CES 2026: Everything revealed, from Nvidia’s debuts to AMD’s new chips to Razer’s AI oddities CES 2026 is in full swing in Las Vegas, with the show floor open to the public after a packed couple of days occupied by press conferences from the likes of Nvidia, Sony, and AMD and previews from Sunday’s Unveiled event. 

Bitcoin tests key support as bulls reset to prepare for futures-led rally to $101.5KBitcoin traders’ risk sentiment turned bullish, with the proof being in this week’s futures-led advance to $95,000. Will bulls make another attempt after retesting a key underlying support level?

Best mastering plugins for Pro Tools (free and paid)
We explore the best mastering plugins for Pro Tools, including powerful free options as well as industry-standard paid tools.

Seeing Sound with a LaserYou can hear sound, of course, but what if you could see it with a laser? That’s what [Goosetopherson] thought about, and thus a new project that you can see in the video below was born.
The heart of the project is an I2S chip and an ESP32. Sound energy deforms a plastic film that causes a mirror to move. The moving mirror alters the course of the laser’s beam.
An important part of the project is the 3D printed enclosure designed in Fusion. Some wires are routed through during printing, and there are heat-set inserts.
If you haven’t run into it before, you can think of I2S as I2C for stereo audio. It uses a synchronous protocol to push audio data using three wires. The board in question takes the digital data and decodes it to drive the speaker.
This is a simple project that would lend itself to lots of substitutions if you decide to replicate it. In fact, we’ve seen a version of this that is nothing more than a Bluetooth speaker, some plastic film, a mirror, and a laser.

MusicPro ’26 Brings Artists and Professionals TogetherOn Thursday, January 8, a campaign was launched to "invite independent and emerging artists to attend MusicPro ’26."

"MusicPro ’26 is a unique gathering of independent and emerging artists, music professionals, and the companies and organizations that exist to support them," said Dendy Jarrett, Give A Note CEO. "It’s been created as a fundraiser for music education non-profit Give A Note foundation, which over its 13 years has undertaken a variety of music education initiatives including helping over 800 schools develop and install music technology in their classrooms. Give A Note began with a grant from the producers of the TV Show “Glee.” All attendee and sponsor fees from MusicPro ‘26 go to benefit Give A Note."

"Another unique aspect of MusicPro ’26 is that it’s being held during spring break at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, a particularly compelling location," he continued. "With full use of the campus, the conference presents an interactive learning activity held in a teaching facility that has recording studios, performance spaces, rehearsal rooms and wired classrooms. The place is brimming with backline, streaming capabilities and music technology. MI also has a new and central outdoor Commons area that’s covered and perfect for our sponsors’ booths, our registration kiosk, and networking receptions."

"Attendees will have the opportunity to meet and work with one another as well as interact with members of the music industry in workshops, panel and listening sessions, structured music creation activities, demonstrations and keynotes. Our first 20 sessions were just posted at musicpro26.com."

The post MusicPro ’26 Brings Artists and Professionals Together first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

You’ve got 2 days left to get Excite Audio’s complete professional plugin collection at half priceIf you’ve still got a little bit of cash left over after the holidays, then you might wanna snatch up this huge Excite Audio plugin bundle that’s on sale with over 50 percent off.
The complete Excite Audio collection bundle available from Plugin Boutique packs in all Excite Audio plugins, and you pay as little as €15 / $15 per plugin. The offer ends on 11 January though, so you’ll need to get moving.
[deals ids=”2U0ij33SgG5q30PDJvwAFJ”]
The bundle includes loads of plugins, including Excite Audio’s Evolve series. This features a collection of sample-based synths, each built around the sonic character of a different material, such as elastic, velvet, or even metal.

READ MORE: LANDR acquires Reason Studios: “This isn’t about changing Reason, it’s about giving it room to grow”

Its Bloom series is also included in the offer, featuring eleven instruments with each built from loops, one-shots and phrases. These phrases can be triggered, transformed, and rearranged all while staying in key and in time with your project.

Offering distortion, reverb, and granular effects, the Motion series is included to help producers “push the boundaries of sound design”, and provide all the necessary tools for shaping, modulating, and transforming audio.
You’ve also got VISION 4X within the bundle, a visual analysis plugin that provides a deeper understanding of your sound, and KSHMR Chain, which copies your plugin chain from one track to others.
Completing the collection are the Lifeline multi-effect plugins: Lifeline Console brings recordings to life with the warmth of analogue audio processing, while Lifeline Expanse breathes life into any sound by adding character, space and width.
Shop the bundle now over at Plugin Boutique.
The post You’ve got 2 days left to get Excite Audio’s complete professional plugin collection at half price appeared first on MusicTech.

SSL reveal autoSeries plug-ins SSL's latest software release introduces a new bundle of EQ and compression plug-ins that combine the company’s modelling expertise with sonible’s AI-assisted anaylsis tools. 

Nice Stomps AmpBrowserAmpBrowser brings thousands of free amplifier profiles directly into your DAW through an intuitive search-and-load interface. Powered by Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) technology and connected to the Tone3000 community library, you can instantly access classic and modern amps by simply searching by brand, model, or amp type. Choose between Full Rig (FR) profiles—where the speaker cabinet is baked into the capture—or DI amp profiles, which let you use your own IR loader and cabinet impulses for complete tonal control. Each amp profile is captured using machine learning for authentic feel and response, and with built-in controls for Gain, EQ, Level, Gate, and Presence/Bright, you can dial in professional tones quickly without managing files or scrolling through endless preset folders. A free Tone3000 account is required for the plugin to function as intended. Please read the manual for setup and usage instructions. No more downloading individual profiles or digging through preset banks — just search, load, and play. Read More

Waves has announced Curves Resolve, a FREE plugin to kick off 2026
Once again, Waves has announced that it will be giving away a free plugin to kick off 2026 – Curves Resolve. Over the last couple of years, Waves has given us freebies like Magma StressBox and IDX Intelligent Dynamics. The thing both plugins have in common is that they were Black Friday freebies, which is [...]
View post: Waves has announced Curves Resolve, a FREE plugin to kick off 2026

From Salt-N-Pepa’s dismissed UMG case to UK music streaming subscription revenues’ 3.2% growth… it’s MBW’s weekly round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
Source

NAMM 2026 Will Feature First Ever “Music Innovation Hub”Adam McHeffey (Rock Paper Scissors) believes “Innovation is really about seeing and hearing something essential yet overlooked in how we engage with music.”
The post NAMM 2026 Will Feature First Ever “Music Innovation Hub” appeared first on Hypebot.

The Bandsintown Team Shares Their Favorite Concerts of 2025Since the holiday break, the Bandsintown office has been abuzz with conversation around the team's favorite concerts in 2025. We thought we'd share those with you, dear readers. Enjoy!
The post The Bandsintown Team Shares Their Favorite Concerts of 2025 appeared first on Hypebot.

“The sonic legacy of SSL with AI-assisted audio analysis”: Solid State Logic partners with sonible on new plugin rangeSolid State Logic has partnered with sonible for a new family of plugins that bring together its “best-in-class” 4000 E modelling with sonible’s AI-assisted audio analysis.
The trio of new plugins, known as the autoSeries family, include autoEQ, autoDYN, and autoBUS, and are the only official SSL 4000 Series plugins on the market to harness sonible’s AI capabilities.

READ MORE: Get the “unmistakable vibe of classic spring reverb” with Solid State Logic’s new SpringVerb plugin

The AI-assisted analysis featured across the range helps users create and adapt processing relative to their source material. Each plugin analyses your audio’s spectral and dynamic characteristics to suggest adaptive profiles with style-matched settings that are fully editable.
autoEQ is modelled on the SSL 4K E channel strip, and SSL says it delivers “the same sonic signature that helped shape records by artists including Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Kate Bush, U2, Metallica, and more.” autoDYN is modelled on the SSL 4K E consoles channel strip Compressor/Limiter and Gate/Expander, and provides punchy compression, fast musical gating, and a range of other dynamic possibilities.
The final plugin, autoBUS, is modelled on the coveted Bus Compressor from the SSL 4000 G console, the sound of which was embraced by engineers and producers including Tom Lord-Alge, Bob Rock, and MixedByAli, and used by artists including Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, and Massive Attack.
Find out more about the features of all three plugins in the video below:

“SSL has always strived to create recording and production tools that allow our customers to expand their abilities and focus on their creation,” says Enrique Perez, SSL GM/CTO. “This new partnership with sonible builds in their powerful AI audio analysis engine to complement our classic SSL processing, giving our customers more freedom to do exactly that.”
Alex Wankhammer, sonible CMO, adds: “sonible has been at the forefront of AI-assisted audio processing for over a decade, and this initial partnership with SSL showcases how new machine learning tools can combine with traditional processing techniques to offer users something very unique”.
The autoSeries plugins are available now, with individual perpetual licenses at an introductory price of $49/£39/€49 (excluding taxes) through to 26 January. They are also available as part of the Complete Access subscription.
Find out more over at Solid State Logic, or learn more about sonible.
The post “The sonic legacy of SSL with AI-assisted audio analysis”: Solid State Logic partners with sonible on new plugin range appeared first on MusicTech.

Remember that CDJ-3000 firmware bug? AlphaTheta and pro DJs explain what really happened — and how to avoid it in the futureHalloween is one of the biggest weekends of the year for DJ— something about the frightful, flamboyant costumes propels young people to dancefloors. This past Halloween, however, the fear didn’t come from any horror-movie decorations or jump scare tactics. The real terror was behind the decks when DJs couldn’t load their playlists into their Pioneer DJ CDJ-3000s. That included BBC Radio 1 host, Jaguar. When she connected her USB to the player at Drumsheds in London, there was no music. No tracks. No playlists. Nothing. She tried another USB. Still nothing. She asked the sound technicians. They didn’t know what the problem was either, and they couldn’t get another CDJ because all three rooms were running that night.

READ MORE: How AlphaTheta’s CDJ-3000X is finding an unexpected new audience

The issue was with the most recent firmware update for the CDJs, version 3.30. That firmware only reads Rekordbox data from Device Library Plus (which is now known as OneLibrary) and not Device Library. AlphaTheta, the company that produces CDJs and Rekordbox, quickly suspended distribution of that firmware and recommended rolling back to version 3.20. Now the company has released a statement regarding the issue, apologising for the confusion:
“We recognise that the transition may have caused inconvenience or concern, and we take that feedback seriously. Some users experienced an issue during the transition from Device Library to OneLibrary, where older versions of rekordbox were used to export libraries to USB drives. In certain situations, tracks or playlists didn’t display on the CDJ-3000, but, importantly, no music or data was deleted.”
AlphaTheta also announced that CDJ-3000s will be reverted to be able to run on Device Library only. OneLibrary compatible products, such as the CDJ-3000X, OPUS-QUAD, OMNIS-DUO, and XDJ-AZ, will still not be compatible with Device Library. The statement ends with a USB export guide that outlines the different libraries and explains how DJs can be sure their data will load on all products.
For another perspective on the nature of the issue, Mojaxx, veteran DJ and host of Beatsource Tech, describes the issues to MusicTech as such:
“Once Rekordbox reached version 6.8.1, AlphaTheta created Device Library Plus as a database primed for future innovations and new products. Device Library Plus contained the same pieces of data as the previous Device Library, such as cue points, playlists, artwork, and track names, but it was a separate database file. Firmware 3.30 defaulted to Device Library Plus if it was present, even if that had been updated less recently than the Device Library, or if it was empty. All the music and data from the original library were still on the USB, but it couldn’t be accessed on the CDJ.”
Thankfully, in the wake of the buggy firmware, Jaguar’s set was a back-to-back with the Rinse FM DJ Lu.Re, who was able to play while Jaguar figured it out. She found an old USB from years ago that worked — it didn’t have any of her first original tracks, all the other music was old, and she wasn’t especially familiar with the playlists. But she was able to play tracks.

“I get this stress dream once a month at least: ‘Your USB is blank’, and it’s just like, ‘what do I play?’ That was it,” Jaguar says. “The crowd didn’t realise, and because it was two of us, we pulled it off. If it had been a solo set, I would have been mortified. Would there just be no music for that hour?”
In the aftermath, Jaguar was one of several DJs to post to social media, alerting fellow DJs to the situation. Others included What So Not, VTSS, Samurai Breaks, Tiffany Calver and Zoe London. Because Pioneer DJ’s CDJ has been the undisputed industry standard since their inception in 2001, the issue was a worldwide phenomenon.
Before the CDJ-1000, no CD deck had a jog wheel that allowed for live scratching. Mojaxx remembers when it was first introduced: “It was such a step above everything that had come before it in terms of ergonomics and usability.” Five years after that, every club in the UK had them, and so DJs became used to the design, which remains largely unchanged.
“AlphaTheta has to deal with the legacy of their hardware that has existed for so long. They are always in this bind of, ‘We want to innovate, but if someone is going to turn up and play in front of 50,000 people and we give them new players that work in a totally different way, that’s gonna cause a problem for a lot of DJs,’” Mojaxx says. “That’s always the issue they’ll always have, and will continue to have whilst they remain the industry standard. Change is difficult for people, especially when it’s technology you rely on in a professional environment.”
After all, one reason so many DJs were upended by the new firmware is that they didn’t update their Rekordbox. Major DJs such as Zedd have specifically told DJs not to do so after previous updates had set-ruining bugs. That doesn’t change the fact that modern DJing is predominantly a software-based profession, and bugs are inevitable. In the wake of this recent one, Mojaxx and Jaguar have thoughts on how future situations can be avoided, such as better communication from AlphaTheta:
“I’d never heard of Device Library Plus,” Jaguar says. “If they’d done a news piece or info videos, I think that would have been really helpful.” AlphaTheta actually posted an explainer about a year ago on Device Library Plus, but the video is surrounded by a lot of artist-driven content and product tutorials emphasising features rather than functionality.

“AlphaTheta’s social media is all about branding and coolness. One area where they could do better is having communication posts and more information on their YouTube,” Mojaxx says. At the time of writing, no social post has been made with the statement on the firmware on either the AlphaTheta USA or AlphaTheta Global Instagram pages, or on the AlphaTheta YouTube channel.
“When there’s a new firmware update for any AlphaTheta product, there should be a YouTube video talking through that update,” Mojaxx continues. He doesn’t blame AlphaTheta entirely, though. There’s a reason plenty of DJs were still able to use their USBs despite the new firmware bug: They are on top of the tech, they have a laptop that can run the most current version of Rekordbox, they keep Rekordbox updated, and they hey bring USBs with multiple versions of Rekordbox.
“The number of DJs I see turn up at gigs with one USB stick—my jaw is on the floor. You cannot roll like that. If you’re getting paid to DJ, you need at least four sticks,” Mojaxx says. “Two of them need to be exported from the latest Rekordbox, and another couple of sticks you’ve exported on an older version that you know work. Just because you’re playing off a USB stick, you’re still a software DJ. You have to make sure that your software is correct, updated, and working with the hardware that you’re going to use. That is a responsibility of the DJ.”
“DJing and making music are completely different things. You’ve made a tune that’s popping off on TikTok, and now you’re getting booked for gigs. How could you possibly be a great DJ when you haven’t been doing it very long?” Jaguar inquires. “We’ve got massive events like Drumsheds and your Warehouse Projects, which are so amazing and fun. But then, people are not supporting the smaller grassroots events. Being a good DJ is playing every slot ever. Warm-up. Peak time. [You need] experience.” Weddings. Local pubs. Five-hour sets for £100. At those gigs, faulty tech is inevitable, but you still need to keep your cool and get through the night.
Mojaxx echoes Jaguar’s point about how community is not only essential for DJs, but it could have stifled the CDJ issue significantly. He recommends going to a local DJ store to test all the USBs on CDJs before arriving at the gig or head to common hubs like Reddit to engage with other Rekordbox users about new updates. Mojaxx shouts out Mix Master G, whose channel is specifically dedicated to the technology behind DJing.
“Tech stuff isn’t for everybody, but there’s always technology involved. Otherwise, we’d be playing acoustic guitars,” Mojaxx says. “Talk to other DJs about what equipment they’re using, what USB sticks they’re getting good results with, what they’re formatted to, and what version of Recordbox they’re using. Have those discussions to make sure that you’re at least abreast of what’s going on.”
AlphaTheta and Pioneer DJ’s CDJ models will likely remain the industry standard for years to come, and in many ways, this Halloween fiasco was a wake-up call. AlphaTheta recently posted a series of YouTube videos exploring ancillary functions on the CDJ-3000X, such as browsing and new button builds. Plus, more DJs than ever are conscious of library formatting and Rekordbox updates.
Jaguar may still have that same stress dream as her career continues, but now she knows what questions to ask and what issues to address to ensure the real-life version doesn’t come to pass ever again.
The post Remember that CDJ-3000 firmware bug? AlphaTheta and pro DJs explain what really happened — and how to avoid it in the future appeared first on MusicTech.

GIK Acoustics introduce Q11D diffusors The Q11D range is based on the design of the existing Q7D, but employs an 11-root well sequence that shifts its effective bandwidth higher into the midrange.