Sub51 & Soundtrax announce Drop Pad 3 Capable of blending up to four custom sound sources, Drop Pad 3 retains the intuitive drag-and-drop operation of its predecessor, but delivers a range of enhancements and new features.

Advice for Independent Musicians in Uncertain TimesEconomic uncertainty can crush unprepared musicians - but it can also be your biggest opportunity. Learn how to protect income, boost visibility, thrive while others pull back and more practical advice for independent musicians in uncertain times.
The post Advice for Independent Musicians in Uncertain Times appeared first on Hypebot.

Buy Low, Sell High: Perils of Unregulated Concert Ticket ResaleMusic manager and ticket reform crusader Randy Nichols dives into how unchecked speculation and ticket "shorting" are turning concerts into commodities. Learn how fans, artists, and culture itself are paying a price for unregulated concert ticket resale.
The post Buy Low, Sell High: Perils of Unregulated Concert Ticket Resale appeared first on Hypebot.

Pitch Innovations Fluid Chords 2Fluid Chords 2 Is An Intelligent Chord Bending Plugin That Enables You To Bend From Any Chord To Any Chord In Real-time. With Our Cutting-edge Fluid Sound Engine, Intelligent Harmony Generation & Expressive Controls, Create Music That's Never Been Heard Before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpNtAqcmwn8 Feature Highlights : 1. Smarter Chord Bending : A brand new voice-leading engine ensures the most musical bends ever. Strum: The new Strum feature lets each note bend one after the other, adding a natural expressive feel to your bending. Flow: Choose how chords resolve — either close together, spread further apart or cross each other in between. 2. Intelligent Harmony Engine : Generate fresh chord progressions instantly with the Harmony Engine. Choose a key and genre to generate inspiring chord progressions with the click of a button. 3. Fluid Sound Engine : Introducing our hybrid sound engine powered by our Wavetable Synth and MPE Sampler designed to breathe life into your chords! Blend between Organic & Synthesized layers for a truly unique, bend-ready sound. Comes with built-in Pumper, Reverb, Delay, and Compressor. 4. Enhanced Real-Time Performance Mode : Perform, improvise, and create — live. With the new Real-Time Mode, you can bend chords on the fly with just your MIDI controller, no sustain pedal needed! Instantly shape your music, whether you're on Stage or in the Studio. Read More

Beyerdynamic says its products “will continue to be handmade in Germany” following acquisition by Chinese firm Cosonic IntelligentBeyerdynamic says that its products “will continue to be handmade in Germany” following acquisition by Chinese OEM manufacturer Cosonic Intelligent.
Last week, the century-old, family-owned German audio brand announced it would be acquired by Cosonic for €122 million, marking a major shift in ownership for the first time since Beyerdynamic was founded by Eugen Beyer in 1924.

READ MORE: Beyerdynamic launches four new in-ear monitors catering to different needs

Despite the move, Managing Director Richard Campbell has assured customers that the company’s production standards won’t be compromised. Currently, around 85 percent of Beyerdynamic’s headphone and microphone range – including models like the T1 Gen 3, DT 700 series, MMX gaming line, and Amiron wireless – are produced at its Heilbronn facility.
“The expectation is that we will continue to be handmade in Germany,” Campbell tells WhatHifi. “We expect that we’ll continue to develop technology out of Germany as we have been.”
“And the leadership team will remain intact as well, so there’s an expectation of consistency of what we’ve been doing and what we want to be doing and how we move forward.”
“Our strategic direction doesn’t change,” he adds. “We have a clear focus on pro audio, consumer and gaming – that will continue to be how we prioritise and look forward.”
Describing Beyerdynamic as a brand with “phenomenal history and legacy in the pro audio space with our headphone technology and microphone technology”, Campbell explains that the acquisition will enable the firm the chance to scale.
“This just allows us the opportunity to further that… and hopefully in ways that are bigger and better and beyond what we’ve been able to do thus far in 100+ years.”
The exec also says that Cosonic – which manufactures OEM audio components for various brands including JBL and Philips – brings backing that could help Beyerdynamic expand beyond its core European and American markets.
“The current structure wasn’t able to support that,” says Campbell. “So to be able to have the backing of an entity that’s able to help us grow and thrive in international markets in a way that’s beyond what we’re doing today – this acquisition gives us that opportunity.”
“So it’s very much a positive thing. It’s not related to anything other than that, and then allowing us to fulfil the vision of how we want to grow and build the brand.”
Still, the deal is subject to regulatory approval and may take several months to finalise. No immediate changes to Beyerdynamic’s leadership or product roadmap have been announced in the meantime.
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Brian Wilson’s legacy is unquestionable — the studio mastermind will live on forever“The American Mozart” is how Sean Ono Lennon described Brian Wilson in a tribute to The Beach Boys maestro, who died on 11 June at the age of 82. From Questlove to Bob Dylan, the music world at large is flying the flag at half mast for Wilson, by all accounts a genius whose influence shaped the story of pop and rock music in the twentieth century.
Born in Inglewood, California, in 1942, Wilson’s childhood was not an easy one. “My dad’s tirades were unending,” he wrote in his 1991 autobiography, Wouldn’t It Be Nice. “The effects these outbursts had on me were severe. By the time I started elementary school, I was nervous and high-strung, withdrawn and frightened of almost everything.” Wilson nonetheless formed a high school group, initially called the Pendletones, with his younger brothers Carl and Dennis, along with cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. The band would later change their name to The Beach Boys.
Wilson was already proving himself a capable songwriter, responsible for early hits such as Surfin’ Safari, and Surfin’ USA; but taking up the mantle of producer, his ambition began to gain significant scope (indeed, Wilson expressed his desire “to redraw the entire map of pop music”), moving away from previous formulae with lyrical tropes of cars and surfing— Wilson in fact had a fear of the ocean. This ambition would see an incredible work rate emerge, with the band creating nine albums between 1963 and 1965.
Brian Wilson recording the album “Pet Sounds” in 1966 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The production influence of Phil Spector— most famous for his ‘wall of sound’ recording approach— loomed large over Wilson, who later attributed his discovery of the album format’s potential to the decorated producer. “I started to see the point of making records,” he wrote in the liner notes for a 1991 CD version of Pet Sounds. “You design the experience to be a record rather than just a song. It’s the record that people listen to.”
Strident experiments in the studio ensued, which would stretch the boundaries of pop music forever. In 1966, Wilson’s fear of flying led him to stay in Los Angeles while his bandmates continued to tour. Glen Campbell went out as his replacement. Between January and April of that year, Wilson recorded Pet Sounds, the magnum opus of The Beach Boys. Legendary session band the Wrecking Crew was enlisted for the sessions, including drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Carole Kaye, alongside a host of other, less likely musicians; for instance French horn player Alan Robinson, member of the 20th Century Fox orchestra and who just before had played on the soundtrack to Robert Wise’s The Sound Of Music. Robinson’s horn part at the opening of God Only Knows would become one of the album’s most iconic moments, even if it was consigned to the B-side of Wouldn’t It Be Nice over alleged concerns about the use of the word ‘God’.
Wilson may have garnered a reputation as a shy and retiring presence in public, but by all accounts was a commanding presence in the studio. Producer and Three Dog Night founder Danny Hutton was in the studio during the recording of Pet Sounds, later acknowledging that what he learned from Brian in that period would shape his approach to recorded music in general. “[Brian] would hear something wrong,” he remembered of the session for God Only Knows, “and bam— ‘One more time’. I just sat there and didn’t say a word. I had been in sessions where I thought to myself, ‘They should do this and that’. Not this time. I just shut up. What could I add?”
Brian Wilson poses for a portrait in 1998 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry Langdon/Getty Images)
God Only Knows not only demonstrates Wilson’s mastery of the art of songwriting (he, along with lyricist Tony Asher, wrote the song in 45 minutes), but it also showcases his growing confidence as a producer in 1966. Production value for Wilson could be found in all manner of places, be it ambitious instrumentation, such as the two basses deployed on the track (Lyle Ritz’s upright bass and Ray Pohlman’s bass guitar), or household objects: what sound like reverberant woodblocks in the track are in fact the sounds of two orange plastic cups.
The (unfinished) follow-up to Pet Sounds, SMiLE, would see Wilson’s production approach take even more of a prominent role, with the studio itself being used like an instrument. Recording was purposefully limited to shorter interchangeable passages— referred to as ‘feels’ by Wilson— which could then be spliced and combined together, often using reverb to soften the transitions. Some of these would last mere seconds, others would be characterised by spoken word or sound effects. “I planned to fit them together like a mosaic,” said Wilson of the approach.
Perhaps the best example of this is Good Vibrations, a song that Wilson would later cite as “my whole life performance in one track.” Flowing from section to section, the startlingly conspicuous tape splices on Good Vibrations take more from the craft of musique concrète than they do from careful textbook pop production, where engineers would pride themselves on the near-unnoticeable subtlety of their tape edits.

The song allegedly took six months to create, and its cost is mythologised to have been somewhere between $10,000 and $75,000 (roughly $744,000 in 2025). As with God Only Knows, the choice of instrumentation on Good Vibrations is inspired: the chugging cello under the titular lyric dancing perfectly with the lighthearted wail of vaunted trombonist Paul Tanner playing his own invention, the electro-theremin. Tanner’s design— a spinoff of Leon Theremin’s instrument that enabled easier pitching and volume control— had previously featured in the Pet Sounds cut I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.
Subsequent albums continued to demonstrate Wilson’s genius behind the console: the uncanny reversed reverb on the achingly beautiful Feel Flows from 1971’s Surf’s Up, the ominous world-building of the three-part California Saga from 1973’s Holland.
Wilson’s life outside of the studio was complicated to say the least: mental health troubles, acrimony among the band and a period of coercive control by psychologist Eugene Landy, to name but a few of his struggles. For much of his life, Wilson may have felt, as the lyric goes, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times— but for musicians and producers the world over, his legacy is unquestionably for all time.
Credit: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
RIP Brian Wilson 
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Apple Music’s new AutoMix feature uses AI to time-stretch and beat-match for seamless DJ-style song transitionsApple Music is getting a major upgrade with AutoMix, a new AI-powered feature in iOS 26 that mixes songs together like a professional DJ. Designed to deliver continuous, uninterrupted playback, AutoMix analyses audio features like the tempo and key of tracks to create “unique transitions” that mimic the flow of a live DJ set.

READ MORE: Apple Logic Pro 11.2 and 2.2: Stem Splitter, Flashback Capture, ChatGPT and everything else you need to know

While Spotify’s crossfade feature simply overlaps the end of one song with the start of another, AutoMix takes things further. Using Apple Intelligence, the tool incorporates techniques like “time stretching and beat matching” to deliver an “even more seamless listening experience”.
The rollout arrives alongside Apple’s growing push into DJ-friendly tools. Earlier this year, the Cupertino giant launched its “DJ with Apple Music” initiative, which allows subscribers to access their catalogue directly on DJ hardware and software platforms such as rekordbox, Serato DJ Pro, Engine DJ and Algoriddim’s djay Pro.
Aside from AutoMix, iOS 26 also introduces Lyrics Translation, which translates song lyrics in real-time to help users understand tracks in other languages. Working alongside it is Lyrics Pronunciation, which guides listeners through the phonetics of foreign-language songs.
“The new features use machine learning to translate lyrics – with fine-tuning from language experts – to ensure the emotion, cultural context, and lyrical intent are fully preserved,” says Apple.
Sing also gets a boost on iOS 26. The karaoke-style feature now turns your iPhone into a live microphone when paired with Apple TV, complete with voice amplification, real-time lyrics, and on-screen effects for a more immersive performance and a “new level of fun”.
Finally, a new pinning option lets users keep their favourite songs and albums at the top of their Apple Music library for easy access.
Learn more about iOS 26 at Apple.
The post Apple Music’s new AutoMix feature uses AI to time-stretch and beat-match for seamless DJ-style song transitions appeared first on MusicTech.

AI race between US and China resembles Cold War — Marc AndreessenThe venture capitalist warned that virtually all artificial intelligence platforms are being developed in either China or the United States.

OCTO8R Jelly WorldEmbark on a journey among constantly changing, intrusive beauty of sequenced DS Audio Thorn potential with "Jelly World". Pack includes: Sequence presets - 51. WAV Loops - 53. Most of samples are post-processed with presets of released and yet unreleased packs for Unfiltered Audio - Fault, Unfiltered Audio - Sandman Pro, iZotope Audio - Stutter Edit 2 and iZotope Audio - Trash 2. All of WAV Loops are in key of C3. Demo: https://youtu.be/JkPRkBqNmy4 Read More

Spiraling with ChatGPTChatGPT seems to have pushed some users towards delusional or conspiratorial thinking, according to a recent feature in The New York Times.

Electromechanical Atari is a Steampunk Meccano MasterpieceIf William Gibson and Bruce Sterling had written an arcade scene into “The Difference Engine”, it probably would have looked a lot like [Pete Wood]’s Meccano Martian Mission, as illustrated in the video below by the [London Meccano Club]. Meccano Martian Mission is an homage to Atari’s 1978 Lunar Lander video game, but entirely electromechanical and made of– you guessed it– Meccano.

You might think Meccano is “too modern” to count as steampunk, but it squeaks just into the Victorian era. The first sets hit stores in 1901, the last year of Queen Victoria’s long reign. Since then, Meccano has developed a large following that has produced some truly impressive constructions, and this arcade game can stand amongst the best of them.
The game has all the features of the original: a swiveling spaceship, two-axis speed control, and even a little yellow flame that pops out when you are applying thrust. There’s a timer and a fuel gauge, and just like the original, there are easier and harder landing pads that offer score multipliers. While the score must be totted up manually, the game will detect a crash and flag it with a pop-down banner. It really has to be seen to be believed. It’s all done with cams and differentials hitting potentiometers and microswitches — not an Arduino in sight; [Pete] does a good job explaining it in the second half of the embedded video, starting about 10 minutes in.
The brains of the operation: cams and gears, and ingenuity.
Sure, might not be new or groundbreaking — these are old, old techniques — but not many people know them well enough to use them anymore, especially not with this degree of sophistication. To see these electromechanical techniques applied anachronistically to replicate one of the great pioneers of the arcade world tickles our fancy. It’s no wonder that perfecting this mechanical marvel has taken [Pete Wood] a decade.
The project reminds us of the Meccano Pinball Machine featured here years ago, but that somehow felt like a more natural fit for the apparently undead building kits. We lamented Meccano’s demise in 2023,but the brand is apparently being revived this year. Hopefully, that means there can be more young members for the [London Meccano Club] and groups like them, to keep the perforated-steel flame alive through another six reigns.
This hack is the bee’s knees, and we’re very thankful to [Tim Surtell] for the tip. Remember, the tip line is always open!.

Jason’s Piano & API Drums instruments from Sulcata Sound Sulcata Sound is the latest venture of Jason Graves, a two-time British Academy Award-winnning composer, producer and percussionist renowned for his work on titles such as Still Wakes The Deep, Dead Space, Tomb Raider, Far Cry Primal, Until Dawn and Prey.

Xilentch XMLimiter V3 Final Mastering Peak Limiter We're picking up right where we left off! No signal smearing! No stereo narrowing! No spectral shifts or transient loss! Because at the heart of this plugin lies an ultra-transparent philosophy. It tends to deliver much higher loudness compared to its competitors— but it does so in a very different way, without sacrificing that sought-after analog feel. And best of all: it does this without making you feel the difference between the original and the processed signal. Here's what's new: Unfortunately, this will be the final update. Now performs internal x16 oversampling. A numeric readout has been added to the gain reduction meter, with improved response speed. The color palette has been changed for both the interface and the gain reduction meter. Minor UI tweaks. Major DSP improvements, now with a more detailed dual-stage processing structure. As always, the plugin is FREE. If you'd like to support, donations are welcome! Just reach out if you'd like to contribute. Read More

Amazon signs nuclear energy deal to power AI data centersAmazon joins a growing list of tech companies shifting to nuclear power to meet the energy-intensive needs of artificial intelligence.

LED Probe: A Smart, Simple Solution for Testing LEDsIf you’ve worked on a project with small LEDs, you know the frustration of determining their polarity. This ingenious LED Probe from [David] packs a lot of useful features into a simple, easy-to-implement circuit.
Most multimeters have a diode test function that can be used to check LEDs; however, this goes a step further. Not only will the probe light up an LED, it will light up no matter which side of the LED the leads are touching. A  Red/Green LED on the probe will indicate if the probe tip is on the anode or cathode.
The probe is powered by a single CR2032 battery, and you may notice there’s no on/off switch. That’s because the probe enters a very low-current sleep mode between uses. The testing intelligence is handled by either an ATtiny85 or, in the newest version, an ATtiny202, though the basic concept and design are compatible with several other chips. All the design files for the PCB, the ATtiny code, a parts list, and a detailed explanation of how it works are available on [David]’s site, so be sure to check them out. Once you build one of these probes, you’ll want something to test it on, so explore some of the LED projects we’ve featured in the past.