“I’m not waiting to program a synth… I can make that sound”: How Ellie Dixon samples everyday objects to keep her set up low-costPop artist Ellie Dixon uses everyday items found within the home to create her tracks, from chopsticks to microwave doors. Appearing on the latest episode of the My Forever Studio podcast – made in partnership with Audient – she reveals how doing so helps to keep her set up cheap and cheerful.
Dixon has amassed millions of streams, and one of her most popular songs, Green Grass, utilises the sounds of wooden spoons. As a self-producing artist, she makes a lot of songs right from her own bedroom, and experiments with clutter lying around on her desk.

READ MORE: My Forever Studio: Ellie Dixon is banned from Currys

She explains, “I’m someone that wants something instantly, so I’m not waiting to program a synth or order some percussive thing. I can make that [sound], and I want to make that in the next two minutes because I’ve got an idea, or I’m making it with my mouth.”
Asked what weird samples have snuck into her tracks, she replies, “My favourite is if you slam a microwave door – unbelievable snare sound, so good. You get such a slam, like you know how microwaves just always sound pretty violent? These natural sounds, they have so much natural variation, there’s this imperfection that I think we’re really drawn to as imperfect beings.
“When there’s this mass draw to something, it’s normally quite an imperfect human aspect of it that we love, and [going] back to the psychology of music, I think our brains are very clever… If you manipulate a natural sound I think your brain can still tell it came from something natural.”
Dixon adds, “Even if you’re not consciously making that connection you’re just going, ‘Oh there’s something about this that I like.’ And if you hear these everyday sounds that you hear in your world buried in music, I think it feels very familiar and homely.”
Host Chris Barker suggests it can be dangerous however, because when people know a sound is made in this way, they can never un-hear it: “Yeah, you’ve got to be careful about the information you share,” says Dixon
You can check out the full episode of My Forever Studio below:

Ellie Dixon heads out on tour this September. You can grab tickets to see her via her official website.
The post “I’m not waiting to program a synth… I can make that sound”: How Ellie Dixon samples everyday objects to keep her set up low-cost appeared first on MusicTech.

Gadhouse’s vintage-inspired HENRY turntable offers “the perfect combination of nostalgia and progress”Gadhouse has launched a new vintage-inspired turntable named HENRY, offering a blend of both “nostalgia and progress”.
Accompanied by two bookshelf speakers, a crystal clear lid, and a unique slipmat, the sophisticated HENRY turntable is now available in Ebony or classic Mahogany, and is marketed as the cool uncle of the Gadhouse product range.

READ MORE: Audio Technica’s $10k Hotaru turntable spins your records on a floating, light-reactive platform

Gadhouse describes HENRY as the music aficionado’s turntable and speaker set. It supports “seamless” digital streaming, and features Bluetooth connectivity, a 60W speaker, and an Audio Technica T3600L cartridge. It offers a low noise design system, a speed selector for 33 ⅓ and 45RPM records, plus USB encoding for recording your vinyl.
“When Henry shows up to Gad’s House, all eyes are on him. He’s sophisticated, effortlessly charming, and timelessly stylish,” says Gadhouse. “Timeless is the way Henry lives. Loved by every Gadhouse member for [the] reason that he never goes out of style.
“For every morning meeting, he confidently chooses the ebony suit that gives him composure and a sharp professional edge. On warm weekend afternoons, Henry often plays jazz from his vinyl collection, sharing stories from the past with the little ones gathered around. With a mahogany pipe in hand, he’s the dream uncle, effortlessly cool and full of rich, deep character waiting to be discovered.”

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Earlier this year, Gadhouse launched its COSMO Solar turntable range, with a clear-tech, Y2K aesthetic. The new additions to the lineup were first revealed during CES 2025 back in January, and come in three cosmic-inspired lid colours including Venus Red, Jupiter Green, and Neptune Blue. The COSMO Lucid White also made a return, known for its plain, transparent design to match any style.
The HENRY turntable will begin shipping from 16 June. It is priced at £275, and you can order it now directly from Gadhouse.
The post Gadhouse’s vintage-inspired HENRY turntable offers “the perfect combination of nostalgia and progress” appeared first on MusicTech.

How to use Physical Music Sales, Merch to build a Loyal FanbaseIn a digital-first industry, physical music sales and merch offer something streaming never can: a real, lasting connection with fans. Learn how to turn every sale into a meaningful moment that builds loyalty, buzz, and a fanbase that sticks around.
The post How to use Physical Music Sales, Merch to build a Loyal Fanbase appeared first on Hypebot.

InnerMost47 releases OBSIDIAN Neural Sound Engine, a FREE AI-powered jam partner
OBSIDIAN from InnerMost47 is a free and open-source AI-powered jam partner for macOS and Windows (VST3 plugin). If you’ve read any of my posts on artificial intelligence, you’ll know I approach it with caution. I don’t think AI is inherently bad, and I know we aren’t at the stage of being replaced by robot musicians. [...]
View post: InnerMost47 releases OBSIDIAN Neural Sound Engine, a FREE AI-powered jam partner

Boom Library release World War I Firearms Boom Library have released World War I Firearms, a high-resolution sound effects collection designed to capture the authentic sound of early 20th-century weaponry.

“There’s a terrible housewifely tidiness”: Why Brian Eno thinks there’s too much “fiddling” in modern music productionBrian Eno has absolutely had it with over-produced music. The musician and pioneering ambient producer has explained how he keeps creativity flowing in the studio, and why he avoids “fiddling” with his records.
Eno has just released two albums – Luminal and Lateral – with composer Beatie Wolfe. At a playback and Q&A event held in Eno’s West London studio earlier this week, the duo lifted the curtain on their creative process, and revealed how they bonded over a shared hatred of NFTs.

READ MORE: “If you knowingly build systems that can enable war crimes, you inevitably become complicit in those crimes”: Brian Eno calls out Microsoft over ties to Israeli government

As reported by NME, when writing, the pair used Eno’s famous Oblique Strategies cards, which he created with Peter Schmidt in 1975. The cards provide rules and constraints to make the creative process challenging and tear down any walls or mental blocks.
“If she has a card that says, for example, ‘destroy everything’, and I have a card that says, ‘change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency’, then you’ve got two people who are working at cross purposes, which sometimes produces good results,” says Eno.
“What we tried to do was to set it up so the game was always interesting, so it never became another day in the studio. We tried to make it so that every day was a thrill, and it was, pretty much.”
Eno later explains how he likes to leave an “emptiness”  in his work to allow for feeling to flow in: “You’d think that the first question people ask themselves when they’re making pieces of music in studios would be, ‘am I getting any feeling from this?’ But funnily enough, a lot of people don’t,” he says.
“I don’t like fiddling anymore. I can hear fiddling – it makes me nervous. When I listen to recordings that have a sense of slight carelessness, I prefer them, when it hasn’t been tidied up… There’s a terrible sort of housewifely tidiness presented with music, because it’s now possible to fix absolutely everything to some kind of platonic ideal of what a C-sharp bass note should be, for example.”

Luminal and Lateral are available to buy or stream. You can also head to Beatie Wolfe’s website to find out more about her work.
The post “There’s a terrible housewifely tidiness”: Why Brian Eno thinks there’s too much “fiddling” in modern music production appeared first on MusicTech.

Artist Media Studio releases FREE CPT-100 Mastering Compressor for Windows
Artist Media Studio just released their CPT-100 Mastering Compressor for free. Before we dive into the details, please note that this plugin is only compatible with VST2 plugin hosts on Windows. If you use macOS or Linux, feel free to raise your fists and shout at the clouds. If you need a free mastering compressor, [...]
View post: Artist Media Studio releases FREE CPT-100 Mastering Compressor for Windows

“I’m not just producing tracks anymore… I’m producing stars from scratch”: Timbaland unveils AI entertainment company – and its first Suno-powered artistProducer Timbaland has launched his own AI entertainment company and has unveiled its first artist, TaTa.
The company, called Stage Zero, has been co-founded with film/TV producer Rocky Mudaliar and entrepreneur Zayd Portillo. Their first “signee” TaTa is powered by Suno, and forms part of a new genre that Timbo has coined as “A-Pop”. However, he says that she is not just an avatar.

READ MORE: Record labels reportedly in licensing talks with AI music firms Suno and Udio

While details remain minimal at this stage, it is reported that Stage Zero will also bring along a number of AI-driven creative tools. Timbaland – who has worked with Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, and many more — will be handling the majority of the production side of things within the company. He already has a working partnership with Suno, serving as its Strategic Advisor.
In a statement, as shared by Billboard, Timbaland comments, “I’m not just producing tracks anymore. I’m producing systems, stories, and stars from scratch. [TaTa] is not an avatar. She is not a character. TaTa is a living, learning, autonomous music artist built with AI. TaTa is the start of something bigger. She’s the first artist of a new generation. A-Pop is the next cultural evolution, and TaTa is its first icon.”
He also tells the outlet directly, “The technology of today is perfect for what this is. What used to take me three months only takes me two days. In the beginning, it was like a toy. It was like going to a toy store. You gotta go through gluttony, because you can’t believe that it’s here.”
Mudaliar adds, “The artists of tomorrow won’t just be human, they’ll be IP, code and robotics that are fully autonomous. That’s what we’re building at Stage Zero.”

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Last March, in a new interview with The Inner Court, Timbaland shared his thoughts on the current state of music and AI’s role within it. Reflecting on how politics and social divides have bled into music, he said, “This whole election divided us. What I mean by that is it divided the music. The music sounds bland, it sounds boring.”
He continued, “We talk about AI, and that is the only thing that has a pure soul right now. That you can create something and just express your true feelings and it comes out beautiful.”
The post “I’m not just producing tracks anymore… I’m producing stars from scratch”: Timbaland unveils AI entertainment company – and its first Suno-powered artist appeared first on MusicTech.

W. A. Production DJFX Multi-Effect Plugin is FREE for a Limited Time
W. A. Production has released DJFX, a free multi-effect plugin for macOS and Windows, available at no cost until June 20th, 2025. DJFX is a fun and creative plugin designed to deliver instant DJ-style effects. It’s the result of a collaboration between W. A. Production and Bvker. I always say how much I love simple [...]
View post: W. A. Production DJFX Multi-Effect Plugin is FREE for a Limited Time

PreSonus release Studio One Pro 7.2 update  PreSonus have released the v7.2 update for Studio One Pro, their flagship DAW which delivers a bunch of much-requested key improvements and a brand new bass VI.

Hollywood Independent Music Awards DeadlineAre you feeling hyper-positive about your music? Consider for a moment how great it would feel to hoist aloft a Hollywood Independent Music Award in a moment of victory, a baying crowd chanting your name Rocky-esque. The world at your feet.Well, you'd better get a move on because the deadline for submissions is fast approaching. "HIMA is accepting SONG, ALBUM, PUBLISHER and RECORD LABEL submissions through June 15th," they said this week in a statement. "Reviews are ongoing and a select few early nominations will be posted in a few days. Early selections are for the benefit of nominees located outside of California, allowing time to make travel arrangements."June 15 is deadline day, and all of the submission links can be found here.So make it happen. Back yourself and get submitting.The post Hollywood Independent Music Awards Deadline first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Why are Elon Musk and Donald Trump fighting?Elon Musk donated $288 million to Trump's 2024 election campaign, but now, the tech mogul is calling for Trump's impeachment.

Circle stock price jumps 167% on first day of trading after IPOCircle had boosted its IPO to a range of $1.05 billion on June 4 as investor demand grew significantly.

Turning the Pluto SDR into a Network Analyzer
Usually when we see a project using a software-defined radio (SDR), the SDR’s inputs and outputs are connected to antennae, but [FromConceptToCircuit]’s project connected an ADALM-Pluto SDR to an RF bridge and a few passive components to make a surprisingly effective network analyzer (part two of the video).The network analyzer measures two properties of the circuit to which it is connected: return loss (S11) and insertion gain or loss (S21). To measure S21, the SDR feeds a series of tones to the device under test, and reads the device’s output from one of the SDR’s inputs. By comparing the amplitude of the input to the device’s output, a Python program can calculate S21 over the range of tested frequencies. To find S11, [FromConceptToCircuit] put an RF bridge in line with the device being tested and connected the bridge’s output to the SDR’s second input. This allowed the program to calculate the device’s impedance, and from that S11.The RF bridge and other components introduce some inaccuracies to the measurements, so before making any other measurements, the system is calibrated with both a through connection and an open circuit in place of the tested device. The RF bridge’s directivity was the biggest limiting factor; transfer back from the bridge’s output line caused the reflection under load to exceed the reflection of an open circuit in some frequency ranges, at which point the analyzer couldn’t accurately operate.[FromConceptToCircuit] was eventually able to make measurements throughout most of the 0.1-3 GHz range with a dynamic range of at least 10 dB, and expects a more directive RF bridge to give even better results. If you’d like to repeat the experiment, he’s made his Python program available on GitHub.We’ve previously seen [FromConceptToCircuit] use the Pluto SDR to make a spectrum analyzer. We’ve also featured a guide to the Pluto, covered a project that improved its frequency stability, and seen it used to transmit video.

Black Octopus Sound Dubbed Out Techno by BlackwarpBlack Octopus Sound and Blackwarp have released Dubbed Out Techno - a collection of samples ideal for Techno, Tech House and a variety of other electronic music genres. What's inside: 100% Royalty Free. 24-bit high quality wavs. Cleared for: Spotify, Youtube, Soundcloud, Record Label Releases. Inspired by: Dubfire, Boris Brejcha, Tale of Us. 1+ GB unzipped. 349 Total Sounds. 111 Synth Loops. 82 Drum One Shots. 65 Drum Loops. 50 Bass Loops. 17 FX One Shots. 14 FX Texture Loops. 10 Synth Pad One Shots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16B8RZyNA84 Read More