Steve Levine: 50 Years in the Music Industry In an evening in conversation with broadcaster, writer, performer and pop music superfan Katie Puckrik at the Liverpool Philharmonic’s Music Room facility, Steve dishes the dirt beneath the gold dust and discusses the big hits, bad behaviour and behind-the-velvet-rope studio moments throughout his career.

Justin Sun to attend Trump's dinner with memecoin backersAfter weeks of speculation among crypto enthusiasts and news outlets, Tron founder Justin Sun has claimed he owns the wallet that purchased the largest amount of Donald Trump’s memecoin, allowing him to qualify for a dinner and reception with the US president.In a May 19 X post, Sun said he had received an invitation to attend Trump’s dinner at his golf club outside Washington, DC, as part of a reward for the top 220 memecoin holders. The Tron founder claimed he controlled the top wallet on the TRUMP token leaderboard under the username “Sun,” which held roughly $19 million worth of the memecoin at a price of $13.20.According to Sun, he plans to network at the May 22 memecoin dinner, “talk crypto,” and “discuss the future” of the industry. It’s unclear why the Tron founder chose to announce his planned presence at the event now, when the leaderboard was finalized on May 12. Cointelegraph reached out to a spokesperson for Sun for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.Source: Justin SunThough not a surprise to many who speculated that Sun was the individual behind the memecoin purchases, his attendance at the dinner only deepens his ties to the Trump administration and the president’s family. In addition to the dinner for the 220 tokenholders, Trump said he would hold a reception and “VIP tour” for the top 25 wallets on the leaderboard.Related: What to expect at Trump’s memecoin dinnerSun spent $75 million on tokens through World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform backed by Trump’s three sons, including a $30 million investment a few weeks after the 2024 election. The Tron founder is also an adviser to the company.Before Trump won the November election, Sun had been facing a lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed in 2023 over the alleged “orchestration of the unregistered offer and sale, manipulative trading, and unlawful touting of crypto asset securities.” In February, roughly a month after Trump took office and appointed Commissioner Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the SEC, the regulator and Sun jointly filed a motion for a federal judge to stay the case, which was granted.Memecoin’s potential conflicts of interest are affecting CongressSun’s and others’ involvement in Trump’s crypto ventures has prompted calls for investigations and oversight among many Democratic lawmakers, who argued that some individuals could use digital assets to essentially purchase influence with the president. The concerns initially slowed progress on a bill to regulate stablecoins in the Senate, the GENIUS Act, complicated by World Liberty Financial’s own stablecoin, USD1. The chamber voted to move forward on the bill on May 19, a few hours before Sun’s announcement.“How convenient: the day after the Senate advances the GENIUS Act, Justin Sun — a major investor in the Trump family crypto venture — announces he’s getting a private dinner as the president’s top crypto buyer,” said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, according to Bloomberg. “It’s critical that everyone understands the GENIUS Act doesn’t stop this type of corruption — it greenlights it.”At a May 20 oversight hearing, Maryland Representative Glenn Ivey questioned SEC Chair Paul Atkins on Sun’s case being stayed, as well as his investments in World Liberty Financial and Trump’s memecoin. Though the case was stayed before Atkins was sworn in as chair, Ivey expressed concern about the timeline between Sun’s investments and the SEC not pursuing its own enforcement action.The memecoin dinner applicants are likely still subject to background checks before meeting Trump in person. As of May 20, those planning to attend included Kronos Research chief investment officer Vincent Liu, Hyperithm co-CEO Oh Sangrok, Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, a consultant named Vincent Deriu, crypto user Morten Christensen, a World Liberty Financial adviser going by the pseudonym “Ogle,” and a representative from the startup MemeCore.Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Stylus Synth Should Have Used a 555– and Did!For all that “should have used a 555” is a bit of a meme around here, there’s some truth to it. The humble 555 is a wonderful tool in the right hands. That’s why it’s wonderful to see this all-analog stylus synth project by EE student [DarcyJ] bringing the 555 out for the new generation.
The project is heavily inspired by the vintage stylophone, but has some neat tweaks. A capacitor bank means multiple octaves are available, and using a ladder of trim pots instead of fixed resistors makes every note tunable. [Darcy] of course included the vibrato function of the original, and yes, he used a 555 for that, too. He put a trim pot on that, too, to control the depth of vibrato, which we don’t recall seeing on the original stylophone.
The writeup is very high quality and could be recommended to anyone just getting started in analog (or analogue) electronics– not only does [Darcy] explain his design process, he also shows his pratfalls and mistakes, like in the various revisions he went through before discovering the push-pull amplifier that ultimately powers the speaker.
Since each circuit is separately laid out and indicated on the PCB [Darcy] designed in KiCad for this project. Between that and everything being thru-hole, it seems like [Darcy] has the makings of a lovely training kit. If you’re interested in rolling your own, the files are on GitHub under a CERN-OHL-S v2 license,  and don’t forget to check out the demo video embedded below to hear it in action.
Of course, making music on the 555 is hardly a new hack. We’ve seen everything from accordions to paper-tape player pianos to squonkboxes over the years. Got another use for the 555? Let us know about it, in the inevitable shill for our tip line you all knew was coming.

JUTES SIGNS GLOBAL RECORD DEAL WITH POSITION MUSICPosition Music, the Los Angeles-based independent powerhouse known for blurring the lines between record label, music publisher, and management firm, has officially added rising alt-rock artist Jutes to its roster. The announcement comes via Tyler Bacon, President and CEO of Position Music, and marks a new chapter for the Canadian-born, L.A.-based musician whose career has been anything but conventional.Founded in 1999, Position Music has grown into a global force, distributing through Virgin Music and working with an eclectic range of artists like Cannons, Tinashe, NoMBe, Kyle Dion, and Fantastic Negrito. As noted in a statement from the company, Position is “redefining what it means to be a music company,” and with their Billboard Hot 100 publishing rank of No. 7 in Q3 2024, the numbers seem to agree.Jutes is joining the label at a pivotal moment. After early success blending trap with pop-punk and releasing music through Capitol Records, he shifted stylistically toward darker, more cinematic rock. His 2023 grunge-inspired album Ladybug hinted at that change, but it was 2024’s Sleepyhead LP that cemented him as a rising voice in the alt-rock scene. The album’s title track became his first song to chart on both Billboard and Mediabase, peaking at #23, and helped push his total global streams past the 85 million mark.Now, in 2025, Jutes shows no signs of slowing. Recent singles like “Red Velvet” with Ari Abdul, “House of Cards,” and “SMUT” are gaining traction, and his debut U.S. headline tour recently sold out. He’s also slated to appear at both the East and West Coast Warped Tours later this year.“Jutes is a generational artist with a clear vision and an unparalleled work ethic,” says Mike Maloian of 25/7 Management, who represents the artist. “Position has built a business and team that I believe is perfect for building on the success of this project. It has been a blessing to have everyone on the team add such an immense amount of value from day one, and we couldn't be more excited for what’s to come.”That enthusiasm is echoed by Joe Brooks, A&R at Position Music, who shares, “Jutes has experienced a meteoric rise over the past year, an achievement that reflects more than a decade of hard work. I love this man's music, his journey, and the artist he’s become. He is one of the most exciting performers out there, and I’m beyond thrilled that his music is now on the Position roster.”The first release under this new deal, “Left on Dilworth,” arrives May 21—a signal that Jutes is continuing to evolve and expand his sound under new creative support. If his recent track record is any indication, this partnership with Position Music may be his most impactful move yet.The post JUTES SIGNS GLOBAL RECORD DEAL WITH POSITION MUSIC first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Strange Audio DSP releases FREE maniFold Σ experimental microlooper
Strange Audio DSP released maniFold Σ, an interesting micro looper and delay unit that can create anything from rhythmical textures to ethereal washed-out sonic landscapes. It employs eight independent playheads with a 5-second audio buffer with randomized position, length, panning, and an optional octave function. You can also lock the buffer to create a looping [...]
View post: Strange Audio DSP releases FREE maniFold Σ experimental microlooper

Calvin Harris refutes claims that his new song Blessings plagiarises a particular 1996 trance track: “So far I’m not hearing it”Calvin Harris has just scored his 45th Top 10 hit in the UK with his new track, Blessings. With its thumping dance beat and bright vocal performance from Clementine Douglas, it’s a summer-ready anthem – and it’s inspired, in part, by Grateful Dead.
In a new Instagram video, the Scottish DJ explains how Blessings’ foundational riff exists thanks to his obsession with Grateful Dead. Last summer, he hunted down the guitars and bass guitars used by the rock group, and he’s been using them to aid his creative process.
“I became obsessed with the Grateful Dead, and I bought this guitar,” he explains, picking up a Martin D-28. “It was [Jerry Garcia]’s favourite guitar, apparently, for rhythm stuff.”

READ MORE: My Forever Studio: TOKiMONSTA nabs a historic synth

In terms of recording, he set up three equally spaced-out mics. “I’ve got the condenser in the middle, and then these two for a nice stereo pair,” he says. “Then I sat in [a] chair, and I recorded!”

He humbly notes that he’s “not the best player, let’s be honest”, and that he “sounds like shit” on guitar, so he instead tends to record “one note at a time”. But he makes up for his lack of guitar skill with energy, re-enacting how he plotted out the song’s rhythm with a “bam, bam, bam!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Calvin Harris (@calvinharris)

He then digs into the tech side. Drawing up his DAW, Harris shows a “very basic” chain, noting the boosts, highs and smack attack. “Get slapping!” he cries, before hitting play.
The decision to showcase the process behind his new track could be a jab at producer Nick Bracegirdle, who claims that Blessings sounds similar to his 1996 trance track, Offshore.
As Bracegirdle highlights the alleged plagiarism on Logic Pro, he explains: “I am defending my copyright and my intellectual property here guys and I’d like to know what your comments are.”

@nickchicane
Copyright Alert feel free to share the truth & facts laid out here.
♬ original sound – nickchicane

Harris’s response? The DJ wasn’t too pleased. He disproved the claim in a TikTok response, laughingly calling the producer a “stupid bastard”.
In the TikTok, Harris tries to line up the two tracks, pitch-shifting and looping certain parts to find the similarities. “OK, so far I’m not hearing it,” he says as he hunts to find the supposed plagiarism.
Harris even counters Bracegirdle’s claim by pointing out Offshore’s similarities to an even older track. In his opinion, Tangerine Dream’s 1984 track, Love On A Real Train, sounds even more similar to Offshore.

@calvinharris
Response to the people calling me a plagiarist over the last couple of days after that guys video, all the best x
♬ Blessings – Calvin Harris & Clementine Douglas

The post Calvin Harris refutes claims that his new song Blessings plagiarises a particular 1996 trance track: “So far I’m not hearing it” appeared first on MusicTech.

Fender Fender StudioFender Studio is a comprehensive and intuitive music creation application designed to empower musicians of all skill levels, from aspiring beginners to seasoned professionals. Developed by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, this versatile tool provides a seamless platform for capturing musical inspiration wherever and whenever it strikes. With its user-friendly interface, Fender Studio simplifies the recording process, making it accessible to anyone looking to record, jam, or create. Users can easily connect their guitar or bass via a Fender Link I/O or other compatible audio interface, choose from a selection of pre-loaded Jam Tracks, and immediately begin playing or recording their ideas. At the core of Fender Studio lies an extensive library of authentic Fender tones, featuring a diverse array of guitar and bass presets. These presets are complemented by intuitive tone-shaping tools, allowing users to sculpt their ideal sound with precision and ease. Beyond just recording, Fender Studio offers robust editing and mixing capabilities, including essential effects like Compression, EQ, Reverb, and Delay. Additionally, creative vocal effects such as De-Tuner, Transformer, and Vocoder are available, expanding the scope of what can be achieved within the application. A key advantage of Fender Studio is its broad compatibility, offering full support across iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms, making it a truly universal solution for music creation – all completely free of charge. The application is designed to inspire creativity, featuring professionally-recorded, remixable Jam Tracks that span various genres from pop ballads to heavy metal. These tracks are not just backing loops; they are interactive multitracks that users can transpose, mute, solo, speed up, or slow down, with new songs continually added to keep inspiration flowing. Upon initial download, Fender Studio provides a foundational set of tools, including models of the '65 Twin Reverb guitar amp and Rumble 800 v.3 bass amp, along with five essential FX pedals. Registering Fender Studio for free with a Fender Connect account unlocks even more creative potential, adding eight more tracks, six additional amp models (including the '59 Bassman and Super-Sonic), and six more effects, significantly expanding the user's sonic palette. Features: One-Tap Recording: Facilitates quick and easy recording without complex setup procedures, allowing immediate capture of musical ideas. Authentic Fender Tones: Access a wide variety of genuine Fender guitar and bass presets, along with intuitive tone-shaping tools for precise sound customization. Remixable Jam Tracks: Play along to professionally-recorded multitracks across diverse genres. Users can transpose, mute, solo, speed up, or slow down tracks, with new content regularly added. Comprehensive Editing & Mixing: Tools for refining tracks, including Compression, EQ, Reverb, and Delay. Creative Vocal Effects: Incorporate unique vocal processing with effects such as De-Tuner, Vocoder, Ring Modulator, and Transformer. Integrated Tuner: A built-in tuner ensures instruments are perfectly in tune for recording and practice. Expandable Track Count: Start with 8 tracks, with an additional 8 tracks unlocked upon free registration with a Fender Connect account. Included Amp Models (Initial Download): '65 Twin Reverb guitar amp model. Rumble 800 v.3 bass amp model. Included FX Pedals (Initial Download): Overdrive. Sine Chorus. Mono Delay. Small Room Reverb. Modern Bass OD. Additional Amp Models (Upon Free Registration): '59 Bassman. Bassbreaker 15 Medium Gain. Super-Sonic. Redhead. Tube Preamp. Mustang Series Guitar Amplifier (general model). Rumble Series Bass Amplifier (general model). Additional FX Pedals (Upon Free Registration): VariFuzz. Vintage Tremolo. Stereo Tape Delay. Small Hall Reverb. Triangle Flanger. Simple Comp. Session View: Arranger Track for structuring songs. Global Transpose for key changes. Global key and time signature settings. Ruler format options (bars / seconds). Arrangement Overview for navigation. Customizable track names, inputs, icons, and colors. Add / Remove / Duplicate Track functionality. Pinch zoom for detailed view. Drag and drop events within the arrangement. Recording and Playback: Input monitoring for real-time sound preview. Metronome for rhythmic guidance. Loop functionality for repetitive practice or recording. Automatic detection of audio interfaces. Time stretching and Pitch shifting for flexible audio manipulation. Event Editor: Split and Trim events. Fade-in / out controls. Adjust Gain and Normalize audio. Speedup and Transpose audio events. Set File Tempo for imported audio. Mixer Functions: Mute and Solo individual tracks. Pan controls for stereo imaging. FX Sends for routing audio to effects. Document Management: List, view by date, search, and delete documents. Open system browser for file management. Quickstart Jam and Record buttons. Import audio files into sessions. Export sessions in DAWproject format or as an audio mixdown. Cross-Platform Availability: Seamlessly operates on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux devices. Multi-Language Support: Available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. YouTube/a9FE2Wr-YRg Read More

Spotify Fresh Finds playlists drive new fans to Indie ArtistsSpotify is marking the 10th Anniversary if its indie focused Spotify Fresh Finds playlists with some stats that show just how important this cluster of genre specific playlists is for new artists.
The post Spotify Fresh Finds playlists drive new fans to Indie Artists appeared first on Hypebot.

Can Indie Artists Still Afford to Tour?Can indie artists still afford to tour? Going on the road might look fun, but for most independent artists, it’s a financial gamble they can’t afford to lose. Discover why so many are saying no to the road, and how you can tour smarter without going broke.
The post Can Indie Artists Still Afford to Tour? appeared first on Hypebot.

Iconic guitar amp brand Marshall enters the soundbar game with the Heston 120Marshall has made its long-anticipated entrance into the home audio space with the launch of the Heston 120.
As the brand’s first-ever soundbar, the Heston 120 aims to do more than just pump up your Netflix marathons. It’s designed to deliver a “colossal audio experience for both TV and music,” blending Dolby Atmos and DTS:X spatial sound with Marshall’s signature analogue flair.

READ MORE: This soundbar optimises sound specifically for where you’re sitting in a room

“We know that soundbar owners use their soundbar to listen to music, yet most soundbars are not built for both music and TV,” says Anders Olsson, Senior Product Manager at Marshall Group. “This gave us a reason to exist and an opportunity to really shine with our legacy in music and audio.”
Inside, the Heston 120 features 11 drivers firing in multiple directions to bounce sound across the room. The result? Deep, rumbling, lifelike bass, clearer dialogue, and a more expansive soundstage whether you’re watching a blockbuster or spinning a playlist.
Boasting HDMI eARC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast, and even RCA inputs, the Heston 120 is future-proofed for just about any setup. It integrates directly with Spotify, Tidal, and internet radio stations – with presets available via the tactile knobs or the new Marshall app, which now includes room calibration to help you find the perfect acoustic fit for any space. The soundbar also comes with a range of different sound modes to fit the moment, including Music, Movie, Night and Voice modes.
Credit: Marshall
“We spent hundreds of hours fine tuning Heston 120,” adds Ed Camphor, Audio Technology and Tuning Lead at Marshall Group. “It was important to us that we spent equal time and effort on both TV and music, not one over the other. Everything inside is tailored and engineered to have very specific roles to give you an optimal audio experience.”
True to its roots, Heston 120 is dressed in wrapped leather trims, knurled metal knobs (for bass and treble tuning), and a brushed metal panel, all nodding to Marshall’s iconic amp heritage. It’s also built to last, featuring repairable and replaceable parts, including the fret, end caps, and the drivers and circuit boards.
To celebrate the launch, Marshall has partnered with MTV Cribs for a new special starring Dan and Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, with a cameo from alt-rock duo Nova Twins. The episode, streaming now, offers a look inside the band’s eccentric home, The Hawk’s Nest, with Marshall sound taking center stage.
The Heston 120 is available for pre-order now for £899.99 at Marshall’s website, with general availability starting 3 June and select retailers getting stock from 16 September. More models in Marshall’s new TV sound range, including the Heston 60 and Heston Sub 200, are expected to launch later this year.
The post Iconic guitar amp brand Marshall enters the soundbar game with the Heston 120 appeared first on MusicTech.

Fender launch Fender Studio Available for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux, Fender Studio allows users to record their guitars, vocals or other sources with just a single tap, and comes packed with authentic amp and effects emulations. 

Fender Studio: The closest thing to PreSonus Studio One in your pocket?Fender Studio has arrived, and with its one-tap recording, range of amp sims and jam tracks and simple-to-understand user interface, it could very well be a disruptor to existing simplified DAW offerings like GarageBand and BandLab.
Available on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux, Fender Studio can be downloaded on any computer or mobile device, offering a simple recording and editing solution for anyone looking to quickly capture their ideas when inspiration strikes.

READ MORE: The best free and paid-for plugins you need to know about this week

It adds to Fender’s growing portfolio of apps, which also includes Fender Play, Fender Tone and Fender Tune. Fender Studio itself is free; all you’ll need is an audio interface. Fender’s recently launched compact Link I/O, for example, will do the trick.
An offering from an out-and-out guitar brand, many of Fender Studio’s features are aimed at guitarists, like a range of amp sims emulating its Mustang and Rumble amps, as well as a series of effects and a tuner. 
But it is essentially a one-stop recording solution, so vocalists and other musicians can also record and capture ideas using their device’s microphone.

The app also offers 20 jam tracks ranging in style from pop ballads all the way through to metal. Each of these tracks is a multitrack session, so users can transpose, mute, solo, speed up and speed down elements as they would in any conventional DAW.
Sharing DNA with Studio One (Fender acquired PreSonus in 2021), Fender Studio also comes with a selection of studio-quality audio editing tools, including a compressor, EQ, reverb and delay, and vocal effects like de-tuner, transformer, ring modulator and vocoder.
“I’ve always said to the team, anyone should be able to just hit a single button on their phone and be able to start recording,” said Fender CEO Andy Mooney. 
“We’ve built exactly that. We believe Fender Studio will enable more music creation than ever before by serving the needs of today’s creators and that will drive sustained growth for our company and our industry. I’m proud of what the team has created and can’t wait to hear what gets recorded in Fender Studio.”

“Fender Studio represents our continued commitment to providing players and musicians of all levels with great sounding, easy to use recording tools,” said Max Gutnik, EVP & GM of PreSonus, Jackson, Charvel, Gretsch and EVH Brands. 
“Whether you are new to recording or a seasoned pro, Fender Studio delivers authentic Fender tones and intuitive editing capabilities to record, jam, create and inspire, for free. We are super-excited to release Fender Studio and hear all the amazing music it will help bring into the world!”
Fender Studio is free and available to download now. For more information, head to Fender.
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Soma Labs Flux is what happens when Theremin heritage meets modern sound engine£1,299 / $1,300 / €1,300, somasynths.com
Soma Labs doesn’t necessarily have a monopoly on oddball instruments that seem custom catered to film scores and experimental noise makers, but it’s certainly a leader in the area. The Lyra series, The Pipe, The Pulsar 23, Ether, RoAT, Terra… The list goes on and on.

READ MORE: Arturia’s V Collection 11 Pro almost made me forget I had other plugins

Flux is the latest addition to its stable of wild instruments. Underneath the hood, there’s a complex digital synth with physical modeling and abrasive FM capabilities. But what makes the Flux special isn’t the synth engine — it’s how you play it.
Flux seems inspired by the likes of the Theremin and modern controllers like the ROLI Seaboard. You don’t touch Flux, you wave your hands over it while holding magnetic ‘bows’. These look nothing like the sort of bow you associate with a cello, however. Instead, they’re small, hourglass shaped, with north and south magnetic poles at either side. Your hands’ position is then tracked in three dimensions, both over the ‘timbral sensor’ on the left and the note board on the right to control various parameters from volume to filter cut-off or tremolo speed. Essentially, it combines the complex multi-dimensional control of the Seaboard with the touch-free heritage of a Theremin.
Image: Terrence O’Brien
The appeal of Flux is 100 per cent in the way you interact with it. It requires patience and accuracy, which can be frustrating at first. It doesn’t necessarily lend itself to lightning-fast licks or expansive chords, even though it is capable of polyphony. Instead, it’s best approached as a machine for drones, pads and lilting melodic passages. It can be beautiful when you gently coax melodies out of it, or suffocatingly ominous when you lean into long, low drones.
Getting comfortable finding notes on the right-hand side is a lot easier than I expected it to be. The markings make it pretty easy to visualise your place, and there is note quantisation if you need it to help ease into things. Quantisation does come in handy when using plucky or bell-like sounds, where you’re likely to come down from the top more quickly to ‘strike’ notes. For smoother patches, I prefer to come at the notes by sliding up from the bottom of the board, which I find more accurate.
Image: Terrence O’Brien
Gliding over the board to string notes together is satisfying, but the more interesting part of Flux is the timbral sensor on the left which gives you a ton of control over the expression of individual notes. It’s comprised essentially of three magnets in a row that turn the area in an XYZ pad that you wave a second ‘bow’ over. This can turn thin vox-style leads into low rumbles, strum notes like a guitar, or play back arpeggios faster as you move to the right. This also opens the filter as you move upwards and increases velocity as you get closer in the Z axis. It’s a shockingly simple but powerful tool that elevates the Flux beyond just being a big fancy Stylophone.
Adding even more versatility, the magnetic bows have two poles, which give you different effects when you flip them over. On the note board this usually just transposes everything up or down. But on the timbral sensor it can completely transform a synth patch into something new or control a completely different set of parameters.
Image: Terrence O’Brien
While playing the Flux might sound intimidating, it’s actually pretty approachable. It’s everything else about Flux that gets a little confusing. Changing presets, synth algorithms, controlling release… Basically everything on the Flux requires placing your fingers on one or two touch-sensitive nubs and then moving the bow over the note board. The act of touching ‘R’ and then moving to the right to extend the release of a note makes sense. But trying to remember what each button does both in normal mode and bow flipped mode is difficult. Thankfully, there’s a cheat sheet that I keep handy when having a play. Creating custom patches is also annoying. That all said, you don’t have a ton of control over the synth engines anyway, so this is an instrument where I’m inclined to just stick with presets.
There are 37 synth algorithms in total, with eight variations of each, providing plentiful jumping-off points for designing sounds. But your actual ability to tweak settings is limited beyond that. Your best bet for actually crafting unique timbres is through manipulating the magnetic bows and adding external effects pedals. Flux has a built-in reverb and delay, but they’re somewhat mediocre, with limited controls and you can only use one at a time.
Certain Flux algorithms can also sound thin. Sometimes this is by design, for instance with the VOX algorithm which is based on classic Theremin designs. A Theremin can sound beautiful, otherworldly, creepy, but rarely is it described as thick or meaty. To bring body to many of its patches, I heartily recommend bringing an analogue delay to the party, as well as a spacious reverb. I often pair it with the Chase Bliss Thermae and the Death by Audio Rooms and the results are thrilling. That combination feels custom-tailored to score work. Melodies are bigger and cut more, drones rattled your guts, and plucks become atmospheric abysses.

Like most of Soma Labs’ instruments, Flux is decidedly niche. It’s £1,299, which isn’t prohibitively expensive, but also isn’t cheap. You also need to be invested in the particular sound and style of Flux, which is decidedly experimental. If you’re often doing game score work, or work in what Soma likes to call ‘academic music’ (what most would probably just call experimental), Flux will certainly seem appealing.
Key features

37-note touch-free note board
37 synth algorithms
12-note polyphony (polyphony dependent on the preset)
6-pole magnetic ‘timbral sensor’
4 magnetic ‘bows’
Onboard reverb and delay
Balanced stereo outs
Headphone out
Dimensions: 1000 х 114 х 30 mm
Weight: 1.7 kg

The post Soma Labs Flux is what happens when Theremin heritage meets modern sound engine appeared first on MusicTech.

Zeds Dead sampled a century of sound to create their new sci-fi bass odyssey“Ideas? I got a million dreams. That’s all I do is dream. All the time.”
A Million Dreams by Zeds Dead begins with these wondrous sentences spoken by the piano legend, Duke Ellington.

READ MORE: Myd locked himself in the studio for 168 hours and livestreamed every minute — but did it really help him finish an album?

“This is not piano, this is dreaming,” he continues.
Ellington passed away in 1974. In order to include his whimsical oration on their new album, Return to the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness (RSIH), Zeds Dead, consisting of Zachary Rapp-Rovan and Dylan Mamid, had to find a sample…one they almost didn’t clear.
Image: Press
“It was difficult to get in touch with [Ellington’s] people about it. We thought it wasn’t gonna happen. Then his grandson responded and apparently liked the song. We were really stoked,” Rapp-Rovan tells MusicTech.
“It’s hard to clear samples. We would get to these places where we’d have something in the track, and then we would have to take it out and replay it, and it wouldn’t sound as good.”
The bass-fueled production duo didn’t just splice in Ellington’s voice, though. In the video they sampled, his hands float around on the piano, providing a brief aural glimpse into his dreams. Zeds Dead took an instance of his playing and built a serene drum & bass track around it.
As two producers who started their music careers making hip-hop, sampling is their lifeblood. But over the years, they faced many frustrating cases with the opposite outcome of A Million Dreams.
“It’s hard to clear samples. We would get to these places where we’d have something in the track, and then we would have to take it out and replay it, and it wouldn’t sound as good,” Rapp-Rovan says. For a while, they enjoyed the challenge of creating music from scratch, but on RSIH, they renewed their affinity for the historic production technique. “In the last three years, we’ve been sampling like crazy, and for this album, we just said, ‘Let’s just have fun with it and try to clear it at the end.’”

RSIH is Zed Dead’s first LP in nine years, and sampling is at the core of the album’s multi-layered artistic concept. The fictional “spectrum of intergalactic happiness” is where the sound and light waves from all the TV shows, music, video games, and movies have been living after they left speakers and screens and floated out into space. Each song on the album represents a channel on an old-timey TV cruising through the cosmos, transmitting these frequencies as sound and visuals, with the samples serving as the most direct connection back to the original source.
The full breadth of the concept exists in the album’s accompanying film, which is filled with visual samples. Everything broadcast after 95 years of copyright protection enters the public domain. So, with the help of visual director Callum Gillies, they combined their chosen clips from the massive public library with found footage to create a psychedelic visualiser that pairs seamlessly with each song.
“We were playing around with those kinds of ideas. Where could the channel be changed to?” Rapp-Rovan says.
The next layer of the concept is the live show. Zeds Dead project clips from the film and display the videos associated with the samples on-screen during the live set. From Al Pacino’s threatening speech in Scarface that fuels their hard-hitting house cut, Bad Guy, to Ella Fitzgerald performing her soaring vocals of Summertime by George and Ira Gershwin. Zeds Dead morphed the latter into their gripping dubstep track, One Of These Mornings.
Image: Press
“The live show is a representation of musical culture over the last 100 years through the lens of bass music,” Rapp-Rovan says.
This historical exploration goes back to Mamid and Rapp-Rovan’s earliest years together. When they were first breaking through, they’d remix songs from pop artists into their bass-heavy signature to bring familiarity to the audience (a technique they still recommend to younger producers trying to get noticed).
“Early on, I thought remixing a popular song was a cool way to showcase your style and creativity, because if they know the original, then they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of clever,’ versus a song that comes out of nowhere,” Rapp-Rovan says.
This instinct proved right when their 2009 dubstep remix of Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation catapulted them into popularity. The track was an unofficial bootleg at first, then Blue Foundation eventually permitted them to release it. It remains Zed Dead’s highest-streamed song on Spotify with over 63 million plays, and the UKF YouTube video has over 174 million views.
Image: Press
Remixing and sampling are two sides of the same coin in repurposing a previous work, and both Eyes on Fire and Ella Fitzgerald’s iconic voice are united in the inspiration they provided to Zeds Dead.
“[Sampling] gets your juices flowing. You might hear something, and it might move you in a certain way. We might make something based around the sample, and the sample might not even stay in at the end of the process. But it could have sparked something or inspired something,” Mamid says, leaning into their interest in musical history. “You’re connecting to a different era. You’re bringing something back; connecting to a real moment.”
“There’s some sort of magic in the studio those people were in at that moment, and it’s sometimes intangible. You’re honing in on something that they didn’t necessarily even see,” Rapp-Rovan continues.
Zeds Dead created a framework for the album by visiting different moments throughout time via samples. Each moment was populated by different kinds of artists, whether it be musicians, actors, or anything in between. Then each of those moments created a framework for a track.
“Focusing on individual songs is zooming in heavily to a micro level, and then zooming out and thinking about everything else conceptually was really interesting,” Mamid says. “Once you open this rabbit hole, you can keep going down. It led to a lot of discussions between us, thinking about the overall project as one thing. It’s not that we hadn’t done that before, but we definitely went in more on this project.”
Image: Press
As they went deeper into the rabbit hole of the concept, production served as a source of light. Shifting away from the magical and the mystical and towards the technical, in the modern era, where there are thousands of plugins, modules, and synths, it was samples that helped them lessen choice paralysis.
“Once we figured out the concept, it helped to get our heads around what it could be and what made sense for it,” Rapp-Rovan says. “We wanted to make an album like some of the classic albums we listen to, where you listen to the whole thing. They all have some sort of criteria. That’s always been a big part of our whole thing: the challenge of taking some source material and flipping it into something that’s interesting and unique.”
However, the inspiration from that source material also led them down endless roads. Every song on RSIH has multiple versions in different tempos and drum patterns on a hard drive somewhere (ideal for switching things up during their live sets).
“The options are still overwhelming sometimes because not only are there so many choices, but we are also passionate and make so many styles of music. Even with a sample, we might try to flip it into 10 different styles,” Mamid says.
In their quest to follow their endless creative interest, they approached every track with a new set of plugins, hardware, and other pieces of tech. One dictum that guided the process was simple. They wrote on a whiteboard while they were making the album, “fuck shit up,” and one method of doing so was resampling.

They took a sample or an original piece of audio they created and manipulated it until they landed on a version miles beyond where they started. Not only did this create a unique sonic palette, but it also added to the gritty audio aesthetic related to the concept of frequencies coming through retro TVs.
“One thing I’m a big fan of is removing a lot of high and mid frequencies from a sound, using distortion to add back in harmonics, and then continuing to do that over and over and over again to bring certain things out of sounds,” Mamid says. Beginning this process with another sample adds a unique flavour to the final product, no matter how mangled it may be, or even if the sample was at a low bitrate. “The characteristics of the sample are something that you can’t necessarily get through synthesis.”
“This album went through many phases,” Rapp-Rovan says. “It ended up being remixes of ideas and remixes of those ideas, which I think was interesting for us because remixing is something that is very much like sampling, and something that we’ve done our whole time making music. So it was an interesting journey,”.
Zeds Dead would quickly shirk the notion that they are on the same level as a legend like Duke Ellington, but RSIH was the product of a million ideas coming together in the same way Ellington had a million dreams. The duo would certainly encourage artists sampling their ideas 50 years after their time.
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Allen & Heath unveils new generation of Qu mixers featuring Dante support: “Every aspect of the mixer has been re-thought”British audio brand Allen & Heath has unveiled six new Qu mixers that bring 96 kHz FPGA and DEEP Processing capabilities, Dante options, and a host of workflow and hardware enhancements to the digital mixing platform.
“Every aspect of the mixer has been re-thought, the XCVI core, enhanced I/O capability, all the way to the screen and faders,” says Senior Product Manager Keith Johnson. “We’ve completely reimagined the UI, keeping the simple layout and workflow that Qu is known and loved for.”

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Across the board, the mixers deliver 38 inputs (32 mono/linkable, 3 stereo), 12 mixes, 4 matrix, 6 FX engines with dedicated stereo returns, plus SLink port for connection to the Everything I/O ecosystem of remote expanders.
Each model is also packed with versatile recording and playback options, with an integrated 32×32 USB-C audio interface, 32-channel multitrack support via SD card, and simple stereo recording and playback through the USB-A port, whatever your application.
Users can choose between three frame sizes, each available with or without integrated Dante connectivity: the compact Qu-5 and Qu-5D offer 17 faders, 16 XLR inputs and 12 XLR outputs; the Qu-6 and Qu-6D expand that to 25 faders, 24 XLR inputs and 16 XLR outputs; and the Qu-7 and Qu-7D provide 33 faders, 32 XLR inputs and 20 XLR outputs. The three Dante variants include an integrated 16×16 48/96kHz Dante interface.
Credit: Allen & Heath
And while the new mixers retain the much-loved look and form factor of the original Qu series, numerous hardware improvements have been made to enhance sonic performance and mixing experience.
Updated mic preamps and high-performance 96kHz converters ensure pristine signal integrity from input to output. Every channel now includes a display and a chromatic meter for quick visual feedback, while the new touchscreen boasts improved clarity and responsiveness.
The new Qu also continues to deliver on the brand’s “walk up and mix” ethos with four customisable fader layers, more assignable SoftKeys, and flexible routing options in addition to the classic 1:1 Qu routing. Users can also look forward to a revamped user interface that promises greater speed and ease of use, with key mixing functions always under your fingertips, be it via the dedicated hands-on controls, or the touchscreen.
In addition, Qu now features the Feedback and Gain Assistants from the CQ series to take the stress out of setup and speed up soundchecks. And as mentioned, all new Qu mixers are DEEP Processing ready, with the upcoming V1.1 firmware offering a suite of optional add-ons from the flagship dLive series, including acclaimed emulations of legendary studio compressors and preamps.

Learn more at Allen & Heath.
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