inbuilt presets that take just a few tweaks to transform basic-bitch beats to head-turning hits. Perfect for producers of any genre who need quick, effective drum enhancement without endless menu-diving. Shape, Snap & Sustain That big ol' knob in the centre adjusts the power of Noizzer, introducing more noise to the signal as you crank it up. The Listen mode solos the noise layer, letting you preview the noise signal before adding it to your drums. Activate Sustain Mode for longer rich hits, which is also perfect for keeping fast, repeated notes tight and consistent. The Decay knob sets how long the noise rings out, going from ultra-tight clicks to more splashy sustains. Add instant attack with the Transient control, injecting extra front-end punch to your hits. Filter & Flavor Noizzer goes far beyond a plain burst of white noise. It's a tone-shaping tool that lets you blend texture into your drums like a seasoned engineer. The Character selector opens up a palette of unique noise profiles, from silky hiss to gritty crackle, to match the vibe of your track with precision. Shape the sound further with high-pass and low-pass filters, trimming away sub-bass rumble or shaving off brittle highs. The end result is a noise layer that locks into your percussion so naturally, it feels like it was recorded that way from the start. Visual Feedback & Comparison Noizzer is built on vector graphics with a resizable interface. A live spectrum is displayed at the top, to help you identify frequency bands and show exactly what's happening to the signal as it travels through the plugin in real time. This allows for accurate monitoring at every step of the chain. For those who like to experiment, contrast different processing chains with AB comparison and copy / paste. Use the undo / redo buttons to revert any changes. Presets Noizzer includes a huge number of factory presets, covering subtle transient shaping to fizzy distortion, and everything in between. Use the provided parameters as starting points to enhance any kind of percussion, bringing the best out of your sounds and productions. W. A. Production are real-life producers making creative plugins to help you achieve studio quality processing quickly and easily. Enjoy. Features: Percussive enhancement plugin via surgically shaped noise injection. Solo noise layer with Listen mode. Sustain mode for extended hits. Decay and Transient envelope shaping. Character selector for multiple noise flavors. High-pass & Low-pass filtering. Independent Input & Output gain. Frequency spectrum monitoring. AB comparison & Undo / Redo. Resizable interface. Responsive & CPU friendly. Flexible factory presets. Full PDF Manual & Tutorial video. Video preview: https://youtu.be/UtBDFVEktxw Read More

Xunil-Cloud releases CloudReverb, a FREE algorithmic reverb plugin
Xunil-Cloud has released CloudReverb, a free algorithmic reverb plugin based on the open-source CloudSeed reverb engine by Valdemar Erlingsson. CloudReverb offers a deep and flexible reverb architecture inspired by classic 80s digital reverb units. It’s a complete rewrite of the original CloudSeed plugin using JUCE, which brings native support for Windows, macOS, and Linux. This [...]
View post: Xunil-Cloud releases CloudReverb, a FREE algorithmic reverb plugin

Daybreak Audio introduce Omega Comp The result of almost a year of development, Daybreak Audio's first plug-in uses “aggressive multiband compression to sculpt uniquely harsh and distorted tones, perfect for rage, electronic and industrial music”.

Turn Listeners into Lifelong Fans with Spotify Super ListenersNot all listeners are the same, and a small group can have the biggest impact on your music career. Here's how to grow your Spotify Super Listeners to increase streams, sell more tickets, and build a loyal fanbase that lasts.
The post Turn Listeners into Lifelong Fans with Spotify Super Listeners appeared first on Hypebot.

Roland TR-808 Plugin is 66% OFF until midnight
Roland’s official TR-808 Software Synthesizer is currently 66% off at Plugin Boutique, bringing the price down to just $62.84, but the offer ends today! The TR-808 Software Synthesizer is Roland’s authentic emulation of their iconic TR-808 drum machine, powered by Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) technology. It faithfully recreates the sound and workflow of the original [...]
View post: Roland TR-808 Plugin is 66% OFF until midnight

SoundExchange distributions topped $242.5M in Q2 2025SoundExchange distributions topped $241.5 million in digital royalties to creators from April to June 2025. Combined with the $253.2 million distributed in the first quarter of the year, ir annual distributions for the first half of 2025 are $494.7 million.
The post SoundExchange distributions topped $242.5M in Q2 2025 appeared first on Hypebot.

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ sing-along re-release tops US cinema, with up to $20M in box office salesThe film outpaced Warner Bros.’ horror film "Weapons," which was reportedly expected to claim the weekend title with $15.6 million.
Source

The price of FiiO’s new flagship hi-fi music player is a mysteryIf you thought portable hi-fi players couldn’t push things any further, FiiO’s new M27 just turned up to prove otherwise. The reference-class digital audio player (DAP) is billed as the brand’s boldest evolution yet – pairing desktop-grade power with bleeding-edge streaming, storage, and design.

READ MORE: This new app is like Pokémon GO for music lovers

The flagship M27 sits at the top of FiiO’s portable line, joining the JM21, M21, and M23, but upping the ante with some serious hardware. Qualcomm’s QCS6490 chip (built on Snapdragon 770G architecture) anchors the system, offering eight Kryo 670 CPU cores, an Adreno 642L GPU, and Android 13 OS with 8GB of RAM. Translation: the responsiveness and stability of a high-end smartphone, but with hi-fi at its heart.
The star of the show is a dual-DAC setup using ESS ES9039SPRO chips. These deliver expansive dynamic range and detail, capable of handling everything from whispered vocals to full orchestral walls of sound with “life-like realism”. Pair that with FiiO’s new DAPS (Digital Audio Purification System), femtosecond crystal oscillators, and fully balanced output stages, and you’ve got a player chasing true reference-grade playback.
In Ultra Gain mode, the M27 delivers a massive 5,000mW + 5,000mW balanced output – rivaling dedicated full-size desktop amplifiers. Connections cover the bases too: we’ve got 6.35mm, 4.4mm, and 3.5mm headphone jacks plus line-level and digital outs, making it just as at home on the desk as in your pocket.
Credit: FiiO
Storage isn’t an afterthought either. Dual microSD slots support up to 2TB each, alongside 256GB of onboard space, so entire hi-res libraries can travel with you. A 9,200mAh battery and FiiO’s patented Desktop Mode keep playback running long, even during marathon listening sessions.
The M27 is also one of the first DAPs to support Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless codec, via the QCC5181 chip. That means reference-grade wireless playback is no longer a dream; it’s here, alongside LE Audio and Auracast support.
For the first time, FiiO has used titanium alloy for the chassis, giving the M27 a premium feel. A glass fiber rear panel, meanwhile, rounds out the design.
The FiiO M27 will launch globally in Autumn 2025, with pricing still under wraps until September. For now, all we know is this: if your portable rig has been feeling a little underpowered, the M27 might be the upgrade you’ve been waiting for.
Learn more at FiiO.
The post The price of FiiO’s new flagship hi-fi music player is a mystery appeared first on MusicTech.