CVC Capital Partners to acquire majority stake in DistroKidThe transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. Terms were not disclosed.
Source

Bitcoin recovers from Strategy's BTC sale, funding rates hit 9%: Are bulls back?Bitcoin sold off as news of Strategy selling BTC shook investors’ nerve but the quick rebound suggests bulls remain ambitiously positioned.

M Media Audio Curve ControlDual-Channel. Twelve Bands. Hardware Weight. Curve Control is a mix and mastering parametric EQ with six fully parametric bands per channel and three channel modes: linked stereo, fully independent L/R, or M/S with each channel running its own separate curve. Always-on level-dependent saturation adds 2nd harmonic weight at the output of each channel. Two large VU meters with switchable source give real-time level feedback on Input, Output, or Mid/Side. Delta, Gain Sync, and Mono monitoring built in. Oversampling up to 8x. VST3 on Windows, macOS, and Linux. AU on macOS. Six Bands Per Channel Band 1: high-pass, 20-400 Hz, 6/12/18/24 dB/oct. Bands 2 and 5: shelf or bell, independent Q, low and high end. Bands 3 and 4: fixed bell, low-mid and high-mid. Band 6: low-pass, 8-20 kHz, 6/12/18/24 dB/oct. Every band has frequency, gain, Q, and independent enable. In Dual and M/S modes all 12 bands are fully independent. Three Channel Modes Link - Both channels ganged. Standard stereo EQ. Dual - Fully independent L/R curves. Per-side surgical correction. M/S - Channel A shapes Mid (L+R). Channel B shapes Side (L-R). Re-encodes to stereo at output. Hardware Weight Level-dependent soft saturation after the EQ on each channel. 2nd harmonic bias. Not a user control - no knob, no bypass. Oversampling at 2x, 4x, or 8x wraps this stage only, keeping added latency minimal. Monitoring Tools Delta - Isolates what the EQ is adding or removing. Near-silence on a flat curve. Gain Sync - Output tracks inverse of input gain for loudness-consistent evaluation. Mono - Collapse to mono for translation checking. Meter Source - VU meters switch between Input, Output, and M/S. Platform Support Windows - VST3 (64-bit), Windows 10 / 11. macOS - VST3 + AU (64-bit Universal Binary, Intel + Apple Silicon), macOS 11 Big Sur or later. Signed and notarized - no Gatekeeper warnings. Linux - VST3 (64-bit), Ubuntu 22.04+. Tested with Reaper for Linux. All three platforms in a single download. System Requirements 64-bit VST3-compatible host (Windows, macOS, Linux) or AU host (macOS). Compatible with Reaper, Cubase, Studio One, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Bitwig Studio, Nuendo, and others; AU format for Logic Pro, GarageBand, and MainStage on macOS. License $49. Perpetual license - one purchase, yours forever. No subscription, no renewal, no cloud dependency. 3 simultaneous activations. Activation over HTTPS, then fully offline. No telemetry. Nothing phoning home during your session. Free demo mode included - fully functional with a brief silence every 30 seconds. No account required to try it. Download and demo at mmediaaudio.com. Read More

How to Rebuild an 1800s Victorian Leclanché cellThe 19th century was an absolutely electrifying era, including in a literal sense. Although the phenomenon of electricity had been known by that time for centuries, actually making it do useful work was a much taller order. Aside from big, coal-powered generators, there also was a need for a more compact electrochemical solution, such as in the form of a wet or dry cell. One of the first major commercial successes here came in the form of the Leclanché cell, such as the genuine version that [Big Clive] found in an old UK building’s attic and has now revived.
Invented in 1866 by French scientist Georges Leclanché, the Leclanché cell features an ammonium chloride electrolyte solution, carbon cathode and zinc anode. There’s also a manganese dioxide depolarizer for preventing hydrogen build-up. Here water is the solvent for the ammonium chloride (also known as sal ammoniac).
The version that [Clive] got his grubby mitts on features a glass container, an already partially consumed zinc electrode and a slightly cracked porous ceramic tub that contains the carbon electrode and the manganese dioxide. After placing the components inside the specially shaped glass jar and filling it with an electrolyte mixture of one part ammonium chloride and four parts water by weight, the cell starts generating its approximate 1.4 VDC.
This type of wet cell was very popular, being essentially ‘rechargeable’ by topping up the water and replacing the zinc electrode consumable. They did suffer from a voltage drop-off during use due to increasing internal resistance, something that got improved upon with the zinc-carbon dry cell. Itself effectively an evolution of the Leclanché wet cell.
From there zinc-carbon dry cells got replaced with alkalines, which itself got mostly replaced by NiMH and Li-ion cells. Despite more than a hundred years between the electrochemical cell that [Clive] featured in his video and today’s batteries, it’s clear that this wet cell was quite literally just the Victorian-era equivalent of an alkaline AA cell.

Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch on the fight to split off models from agents"The reality is, when you're optimizing for production, you start looking at a price/performance," Guillermo Rauch tells TechCrunch.

MOTU 16A, 848 & 10pre gain Milan certification MOTU have just announced that their 16A, 848 and 10pre units are now capable of sharing, routing and distributing hundreds of audio channels alongside other devices on a Milan AVB network. 

Pixelsncodes releases Lumen, a FREE open-source Windows synth that turns images into sound
Developer Pixelsncodes has released Lumen, a free Windows-only open-source synth that turns images into sound. Lumen is a free and open-source wavetable synth that turns images into sound. Pixelsncodes created Lumen using the Claude AI coding agent. The synth features two wavetable oscillators, each with dedicated controls, including Morph, Pan, Unison, Detune, Width, and Blend. [...]
View post: Pixelsncodes releases Lumen, a FREE open-source Windows synth that turns images into sound

CRB Uranus 1 VST is a FREE emulation of a rare 1970s Italian synth for Windows
CRB Uranus 1 VST is a free emulation of a rare 1970s Italian synth for Windows. We’re used to emulations of vintage synths, like EightyEight by Morphoice, a free Roland Jupiter-8 emulation. And we get some virtual instruments inspired by rare synths, like The Crow Hill Company’s Vintage String Synth, based on the Wersi String [...]
View post: CRB Uranus 1 VST is a FREE emulation of a rare 1970s Italian synth for Windows

Being a DJ ranks as the #1 most desired job in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, per new studyA new study has apparently revealed that being a DJ ranks as the #1 most sought after job in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
A massive study conducted by Remitly – which specialises in international money transfers – looked at online searches for “how to be a…”, and found that being DJ was the most desired job among participants from these countries [via Mixmag]. Searches for “how to be a DJ” ranked higher than searches for becoming a vet, actor, writer or CEO.

READ MORE: Producer John Dahlbäck was “scared of AI”, now he’s a “firm believer” in some tools – here’s why

Searches from 145 countries were included in the study, with DJ being the 10th most desirable job in the world overall. Becoming an actor was right at the top with over 222,000 searches, followed by pilot, firefighter, lawyer and then YouTuber, the latter likely reflecting the aspirations of the younger portion of the sample size.
Interestingly, searches for “how to be a DJ” rose 14 places since 2024, now with nearly 100,000 queries.
Another key finding of the study was that being a YouTuber is now the top dream job in more countries than any other, coming in first in 28 countries, predominantly across Latin America and the Caribbean.
“In 2022, we set out to uncover the world’s most coveted dream jobs,” Remitly says. “We revisited the data in 2024, and now, two years on, we’re back for a third look at the most popular jobs people across 145 countries are searching for when they imagine their next career chapter. What those popular careers are has shifted dramatically since we first started this research.”
You can read the results of the full study at Remitly.
The post Being a DJ ranks as the #1 most desired job in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, per new study appeared first on MusicTech.

Producer John Dahlbäck was “scared of AI”, now he’s a “firm believer” in some tools – here’s whyDJ and producer John Dahlbäck has explained why he’s adopted AI into his work, favouring AI vocal tools in particular.
Dahlbäck has worked with artists such as Kaskade, Benny Benassi, and also collaborated with Avicii during his early career on track Don’t Hold Back under the name of Jovicii. In a new interview, he’s shared how he looks to use AI like “an instrument”, and why he feels excited by it, rather than scared.

READ MORE: Credits.fm is a free, open music credits database to help artists get paid in the AI era

Dahlbäck tells MusicRadar, “I tend to turn to AI for inspiration mainly. I use it more of an instrument – just as I would Splice or a synthesiser. Just as you’re tweaking things on a synth that eventually leads to something, I do the same with AI. I can feed [it] that beat that I’m doing, and it gives me ideas of where to develop it.
“[When I was younger] I was heavily into sampling. The way I would use samples is that I would try to re-create it rather than just include it in the final product. The same goes for AI in my case. I’m also a firm believer in voice-changing tools with AI. I sing something in the microphone with my horrible singing voice, and I change that into a beautiful singing voice.”

He goes on to explain, “I’m very excited by AI if the person using it is also creative and not just lazy. My brother is a very old-school music producer, he records a lot of bands traditionally.
“I used to be scared of AI in music, and he told me it was fantastic, he’d tell me that he had a singer who came in to do a full vocal, but then she left the studio, and he realised he didn’t have backing vocals. So, he just loads in her acapella, and he gets great stems and just backing vocals by using AI. It made the vocals more full. I just thought that was a brilliant use of it.”
Dahlbäck also says he recently spoke to the producer of “quite a famous Swedish singer” who he can’t name, and says that she had discovered tapes from when she was singing at five years of age. Plans are now in motion to train AI on her singing voice at that age, “so that she can duet herself”.
“It’s kind of incredible,” he says. “I’m all for that, and like I said, I don’t like when it’s just anyone sloppy using AI to just [generate] a pop song, then export and then upload Spotify. That doesn’t make any sense.”
The post Producer John Dahlbäck was “scared of AI”, now he’s a “firm believer” in some tools – here’s why appeared first on MusicTech.

Rust Romance releases Drive in my head, a FREE saturation plugin
Developer Rust Romance has released Drive in my head, a free saturation plugin for Windows and macOS. Drive in my head is a physically modeled op-amp line-driver plugin. The developer says it is not designed as an obvious distortion or fuzz effect. Instead, the idea here is to give clean sources the feel of passing [...]
View post: Rust Romance releases Drive in my head, a FREE saturation plugin

Synth Anthology 5 From UVI From the pioneering polysynths of the 1970s to the flagship and boutique hardware of today, Synth Anthology 5 promises to provide users with “an entire history of electronic sound” at their fingertips.

50​ Y‌ea⁠rs Ago: 12 Al⁠bum‍s That Defined 1976‍With‍ the Unit‌ed States marking 250 years since the adoption o‍f‍ the Declaration of Indep‌endence‌ this July 4, now is the‍ perfe⁠ct moment to revi⁠sit 1976—the nation's bice‍ntennial year‌—and the cl‌assic alb⁠ums it produced.

Uber’s European expansion plans may have hit a speed bumpBack in February, Uber announced ambitious plans to launch in seven new European markets in 2026 — but now five of those launches are reportedly on hold.

Seeing Bacteria, Nanoprisms, and More with an Atomic Force Microscope
Unlike almost every other kind of microscope, atomic-force microscopes (AFMs) don’t use any kind of optical beam to image their subjects. Instead, they physically detect the subject’s surface with a tiny probe, repeating this thousands of times to build up a height map of the subject, sometimes with a resolution below a single nanometer. [Ben Krasnow] got to use an AFM in an investigation of one of his projects, and shared some unusual uses of it in his latest video.

For his first demonstration, [Ben] took a video of the probe head in action. Since the probe oscillates at nine kilohertz, this was less straightforward than it sounds, but a stroboscopic welding camera filming near that frequency could visualize its motion. The next project was to image some biological samples, particularly bacteria. First, [Ben] let the bacteria from nattō (fermented soybeans) multiply in a sterile growth medium, then centrifuged and washed them.
He spin-coated a thin layer of gelatine onto part of a silicon wafer, which provided a very flat substrate. The gelatine is electrostatically attracted to the bacteria, adhering them to the slide and letting [Ben] wash away other contaminants. This let the AFM image the bacteria clearly, even revealing how a spin-coating step had oriented them all in the same direction.
[Ben] also imaged a few other samples, including silver nanoprisms and track-etched membranes. Track-etched membranes use high-energy radiation and an etchant to cut very consistent, fine holes into a plastic filtration membrane. Finally, [Ben] used it to image his laser-etched diffraction gratings; to find out how the laser had created these diffraction patterns, he tried to selectively etch away the laser-exposed metal, using the AFM to verify that this metal had been stripped away. Neither an acidic nor a basic etch worked, but electrochemical etching seemed promising.
If after seeing this you want your own atomic force microscope, we’ve seen a few DIY AFMs, including one which can resolve individual atoms.

Thanks to [H Hack] for the tip!