Ancient Kingdom from EastWest EastWest's latest library captures world-renowned recording artist Saulius Petreikis playing a rare selection of wind instruments from around the world.

US regulator moves to drop appeal against KalshiThe US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is seeking permission from the court to drop an appeal against prediction market Kalshi. The move could allow the platform to offer political event contracts to users without contest.In a May 5 filing in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, lawyers for the CFTC filed an unopposed motion for voluntary dismissal, suggesting an agreement with Kalshi. The motion, subject to approval by the court, could end the CFTC’s appeal against a federal court ruling that the financial regulator could not bar Kalshi from listing political event contracts, i.e., bets on elections.Motion to dismiss appeal filed by the CFTC on May 5. Source: CourtlistenerKalshi stipulated in a joint filing that the company would “bear its own costs, court fees and attorney fees incurred” if the court granted the CFTC’s motion to dismiss. The platform said that “election markets are here to stay” in a May 6 X post following the filing.The betting platform initially filed a lawsuit against the CFTC in 2023 in response to the regulator ordering Kalshi to stop offering political event contracts. The company won in the lower court, prompting the appeal by the CFTC in September 2024. Motion to drop the appeal after the change in administration?The case was handled mainly before the US election and the appointment of acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham under President Donald Trump. CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger, nominated by former President Joe Biden, reportedly echoed Kalshi’s sentiment in February, claiming that election prediction markets were “here to stay.”Related: Kalshi accepts Bitcoin deposits in bid to woo crypto-native usersLaunched in 2021, Kalshi became popular among many crypto users in part due to bets related to the 2024 US election. Though the CFTC argued in its appeal that betting on the elections could result in “spectacular manipulation” of markets and harm to the public interest, the regulator under Pham and Trump appeared to have reversed its position with the motion to dismiss. Magazine: Pokémon on Sui rumors, Polymarket bets on Filipino Pope: Asia Express

Newfangled Audio Introduces ArticulateAudio technology innovators Eventide have announced the release of Articulate, "a new plug-in from Newfangled Audio that offers a fresh, intuitive approach to dynamics control. Articulate uses advanced envelope detection to split incoming audio into four core components: Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release. With a workflow as familiar as a 4-band EQ, users can quickly shape transients, enhance tone, and fine-tune space in a mix.""Each stage of the envelope can be adjusted independently with simple faders, making it easy to add Smack, Punch, Body, or Air to any sound," they say. "Whether you're enhancing clarity, improving impact, or managing sustain, Articulate offers a fast and focused path to precise dynamic shaping. Producer and musician Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, NIN, St. Vincent) praised Articulate, saying: “I’ve found my favorite tool for designing transients and envelopes. It gives you more control, a great sonic character, and an intuitive interface. Highly recommended.” Features70+ presets with full-featured preset librarian 

Easy independent envelope shaping (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) 

Simple sidechain detection for ducking and dynamic separation 

Precise Separation control for natural or aggressive shaping 

Solo & mute per envelope stage 

Built-in peak limiter preserves headroom and prevents clipping 

Customizable UI with three color palettes Articulate is available for Mac and PC in VST, AU, and AAX formats from eventideaudio.com and authorized resellers worldwide. The MSRP is $69, with an introductory offer of $29 through June 6. Existing Newfangled Audio and Eventide plug-in owners are eligible for a loyalty price of $19.

The post Newfangled Audio Introduces Articulate first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

A New, Smarter Universal RemoteThe remote for [Dillan Stock]’s TV broke, so he built a remote. Not just as a replacement but as something new. For some of us, there was a glorious time in the early 2000s when a smart remote was needed and there were options you could buy off the shelf. Just one handy button next to the screen had a macro programmed that would turn on the receiver, DVD player, and TV, and then configure it with the right inputs. However, the march of technological convenience has continued and nowadays soundbars turn on just in time and the TV auto switches the input. Many devices are (for better or worse) connected to WiFi, allowing all sorts of automation.
[Dillan] was lucky enough that his devices were connected to his home assistant setup. So this remote is an ESP32 running ESPHome. These automations could be triggered by your phone or via voice assistant. What is more interesting is watching [Dillan] go through the design process. Deciding what buttons there should be, where they should be placed, and how the case would snap together takes real effort. The design uses all through-hole components except for the ESP32 which is a module.
This isn’t the first thing [Dillan] has made with an ESP32, as he previously revamped a non-standard smart lamp with the versatile dev board. The 3d printable files for the remote are free available. Video after the break.

Rescoring classic video games (Super Mario, Pikmin, Animal Crossing)
Expert producers Galen Tipton and Holly Waxwing rescore moments from three iconic video games and break down their creative process.

Daniel Ek has now cashed out $800m+ in Spotify stock, with his latest transaction banking $28.8mEk offloaded 50,000 shares on Wednesday at $576.94 per share, according to an SEC filing
Source

EVE Audio introduce the EXO Series EVE Audio's new EXO Series introduces a new collection of nearfield monitors that have been designed to meet the most demanding needs of modern studio users.

Shannon Wiles of Le Poisson Rouge: new In The Trenches seriesShannon Wiles of Le Poisson Rouge wakes up every morning thinking about how to sell more tickets to the eclectic shows at this legendary New York City club.
The post Shannon Wiles of Le Poisson Rouge: new In The Trenches series appeared first on Hypebot.

Get Tuned Reverb FREE for a Limited Time (10,000 Licenses Available)
Bedroom Producers Blog and Tuned Plugins offer 10,000 free copies of the Tuned Reverb ($99 list price) plugin for Windows and macOS. Tuned Reverb is a streamlined yet highly usable reverb plugin for Windows and macOS, and Bedroom Producers Blog readers get 10,000 free licenses. The plugin is typically priced at $99 (currently on sale [...]
View post: Get Tuned Reverb FREE for a Limited Time (10,000 Licenses Available)

Relearning Why We Buy MusicWe need to relearn why we buy music. We'll spend hundreds of dollars going to a concert, but balk at a few dollars to own our favorite song or album.Streaming made music accessible, but it's also made us forget that it has value. If we don’t relearn how to buy music, we risk losing the culture we claim to love.
The post Relearning Why We Buy Music appeared first on Hypebot.

Reason Studios’ Arpeggio Lab is a pattern-generating “cure for creative block”Searching for inspiration? Reason Studios might have the perfect solution. The Swedish software company has just released Arpeggio Lab, a creative tool designed to spark ideas.
Promising to be “a cure for creative block”, Arpeggio Lab is not only able to conjure up patterns, but is also able to push each pattern a step further. The tool can generate new ideas from patterns, fill in gaps and pluck out fresh melodies from chords.

READ MORE: Sample like it’s 1994: Iconic sample editing software ReCycle makes a comeback – and it’s completely free

Arpeggio Lab is able to split a pattern’s chords into two roles: Anchor and Movement chords. Anchor chords serve as the firm foundation of your pattern, locking the rhythm in place, while Movement chords are more fluid (hence the name). Movement chords will be where the tool takes creative liberties, cooking up new melodies.
Reason Studios has also made a point of making the software diverse and unpredictable – meaning your Movement chords could produce anything from a clean, flowing melody, to a gritty, dense melody full of glitchy inflections.

With a twist of a knob and a click of a button, the entire flavour of your track can change. And there are plenty of knobs to mess with, from Shape, Density, Velocity, Rhythm, Octave and more.
There’s also a ‘Humanise’ option to add a more human feel to Arpeggio Lab’s experimental generation. The option focuses more on capturing the movement patterns of a real musician, so is perhaps more like jamming and riffing ideas off of a musical peer.
According to the company, the tool is “50% playable arpeggiator, 50% idea-generator and 100% guaranteed to cure your creative block”. It’s a tool tailor-made for experimentation, pushing your chords into new realms and throwing you into unknown waters.
“We didn’t set out to make just another arpeggiator,” Niklas Agevik, CEO at Reason Studios, explains. “We wanted to build a creative sidekick. Something that gets you out of your head and into the flow-state of making music.”
“Creative block happens when everything starts sounding the same,” Calle Malmgren, CMO at Reason Studios, adds. “Arpeggio Lab breaks that loop – literally.”
Arpeggio Lab is available for $69 from the Reason Studios Shop. It is also included with a Reason+ subscription.
The post Reason Studios’ Arpeggio Lab is a pattern-generating “cure for creative block” appeared first on MusicTech.

The greatest act of self-promotion ever? Why André 3000 turned up to the Met Gala with a grand piano on his backThe Met Gala is famously an event in which the world judges the eccentric fashion choices of entertainment’s elite, and this year didn’t disappoint. While the mainstream fixated on the looks donned by the likes of Zendaya, Gigi Hadid and Rihanna, it was hard for us music fans not to notice André 3000 – who turned up to the event with a grand piano on his back.
To be fair, it was probably hard for anyone – music obsessive or not – to ignore such a getup.

READ MORE: Plugin Boutique is hosting a massive Excite Audio sale – including all 10 Bloom plugins for just £149

It turns out André’s outfit wasn’t totally random, though, as he’s just dropped a short collection of 7 improvised piano jams, dubbed, fittingly, 7 piano sketches.
And per MusicRadar, the record’s origins began nearly a decade ago, when André and his son were staying at a house in Texas containing nothing but beds, TV screens and a piano.
The album itself – if 16 minutes and 21 seconds qualifies as an album – possesses a certain off-kilter sound, and sounds as though it was recorded on a smartphone with minimal subsequent treatment. All tracks consist of piano improvisations, with the exception of the final song, i spend all day waiting for the night, which has lo-fi backing drums.
André 3000 says: “The original title for it was The Best Worst Rap Album In History, and here is an excerpt from the original liner notes: ‘It’s jokingly the worst rap album in history because there are no lyrics on it at all. It’s the best because it’s the free-est emotionally and best I’ve felt personally. It’s the best because it’s like a palette cleanser for me.’”
7 piano sketches follows André 3000’s 2023 album New Blue Sun. Last year, he expressed an interest in returning to his hip-hop roots, saying he’d “love” to make another rap album. “
“I just think it’d be an awesome challenge to do a fire-ass album at 48 years old,” he said. “That’s probably one of the hardest things to do! I would love to do that.”
Listen to 7 piano sketches below:

The post The greatest act of self-promotion ever? Why André 3000 turned up to the Met Gala with a grand piano on his back appeared first on MusicTech.

Plugin Boutique is hosting a massive Excite Audio sale – including all 10 Bloom plugins for just £149Until 15 May, Plugin Boutique is hosting an exclusive sale on Excite Audio plugins and bundles – and the savings range from 50% right up to a massive 78% off, if you know where to look…
One of the hottest deals comes in the form of the Complete Excite Audio Bundle, which now costs just £239 rather than its usual price of £478. The bundle comes with all 16 of Excite Audio’s extensive library of plugins and instruments, from the Bloom series of vocal and instrumental effects, to visual analysis plugin VISION 4X, to Lifeline Console’s ability to add warmth of analogue audio processing to your mix.
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READ MORE: The best free and paid-for plugins you need to know about this week

If you’re not in the market for the full Excite Audio collection, you could opt for the Essentials Bundle. This smaller bundle is priced at just £39, a far cry from the £184 you’d pay if you bought all six plugins separately. The bundle includes three Lite versions of Bloom’s Drum Machine, Bass Impulse and Vocal Edit.

The Essentials Bundle also comes with VISION 4X Lite, as well as full versions of pitch warping plugin Lifeline Mod’s and distortion and fuzz-injector Lifeline Dirt.
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Excite Audio’s Bloom Bundle offers the company’s full range of instrumental and vocal plugins, and it’s currently 50% off. For just £149, you can get 10 Bloom instruments, including Bloom Vocal Choir, Bloom Drum Percussion, Bloom Synth Atmosphere and more. It also features Bloom Bass Groove, the company’s latest Bloom offering debuted at this year’s NAMM.
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There are also plenty of cuts on individual plugins – including a slew of rent-to-buy deals. The full version of VISION 4X is currently £20, or you can rent to own it for the cost of £4.19 for 12 months.
Bloom Drum Breaks and Bloom Synth Atmosphere both cost just £19, with the alternative option of paying £3.29 for 12 months as a rent-to-buy purchase. Motion’s space & time modulation Dimension plugin and filtering and bit crushing Harmonic plugin are also available for the same outright price or rent-to-buy deal.
For more information, check out Plugin Boutique.
The post Plugin Boutique is hosting a massive Excite Audio sale – including all 10 Bloom plugins for just £149 appeared first on MusicTech.

“It took me a long time to be comfortable using synths at all”: Producer Djrum admits he “couldn’t stand the idea of using presets” at firstDjrum’s new album Under Tangled Silence is now out, and it’s a swirling blend of fractured rhythms, ambient washes, and warped acoustic textures. But for all its intricate sound design, the producer’s relationship with the tools of electronic music hasn’t always been so intuitive.
“It took me a long time to be comfortable using synths at all,” Djrum – real name Felix Manuel – admits in a new interview with MusicRadar. “When I first started using them, I wasn’t very good at it and made sounds that were not great.”

READ MORE: Producer Djrum on why having “too much of a goal” in the studio can be “restrictive”: “I’m always starting up sessions and not finishing them, but I don’t see that as unproductive”

For a long time, presets were out of the question. “I couldn’t stand the idea of using presets,” he explains, adding that he found it “very frustrating to not know how a sound is made.”
“I would start using a preset, and I would want to change something about it, but then with a preset, you then have to figure out, like, what’s this all doing? Why is it making that sound? I found that so frustrating.”
These days, Djrum keeps his studio setup intentionally simple.
“My general setup is all focused around Ableton,” he says. “I think the built-in effects in Ableton are really good and you can do mostly everything with what’s there. I do use some iZotope and FabFilter stuff. I want a better reverb than the Ableton built in one.”
Hardware is kept to a minimum as well. One of the few pieces in his space is a Novation Peak, but even that gets limited use.
“I’ve got one hardware synth, the Novation Peak, which is really cool,” says the producer. “I got it because I felt like I should give it a go, as I’d never really used hardware before… but I don’t use it much.”
“It’s cool to jam and twiddle knobs but if I’m making a bassline or a melodic thing, I want to have it in the session and be able to tweak it and change it. That doesn’t really lend itself to integrating hardware. So the Novation is actually barely on this latest album.”
Instead, Djrum prefers to go deep with a few carefully chosen tools at a time: “My approach to synths is very much, like, one at a time,” he says. “Get to really know a synth before you get another one. I use very few. I use Massive and I like Arturia Pigments, Serum, that’s kind of it.”

The post “It took me a long time to be comfortable using synths at all”: Producer Djrum admits he “couldn’t stand the idea of using presets” at first appeared first on MusicTech.

Space Jams - The Funky, Futuristic, and Featherbrained Universe of Sci-Fi Dance MusicInspired by Mon Mothma cutting loose on the dance floor in the recent Star Wars series Andor, we revisit Buck Rogers, Tron, and (ug) The Matrix Reloaded among others in our interstellar list of good (and so-bad-its-good) sci-fi funky performances and space jams.