Tonal Balance Control 3 from iZotope iZotope’s powerful mix-referencing plug-in now includes a new capture process that’s compatible with popular streaming services such as Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music. 

“Make the internet weird”: This new Chrome extension lets you control YouTube videos with a surfing cat“What if you could control YouTube with a surfing cat?” It’s a question posed by music software label A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya, as it launches its new Chrome extension, Speed Surfer.
So, what is Speed Surfer? Well, it basically offers you the ability to control audio in your Chrome browser – including audio speed and filter levels – with a tiny surfing cat as your interface. That’s pretty much it.

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“Slow it down. Speed it up. Make the internet weird,” the company says, as it urges users to play with audio while watching YouTube videos like never before.
Naturally, such an extension was just begging to be experimented with, so in the name of journalism, I added it to my Chrome browser myself and tried my hand at some on-the-fly YouTube DJing.
The interface is super simple; your surfing cat sits on a grid, with audio speed on the X axis and filter level – which spans between low-pass and high-pass – on the Y axis. You can adjust the speed of audio between 0.50x and 1.50x the original. 
The Y axis offers no filter frequency value, which actually feels refreshing, as it’s all too easy as a producer to work with your eyes and not your ears, as you should. I am not calling myself a producer for clicking on a surfing cat while a YouTube video plays in the background, to be clear. Or should I?
There’s also a Chaos button in the bottom right corner, which seems to randomise the values of both the speed and filter without any rhyme or reason. As a consequence, it doesn’t serve much artistic benefit while listening to your favourite tunes, but hey, why not.
And that’s pretty much it. I found it surprisingly fun to add filter sweeps to some of my favourite songs, and the gamified interface makes things all the more entertaining.
Speed Surfer is totally free, so head to the Chrome Web Store to try it out for yourself.
The post “Make the internet weird”: This new Chrome extension lets you control YouTube videos with a surfing cat appeared first on MusicTech.

Lese TeuriTeuri is for Distortion Morphing. Teuri's "Cellular Distortion" system puts multiple distortion models at different points on an XY pad and lets you live in the tension between them. Drag through the grid and blend through textures that were never meant to coexist. ragged fuzz bleeding into clinical overdrive, soft saturation collapsing into bitcrush. No snapping, no quantizing, just continuous, organic layers of deterioration. Since the different models can produce sound at different levels, Teuri internally handles these differences to give you a smooth morphing experience. Highlights Model Selection Teuri comes with a broad palette of distortion characters; from analog circuit models to experimental processes that have no hardware counterpart. Whether you're reaching for the warmth of a pushed tube stage, the grind of a germanium fuzz distortion, or something that treats your audio less like a signal and more like a material to be torn apart, Teuri's model selection is built to cover the full range of what distortion can mean. Distortion Cells Different distortion models are added on an XY pad, and the internal "Positional Blending" system handles smooth blending between them, regardless of model. The "blender" also attempts to balance between the gain differences that the models have in real-time. Modulate More Teuri has a modulation system, similar to the one in Glow and Smear. Offering up to four modulators which can be optionally synchronized to the DAW's BPM & retriggered by the DAW's playback state. More Features Input / output balancing system. A bunch of different distortion models. Some are tailored to experimental sound design, some are reminiscent of classic style distortion. A selection of embedded demo presets. Vectorized, resizable interface. YouTube.com/watch?v=DZyURXEKu1w YouTube.com/watch?v=5Bic7Pm7kKM Read More

How This UK Indie Label Sold 25K Records For 1 Band First WeekThis week, Ari is joined by Mark Orr, founder of Lab Records, to break down modern indie label deals, marketing, and artist strategy.

SEC will consider most crypto assets not securities under federal lawThe interpretative notice included information on token taxonomy and what digital assets the regulator would consider a security under federal law.

Music Row Piano from Wiltone Productions Wiltone Productions have announced the release of Music Row Piano, a deeply sampled Yamaha C7 piano library that’s been created for Native Instruments’ Kontakt platform.

Ghost at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CAGhost played the second to last show of their Skeletour World Tour at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA on Saturday, February 21. This tour is in support of their latest album release Skeletá which came out last year. The 21-song setlist began with “Peacefield,” and included “Cirice,” “Satanized,” and “Rats.” The first song of the encore was “Mary On Cross"—their most streamed Spotify song with 900,000,000 plays and counting—followed by “Dance Macabre” and “Square Hammer.”

Ghost formed in Sweden in 2006 with frontman Tobias Forge and the current band has been together since 2018. To experience a Ghost show is to experience a grand, theatrical spectacle—an immersive, one-of-a-kind production fueled by explosive pyro and stunning visual effects.

Ghost has won an AMA, six Bandit Awards, four Grammis awards, a GRAMMY, an iHeart Music Award, three Loudwire awards, and Metal Hammer Golden God Award.

Photos by Alex KluftThe post Ghost at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Kalshi’s legal troubles pile up, as Arizona files first ever criminal charges over ‘illegal gambling business’It's the latest salvo in an escalating battle between state regulators and an industry that claims it's not beholden to them.

Tencent Music now has 20M+ ‘Super VIP’ subscribers. Here’s what that means for China’s largest music streamer.Tencent Music Entertainment's (TME) 'Super VIP' tier has just hit a major new milestone.
Source

Testing a Soviet 1000 Volt Insulation Tester from 1985Although the term ‘Iron Curtain’ from the Cold War brings to mind something like the Berlin Wall and its forbidding No Man’s Land, there was still active trade between the Soviet Union and the West. This included devices like the M4100/4 insulation tester that the [Three-phase] YouTube channel recently looked at, after previously poking at a 1967 USSR resistance bridge.
This particular unit dates to 1985, and comes in a rather nice-looking case that somewhat looks like bakelite. It’s rated for up to 1 gigaohm, putting out 1,000 V by using the crank handle. Because of the pristine condition of the entire unit, including seals, it was decided to not look at the internals but only test its functionality.
After running through the basic usage of the insulation tester it’s hooked up to a range of testing devices, which shows that it seems to be mostly still in working condition. The first issue noticed was that the crank handle-based generator was a bit tired, so that it never quite hit the maximum voltage.
With no parallax correction and no known last calibration date, it still measured to about 10% of the actual value in some tests initially, but in later tests it was significantly off from the expected value. At this point the device was suspected of being faulty, but it defied being easily opened, so any repair will have to be put off for now. That said, it being in such good condition raises the prospect of it being an easy repair, hopefully in an upcoming video.

How to make beat videos that go viral
Expert music producer and content creator Issac Duarte showcases how to create effective and replicable beat videos for social media.

RF Spectrum Threat: OFCOM Survey Once again, the UHF bandwidth that is currently allocated to RF audio gear is at risk of being reassigned to high-speed data and mobile phone networks, and OFCOM are inviting those who'd be affected to fill in a user survey so that they can effectively challenge the move. 

Cloudy Samples Magneta Experience the magic of authentic cassette tape. Looking for that warm, nostalgic tone from the golden era of cassette decks? Magneta by Cloudy Samples is not just another standard saturation tool. It's a comprehensive, virtual Lo-Fi ecosystem designed to breathe life into your tracks, adding the analog character, grit, and unpredictability missing from sterile digital environments: 8 Fully Editable Lo-Fi Modules: Shape your own flavor of degradation. Control filters (Hi-Cut / Lo-Cut), analog overdrive (Drive), pitch fluctuation (Melt), physical tape damage (Dmg), plus age and noise artifacts (Age, Dust, Hiss). Engage and blend each module with surgical precision. Tape Type Selection: Need the standard tape? Choose the classic iron tape (STD). Want more high-end sparkle and cleaner saturation? Switch to the chrome cassette (CrO2). Split Section (Stereo Magic): Three unique modes (Split A, B, C) utilizing precise, millisecond delays (the Haas effect). Instantly widen your stereo image and build an incredible, three-dimensional space around your instruments by subtly shifting the left or right channel. Tone Shaping (Aura, Air, Comp): Dial in the perfect vibe for your tracks. The Aura and Air switches let you control harmonics and the breath of top-end ambience, while the built-in Comp glues everything together into a thick, cohesive analog signal. Intelligent Randomizer: Lacking inspiration? A single click of the Random button generates unique, randomized settings for the effect section (safely bypassing your master parameters), giving you instant and inspiring results. Hit Reset to instantly return to the starting point. Complete Master Control: A built-in Limiter to protect against digital clipping, a Blend knob for perfect parallel processing (Dry/Wet), and precise control over Volume, Width, and L/R Balance. Bring your synths to life, warm up your digital drums, and add a nostalgic character to any mix with Magneta. Features: Magneta 64-bit VST3/AU FX Plugin. High end & CPU efficient interface. Unlimited effect shaping. Windows & macOS compatible. Read More

SaschArt releases DynamicEchoFree, a FREE dynamic delay plugin
Developer SaschArt has released DynamicEchoFree, a free dynamic delay plugin for macOS and Windows. It’s been a busy couple of days for delay plugins. We’ve had Sonicora Audio’s LiquidTrail (free for a limited time), Overload Audio’s Echodude BBD-150 (vintage BBD delay emulation), and now we have DynamicEchoFree by SaschArt. DynamicEchoFree offers something a little different [...]
View post: SaschArt releases DynamicEchoFree, a FREE dynamic delay plugin

Spotify to lets you steer your own algorithm and review listening data with new Taste Profile featureSpotify is testing a new feature that lets users steer their own algorithm, offering the ability to let you review and edit what it calls your Taste Profile.
The Taste Profile will display your listening data from music, podcasts, and audiobooks, profiling “the artists and genres you love to the habits that define your day”. The new feature will first be available in its beta phase to Premium users in New Zealand only. It’s not yet sure when or if this feature will become more widely available.

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This new feature was announced at SXSW by Spotify’s Co-CEO Gustav Söderström, and is based on its own finding that more than 80 percent of listeners say personalisation is what they love most about Spotify.
Via a blog published on the Spotify Newsroom, it says that if something doesn’t feel quite right in your listening data, you can “flag when your profile misses the mark” and ask for “more or less of a certain vibe, or simply share what you’re in the mood for”. A video suggests users will need to use an AI-powered chatbot to do so.
The Taste Profile is part of its next steps to make personalisation more “transparent, responsive, and truly yours”. It follows on from another beta launch, Prompted Playlists, which was unveiled in December last year.
Spotify also recently unveiled its annual Loud & Clear report, which dissects music streaming economics. The latest iteration of the report revealed that Spotify was the highest-paying retailer globally last year, paying the music industry more than $11 billion in 2025.
Spotify payouts also increased by more than 10 percent year-over-year, which is more than double the rate of other music industry income sources. It also claims that these payouts weren’t concentrated to a small number of superstar artists, and that roughly half of royalties were generated by independent artists and labels.
To find out more about Taste Profiles or read the full Loud & Clear report, head over to the Spotify Newsroom.
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