Russia introduces bill to criminalize unregistered crypto servicesIndividuals and groups would be required to register with the Bank of Russia before offering certain crypto services, or potentially face fines and prison time.

Live Review of MaanuSony Hall, New York, NY

Web: yain.coContact: sikki@sylaforever.comPlayers: Maanu, vocals; Asfandyar Ali, instrumental accompaniment

New Yorkers braved the cold at the end of January to see Maanu at Sony Hall. They arrived in droves, packing the theater wall to wall with a buzzing energy.

From Lahore, Maanu’s music blends pop, R&B, ballads, and hip-hop with his local culture to create something new and enthralling. Primarily in Urdu or Punjabi, his music leaves its hooks in the audience, making it impossible to forget. Maanu sprang on stage with high energy, amplified by hip-hop beats and bright lights. A slight tinge of melancholy from the vocal melody bubbled below, adding a deeper color than that of the high hats and fast beats. From the first note, the audience was dancing and singing along, utterly enamored.

Maanu’s stage set up was simple—he was joined only by Asfandyar Ali. Ali opened the show with his own set, playing stripped back tracks to warm up the crowd. He remained on stage playing live guitar and beats from a laptop. Together they created an intimate yet impactful dynamic. Throughout the show, beats ranged from mallets to sizzling high hats to dark bass drum. After a few minutes, Maanu chatted with the crowd, welcoming them in and announcing his recent marriage. Serving as a segue, Maanu shifted from upbeat anthems to tender ballads. Sweet guitar riffs from Ali and lilting melodies paired with pink lights to fill the room with an endearing atmosphere. Maanu’s ballad melodies swelled with emotion, filled with impressive vocal runs and gentle reverb in the guitar. Maanu and Ali rounded out the ballads with a pivot to R&B before bringing back some of the energy.

After this tender and earnest section, bright guitar and 2010’s hip-hop beats returned. The audience reacted immediately. These tracks were accompanied by enthusiastic singing, shouting, and clapping from the crowd. Grittier vibes in the guitar, deeper colors in the beat, and quicker lyrics had everyone on their feet dancing along. It felt like a party instead of a concert. Maanu’s connection with his audience is palpable, and they fed off each other’s energy all night long.

 Maanu does not tour in the United States often but embarked on a North American tour following the release of his album thikaana in 2025. There’s no news yet of any future projects, but I’m sure Maanu will be back with something new before long.The post Live Review of Maanu first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles exit OpenAI as company continues to shed ‘side quests’Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles are leaving OpenAI as the company shuts down Sora and folds its science team, signaling a sharp pivot away from consumer moonshots toward enterprise AI.

Cooking With Plasma (Not Fire)Cooking food with fire is arguably the technology that propelled humans to become the dominant species on Earth. It’s pretty straightforward to achieve, just requiring a fuel source, a supply of oxygen from the air, and a way to initiate the reaction; then it self-sustains. You wouldn’t think there’s much to improve, but what about cooking with plasma? [Jay] from the plasma channel is no stranger here, and he thinks that there may be something in this idea, certainly enough to actually build something.
Now, let’s be straight with you, this isn’t a new concept, and you can buy a plasma-based cooking appliance right now. But they are all AC-powered devices. What if you want to go camping? [Jay] attempts (and succeeds) in building a portable, rechargeable 600W plasma cooking device that can actually cook food, but it was not all plain sailing.
The existing off-the-shelf ZVS driver modules available were a bit weak and unreliable, and the required flyback coils were hard to find with the right specs, so he needed to get down to work building custom parts. First off, the coils. Custom formers were resin-printed and machine-wound with 4000 turns of fine wire, and then resin-sealed into the former. [Jay] takes care to explain that it is crucial to get all the air out of the windings, or else local flashover breakdown will occur and wreck the coil in a short time. We reckon the resulting coils look amazing in their own right!

We do love a nicely wound coil. Oooh!
Next, the ZVS drivers on hand had low-quality capacitors (well, not enough capacitance anyway) and cheap driver transistors, so both were upgraded. The initial plan was to have four driver/coil pairs, each driving a single pair of electrodes, with a common ground ring connecting them all. It turns out this was a terrible idea: the drivers were not synchronised, so they were pulling on each other, causing catastrophic damage to the PCBs in a very short time. The solution was more complicated wiring, to give each coil secondary output a dedicated electrode pair, so there was no direct electrical connection between neighbouring coils and no coupling between them. A clever electrode arrangement meant that a pan would sit on top of a ring of electrodes, causing plasma discharges to jump directly to the pan, thereby concentrating localised heating there. We were wondering how this new direct connection (the pan is now a common connection!) didn’t also cause backfeeding and kill the ZVS drivers again, but it didn’t seem to happen.
Bang, smell, oops. The copper is supposed to be stuck to the PCB.
Anyway, [Jay] demonstrates what is possibly the world’s first rechargeable, portable plasma cooker capable of making breakfast. Which we think is very important in its own right, however, we would like a plasma-based solution to making toast next, perhaps a plasma knife that cooks the bread as you slice it?
If this plasma cooking lark rings a bell, yes, we did touch upon this way back in 2017. And whilst not strictly plasma cooking, you can make an amazing microwave plasma in this ridiculously upgraded appliance. Definitely do not try that one at home.

Kris Bowers on finding honesty in music and the art of film scoring
In this exclusive interview, award-winning composer Kris Bowers (Bridgerton, The Wild Robot) shares his insights on writing character themes, finding inspiration in honesty, and more.

From Live Nation’s antitrust trial loss to Max Lousada and Julie Greenwald’s 26.2 launch… it’s MBW’s weekly round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
Source

Cloudy Samples Filtre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ6ar8kYcLo Free Filter Engine & Modulation Plugin Breathe movement and life into your sounds with Filtre by Cloudy Samples, a versatile sound-shaping tool designed for modern producers. Combining a pristine 16-mode Contour Filter with a deeply customizable LFO Modulation engine, Filtre allows you to sculpt, animate, and transform any audio source - from subtle analog-style sweeps to complex, rhythmic gating and panning effects: Contour Filter: Whether you need surgical EQ adjustments or aggressive synth-style filtering, this section delivers 16 distinct Filter Modes. Choose from a wide variety of filter types to find the perfect character for your track. Including classic emulations like the Moog, as well as Biquad, High Shelf, Low Shelf, Ring Mod, Peak, SVP Notch, and many more. LFO Modulation Engine: Turn static sounds into evolving textures. Filtre features three independent LFOs dedicated to modulating Filter Frequency, Volume, and Balance. Select from standard shapes (Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square, Random, Step) or design your own movement (CST) with customizable waveform windows. Fully Resizable Interface: Scale the beautiful, hardware-inspired GUI to fit any screen size or resolution, ensuring a comfortable workflow in any studio setup. Custom Preset System: Save, organize, and recall your favorite filter and modulation routings instantly with the built-in preset manager. Features: Filtre VST3/AU 64-bit FX Plugin. Customizable Contour Filter Panel. 3 LFO Modulation Processors. Works with every DAW. Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X Support. Read More

MPG Awards 2026: Winners announced Following another sold-out MPG Awards ceremony at The Troxy in London, the MPG have released a full list of this year’s winners. 

Telepathic Instruments Pistil: the companion app to the ground-breaking Orchid has finally arrivedPistil – the companion app to the landmark Telepathic Instruments Orchid synthesizer – is finally out of beta, and is available now for download.
Telepathic Instruments made waves last year when it launched the Orchid, a revolutionary new synthesizer with an emphasis on chord generation and helping musicians “get out of their head”. 
The unit was one of the most-talked about synth releases in recent memory, with two limited drops in January and May 2025 selling out 1,000 and 3,000 units, respectively, in “minutes”. This was followed by a full-scale global release in September.

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

So far, Orchid has made its way into the hands of a cornucopia of musicians, including Kid Cudi, who used it on his 2025 track Submarine, Don Toliver, who used it on Call Back, plus Fred Again, Logic, Joy Anonymous and more.
When the world was first introduced to Orchid, it arrived as a 12-key, 16-voice polyphonic synth, boasting three synth engines, plus arguably its main selling point, a groundbreaking  chord generation system allowing users to play a root note and generate new chords and voicings. The first iteration also included onboard effects like reverb, chorus, delay, LFOs, envelope generators and a separate bass engine.
But a core pillar of the ongoing development process for the Orchid has been community feedback; the third-generation global release introduced a number of community requested features, including a selection of pre-programmed beats by Telepathic founder and Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker; a dedicated cutoff frequency filter for sound shaping, Quantisation and more.
That same community-first approach has kept Orchid’s companion app Pistil in beta phase while users test and hash out features, until now.

Offering “direct access” to the three synth engines behind Orchid, Pistil V1.0 arrives with ten new sounds, a rebuilt delay engine, plus a raft of stability improvements.
“After months of development with our community, Pistil is out of beta,” Telepathic writes. “If you’ve spent any time in the Discord, you know they’ve been thorough. The sound of Orchid, no hardware required.”
While Pistil also works as a standalone plugin, it’s the perfect companion app, offering bi-directional control with an Orchid hardware unit. Simply put, connected together, Pistil responds to how you use Orchid in real time, so you can morph and sculpt sounds, and record performances directly into your DAW with ease.
“Unlock the sonic world of Kevin Parker and Telepathic Instruments with Pistil, all within your DAW. It’s digital magic,” the brand writes.
Pistil is available now for download for £99. Learn more at Telepathic Instruments.
The post Telepathic Instruments Pistil: the companion app to the ground-breaking Orchid has finally arrived appeared first on MusicTech.

“If this development goes ahead, we will lose far more than a studio”: Petition launched to save London’s Battery Studios from demolitionA petition has been launched calling for the preservation of London’s iconic Battery Studios, which is currently under threat of demolition and redevelopment into residential flats.
Originally founded in 1967 as Morgan Studios, the Willesden studio has long been regarded as one of the UK’s most important recording environments, with a history spanning multiple eras of British and international music.
In the petition, organisers describe the studio as an “irreplaceable cultural landmark” and urge the industry, artists, and public to act before another historic creative space is lost.
“We are calling on the music industry, artists, and the public to stand together to protect this irreplaceable cultural landmark,” the statement reads. “The music created within its walls has shaped global culture and helped define the UK as a world leader in music.”

READ MORE: Jury rules Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as an illegal monopoly and overcharged concertgoers

The petition also highlights a wider concern across the UK studio landscape, warning that recording and creative spaces are “being lost at an alarming rate”. It argues that demolition and redevelopment not only erase cultural infrastructure, but also carry a higher environmental cost than renovation and reuse.
“Demolishing and rebuilding carries a far greater carbon cost than preserving and modernising existing structures. Saving Battery Studios is not only culturally responsible – it is environmentally responsible,” the statement continues.
Organisers also point to precedent for protecting cultural recording sites, arguing that allowing the demolition would undermine efforts to preserve creative infrastructure in the UK.
“Importantly, there is strong precedent for protecting studios and creative spaces like this,” they add. “Allowing this demolition would go against that progress and send the wrong message about how we value our cultural assets. We urge the council to reject this proposal and instead support the preservation and continued use of Battery Studios as a world-class creative facility.”
The campaign has drawn support from artists like singer-songwriter Nadine Shah, who stressed the wider cultural impact of losing spaces like Battery.
“Places like Battery are ecosystems. They bring together artists, producers, engineers, and visionaries,” Shah writes. “When we lose studios like Battery, we’re not just losing real estate. We’re losing history. We’re losing opportunity. Beyond music, studios contribute to the cultural and economic life of a city. They attract global talent. They support local jobs. They help define a city’s identity. What kind of city do we want London to be?”
“Once these spaces are gone, they don’t come back,” she adds. “You can’t rebuild decades of history. You can’t recreate the atmosphere that made them special. You can’t replace the invisible magic that lives within their walls. Saving Battery Recording Studios isn’t just about preserving a building – it’s about protecting the future of music and those who create it.”

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Battery’s legacy stretches back decades, with landmark recordings including Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast (1982) and Killers (1981), Talk Talk’s The Colour of Spring (1986), and The Cars’ Heartbeat City (1984) all tracked within its walls.
In the 1990s, the studio also hosted sessions for records such as Skunk Anansie’s Paranoid & Sunburnt (1995) and The Stone Roses’ debut album. Since 2005, the facility has been owned by producer duo Flood and Alan Moulder, who renamed it Assault & Battery Studios and have since worked on projects for artists including Foals, White Lies and Ed O’Brien.
Sign the petition at Change.
The post “If this development goes ahead, we will lose far more than a studio”: Petition launched to save London’s Battery Studios from demolition appeared first on MusicTech.

fedDSP releases fedZEP guitar amp plugin with two original amps, three pedals, and a full FX rack
fedDSP has released fedZEP, a new guitar amp plugin built around two original amp designs, three preamp pedals, a dual-cab section, and a full FX rack. fedDSP is a small team from Sheffield, UK, led by producer and engineer Federico Telesca. Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered their first three plugin releases: the MORSO [...]
View post: fedDSP releases fedZEP guitar amp plugin with two original amps, three pedals, and a full FX rack

Nuvo Flight mic kit from AEA The latest arrival to the AEA line-up brings together three contrasting models from their Nuvo range, delivering a versatile miking kit aimed at both studio and live use. 

Luma launches AI-powered production studio with faith-focused Wonder ProjectThe studio's first project will be about Moses and star Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley, to be released this spring on Prime Video.

Emperor Reigns at the WilternHowever closely associated one is to the infamous Norwegian black metal scene, the name of pioneering band Emperor is one that looms large. Maybe you saw the Lords of Chaos fictionalized horror-crime movie that centered on fellow black metal band Mayhem and the surrounding murders and church burnings. Or maybe you've marveled at former Emperor man and self-proclaimed goblin Mortiis. Either way, it's long been hard to ignore Emperor, even if you tried.

Emperor formed in 1991, and frontman Ihsahn has been there from the start. Guitarist Samoth joined shortly afterwards in '92, with drummer Trym Torson joining the Satanic ranks in '96. Thirty years later, the trio is joined by a few live musicians to fill out the sound.

We saw Mayhem live in L.A. a couple of years ago, and it wasn't good. Turgid and wooden, it felt like they were going through the motions. Meh, maybe it was a bad night. However, Emperor were superb at the Wiltern.

Long gone are the days of corpse makeup and weaponry. That said, they don't need it. There might be more years on the clock, but Emperor 2026 is as imposing, heavy and evil (musically) as they've ever been.

Early tracks "Wrath of the Tyrant" from the 1992 debut EP of the same name) and "I Am the Black Wizards" (from 1994's In the Nighttime Eclipse debut full-lengther) sounded raw and just plain nasty.

The most recent Emperor album is 2001's Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise, and we got a brutal "In the Wordless Chamber" from that. Killers from the sophomore Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk included "The Loss and Curse of Reverence" and "With Strength I Burn."

But it was those wide-eyed, gnarly songs from the first album that were the highlights for us. "Inno a Satana" was particularly moody and gloriously grim.

The legend of black metal has calmed down a bit. Everybody got old, and church-burning isn't on the agenda when you've got kids to pick up from school. That said, there's still a huge market for the scene. The line for the merch went on forever.

You can't keep a good devil-worshipper down!

The post Emperor Reigns at the Wiltern first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

FPGA Powers DIY USB Scope and Signal GeneratorOscilloscopes and to lesser extent signals generators are useful tools for analyzing, testing and diagnosing circuits but we often take for granted how they work. Luckily, [FromConceptToCircuit] is here to show us how they’re made.
[FromConceptToCircuit] starts by selecting the hardware to use: an Artix-7-based FPGA and an FT2232 USB-serial converter. RS245 in synchronous FIFO mode is selected for its high bandwidth of about 400 Mbps. Then, they show how to wire it all up to your FPGA of choice. Now it’s time for the implementation; they go over how the FT2232 interfaces with the FPGA, going through the Verilog code step-by-step to show how the FPGA makes use of the link, building up from the basic transmission logic all the way up to a simple framed protocol with CRC8-based error detection. With all that, the FPGA can now send captured samples to the PC over USB.
Now it’s PC-side time! [FromConceptToCircuit] first explains the physical pipeline through which the samples reach the PC: FPGA captures, transmits over RS245, FT2232 interfaces that with USB and finally, the software talks with the FT2232 over USB to get the data back out. The software starts by configuring the FT2232 into RS245 mode, sets buffer sizes, the whole deal. With everything set up, [FromConceptToCircuit] explains how to use the FT2232 driver’s API for non-blocking communication.
As a bonus, [FromConceptToCircuit] adds a signal generator feature to the oscilloscope using an I2C DAC chip. They start by explaining what exactly the DAC does and follow up with how it’ll be integrated into the existing system. Then it’s time to explain how to implement the I2C protocol bit-for-bit. Finally combine everything together for one final demo that shows a sine wave on the DAC’s output.