ETH bounces off $1.8K as multiple Ether price metrics point to prolonged weaknessEther faces a bearish trend as onchain fees and network deposits hit multiyear lows. Until derivatives metrics stabilize, ETH price remains at risk.

Stripe is reportedly eyeing deal to buy some or all of PayPalStripe might be looking to buy PayPal, or parts of it, per early reports.

LingLin.Art CatSynthA physical modeling synthesizer for drums! You can design or randomly generate drumkits and each percussion voice has it's own parameters you can set and configure for your desired sound. Enjoy a 16 pad drum machine that can make anything from long-release ambient/industrial to 8-bit or hip-hop drum sounds, it's up to you! Make this synth meow and put a little hiss into your high-hats with this unique new synthesizer from LingLin.Art. Read More

Peltier Fridges Have Early DeathIf you know about Peltier modules, a solid-state fridge seems like an easy project. Pump 12V into the module, include a heat sink and a fan. Then you are done, right? According to [Peltier Power], this is not the way to design things, but it is common enough to give these units a reputation for failing quickly.
The problem is that while it makes sense that an inefficient Peltier module needs more power to get more cooling. But the reality is in practical applications, many designs push the current up when it should be moving it down. The curve describes a parabola, and you can be on the high side or low side and still get the same result. But obviously, you don’t want to put in more current and get the same cooling that you could get with lower currents.

According to the video, the mistake people make is pushing to a stable point to reach a cool point, then increasing the current until the chamber cools further. However, maintaining the cool doesn’t have to require a higher current. Once cold, you can reduce the current to maintain temperature, so to get colder, you can just lower the current less instead of increasing it. Of course, that’s somewhat of a simplification. You have to account for other thermal design factors, but that’s the general idea.
He has noted this behavior in commercial units, but did find one brand that had the correct logic. He also has some tips on using these types of coolers.
Our favorite use for these modules has to be a cloud chamber. Naturally, we’ve seen a fair number of homebrew fridges.

A Song That Changed My Life: Hawthorne Heights on Saves the DayBand Members: JT Woodruff, vocals and guitar; Matt Ridenour, bass and vocals; Mark McMillon, guitar, backing vocals, and Chris Popadak, drums

The Storyteller: JT Woodruff

The Song: “Shoulder to the Wheel” by Saves the Day

With its earnest, get-in-the-car-and-go sing-along chorus and propulsive, hook-laced rhythm, Saves the Day’s “Shoulder to the Wheel” captured the house-show spirit of the late ‘90s New Brunswick underground. The track — a melodic punk snapshot of believe-in-yourself ambition — awakened bands to an escapist state of mind, pushing them beyond basement parties and onto the open road.

The Background:

Always leaning toward movement, Hawthorne Heights — an anchor of the Midwest emo-core punk scene since the early aughts — have continued to evolve, expanding their harmonious choruses and surges of cathartic screams across seven studio albums with threads of alt-rock textures. That restless evolution of sound, combined with touring, has galvanized the band as one of the defining acts of the hardcore scene.

For frontman JT Woodruff, his aversion to daily norms — coupled with a Jack Kerouac On the Road “nowhere to go but everywhere” mindset — first flickered to life growing up in his hometown of St. Mary’s, West Virginia. He recalls, specifically January 1999, the moment when he first connected with “Shoulder to the Wheel” — its melodic alacrity and rhythmic drive hitting him immediately. Moreover, the song’s believe-in-yourself, hit-the-road chant became a directive: he sought out a copy of BYOFL (Book Your Own F*cking Life) as a manual for his wanderlust. The pairing — song plus DIY guide — established JT’s mantra: seize every opportunity and never hold back; just go.

That early mix of song plus guide set the tone for decades of music and life on the road. Now — as Hawthorne Heights celebrates the 20th anniversary of If Only You Were Lonely with an international Lonely World Tour — the experience has come full circle, a reminder that the open road can still lead anywhere.

The Story:

For JT, the energy of the road and the restless, wandering spirit embedded in “Shoulder to the Wheel” quickly became his compass for navigating the rugged terrain of early indie-rock touring. What began as a dream didn’t stay abstract for long — the song triggered a transformational shift. It wasn’t just about having fun or discovering newfound freedom; it revealed the physical grit and mental fortitude required for emerging acts to survive and thrive in the pre-ultrafast broadband Internet era.

“This song specifically made me want to buy a van, grab my band and friends, and just hit the open road. And that’s what I did.” 

Knowing enthusiasm alone wouldn’t be enough, JT leaned on his fresh hardbound edition of BYOFL, Book Your Own Fucking Life, a DIY touring guide before everything was readily available online. With it, he had both the practical roadmap and the musical conviction to chase something bigger.

By the summer of 1999, JT bought a van and booked an entire tour. Long drives, nights on the road, and a steady flow of local shows forged resilience, cohesion, and deep friendships — the kind that help carry the mental weight of touring. He elaborates, “Saves The Day introduced me to the New Jersey music scene in general. Back then, the bills on shows were so diverse. Through them, I found bands like Lifetime, New Found Glory, and Reggie and The Full Effect. It made me scour the entire Equal Vision roster.”

That dreamy, out-of-the-window state watching the world pass by eventually morphed into more than a touring philosophy — it influenced songwriting. JT moved toward internal, personal themes that reflected Quixotic philosophies. One lyric in particular struck him: "Get us as far as far can be, get us away from tonight.”

During these long stretches of travel, buried dreams often rise under an open sky. JT explains, “The interstate can take you anywhere in the United States, which is why it is so beautiful. I've lost myself out there and found myself at the same time.”  The underlying On the Road “keep rolling under the stars” mindset — restless and expansive — became his motto for both touring and life: “The world is out there to chase your dreams — you have to go after them; they won’t chase you.”

Even now, decades later, JT returns to the song. “A few days ago, I listened to it on a cruise ship with my wife of 20 years. I still feel everything I felt the first time I heard it — which is why it is so magical.”  For JT, dreams rarely come easy; they demand initiative, courage, and persistence — all stemming from within.

He concludes: “Chase every dream you have ever had. It will help you tear down all the walls and set aside excuses. Just get in the van, so to speak. Let it rip — gun it to 70 mph on the interstate.”

Photo credit: Sarai Kelley

The post A Song That Changed My Life: Hawthorne Heights on Saves the Day first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Lauren Demarte promoted to Chief Operating Officer at GoDigital MusicExec also oversees operations in Colombia
Source

Sync Audio release MegaMod plug-in Sync Audio’s latest release is a plug-in that’s capable of ‘snapping on’ to other plug-ins and kitting them out with a set of powerful modulation features.

This one-of-a-kind synth is made almost entirely of e-wasteAustralian telecommunications company Telstra has teamed up with electronic music group and fellow Aussies The Avalanches to create a fully functional synth from over 80% repurposed e-waste items like mobile phones, games consoles and old electronic cables.
The one-of-a-kind “e-waste” synth – created to raise awareness of the growing problem of e-waste in Australia – will be on display in the window of Telstra’s Melbourne Discovery Store through March and April.

READ MORE: Daft Punk share new music video for 2005 track Human After All

In a blog post on Telstra’s website, the company describes the country’s “mounting” e-waste problem, noting that by 2030, it’s estimated the country will produce 657,000 tonnes of e-waste every year – roughly the weight of 12 Sydney Harbour bridges or 19,000 Melbourne trams.
Put simply, e-waste refers to old electronic items and devices that are no longer used, like broken or outdated mobile phones – and their accessories and chargers.

“Instead of tossing them in the trash, they need special recycling because they’re full of stuff that can harm the environment, but they also contain valuable materials we can reuse,” Telstra says.
The company says Australia’s e-waste problem is significantly worse than the global average, with around 20kg of e-waste produced per person per year, compared to the global average of 7kg.
The new synth comes as part of a wider initiative by Telstra, Second Life Sounds, which centres around its goal to reuse, recycle, repair or donate one smart device for every two devices sold by 2030. 
“We wanted to show that e-waste can be repurposed into something that people can relate to universally,” says Robbie Chater of The Avalanches. “Through music, we have tried to demonstrate the amazing link between sustainability and creativity.”
You can learn more about the new one-of-a-kind “e-waste” synth at Telstra.
The post This one-of-a-kind synth is made almost entirely of e-waste appeared first on MusicTech.

Celebrating 10 years of oeksound Soothe, the plugin Skrillex calls “so simple yet dynamic”oeksound Soothe – a plugin that Skrillex once described as “so simple yet dynamic” – turns 10 this year. In that time, it’s gone from a niche problem-solver posted on Gearspace to a near-ubiquitous fixture in vocal chains, guitar buses and mastering sessions alike.
Originally developed by Finnish engineer and programmer Olli Keskinen, Soothe was born out of a desire to automate the painstaking, syllable-by-syllable EQ moves used by top mixing engineers.

READ MORE: Abbey Road launches its first-ever in-house built sampled instrument in collaboration with British fashion brand Charles Jeffrey Loverboy

Drawing on his background in digital signal processing, Keskinen designed Soothe as a dynamic resonance suppressor – similar to a de-esser or dynamic EQ, but far more adaptive in practice. Instead of applying static cuts, the plugin identifies problematic frequencies in real time and reduces them without flattening the surrounding tone, maintaining clarity.
As Keskinen explained in a 2017 interview, “Due to the chaotic radiation patterns of the instruments, and multiplied by the pickup patterns of the microphones, nastiness is likely to be present when sticking a microphone a few inches from a sound source. Soothe is at its best when used as the first line of defence to treat these problematic sound sources, saving the mixing engineer a lot of time and frustration trying to get the stuff to sit in the mix, especially with the lead parts.”
After gaining early traction on Gearspace, Soothe’s momentum accelerated when Grammy-winning producer Greg Wells – whose credits include Timbaland, Adele, and Katy Perry – publicly championed it.
“If the person praising you has clout, many people in our industry will start to believe in the product,” Keskinen later observed. “Wells did exactly what I developed the product for.”
For engineers deep in surgical EQ work, the appeal was obvious. Metal producer Dave Otero puts it bluntly: “I was already tackling this problem before Soothe came out, and spending too long doing these surgical cuts. And it’s just so much harder to do that when that task takes an hour. With Soothe, you can get there in the first one or two minutes.”
The 2020 release of Soothe2 refined the concept further, adding expanded controls while optimising CPU usage and latency. Mastering engineer Heba Kadry calls Soothe2 her “golden solution” because it “attenuates the issues while self-adjusting to whatever else is going on in the same frequency range sounds so natural” – even when working without access to stems or a multitrack.
Today, Soothe sits alongside pitch correction as one of those tools that has quietly embedded itself into modern workflows. And despite its near-ubiquity, oeksound says its focus hasn’t changed.
“Our mission is still the same as it was when oeksound was founded, even if our team is now bigger,” says Atte Karm, Marketing Director at oeksound. “We aim to create tools that solve real problems for audio professionals. Reliably good-sounding algorithms and an intuitive user interface are a must so that pros can work quickly, so they are deeply ingrained in our work.”
The company has since released other plugins including Soothe Live, which adapts the resonance suppression concept for live use; Bloom, an “adaptive tone shaper”; and Spiff, an “adaptive transient processor” that lets you cut or boost transients with great detail.
Learn more at oeksound.
The post Celebrating 10 years of oeksound Soothe, the plugin Skrillex calls “so simple yet dynamic” appeared first on MusicTech.

Inear Display offers its full plugin collection as pay-what-you-want (available for FREE)
Inear Display has made its creative audio tools now available via pay-what-you-want (meaning they can be yours for free). If the Complete Monkwind Effect Bundle and the Aqua Node open-source plugin suite weren’t enough, we’ve got another developer making everything available for free. Inear Display has moved all of its products into the pay-what-you-want category. [...]
View post: Inear Display offers its full plugin collection as pay-what-you-want (available for FREE)

Daft Punk share new music video for 2005 track Human After AllFive years after calling it quits in 2021, Daft Punk have shared a new video for Human After All, the title track from their third album, which landed in 2005.
The video – which has amassed three quarters of a million views in a day (at the time of writing) – features clips from the duo’s 2006 sci-fi film Electroma, edited by their creative director Cédric Hervet.

READ MORE: The Moog Messenger was one of the biggest synth launches of last year – and you can get it right now at $200 off

Premiering at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Electroma followed the story of two robots who discover a town of robots located in California.
The film itself didn’t feature any Daft Punk music, and instead had a soundtrack comprising music by Curtis Mayfield, Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno.
The release of the new video certainly doesn’t mark an official comeback for the robots – real names Thomas Bangalter and  Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo – but they have remained active in various ways since their disbandment in 2021.
Back in October, Thomas Bangalter made headlines by performing his first DJ set in 16 years alongside Fred again.. at Paris’s Centre Pompidou.
Also last year, the duo lent their likenesses – in robot form, at least – to the massive online game Fortnite, joining a laundry list of musical artists to have done so.
Check out the new video for Human After All below:

The post Daft Punk share new music video for 2005 track Human After All appeared first on MusicTech.

CopperSound Pedals launch the MOD Club Membership CopperSound Pedals have announced the launch of the MOD Club, a new subscription service that will deliver curated, high-quality pedal-building projects to members’ doorsteps every month. 

TERRAIN turns your samples into a playable circular spectrogram – for free!There’s a new experimental tool in town. TERRAIN, a free online “reality fragmentation unit,” transforms any audio file into a circular spectrogram you can play like an instrument.
Designed as a browser-based granular environment, TERRAIN invites producers and sound designers to upload their own samples and start manipulating them in a highly visual way instantly.

READ MORE: The ambient drone of these supermarket freezers is sending people wild – and you can now listen to a 10-hour loop on YouTube

Instead of a traditional waveform or piano roll, TERRAIN maps your audio onto a ring-shaped stage where time is circular and frequency is radial. The top of the circle (12 o’clock) marks the start of the file, while low frequencies sit near the centre and highs stretch toward the outer edge – turning your audio into a navigable landscape.
You interact with the sound by placing “grains” on the ring, with each grain repeatedly triggering tiny fragments of the source material. Drag a grain handle around the ring to change where it “listens”. A moving needle shows playback position, while visual pulses mark when a grain fires, making rhythm and motion easy to grasp at a glance.
From there, it’s all about movement and transformation: grains can drift, randomise their position, reverse direction and evolve rhythmically, creating everything from tight, pulsing patterns to hazy, dream-like textures.
Up to eight grains can run simultaneously, each with independently adjustable parameters like pitch, pan, length, gain and filtering, plus modulation options for added movement.
The best part? It’s free to use with no downloads or signups required – simply upload your audio and start reshaping it directly in the browser!

Learn more at Terrain.
The post TERRAIN turns your samples into a playable circular spectrogram – for free! appeared first on MusicTech.

SLAB is an ambitious leap into Serato Studio hardware — and it deftly sticks the landing£259 / $299 / €277.70, serato.com
A name once associated primarily with DJs, Serato has been quietly building its reputation in the production world. It launched Studio, its unique DAW, in 2019, but it’s only now that the software has received dedicated hardware, created in collaboration with DJ equipment titan — and parent company — AlphaTheta.

READ MORE: I swapped Ableton Live for Renoise 3.5 — here’s what I learned

SLAB is a compact pad-based controller designed to escape the tedium of the mouse and keyboard, offering tight integration with Serato Studio for hands-on beatmaking.
With its easy-to-grasp approach, SLAB is well poised to help first-timers make the intimidating jump from decks to DAW — but its simplicity cuts both ways. I check out a test unit to find out whether SLAB is the bedrock for budding producers, or merely a stepping stone that you’ll soon outgrow.
Image: Press
Is Serato SLAB well built?
Straight away, Serato gets kudos for SLAB’s design, its minimalist aesthetic finished in a stony grey that contrasts beautifully with its pastel-hued backlights.
Its controls feel premium, particularly for a device costing $299. SLAB’s pads are effortlessly playable, and its touch strip is responsive, while soft-touch clicky buttons provide just enough haptic feedback to know they’ve done their job.
I’m using a 13-inch MacBook — SLAB is a little smaller but twice as thick. Serious points for portability, considering it only weighs 1kg. Nonetheless, the unit feels solid on the desk and doesn’t move around, even when you’re frenetically freestyling like Fred Again.
SLAB’s face is slightly tilted as well, a subtle touch that makes the device feel remarkably ergonomic to use while sitting. I’m caught off guard by how perfectly everything seems to have been considered from a physical standpoint.
Image: Press
Programming drums with SLAB
To begin, I configure the large left-hand dial to Library mode and rifle through various drum kits and instruments, although my own samples and Serato DJ library are also accessible. It feels much like selecting tracks on a CDJ system, which isn’t surprising given AlphaTheta’s pedigree.
Once I’ve loaded a kit, I use the Auto-Set button to instantly populate the sequencer with a new drum part based on a selected genre. The patterns are fairly unremarkable, but they do provide a quick way to get going.
I throw out the preprogrammed beat and punch in something vaguely Kaytranada-esque with swing. The combination of live recording and SLAB’s 16th-note step sequencer mode feels fluid, and it doesn’t take long to build up a dense drum arrangement — and I’m yet to lay a finger on the mouse or keyboard.

I’m curious to see how SLAB handles the more intricate details. It’s relatively easy to adjust micro timing with the dial for a more human feel, but I trip a couple of times with note velocities. These can be quickly changed using the touch strip, but the strip’s lighting doesn’t immediately reflect a note’s velocity on selection, so I’m left guessing at its current value.
And, once I extend the loop beyond four beats, keeping track of which bar I’m editing demands some back-and-forth between SLAB and the laptop. An indicator on the device screen would work wonders. Maybe Serato can address these quirks in a future firmware update.
Image: Press
Developing a loop with SLAB
With my percussion in place, I flick through the browser once more, auditioning longer samples that I can chop up, MPC-style. The Auto-Set button makes this incredibly swift, intelligently placing slice markers that are automatically mapped to the drum pads.
Selected slices can be locked down with the Favourite button, while the remainder are refreshed with new options on the next Auto-Set command. It’s a lightly addictive gamble, and I get caught in ‘just one more’ mode at the prospect of discovering a magical snippet of audio on my next roll of the dice.
I add a bass sound to a new Deck, the pads conveniently mapped to a scale that matches my previous key. Clearly, Serato has done its best to eliminate menial tasks from beatmaking, and the result is an incredibly immediate process where everything ‘just works’.
This simplicity does come with trade-offs. The instruments in Studio have relatively few parameters to adjust, and while that might suit beginners, it fast becomes frustrating for more advanced sound design.
Studio’s quantisation also leaves me wanting. It only applies to note start, not note end, and there’s no manual quantisation option after recording. I find no way to change note length within SLAB’s step sequencer mode either, and have to swap to the laptop to finish the job.
Remixing with SLAB
SLAB’s workflow has been rock-solid so far, but nothing extraordinary. That all changes with Studio’s genuinely impressive stem separation.
I load a full stereo bounce from my music library and use SLAB’s four parameter knobs to isolate the vocals — in real time and with remarkable clarity — as if I’m mixing a multitrack.
I use Auto-Set to find some chops and finish off my loop:

I also play around with the project’s tempo and key, and Studio dynamically repitches each Deck as I go. This is a useful utility for working material into DJ sets, but it’s also a fun creative tool that can drastically change the feel of your idea.
Arrangement and mixing with SLAB
Arranging parts into a full track is where Serato Studio’s limitations become most apparent. Deck-level patterns are stored in abstractions called Scenes, which can be chained together in Song View to create structure.
I start a new project with a relaxed electro feel and build out a simple track:

SLAB can’t yet be used to sequence Scenes in Song View, but doing so directly on the laptop is straightforward. However, you can’t mix and match individual Deck sequences across Scenes like you would in Ableton Live’s Session View. Another bugbear is deck-level automation, which has to be done within the corresponding Scene and can’t be drawn directly into Song View’s timeline.
Fortunately, Studio’s mixer is pretty capable. SLAB puts Deck volume, three-band EQ, effects, and stem separation at your fingertips via its touch-sensitive knobs, and I regularly find myself making speedy on-the-fly tweaks.
An effects roster rounds things out alongside Studio’s third-party plugin support. While SLAB is connected to Studio, users also unlock four exclusive Pad FX, including Pitch Looper and Inverse Reverb, though these are fairly rudimentary with a single controllable ‘amount’ parameter.
Elsewhere, I drop the Sidechain effect onto an Instrument Deck, and it automatically pipes in the kick from my drums — a nifty touch.
Image: Press
Alternatives to Serato SLAB
SLAB’s arch-nemesis is likely Native Instruments’ Maschine Mikro, with the MK3 being slightly cheaper than SLAB at £219. The two are broadly similar controllers, but NI’s ecosystem is a decade more mature than Serato’s.
For the self-contained route, Akai’s MPC One+ is a complete beatmaking workstation, albeit with a steeper learning curve. It’s more expensive at £555, but that may work out cheaper for some since there’s no need for a production-grade laptop.
A third choice is a traditional DAW. Logic Pro costs £199, and various capable controllers can be found for under £100. There’s more to set up and learn, but that initial investment will later pay off for those who want to grow beyond the relatively simple productions possible with Serato Studio.

Should I buy Serato SLAB?
Serato’s SLAB-and-Studio pairing deftly bridges the gap from DJ to beatmaker without technical know-how, and its feature set robustly handles the main building blocks of music production.
The stem separation is an impressive, indispensable tool for remix addicts. I can also see the ecosystem working well for producers who need a rapid way to prototype ideas when collaborating with vocalists and rappers.
The controller is fantastic — well-built, sensibly laid out, and pleasing to look at — but its functionality is intrinsically tied to Serato Studio, which ultimately lacks the sound-sculpting horsepower of the major DAWs. I also dislike the need for a separate Studio licence ($238 including VAT) if you want to run the full version without SLAB plugged in.
Most of SLAB and Studio’s stumbles are minor. If this is your first foray into music production or you simply want a distilled package for crafting loops and beats, SLAB delivers exactly that — at a price that’s as beginner-friendly as its workflow.
Key Features

Bus-powered USB-C controller (cable included in box)
16 RGB LED velocity-sensitive performance pads
4 touch-sensitive endless encoders for parameter adjustment
Multi-function dial for browsing, sample scrubbing, Focus Control, and more
Touch strip for expressions like pitch bending, velocity, filtering, Note
Repeat, and effects control
OLED screen
Transport buttons
Native integration with latest versions of Serato Studio, Sample, and DJ Pro
Unlocks Serato Studio full version and Core Library when plugged in
Dimensions: 284 mm x 209 mm x 45 mm
Weight: 1kg

The post SLAB is an ambitious leap into Serato Studio hardware — and it deftly sticks the landing appeared first on MusicTech.

Are Bitcoin ETFs quietly accumulating or just not selling? The flow data that mattersThe spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded four straight months of outflows, with hodlings down 85,000 BTC since October 2025. Is slowing institutional demand the death knell for BTC price?