PreSonus add Cinematic Lights to Studio One Pro 7 Cinematic Lights is a new virtual instrument for Studio One Pro 7 that combines heavily processed orchestral string samples with a range of synth and field-recording layers. 

Meta’s Threads adds 1M daily, topping 320 monthly usersMeta's X-like platform Threads adds 1M daily topping 320 million active users monthly, with that trajectory expected to continue or accelerate.
The post Meta’s Threads adds 1M daily, topping 320 monthly users appeared first on Hypebot.

Liz Pelly of Spotify exposé Mood Machine: Jay Gilbert interviewsOn a special edition of the Your Morning Coffee podcast, co-host Jay Gilbert sits down with author Liz Pelly of Spotify exposé “Mood Machine, the Rise of Spotify and the Costs. Continue reading
The post Liz Pelly of Spotify exposé Mood Machine: Jay Gilbert interviews appeared first on Hypebot.

Hawaii bans ticket scalping after Bruno Mars Fan uproarBruno Mars fans have been hit hard by ticket scalpers, with resale prices soaring to thousands of dollars. Now the state of Hawaii bans ticket scalping via new legislation that. Continue reading
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Behringer takes inspiration from the Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble with its new Chorus Symphony pedalBehringer has launched the Chorus Symphony, which recreates the original Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble from 1976.
The original pedal encapsulated the chorus from the iconic JC-120 Jazz Chorus amplifier from Roland, Boss’s parent company. Behringer says its new emulation offers the same “thick, syrupy and multidimensional” tone that was put into use by artists such as John Frusciante, Brian May, Joe Satriani and Andy Summers.

READ MORE: Behringer BX1 synth is inspired by the classic Yamaha CS-80 and DX1, with more teases at NAMM 2025

The Chorus Symphony has an all-analogue BBD (Bucket Brigade Device) circuit for warm tones. The original pedal was one of the first of its kind to use a BBD circuit, so Behringer has opted for the same here.
Behringer has emulated the same look as the original too, and has now condensed both the chorus’ Speed and Depth controls into a single dial. There’s also a High/Low switch accompanied by a Level control for adding crunch and drive, and a second footswitch is on board to activate the pedal’s vibrato mode, with further controls for Depth and Rate.
For a full demo, check out Behringer’s video below:

Earlier this January, Behringer returned to the NAMM Show following a decade-long hiatus. Hitting back at critics claiming it to be a “vapourware” brand, the budget gear manufacturer said, “Behringer stands as one of the most prolific manufacturers in the industry. No other company delivers as many innovative and affordable products as we do. This year alone, we’ve brought numerous exciting instruments to market, and the best is yet to come.
“At Behringer, we’re driven by our love for creating exceptional instruments and making them accessible to everyone, no matter their budget or background. This passion fuels everything we do.”
The Chorus Symphony pedal is available now for $79. Find out more over at Behringer.
The post Behringer takes inspiration from the Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble with its new Chorus Symphony pedal appeared first on MusicTech.

Reverbnation launches Levels, a new invite-only programme offering top-tier career-building resources for budding artistsReverbNation – the platform which helps independent musicians grow their careers – has launched Levels, a new invite-only programme designed to offer artists career-building resources, financial backing, and personalised services for their creative journey.
The new Levels programme aims to expand ReverbNation’s artist services and career support beyond its current suite of self-service distribution and promotional tools, now offering “white-glove distribution, publishing, licensing, marketing and sponsorships, along with direct financial backing through advances”.

READ MORE: Caldecott Music Group announces two key divisional appointments at BandLab Technologies and Vista Musical Instruments

The financial backing for artists that comes with Levels comes in the form of upfront funding for recording, marketing and other career needs, while its distribution, publishing and licensing assistance offers budding artists a direct path to connect with major platforms.
Levels’ marketing and promotion features include tools and expertise for playlist pitching, press outreach and advertising, while the platform also offers artists exclusive partnerships in the form of discounts on gear and tailored sponsorship opportunities.
What’s more, artists can enjoy dedicated concierge services in the form of one-on-one assistance from account managers and access to a curated industry network.
“With ReverbNation Levels, we want to step up what real artist support looks like today,” says Meng Ru Kuok, CEO & Co-Founder of BandLab Technologies. 
“By combining financial support with personalised, white-glove services, we are empowering musicians to focus on their creativity and their music while setting them up for long-term success. 
“The industry is evolving and every artist’s path is different. In the same way we encourage and support our artists in partnering with record labels and established industry institutions, we also recognize that some artists prefer to remain independent. This new program helps to create a level playing field, providing those who seek more control, ownership, and creative freedom the tools and resources they need to succeed on their own terms.”
Artists can apply to join Levels now, and each application will be carefully reviewed. Selected participants will gain exclusive access to a powerful suite of career development tools, all backed by ReverbNation’s dedicated team and hands-on guidance to help them grow their careers with confidence.
For more information, head to reverbnation.com/levels.
Editor’s note: ReverbNation, BandLab Technologies and MusicTech are all part of the Caldecott Music Group.
The post Reverbnation launches Levels, a new invite-only programme offering top-tier career-building resources for budding artists appeared first on MusicTech.

RV Audio Design DisseptorDisseptor features five adjustable all-pass filters, each offering control over the phase and delay of frequencies. At high intensity, the filters create an audible delay effect, smearing out... Read More

And we #artists #Producers all know where is it coming from

Fckn thresholds ruin that all. #MusicBusiness #MusicIndustry hello

Native Instruments Komplete 15 is still the essential mega bundleKomplete 15 Select – £89 / $99 / €99
Komplete 15 Standard – £539 / $599 / €599
Komplete 15 Ultimate – £1,079 / $1,199 / €1,199
Komplete 15 Collector’s – £1,619 / $1,799 / €1,799
Upgrade pricing also available, native-instruments.com
For a generation of music makers, Native Instruments’ Komplete has reigned as the heavyweight champion of plugin bundles. Over that time the library has grown from a meagre 9 products to a sprawling 140 instruments, with almost 170,000 sounds on offer and a terabyte of disk space required.
Few products can claim to be the best, and fewer still can hold onto that title – but after 22 years on top, Komplete 15 still comes out swinging.

READ MORE: Why Steinberg Cubase Pro 14 is the most significant update since 1997’s VST launch

As with previous iterations, Komplete is offered in a number of different pricing tiers, starting with the often-overlooked Komplete Select.
This entry-level collection, Komplete 15 Select, has now been split into three curated packages: Beats, Band, and Electronic. As the names imply, these are focused libraries that accommodate specific genre-based workflows. Overall, each option comes with less stuff than in the previous iteration of Select, but NI has also dropped the price from £179 to £89 — a welcome development for those looking to get a toe-hold in the Native Instruments ecosystem.
By comparison, Standard, the first of Komplete’s three main tiers, kicks things into high gear with over 95 instruments, including industry-leading flagships like Massive X, Guitar Rig 7 Pro, Ozone 11 Standard, Reaktor 6, and, of course, Kontakt 8. The new version of Kontakt is an excellent step forward and its inclusion in the Standard, Ultimate, and Collector’s bundles is a definite selling point.

There are also new additions to the workflow-focused Session range, which is becoming quite the centrepiece for Komplete Standard. Among other newbies, there’s Session Percussionist, Acoustic Sunburst Deluxe, and Icon Bass. Beyond excellent sound quality, the drawcard for the Session instruments is their combined offering of standard sample playback with ready-made rhythmic and melodic patterns. It’s almost scary how easy it is to slot these patterns into a track or to build up an entire arrangement using nothing but the Session range.
If you’re looking for orchestral scoring options, you’ll need to move on to Komplete Ultimate. This tier is firmly aimed at media composers, with an extensive selection of instrumental sounds across the Symphony Essentials line, and rapid-fire scoring tools from the Action series – which takes the same pattern-based approach of the Session instruments and applies it to woodwind, string and percussion ensembles.
There is also plenty of en-vogue acoustic-electronic textures from the new Conflux instrument, and the enormously fun Vocal Colours will be a delight for anyone who enjoyed the soundtrack to The White Lotus.
Vocal Colours in Komplete 15. Image: MusicTech
It’s also at this tier that you’ll start to get a decent range of plugin effects and mixing tools. With Brainworx and iZotope now part of the family, Komplete has, since version 14, begun extending its capabilities past the writing stage and into production, mixing, and mastering. This was a savvy move on Native Instruments’ part, so it’s a shame that there are no new additions on this front other than an updated version of iZotope’s Ozone mastering plugin.
If you have the need, and the funds, to hit the Collector’s edition, you’ll be rewarded with over 140 instruments, 30 effects and more than 120 Expansions This encompasses upgraded versions of the Symphony Series with many more articulation options, the new Valves Pro, for genuinely gorgeous brass passages, and the buzzy Kithara; an idiosyncratic sampler that smooshes together multiple string samples to create a single envelope of sound.
If there’s one grumble, it’s that once you arrive at the higher tiers, Komplete becomes almost too complete for any one person. The sheer size is more than just unwieldy – it starts to feel wasteful. Some will surely harness this library’s full potential, but most will probably whittle things down to a manageable slice of regular essentials. All of which is to say: it would be incredibly useful if Native Instruments extended the new genre-based pricing options available for Select up to the Standard and Ultimate bundles.
Kithara variations in Komplete 15. Image: MusicTech
Of course, having too many creative choices is an awfully nice problem to have, and with subscription options available via the 360 service, it is perfectly possible to try these tools out as a free trial before deciding which tier is most suitable for your workflow.
For new users, Komplete 15 should be at the top of the wish list. Whether you’re just starting out, looking to get serious or feel a deep, completionist need for 165-plus instruments in your DAW, there is something here for you.
The case for upgrading is less clear. If we focus purely on the instrumental additions, there are enough new goodies to make upgrading an attractive – though perhaps not essential – option. That is until you consider the inclusion of Kontakt 8. The newest edition of the world’s most used sample player is truly excellent, and once you consider that it costs £269 by itself, the upgrade cost starts to look like a bargain.
Guitar Rig 7 Pro in Komplete 15. Image: MusicTech
All in all, Komplete is still the indispensable resource for media composers – even against increasingly strong competition. EastWest’s Composer Cloud+ comes out ahead on the orchestral front but can’t compete with Komplete’s synthesis and production chops; Arturia’s V Collection X excels at synthesis and sound design but offers no standard acoustic instruments; Spitfire Audio’s orchestral bundles boast exquisite depth and detail, but demand a hefty price. Meanwhile, Musio has an instrument count that dwarfs even Komplete (2,000+ instruments!) and at an extremely approachable subscription price, but lacks the plugin effects, mixing and mastering tools that Native Instruments is slowly, but surely, building into Komplete.
At £539 Komplete Standard is a must-have for anyone looking to get serious about music production. While the Collector’s tier feels like a luxury purchase at £1,619, if you’re looking for comprehensive insurance against any future musical need, this is it.
Few modern media composers can afford to be specialists – at least in the early stages of their careers. Instead, they are called upon to bounce from genre to genre, to write music that pulls in a wide variety of instrumentation, sounds, and styles, and often to produce mixed and finalised tracks ready for the screen. For these users, there is nothing else that quite matches Komplete 15’s combination of scope, utility, and quality.
Komplete is still the mega bundle that all others are measured against.

Key features

Standard, Ultimate, and Collector’s editions all come with Kontakt 8
95+ instruments and 50+ expansions included in Standard edition
150+ instruments and 80+ expansions included in Ultimate edition
165+ instruments and 120+ expansions included in Collector’s edition
New Beats, Band, and Electronic bundles for Komplete Select
Library size range from 300GB to 1.1TB
Includes mixing tools from Brainworx
Includes iZotope’s Ozone 11 Standard mastering plugin

The post Native Instruments Komplete 15 is still the essential mega bundle appeared first on MusicTech.

CARRTOONS: “My most successful records were made using a Scarlett interface before I could afford anything else”With seven albums in his pocket, and another on the way, producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Carr knows how to groove. The New York-based producer has proven his talents by playing many of the instruments you hear throughout his CARRTOONS discography, merging his passion for Motown, jazz, soul, and hip-hop, while also displaying his admiration and virtuosity for bass guitar.

READ MORE: Vlossom: “I visualize the mix in 3D — textures, placements, and space inform how everything fits together spectrally”

Carr has received admiration for his ‘dreamy’ production style, with incredibly slick mixes that complement the array of musicians he collaborates with, from Mac Ayres to Reuben James and rap trio, The Lox.
In this edition of Studio Files, Carr takes us through his studio setup and all the gear that brought him the title as one of the most frequent faces on NPR’s Tiny Desk, as well as commercial work with Nike, PlayStation, Hulu, MAX, and Peacock.
Your discography is incredibly vast — what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from these releases that you want to bring forward to a new album?
The biggest lesson I have learned is to get out of my own way. Once I managed to quiet my inner critic, all of these projects really just poured out of me.
Who are some of the jazz, funk and soul artists that have shaped you into the artist you are today? How do you channel those influences
Some of my favourite artists are D’angelo, Madlib, The Sylvers, Thundercat, and Kaytranada. I’ve gone through many phases of influence, and for many years my music sounded too similar to these folks to be truly special. Over time, their artistry seeped into my bones and helped guide me toward discovering my own sound.
Image: Press
You work with a lot of featured artists on your own work, as well as collaborating with artists on their own work such as Reuben James and Mac Ayres. How do you ensure that your signature sound shines through when giving the light to other people?
I’m not particularly focused on adding my signature sound. I trust that it will come out naturally and, instead, I focus on what’s right for the song. Each song often reveals what it needs, and I aim to be selfless enough to listen.
Tell us a bit about your studio
My studio is in my apartment in Beacon, NY. People often take the train from NYC to spend a day or even a week working here. It’s designed to make music very casually, and it’s not uncommon to go from watching a TV show to tracking vocals within minutes.
What’s your latest gear or plugin purchase?
The latest addition to my studio is the Warm Audio Tube EQ. It does the Pultec thing really well and is very worth it. It’s great for dialing in tones for vocals and bass, and has quickly become a studio staple.
Image: Press
What’s the best free plugin you own?
Softube’s Saturation Knob is arguably the best free plugin out there. I use it to quickly add colour to tracks during recording, and it often makes its way into the final mix.
Many bassists like to hone in on the natural tone and timbre of the bass rather than rely on pedals or post-production to shape the sound they want. Where do you sit on this spectrum?
I spent many years relying solely on my handstop to do all the work. I’m very glad I spent that time, but it’s very important to understand pre-amps and frequencies if you are going to get the proper bass sound for songs across genres. For example, Origin Effects pedals have been a game changer for creating mix-ready bass sounds in the studio.
Considering the style of much of your music, offering a unique take on R&B and jazz influences, how much do you rely on more traditional production techniques for those genres?
I’m always experimenting with production techniques and rarely rely on traditional studios or methods. Many of my records have been recorded in bedrooms or remotely. Whatever sounds best ultimately makes it onto the album.
How do you see your sound and studio evolving in the next two years?
On the newest album, Hologram Electronics Chroma Console has played a big part in shaping sounds and adding multi-effects during tracking. I’ve used it in nearly every session, and it consistently delivers magical analogue moments. The next phase for me is moving into a house that will double as my new studio. I’m excited to finally have all my gear accessible at all times and enough space to spread out and fully enjoy the setup.

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A post shared by CARRTOONS (@_carrtoons_)

Do you have a dream piece of gear?
One day, I’d love to have a proper Neve console in my studio. I’ve recently recorded a few projects on Neve consoles, and they’re truly the best — unreal clarity!
What’s a music production myth you think needs debunking?
I think people wait until they get the “right” gear to start, but the key is to just start. I made many of my most successful recordings on a Scarlett interface before I was able to afford anything else. I personally couldn’t wait to get an Apollo interface, but I didn’t let that stop me from creating.
Who gave you the biggest lesson in your career?
I credit Alan Hampton for encouraging me to get back to the feeling of making music in high school. Like many, I got caught up in the technicalities of music school, but he slowly guided me back to what inspired me in the first place. Most importantly, this made music fun again. I encourage everyone to always find the childish joy in what they do.
The post CARRTOONS: “My most successful records were made using a Scarlett interface before I could afford anything else” appeared first on MusicTech.

Austrian Audio preview OC-S10 Reference Recording Microphone Taking pride of place on Austrian Audio’s booth at the 2025 NAMM Show was the OC-S10, a new large-diaphragm capacitor mic that the company say offers exceptional versatility and will suit any recording scenario.

JBL Expands SRX900 Line Array SystemsThe JBL SRX900 Series just got even better! The newest additions—the SRX915SF and SRX918SF—are here, offering unmatched versatility for applications where floor space is limited. Designed to be flown standalone or in mixed arrays with existing SRX900 line array products and accessories, these subwoofers are a game-changer for compact setups. SRX900 accessories are now available, as well. Plus, feature-rich updates to Venue Synthesis, Performance, and ArrayLink software will be launching soon! With enhanced support for the latest models, these updates will take your SRX900 Series experience to the next level.DISCOVER NOW

The post JBL Expands SRX900 Line Array Systems first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Google quietly announces its next flagship AI modelGoogle has quietly announced the launch of its next-gen flagship AI model, Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, in a changelog for the company’s Gemini chatbot app. The launch of Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, the successor the Gemini 1.5 Pro model Google launched last February, comes as the tech world remains fixated on Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. […]
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Bitcoin rallies above $106K but 3 key actions must happen for new all-time highsBitcoin kicked off 2025 with a bang, but a fresh set of factors needs time to congeal before BTC price can chase new highs.