Geeking out with Douze & Lo Galbo about the analogue gear on their 80s-inspired soundtrack albumIt might sound challenging to compose a soundtrack for a film that doesn’t exist, but French and Dutch producers, Douze and Lo Galbo have come together to test their imaginations. With their new album, Dawn, they’ve sculpted an original motion picture soundtrack to a fictional movie set in the 1980s.
The pair have been collaborating for the best part of two decades, displaying their clear admiration for the 80s with expertly executed synth riffs and vocoder vocal lines that would give Cher a run for her money. If you’ve ever wanted to get an insight into what went through the minds of musicians and producers during the 80s, this duo just might be your looking glass.

READ MORE: “We get too lost in the gear, plugins and processes… they need to have a specific purpose”: Oliver Patrice Weder

 
Your latest project, Dawn, is out now. Where did the inspiration for an 80s-themed movie and soundtrack come from?
Lo Galbo: We were both born in the 80s and feel very nostalgic about that era. As kids, we connected with every 80s movie soundtrack that includes synthesizers. For example, the track Love On A Real Train by Tangerine Dream from the Risky Business soundtrack is a huge inspiration.
Douze: Radio, TV shows and commercials, anime… We’ve been heavily influenced by the 80s, even unconsciously. It’s written in our DNA. Most of the soundtracks back then were not only scores but also had real songs, and that’s what we tried to recreate: pop tracks mixed with contemplative background music. Listening to Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, and Giorgio Moroder soundtracks really helped us find where we wanted to go.
Linndrum. Image: Press
What pieces of gear really let you tap into the 80s? Were there any that you thought were going to be magic but turned out not to be quite right?
Lo Galbo: For Dawn, we rented a fully analogue studio located in the centre of Paris. We brought in a few of our classic synthesizers and drum machines that we thought would work on the soundtrack. These included the Moog Minimoog, Roland Juno-60, Oberheim OB-Xa, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, and the Roland SH-2.
To get a gritty and lo-fi sound, some synth and drum takes were re-recorded on our Akai X7000 sampler (proudly upgraded with a Gotek floppy drive emulator!), or the Tascam Porta One 4-track for extra grit. The main drum machine on most tracks is the Linndrum. There is a Maestro Rhythm King MRK-1 on our track In the Shadows (with Yota) too.
Douze: Renting that place was a bit like a midlife crisis caprice. You could compare it with renting a Porsche for two hours and taking it out to the racetrack. We knew how to drive as we’ve used the plugin emulations, but working with the real deal brought some extra magic. Working on a pad sound from scratch on a vintage synth has so much more charm than tweaking presets with our mouse on a computer.
Douze in the studio. Image: Press
Tell us more about your studio.
Lo Galbo: Douze’s is located in Paris, whilst mine is in Amsterdam. However, for Dawn, we rented out a studio in Paris where we stayed for a month to write, record and mix the entire record. For other projects we often collaborate remotely, sending back-and-forth demos and synthesizer takes.
Douze: Our studios are a bit different, Lo Galbo loves to purchase old-school analogue and digital synths and outboard gear, while I mostly sketch in the box and replay whatever needs to be.
What’s your latest gear or plugin purchase?
Douze: I recently bought the U-he Repro 5 plugin, which is the best Prophet-5 emulation out there. It sounds wide and full and I find the filter stunning. Whenever a new emulation of the OB-Xa gets out, it’s always an instant purchase — even if the most convincing to me remains the OP-X PRO ll by SonicProjects.
Lo Galbo: A Roland D-50. The synth is currently loaded with 64 presets created by our friend Legowelt by request of Roland for the 30th anniversary of the synth. Legowelt’s presets really show what the synth is capable of: it can make some super interesting, airy, drifting, ethereal, spacey, ambient sounds. It’s perfect for 80s-inspired soundtracks.
Fun story; when I went to pick up the D-50, the seller convinced me to buy his pristine-condition Korg DW-8000 too. I’ll admit I’m easy to convince when it comes to buying synths. For the nerds: I managed to find the MEX-8000 Memory Expander to store extra patches, which also works perfectly with my Korg DW-6000, and even my Korg Poly 800 MK1 since I had that synth upgraded with the MIDI Dump Kit (MDK).
Roland D-50. Image: Press
What’s the best free plugin you own? Why?
Lo Galbo: It has to be the Tal-Chorus-LX. We both own various emulations of the Juno chorus, but the one by Tal somehow just sounds best. Lo Galbo has a Roland Juno-106 in his studio and will have his tech modify it with an external input to the chorus to compare sounds. Whatever the outcome, we will probably keep using the Tal plugin, since it’s so easy to use.
What’s been the biggest investment in your career/studio? Was it worth it? Why?
Lo Galbo: The biggest investment so far was the Oberheim OB-Xa. That thing is going for absurd prices these days. Ours wasn’t cheap, but we managed to buy one when prices were ok.
Aside from analogue gear, were there any go-to mixing and mastering techniques that gave the tracks a more 80s sound?
Lo Galbo: We mainly mixed the album in the box. To achieve that 80s sound, we used digital recreations of analogue 80s compressors and tape machines such as the Fairchild 660 clone by Slate Digital, and the Ampex ATR-102 tape machine by UAD. The Dawn soundtrack was mastered by Jonas Pinnau, aka Tonebox. He really added the final layer of 80s sound to the album.
Oberhaim OB-Xa. Image: Press
Were there any techniques you weren’t familiar with that you had to learn to allow you to create something authentic to the time?
Douze: Tape machine plugins were something we would sometimes play around with, but started to use a lot for Dawn. We toggled between the UAD Ampex ATR-102, the Waves Kramer Master Tape and the Waves J37. The Ampex can really bring some nice saturation to the mix, while the J37 glues everything together (and can smash the whole mix if you go 1db too hard).
Do you have a dream piece of gear?
Douze: Never had the chance to mess around with a Korg Trident. They are not that expensive, but I’m a bit afraid of being disappointed after fantasising about them for too long. Maybe it should remain a dream…
Lo Galbo: I’ve always dreamed of owning an Elka Synthex. I think I’ve seen every YouTube video about the synth at least five times (I highly recommend the video in which Jean-Michel Jarre presents an homage to the synth). It’s such an interesting instrument, and I believe it’s one of the best synths to get that brassy pad sound similar to some sounds Alan Braxe has on his tracks. However, Douze and I have only recently discovered that the pad sound on Alan’s track Palladium was done on a Moog Opus 3. So yeah, would love to own an Opus 3 too one day, just for that sound.
Tascam Porta One. Image: Press
What’s a music production myth you think needs debunking?
Lo Galbo: It may sound weird coming from us who brought in so much vintage gear for this record, but in general, we believe anyone can make a similar album fully in the box, or with one or two analogue synths.
Douze: The same goes for mixing: we could have had everything mixed on an SSL desk, but with the right few plugins the same sound can be easily achieved. We really believe there are only like 20 people on earth who can hear the difference between analogue and digital.
Who gave you the biggest lesson in your career? Can you tell us about how it impacted you?
Douze: All the people I have worked with have shown me tricks and shared their experiences. What I always try to keep in mind is to not overthink things. Keep it simple.
Lo Galbo: I have learned so much from my production partners Douze, E-The-Hot, and a few others. The best lesson was that there is no outlined approach to reach a certain sound. Whatever works, works.
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The post Geeking out with Douze & Lo Galbo about the analogue gear on their 80s-inspired soundtrack album appeared first on MusicTech.

Ableton Move review: A supreme balancing act£399 / $449, ableton.com
Ableton hardware used to feel serious. Ever since the release of the original Push, the company’s physical offerings have catered to a class of professional musicians who are dedicated, skilled, and ready to invest in an instrument that can match their ambitions.
With the release of Move, Berlin’s premiere music tech company is sending a wholly different message. Portability, affordability, and accessibility are now on the menu.
To be clear, despite its almost toy-like size and feel, there is nothing frivolous about this instrument – the build is rock solid, the onboard sounds are fantastic, and the narrow yet powerful feature set has clearly been given a lot of thought. But, from the second you switch it on, Move has an addictive feeling of fun that borders on gamification.

READ MORE: “We wanted to make something simpler, more immediate, more joyful”: How Ableton built Move

It achieves this in several ways, starting with randomisation. Move has over 1,500 presets and each new Set you create is assigned a dice-roll assortment of drums, bass, melody, and pads. Not only is this a genuinely effective way to get you playing immediately, but it also makes you want to start the next tune – if only to see what new combination you’ll get.
Ableton could have taken this a step further: If you’re unhappy with one of the randomly selected instruments, you’ll have to resort to scrolling through samples and sounds via Move’s 1.3-inch screen and clickable jog wheel. This is a tiresome exercise on any hardware instrument – so why not add the ability to randomise a single instrument independently? An idea for future updates perhaps.

There’s been a lot of online discussion about Move’s number of tracks being limited to four and, for some, this will definitely feel creatively stifling. In my experience, each new random combination of instruments provides a surprisingly expansive set of musical possibilities. This is, in part, a testament to the quality of Move’s included presets – using only Drift, Wavetable, and Drum Rack, it offers a diverse but cohesive sound palette.
You’re not limited to sounds on the device, however. Sampling via Move’s tiny built-in microphone is effective for lo-fi sonics, and there’s a 3.5mm stereo line input if you want to capture external audio. Offering the combined power of the new Drum Sampler introduced in Live 12.1, the venerable Simpler melodic sampler, plus a dedicated button for sample recording and a reliable transient detection function, the whole process of grabbing and manipulating audio is fast, fluid, and, once again, abundantly fun.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Laying down performances is a similarly streamlined experience. You can play live and overdub, but Ableton’s MIDI Capture feature preserves the last few notes you played whether recording or not. In a marked departure from other groove boxes on the market, there’s also a step sequencer that accommodates up to 16 bars and 64 steps per bar.
Taking cues from Live’s Session View, you can build up an arrangement of clips with different variations and switch between them on the fly. Making those variations will mostly involve a new performance – you can copy and paste clips easily enough but, with extremely limited options for editing MIDI, it’s much faster to play something new than try to change things manually.
The effects selection is middling. There are some expected dynamics, pitch, and time-based processes taken directly from Live, but audio samples get a more interesting selection of playback effects – including FM, Ring Modulation, and Granular Time Stretching. A bigger constraint is that each instrument can only have one effect insert and one effect send, while samples get one playback effect.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Learning how to make simple beats and melodies is a relatively pain-free experience. Move has nine dedicated single-function buttons to cover essential features: play/stop, MIDI and audio recording, MIDI capture, loop mode, copying, deleting, muting, and undo/redo.
Somewhat less obvious though are the more advanced features. The shift button, labelled with three dots, opens up a set of extra controls located below the sequencer. Rather than use text labels, Move instead opts for ponderous hieroglyphs – you’ll easily be able to deduce some if you’re already a Live user, but others will require a trip to the manual for further explanation. That said, after an hour or so of tinkering, navigating Move quickly settles into muscle memory.
Overall, Move excels at sparking and capturing ideas. Extending those ideas is where you’ll start to bump up against its limitations. To be fair, Ableton has made this totally clear in its promotional material; Move is for quick-fire ideation, and if you want to go further your next destination will be Live.
Facilitating such a transition is the new Move Manager, a web browser-based interface that enables wireless communication with Move over your local area network. Here, you can load and offload samples and presets, bounce out audio from your sets in WAV or MP3 format, and export project files.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Once you’ve moved a project over to Live, Move works wonderfully as a dedicated controller via a USB-C connection, with encoders auto-mapped to device and instrument parameters. It might be obvious but it’s worth stating: This is Ableton hardware designed to slot into the growing Ableton ecosystem. If your main DAW is Logic or Cubase, then look elsewhere.
It’s also important to know while Move is a standalone device, it won’t get you all the way to a finished track. To really get your money’s worth out of it, a licence for Live is a must-have. Live Intro, which retails for £69/$99, is included for free with Move, and while this is a solid starting point, an upgrade to Live Standard is all but certain for anyone who is serious about making music.
Last but not least, there’s the portability factor. As the name implies, Move is built to travel. It’s hard to overstate how enjoyable and easy it is to take this standalone instrument on the train, to the park, or just to the couch. Under 1kg, with four hours of battery life and a built-in speaker, it has the feel of a musical camping kit, ready to accompany you to strange and exotic locations. Sure, its speaker won’t impress any audiophiles, but knowing that, in a pinch, no headphones, no charger, and no peripherals are needed is really liberating.
The hardware may feel sturdy but, after a few days of throwing it into a backpack, the need for a case becomes obvious. The lack of any official, or even third-party, carry cases at launch is a frustrating oversight on Ableton’s part, but one that will surely be remedied.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Ableton has plenty of competition in the groovebox market. Novation’s Circuit-Tracks’ solid beat-making and similar standalone features come at a lower price of $300/£200. If on-the-go sampling is what you’re after then Roland’s AIRA Compact P-6 offers a more expansive feature set, again at a lower cost. If all you want is a portable Ableton controller, then the Launchkey Mini 25 MK4 will probably meet your needs.
But none of those options manages to pull off the supreme balancing act that is Move. In one box, you have premium-feel hardware at an affordable price, a highly intuitive and musical interface, workflows finely tuned for speedy creativity, take-it-anywhere portability, and a sense of fun that ensures this instrument will not gather dust on a shelf.
On the other hand, this is an instrument with significant drawbacks. Limited I/O prohibits any serious use as a performance device, its symbiosis with Live is great if you’re already aboard the Ableton train but leaves you hamstrung if you’re not. Move’s conception and execution are narrowly tailored to a single use case – generating ideas to be continued on its associated desktop DAW.
That said, if you take Move on its own terms, and meet it on its home turf, it offers a music-making experience that is fast, frictionless, and seriously fun.

Key features

32 velocity-sensitive, backlit soft silicone pads
9 high-resolution, touch-sensitive encoders
16 backlit multifunctional buttons for sequencing and accessing secondary features
1500+ presets
Built-in speaker
Internal microphone
Rechargeable battery with four hours of playtime
64 GB built-in storage
3.5 mm stereo line in and outs
USB-C port for charging and control surface connectivity
USB-A port for MIDI in/out

The post Ableton Move review: A supreme balancing act appeared first on MusicTech.

How Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” Made History and Became the Biggest Song in the WorldThis week, Ari is joined by alt-pop singer, rapper & multi-hyphenate Noga Erez to discuss the creative process and working with labels.

Ad-Free AllMusic: Put Another Dime in the Jukebox, BabyThanks to all of our subscribers for supporting AllMusic and using the site without ads. Subscribe now to take advantage of the $12 annual subscription rate while you still can.

The abject weirdness of AI ads“I’m trying to find holiday gifts for my sisters. I open a bunch of tabs, I want my wife’s advice.” That’s CEO of the Browser Company, Josh Miller, in his company’s latest ad for its new AI browser, Dia. Consulting your spouse to find gifts for your siblings is a pure – and dare I […]
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Grayscale files with SEC for spot Solana ETFGrayscale joins rivals 21Shares, Canary Capital, VanEck and Bitwise in filing for a Solana ETF in the US.

Car Radio Chip Goes Into DIY Build[Sjef Verhoeven] still loves radio and enjoys the challenge of listening to radio signals from far away. He wanted to build his own radio and turned to the TEF6686 chip, a device often found in car radios. It is known to be very sensitive and seemed perfect for pulling in weak signals. So [Sjef] built this DIY radio and shares the details in this recent Spectrum post.
Unlike older radio-on-chip devices, the TEF6686 is a DSP, which, according to the post, is part of the reason it is ultrasensitive. Even though it is made for car radios, the device is versatile and can pick up shortwave as well as the usual broadcast bands, with the right configuration.

Initially, [Sjef] wanted to design his own tuner but rapidly found inexpensive modules. These had shielding and through-hole pins, making it much easier to deploy a radio using the chip. The modules run around $25 or less.
The rest of the project centers around an ESP32 and an OLED display, along with switches and encoders. The device requires a host to upload its firmware, so a device with a lot of flash memory was a must. The host must also store fonts for the OLED, and [Sjef] even included a database of ham radio callsigns so that when receiving a North American station, you can instantly see which state or province the station is probably in.
If you want to build a duplicate of this radio, all the details are on GitHub. You can also find kit versions.
If you want to build your own shortwave radio, you could spend more. Or, break out a breadboard, if you prefer.

Join Your Industry Peers with the End-of-Year Gift ChallengeGiving Tuesday is today, and The NAMM Foundation is excited to announce their End-of-Year Gift Challenge!  Thanks to the generosity of the 2024 donors so far this year, they have raised $237,000 which has helped them expand their programs to reach more schools, educators, children and adults around the world. But there is still so much more they can achieve together, so they would like to DOUBLE these efforts! On behalf of those who have supported us already in 2024, they are issuing this End-of-Year Gift Challenge to raise another $237,000 from additional donors by the end of the year. They invite you to help them meet their end-of year giving challenge of $237,000 by December 31. A Special End-of-Year Gift Challenge:100% of your contribution toward this challenge, whether large or small, will directly support The NAMM Foundation’s programs.

Starting at the $500 giving level, you will be recognized by our donor recognition program at The NAMM Show in January.

This is an opportunity to maximize your charitable impact by joining your industry peers in supporting your industry's foundation. Here’s how you can help:Donate by December 31 online or by check, payable to The NAMM Foundation, 5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad, CA 92008. 

Support a wide range of charitable causes with a single gift to our Global Grantmaking, or designate your gift to a specific program, scholarship, or designated fund. JOIN THE CHALLENGEThe post Join Your Industry Peers with the End-of-Year Gift Challenge first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Live Nation just majority-acquired a Hollywood influencer management company. Here’s why that matters.Company currently represents 25 clients, who, together, have nearly 200 million combined social media followers
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Chess What: One More Pi-Powered BoardChess is timeless, but automating it? That’s where the real magic begins. Enter [Tamerlan Goglichidze]’s Pi Board, an automated chess system that blends modern tech with age-old strategy. Inspired by Harry Potter’s moving chessboard and the commercial Square Off board, [Tamerlan] re-imagines the concept using a Raspberry Pi, stepper motors, and some clever engineering. It’s not just about moving pieces — it’s about doing so with precision and flair.
At its core, the Pi Board employs an XY stepper motor grid coupled with magnets to glide chess pieces across the board. While electromagnets seemed like a promising start, [Tamerlan] found them impractical due to overheating and polarity-switching issues. Enter servo linear actuators: efficient, precise, and perfect for the job.
But the innovation doesn’t stop there. A custom algorithm maps the 8×8 chess grid, allowing motors to track positions dynamically—no tedious resets required. Knight movements and castling? Handled with creative coding that keeps gameplay seamless. [Tamerlan] explains it all in his sleekly designed build log.
Though it hasn’t been long since we featured a Pi-powered LED chess board, we feel that [Tamerlan]’s build stands out for its ingenuity and optimization. For those still curious, we have a treasure trove of over fifty chess-themed articles from the last decade. So snuggle up during these cold winter months and read up on these evergreens!

Heritage Audio release Symph EQ plug-in Heritage Audio's Symph EQ is now available in plug-in form, and is free to those who own the hardware version or an i73 PRO interface. 

Katie Kerkhover to lead A&R Frontline Recordings across North America for BMGBMG has promoted Katie Kerkhover to Senior Vice President, A&R, Frontline Recordings, North America
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Disruptive Change is Coming to Music: Exploring the Fourth Phase [Keith Jopling]In a new white paper "Music's 3 Futures," industry analyst Keith Jopling argues that disruptive change is coming to music. And no, these disruptions are not about AI music creation.
The post Disruptive Change is Coming to Music: Exploring the Fourth Phase [Keith Jopling] appeared first on Hypebot.

Breaking down Nashville country music with Kate Malone and Devin Malone
Kate Malone (Sam Hunt, Emma White) and Devin Malone (Jelly Roll, Keith Urban) discuss the ever-evolving sound of Nashville country music.

More Hard Truths For Musicians11 Hard Truths For Musicians caused quite a stir from the moment it began circulating online.
The post More Hard Truths For Musicians appeared first on Hypebot.