Burglars steal $100k+ worth of mics from KMR Audio – but forget the power packsBurglars have allegedly stolen upwards of $100,000 in microphones from London-based pro audio supplier, KMR Audio.

READ MORE: The best microphones to buy in 2023: 12 best microphones for rappers and MCs

According to a Facebook post by KMR Audio on 27 July, 42 mics were stolen, with models ranging from mid-tier to high-end. Included in the list are a Sony C800G (listed at £11,500), a Neumann U87Ai and a Flea ELA M 251.
The extensive list is, we must add, just a taste of the range of expensive gear taken by the thieves. The burglary, which apparently took place on 25 July, is no doubt a devastating loss for the music tech store.
Music tech pros can rejoice in one small pinch of pleasure, however – the fact that the culprits left each microphone’s respective power supply behind. Whoever took the products was/were unaware that they could only work with these additional units, resulting in a swag bag of $100,000 worth of dud tech.
KMR Audio is now urging all music gear consumers to email sales@kmraudio.com if they spot any of the following microphones – listed with their serial numbers – up for sale without their relevant power packs:

Neumann U67
Neumann U87Ai
Sony C800G
Telefunken ELA-M 251 E
AEA KU5A (271)
AEA R84 (3878)
AEA R88 Mk2 (636)
Austrian Audio OC18 (1384)
Austrian Audio OC818(1135)
Brauner VMA
Chandler REDD.47 (489)
Chandler TG Mic (165)
Coles 4038
DPA 4011A
DPA BOBOX1 d:vote
Flea 47 (10293)
Flea ELAM 251
Gefell M930 (4263)
Golden Age GA-8000G (21076)
Hammer Audio HA-872 (8700002)
Josephson C42 Pair (1,408,914,090)
Josephson C705 (11)
Josephson e22s (11168)
Manley Reference Cardioid (REFCARDT3247)
Melodium 42Bn (12)
Microtech Gefell UM900 (316)
Microtech Gefell UMT70S (3987)
Peluso 22 251 (2021)
Peluso 2247LE (469)
Peluso 2247SE (A02624)
Peluso P12 (1221)
Peluso P280 (124)
Peluso P414 Pair (00159, 00160)
Peluso P67 (650)
Peluso P87 (3)
Sennheiser MD421 II (277718)
Shure SM7B
Sontronics Apollo 2
Sony C100 (100270)
Stager SR-1A
Stager SR-3 (34)
Townsend Labs Sphere
Vanguard V13 (11948032)

One commenter also makes the wise point that we should also be on the lookout out for any shady characters purchasing multiple power supplies for different microphones from the list. Read the full post below:

Sadly, this is in no way the first gear burglary story we’ve notified MusicTech readers of in recent years. In January, techno artist, Pfirter, had over £15,000 worth of gear stolen from his studio while on tour.
In July 2022, Dustin Zahn urgently sought the help of fans after revealing that all of his music hardware had been stolen. “This has been particularly devastating because my studio was an accumulation of my last 10-15 years of work,” he writes, “and now I have nothing left to show for it. I am completely wiped out.”
Visit kmraudio.com.
The post Burglars steal $100k+ worth of mics from KMR Audio – but forget the power packs appeared first on MusicTech.

Xfer Records OTT Plugin Review
OTT plugin by Xfer Records is one of the most popular free VST plugins and has been for some time. It’s particularly popular with electronic music producers, some of whom wouldn’t even consider making music without it now. With that in mind, this won’t be a blast from the past like our recent CamelCrusher review. [...]
View post: Xfer Records OTT Plugin Review

Mark Ronson-produced Barbie soundtrack makes UK chart history The soundtrack for the Barbie movie has made UK chart history for having the most amount of songs ever in the top of the Singles Chart.
Produced by Mark Ronson, the vibrant record, which features the likes of Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Dua Lipa and Sam Smith, accompanies the Greta Gerwig-directed box office hit which stars Margot Robbie as a “stereotypical” Barbie in Barbieland, as she tries to grapple with her sudden human-like changes.

READ MORE: “Barbie overtook my life for a year”, says Mark Ronson

The album is now the first soundtrack to have three songs all feature in the Top Five, as well as breaking the record for most songs (six in total) in the Top 40, these are:

What Was I Made For, Billie Eilish – number three
Dance The Night, Dua Lipa – number four
Barbie World, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice – number five
Speed Drive, Charlie XCX – number 19
I’m Just Ken, Ryan Gosling – number 25
Pink, Lizzo – number 39

It landed at the same time as the film’s release just over a week ago, which has already grossed $700 million at the box office, on Friday 21 July.
Speaking to the BBC, Barbie music supervisor George Drakoulias says: “Nobody said no. Everybody was really excited. It was a perfect symbiotic relationship of the music driving the movie and the movie driving the music.
“Once you saw the movie and how well the music works, as soon as they left the theatre people went out and got the album,” he concludes.
You can listen to the album below:

Following its release, Ronson explained how he tried to serve the movie, without being generic or predictable: “I wanted to get the job, but I also didn’t want to just give them some generic dance shit. I wanted to do something I’ve never done before,” he told NME.
He later added, “The thing I learned very, very quickly doing the score for Barbie is that you’re always serving the picture. You’re always serving the emotion. You have to turn off all the things you know about making pop and rock and soul music for the last 30 years. Yes, it needs to be beautiful, but sometimes you just need to get the fuck out the way.”
Ronson also recently revealed that the Barbie soundtrack “overtook his life for a year”, and that gathering and recording the soundtrack’s A-list artists was “a ton, ton, ton of work”.
The post Mark Ronson-produced Barbie soundtrack makes UK chart history  appeared first on MusicTech.

99Sounds Release FREE Water Sounds Loop Library
99Sounds released Water Sounds, a free collection of looped wave sounds, beach sounds, water flow sounds, and stream sounds in WAV format. Water Sounds is a royalty-free collection of water audio recordings by Régis Royer. He captured high-quality recordings of ocean waves, water streams, and other water sounds in various locations during a trip around [...]
View post: 99Sounds Release FREE Water Sounds Loop Library

Watch: Jungle release interactive music video for new track Back On 74Electronic music duo Jungle (formed by Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland) have released an interactive music video for new single Back On 74. Described as a “music video art gallery”, it showcases a clickable, interactive range of 10,000 images changing on each view.
The single lands as part of their forthcoming album, Volcano, which is due for release on 11 August.
READ MORE: Jungle say they wouldn’t exist “without Jai Paul, Justice and Child Of Lov”
The pair launched their new chapter with single Candle Flame back in March, followed by Dominoes in May, with I’ve Been In Love having released in June.
Created with WeTransfer, fans viewing the new interactive video are able to download any of the framed images featured in the video, with another piece of artwork then taking its place.
Framed art pieces often appear in the backdrop of the video, or are sometimes carried and held by the dancers featured throughout.
Head to junglejunglejungle.wetransfer to view the new video for Back On 74.
Speaking to NME, Lloyd-Watson says of their soon-to-be new record,  “I think, for Jungle, it’s actually really the most honest record we’ve made.”
He adds, “In my head, I see us as like Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers – that sort of duo that makes electronic music. But we’ve always had this soul side and this love for soul music, so it’s always been a little bit more song-based. The new record is just an extension of that journey.”
​​Speaking to MusicTech in 2021, Jungle cited MF DOOM, J Dilla, DJ Shadow, and Madlib as influences on their production and ambiguity.
When asked why they remained elusive and “behind the scenes” in the early stages of their career, Lloyd-Watson said: “It’s not part of our personality, but because we make music, everybody kind of wants to know [who we are]…We ain’t beautiful celebrities”.
Get tickets to catch Jungle live via junglejunglejungle.com.
The post Watch: Jungle release interactive music video for new track Back On 74 appeared first on MusicTech.

Aphex Twin shares two archival tracks via ‘secret’ Soundcloud accountTwo previously unheard tracks have been uploaded to SoundCloud by user18081971, an account widely believed to belong to electronic producer-DJ, Aphex Twin.

READ MORE: Georgia on feeling “liberated” working with Rostam and Dave Fridmann on new album Euphoric: “I was very open-minded; I wanted to learn everything”

Per their descriptions, the new tracks — titled Short Forgotten Produk Trk Omc and 2nd Neotek Test Trac Omc — were recorded approximately between 2006 and 2007. The latter also features the use of a Kawai K5M, an additive synthesizer from 1987.
Since 2015, the anonymous account, user18081971, has been connected to Aphex Twin, sharing dozens of unreleased tracks over the last eight years. In 2020, the artist surprised fans by dropping a series of new tracks on the same account within a week.
Meanwhile, Aphex Twin has recently released a new EP titled Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760. The four-track record marks the musician’s first official release in five years, following his 2018 EP, Collapse.
In related news, Aphex Twin, who last month performed at Barcelona’s Sonar 2023, is also set to headline Field Day in London this August.
Listen to the new tracks, Short Forgotten Produk Trk Omc and 2nd Neotek Test Trac Omc, below.

The post Aphex Twin shares two archival tracks via ‘secret’ Soundcloud account appeared first on MusicTech.

EastWest announce Hollywood Fantasy Percussion Hollywood Fantasy Percussion expands EastWest's new collection with a range of drums and percussion instruments designed specifically for the scores of fantasy film, TV and video game scores.

Vyper vulnerability exposes DeFi ecosystem to stress testsA number of pools using Vyper have been exploited due to a malfunctioning reentrancy lock that potentially exposes all pools with wrapped Ether (WETH).

Justice Department eyes Live Nation, Ticketmaster anti-trust lawsuit this FallThe US Department of Justice could file an antitrust lawsuit against concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster before the end of the year, according to a new. Continue reading
The post Justice Department eyes Live Nation, Ticketmaster anti-trust lawsuit this Fall appeared first on Hypebot.

Is Black news VC backable?Lately I’ve been thinking about media publishing startups (think Semafor and Puck) and their fundraising rounds.
Semafor recently raised a $44 million seed round, and Puck raised a $7 million Series A in 2021. The Messenger, among the newest in the industry, recently raised $50 million. Publishing media jobs are uncertain, pushing those with an entrepreneurial spirit to start their own companies, giving them more ownership over their work. But compare their experience to that of Dana Amihere, who is still trying to find support and funding for her news media startup.
She launched AfroLA News in 2022 to cover the Black community in Los Angeles. So far, she won’t even touch venture capital. The outlook is bleak for people who look like her, she said. People in the startup world keep telling her things are getting better, but “Who are things improving for?” she asked.
“Knowing what the landscape looks like, it almost feels more worthwhile to dedicate the limited time I do have to other things,” she told TechCrunch+. “I don’t think backing Black news outlets is seen as inherently risky. Rather, I think it’s not seen [at all]. Investors don’t see it as a viable or worthwhile investment unless it’s splashy or fits their idea of what Black news should be.”
Part of the problem is that the pool of investors who like investing in media, specifically publishing, is already small. The industry is risky, and not in the startup sense where one might strike big returns one day. Last year the media sector raised a healthy $15 billion, according to PitchBook; within that, publishing raised just $298 million.
Charles Hudson, a managing partner at Precursor Ventures who invests in new media, said that the funding landscape for most media companies, B2B or B2C, is limited when it comes to venture. “What dollars do get invested tend to go to categories that feel big, like national news, industry-specific vertical pubs like Skift or The Information or B2B media companies,” he told TechCrunch+.

NatLife Sounds True Trance Sounds V3 For Diva True Trance Sounds V3 For Diva – it's a clear Trance soundbank. The emphasis was on a Lead sounds similar to the famous Roland JP-8000 and Virus TI. And of course you get the full range... Read More

Ginger Audio GroundControl Sphere monitoring software Ginger Audio's latest release provides monitor control and routing facilities for multi-channel surround and immersive audio from a DAW or other playback application. 

Stereo7 Audio Resonova EDM Piano Kontakt VST plugin is a versatile and cutting-edge virtual instrument that seamlessly blends the richness of a modern EDM piano with the limitless creative possibilities of electronic... Read More

US crypto bills on the move, Worldcoin launches and Russia’s CBDC: Hodler’s Digest, July 23-29Crypto legislation goes to the House floor in the U.S., Worldcoin’s controversial launch and Russia’s digital ruble signed into law.

Twitter rebrands to ‘X,’ hackers infect Call of Duty, and foreign visitors to China go cashlessHey, friends, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s roundup of the week in tech news. Life getting in the way of your daily TechCrunch habit? Not to worry. WiR will get you caught up in no time.
This week, WiR covers the improving quality of AI porn generators and the ethical dilemmas they raise; Twitter rebranding to “X”; and hackers infecting Call of Duty with self-spreading malware. Elsewhere, we dive into a North Korean hacking group, foreign Chinese visitors’ newfound ability to go cashless, and the rollout of Sam Altman’s Worldcoin eyeball-scanning crypto project.
As always, it’s a lot to get to, so let’s not delay. But first, a reminder that if you haven’t already, sign up here to get WiR in your inbox every Saturday.
Most read
Twitter rebrands to “X”: This week, Twitter removed its iconic bird logo and adopted “X” as its new official branding. The move, which Elon Musk announced over the weekend, is a harbinger of the platform’s shift — perhaps more aspirational than concrete — to deemphasize text tweets in favor of audio, video, messaging and payment and banking.
Now it’s my X: Twitter’s rebranding to X hasn’t been faring exceptionally well. In addition to a haphazard rollout that saw parts of the site referencing “X” while others still implored you to “search Twitter” or push a blue button to “Tweet,” the company didn’t even make an attempt to secure the @x Twitter handle, owned by Gene X Hwang of the corporate photography and videography studio Orange Photography. Twitter later wrested control of the handle without notifying or compensating Hwang.
Hackers infect Call of Duty: Hackers are infecting players of an old Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2, with a worm that spreads automatically in online lobbies. As Lorenzo writes, Modern Warfare 2 was released quite a bit ago — 2009 — but still has a small community of players. Call of Duty publisher Activision said in a tweet that it would bring the Steam version of the game offline as it “investigates report of [the] issue.”
Foreign visitors to China go cashless: This week, China’s two dominant mobile payment solutions, WeChat Pay and Alipay, announced that foreign users can now pay at Chinese retailers by linking their foreign credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard and Discover. Previously, using WeChat Pay and Alipay in China required a local bank account, making it challenging for short-term visitors to use these payment methods.
Worldcoin launches its eyeball-scanning project: Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s audacious eyeball-scanning crypto startup, has begun the global rollout of its services to help build a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online. People can download World App, the startup’s protocol-compatible wallet software, and visit an Orb, Worldcoin’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scanning verification device, to receive a unique “World ID.”
North Korean hackers expose themselves: Security researchers say they have high confidence that North Korean hackers were behind a recent intrusion at enterprise software company JumpCloud because of a mistake the hackers made. Mandiant, which is assisting one of JumpCloud’s affected customers, attributed the breach to hackers working for North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, or RGB, a hacking unit that targets cryptocurrency companies and steals passwords from executives and security teams.
Waymo puts the brakes on trucks: Waymo is tapping the brakes on self-driving trucks and shifting most of its capital, resources and talent to one commercial bet: ride-hailing. Kirsten writes that the move, which was announced Wednesday in a company blog post, comes six years after Waymo first tested its autonomous vehicle system in Class 8 trucks. The company emphasized the decision was driven by the commercial opportunities in applying its autonomous vehicle technology to ride-hailing.
SEC probes Bolt ex-CEO: Ryan Breslow, co-founder of the e-commerce software outfit Bolt, was subpoenaed along with the company last year by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Christine reported this week. A letter authored in April by a lawyer representing Bolt investors said the SEC was investigating whether federal securities laws were violated in connection with statements made when Bolt was raising money in 2021.
Audio
In need of a podcast to fill the hours? You’re in luck. TechCrunch has a roster of new episodes to keep you both entertained and informed.
On Equity this week, the crew dug through the headlines of the past few days, starting with AngelList’s acquisition of Nova, Waymo steering toward robotaxis and the latest on interest rates from the Fed. They also touched on earnings for Big Tech and how more limited partner capital can funnel into diverse venture funds.
Found featured a conversation with Mandy Price, the co-founder and CEO at Kanarys, a software-as-a-service startup that helps companies tackle their diversity and inclusion problems with data. Mandy talked about why she started the company after a decade-long career as a lawyer and why she didn’t want Kanarys to just be focused on hiring metrics, as many other diversity, equity and inclusion platforms are.
And on Chain Reaction, Deana Burke and Natasha Hoskins, the co-founders of Boys Club, spoke about their social decentralized autonomous organization for the “crypto curious.” Originally designed to get women and nonbinary people into the web3 world, Boys Club now aims to be an open space for anyone looking to get into the space.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Why SAFE rounds are safe: SAFEs, simple agreements for future equity, have long been touted as a founder-friendly structure for signing venture deals. But is it really fair to call them that? Rebecca investigates.
Positivity in the face of toxicity: Dominic writes about how prioritizing positive company culture is just as important — or at least, should be as important — as investor returns.
Playing the long AI game: Microsoft’s and Alphabet’s results indicate the AI game is more of a long-term strategy, Alex writes.

Get your TechCrunch fix IRL. Join us at Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September to immerse yourself in all things startup. From headline interviews to intimate roundtables to a jam-packed startup expo floor, there’s something for everyone at Disrupt. Save up to $600 when you buy your pass now through August 11, and save 15% on top of that with promo code WIR. Learn more.