‘China’s MicroStrategy’ sells all of its Bitcoin and Ethereum: Asia ExpressAsia’s MicroStrategy Meitu has sold all of its 940 Bitcoin and 31K ETH while Sth. Korea looks to legalize corporate crypto buys. Asia Express

Off the Strip at the Punk Rock MuseumLas Vegas is a wild vacation location, no matter how you slice and dice it. Whether you go for the gambling--the activity which, let's be honest, built the city--or the various other attractions that cause the skyline to drip with sweat, blood, tears, and decadence, a memorable time can be pretty much guaranteed.On a recent trip over Thanksgiving week, this writer and his family stayed at the Luxor, the pyramid-shaped, Egypt-themed hotel situated on one end of the infamous Strip. With a 13-year-old in tow, this was a chance to experience a family-friendly version of a Vegas break.So, as well as the Luxor and Excalibur hotels, we ventured off the strip to take in art experience Meow Wolf's Omega Mart location, as well as the One Piece Cafe (based on the popular One Piece anime).But best of all was the Punk Rock Museum. When our Uber pulled up, it was immediately apparent that there was nothing else in that location but for a strip club a few yards away. Maybe, when you dig into the sometimes-seedy club origins of punk, that's appropriate.

The guy checking us in informed us that the museum is arranged chronologically, starting at the birth punk and taking us through to the present. So we see artifacts from the proto-punk era, including from Detroit bands the MC5 and the Stooges.We explore CBGB's and Max's Kansas City New York, and the origins of U.K. punk with the likes of the Sex Pistols and the Damned.

Outfits, instruments and other sundries from L.A. punk bands including the Germs and the Circle Jerks are fascinating, with the CJs supplying a full drum kit.

We could have stood and stared at the wall of flyers all day long. And the circle of stage outfits, including one of the Aquabats' superhero suits, is glorious. If you haven't been yet, get yourself there! For all info, visit thepunkrockmuseum.com.The post Off the Strip at the Punk Rock Museum first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

How Corroded Can a Motherboard Be?We will admit it. If we found a 386 motherboard as badly corroded as the one [Bits und Bolts] did, we would trash it—not him, though. In fact, we were surprised when he showed it and said he had already removed most of it in vinegar. You can check the board out in the video below.
There was still a lot of work to do on both the front and back of the board. The motherboard was a Biostar and while it isn’t as dense as a modern board, it still had plenty of surface mount parts jammed in.

One challenge was that fixing corroded vias could break connections with traces on inner layers of the multi-layer PCB. It was important to try to find out where things were going in case it was going to need some wiring repair after some of the other repairs.
Even after cleaning and resoldering, there were some bad components — notably some tantalum capacitors. With those replaced, the board came up as you’d expect. It is worth listening to the maniacal laughter of satisfaction at about the 53-minute mark when the board booted up. We get it.
The 386 is simple enough that you could do your own motherboard. Otherwise, you might expect to have to provide some TLC.

Daniel Ek cashes out another $37m in Spotify stock, bringing total value of shares sold this year to nearly $320mSpotify's market capitalization is more than double that of the world's largest music company, Universal
Source

Inside Sony Music Publishing’s flagship creative hub for songwriters in Los AngelesSony Music Publishing has opened a new office space and creative hub for songwriters in Los Angeles.
Source

Keebin’ with Kristina: the One with the Folding Keyboard ModLet’s face it, failed Kickstarters are no good. But they can spark good things, like real versions of technologies that might have actually been faked for the platform. A touchscreen mouse, for instance, with shortcuts that can be programmed for various applications.
Image by [Sam Baker] via Hackaday.IOThis story is one of scope creep, as [Sam Baker] says in the project details. At first, he thought he could just basically duct tape a touchscreen with shortcuts to an existing mouse. A couple of mouse teardowns later, [Sam] arrived at the conclusion that things would not be so simple.
After some digging around, [Sam] found a repository where someone created a way to communicate with the ADNS-5050 optical sensor, so [Sam] started by creating a breakout board for this sensor. By combining that with an ESP32 dev board and a touchscreen, [Sam] had his shortcut mouse.
Does it work? Yes. Is it useful? Well, yes. And also no. The beauty part of using a regular mouse is that you don’t have to look down at it to know where the buttons are. In the future, [Sam] would like to implement some kind of buttons for tactility. In the meantime, haptic feedback could be nice.

Converting (Another!) Folding Keyboard Into Bluetooth
There is a ton of neat old technology out there, and not all of it has to end up as e-waste. You might remember this post about a cool old folding keyboard converted to Bluetooth for use with phones and tablets.
Image by [Xinming Chen] via GitHub[Xinming Chen] wrote in to alert me that not only are there other folding keyboards that were made for PDA devices back when, namely the G750; he has converted these to Bluetooth as well.
There were a bunch of different models sold under various names, but [Xinming] says as long as the keyboard looks the same, it should work with his adapter. The biggest difference is that the G750 itself uses inverted TTL for the RX line, while other models do not.
The really amazing part of this is the actual build itself, which fits in the smaller-than-a-Shuffle footprint of the original PDA connector. Naturally, [Xinming] had to roll his own PCB, which is based on the CH582F microcontroller. But another awesome bit is the micro-switch, which turns on the Bluetooth module when the keyboard is unfolded, and off when it is pushed back together. The whole deal is a really slick maneuver that you should check out in the demo video below.
Whether you build or buy one of these adapters, you don’t have to limit yourself to one device: the CH582F can support up to four hosts as well as the USB connection, so feel free to use it like a KVM switch. Awesome!

The Centerfold: Peep This Beautiful Beast!
Image via Bili Bili
So I was trawling reddit and came across someone asking for the 3D models for these hand rests. I was of course myself more interested in the keyboard, which is a 6×6 dactyl manuform (translated) with an extended num pad in between. That’s quite a few keys, innit? 38 keys per half plus the center beast at 30; I assume the black things are knobs. On a personal note, as much as I like the dactyl and even tried to build one, the dactyl manuform’s thumb cluster just looks uncomfortable to my small hands.
Do you rock a sweet set of peripherals on a screamin’ desk pad? Send me a picture along with your handle and all the gory details, and you could be featured here!
Historical Clackers: the Lasar
Just like any burgeoning, lucrative industry, many entered the typewriter game, but few actually won. Among history’s many forgotten typewriters and the men who made them is the Lasar, made between 1890-1892 by the Godfrey Henry Lasar of St. Louis, MO.
Image via the Antikey Chop
Lasar held an impressive number of patents for various typewriter elements, including one for a “telegraph transmitter”. For the Lasar itself, he received a whopping 17 patents in a single day  — November 19, 1889.
For all of Lasar’s innovation, his company did almost no marketing, which may have attributed to its downfall. Fortunately, several ads were published by the St. Louis Typewriter exchange. Unfortunately, most of them ran after the company went out of business.
The Lasar sold for $75, which comes out to over $2500 in 2024 money. This is about smack dab in the middle of the average cost for a typewriter at the time, however.
One of the reasons it may have failed is because it only typed uppercase, but every other guy’s machine did lowercase, too. One of Lasar’s Lasar patents is for a shift mechanism, but he didn’t implement it. It is thought that the Lasar was always meant to be a telegraph typewriter, and was even advertised as “the Best Machine for Telegraph Work”. The world may never know.
ICYMI: the Case For the Vecdec Cyberdeck
Image by [svenscore] via GitHubAs awesome as cyberdecks are to behold, many of them just aren’t that useful. It’s a shame, really. But [svenscore]’s Versatile Ergonomic Computing device, or vecdec, is different.
Hackaday’s own [Tom Nardi] spotted this bad boy at JawnCon 0x1, where it was being used in place of a laptop. This build was born when [svenscore] caught the split keyboard bug and couldn’t reconcile going back to a rectangle on the go. Totally understandable!
Despite its sleek form factor, this Raspberry Pi 4-powered cyberdeck has a few surprises. One is the built-in LoRa radio for doing Meshtastic wherever. The other is a pair of gesture sensors that let you fly through documents with a wave of your hand like you’re in Minority Report (2002) or something. If you ask me, this interface should be standard on every cyberdeck going forward.

Got a hot tip that has like, anything to do with keyboards? Help me out by sending in a link or two. Don’t want all the Hackaday scribes to see it? Feel free to email me directly.

Producers who worked on Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures albums have not been paid, per reportsProducers who worked on Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures albums have still not been paid, according to reports.
Per Billboard, over 10 producers worked on the project – which spawned albums Vultures 1 and Vultures 2, with third outing Vultures 3 reportedly scheduled for release in the near future – and they have “not been paid for their services even though both albums have been released”, says music attorney Bob Celestin, who represents an unspecified number of producers who worked on the albums.

READ MORE: “No other company delivers as many innovative and affordable products as we do”: Behringer hits back at “vapourware” critics following NAMM 2025 announcement

Brittney Trigg, another lawyer representing a producer who worked on Vultures 1, adds: “We’ve had trouble receiving a producer agreement from Ye.”
Vultures 1 and Vultures 2 were released on 10 February and 3 August, respectively, while the release date for Vultures 3 is currently unknown.
According to five lawyers whose clients worked on Vultures 1, Kanye West has worked with at least two attorneys to help with clearances and issuing royalties to his collaborators.
Per Billboard, some of the producers’ joined forces to issue threatening letters to the distributor of the albums at the time, although West switched distributors before the letters could be sent, and the albums were released independently under Ye’s Yeezy brand.
Lawyer Jason Berger says that in “nine out of 10 deals, the producer has not been paid the day the music comes out”.
Another lawyer whose client worked on Vultures 1 says “we have no recourse besides to try to sue [Kanye West]… but that’s costly.”

The post Producers who worked on Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures albums have not been paid, per reports appeared first on MusicTech.

Music AI Revenue Loss: Study Reveals Disturbing StatisticsThe first global study of the economic impact of AI on the music paints a bleak picture. Generative AI will enrich tech companies while music AI revenue loss will top. Continue reading
The post Music AI Revenue Loss: Study Reveals Disturbing Statistics appeared first on Hypebot.

Acon Digital Acoustica gains Pro Tools ARA support Compatible with Pro Tools 2024.10 and later, the latest version of Acoustica allows for deeper integration and eliminates the need to round-trip audio between the two applications. 

Artists Growth adds Credit Cards, Expense Tools for the Music IndustryArtist Growth has added a suite of music industry credit cards and expense management tools to its platform.
The post Artists Growth adds Credit Cards, Expense Tools for the Music Industry appeared first on Hypebot.

Free Music Business Newsletter: Subscribe NowStaying on top of the fast-changing music industry, the latest trends in music marketing, and the most interesting music tech startups can feel like a full time job. We make it easy with Hypebot's free music business newsletter.
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Musical AI and Beatoven.ai to build “first fully licensed, rights holder-compensating” AI music generatorAI training content licensing and attribution company Musical AI and Beatoven.ai have teamed up to build what they claim to be the industry’s first “fully licensed, rights-holder-compensating, generative AI platform” trained on copyrighted music and other audio.
Set to debut in the second half of 2025, the tool – designed to ensure musicians and rights holders are “compensated for every use of their repertoire” – will be trained on over 3 million songs, loops, samples, and sounds.

READ MORE: Stevie Wonder demoed the Apple Vision Pro, according to CEO Tim Cook: “It’s always great to get feedback from Stevie”

The AI song generator will leverage Beatoven.ai’s existing technology, while Musical AI will provide the essential backend, including data licensing, attribution of generated outputs, and fair payments to rightsholders.
Artists and rights owners will receive a revenue share based on how the AI-generated outputs are used, mirroring the model of streaming royalties. In short, everything will be “completely legal and licensed”, with all with the necessary permissions from rights holders.
Musical AI will exclusively offer this full-song generator to its enterprise clients as a white-label service.
“We are working with the forward-thinking, ethically driven team at Beatoven.ai because they see the value in proving that generative AI can be legal and can compensate original content creators for their work while still thriving as a business,” says Musical AI CEO Sean Power. “There are no more excuses for not doing things right and well. We’re proving this with this first-ever service.”
Fair compensation for artists and rights holders has become a hot-button issue in the music industry, especially with the rise of AI-generated content. We’ve seen major record labels like Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment filing significant copyright infringement lawsuits against AI music companies like Suno and Udio, accusing them of unauthorised use of copyrighted sound recordings to train their AI models.
For Mansoor Rahimat Khan, founder and CEO of Beatoven.ai, this partnership “will set the way forward for how business models need to be built in AI with the rightsholders being compensated for the data the models are trained on.”
“We have historically been adopting this model in direct partnerships with independent artists and by joining hands with Musical AI we will build a sustainable revenue sharing model using their attribution technology,” says Khan.
The post Musical AI and Beatoven.ai to build “first fully licensed, rights holder-compensating” AI music generator appeared first on MusicTech.

Seen and heard: The new Edward and Joyce Linde Music BuildingUntil very recently, Mariano Salcedo, a fourth-year MIT electronic engineering and computer science student majoring in artificial intelligence and decision-making, was planning to apply for a master’s program in computer science at MIT. Then he saw the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, which opened this fall for a selection of classes. “Now, instead of going into computer science, I’m thinking of applying for the master’s program in Music Technology, which is being offered here for the first time next year,” says Salcedo. “The decision is definitely linked to the building, and what the building says about music at MIT.”  Scheduled to open fully in February 2025, the Linde Music Building already makes a bold and elegant visual statement. But its most powerful impact will likely be heard as much as seen. Each of the facility’s elements, including the Thomas Tull Concert Hall, every performance and rehearsal space, each classroom, even the stainless-steel metal panels that form the conic canopies over the cube-like building’s three entrances — has been conceived and constructed to create an ideal environment for music. Students are already enjoying the ideal acoustics and customized spaces of the Linde Music Building, even as construction on the site continues. Within the building’s thick red-brick walls, they study subjects ranging from Electronic Music Composition to Conducting and Score Reading to Advanced Music Performance. Myriad musical groups, from the MIT jazz combos to the Balinese Gamelan and the Rambax Senegalese Drum Ensemble, explore and enjoy their new and improved homes, as do those students who will create and perfect the next generation of music production hardware and software. “For many of us at MIT, music is very close to our hearts,” notes MIT President Sally Kornbluth. “And the new building now puts music right at the heart of the campus. Its exceptional practice and recording spaces will give MIT musicians the conservatory-level tools they deserve, and the beautiful performance hall will exert its own gravitational pull, drawing audiences from across campus and the larger community who love live music.”The need and the solutionMusic has never been a minor pursuit at MIT. More than 1,500 MIT students enroll in music classes each academic year. And more than 500 student musicians participate in one of 30 on-campus ensembles. Yet until recently there was no centralized facility for music instruction or rehearsal. Practice rooms were scattered and poorly insulated, with sound seeping through the walls. Nor was there a truly suitable space for large performances; while Kresge Auditorium has sufficient capacity and splendid minimalist aesthetics, the acoustics are not optimal.“It would be very difficult to teach biology or engineering in a studio designed for dance or music,” says Jay Scheib, recently appointed section head for Music and Theater Arts and Class of 1949 Professor. “The same goes for teaching music in a mathematics or chemistry classroom. In the past, we’ve done it, but it did limit us. In our theater program, everything changed when we opened the new theater building (W97) in 2017 and could teach theater in spaces intended for theater. We believe the new music building will have a similar effect on our music program. It will inspire our students and musicians and allow them to hear their music as it was intended to be heard. And it will provide an opportunity to convene people, to inhabit the same space, breathe the same air, and exchange ideas and perspectives.”“Music-making from multiple musical traditions are areas of tremendous growth at MIT, both in terms of performance and academics,” says Keeril Makan, associate dean for strategic initiatives for the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS). The Michael (1949) and Sonja Koerner Music Composition Professor and former head of the Music and Theater Arts Section, Makan was, and remains, intimately involved in the Linde Music Building project. “In this building, we wanted all forms of music to coexist, whether jazz, classical, or music from around the world. This was not easy; different types of music require different conditions. But we took the time and invested in making spaces that would support all musical genres.”The idea of creating an epicenter for music at MIT is not new. For several decades, MIT planners and administrators studied various plans and sites on campus, including Kendall Square and areas in West Campus. Then, in 2018, one year after the completion of the Theater Arts Building on Vassar Street, and with support from then-president L. Rafael Reif, the Institute received a cornerstone gift for the music building from arts patron Joyce Linde. Along with her late husband and former MIT Corporation member Edward H. Linde ’62, the late Joyce Linde was a longtime MIT supporter. SANAA, a Tokyo-based architectural firm, was selected for the job in April 2019.“MIT chose SANAA in part because their architecture is so beautiful,” says Vasso Mathes, the senior campus planner in the MIT Office of Campus Planning who helped select the SANAA team. “But also because they understood that this building is about acoustics. And they brought the world’s most renowned acoustics consultant, Nagata Acoustics International founder Yasuhisa Toyota, to the project.”Where form meets functionBuilt on the site of a former parking lot, the Linde Music Building is both stunning and subtle. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, which won the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the three-volume red brick structure centers both the natural and built environments of MIT’s West Campus — harmonizing effortlessly with Eero Saarinen’s Kresge Auditorium and iconic MIT Chapel, both adjacent, while blending seamlessly with surrounding athletic fields and existing landscaping. With a total of 35,000 square feet of usable space, the building’s three distinct volumes dialogue beautifully with their surroundings. The curved roof reprises elements of Kresge Auditorium, while the exterior evokes Boston and Cambridge’s archetypal facades. The glass-walled lobby, where the three cubic volumes converge, is surprisingly intimate, with ample natural light and inviting views onto three distinct segments of campus. “One thing I love about this project is that each program has its own identity in form,” says co-founder and principal Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA. “And there are also in-between spaces that can breathe and blend inside and outside spaces, creating a landscape while preserving the singularity of each program.”There are myriad signature features — particularly the acoustic features designed by Nagata Acoustics. The Beatrice and Stephen Erdely Music and Culture Space offers the building’s most robust acoustic insulation. Conceived as a home for MIT’s Rambax Senegalese Drum Ensemble and Balinese Gamelan — as well as other music ensembles — the high-ceilinged box-in-box rehearsal space features alternating curved wall panels. The first set reflects sound, the second set absorbs it. The two panel styles are virtually identical to the eye. With a maximum seating capacity of 390, the Thomas Tull Concert Hall features a suite of gently rising rows that circle a central performance area. The hall can be configured for almost any style and size of performance, from a soloist in the round to a full jazz ensemble. A retractable curtain, an overhanging ring of glass panels, and the same alternating series of curved wall panels offers adaptable and exquisite sound conditions for performers and audience. A season of events are planned for the spring, starting on Feb. 15, 2025, with a celebratory public program and concert. Classrooms, rehearsal spaces, and technical spaces in the Jae S. and Kyuho Lim Music Maker Pavilion — where students will develop state-of-the-art production tools, software, and musical instruments — are similarly outfitted to create a nearly ideal sound environment. While acoustic concerns drove the design process for the Linde Music Building, they did not dampen it. Architects, builders, and vendors repeatedly found ingenious and understated ways to infuse beauty into spaces conceived primarily around sound. “There are many technical specifications we had to consider and acoustic conditions we had to create,” says co-founder and principal Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA. “But we didn’t want this to be a purely technical building; rather, a building where people can enjoy creating and listening to music, enjoy coming together, in a space that was functional, but also elegant.”Realized with sustainable methods and materials, the building features radiant-heat flooring, LED lighting, high-performance thermally broken windows, and a green roof on each volume. A new landscape and underground filters mitigate flood risk and treat rain and stormwater. A two-level 142-space parking garage occupies the space beneath the building. The outdoor scene is completed by Madrigal, a site-specific sculpture by Sanford Biggers. Commissioned by MIT, and administered by the List Visual Arts Center, the Percent-for-Art program selected Sanford Biggers through a committee formed for this project. The 18-foot metal, resin, and mixed-media piece references the African American quilting tradition, weaving, as in a choral composition, diverse patterns and voices into a colorful counterpoint. “Madrigal stands as a vibrant testament to the power of music, tradition, and the enduring spirit of collaboration across time,” says List Visual Arts Center director Paul Ha. “It connects our past and future while enriching our campus and inspiring all who encounter it.”New harmoniesWith a limited opening for classes this fall, the Linde Music Building is already humming with creative activity. There are hands-on workshops for the many sections of class 21M.030 (Introduction to Musics of the World) — one of SHASS’s most popular CI-H classes. Students of music technology hone their skills in digital instrument design and electronic music composition. MIT Balinese Gamelan and the drummers of Rambax enjoy the sublime acoustics of the Music and Culture Space, where they can hear and refine their work in exquisite detail. “It is exciting for me, and all the other students who love music, to be able to take classes in this space completely devoted to music and music technology,” says fourth-year student Mariano Salcedo. “To work in spaces that are made specifically for music and musicians ... for us, it’s a nice way of being seen.”The Linde Music Building will certainly help MIT musicians feel seen and heard. But it will also enrich the MIT experience for students in all schools and departments. “Music courses at MIT have been popular with students across disciplines. I’m incredibly thrilled that students will have brand-new, brilliantly designed spaces for performance, instruction, and prototyping,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of the School of Engineering, and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The building will also offer tremendous opportunities for students to gather, build community, and innovate across disciplines.”“This building and its three programs encapsulate the breadth of interest among our students,” says Melissa Nobles, MIT chancellor and Class of 1922 Professor of Political Science. Nobles was a steadfast advocate for the music building project. “It will strengthen our already-robust music community and will draw new people in.” The Linde Music Building has inspired other members of the MIT community. “Now faculty can use these truly wonderful spaces for their research,” says Makan. “The offices here are also studios, and have acoustic treatments and sound isolation. Musicians and music technologists can work in those spaces.” Makan is composing a piece for solo violin to be premiered in the Thomas Tull Concert Hall early next year. During the performance, student violinists will deploy strategically in various points about the hall to accompany the piece, taking full advantage of the space’s singular acoustics. Agustín Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, expects the Linde Music Building to inspire people beyond the MIT community as well. “Of course this building brings incredible resources to MIT’s music program: top-quality rehearsal spaces, a professional-grade recording studio, and new labs for our music technology program,” he says “But the world-class concert hall will also create new opportunities to connect with people in the Boston area. This is truly a jewel of the MIT campus.”February open house and concertThe MIT Music and Theater Arts Section plans to host an open house in the new building on Feb. 15, 2025. Members of the MIT community and the general public will be invited to an afternoon of activities and performances. The celebration of music will continue with a series of concerts open to the public throughout the spring. Details will be available at the Music and Theater Arts website.

“No other company delivers as many innovative and affordable products as we do”: Behringer hits back at “vapourware” critics following NAMM 2025 announcementEarlier this week, Behringer made headlines after announcing its return to the NAMM show in 2025 after a decade-long absence.
Amidst the celebration, the German manufacturer also took the opportunity to hit back at critics who have labeled it a “vapourware” company — suggesting that it produces more hype than actual products. For context, “Vapourware” is a term that refers to software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available or never actually manufactured at all.

READ MORE: Stevie Wonder demoed the Apple Vision Pro, according to CEO Tim Cook: “It’s always great to get feedback from Stevie”

In a new statement, Behringer stressed its prolific output, claiming to be one of the most innovative and affordable manufacturers in the music gear industry. It also revealed plans to launch “another 6 to 8 groundbreaking products” before the end of the year.
“Do you remember the comments some people made not so long ago? They said, ‘Behringer only makes vaporware.’ Well, time has certainly proven otherwise,” states the firm.
“Today, 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 post continues: “Behringer – the ‘vaporware company’? Maybe. But only if vaporware means delivering more music-making tools than anyone else. Stay tuned. The journey has begun.”

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Speaking of new releases, Behringer recently unveiled the Centaur Overdrive, a $69 overdrive pedal that aims to capture the essence of the legendary Klon Centaur at a fraction of the price.
The post “No other company delivers as many innovative and affordable products as we do”: Behringer hits back at “vapourware” critics following NAMM 2025 announcement appeared first on MusicTech.

VirtualDJ 2025’s new StemSwap Sampler feature lets you capture and interchange stems from different tracks in real-timeVirtualDJ has launched a new version of its flagship software, VirtualDJ 2025, that promises to “revolutionise what DJs can do.”
At the heart of the latest update is a new feature called StemSwap Sampler that allows for instant on-the-fly recording of stem samples, playback with stem replacements, as well as many other improvements. Users can mix the various components of their tracks in real-time (vocals, instruments, kicks, hi-hats, etc), making “on-the-fly remixing easier than ever”.

READ MORE: Stevie Wonder demoed the Apple Vision Pro, according to CEO Tim Cook: “It’s always great to get feedback from Stevie”

For instance, you can sample your choice of stems in real-time from any playing track, and play them over other tracks. The software will automatically mute the corresponding stems on those other tracks, replacing them with your chosen stems. Multiple stems can be captured simultaneously, allowing for creative combinations, such as capturing both the vocals and kick drum.
Image: Atomix VirtualDJ
VirtualDJ 2025 also allows you to lock sampler banks so you won’t accidentally record over samples while you’re having fun with a mix.
“VirtualDJ’s mission has always been to pioneer new technologies that will shape the future of DJing, and help DJs around the world to bring their creativity to the next level,” says Atomix.
“With on-the-fly recording of stem-separated samples, and easy instant playback with stem replacement, the possibilities are endless. Replace the drums with higher-energy ones, reduce a break by keeping the beat going, play creatively with the lyrics, it’s all easy and instant.”
VirtualDJ is free for non-professional use, and the 2025 upgrade comes free of charge for professionals who own a previous license.
Learn more at Virtual DJ.
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