Save up to 80% on Roland plugins in Plugin Boutique’s exclusive Manufacturer Focus Sale
Plugin Boutique has launched an exclusive Roland Manufacturer Focus Sale, with discounts of up to 80% across the Roland Cloud plugin catalog. The sale runs from today through May 31, 2026. Two deals stand out the most for me. The JUNO-106 is down to $49 (75% off the usual $199), and the TR-808 is also [...]
View post: Save up to 80% on Roland plugins in Plugin Boutique’s exclusive Manufacturer Focus Sale

UChord by Ultimate MIDI Plugin is FREE for a limited time (Windows-only)
UChord is a MIDI chord progression generator, available in VST and VST3 formats for Windows. The plugin is available for free until June 15, 2026. If you’re looking for a chord generator plugin, but you’re on macOS, check out Bloomer Free, a chord engine focusing on emotion. Like all chord generators, UChord comes with a [...]
View post: UChord by Ultimate MIDI Plugin is FREE for a limited time (Windows-only)

POPlab Sounds releases Modern Live-Drums with intro offer
POPlab Sounds has released Modern Live-Drums, a new acoustic drum library modeled after the sound of current pop hits. The library is built around the kind of live-but-punchy drum sound that’s been front and center in modern radio pop production. In this case, instead of offering a generic acoustic kit, POPlab Sounds focused on recreating [...]
View post: POPlab Sounds releases Modern Live-Drums with intro offer

Look Mum No Computer on his Eurovision “mega-synthesizer”: “I drilled so many holes that my nipples chafed”Sam Battle – better known as Look Mum No Computer – represented the UK at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest final. The DIY enthusiast slash electronics musician also arrived into the competition with something most entrants don’t: a self-built “mega synthesizer” and by his own admission, a serious amount of drilling.

READ MORE: Roland Zenology GX for iPad is here – and it’s completely free for now

Speaking to the Press Association, the 37-year-old confirmed that much of his Eurovision staging was built by hand – a process made slightly more complicated by the small matter of becoming a new father at the same time.
“It has been a lot of work, especially as I have just become a new dad at the same time as prepping for Eurovision,” he says. “But overall, it’s been a lot of fun – I’m really proud of what we’ve pulled together and can’t wait to put it into practice.”
At the centre of the show is what Battle calls a “mega synthesizer” setup – a network of oversized synth panels and custom electronics designed to scale up his usual DIY chaos for the Eurovision stage.
Describing the build as being “on a much bigger scale than ever seen before”, Battle says that while he was responsible for most of the electronics and control systems, not everything made it past official approval – largely because “the BBC didn’t trust my welding”.
“I had the idea of using a car as well, but because the floor [of the stage] is an LED screen made of glass, there’s a solid weight limit of 500kg for all the props, so we had to abandon that,” he tells the BBC.
And as for the build itself, it was every bit as hands-on as you’d expect from someone whose entire artistic identity is built around DIY electronics.
“Many holes were drilled,” Battle says with a laugh. “I drilled so many holes that my nipples chafed.”

The UK ultimately finished last with Battle’s Eins, Zwei, Drei, while Bulgaria claimed its first-ever Eurovision win on Saturday night (16 May), with DARA’s Bangaranga taking the crown.
The post Look Mum No Computer on his Eurovision “mega-synthesizer”: “I drilled so many holes that my nipples chafed” appeared first on MusicTech.

Andrea Caccese releases Midrange Crush, a FREE saturation plugin for macOS
Mixing engineer Andrea Caccese has released Midrange Crush, a free vintage-style saturation and summing plugin focused on the midrange. Caccese is an artist in the band Dead Rituals as well as a mixing engineer, and Midrange Crush is his first plugin release. The plugin is based directly on a mixing technique he uses a lot [...]
View post: Andrea Caccese releases Midrange Crush, a FREE saturation plugin for macOS

Mikey Audio releases Shu, a FREE reverb plugin with seven algorithms
Mikey Audio has released Shu, a free reverb plugin for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Shu offers seven different reverb algorithms in a single interface. The seven modes are Silk (a smooth and clean reverb), Drift (spacious with a bit of modulation), Plate (classic studio plate), Classic (bright), Slap (tight room), Spring (spring tank), and Ether [...]
View post: Mikey Audio releases Shu, a FREE reverb plugin with seven algorithms

Roland Zenology GX for iPad is here – and it’s completely free for nowIt’s been a long wait since its NAMM tease, but Roland’s ZENOLOGY GX for iPad is finally here.
“Designed from the ground up” for iPadOS, ZENOLOGY GX for iPad brings the “complete power” of Roland’s ZEN‑Core Synthesis System – the same advanced engine behind flagship instruments like FANTOM and JUPITER-X – into a streamlined, mobile format.
The app essentially ports Roland’s full modern synth ecosystem into iPad form, pairing deep sound design with immediate, hands-on playability, and a library of inspiring tools built for on-the-go creation and performance.

READ MORE: Get over 80% off this “ultimate toolkit” mastering bundle from Sonnox from Plugin Boutique

At its core, ZENOLOGY GX for iPad offers more than 4,000 “expertly crafted tones” spanning vintage analogue, digital classics, and modern hybrid sounds – expandable to over 11,000 via additional content. It’s an instant gateway to decades of Roland sound design, all sitting inside a single instrument.
Credit: Roland
Create, edit, and perform with thousands of professional sounds, alongside deep synthesis tools, and a responsive, touch‑friendly interface that moves effortlessly between mobile production, live performance, and studio workflows.
Under the hood, it’s still the full ZEN-Core engine: up to four partials per tone, multiple oscillator types (including virtual analogue, Supersaw, noise and PCM), ten filters (including JUPITER-style models), eleven LFO shapes, and more than 90 effects – including reverbs, JUNO-106 and CE-1 choruses, SDD-320 Dimension D, and DJ-FX Looper.
With a Roland Account, ZENOLOGY GX for iPad is free to use during a limited-time “launch experience” that runs until later in 2026. During this period, the entire feature set is unlocked – effectively giving users full access to the engine without paywalls or feature gating.
After the introduction period, the app will shift to a simplified version with limited edition and a reduced sound library. Users will be able to unlock full functionality with select Roland Cloud memberships or a one-time Lifetime Key purchase.

Learn more at Roland.
The post Roland Zenology GX for iPad is here – and it’s completely free for now appeared first on MusicTech.

Apple’s Siri revamp could include auto-deleting chatsPrivacy will be a major theme when Apple unveils a new version of Siri.

NFC Record Player Promotes Intentional ListeningStreaming services have enabled many of us to have easy access to the world’s media library at the touch of a screen, but [Coconauts] thinks we’ve lost something along the way. To bring some intentionality back to the listening experience, they built an NFC record player called Minilos.
Like a normal record player, Minilos requires the user to select an album to play on the machine. These were originally decorative coasters with records printed on them, so they are much smaller than even a 45. Each one features an NFC tag that instructs ESP32 microcontroller hidden in the device to play the requested song. Once placed on the record player, it will then play through that album and come to a stop.
In [Coconauts]’s current setup, the ESP32 is connected to a Home Assistant server which then instructs a Google Speaker to play the requested song via Spotify, although we could easily imagine this being used to play music directly from an SD card or other digital storage device instead.
If you want complete control over your music listening while still keeping that authentic vinyl experience, you could always look into cutting your own records with a laser.

KVASS LAB Drift Phonk Drum KitDrift Phonk Drum Kit is a collection of over 470 dark and distorted samples built for phonk. Designed to deliver maximum grit and punch. Inspired by: Dxrk ダーク, Kordhell, Hensonn, INTERWORLD, PlayaPhonk, LXST CXNTURY, DVRST, KSLV Noh. Inside you'll find heavy drum hits, drum loops (full loops, top loops, and individual stems) and FXs (impacts, sweeps and crashes). Perfect for drift phonk, dark phonk, aggressive trap, and wave. All sounds are royalty free. Contains | Over 470 Drift Phonk Samples : 222x Drum Loops (Full Loops, Top Loops Stems). 40x Kick. 31x Snare. 34x Clap. 33x Hihat. 18x Open Hat. 32x Perc. 15x Crash. 13x Fx. 11x Rim. 13x Shaker. 10x Stomp Kick. https://youtu.be/XEZHwe6K3BA Read More

Saylor signals BTC buy as retail holders get push on STRC dividend voteMichael Saylor signaled another Bitcoin buy on Sunday while urging retail investors to vote on a proxy measure enabling semi-monthly STRC dividend payouts.

Bogren Digital releases IRDX Studio, a FREE IR loader plugin
Bogren Digital has released IRDX Studio, a free modern IR loader plugin for macOS and Windows. Honestly, I haven’t loaded an IR in a while. Somewhere along the way, I realized IR loaders were leading me into micromanaging mode. I would audition dozens of cabinets, swap between mic positions, second-guess every choice, and never quite [...]
View post: Bogren Digital releases IRDX Studio, a FREE IR loader plugin

The haves and have nots of the AI gold rushThe vibes around the current AI boom aren't great, even in the tech industry.

21st Century Punch Cards are 3D Printed and Read By OpenCVWhile a punch card is perhaps the lowest-density storage medium available, it has some distinct advantages. As [Bitroller] points out in the write-up of his punch card project, if he was using stainless steel instead of PLA his 3D printed punch cards would likely outlast everything he owns, and survive a five-alarm fire to boot. If you have 16 bytes you really, really don’t want to forget — or are willing to store your private key in a shoe box — this project might be of interest.
The nice part is that he’s built a handy Python script to generate printable files for the punch cards, which encode 16 bytes of information and 4 bytes of error correction using the Reed-Solomon algorithm. That’s just enough for a password and the error correction means up to two bytes can be recovered in the case of read failure.
The reading is where this gets interesting — again, [Bitroller] provides a handy script, but this one uses OpenCV to read the entire punch card at once from a webcam image, using the contrast between a black table and the light-colored PLA cards. It’s massively overkill and would have needed a supercomputer in the days when punch cards were common I/O, but that’s what makes this a great hack.
We only have one quibble: if you use additive manufacturing, can you still call it a punch card? Nothing was punched out, after all.
If you think punch cards are totally irrelevant in the modern day, well, you might be right– but that doesn’t stop us from playing with them. If punch cards make you think of Big Iron in the early days of computing, maybe think further back– they were used for everything from Jacquard looms to the original MIDI.

Zillasound Zilla HeatZilla Heat is a free dynamic saturation and parallel bass exciter plugin designed to add massive analog character and warmth to your tracks without destroying your low-end. Key Features: - Parallel Bass Exciter: Injects rich harmonic overtones into your low frequencies while bypassing the main clipping stage to keep sub-bass tight and clean. - Mid-Range Saturation: Powered by a customized mathematical clipping algorithm to help vocals, guitars, and synths cut through dense mixes. - High-End Shimmer: An intelligent top-end engine that adds premium air and crispness to drums, overheads, or acoustic instruments. Perfect for warming up cold digital tracks, gluing drum buses, or adding safe pre-amp style saturation to your input chains. Read More