Arturia’s new “future-proof” AstroLab 88 keyboard will receive regular firmware updatesArturia has launched a new stage keyboard, the AstroLab 88, which the brand describes as “future-proof”.
The new keyboard offers a responsive hammer-action keybed with 40 onboard instruments and over 1,600 presets (powered by the Arturia V Collection and Pigments), updated CPU for improved polyphony and load times, and a “forward-thinking ecosystem that lets artists perform with all their signature sounds – laptop-free”.

READ MORE: At $60, Arturia’s MicroLab MK3 MIDI controller could be perfect for bedroom producers

AstroLab 88 has a performance-first design, and is the first stage keyboard that integrates seamlessly with your DAW through Analog Lab Pro (included). Users can take their studio-crafted sounds to the stage, with no computer required, and the AstroLab Connect app is also included, which acts as a command centre for browsing, organising, and tweaking your sounds on the go.
The keyboard will continue to evolve and improve via regular firmware upgrades, with a major update due by 17 July set to bring new and updated V Collection 11 instruments, playlist transfer between Analog Lab Pro and AstroLab, plus the ability to send programme changes to external devices, and more.
Other key features include:

A navigation wheel and OLED screen
Four macro controls
10 preset buttons for one-touch access to sounds and setlists
Integrated effects: Two dedicated FX (Delay and Reverb) and two assignable FX slots
Chord, Scale, and Arp modes
Multi-instruments: AstroLab 88 lets you assign different sounds across the keyboard with programmable split points
Loop and record (with up to 32 bars of MIDI looping)
A vocoder engine

Additional useful appointments include wireless playback, a ‘one-finger’ song mode (combine the Chord, Scale and Arpeggio modes to play a full song with one finger), a playlist mode to organise and build live sets directly on the keyboard, and a curated selection of sounds from iconic artists, all on board.
To find out more, check out the video below:
Find out more about the AstroLab 88 keyboard via Arturia. 
The post Arturia’s new “future-proof” AstroLab 88 keyboard will receive regular firmware updates appeared first on MusicTech.

Live Nation is devouring live music, says Wall Street JournalLive Nation is devouring live music and the live music industry, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company's "flywheel" approach fueled its rise and could lead to its breakup as the Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit continues.
The post Live Nation is devouring live music, says Wall Street Journal appeared first on Hypebot.

How Thom Yorke, Mark Pritchard, and Jonathan Zawada produced ‘Tall Tales’ in a Miro boardWhen Thom Yorke, Mark Pritchard, and Jonathan Zawada started creating their new collaborative audiovisual album, Tall Tales, they did not set out to thematically bind it to the real world like a traditional tall tale. In fact, their approach serves to reject any sort of salient meaning.
As the musicians behind the project, Yorke and Pritchard leaned into their decades of experimentation with instruments and techniques. They’ve crafted alien marching band suites in Back in the Game, melancholy progressive dark wave on A Faker in a Faker’s World, and alternative minimalist synth pop on This Conversation is Missing Your Voice.
READ MORE: Who is the next Aphex Twin? Meet the producers warping the future of electronic music
Zawada, who has created imagery for notable artists including Flume, Röyksopp, and The Avalanches, directed a melange of random visual pieces for the accompanying film. The first shot after the opening credits is a lighthouse piercing the dark with prismatic frequencies. Later on, viewers see children playing in garbage dumps and robot arms painting on canvases in unison. The only uniting factor between these sporadic depictions is a psychedelic avian-human hybrid navigating a virtual floating island between clips.

“When I think about what the film is about to me, from the very beginning, the feeling I got was one of disorientation or confusion,” Zawada says. “It’s quite tricky to construct something to get a feeling of confusion and disorientation across, because in making something, you have to do something concrete. Then, especially once you start talking about it, all of that confusion sort of dissipates.”
Zawada was right in anticipating that the shroud of confusion would be lifted from the project. As the work has been finished and shared, an underlying meaning has begun to form between its elaborate layers. The ostensible story is artistically incredulous, just as in tall tales like that of the giant Paul Bunyan, who dragged his axe across the southwest to form the Grand Canyon. As outrageous as that is, the Grand Canyon is real.
Tall Tales was written and visualised completely uncurated, delineating a profound truth: the world is uncurated. There is no one way forward. Everyone is doing their best to make sense of the insanity every day.
“The tall tale is that anybody is in control of anything,” Zawada continues. “When I was doing research for stories with the videos, it was during COVID. So everything felt like it was about COVID. Everybody’s telling you this is a completely unique time. Then that period faded into the past, and as I was working on other stuff, uncovering all these other crazy stories that were informing what I was doing. You slowly realise it’s like this all the time. The world is just a swirling mass of craziness.”
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard. Image: Pierre Toussaint
To create an album that represents the absurdity of the world, the three contributors worked through a unique process that was both separate and collaborative. Yorke, Pritchard, and Zawada were never once in the room together over the several years they spent on it, and they only had a handful of Zoom calls to align their progress.
They trusted each other’s creative abilities because they had all worked together in the past. Zawada designed visuals for multiple projects from Pritchard, including his 2016 album, Under The Sun, which features a co-production between Pritchard and Yorke entitled Beautiful People. Pritchard had also remixed one of Yorke’s solo productions, Not The News.
With that preexisting trust (and a lack of deadlines from their label, Warp), the trio were free to let the project evolve at its own pace and lean into its uncurated nature. On Pritchard’s part, creating much of the backing music while Yorke mostly handled lyrics and vocals, he explored a vast range of synths. Some were rare and esoteric, such as the Korg PS 3100, Roland CR-78 drum machine, and a Triadex Muse.
While Pritchard does own a Minimoog, Arp Odyssey, and other impressive synths after over 30 years of producing music, he accessed many of the more obscure synths through Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. By paying a membership fee and then a separate fee for each studio session, anyone can experiment with the same arsenal Pritchard used to create Tall Tales.

“You get a chance to play on these synthesizers that are really hard to keep working, let alone afford,” Pritchard says, also being sure to mention he used numerous bits of tech that were very cheap. “You could pick up Casios, old Yamahas, cheap toy things for between $30 and $100. There’ll be something in there. There’ll be a sound. There’ll be a source. It’s good to limit yourself to something [and think] ‘I’m going to make something out of this today’. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but it’s fun to try things out.”
As Pritchard tried these different synths, he would place new ideas in their shared Miro Board, an online collaborative workspace often used by corporations. All three of them would populate the board with updates, allowing each other to see everything evolve in real time, both taking and fueling inspiration.
“It was really useful to me to see the world growing, even though I might not know what some of the imagery was on the Miro Board,” Pritchard says. “It helped keep me excited because when you’re doing weeks of technical, painstaking work, it’s nice to have a lift where you see Jonathan working on a clip, and I see something come to life.”
Zawada adds, “So much of the time, nobody shows me anything until [the album’s] been mixed. In this instance, working on everything while Mark and Thom were working on the music, even if we weren’t necessarily feeding back, the outcome of the work, because it was all evolving in tandem, all felt much more meshed together. It gave me an opportunity to hear the layers of the songs build and respond to those with more nuance.”

Before the music came together, Zawada didn’t even intend for Tall Tales to have an accompanying film. He only knew he wanted to make a separate visual piece for each song, but as the musical layers built up, one core narrative that was in Zawada’s head was a protagonist washing up on an island where all the absurdity in the songs was taking place. This character would make its way through the madness and come out on the other side.
That’s where the floating island and the avian lead came from. They were the last pieces of visuals Zawada created for the project, and they bound it all together into a singular visual piece.
“It was based on something that Thom said when we were watching videos. He didn’t make the suggestion of the island, but said something about the way they all connect. That made me think I need something to give people something to latch onto, so you’re not just floating in space amongst all this material. But at the same time, we’re not forcing a connection between these things that may or may not be there,” Zawada says.
The connection is for the listener and the viewer to decide, which emphasises the prevailing sentiment of the project. Everyone is doing their best to make sense of all the craziness in the world. Tall Tales is what happens when three artists create the space for one another to make sense of it towards a common goal.
Learn more about Tall Tales at warp.net.
The post How Thom Yorke, Mark Pritchard, and Jonathan Zawada produced ‘Tall Tales’ in a Miro board appeared first on MusicTech.

What does ‘I’ll take your band to the next level’ mean?We've all heard the pitch: “I'll take your band to the next level.” What does that even mean? Should you be concerned if someone says that to you?
The post What does ‘I’ll take your band to the next level’ mean? appeared first on Hypebot.

Fuse Audio Labs TCS-68 Cassette Tape Channel is only $19.99 until May 31
Plugin Boutique is currently offering the TCS-68 Cassette Tape Channel by Fuse Audio Labs for just $19.99 until May 31, 2025. The TCS-68 Cassette emulates a single channel from the Tascam Midistudio 688, a multitrack cassette recorder that shaped the sound of countless 1990s demo tapes. We already covered two lo-fi plugins lately (Codec v2.0 and [...]
View post: Fuse Audio Labs TCS-68 Cassette Tape Channel is only $19.99 until May 31

Motown EQs v2 from Nomad Factory Nomad Factory's Motown EQs v2 combines two new EQ modules in a single plug-in, and is now available in a new and updated version of their Retro EQs Bundle. 

“It would basically kill the AI industry overnight”: Nick Clegg thinks asking artists for use permission is a bad thingNick Clegg, former deputy prime minister and ex-Meta head of global affairs, says a requirement to ask artists for express permission to use their work to train AI models would “basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight”.
Clegg’s comments come amid an ongoing storm in the music industry, which was sparked by UK government plans to allow AI companies to train their models using copyrighted content. A number of high-profile artists have spoken out in opposition to the plans, including Elton John, who recently branded the plans “criminal”.

READ MORE: Max Richter blasts proposals to allow AI companies to train models on copyrighted material

Speaking at a recent event to promote his new book, How to Save the Internet – which looks at “the threat to global connection in the age of AI and political conflict” – Clegg said while creatives should have the ability to opting their work out of AI training, it’s not feasible to ask each artist for their consent first.
“I think the creative community wants to go a step further,” he said [via The Times]. “Quite a lot of voices say, ‘You can only train on my content, [if you] first ask’. And I have to say that strikes me as somewhat implausible because these systems train on vast amounts of data.”
“I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work,” he went on. “And by the way if you did it in Britain and no one else did it, you would basically kill the AI industry in this country overnight.”
The use of copyrighted music in AI training has been the subject of fierce debate for some time. 
Speaking to MusicTech last year, producer Brian Wayne Transeau – better known as BT – said “the future of music is human”, adding that while he “strongly” believes in “consensual, ethically trained AI”, he said “there are very few companies respecting intellectual property rights in this space.”
“Some are flagrantly flaunting their first-to-market status from trading text-to-music models by scraping Spotify and YouTube,” he went on. “I find this an abhorrent misuse of this technology, one which I believe that, when used responsibly, will unlock infinite creative potential in the next generation of music creators.”
A recent proposed amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill in the UK – which aims to offer those in creative industries more insight into how their work is used by AI companies – sought to make tech companies disclose the copyrighted material used to train their models.
Per The Verge, while the amendment gained support from the likes of Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Andrew Lloyd Webber and hundreds of others, members of parliament on Thursday rejected it, with technology secretary Peter Kyle saying “Britain’s economy needs both [AI and creative] sectors to succeed and prosper”.
Learn more about AI via MusicTech.
The post “It would basically kill the AI industry overnight”: Nick Clegg thinks asking artists for use permission is a bad thing appeared first on MusicTech.

Lese releases Codec v2.0 FREE lo-fi plugin with new glitch features
Lese has released Codec v2.0, a free lo-fi plugin for macOS and Windows that simulates lossy audio compression artifacts, updated with new features like Packet Disorder, Noise, and Crunch. If you’ve followed BPB for a while, you already know how much I loved the original Codec. It’s one of the few plugins that replicates the [...]
View post: Lese releases Codec v2.0 FREE lo-fi plugin with new glitch features

“It all started with Ozzy”: How Andrew Watt pushed through self-doubt to become one of the world’s top producers at 34Andrew Watt has reflected on the early days of his production journey, noting how his work with Ozzy Osbourne helped to propel his career to new heights.
Watt has worked with huge pop artists such as Justin Bieber and Lana Del Rey, however, it was producing Osbourne’s 2020 album, Ordinary Man, that really helped him find his place in the world of rock. He went on to produce Osbourne’s follow-up record, 2022’s Patient Number 9, the Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds, and Iggy Pop’s Every Loser (both released in 2023).

READ MORE: “It’s hard to clear samples. We’d have something in the track, and then we would have to take it out, and it wouldn’t sound as good”: Zeds Dead’s battle with sample clearance on their new album

In an interview with Guitar World, he recalls how making pop tracks driven by guitar helped to get his foot in the door of production for rock: “Rock is something that I love – it’s the music that speaks to me the most, but as I found my way into this business, I had these gigs playing for amazing pop artists and ended up writing their songs, and that became my footing and the thing that I was doing – making pop music that had guitar in it,” he says.
Osbourne and his wife/manager Sharon were then the first to believe he could conquer a great rock record. He says, “When the Ozzy thing came around, I was so excited at the chance to do it, but also kind of doubting myself. Like, these aren’t the records I really make. But with the push and love and guidance from both Duff McKagan [Guns N’ Roses] and Chad Smith [Red Hot Chili Peppers], who were friends at that point, they were like, ‘Come on man, you gotta make this. Of course you can do it. It’s everything you love.’”
He goes on to add, “Once we started making music, I kind of felt that confidence and that became the blueprint. For the Iggy album, we just kind of made music and then Iggy chose the tracks he liked and sang to them.
“Then that led me into working with bands that I love, like Pearl Jam – they’re the best live band there is. And obviously the Stones are everyone’s favourite rock band. Getting to sit in the room with those guys and just record a band doing their thing, keeping it really live, became really important to me and just my favourite thing in the world to do.”

Watt more recently produced the collaborative album, Who Believes In Angels?, from Elton John and Brandi Carlile, which landed back in April. Cameras were allowed in the studio to capture the making of the record in full, with footage compiled into a candid short film documenting the turbulent creative process of making an album in just 20 days.
The post “It all started with Ozzy”: How Andrew Watt pushed through self-doubt to become one of the world’s top producers at 34 appeared first on MusicTech.

LANG Electronics’ P.LANE Type 436 revives a classic compressor used by The BeatlesLANG Electronics of Heritage Audio has launched the P.LANE Type 436 all tube vari-mu compressor, a modern take on the modified ALTEC 436C behind “the fresh and furious British Invasion sound that conquered the world in the ‘60s”.
Described as one of the most mysterious vari-mu (variable gain) compressors of all time, the modded ALTEC 436C was notably used on recordings by The Beatles, and has gone on to be used across contemporary pop, rock, hip-hop, EDM, and more. LANG’s revival is a two rack unit that encompasses all development stages of the original.

READ MORE: Allen & Heath on new generation of Qu mixers: “Every aspect of the mixer has been re-thought”

The P.LANE Type 436 covers all stages of the ALTEC 436’s life, including the “simple yet extremely effective” model 436C to the more evolved ‘London Mod’, with six selectable constants and hold positions for each, keeping the source signal compressed to the most recently processed peak level.
The design hosts three tubes to match the original – a NOS 6H5P, a JJ E88CC, and a NOS 6AL5 – plus custom-made input and output LANG Electronics transformers designed by Heritage Audio. It also includes a SuperFast (S.F.) setting not found on the vintage 436C that adapts this compressor to the modern needs of studio recording.
It offers controls for Attack (selectable, stepped – six settings) and Recovery (selectable, stepped – six settings, plus Hold), all within a sturdy steel rack-mount chassis hosting a worldwide internal power supply. Check out the videos below for more information:

Earlier this year, Heritage Audio and LANG Electronics revealed the LANG PEQ-2 plugin, emulating the Lang PEQ-2 program equaliser (also from the ‘60s), which was reissued in 2023.
Heritage has given several of its own hardware classics similar treatment in the past, recreating all of its Successor stereo bus compressor’s features as a plugin with new features. It also similarly transformed its Symph EQ, and its BritStrip console channel strip.
The LANG Electronics P.LANE Type 436 is available now for £799. You can find out more via Heritage Audio.
The post LANG Electronics’ P.LANE Type 436 revives a classic compressor used by The Beatles appeared first on MusicTech.

My Forever Studio: Ellie Dixon is banned from CurrysEllie Dixon is a self-producing artist who, despite amassing millions of streams, continues to make her sample-heavy songs in her bedroom. In this episode of My Forever Studio, brought to you in partnership with Audient, find out how lockdown fuelled Ellie’s TikTok success, hear how her song Swing became a demo track in Logic Pro 11, and be challenged to raid your kitchen for samples.
Ellie has built a massive following from her home studio, with 1.2 million TikTok fans, 18 million music streams, and a TikTok Songwriter of the Year nomination under her belt, all thanks to her mastery of DIY music production.
After releasing her EPs Crikey! It’s My Psyche and In Case Of Emergency, Ellie’s toured Europe, opened for Pentatonix and Sam Ryder, and played Glastonbury — and still records vocals under a duvet at home.
You can check out the full video, recorded at TYX London, below, or listen on your favourite podcasting platform.

Last week, Charlie Deakin Davies joined us in studio foreverdom to discuss their their go-to vocal chain, how they bounced back from a laptop disaster before Glasto, and the chaos of tracking two drummers at once. Also performing as Charlieeeee, fusing indie and drum ’n’ bass in a wild, high-octane live show with crowd interaction – and Beyblades — Charlie is truly a multi-faceted producer, becoming the youngest producer to get BBC Radio 2 airplay and has since worked with Fred Again, Laura Marling, and Gary Barlow.
The My Forever Studio podcast – created in partnership with Audient – sees artists, producers, and engineers create their dream fantasy Forever Studio, wherever they want in the universe. However, hosts Chris Barker and Will Betts impose some strict rules in the Forever Studio. Our guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they must choose carefully. There will be nostalgia. There will be anecdotes. There may be gags. But there will be no bundles!
Subscribe to My Forever Studio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and check out all episodes so far via MusicTech.
The post My Forever Studio: Ellie Dixon is banned from Currys appeared first on MusicTech.

Artifacts and Oddities from the Jim Irsay CollectionWe're certainly not a sports website, but the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, Jim Irsay, had a passion for collecting guitars, artifacts, and objects of pop culture fascination. Irsay died on May 21, 2025, but left behind a collection of pretty incredible pieces of history. AllMusic looks at some notable items in the collection.

Dubai launches first licensed tokenized real estate project in MENA regionDubai has launched the first licensed tokenized real estate project in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, previewing appetite for real-world tokenization in one of the world’s burgeoning crypto hubs.Partners in the project include the Dubai Land Department (DLD), the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and the Dubai Future Foundation, according to an announcement from the Dubai government. The tokens will be tradeable on the newly launched “Prypco Mint” platform, with Zand Digital Bank appointed as the bank for the project’s pilot phase.On May 19, Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) updated its rules to include real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, allowing such tokens to be traded on secondary markets.Related: UAE saw 41% increase in crypto app downloads in 2024 — AppsFlyerThe project will allow individual investors to buy tokenized shares in “ready-to-own properties in Dubai,” with investments starting at 2,000 Emirate dirham ($545). During the pilot phase, all transactions will be carried out in the dirham (AED), with no cryptocurrency to be used. Although the pilot program will be limited to those with UAE ID holders, there are plans to expand it globally.In April, the DLD and VARA agreed to link Dubai’s real estate registry with the tokenization of property. The stated goal was to attract global investors and enhance liquidity in Dubai’s real estate market. The project was initially announced in March.A sought-after destination for crypto entrepreneurs, the United Arab Emirates is positioning itself as a crypto hub. In May, Dubai, an emirate within the country, partnered with Crypto.com to help facilitate crypto payments for government services.Related: Dubai crypto regulator grants VASP license to RWA-friendly L1 blockchainReal estate tokenization market may reach $19.4B by 2033Real estate is one of many areas of RWA tokenization that is poised for a breakthrough over the next few years. It fulfills some key promises of blockchain technology, providing liquidity to relatively illiquid assets and granting greater accessibility to retail investors.According to Custom Market Insights, the global real estate tokenization market is expected to reach a $19.4 billion market cap by 2033, growing at a compound annual rate of 21%. All three types of real estate — residential, commercial, and industrial — will play a role.Global real estate tokenization market over time. Source: Custom Market InsightsSome of the companies that specialize in tokenizing real estate include RealT and Metlabs. However, many others have struggled in their efforts, largely due to the complexities of navigating regulatory requirements.Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs — Inside story

2025 Pet Hacks Contest: A Barrel Of Fun For Your DogIf you ask someone for a piece of received opinion about Bernese mountain dogs, the chances are that the tale of their carrying barrels of brandy round their necks for the revival of those lost in the snow. It’s a story of uncertain provenance and may indeed be a myth, but that hasn’t stopped [Saren Tasciyan] 3D printing one for their faithful hound. In its own way it too is a saviour, for as well as a small camera, it carries a supply of dog poop bags.
It’s a two part print, held together with strong magnets. Waterproofing is achieved using liberal quantities of hot glue. There’s a protrusion on one side designed to take an action camera for a dog’s-eye-view of the world. The files are downloadable, so your pooch can have one too if you like. We are wondering whether a couple of miniatures of brandy might just fit in there as well.
It’s is part of the 2025 Pet Hacks contest, so if this has whetted your appetite, expect more. If your dog carries around something you’ve made, how about making it an entry of your own?

Four VW execs found guilty in trial that transformed Europe’s auto marketFour former Volkswagen executives received prison sentences Monday for their role in the emissions-cheating scandal that fundamentally transformed Europe’s car market. The verdict, delivered after a three-year trial in Braunschweig, Germany, marked the latest chapter in a 10-year-long saga that reshaped the continent’s relationship with diesel technology. Jens Hadler, who oversaw diesel engine development, received […]