Blue Origin cleared to fly New Glenn mega-rocket after April mishapJeff Bezos' rocket company confirmed an engine failure led to the loss of an AST SpaceMobile satellite last month, but offered little detail.

Logic Pro reverb plugins: 3 stock options and when to use them
Learn about when and how to use ChromaVerb, Space Designer, and Quantec Room Simulator, three of the most popular stock Logic Pro reverb plugins.

Guitar Center Launches Folk-Roots Line Mitchell Silver CreekGuitar Center announced on Thursday that it has "launched the Mitchell Silver Creek Folk Instrument Line, a game-changing seven-piece collection of high-quality instruments including banjos, mandolins and resonator guitars at price points accessible to a wide range of players. Mitchell looked toward the historic icons, developing a collection that meets high standards for quality and playability."

“With the new Mitchell lineup, we focused on creating instruments that feel inspiring and effortless to play from the very first note,” Rich Thrush, Vice President of Mitchell, told MC. “These instruments combine thoughtful design, dependable quality, and player-focused refinement to deliver an experience that keeps musicians engaged, growing, and coming back to play.”

According to a statement, "Mitchell has built player-focused acoustic instruments under Guitar Center's leadership since the brand’s formation in 1986. This line extends that legacy to a wider range of acoustic musicians and leans into Mitchell’s promise of high-quality instruments with great playability. The collection was built to meet that standard, using the finest instruments in the category as its benchmark throughout design and production."

“These instruments were built to the quality and performance standards of the most iconic instruments available today, but to also be affordable by real, working musicians,” said Gabe Dalporto, CEO of Guitar Center.

“We looked toward the historic icons of folk instruments and re-imagined them with our own design for playability, consistency, and modern relevance,” said Thrush. “The goal was to build instruments that feel and respond like they cost twice as much.”

Collection Overview (courtesy of Guitar Center):

Banjos

RB100 Resonator 5-String Banjo ($349.99): Traditional resonator banjo built for strong projection and bright, focused tone. Clear articulation and forward presence suited for bluegrass and ensemble playing.

OB100 Open Back 5-String Banjo ($249.99): Open-back banjo delivering warm, mellow tone with natural decay and balanced volume. Ideal for folk, old-time and acoustic settings where nuance and feel are central.

Mandolins

FM200 F-Style Mandolin ($349.99): F-style mandolin with carved arched top and solid spruce construction. Strong projection, crisp articulation and the classic response that bluegrass and traditional acoustic playing demand.

AM100 A-Style Mandolin ($169.99): A-style mandolin with arched spruce top and balanced body design. Even projection and clear, consistent tone suited for folk, Americana and ensemble work.

DM200E Double Cut Acoustic-Electric Mandolin ($299.99): Modern double-cut acoustic-electric mandolin with hollow carved Okoume body and onboard electronics. Expanded fret access and flexible performance across stage and studio environments.

Resonator Guitars

RR200CE Resonator Guitar ($429.99): Spider-style acoustic-electric resonator guitar with strong projection, sustained response and clear articulation. A sweet-sounding humbucker pickup with volume and tone controls for versatility in live and studio settings.

RR100 Resonator Guitar ($349.99): Biscuit-style resonator guitar with mahogany construction delivering punchy, dry tonal character with quick decay and strong midrange presence. Rooted in traditional blues and folk.

The collection is available exclusively at Guitar Center stores nationwide and at guitarcenter.com.The post Guitar Center Launches Folk-Roots Line Mitchell Silver Creek first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Improving an Aquarium Chiller with an Industrial Controller TransplantA healthy aquarium ecosystem requires very specific conditions, with factors like the salinity and temperature having to be just right to keep said ecosystem happy. As some species are adapted to fairly cold water, this requires the use a water chiller. Recently [The Blunt Oracle] modified one of these aquarium-focused chillers with a much better controller to make it both more accurate and potentially more efficient as well.
The target for the surgery was a generic Shanhuchong Y-160 chiller that after a brief teardown turned out to use an STC-1000 style controller. The biggest disadvantage with this unit is probably that it just has one temperature probe, which monitored the temperature of the heat exchanger rather than that of the chilled water tank.
This controller was replaced with a Wi-Fi-equipped Elitech ECS-974T sourced for $50 off AliExpress that uses the same 71 x 29 mm form factor. Following that it was just a matter of some creative rewiring – as shown in the top image – and installing the twin temperature probes of the new controller.
Being able to monitor also the temperature of the chilled water adds a layer of redundancy that’s very welcome after splurging thousands of clams on a fancy aquarium and its inhabitants. As a bonus the Wi-Fi interface allows for it to be monitored and controlled remotely, with [The Blunt Oracle] pushing the Home Assistant configuration in a PR as well that recently got merged. They’d also like to extend their thanks to Elitech for having pretty good documentation that really helped with creating the HA configuration file, which is a rarity with many of such controllers.

Price predictions 5/22: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, DOGE, HYPE, ADA, ZEC, BCHBitcoin sold off to $76,000, giving bears an opportunity to reclaim control of the crypto market. Meanwhile, altcoins like HYPE charted new highs.

Get W.A. Production Orchid chorus plugin FREE until June 4th
VST Alarm is offering the W.A. Production Orchid chorus plugin as a free download until June 4th, 2026. Orchid normally costs $39.90, so this is a good time to grab it if you want another chorus effect in your plugin folder for free. Instead of simply doubling the signal, Orchid creates four chorus layers and [...]
View post: Get W.A. Production Orchid chorus plugin FREE until June 4th

From Spotify and UMG’s landmark AI deal to Shamrock’s $813M raise… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
Source

Apple Music announces new livestreaming series: Club LiveApple Music has launched a new streaming series that will broadcast some of the biggest events around the world. It’s called Club Live, and it just wrapped up its first major music festival: EDC Las Vegas.
While the festival was running last weekend (May 15-17), listeners could tune in for free to the Apple Music Radio station, Apple Music Club, to listen to sets from massive electronic artists as they were performing under the electric sky. 

READ MORE: Google Flow Music announces its first dedicated mobile app

The broadcast ran across the full hours of the event — 7 p.m. PT – 5:30 a.m. PT. When the festival was closed, the channel would rebroadcast sets from the previous day. Now that the fest has passed, sets from the weekend are available to stream on demand for Apple Music subscribers. Some of the sets will be mixed in Dolby Atmos spatial audio as well.
“Club Live is an extension of what we’re building at Apple Music, a true home for artists and our global community,” said Stephen Campbell, Global Head of Dance, Electronic Music & DJ Mixes.
While hundreds of acts played over the three days, some of the sets that streamed included Porter Robinson, Levity, Josh Baker, Frost Children, and Tiësto. As of now, no future events for Club Live have been announced, but Apple Music says it will broadcast sets from “clubs, festivals, and Apple Music’s studios.”
Campbell continues: “Teaming up with iconic festivals like EDC allows us to connect fans with the energy and culture of dance music at its source. With Club Live and Apple Music as the definitive destination for all EDC DJ sets, we’re opening up these defining cultural moments by bringing world-class performances and the energy of the dance floor to audiences everywhere.”
For more information, head to Apple Music.
The post Apple Music announces new livestreaming series: Club Live appeared first on MusicTech.

Polarity Music Polarity-SCA darker, Polarity-modified version of Robbert van der Helm's Spectral Compressor: per-bin upward and downward compression, pink-noise shaping, sidechain spectral matching, freeze, and IR export. Download VST3 and CLAP for Windows, macOS, and Linux: Polarity-SC-Dark is a free, dark-themed spectral compressor plugin based on Robbert van der Helm's Spectral Compressor. It does FFT per-bin compression, allowing very detailed resonance control and spectral shaping. Supports upward and downward compression, custom threshold curves, pink-noise shaping, and sidechain spectral matching/ducking. Includes workflow tools like delta monitoring, level match, bypass, freeze, and IR export. Available as VST3 and CLAP for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Built with Rust / NIH-plug / VIZIA, licensed GPL-3.0-or-later. Read More

“Not every song has to be Imagine by John Lennon”: How one piece of advice changed Dave Grohl’s approach to songwriting foreverIn light of the release of the Foo Fighters’ latest record, Your Favourite Toy, Dave Grohl has imparted his ultimate songwriting tip – there’s no way every single track you write will go down in history as an earth-shatteringly monumental moment in musical history. And that’s absolutely fine.
Speaking on the Tape Notes podcast, the Foo Fighters frontman explains that it can be “liberating” to remove the pressure of writing a commercial smash hit, a revelation he discovered following a conversation with bassist Nate Mendel. “On the fourth record, I was stuck on a lyric and I was wasting everyone’s time,” Grohl recalls. “Everyone was downstairs waiting for me, but I was on a blank page, uninspired… And Nate says, ‘You know, not every song has to be Imagine by John Lennon.’”

READ MORE: Dave Grohl says Foo Fighters still make music “like a band that plays in a f**king garage”

Rather than labouring for hours over writing a track as timeless as Imagine, Mendel insisted that Grohl should start by “just writing SOMETHING”, even if just to get the creative ball rolling. “It was really liberating,” the frontman says. “I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to write Imagine today? Great!”
The advice re-framed his creative outlook so greatly that Grohl even considered writing an essay about the approach. It would centre on being creative just for the sake of being creative – because, if you’re only writing to make a ‘hit’, it not only limits your output, but it also begs the question of why you’re even writing in the first place. “I was going to write this whole piece on why people [feel the need to] write songs,” he says.

In terms of lyrical advice, Grohl also notes that you should never compare yourself to other lyricists, as your work should always come from the heart. “Lyrics are subjective – they’re up to one’s own personal interpretation,” he says. “There’s some lyrics that I’ll read from other artists [that I think are] kind of nonsense. [But] that person is decoding some sort of emotion within themselves. No matter how quickly or how much thought they put into it, it’s revealing in some way.”
He also notes that lingering for too long on a project can sometimes be detrimental. “A problem that I’ve had in the past is self-editing to the point of losing the original intent…” he notes. “When you just do something quickly, with no self-editing, that can often be the most revealing. There’s a lot of this, that on this record.”
“As we dig through the tracks and listen to stuff, I’m constantly finding new meaning or new depth that I may not have considered before,” he concludes. “You know, I’m not the type of person that’s going to walk around with a journal and a bottle of red wine sitting in the park and writing an endless tome of fucking poetry. But, but when I have to, I will.”
Your Favourite Toy is out now.

The post “Not every song has to be Imagine by John Lennon”: How one piece of advice changed Dave Grohl’s approach to songwriting forever appeared first on MusicTech.

Get Krampfstadt Studio’s Brick Toys sound pack FREE from A Sound Effect
You can now get Krampfstadt Studio’s Brick Toys sound pack for free from A Sound Effect. When it comes to sample packs, there’s no shortage of great options, deals, and freebies. Despite the consistent availability of fantastic sounds, most of us are always keen to hear more because we never know what sound we need [...]
View post: Get Krampfstadt Studio’s Brick Toys sound pack FREE from A Sound Effect

Boss expand PS-1 Plugout Pedal The latest update for the PS-1 Plugout Pedal brings three new praised Boss effects to the table: the PW-2 Power Driver, the XT-2 Xtortion and the CS-2 Compression Sustainer.

JBL EON One Compact review: Life in plastic still fantastic after 30 years£520 / $699, jblpro.com
Time-travel back to 1995 and you would witness Pioneer DJ’s first-ever club mixer debut, Avid Pro Tools gaining traction, plus synthesizers such as the Korg Prophecy and Doepfer A-100, all transforming live performances. But overlook the launch of JBL’s EON PA systems at your peril.

READ MORE: Is PreSonus’ StudioLive Series III SE 24 the most flexible digital mixer on the market?

Until then, live systems consisted of heavy amplifiers, bulky wooden cabinets, and complex wiring, often requiring a sound engineer. The arrival of the polypropylene PA changed that, allowing anyone to plug and play their own sound.
Features now taken for granted — integrated power, lightweight durability, versatility as front-of-house speaker or floor monitor — were all JBL benchmarks. Life in plastic was fantastic, and 30 years on, the EON name still carries immense weight inside the brand’s Pro division.
The EON One Compact is the smallest expression of that lineage — a single-box system integrating speaker, amplifier, plus a four-channel digital mixer and effects processor you can carry in one hand. It’s aimed squarely at solo performers, mobile DJs, and anyone seeking PA capabilities without the full rig.
Its Pro status matters, too. This isn’t the consumer side of JBL, where party speakers are specced with Richter scale-troubling bass and jazzy RGB light shows; the EON One Compact is here to work, like Dolly Parton with a modest cup of amplification. But when you need to make an impact with your performance, how far can a £520 PA system really get you?
Image: Press
EON One Compact: Built to take bumps
There’s no attempt to disguise the utilitarian purpose here. The angular enclosure is a rugged shell built to survive the stage or booth, though JBL does offer an online configurator to personalise the black steel grille with your own graphics.
At 8kg, with a rubberised carry handle, it’s entirely portable with well-considered weight distribution. About the size of a 20-litre pedal bin, it tucks nicely into a car boot or cabin compartment at a squeeze.
The top panel is where things get interesting. Rather than burying controls in menus, JBL gives you direct physical access to gain, EQ and effects laid out clearly enough for mid-set adjustments. Each knob features a green LED ring for visibility in dim environments.
A built-in tilting tablet stand accommodates setlists, or the JBL Pro Connect companion app, and the system supports two orientations: upright as a PA, or horizontal as a floor monitor. Switch between them and the EON One Compact automatically adjusts its EQ tuning and LED indicators to match.
On the back, you’ll find a compartment for the removable 12-hour battery, while underneath there’s a built-in pole mount. Note, however, the lack of an IP rating, making it vulnerable during outdoor use amongst stray beers and diet cokes.
Image: Press
EON One Compact: Full of live features
At the core sits a full four-channel digital mixer that goes well beyond the basics. Each channel gets its own EQ and effects — reverb, delay and chorus — powered by Lexicon and dbx. For such a small, single-box system, that’s impressive.
Connectivity is equally comprehensive: two XLR/TRS combo sockets with phantom power, a dedicated 6.3mm high impedance input for instruments, 3.5mm aux, and Bluetooth streaming. Outputs include a headphone jack and a pass-through jack socket for daisy-chaining additional units.
Testing with a microphone produces minimal preamp noise, equating to balanced bliss. A handy ducking feature can be switched on to automatically lower background music when speech is detected — this feels completely natural while I’m calling last orders during a solo DJ set.
Bluetooth also serves as a control link for the companion app, handling deeper eight-band EQ, preset management, and simultaneous control of up to four units. It’s stable and practical rather than feature-rich, but responsive enough to trust mid-performance, offering remote operability if you’ve stepped away from the stage. A pair of USB 2.0 ports provides high-speed charging for devices.
Image: Press
EON One Compact: Finesse minus the fuss
Throwing the EON One Compact into varied situations, including home studio, booth monitor, guitar companion, and impromptu party starter, there’s little evidence of imposter syndrome.
The headline spec is 150 watts peak power with 112dB max level. An 8-inch woofer extends low-frequency response down to 37.5 Hz, nearly an octave lower than many competitors, and the low end is impressively full for a speaker this size.
It’s the midrange where the EON One Compact particularly shines. Vocals come through with clarity and consistency, well-suited to both music and speech. High frequencies are handled cleanly, maintaining detail without harshness. Even at higher volumes, the character remains composed, although the low end reaches a limit as you approach maximum output — an inevitable compromise with single-driver bass.
Battery life is rated at up to 12 hours, which is realistic in moderate use. The real advantage is the swappable battery; spares and an optional dual charger are available separately. Charging takes approximately 2.5 hours from flat, or around six hours while playing.
[products ids=”6RWzKQVDHwk6Md5I8Um4wP”]
Should you buy the JBL EON One Compact?
Buy if you’re a solo performer or mobile DJ who needs a genuinely integrated, portable PA that handles real-world, mixed use scenarios without external gear. The combination of a mixer with phantom power, instrument input, per-channel effects and swappable battery makes this one of the most complete single box solutions available.
Don’t buy if you want a lifestyle-friendly party speaker with monster bass, marathon battery life and weather resistance. It’s a professional tool that happens to be highly portable, not a Bluetooth boombox with aspirations.
At £520 it sits at the premium end of the compact PA market. Direct competitors include the Bose S1 Pro+, Mackie ShowBox, Yamaha Stagepas 100 and Electro-Voice Everse 8. For party speakers that blur into PA territory, the Marshall Bromley 450 and 750 offer vastly superior battery life and weather protection with integrated stage lighting, but forfeit the EON One Compact’s more serious mixing credentials.
If 1995 was dominated by gear that pushed artists to produce more, JBL PA systems made it easier by offering less. The EON One Compact continues to carry that torch by offering everything you need, and incredibly little you don’t, leaving you to concentrate on your craft and the crowd.
Key features

150 W peak power (Class D amplification)
8-inch woofer with bass response down to 37.5 Hz
1-inch tweeter
4-channel digital mixer with per-channel EQ
8-band output EQ via companion app
Built-in ducking for speech priority
Lexicon and dbx effects: reverb, delay, chorus
Pass-through jack output for system expansion
12 hours maximum battery life (swappable, tool-free)
Dual orientation: vertical PA/horizontal monitor (auto-detecting)

The post JBL EON One Compact review: Life in plastic still fantastic after 30 years appeared first on MusicTech.

CEDAR Audio introduce Icons Bundles The new Icons Bundles have been put together in response to user feedback, and each bring together a selection of CEDAR's acclaimed restoration plug-ins aimed at specific tasks. 

Who will benefit most from SpaceX IPO? Mostly Elon — and a few from his inner circleElon Musk has the largest stake in SpaceX by billions of shares. The other biggest shareholders also have longstanding and deep ties to Musk.