How Long Can a Quadcopter Drone Fly on Just Solar?The final second prototype flying. (Credit: Luke Maximo Bell, YouTube)
The dream of fully powering everything from aircraft to cars on just the power generated from solar panels attached to the machine remains a tempting one, but always seems to require some serious engineering including putting the machine on a crash diet. The quadcopter that [Luke Maximo Bell] tried to fly off just solar power is a good case in point, as the first attempt crashed after three minutes and wrecked its solar panels. Now he’s back with a second attempt that ought to stay airborne for as long as the sun is shining.
Among the flaws with the first prototype were poor support for the very thin and fragile PV panels, requiring much better support on the carbon fiber frame of the drone. To support the very large solar array, the first drone’s arms were made to be very long, but this interfered with maneuvering, so the second version got trimmed down and the array raised above the frame. This saved 70 grams of weight from the shortened tubs, which could then be added to the new panel supports.
After an initial test flight resulted in a crash when the PV output dropped, the need for a small battery buffer was clear, so this was added, along with a reduction of the array to 4×7 panels to get the same 20V as the battery. The array also had to be reinforced, as the thin array was very wobbly in addition to making it impossible to fly with any significant wind.

The power circuit as implemented on the second prototype. (Credit: Luke Maximo Bell, YouTube)
During the subsequent five hours long test flight it was clear that the resulting PV-powered drone was at the limits of its performance, with even some mild cloud cover forcing the battery to provide backup power.
For the test location a tree-sheltered site far away from windy Cape Town was also selected to provide the best possible shot, as keeping position with this drone was very hard. With the low weight and the big surface area of the solar panel array catching any little bit of wind, the GPS-based position keeping was essential. Unfortunately a few hours into the test this feature failed.
Manual position keeping is definitely possible, but [Luke] had to constantly counteract the drone wanting to drift off somewhere else. Ultimately the test flight ended when it was still very much a sunny South African summer’s day, due to the current provided by the array no longer keeping up with the power demands of the motors.
What this perhaps demonstrates best is that if you want to use PV solar power for your flying drone – especially with a significant payload – it’s probably best to use it for recharging while idle, or to extend the battery life by an appreciable amount. That said, props to [Luke] for persevering and making it work in the end.

KSHMR talks producing for Justin Bieber and Beyoncé, making sample packs, and more
Globally-acclaimed producer and artist KSHMR discusses his landmark collaborations, greatest learnings, new sample pack, and more.

From WMG’s Netflix deal to BMG’s Anthropic lawsuit… it’s MBW’s weekly round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
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InnerMono releases a collection of FREE FX racks for Ableton Live
InnerMono has released a collection of almost 30 free racks for Ableton Live. Like a hardware FX rack or a software rack that hosts multiple effects in a single plugin, Ableton Live racks provide a streamlined workflow for manipulating multiple effects from a single device (rack). From what I understand, Ableton Live has various rack [...]
View post: InnerMono releases a collection of FREE FX racks for Ableton Live

Samples From Mars Lo-Fi Drum Machines From MarsA Curated Collection of 20 Rare and Overlooked Vintage Drum Machines. If you've ever heard a drum machine on a record and couldn't quite place it, Lo-Fi Drum Machines is for you. Built from the everyday gear that powered countless studios, bedrooms, and early productions, these nostalgic machines were the affordable, accessible alternatives to out-of-reach classics like the 808. At first glance they may seem unremarkable - but their limitations are exactly what give them a gritty, hard-hitting character that pricier machines simply can't replicate. These drum machines aren't about pristine fidelity or polite tones - they're full of unmistakable character, with sounds that still feel fresh and less familiar today: https://soundcloud.com/samplesfrommars/lo-fi-drum-machines-from-mars Built to Work, Not to Impress Most of the drum machines in this collection were designed as affordable, practical tools - not studio centerpieces. They weren't meant to be legendary. They were meant to get the job done. But over time, those design limitations became their greatest strengths and we've found ourselves craving the sound of these early digital converters, noisy circuitry, limited memory, and straightforward yet hard-to-place sound sets. The drums lock into a groove easily. They sit in a mix without fighting for attention. They just work (unless they are broken, which is often the case!). For this pack, we grabbed well-known classics like the Roland R-8, DDD-1, Casio RZ-1, and Yamaha RX-11, but also less celebrated boxes like the Mattel Synsonics, Korg KPR-77 and Kawai GB-2 Session Trainer. Some of these machines were super common in home studios (I owned a few - did you?), some appeared briefly in professional setups, and some were never taken seriously at all. Yet all of them left fingerprints on records - sometimes obvious, sometimes impossible to identify, but instantly recognizable once you really hear them, influencing countless early Chicago House, Techno, New Wave, Italo and Hip Hop records. A Focused Sound That Cuts Through Any Mix The drums in this pack are direct, punchy, and full of usable character. Kicks tend to be compressed, focused and present rather than oversized, making them easy to place in a mix. Snares range from tight and snappy to dry and textured, with just enough edge to stay interesting. Hi-hats and cymbals often carry a noticeable grit or movement that adds life without clutter. Alongside the core drum hits, you'll also find supporting percussion and digital textures shaped by the era these machines lived in, including early digital reverbs, flangers, delays, and onboard effects that were baked into the sound of many of these boxes. These effects aren't polished or pristine; they're simple, musical, and full of character, adding space, motion, and depth in a way that feels immediate and familiar. Sampled with Restraint Every sound in Lo-Fi Drum Machines From Mars was recorded directly from the hardware with the goal of preservation, not enhancement. No compression, no EQ, no added saturation - just careful gain staging and faithful capture. The character you hear comes from the machines themselves. Each hit was trimmed, level-matched, and organized so it drops straight into your sampler or DAW without friction. The result is a library that feels immediate and musical from the first load, while still leaving plenty of room for your own processing and interpretation. A Different Kind of Classic If you're ready to step beyond the usual drum icons, this pack offers 750 one-shots from twenty trusted machines that followed a different path, and quietly became classics of their own. Whether you're making house, techno, hip-hop, synthpop, indie, or anything that benefits from rhythm with personality rather than polish. Content: (750) 24-bit WAV Lo-Fi Drum Machines Samples. (20) 16x hit drum kits for instant jamming. Classic lo-fi machines like the RZ-1, DDD-5, RX-11, DR-550, and MR-16. Gritty Bass Drums, crunchy Snares, cutting Hats and classic eighties Toms. Bongos, Congas, Guiros, Cuicas, Surdos, Claves, Snaps and more. Sampled through an API 1608 console and Apogee Symphony. 100% Hardware processing. 240 MB Unzipped. About Formatting: Ableton includes (1) master drum rack containing all samples, and (20) pre-made kits racks. Kontakt, Logic, Reason, SFZ include: (11) Individual Hits and (20) Kits instruments. FL Studio includes: (11) Individual Hits and (20) Kits instruments. Maschine, Battery include: (20) pre-made kits. MPC1000 and MPC2500 include: (20) pre-made kits on 5 programs. MPC Live and MPC X include: (20) pre-made kits on 5 programs. Read More

Mix Rescue: Ian Shepherd Video To accompany his words in SOS April 2026's Mix Rescue, Ian Shepherd has created a video where he demonstrates the difference between new and original masters of the same album. 

Plugin Boutique’s Music For Film sale has all the instruments you need for cinematic scoring and epic soundtracks – at huge discountsFancy trying your hand at some orchestral film scoring? Or perhaps you’re already a seasoned composer looking to upgrade your arsenal. Well, right now, Plugin Boutique is hosting its Music For Film sale, offering tools for cinematic scoring, orchestral sound design and epic soundtracks at big discounts.
The sale itself includes everything from individual plugins and instruments to whole collections that will pretty much end the need to ever buy another plugin again. Take IK Multimedia’s TOTAL VI MAX 2, for example – a comprehensive collection of professional virtual instruments usually priced at £1,439, but now just £69 until 29 March. That’s an insane 95% off!
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Or try Scaler, a professional music theory workstation which is on hand to help you write the perfect chord progressions and melodies, and think about your compositions in new ways, making them better than ever. Until 22 March, you can save £20, and get it for just £79 down from £99.
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UJAM’s 2025 Season Bundle is also included in the sale, packed with all the plugins and virtual instruments to supercharge your production arsenal. Consisting of 13 plugins, spanning advanced multi-FX processors, cinematic and synth instruments, distortion/lo-fi tools, and rhythm-focused engines with deep modulation and hundreds of presets, this bundle is included in PB’s Music For Film sale, but to be honest, it would be a great addition to any producer’s arsenal. Usually priced at £872.96, and now just £130, too.
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Elsewhere, there’s a number of individual virtual instruments – including pianos from Rhodes, string and brass instruments from Roland, and even Celestial Harp from Sonuscore. You could also go for the Everything Bundle: Orchestral Sounds for all of your orchestral needs, originally priced at £194, now just £15 until 31 March.
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This is just a small selection of what’s on offer in the Music For Film sale, so head over to Plugin Boutique now to browse for yourself and upgrade your production arsenal today.
The post Plugin Boutique’s Music For Film sale has all the instruments you need for cinematic scoring and epic soundtracks – at huge discounts appeared first on MusicTech.

Plea Teach releases Spectaverb, a FREE multi-FX reverb plugin for Windows
Spectaverb is the second plugin by Plea Tech we’re looking at in one day, and it seems just as interesting as the first, Pure Amber. Pure Amber is a spectral shaping and resonance suppressor plugin for Windows, and it’s free for a limited time, so don’t miss it. Spectaverb is also a Windows exclusive, which [...]
View post: Plea Teach releases Spectaverb, a FREE multi-FX reverb plugin for Windows

Bitcoin price tussle at $70K may hint that market bottom is not inBitcoin price dipped under $70,000, but a bull-friendly set-up on the lower time frames forecasts a swift rebound.

Jeff Bezos reportedly wants $100 billion to buy and transform old manufacturing firms with AIThe Amazon magnate has a new project centered around acquiring industrial firms and revamping them with AI technology.

What are chord inversions? A music theory guide
Learn about what chord inversions are and explore ways to use them for better voice leading and more nuanced emotional impact.

Retro Weather Display Acts Like It’s Windows 95Sometimes you really need to know what the weather is doing, but you don’t want to look at your phone. For times like those, this neat weather display from [Jordan] might come in handy with its throwback retro vibe.
The build is based around the ESP32-2432S028—also known as the CYD, or Cheap Yellow Display, for the integrated 320 x 240 LCD screen. [Jordan] took this all-in-one device and wrapped it in an attractive 3D-printed housing in the shape of an old-school CRT monitor, just… teenier. A special lever mechanism was built in to the enclosure to allow front panel controls to activate the tactile buttons on the CYD board. The ESP32 is programmed to check Open-Meteo feeds for forecasts and current weather data, while also querying a webcam feed and satellite and radar JPEGs from available weather services. These are then displayed on screen in a way that largely resembles the Windows 95 UI design language, with pages for current conditions, future forecasts, wind speeds, and the like.
We’ve seen some fun weather displays over the years, from graphing types to the purely beautiful. If you’ve found a fun way to display the weather (or change it) don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline. Particularly in the latter case.

Streaming fraud man who pocketed $8m using hundreds of thousands of AI songs streamed billions of times by bots pleads guiltySmith is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29
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FT1-EMU plug-in from Freqport FT1-EMU delivers a virtual recreation of Freqport's Freqtube FT1 saturation unit, and offers optional integration with the hardware version.

A Song That Changed My Life: Sparks the Rescue on Fugazi and Old 97'sA Song (or two) That Changed My Life: Sparks The Rescue’s — Marty McMorrow: Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” and Toby McAllister: Old 97’s “Timebomb.”

The Band Members: Alex Roy, vocals; Marty McMorrow, vocals, keyboards; Toby McAllister, guitar, vocals; Patrick O’Connell, guitar; Ben Briggs, bass; Nathan Spencer, drums.

The Storytellers: Marty McMorrow and Toby McAllister

The Songs: The instantly recognizable, heavily dissected, bassline-driven opening of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” — punctuated by a brief drop to silence at the 22-second mark — unsealed a sonic fault line, releasing a reverberation where hardcore punk and precise musicianship fused into a singular soundscape. The moment served as a tectonic shift, establishing a benchmark for how musicians could remain fiercely independent and DIY while achieving global influence, a feat few have matched.

Conversely, the frenetic, full-speed intro to Old 97’s “Timebomb” — propelled by a breakneck, train-beat rhythm — landed as a seismic sonic tremor, where Western musical textures collided with an unfiltered independent spirit and propulsive alt-rock. The song carved out a unique space, showing how Americana and punk melodics intertwine, the lyrics capturing a mind teetering on the edge of detonation, creating a distinctive sonic signature.

Both tracks, though sonically distinct, are propelled by an unmistakable sense of momentum — internal and external — capturing a unique urgency that refuses to sit still.  For McMorrow, “Waiting Room” embodies the inner pressure to act, grow, and claim a personal life path. For McAllister, “Timebomb” reflects the external, anticipatory tension of knowing something is imminent —a mental fuse counting down. In different ways, each song channels the restless energy of time pressing forward, mirroring the impulses that turn thought into action and creativity.

The Background: Emerging from Portland, Maine’s all-ages punk rock scene in the mid-2000s, Sparks The Rescue built their musical foundation on a blend of high-energy punk sound with hints of hard-edged melodics, and an old-school DIY work ethic. A road-tested band shaped by relentless self-promotion — including booking many of their own tours — they steadily built a faithful following that eventually caught the attention of indie stalwarts, Fearless Records.

Over the years, the band expanded their reach from Maine to mainstream — including international festivals and runs on the Warped Tour — helping them grow a loyal fanbase well beyond the Pine Tree State.  As their sound evolved and members shifted, at the core, they remained the same, anchored in punk rock with a melodic, lyrical drive.

As Sparks The Rescue prepares to hit the road again with all six original members, Marty McMorrow and Toby McAllister reflect on the early moments that shaped their drive —  songs heard years ago from riding stow-and-go to shotgun that quietly laid the foundation for everything that followed: the architectural, quiet-loud defiance of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” and the rockabilly, narrative search for a ‘no-way-out’ solution of Old 97’s “Timebomb.” 

The Story: Where Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” offers stated architectural boldness — using self-determination to battle stagnation — its outward urgency, absorbed in an enclosed, internal space; the Old 97’s “Timebomb” captures rowdy entropy — its internal tension, experienced outward in the open air. Though experienced differently — headphones versus car radio — both moments found common ground as personal awakenings, crossing physical and emotional boundaries in opposite directions, inversely fueling their creativity.

McMorrow’s memory of “Waiting Room” was planted at 12 or 13 years old, sitting in the back of his family’s Astro Van after a trip to the city. Borrowing his brother’s old-school Walkman, he pressed play on track one from Fugazi’s seminal 13 Songs, and the effect was immediate. Enclosed in the van, with headphones on, Fugazi’s music became private yet powerful. 

“Being 13, feeling all these very intense emotions and having big thoughts, and for the first time hearing the music that made you feel like that was okay…. I felt excited… like there was this ember burning inside of my heart that was about to burst aflame,” McMorrow recalls.

At the same time, the song’s  lyrics struck just as hard, cutting through the dynamic, angular soundscapes as a fixed point within the moving memory:

“’Waiting Room’ evoked this feeling of impatience and unhappiness, with a desire and need for change,” he says tapping into the song’s underlying tension between waiting and action. “’I’m gonna fight for what I want to be’ — that line stands out.” 

From that plugged-in moment, Fugazi became a guiding light, showing McMorrow how to express himself through music — writing songs, performing, or staying true to his ideals.

“Fugazi wasn’t just a band; it was an entrance into the world of true artistry, raw emotion, and following your heart. That moment has inspired every move since I first heard the song… Every step of the way, Fugazi was the key that unlocked the door to the rest of my life.” In McMorrow’s words: "Magic is experienced, not explained. Listen to it.”

While McMorrow’s experience was introspective and contained, seeking ways to channel internal discoveries into the external world, McAllister’s was expansive and outward. Hearing “Timebomb” in the open air, while absorbing its inward-looking narrative of resolving conflict; both profoundly transformative, yet each in its own distinct way. McAllister first heard “Timebomb” around age 14, as a passenger in his father’s doorless Jeep on a summer evening.

“I vividly remember the doors and roof were off, and it was a summer evening. The soaring chorus and melody hooked me. The energy of the song is undeniable,” he recalls. “It was a new sound to me. I was getting heavily into bands like Blink-182 and The Offspring, discovering my love for punk music. Old 97's presented punk music with a country twang that I had never heard before.”

“Timebomb” also opened a door to storytelling and songwriting. “Frontman Rhett Miller has a particular way with words that has always inspired me. The lyrics are dark and humorous all at the same time. I’m forever a fan of sad songs that sound happy.” McAllister adds, “It showed me that songs could tell a story by painting a picture with words” Case in point: “My favorite lyric. ‘she's gonna kill me, and I don't mean softly.’" 

Ultimately, these two distinct moments of creative autonomy — one found in the wired-in sanctuary of a Walkman and the other in the open-air rush of a summer evening —converged into a singular professional path. Whether it was McMorrow finding the spirit in what it means to "fight for what I want to be" or Toby discovering the sublime nature of sardonic storytelling, both musicians used these tracks to navigate their sonic experimentation and step out of the passenger seat and drive their musical visions.The post A Song That Changed My Life: Sparks the Rescue on Fugazi and Old 97's first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.