Jeesonic releases EQ Pro, a FREE 24-band dynamic EQ plugin
Jeesonic has released EQ Pro, a free dynamic equalizer plugin for macOS and Windows. EQ Pro is a surgical EQ with up to 24 dynamic bands, per-band stereo routing, selectable phase modes, and a real-time analyzer. That’s still crazy for a free plugin, if you ask me, even though I recently wrote that ZL Equalizer [...]
View post: Jeesonic releases EQ Pro, a FREE 24-band dynamic EQ plugin

Mastering The Mix’s Reference 3 tells you exactly how to fix your mix£59, masteringthemix.com
Checking how your mix stacks up sonically alongside a reference track is one of the best ways to level up your productions. Whether you’re at the writing stage and looking to calibrate your ears before you begin, or in the mixing or mastering phase, it’s an essential technique for beginners and pros alike.
I’ve always found switching back and forth between tracks to be incredibly clunky inside a DAW, but dedicated plugins like Mastering The Mix’s Reference make it quick and easy. Version 3 adds new and innovative ways of comparing tracks and, although some of these give mixed results, the overall package provides a slick workflow and enough useful tools to make it all worthwhile.

READ MORE: Is Oeksound’s Soothe3 the most transparent resonance suppressor yet?

Learning to identify a useful and relevant reference track is an important skill. Even within the same genre there are differences in things like kick drum size, hi-hat sizzle, and vocal width — picking the wrong track can leave you chasing your tail. To help with this, Reference 3 includes an inventive feature that scans your reference track folder to give each track a series of unique tags according to the elements of tonal balance, stereo, dynamics and loudness. It then listens and analyses your track for 20 seconds and pulls up four tracks from your library that are the closest, giving each a match percentage score. A larger and broader reference library will give the best results, naturally.
Especially impressive, is that the four tracks are instantly level matched to your track, with their loudest parts looped. More times than not, it provides me with useful selections that allow me to get started making comparisons straight away. When I disagree with any of the selections, then it’s easy to switch them out with a track of my own choosing. You can also set up additional loops, or switch to Mirror mode, which is useful for checking different versions of the track that you’re working on.
The centre of the user interface is where you click to switch between the original and the reference track, and it’s flanked by peak and LUFS meters so you can compare volumes. Below this is a veritable smorgasbord of feedback data on how the mixes compare, including differences in the frequencies, width, compression, and instrument balance. The latter is an innovative new feature called Mix Balance. It reads the relative volumes of the vocals, drums, bass and musical elements of each reference, and then compares it to your own balance, offering suggestions of volume adjustments if they don’t match.
Reference 3 Mix Balance. Image: Alex Holmes
Mix Balance can be heavy on the CPU and memory as it’s calculating in real time, but it can be switched off in the settings menu. I find the resulting suggestions are sometimes inconsistent, and making the relevant adjustments isn’t always then reflected in the metering. That said, when I take it more as a rough starting point to make minor tweaks, I am able to overcome my ear fatigue from hearing a track too many times, and manage to create a slightly more balanced mix.
The next section is Master Scope, which has several meters that can be switched on and off. These include red areas that will show up if you have portions of your track that are seriously out of phase, and also if there is over-compression in a region compared to the reference. Both are useful indicators of potential problems, but it’s also worth checking your mix in mono to make sure you’re not losing anything important. I also found the Over Compression meter seemed reluctant to register anything in the low-frequency range, even when I compressed the hell out of my master using an OTT compressor as a test.
Two returning features from the previous version, are the Stereo Width display and the Level Line, novel alternatives to simply trying to match two spectral curves together. It shows the difference between the two tracks as the exact EQ adjustments needed to make your track sound like the reference. You can change the refresh speed in the settings, which helps slow things down and make it easier to read. The manual suggests that as long as you’re within +/- 3dB, then you’re sounding pretty close, and this is highlighted by a faint blue region behind the line. You get four levels of zoom that potentially let you really hone in on the small differences, but it’s wiser to use the Level Line as a rough guide and work more zoomed out.
In principle, the Level Line is a more direct way to help you match your tracks than using a spectrum analyser, but it has the danger of leading you down the garden path of following numbers when you should be using your ears. I find myself making adjustments and expecting the line to match what I am doing, but it keeps recalibrating itself into different shapes as the built-in volume averaging system shifts the line up and down. It’s not without its uses though. If you take the first shape it presents and roughly build that into an EQ curve, then you get part of the way there.
Reference 3 Mix Instructor. Image: Alex Holmes
I am surprised to find the Stereo Width display to be the most useful to me. It shows how much you need to widen or narrow the mix at different parts of the spectrum, and the display seems to respond more predictably as you make changes in real time.
The final new section is the Mix Instructor, which essentially provides a text version of the meter readouts in the Master Scope display. It splits the spectrum into three bands and presents simple instructions like ‘Boost by 2 dB/. You could argue that using this is a safer idea than using the Level Line, as it works more generally without you obsessing over small, specific EQ shapes. However, it’s also victim to some of the same unpredictability issues, so use with care.
Other useful features include the ability to quickly solo a portion of the spectrum to help compare subs or top end, being able to switch the output from Stereo to Mono, Mid or Side, and the extra Ref Send plugin. This little beauty can be placed at the beginning of your mastering chain and will send a signal to Reference 3 so that you can easily do level-matched comparisons of your master bus processing. There’s even a guide on the Mastering The Mix website that shows how you can use it to route audio directly from music streaming services to compare to your tracks.
I’m somewhat torn with Reference 3. It’s arguably a victim of its own success at providing stacks of data for you to use when comparing tracks. When you see it providing specific width or EQ suggestions, it’s easy to make decisions based on trying to balance numbers rather than actually using your ears. That’s not necessarily the plugin’s fault though.
If you can build Reference 3 into your workflow as more of a guide than a verbatim solution, then it has stacks of useful tools and a lightning-fast workflow that could make it a decent contender.

Key features

Referencing plugin (VST3, AU, AAX)
Smart Reference Tracks feature automatically finds four similar tracks
Tracks are auto-looped, level matched, and given concise mix descriptors
Masterscope provides exact EQ and stereo width adjustments to match the reference
Also highlights phase issues and over-compression
Mix Balance feature suggests gain adjustments for vocals, drums, bass and music
Mix Instructor splits into three bands and tells you exactly what’s needed to match the reference
Match % displays how closely the tonal balance, stereo, dynamics and loudness are matched

The post Mastering The Mix’s Reference 3 tells you exactly how to fix your mix appeared first on MusicTech.

AI was supposed to kill engineering jobs, but new data suggests they’re the most resilientWhile AI dominates the layoff narrative, engineers as a share of total new hires have actually increased, according to SignalFire data.

MintoTsukino HotelCurrySpiceHotelCurrySpice is a free harmonic spice effect — it does not crush the original signal, but adds a precise "single sting" of harmonics to bring depth and character. Three controls only: SPICE (the amount of seasoning), HEAT (direction from rounded to biting), and TYPE (the harmonic recipe). Features: SPICE 0% — bit-transparent dry signal, true bypass. 4 harmonic recipes: 欧風 (European) / キーマ (Keema) / マサラ (Masala) / hidden 裏メニュー (Secret Menu). A/B comparison stores SPICE, HEAT, and TYPE together. Animated pot character GUI with 8 expressions. Safety peak guard to prevent dangerous output. Made by Minto Tsukino as part of the Minto Shokudo (Audio Tools) series. Free for personal and commercial use. Read More

FTX exec’s wife scheduled for November trial on campaign finance chargesA Manhattan judge ordered that Michelle Bond’s criminal trial start in November after he denied a motion to dismiss the indictment based on claims that prosecutors misled her husband over her charges.

Deezer’s new in-app remix feature lets users speed up and modify tracks by Céline Dion and other artists ‘with full rights compliance’Deezer says every remix is created with the explicit agreement of the artist, and that streams of remixed versions are attributed to the original work
Source

Laser Scanning A Cave With Homebrew GearHow do you measure the inside of a cave? You could do a bunch of hard work with classic surveying gear… or you could just use a laser scanner. [9nl] did the latter, with a scanning rig of his own creation.
The build is based around an Ouster VLP-16 mid-range lidar sensor. It shoots out pulses of light and measures how long it takes them to bounce back in order to determine the range of objects in the vicinity, and thus can be used to great effect for 3D scanning tasks. For [9nl], though, the sensor had a serious limitation. Since it only had a 40-degree field of view, it wasn’t ideal for the desired application of scanning a cave. However, by building a custom rig that could rotate the sensor, [9nl] ended up with a rig that could 3D scan an area through a full 360 degrees. There’s nothing wildly complex involved, just some good old mechanical engineering—putting the sensor on a shaft and spinning it with a belt drive. Then it’s just a matter of processing the data correctly. The hard part is then getting the rig in and out of the cave without breaking anything.
There are plenty of off-the-shelf 3D scanning solutions that can do this work, but few of them come cheap. Plus, rolling your own teaches you a great many things as you hone your solution to your particular needs. Video after the break.

[Thanks to Kovy Jacob for the tip!]

Assignments: Chris RogersonArtistic Director

The Bravo! Vail Music Festival

The Bravo! Vail Music Festival (Bravo! Vail) has announced composer Chris Rogerson as its next Artistic Director. Rogerson assumes the Artistic Director Designate role immediately and the Artistic Director title on September 1, 2026, for an initial three-year term. “Bravo! Vail represents the highest level of music-making in an incomparable natural setting. From its founding in 1987, it has served as a beacon of artistic integrity and a place of limitless artistic possibility,” said Rogerson.

For more, contact powens@bravovail.org.The post Assignments: Chris Rogerson first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Waves V17 now available Waves V17 introduces a range of new features and improvements, including a completely redesigned preset management system, new live sound and post-production enhancements, and Mix Unlock, a premium stem-separation feature within StudioVerse.

Waved Studio is a FREE browser-based wavetable editor
Speight Audio has released Waved Studio, a free browser-native wavetable editor for producers and sound designers. I wasn’t expecting too much when the developer first sent this over (I’ve seen quite a few lackluster browser-based tools for music producers), but Waved Studio is far more advanced than a quick browser toy. I’m not sure how [...]
View post: Waved Studio is a FREE browser-based wavetable editor

Meet Anukari, a strange virtual instrument that is “part synth, part virtual physics playground”A new virtual instrument called Anukari lets users build virtual objects like masses, springs, mallets, and bows, then play them to create kooky sounds.
Described as part synth, part virtual physics playground, Anukari has just launched following a beta testing phase and several years of development. It works as a plugin or standalone instrument, but is said to be “built more like a game”.

READ MORE: ADDAC System has designed a modular synth that can be played like a guitar

Anukari is visually malleable, and its outputs are shareable on social media. It functions as both a virtual instrument and an effects processor, able to process external audio sources such as vocals, guitars, and other instruments.
Users can shape and change how their object creations behave and place virtual microphones around them. Designed as an alternative to efficiency-based music tools that are popular across the market, Anukari is built for experimentation and discovery instead.
Evan Mezeske, founder and creator of Anukari, is a musician, autodidact, and a former engineering leader at Google with “a long history of playing with tech”.
“I grew up in my granddad’s autoshop surrounded by pistons and crankshafts. Perhaps because of that, I like machines and building things. Translating mechanical things into a simulation tickles that part of my brain that loves mechanical contraptions, and it makes playing Anukari feel different from other synths,” he explains.
“Chips or transistors are very abstract, but with 3D graphics and physics, you see what it’s doing in real time, it’s tactile. ‘It’s jiggling like this and making a sound.’”
See how it works in the videos below:

“I built Anukari for the intrepid sonic explorer. They may simply want to play and discover, or they may be a professional artist or producer looking for inspiration or a new sound to work with. Either way, I want people to push it, try to break it, and to see what surprises emerge in the process. I thought it was cool, and I want to invite others to make cool shit. That’s really our whole mission,” continues Mezeske.
“Lots of people assume Anukari is an audio engine with a cute visualiser on top, but the reality is it wouldn’t work without the graphics. The 3D visuals make the audio happen, not the other way around. Anukari is ridiculously efficient thanks to the way it’s designed.
“My past work at Google involved extremely large-scale systems, coordinating work across thousands of machines that have to cooperate. What I had learned about distributed systems applied to building an audio plugin and coordinating things happening in parallel.”
Anukari currently has an introductory price of $99 ($149 standard). You can find out more or try it for free by heading over to the Anukari website.
The post Meet Anukari, a strange virtual instrument that is “part synth, part virtual physics playground” appeared first on MusicTech.

Gator introduce the Frameworks Studio Mic Boom 2000 The Frameworks Studio Mic Boom 2000 features a weighted base along with locking castors and a counterbalanced boom, allowing for controlled positioning of heavier microphones.

Audiolatry releases Apus, a FREE lo-fi virtual instrument
Audiolatry has released Apus, a free/pay-what-you-want lo-fi virtual instrument for macOS and Windows. I haven’t seen anything new from Audiolatry for a while, so I was happy to get an email about this one. We’ve featured quite a few Audiolatry releases on BPB in the past, including LoQuest last year and Easy Strings in 2023. [...]
View post: Audiolatry releases Apus, a FREE lo-fi virtual instrument

Softube’s new Console 1 Compact brings hands-on mixing to even the smallest studiosSoftube has unveiled the Console 1 Compact, a new downsized version of its acclaimed Console 1 controller designed to bring hands-on mixing to producers and engineers short on desk space.
Described as an ultra-portable and more affordable take on the Console 1 concept, the Compact aims to bring the sound, feel and workflow of a large-format studio console to smaller studios and mobile setups.

READ MORE: Softube’s new Bus Processor plugin brings you the “essence of the legendary 670” for just $99

Like its larger siblings, Console 1 Compact’s layered one-to-one workflow lets you sculpt your mix with control over input, preamps, tape, filters, shape, EQ, compression, and output drive. Each knob or fader corresponds to a specific parameter, and no mapping is necessary. And like the rest of the Console 1 ecosystem, Compact integrates with all major DAWs, including Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live and Pro Tools. Users can also customise channel strips using Softube’s own software alongside supported plug-ins from developers such as FabFilter, Universal Audio and Plugin Alliance.

Physically, the unit packs 16 touch-sensitive Analogue Feel potentiometers (with an increase of more than “ten times the resolution” over the Console 1 Mk II generation), a high-resolution smart screen and RGB LED feedback that changes according to the user’s movements between layers and their mixing choices. The goal, says Softube, is to recreate the tactile experience of working with expensive outboard gear while keeping the controller compact enough for even the most crowded studio desks.
Finished in a bead-blasted aluminium chassis with a ‘Nordic Night Sky’ finish, Console 1 Compact also features USB-C connectivity and support for VESA and Softube’s Single Unit Stand mounting solution.
“Console 1 Compact is the perfect travel companion for Console 1 Channel Mk III users, the perfect upgrade for Console 1 Mk II users, the perfect way for Flow Studio users to tighten up the final details of a mix, and the perfect way for Flow Suite subscribers to take advantage of their channels strips and take control of their plug-ins in a truly hands-on way,” says the company.
For more information, visit Softube.
The post Softube’s new Console 1 Compact brings hands-on mixing to even the smallest studios appeared first on MusicTech.

Traxsource to introduce labels to identify both human-made and AI-assisted musicMusic download store Traxsource is introducing human-made and AI-assisted music labels across its platform from 1 July.
Traxsource has partnered with two AI detection companies, SH Labs and SoundPatrol, to support the identification and classification of music submitted to its platform. The system will flag fully AI-generated music for removal and provide the data used to classify the remaining music as either AI-assisted or human-made within the Traxsource classification system.

READ MORE: Is AI seriously in mics now?

The move follows the publication of Traxsource’s Our Position on AI Music statement, released in February this year, in which it acknowledged the legitimate use of AI “as a production tool” to “assist within a larger human-driven creative process”, but stated that entirely AI-generated music “does not belong on Traxsource”.
The AI labels are designed to help listeners make informed decisions based on their individual preferences regarding AI. Traxsource is continuing to actively remove fully AI-generated music daily and has a rebuttal process for content providers to submit disputes if they feel their music has been mislabeled.

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Brian Tappert, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Traxsource, says: “We realise that everything that got us here came from strong convictions and the guts to act on them. Our musical direction, starting Soulfuric, the crazy notion of launching a website selling digital files while the vinyl market was collapsing from online piracy.
“This AI moment feels like one of those all over again. We do not believe AI is going away. Everything we’re doing is about finding a way to live with it, and making sure the value stays where it belongs, with human-created works.”
Marc Pomeroy, Co-Founder and CTO of Traxsource, adds: “We envision a future where shopping for music is like shopping for food today, conventional products right next to certified organic, with the choice left to the consumer. We’re simply using technical means to preserve and uphold organic, human artistry, while keeping the option open for those artists who are pushing the envelope of technology, not wishing to stifle the creative process.”
To learn more about its AI policy, head over to Traxsource.
The post Traxsource to introduce labels to identify both human-made and AI-assisted music appeared first on MusicTech.