Fraudster earned millions with AI songs no humans ever even listened toA 54-year-old man from Cornelius, North Carolina, has pleaded guilty to music streaming fraud, which earned him over $8 million in royalties through AI generated songs and bot streamers.
Michael Smith was charged by US federal prosecutors in 2024, when it was reported that his fraudulent operation began all the way back in 2017. Smith has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and has also agreed to pay $8,091,843.64 in forfeiture.

READ MORE: “Play an instrument – now more than ever”: Flying Lotus says AI-generated music will make demand to see real musicians go up

A press release shared via the Department of Justice website states that Smith created thousands of bot accounts across streaming platforms and used software to cause the bots to continuously stream songs that he owned. He used AI to create “hundreds of thousands” of songs for which he could manipulate the streams.
Smith spread his automated streams across thousands of songs to avoid anomalous streaming as to any single song, which would have likely caused the streaming platforms to discover his scheme, the press release also states.
A statement from U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton reads, “Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times.
“Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.”
Smith is scheduled to be sentenced in July this year.
In other AI news, Mikey Shulman, the CEO of AI music platform Suno, has reflected on his controversial statement that most people “don’t enjoy” making music.
Shulman made the comment during an interview on the 20VC podcast last year, when he claimed that most people don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music because of how time consuming it is, but also because it “takes a lot of practice” and “you need to get really good at an instrument or really good at a piece of production software”.
Looking back on the controversy in a new interview with Billboard, Shulman admitted: “I really wish I had chosen different words.”
The post Fraudster earned millions with AI songs no humans ever even listened to appeared first on MusicTech.

MQA Labs Inspira and Endura fix one of the oldest problems in digital audio conversionInspira: $249
Endura: $349
mqalabs.com
When zooming in on the start of a waveform in your DAW, have you ever noticed that the initial transient of the recording is preceded by a wobble of waveform activity? It almost looks like the waveform is revving-up for the big jump of the transient. This strange signal is extremely low in level, so most of us ignore it, but if you were to stick a mic in front of a drum and feed its signal to an old-school analogue oscilloscope, you’d see nothing of the sort, but just a clean, crisp transient.

READ MORE: The best free synth plugins you can download right now

So what’s up with those DAW waveforms? Are they actually a bigger problem than we realise? With the release of the Inspira and Endura plugins, MQA Labs certainly thinks so.
Endura. Image: Press
What is pre-ring, and why does it matter?
What you’re seeing is known as time smear or pre-ring; an artefact of the delta-sigma oversampling design used in (practically) every audio analogue-to-digital (AD) converter that’s ever been on the market. If you’d like to understand why pre-ring occurs, check out MQA Labs’ white paper on the topic, but be warned — it gets rather technical!
Pre-ring doesn’t only affect the first transient in a recording, but is an ever-present pre-echo of the upcoming audio. With extremely low amplitude and an extremely short time offset (around 150µs at 48 kHz), you may assume it has no discernible impact. But overlaying audio with a time-offset copy of itself results in phase interactions that amplify some frequencies while attenuating others, and pre-ring causes this to happen.
The actual sonic impact is exceptionally small, but if you know what to listen for (and are able to compare to an analogue source with no pre-ring) it can be heard as a slight over-emphasis of the mid range and coinciding muddying of upper-mid and high frequencies. It can also blur the apparent position of individual sounds within stereo sources.
Inspira. Image: Press
What are Inspira and Endura?
So, where do MQA Labs Inspira and Endura fit into this picture? The company’s goal is to improve conversion technology, and it has developed systems that eliminate pre-ring by preserving the time-domain accuracy lost in delta-sigma converters. Inspira and Endura harness this technology in a way that brings its benefits directly into your DAW, and that works no matter what converters your audio interface employs.
The plugins look incredibly similar (although not identical) to each other, but are intended for different purposes. Inspira is for use on individual parts and tracks, although can be used on submix and mix buses too, if desired. Endura, on the other hand, is only for the master mix bus, where it should be applied as the last processor in the chain after the master fader (although not all DAWs allow inserts following the master fader).
Looked at another way, Inspira deals with pre-ring stemming from the analogue-to-digital (AD) side of things, while Endura applies processing that mitigates pre-ring in the DA conversion process.

What do the plugins do?
The first stage of both plugins shows a single Align control and a graphical representation of an impulse waveform. When the Align dial is in the zero position, no alignment processing is applied, and the graphic shows both pre- and post-ring surrounding the impulse (post-ring equates to decay and reverberation in real-world acoustics and so is considered a natural part of the sound – i.e., we can ignore it). Increasing the Align value shifts the pre-ring forward into the post-ring area; decreasing the value does the opposite.
This pre-ring shift is reflected in the graphic, but this is only an indicator and not something that’s actually being measured from the audio passing through the plugin. Achieving the best Align setting, then, means listening closely to the results… and I mean very closely! I’ve already mentioned that the sonic impact of pre-ring is subtle, and so it follows that the impact of the corrective processing is equally subtle. Accordingly, this makes finding the sweet spot, where the mids are least plummy, and the upper ranges are spacious and detailed, tricky. If it’s possible, MQA should add a real-time pre-ring visualiser.
The second stage of both plugins is dedicated to dithering. Dithering adds a low-level random noise that eliminates the ugly distortion caused by digital quantisation errors. It’s an important stage in any digital signal processin,g but we normally only pay attention to it at output — for example, when your pristine 24-bit mix may be heading for a 16-bit playback format. Having control over dithering in Inspira – essentially the input stage – is therefore unusual but helpful. Still, I find what makes this particularly useful is that it allows control over noise shaping, a key part of both plugins’ dithering stages.
Noise shaping is an EQ curve applied to dithering noise to move the dithering energy away from the frequencies at which our hearing is most sensitive, thus giving the perception of improved sonic detail around those frequencies. Inspira’s dithering, then, is more about using noise shaping to focus accuracy and detail than it is about reducing bit depth. It can have an impact even when the dithering Depth control (expressed in terms of the number of bits being effectively removed) is at zero, while increasing the Depth value (removing bits, in effect) imparts a form of dynamic compression that can be useful too.
Each plugin offers a slightly different choice of six noise shaping curves. Inspira has a flat curve, three Air curves that lift high-end detail, and two Psy curves designed to focus detail where the human ear is most sensitive. Endura trades one of the Air curves for an extra Psy curve, and also has a Learn function that measures the noise floor of a mix from which to produce an appropriate curve. These options are accompanied by a visual readout that overlays the chosen noise shape on a real-time frequency analysis.
Endura Export and Verify view. Image: Press
What on earth is Assurance Metadata?
One of the reasons Endura needs to be placed at the very end of the mix chain is to ensure the proprietary Assurance Metadata generated by the plugin isn’t corrupted by further signal processing. This is data encoded into the audio stream, its primary function being to verify the exported audio is a bit-perfect match to what the DAW is producing.
The metadata is inaudible, and the export/mixdown procedure of most DAWs will leave it intact; if the metadata is corrupted, it means the exported file will not be bit-perfect. Endura can check the metadata and, if it turns out your DAW is not creating a bit-perfect export, you can use the plugin’s built-in export functionality instead.
MQA Labs’ QRONO d2A converters also respond to the metadata, applying specific filtering tailored to settings applied in Endura. This means QRONO-equipped playback systems, which are already gaining a reputation for delivering excellent results, can do an even better job of turning the digital audio data stream back into accurate, realistic, analogue audio.

Do I really need these plugins?
As I’ve mentioned, the impact of Inspira is subtle, but its benefits have a cumulative effect. Mixes take on an analogue-like quality, with the airiness and high-end detail associated with classic recordings from the pinnacle of the analogue era. However, while not a bank-breaker, Inspira isn’t the cheapest of plugins, so it’s perhaps something that will be of most interest to pros, although anyone’s mixes will benefit from it.
Adding Endura to the brew ensures Inspira’s analogue-like detail and naturalness remain locked into final mixes and masters, but it’s aimed primarily at mastering engineers and studios, with a steeper price tag to match.
It’s undeniable that the sonic benefits wrought by these plugins are delicate, but if we sound engineers and producers were unconcerned with audio quality, we’d still be clustering musicians around a ribbon mic connected directly to a wax master cutter!
Key features

VST3, AU and AAX plugins
Compatible with macOS 10.13+ (Intel or Apple Silicon) and Windows 10/11
Realigns time-smear and applies advanced dithering
Supports MQA Labs Assurance Metadata system

The post MQA Labs Inspira and Endura fix one of the oldest problems in digital audio conversion appeared first on MusicTech.

How We Remixed Fred Again..: Tips from HAAi, Oppidan and HamdiAfter Fred Again.. put out USB 002, his latest longform instalment to the ongoing USB release, notable collaborators such as Young Thug, Sammy Virji, and Floating Points joined the ranks of previous entrants, Skrillex, Four Tet, and Romy.

READ MORE: How we remixed Steve Aoki: Tips from Laidback Luke, Dani Thorne and Nostalgix

But before the dust had settled around the 16 new songs, Fred Again.. announced USB 002 Remixes to keep the roster growing with more diverse talent. Across six new tracks, he welcomes an eclectic crew to rework music from USB 002. Burgeoning dubstep champion Hamdi contributed alongside the modern UK garage purveyor KETTAMA, the intuitive electronic artist HAAi, and the respected groove machine Oppidan.
MusicTech speaks to Oppidan, HAAi, and Hamdi about how they made their remixes and what it’s like to be a part of the continuing USB legacy.
the floor – HAAi remix

What do you think makes a good remix?
Having recognisable elements. The thing that I’m always trying to achieve is where you’re in the club, and you hear this track coming on, and then you get a real payoff on the hook.
the floor technically exists as two remixes, Fred’s and Skin on Skin’s. What was it like working with both sets of stems?
It was quite the beast to take on. There were so many elements I really loved. The first version that I did came out so easily. I worked on it in my kitchen obsessively all day and night, but even though it sounded completely different, it probably had a few too many of those elements. Fred’s feedback was, “I feel like you’ve respected me too much.”
Where did you go from there?
I did seven entirely different compositions, which is probably more work than I’ve ever done on my own music. I did a session with two different pals. The first was Manny D, who is a longtime friend. Then I reached out to this up-and-coming producer called Skybreak who I’ve been working with. His sound design is insane.
Then I took the stems away and rebuilt the whole thing two times. I was still just trying to find what was gonna work in the club. And then it got to the final, but I wasn’t quite ready to hand it over for mixing. So I called Jon Hopkins. He is a very dear friend of mine and a longtime collaborator.
For the first time, I’ve got so many extra credited people. But it has been a real testament that even though I feel very confident as a producer, composer, and songwriter, I also am not afraid to just call up pals sometimes when I’m doing my head in on this.
What are some key plugins, synths, or other pieces of gear you used to make your remix?
We worked across three different DAWs. I work in Ableton Live, Manny D works in Logic Pro, and Skybreak works in FL Studio. A lot of that stuttering vocal stuff I do manually, and I used a Moog Sub 37 and a lot of Serum 2.
One of my favourite two plugins that I used a lot on this is Infiltrator by Devious Machines. In the distortion section called In Your Face, the dial is 0 to 100. I use it on 1, and that is more than enough. I use it mostly on kicks and bass because it adds upper, mid-frequency artefacts, which adds so much more detail to the texture.
There’s another gating plugin that I’ve been using called Duck. It’s so simple, but it adds so much more groove. If I’ve got something like a string section, I can make it into a trance kind of pattern. That’s been really fun to play with.
OK OK – Hamdi remix

What do you think makes a good remix?
I like it when remixes build on the original rather than being a completely separate thing. I always prefer the remixes that don’t veer too far from the original track.
What was your reaction when Fred reached out to you for a remix to be part of the ongoing USB legacy?
I was very gassed when I got the call-up. Funnily enough, I’d actually thought of doing an edit of the track before Fred had even asked me, so I already had some ideas of where I’d take the remix. I love what he’s done with the USB series and the different styles he’s been making on it, so I was very honoured to be a part of the project.
What are some key plugins, synths, or other pieces of gear you used to make your remix?
Most of the basses I made were done in Serum. I usually make most of my bass patches in Sytrus, so it was a bit of a departure for me and a nice change.
Fred has been a champion of the UK dubstep sound for years now. Did that make you feel any pressure when you were making your remix?
I was pretty nervous, I can’t lie. I knew that Fred had a lot of shows coming up, so I really wanted to make something for the clubs that would make crowds go crazy. It took a good few days to get it right. The idea came quite quickly, but it really took a while to fine-tune it and make it sound how I wanted it to. There were a few days when I wasn’t sure if I was going to get it to a good spot.
Your remix has a much harder-hitting bassline than the original. Can you give a quick overview of how you made it in the studio?
I actually built that sound off of a sound I’d made for a drum and bass track. I knew I wanted it to have that of formant-y type sound to it, so I was aiming for that sort of vibe.
..FEISTY – Oppidan remix

What do you think makes a good remix?
Re-contextualising songs in your own style and in a way people wouldn’t have been exposed to before. It’s good to treat remixes like a one-way collaboration.
What was your reaction when Fred reached out to you for a remix to be part of the ongoing USB legacy?
Obviously, really exciting, but also slightly nerve-racking. It felt important for me to fly the flag for UK Garage on this one, which I didn’t end up doing, and I’m glad I didn’t. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay within that box. I’m inspired by a lot of different genres.
What are some key plugins, synths, or other pieces of gear you used to make your remix?
There are two bass synths in this track, both made on Serum. One’s a simple sub patch, and the other is a plucky saw style bass with quite a bit of automation to make it feel more organic. I spent quite a bit of time playing with the filter cutoff on the LFO and the decay to create a bit of pull and push on certain notes and emphasise the bassline between bars.
The main synth for the chords is a S.K.Y Keys patch, which samples a bunch of analogue synths. Like most of my tracks, this remix started in a hotel room, so S.K.Y Keys can be my go-to for getting ideas down on the move. The main melody patch is from my Moog Matriarch. I used XLN RC-20 to automate the pitch wobble.
The original track chops up the vocal into precise, minimal pieces. Why did you decide to create smooth melodies, chords, and basslines for your version?
I love recontextualising a song using chords and creating a whole new feel. Usually, this translates to vocal melodies because you can change the way every word feels with each chord change. In this one, though, there’s no direct melody in the vocal, so I had to change my thinking a bit. The vocal is dark and moody, and I guess in a kind of absurdist way, I wanted to flip it on its head and make the vocal feel light, then sweeten the rhythms as much as possible by adding chords and drums.
The post How We Remixed Fred Again..: Tips from HAAi, Oppidan and Hamdi appeared first on MusicTech.

The Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano Discusses Misunderstood Songs and Unexpected InfluencesFrontman Gordon Gano spoke with AllMusic about the Violent Femmes' ongoing anniversary shows, the surprising ways fans interpret his lyrics, and why some of the group's darkest songs receive the biggest reactions live.

Despite bitter rivalry, Kalshi, Polymarket CEOs back $35M predictions markets VC fundAs prediction markets explode, the new firm called 5(c) Capital, will back startups supporting the burgeoning category.

Bitcoin’s battle for $70K continues as data shows traders avoiding bullish positioningRising inflation concerns weigh on Bitcoin’s breakout as traders refuse to take on bullish positions, despite Monday’s 4% price bounce.

Signing Stories: BlackstreetDate Signed: November 2025Label: XOXO Entertainment Corp.Band Members: Chauncey “Black” Hannibal, Levi Little, Mark Middleton, Eric WilliamsType of Music: R&BManagement: XOXO Entertainment Corp, info@xoxoent.comBooking: Paquin EntertainmentLegal: Sander ShalinskyPublicity: Allie Gruensfelder - The Syndicate, allie@thesyn.comA&R: Adam H. Hurstfield, Jackie SonegraWeb: blackstreetofficial.com

It’s been three decades since their song “No Diggity” spent four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, but the GRAMMY-winning R&B group has never stopped grinding. Besides independently recording a fresh album during the pandemic, the quartet tours to this day. They were performing an abbreviated, half-hour version of their set in Canada last September when one of their security guards said someone wanted to talk.

That person, multi-platinum producer Adam H. Hurstfield, is the CEO of XOXO Entertainment. The executive expressed how much he adored the show. “That’s nothing,” replied original member Chauncey “Black” Hannibal. “That’s just 30 percent of our capabilities.” They exchanged numbers, and Hannibal soon received a long text explaining what XOXO could do for them.

Being that the group has been around the block, they were unwilling to compromise. Instead of signing a traditional deal, the group became partners with the next-gen global entertainment company. The arrangement includes full-on management, plus complete creative control and ownership of their masters. “He gave us everything we wanted and more,” raves Hannibal. “This type of deal doesn’t get done in 2026.” The contract was signed right before Christmas.

The gentlemen knew they’d made the right choice when Hurstfield provided an analysis of their streaming data. He calculates Blackstreet has racked up 4.6 billion plays across all platforms, worth millions of dollars they’ve yet to see. Hurstfield promises to get them the money they deserve.

“They make us feel like we’re part of a family,” says Levi Little, who’s also been with the showmen since the early days. “We like that atmosphere.” The brevity of their contract reflects a mutual respect. The day they signed, they had a Zoom meeting to put the wheels in motion.

For Mark Middleton, who first joined in ‘96, the key to success is a matter of patience. “Hone your skills. Master yourself. Be disciplined. You can’t just jump at anything,” he imparts. “But keep God first. Have a strong relationship with God, because this is a faith walk.”

Expect new material from Blackstreet, including new versions of their greatest hits, to arrive this year. The post Signing Stories: Blackstreet first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Acoustic Drone Detection On the Cheap with ESP32We don’t usually speculate on the true identity of the hackers behind these projects, but when [TN666]’s accoustic drone-detector crossed our desk with the name “Batear”, we couldn’t help but wonder– is that you, Bruce? On the other hand, with a BOM consisting entirely of one ESP32-S3 and an ICS-43434 I2S microphone, this isn’t exactly going to require the Wayne fortune to pull off. Indeed, [TN666] estimates a project cost of only 15 USD, which really democratizes drone detection.
It’s not a tuba–  Imperial Japanese aircraft detector being demonstrated in 1932. Image Public Domain via rarehistoricalphotos.com
The key is what you might call ‘retrovation’– innovation by looking backwards. Most drone detection schema are looking to the ways we search for larger aircraft, and use RADAR. Before RADAR there were acoustic detectors, like the famous Japanese “war tubas” that went viral many years ago. RADAR modules aren’t cheap, but MEMS microphones are– and drones, especially quad-copters, aren’t exactly quiet. [TN666] thus made the choice to use acoustic detection in order to democratize drone detection.
Of course that’s not much good if the ESP32 is phoning home to some Azure or AWS server to get the acoustic data processed by some giant machine learning model.  That would be the easy thing to do with an ESP32, but if you’re under drone attack or surveillance it’s not likely you want to rely on the cloud. There are always privacy concerns with using other people’s hardware, too. [TN666] again reached backwards to a more traditional algorithmic approach– specifically Goertzel filters to detect the acoustic frequencies used by drones. For analyzing specific frequency buckets, the Goertzel algorithm is as light as they come– which means everything can run local on the ESP32. They call that “edge computing” these days, but we just call it common sense.
The downside is that, since we’re just listening at specific frequencies, environmental noise can be an issue. Calibration for a given environment is suggested, as is a foam sock on the microphone to avoid false positives due to wind noise. It occurs to us the sort physical amplifier used in those ‘war tubas’ would both shelter the microphone from wind, as well as increase range and directionality.
[TN] does intend to explore machine learning models for this hardware as well; he seems to think that an ESP32-NN or small TensorFlow Lite model might outdo the Goertzel algorithm. He might be onto something, but we’re cheering for Goertzel on that one, simply on the basis that it’s a more elegant solution, one we’ve dived into before. It even works on the ATtiny85, which isn’t something you can say about even the lightest TensorFlow model.
Thanks to [TN] for the tip. Playboy billionaire or not, you can send your projects into the tips line to see them some bat-time on this bat-channel.

Live Nation invests in Romania’s Emagic and Slovakia’s Vivien as it expands Central and Eastern European footprintLive Nation says it is 'strengthening the foundations' of live music in the region.
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Sound Props Guitar Series Direct SG is FREE for a limited time at Audio Plugin Deals
Audio Plugin Deals is offering the Guitar Series Direct SG by Sound Props for free for a limited time. This Kontakt-powered guitar library normally costs $115, so it is worth a look if you need a playable electric guitar instrument and already own the full version of Kontakt. Guitar Series Direct SG is based on [...]
View post: Sound Props Guitar Series Direct SG is FREE for a limited time at Audio Plugin Deals

Klang.io launch Transcription Studio Transcription Studio can run as a DAW plug-in or standalone application, and promises to make it easier than ever for professional and hobbyist musicians alike to document and communicate even the most complex of musical ideas.

Revealed Recordings Revealed Percussion Vol. 3Revealed Percussion Vol. 3 is a collection of 500 percussive one shots built to push rhythm further in modern productions. The pack is built from a range of real world recordings and shaped into clean, usable one shots with depth, detail, and distinct character. The palette draws from live percussion, field recordings, and drum machine sources. Whether you are sketching new patterns or adding detail and momentum to a track, Revealed Percussion Vol. 3 gives you a versatile suite of source sounds to inspire original, dynamic rhythm. Reveal Yourself. Revealed Percussion Vol. 3 - Details REV-PERC3 [500 samples]. 500 samples All samples symmetrically in phase Sample Format: 48kHz / 24-bit Stereo PCM .wav files Approx. 72.3MB compressed .zip download. Read More

The Triad multi-algorithm distortion plugin by Carbon Fiber is FREE for a limited time
The Triad is a three-way distortion plugin from developer Carbon Fiber, billed as “the triangle of destruction” due to its triangular X/Y pad at its core. It is now free for a limited time! It’s a multi-algorithm distortion and saturation processor offering a tactile way to blend various types of distortion, and it’s free until April [...]
View post: The Triad multi-algorithm distortion plugin by Carbon Fiber is FREE for a limited time

“The Entire Sampletraxx Universe, Unlocked”: Get 56 sound libraries valued at £2,000 for just £89 with this huge bundle deal Plugin Boutique is offering a huge bundle deal on the complete Sampletraxx catalogue, including 56 sound libraries valued at nearly £2,000 – all for £89.
For the first time ever and running until 29 March, you can own the complete Sampletraxx collection, described as “the legendary toolkit used by top composers on blockbuster films, AAA games, and major trailers”.
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The collection contains thousands of cinematic sound effects for trailer music, scoring, and immersive game audio. The Sampletraxx brand is built on a philosophy of creating “state of the art sound design”, and its tools have been used by Charlie Clouser, the composer for the SAW film franchise and a former member of Nine Inch Nails, and Mark Korven, composer for critically acclaimed films like The Witch and The Lighthouse.

READ MORE: Roland says its new AI melody generator, Melody Flip, puts “human intent” at the centre of the process

The bundle includes several tools for foundational atmospheres and drones such as Shadow Drones, the “cornerstone” of this collection, offering over 400 cinematic drone sounds, and Sanctuary, a library designed to create the perfect headspace for music intros. This one offers gentle reverberations, distant echoes, and textures derived from e-bowed instruments and meticulously processed organic sources like ceramic and glass.
There are also tools for impact and transitions ideal for trailers, tortured instruments like a broken piano and chilling string instruments for horror music, and a number of sound design“secret weapons” for vocals, tension building, and more.

This bundle deal arrives just as Plugin Boutique is offering a promotion on Music For Film, with tools for cinematic scoring, orchestral sound design and epic soundtracks all available with big discounts.
You can find out more and view the full list of all sound libraries included in the Sampletraxx bundle via Plugin Boutique.
The post “The Entire Sampletraxx Universe, Unlocked”: Get 56 sound libraries valued at £2,000 for just £89 with this huge bundle deal  appeared first on MusicTech.

Get the iconic Minimoog in plugin form for $49 – saving you $100Right now until the end of March, you can save $100 on Universal Audio’s Moog-endorsed plugin emulation of the Minimoog Model D synthesiser.
Universal Audio first launched this emulation along with its Luna platform in 2020, as the Minimoog formed part of its built-in instrument offerings. It was then released for individual purchase in 2022.
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The Moog Minimoog Model D is one of the most famous analogue synths. The original hardware version was launched in 1970, and condensed the sound of Moog’s modular systems into a portable instrument. It went on to be used by huge artists like Herbie Hancock, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, and many others.

READ MORE: Plugin Boutique’s Music For Film sale has all the instruments you need for cinematic scoring and epic soundtracks – at huge discounts

UAD’s recreation includes all the necessary features that gave the original so much character, including impedance matching, module-to-module coupling, and even its “feedback” effect (routing its output to its input to get different amounts of distortion).
This plugin version also precisely captures the legendary Moog oscillators, ladder filters, extreme resonance, pitch tracking/stability anomalies, and more. You can find out more in the videos below:

If you prefer hardware synths, then you can also get Moog’s 2022 reissue of the Minimoog Model D on sale at Guitar Center, with over $1,000 off its original price right now.
This version features modern enhancements including a dedicated LFO, MIDI and CV connectivity, custom reissue transistors, and a premium Fatar keybed with velocity and aftertouch. It retains the classic three-voltage-controlled oscillator design at the core of this synth to deliver the rich textures it is best known for.
In 2022 feature with MusicTech on the legacy of the Minimoog Model D, artists Lisa Bella Donna, Gareth Jones, Ashibah and Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory shared their thoughts on its impact and significance in synth history. Will Gregory said, “You can’t live on one synthesiser alone, but I tell you what: you can go a long way with a Model D.”
Get the Universal Audio Minimoog plugin for $49 now at Sweetwater.
The post Get the iconic Minimoog in plugin form for $49 – saving you $100 appeared first on MusicTech.