SUPERBOOTH24: Get Your ‘80s on With Dreadbox Murmux Analog Poly Synth
Dreadbox launched the new Murmux Adept analog polyphonic synthesizer, a hardware unit that’ll set you back a cool €2,180 + VAT (Sweetwater lists it at $2,999.) Bedroom Producers Blog saw this bad boy in action on the floor of Superbooth Berlin this week. Watch our video above the article (thanks to Minimal Audio for sponsoring [...]
View post: SUPERBOOTH24: Get Your ‘80s on With Dreadbox Murmux Analog Poly Synth

Ghana, Singapore conduct trade in semi-fungible token pilot projectProject DESFT is meant to encourage trade between small businesses using a CBDC and a stablecoin, with an emphasis on credentialing.

Adobe comes after indie game emulator Delta for copying its logoAfter Apple loosened its App Store guidelines to permit game emulators, the retro game emulator Delta — an app 10 years in the making — hit the top of the App Store’s charts. But the increased attention also brought the threat of legal action, as Adobe targeted Delta for sporting a logo that looked too […]
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Hardcore Duo Thrillrot Sign to Lost Future RecordsCalifornia label Lost Future Records has announced the signing of Denver based duo THRILLROT. The band's ultra-tight rhythms and creative dynamic shifts have earned them a growing following. Their forthcoming new album on Lost Future will be announced soon."I am very excited to announce that Denver based duo Thrillrot have signed to Lost Future for an LP to be released in 2025," writes label chief Ben Kaplan. "Their latest EP, B.O.S., immediately blew me away and I reached out to Noah and Mason the day after I heard it. These guys are super talented and focused on making something unique and artist driven which is what we are all about here at the label. I think on a full length album even more dimensions of this band will emerge and create something that all fans of metal will appreciate."Thrillrot is a two-piece metal band from Denver, Colorado known for their intense and energetic sound. The duo blends relentless drums, searing guitars and vocal savagery into a feast of fury, showcasing a raw aggression that resonates with listeners as much as it incites. With each performance, the band aims to be not just heard but felt, with the visceral nature of the genre always at the forefront.

On The Web: thrillrot.com

Emulating Biology For Robots With Rolling Contact JointsJoints are an essential part in robotics, especially those that try to emulate the motion of (human) animals. Unlike the average automaton, animals are not outfitted with bearings and similar types of joints, but rather rely sometimes on ball joints and a lot on rolling contact joints (RCJs). These RCJs have the advantage of being part of the skeletal structure, making them ideal for compact and small joints. This is the conclusion that [Breaking Taps] came to as well while designing the legs for a bird-like automaton.
These RCJs do not just have the surfaces which contact each other while rotating, but also provide the constraints for how far a particular joint is allowed to move, both in the forward and backward directions as well as sideways. In the case of the biological version these contact surfaces are also coated with a constantly renewing surface to prevent direct bone-on-bone contact. The use of RCJs is rather common in robotics, with the humanoid DRACO 3 platform as detailed in a 2023 research article by [Seung Hyeon Bang] and colleagues in Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
The other aspect of RCJs is that they have to be restrained with a compliant mechanism. In the video [Breaking Taps] uses fishing line for this, but many more options are available. The ‘best option’ also depends on the usage and forces which the specific joint will be subjected to. For further reading on the kinematics in robotics and kin, we covered the book Exact Constraint: Machine Design Using Kinematic Principles by [Douglass L. Blanding] a while ago.

TEO-5, as told by Tom Oberheim: “If we made this 30 years ago, we’d have ruled the world”Thomas Elroy Oberheim removes his glasses and wipes his cheek. “It still makes tears come to my eyes, I’m sorry.”
On the morning before his new synthesizer, the TEO-5, is released, Tom isn’t shedding tears of sadness. He’s just astounded by the impact of his 50-year career and the myriad ways artists have crafted legendary sounds with his namesake Oberheim synths.
“I gave lectures at some colleges and gatherings, like Moogfest 19 years ago” Tom says from his Moraga, California home. “And I had six or eight clips that show some Oberheim sounds — Dreamweaver by Gary Wright which, depending on the audience, they’ve never heard of. And then, of course, Weather Report…But I always end it with [Van Halen’s] Jump. Whether they’re 60 or 15 years old, they’ve all heard Jump. Then people leave saying, ‘Oh, now I know what you do!’”
Oberheim is approaching his 88th birthday. “It’s hard to think of another job I could have done,” he says, “that would give me such satisfaction.”
The new TEO-5 expresses Tom’s dream: to put that instantly recognisable sound into a compact machine that’s more affordable than any Oberheim since the company began in 1974.

After speaking to Tom Oberheim, you understand why musicians and synthesists revere him. You believe the quirky anecdotes — how he apparently once invited a fan and his dog over for dinner when he learned the dog, Obie, was named after him. You get why his instruments have stood the test of time and why his name is synonymous with Bob Moog, Dave Smith, Don Buchla and Roger Linn. He’s dedicated his life and career to putting immense instruments into the hands of creatives — and he’s learned a lot.
“What I’ve found over 50 years,” Tom says, ”is that, as an engineer, you develop a machine, and then you put it in the hands of a musician, and what comes back are sounds that you never thought were possible. That’s still the thrill for me.”
With the TEO-5, named so for his initials, Tom believes he’ll get that same joy from those who take the chance to play it. At $1,500, it’s not immediately accessible to all synth lovers, but he says the “goal was to have a machine that was more affordable [than other Oberheims] and yet not have to apologise for it. And I think that that’s been achieved.”
Tom Oberheim and the TEO-5. Image: Press
For those who’ve always wanted an Oberheim synth, then, the TEO-5 might be the easiest way in. “It’s the exact filter circuit from the original Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) from 1974,” says Tom, and it sports that classic blue-striped finish – “I’ve always loved that look,” he adds.
But the TEO-5 is more than just a tribute to the glory days of Oberheim. It’s designed for modern producers, with built-in digital effects including chorus, delay, reverb and phaser, a modern take on oscillator X-Mod, a 64-step sequencer and multimode arpeggiator, plus a Fatar keybed with aftertouch.
Tom is pretty chuffed. “I have to say, having lived through the Four Voice, the Eight Voice, the OB-1…” he rattles off the names of products like they’re his children. “…We’ve had the OB-6 for a few years, and now the TEO-5. I couldn’t be happier. If we made this 30 years ago, we’d have ruled the world.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
The beauty of the TEO-5 — along with the design — is how quickly you can patch in a sound and get lost. It immediately sounds fit for a stadium. The presets boast inspiring sequences and patches (yes, including a sound in the style of Jump), and there’s no need to dive into menus — it just has the sound.
Tom admits that even he wasn’t sure how good a $1,500 Oberheim synth could be. After all, the most recent and celebrated Oberheim is the OB-X8, which costs an eye-watering $5,000.
“It doesn’t do any good to put every bell and whistle on a machine, sell it for $8,000 while some of the features never get used,” he explains. “It’s always a matter of thinking about the sound, effects and modulation, but keeping the cost in mind. It’s a puzzle and, if you’re lucky and know what you’re doing, you can solve that puzzle in different ways. After 50 years, you find yourself getting good at that. There’s still some compromise but with the TEO-5, we did things that I didn’t think were possible.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
So what is it about retro synthesizers? For the past few decades, producers have been enthralled by them, as software emulations of vintage gear and buzzwords like ‘warm’ and ‘imperfect’ are thrown around. Why would you want the sound of 50-year-old synthesizers rather than something fresh and new?
Tom laughs — “We live in a high-tech world, but the music instrument business does not follow suit. I don’t think anybody would ever consider Apple reviving the first iPhone. But here we are.
“I recently had a prototype SEM module in my lab and got it working. I gave it to a young musician — when I say young, he’s under 30 with a great career; he’s got 15 synthesizers. And this module was either going to the recycling or to somebody who could use it. And I sent it to him, and he said, ‘That sounds so good.’ There was no talk about it being retro, even though it’s…let’s see…50 years old. It has nothing to do with retro; I’ve learned over the years that if it doesn’t have a sound that a musician wants, then they won’t want it. And it’s thanks to some brilliant people like Bob Moog, Don Buchla and Dave Smith and a long line of others, that this idea of an analogue synthesiser has become a standard.”
Tom encountered the synthesizer that got him hooked on the scene in 1971, several years after moving to LA and becoming “burnt out” from working in general computer design. He needed something new.
“I talked ARP [owned by Alan Robert Pearlman] into letting me be an ARP dealer in LA. I didn’t know that much about synthesizers. I’d read about them. I’d seen a big Moog in a studio in LA in ‘71. But I got my ARP 2600, and I was up playing it for 36 hours straight and I thought, ‘This is amazing! Where have these things been? Why has it taken so long?’ I still remember the sounds I made. I don’t really play an instrument but I found lots of things to do with that 2600, and it stayed with me.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
You might think Tom Oberheim, with his name branded across almost 20 beloved machines, would have an impressive studio with racks of coveted music gear like the ARP 2600. “But that’s not true!” he says with a chuckle. That hasn’t stopped him, at 87, from learning new studio techniques, though.
“I have never had a studio. I’m not trained on any instruments. So I’m at a point where I’m looking at different DAWs and learning about samples. I’m collecting stuff, and I’m like some young kid that just just got out of junior high, and I think it’s amazing.At the beginning, I talked to friends and, of course, if I take five of my friends, each one has a different DAW so I’ve been pretty much on my own.
Tom continues, beaming and chuckling: “My wife continually scratches her head. ‘Why are you doing this?’ But it’s fun discovering this stuff. I’m embarrassed to sometimes call a friend and say, ‘What does this mean? How do I get USB MIDI into my computer and make sounds? Oh, it’s like that. That’s simple!’ But I’m having fun and continuing to learn. Once you stop learning, you got a problem.”
It’s easy for many of us to take modern instruments and software for granted. Tom is among those who paved the way for our go-to plugins like Serum, Diva, and Pigments. He began at a time before bedroom studios; before plugin emulations and hardware clones. Many Oberheim synths have been subject to emulation — some subtle, some blatant. But Tom isn’t so bothered by that.
“Anything that brings new sounds to, let’s say, young musicians just starting out, is exciting to me. And I don’t care what the brand is.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
“There’s been a few different simulations of Oberheim over the years and, I have to say, GForce did a great job. I don’t have the ear training to get into the fine details — I’ve been relying on musicians to tell me what sounds good since the ‘70s. But the reaction to the GForce stuff was very positive, and I certainly think it sounds really good.
“I mean, the fact that you can spend $1,000 and get a great system in your bedroom is exciting, no matter what’s being simulated. Imagine if you were able to do this in 1970.”
“And I’m sure there’ll be more to come. So much has happened — Dave Smith really pushed the idea that became MIDI. And I think that was really a revolution.”
The late Dave Smith, a friend and colleague of Tom, was known as the godfather of MIDI. Not only did he invent MIDI and convince other synth brands to adopt it, but he was also the person behind Sequential Instruments. Later acquired by UK brand Focusrite, Dave and Sequential became a major part of bringing back the Oberheim name in 2016 with the Sequential OB-6. The trademarked Oberheim name, however, was owned by Gibson until 2019.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
But, after Dave’s passing, he and Sequential continue to inspire Oberheim. Keen synth lovers will note the similarities between the TEO-5 and Sequential’s Take-5, released in 2022. Like Tom, Dave was a visionary. And there was one thing he did that Tom still admires.
“One thing that I wish I had done sooner is what Dave did in the early 2000s. He realised that analogue was coming back. He got back into the business. At first, it was with the Evolver but when he did the Prophet-08, it just exploded. I wasn’t going to start another company at the time but now things have changed. Now I’m in alliance with Focusrite and I’m back in the business.”
Before we say goodbye, we can’t help but wonder what Tom’s favourite synthesizer is, given his time in the game.
“It’s hard to ignore the Roland Jupiter-8,” he says. “At the time it came out, we were making either the OB-Xa or the OB-8. I saw the machine and just didn’t think I had the resources to go as far as [Roland did with the Jupiter-8. That’s a great machine. But there really hasn’t been that much that I said, ‘Oh God, I wish I’d done that. I was never enamoured with the DX7 because it was just too mysterious. You know, maybe five people on the planet Earth could programme it — and they’re getting old now, like me!”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
It’s impossible to talk about synthesis and not talk about Tom Oberheim. The past five decades have been a rollercoaster, he admits. But, at 87 years old, he’s still looking for the next challenge; the next opportunity to learn.
“A lot’s happened since Focusrite came on the scene,” he says. “And there’s a lot to do. Some people think the industry’s reached a pinnacle. I don’t see that. I’m certainly not at the point where I’m going to do major design work — I’m getting up there,” he says as he nods upward. “But I think we’ll continue to see a lot of creativity in this business because you can take a certain bag of parts and do a lot of different things with it.
“I mean, you can do a lot and make an awful big sound at home with an Oberheim. I usually wait until my wife takes the dog out for her morning walk, and then I turn it up loud!”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Read more music technology interviews and features. Learn morea bout the TEO-5 at oberheim.com
The post TEO-5, as told by Tom Oberheim: “If we made this 30 years ago, we’d have ruled the world” appeared first on MusicTech.

Raspberry Pi Files Paperwork With The London Stock ExchangeIf you’re a regular visitor to the Raspberry Pi website and you have a sharp eye, you may have noticed during the last few days a new link has appeared in their footer. Labelled “Investor relations“, it holds links to the documents filed with the London Stock Exchange of their intention to float. In other words, it’s confirmation of their upcoming share offering.
It has been interesting to watch the growth of Raspberry Pi over the last twelve years, from cottage industry producing a thousand boards in China, to dominating the SBC market and launching their own successful silicon. Without either a crystal ball or a window into Eben Upton’s mind, we’re as unreliable as anyone else when it comes to divining their future path. But since we’re guessing that it will involve ever more complex silicon with a raspberry logo, it’s obvious that the float will give them the investment springboard they need.
For those of us who have been around for a long time this isn’t the first company in our corner of the technology world we’ve seen burn brightly. It’s not even the first from Cambridge. Appointing ourselves as pundits though, we’d say that Raspberry Pi’s path to this point has been surprisingly understated, based upon the strength of its products rather than hype, and while Eben is undoubtedly a well-known figure, not based upon a cult of personality. There is already a significant ecosystem around Raspberry Pi, we’d like to think that this move will only strengthen it. We may not be looking at the British Microsoft, but we don’t think we’re looking at another Sinclair either.

From the NMPA vs. Spotify to Sony’s opt-out from gen AI… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…
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SUPERBOOTH24: Oberheim TEO-5 Oberheim have debuted the TEO-5 at Superbooth 24 in Berlin, a 5-voice polyphonic synth which is a modern twist on the classic Oberheim sound.

Nasra Artan promoted to Head of International A&R at Sony Music PublishingExec will take on a broader role in spearheading SMP’s international creative strategy
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Soundful becomes first AI music platform to enable stem exporting directly to Ableton LiveIn an industry-leading move, Soundful has become the first AI music platform to enable stem exporting directly to Ableton Live.
Using Ableton‘s ALS file format, users can now download their Soundful creations for use in the popular music making software and conveniently, the stems are named and aligned to keep perfect time.

READ MORE: “It unlocked all my creativity”: King Willonius on using AI for his comedic track, BBL Drizzy 

Until now, no other AI music platform has offered such a feature. The company has also said that they plan on expanding this feature to their other music titles in upcoming releases.
“At Soundful, our AI capabilities are materially different from other platforms because our customers are not looking to be entertained, they are looking for professional AI utilities to integrate into their workflow that meaningfully advance their craft,” says Diaa El All, founder and CEO of Soundful, in a press release.
“Today’s launch is illustrative of the commitment we made on day one. Enabling stem downloads natively into Ableton is a loud signal to our community and the industry, that if you are serious about what you do, we invite you to join us at Soundful.”
Launched in 2022, Soundful has quickly amassed a base of over 1 million users. In November, it launched a new ‘Soundful Collabs’ series campaign, bringing artists and producers on board to enable users to create tracks that sound like them, as well as “simultaneously pioneering a clear and ethical path for content monetisation.”
Among the names involved in the initial launch are 3LAU, Autograf, CB Mix, DJ White Shadow, Kaskade, and Starrah. But Soundful will be working on numerous other names throughout the campaign. The programme will provide a new revenue channel for artists, producers and labels involved, too, as they can earn income from every transaction.
Learn more at Soundful.
The post Soundful becomes first AI music platform to enable stem exporting directly to Ableton Live appeared first on MusicTech.

SUPERBOOTH24: UDO Audio Super 8 UDO Audio gave us a demonstration of their new Super 8 polysynth at Superbooth 2024.

MLC sues Spotify for unpaid Songwriter Royalties, Spotify respondsThe Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has filed a lawsuit against Spotify, seeking what it says are unpaid royalties due under its compulsory mechanical blanket license.....
The post MLC sues Spotify for unpaid Songwriter Royalties, Spotify responds appeared first on Hypebot.

1 week left to preregister .Music domain names for a $1.99 feeOne week remains before the May 24th deadline to pre-register a .MUSIC domain. Up to one million domains can be registered for free during this period.....
The post 1 week left to preregister .Music domain names for a $1.99 fee appeared first on Hypebot.

TikTok supporters take legal action to save the platformWho has a stronger case that the TikTok ban is unconstitutional? TikTok itself… or its users? We may find out, as both are trying. by Mike Masnick of Tech Dirt. Continue reading
The post TikTok supporters take legal action to save the platform appeared first on Hypebot.