Spitfire Audio is now available via Rent-to-Own on Splice
We're excited to share that some of Spitfire Audio's most beloved libraries are now available via Rent-to-Own on Splice.

“I’m completely nothing without the world that artists create” Blake Slatkin is pop music’s humble hitmakerMoving out of your parents’ home is a rite of passage for young adults – and one that was even more momentous for Blake Slatkin. In 2022, the producer and songwriter took a minute on social media to look back on his old recording studio in Los Angeles, where he helped make monster hits like Lil Nas X’s That’s What I Want and Kid LAROI’s Stay. For a caption, he wrote: “Still can’t believe we made all those songs at my mom’s house.”
When Slatkin set out for his own place, his priority was finding somewhere he could replicate that homely environment, where mom could drop in to offer snacks to the latest popstar in the booth. “It’s 90 per cent the same as the setup in my mom’s place,” the 27-year-old producer says of his new abode. “I’m superstitious, so I basically kept the same vibe. I think there was a lot of magic making music at my mom’s.”
Blake Slatkin is on the MusicTech Cover. Image: Ben Bentley for MusicTech
It’s a beautiful space. Adorned with wooden furniture, velvet sofas, vintage synthesizers, boutique guitar pedals, flourishing houseplants, and cosy lighting, the decidedly chic studio is pulled together with a faded rug and a desktop running Avid Pro Tools. The right-side wall is covered with photographs of all the artists who have inspired Slatkin over the years: Nile Rodgers, Notorious B.I.G., David Bowie, Madonna. Oh, and there’s a pool out in the yard.
“I really try not to even make music within the first hour of hanging with someone,” says Slatkin of his studio philosophy. “I just want us to get comfortable, talk, eat food, walk around the house, chill by the pool and let all the pressure melt away and strip us down to our creative selves only.”
Image: Ben Bentley for MusicTech
Before he had a revolving door of superstar collaborators at his mom’s house, Slatkin was taking out the trash at Benny Blanco’s studio. A devout fan of Blanco’s, Slatkin “begged” a mutual friend to introduce him when he was 16, which ultimately led to a mentorship. “I was so lucky to meet Benny when I did,” he says. “I’ve learned so much from him. He’s a very special person, very creative. He’s one of the all-time greats. And being around greatness is really important. I’m always learning stuff from him.”
Six months into his mentorship, Blanco helped set up a publishing deal for Slatkin with Universal Music. After graduating from high school, Slatkin studied music at New York University but dropped out after a year to head back to LA. “I learned some stuff, but I’ve learned the most by just actually doing it,” he says. “Plus YouTube and reading interviews, watching Mix With The Masters…There’s so much stuff out there.”
“Artists have never been more important than they are now”
Now, Blanco introduces Slatkin to fellow producers as “the G.O.A.T. all-rounder” in the studio. It must be pretty sweet to hear one of your heroes praise you like that. “Oh, it’s the best feeling,” Slatkin grins widely. “It’s always the best feeling working with anyone you’re a fan of and getting that validation. It’s funny hearing you say that now, because now we’re just best friends. We love to bounce ideas off of each other – whenever either of us is working on a project, we play it for each other and give notes. It’s all you could ask a creative relationship to be.”
For Slatkin, collaboration is what makes a hit record. He’s undoubtedly adept at cranking out chart-toppers for world-class artists, but views himself only as a member of a team, not as a driving force in a song’s creation.
Image: Ben Bentley for MusicTech
“Artists have never been more important than they are now,” he insists. “I can help make good songs, but I can’t do what they do. I’m completely nothing without the world that they create. They make worlds and communities, they make people feel seen, and they make people feel a part of something.”
How does he know whom to collaborate with? Easy. “The only criteria is that you inspire me… I’m just a massive fan of any artist I work with. That’s the luckiest thing about my job – I’m just a huge fan of music, who gets to be in the room with these amazing people.”
Slatkin has written and produced for the likes of Charli XCX, Ed Sheeran, Tate McRae, Gracie Abrams, Selena Gomez, BTS, Sam Smith, SZA, Luke Combs and Snoop Dogg. That’s one hell of a roster – but even Slatkin, with his track record and grinding work ethic, isn’t spared major labels breathing down his neck for a hit single.
Image: Ben Bentley for MusicTech
“You definitely don’t ignore [the pressure] when you’re falling asleep the night before. You don’t fucking ignore it!” he says with a laugh. He recalls the creation of About Damn Time with Lizzo, which won him his first Grammy in 2023. “The album was done, and the label said, ‘We need a single.’ And Lizzo and I had been working for a little bit, but obviously, it’s not very easy to walk in the room and be like, ‘Okay, what is our single?’ But it was also my first time working with Ricky Reed that day, so I just walked in and was excited to make music with the producer whom I liked. And for six hours, we completely forget that they wanted a single and just made something that we like.”
Slatkin says he got lucky that day, But being able to adapt to different artists’ processes, styles, and tastes is surely what’s made him so sought-after. He knows that following a singular process or workflow isn’t productive: he’ll work with some artists for three months on a song, and with others, he’ll write three songs in a day. His job, as far as he’s concerned, is making artists feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable with their music and guiding them to bring their ideas to reality.
“I think we’re in one of the most inspiring times ever for music”
And it all comes down to that song idea. “Production, first of all, is nothing without a good song,” he declares. “Anything I do when I make music is just in service of the song itself.”
What does that mean exactly? Slatkin says that 90 per cent of the music he makes, alone or with friends, is “trash,” but that it’s important to create often to find those golden ideas. Making a powerful song isn’t about throwing more instruments and effects into the track, he’s learned, but stripping back the elements and letting the main parts shine. Whenever he falls into a rabbit hole of editing and overproducing while tracking, he reminds himself: “At the end of the day, song is king. We’ll get the good drum sounds later. When I’m making music, I only want to be thinking about the song.”
Image: Ben Bentley for MusicTech
Slatkin admits, however, that keeping a track simple isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially when creators today have unprecedented access to myriad plugins, software and affordable gear. He cites John Mayer (“one of the most impressive musicians of all time”) and Charlie Puth (“un-fucking-believable at piano; he knows all the theory”) as artists who can dial it back to simplicity. “To watch them sit down and play an F chord to a G chord over and over… When you know everything, it’s not easy to be as simple as possible.”
Slatkin doesn’t have a secret for keeping it simple. He does, however, have a “self-soothing answer” to ensuring a track is produced with intention. “I use Pro Tools and it just sucks ass,” he laughs, half-serious. “It’s harder to do stuff in Pro Tools; it makes you think a little bit more about what you want to do. It takes that extra five seconds to change the tempo. So it makes me think, ‘Do I really want to change the tempo?’”
If there is a magic formula for making a hit, Slatkin doesn’t know it, despite his best efforts. “I’ve read every interview of every artist I love. And I remember growing up, listening to interviews and hearing producers being like, ‘It’s different every time! The gear doesn’t matter!’ and being so frustrated with that answer. But it really is the only proper answer.”
“Anything I do when I make music is in service of the song itself”
But this frustration is also liberating for Slatkin. He’s practically relieved that great music doesn’t hinge on equipment or expensive studios, but on ideas and authentic creativity. That’s what keeps him excited about new music and upcoming artists, at a time when anyone with a smartphone can produce a hit.
“Now things are getting so accessible, the only thing that separates good music from bad music is just good ideas,” he says. “I’ve been a part of songs where we spend so much money – we’re at fancy studios, and we have the best gear and the best engineers, and we make something that doesn’t do well. And then there’s a kid in Wisconsin who’s in their closet, making a song that goes massive.
“That’s exactly how it should be, honestly. I’m not mad at that at all. There are no rules. No one is listening, thinking, ‘Ah, he didn’t use the right kick mic for that. This song isn’t good.’ It’s really just like, ‘make something good.’ And I think we’re in one of the most inspiring times ever for music. It’s very punk rock.”
Image: Ben Bentley for MusicTech
Is Slatkin interested in following in the footsteps of his hero, Benny Blanco, who’s recently taken an intentional step into the limelight? He tells us he doesn’t have those same ambitions – not yet, anyway. “One day, Benny got the bug, and he was like, ‘I want to challenge myself in a new, creative way.’ So I totally understand that; I don’t have any aspirations to do it, but I would never count anything out. I just love making music.”
Slatkin’s most recent Instagram post is of him in another studio, one more high-end than his mom’s house. He’s pictured working on music with Dave Grohl, John Mayer and Pino Palladino. Blake Slatkin may not be chasing the spotlight right now, but at this rate, it might just find him anyway.
Blake Slatkin is on the cover of the MusicTech Magazine July/August 2025 issue.
Words: Sam Willings
Photography: Ben Bentley
Hair & Makeup: Jack Goldsmith
Location: Cinepacks Studios
The post “I’m completely nothing without the world that artists create” Blake Slatkin is pop music’s humble hitmaker appeared first on MusicTech.

Use multiple cameras to control your synths and software using hand gestures with this new appNanas Sound, a music technology brand run entirely by one software engineer, has launched an innovative app that lets users turn hand gestures into expressive MIDI control.
The brand was founded in 2021 by Asep Bagja, who is based in Tallinn, Estonia. He describes himself as the “Chief Everything Officer”, and handles all designing, coding, soldering, and shipping. Though he’s created a number of Eurorack modules and software, this expressive MIDI controller, named AirBending, is his sole app.

READ MORE: Massive X Player is a new soft synth from Native Instruments – and it’s free

Though there are other apps and tech devices which offer similar gesture control (the Humane wearable AI pin, the Alggoridim Apple Vision Pro app), AirBending lets you use multiple cameras simultaneously if you wish, and works with any DAW including Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Cubase, and more.
You can use your Mac’s built-in camera or external cameras to operate the app, and it tracks your hand movements in real-time. You can connect it to external hardware synths, software instruments, and effects processors, all without the need for special drivers or plugins.
On board within the app is also a preset system that lets you customise all aspects of the gesture-to-music mapping, meaning you can configure it to use either one hand or both hands for controlling X/Y axis movements.
It also offers assignable MIDI channels to control multiple instruments at once, and it has the ability to lock your gestures to specific musical scales and keys for pitch control. Hand movements can also be mapped to control parameters like filters, effects, volume, and modulation on your synths.
Check out the demo below for more:

AirBending is priced at £8.99. To find out more or download the app, go to Nanas Sound.
The post Use multiple cameras to control your synths and software using hand gestures with this new app appeared first on MusicTech.

Spitfire Audio libraries have landed on Splice’s Rent-to-Own platform – and users are loving ItSplice is set to release a collection of Spitfire Audio’s beloved effects and orchestral libraries through its popular Rent-to-Own program.
The music production platform today announced that Spitfire has joined Xfer’s Serum as a Rent-to-Own exclusive on Splice’s plugin marketplace. If you’re new to the program, Rent-to-Own lets users “lease” cutting-edge and industry-standard music creation software, meaning you can pay as you go until you own the plugin outright.
Creators will get immediate access to the full versions of each library with interest-free monthly payments. And once the plan is complete, the licenses are theirs to keep forever, even when your Splice subscription ends.

READ MORE: Splice has now integrated with Pro Tools as part of a “game-changing” update

The libraries immediately coming to RTO are as follows, with more promised further down the line:

BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional – A richly nuanced strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion from the BBC’s world-renowned symphonic ensemble
Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings Pro – The most famous string sound in the world from Abbey Road’s legendary Studio Two
BBC Radiophonic Workshop – Historic electronic sounds from the pioneers of sound design
Eric Whitacre Choir (available 14 August, 2025) – Ethereal choral performances led by GRAMMY-winning composer Eric Whitacre
AIR Studios Reverb (available 14 August, 2025) – Cinematic reverb captured in the hall that scored Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Wicked

Featured in the likes of Dune, The Color Purple, and Inception, Call of Duty, and Bridgerton, these plugins are often praised for their depth, texture, and realism. This collaboration also marks the first joint offering since Splice acquired Spitfire Audio earlier this year.

“Rent-to-Own is one of the most beloved aspects of Splice and we’re honored to bring these iconic Spitfire Audio products to our marketplace,” says Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava. “These libraries and effects have shaped some of the most memorable scores in modern films and games and now Splice users can bring that same emotive power to their own work.”
Paul Thomson, Co-Founder of Spitfire Audio, adds, “This is something we’ve been asked about over the years, and we now have the technological capability to offer this path to ownership. It has been no small feat to make our libraries available via rent-to-own and we look forward to hearing more music made from people using these tools.”
The move has proved popular among users as well, with one praising it as a “great way for even more people to access these great libraries and begin creating sooner”.
“Best decision ever to have happened, as compared to the whole subscription nonsense,” another user commented.
During your lease, you must have the latest version of the Splice Desktop App installed and open at least once every three days. All Spitfire Audio plugins on Splice also come with a free 3-day trial if you’d like to have a taste before committing.

Learn more at Splice.
The post Spitfire Audio libraries have landed on Splice’s Rent-to-Own platform – and users are loving It appeared first on MusicTech.

At $50, Brainworx’s new flagship delay plugin, bx_pulsar, might just be the perfect addition to your toolkitBrainworx has launched a new, flagship delay plugin called bx_pulsar that offers five distinct delay types, including emulations of classic hardware.
According to the brand, bx_pulsar channels “the aura of busted pedal delays, dusty tapes, and otherworldly echoes”. It also hosts an eight-step sequencer, ducking compressor, diffusion networks, and swing controls.

READ MORE: “Most vocal solutions fall into two categories: they’re overly complex or overly simple. We felt there was a gap we could fill”: Why guitar modelling giant Neural DSP has ventured into the world of vocal processing

Within its five delay modes are Air, Reverse, and Aether – these offer your more typical delay effects, with Air creating clean,  uncoloured sound for pristine reflections and delay diffusion; Reverse offering a smooth reverse delay with added diffusion and compression for “ethereal effects”, and Aether delivering the more “surreal” tones for sparkle and radiance.
The remaining two modes, Magnetic and Circuit, tap into the quirks of vintage gear. The former emulates the sound of tape, reels, and cassettes, with rich modulation and degraded textures, while the latter is inspired by vintage BBD delays and classic guitar pedals for analogue grit.
Beyond these five characters are further tools to shape the delay. The eight-step sequence mode lets users craft complex rhythmic delay patterns, and the ducking compressor handily auto-sidechains to the dry signal.
Its swing and offset controls help to add groove and subtle timing shifts, and a freeze and clear buffer unlocks “flexible sound design” with infinite delays. You can also toy with low and high-cut filters, as well as low and high-frequency dampening for sculpting the delayed signal.

Bx_pulsar is priced at $69, but there’s an introductory offer running until 30 October with a lower price of $49.99. You can also get a crossgrade from any other Brainworx product for $39.99. Find out more via Plugin Alliance.
The post At $50, Brainworx’s new flagship delay plugin, bx_pulsar, might just be the perfect addition to your toolkit appeared first on MusicTech.

Brainworx release bx_pulsar delay plug-in The latest addition to the Brainworx line-up aims to offer a little more than your average delay plug-in, with its five distinct delay types complemented by an eight-step sequencer, a ducking compressor, diffusion networks and swing controls.

Position Music Signs Artist & Songwriter Britton To Worldwide Record Deal(L-R) Garrett Ream (VP Artist Strategy & Promotion, Position Music),  Britton &  Chris Tecca (A&R Position Music)Tyler Bacon, President & CEO of Position Music, announced on Wednesday the signing of Britton to a record deal, coinciding with the release of the “clawmarks” single on Friday, July  25th."Britton is an alt-pop artist from Toledo, OH who moved to Los Angeles five years ago to pursue music full-time," a statement reads. "Always meticulous in building her musical world, she has a strong hand in writing, recording and producing, making tracks that are raw, poetic, and emotionally unflinching and whose sound lives at the intersection of dark pop confessionals and cinematic vulnerability.""Having already been featured on numerous playlists like New Music Friday, All New Pop, sad hour, New Music Daily and more Britton comes to Position with an impressive following across streaming and social media with 1.4M+ on Tik Tok, 316K+ on Instagram, 220K+ on YouTube and 200K+ on Spotify," they added.“Britton has a rare gift for writing lyrics that stand out. In a world of transient trends, her music is timeless and always hits on a raw emotional level. She’s the kind of artist and person worth going the extra mile for, and we’re thrilled to be part of that journey.”  Garrett Ream, VP Artist Strategy & Promotion.“For years, I’ve poured myself into making and releasing music independently with the goal of someday finding a team who would embrace my artistry and help take it to new heights. Meeting Garrett Ream was a breath of fresh air at a time when I really needed it — our connection was instant, genuine, and effortless. That same authenticity and spirit extends throughout the entire team at Position; I am truly so excited to see what the future holds.” BrittonThe post Position Music Signs Artist & Songwriter Britton To Worldwide Record Deal first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

SpaceX faces two new lawsuits alleging safety‐related retaliationThe lawsuits offer a closer look at the safety environment at SpaceX.

Fundamental Global sinks 13% following Ether treasury newsMarkets responded with a 13% drop in share price after the company unveiled its $200 million Ether treasury plan.

Soldered RAM Upgrades Finally Available for Mac-PPCIn the retrocomputing world, [DosDude1] is a name spoken with more than a little respect. He’s back again with a long-awaited hack for PowerPC Macintosh: soldered RAM upgrades!
[DosDude1] is no stranger to soldering his way to more storage– upgrading the SSD on an M4 Mac Mini, or doubling  the VRAM on an old GPU. For a PPC Mac, though, it is not enough just to solder more RAM onto the board; if that’s all it was, we’d have been doing it 20 years ago. Once the RAM is in place, you have to have some way to make sure the computer knows the RAM is in place. For a WinTel machine, getting that information to the BIOS can be as easy as plugging in the right resistors.
This is part of the BootROM dump. It’s easy to see why nobody figured this out before.
PowerPC Macintoshes don’t have BIOS, though. Instead, what’s required is a hack to modify the machine’s BootROM, and write an edited version back into the motherboard’s EEPROM. No one knew how to make that work, until now. [DosDude1] credits a document discovered by [LightBulbFun] on “Boot Flash System Configuration Block” for the secret sauce to hacking the HEX configuration. For example, adding four more 128 MB DIMMS to max out an iBook G3 was a matter of finding the Hex value for number of soldered chips–apparently it was at offset 0x5C. Change this from 0x01 to 0x02 tells the board to look for all 6 chips. Then it’s a matter of flashing the edited hex dump EEPROM, which can be done with a programmer or the flashrom command under Linux.
 
Solder, flash, reboot– RAM. That’s not the only upgrade in this clamshell. This wasn’t G4 from the factory!
While a few extra hundred MB of RAM isn’t exactly bringing this machine into the 21st century, it is a great quality-of-life upgrade to make old budget hardware match the best of the era. This isn’t magic: if you’re increasing the density, rather than filling up footprints as [DosDude1] demonstrates, you’ve got to make sure the board has got address lines to spare or there’s a way to bodge them in. (128 MB was the max for this one.) The footprints obviously have to match, too, and so do the specs. You’re not going to be putting extra gigabytes of DDR5 into a machine designed with OS9 in mind, but then, you probably don’t need to. It’s already got more than 640 KB, after all, and that’s enough for anybody.
 
Found via r/VintageApple on Reddit.

What is neo soul? History, artists, and legacy
Learn about the origins, key artists, and characteristics of neo soul, in addition to what continues to define and propel it forward today.

Pubbas releases free Vallhund Binaural Panner for Windows and macOS
Pubbas has released Vallhund, a free binaural panning plugin for Windows and macOS. We previously featured Pubbas’ Sheepadoodle Phaser, and to be honest, I’ve used it way more than expected since then. It earned a regular spot in my cinematic sound design toolkit, so I’m thrilled to see another creative effect drop from the same [...]
View post: Pubbas releases free Vallhund Binaural Panner for Windows and macOS

Pubbas Vallhund Binaural PannerVallhund provides precise, independent control over the factors that shape human perception of audio directionality. By closely emulating how our ears naturally interpret spatial cues—subtle variations in volume, timing (latency), and frequency response (filtering) - Vallhund allows you to create immersive mixes that place sounds anywhere in a virtual soundscape. Key Controls Direction: Set the perceived location of your sound source. Virtually place it left, right, or anywhere in between. Latency: Adjusts the strength of the timing difference between the left and right channel, this is essentially a control for the Haas effect. But be careful with this since it can introduce phase issues for playback in mono. Volume: Fine-tune the loudness difference between the left and right channels to reinforce the perceived direction of your source. A subtle shift can add depth and realism, while an exaggerated setting can create a striking directional emphasis. Filter: Control how strongly the HRTF-based filtering is applied. This lets you refine the tonal character of your panned sound, from a neutral balance to a richly emphasized directional signature. YouTube.com/watch?v=pXNlWYah6dM Read More

In The Trenches with Rachel Hunt of indie music venue Grog ShopRachel Hunt is the Marketing Director for independent Cleveland music venues Grog Shop and B-Side Lounge. Her love of music runs deep including a 16 years-and-counting as a non-comm radio DJ. Hunt shares her story as well as what's working in her daily battle to help fans discover new artists and sell more tickets.
The post In The Trenches with Rachel Hunt of indie music venue Grog Shop appeared first on Hypebot.

Massive X Player is a new soft synth from Native Instruments – and it’s freeNative Instruments has launched Massive X Player, a free soft synth offering an intro to sound sculpting.
Available to download right now, Massive X Player comes loaded with 60 presets including basses, pads and leads, so regardless of your skill level with synth programming, you can get creative straight away. READ MORE: Here’s an unprecedented pre-show look at the console setup of Slipknot’s front-of-house engineer

At the heart of Massive X Player’s UI is the Morpher XY pad, which lets you shift between parameters in real time. You can also draw a path on the XY pad, which introduces “evolving movement and rhythmic modulation”, which can loop and sync with a project.
Additionally, the Player’s Animator tool is on hand to provide you with a few preset pathway shapes to choose from, like a square or circular path.
There’s also a Randomize function, which can be hit in each corner of the Morpher XY pad to help spark new creative ideas.
“Whether you’re exploring synths for the first time or looking for a fast and fun way to sculpt sounds, Massive X Player makes synthesis simple,” says Native Instruments. “This is your backstage pass to the music that shapes scenes. From growling basses to shimmering leads and floating pads, explore a vast library of presets for quick inspiration and then make them your own. No steep learning curve, no cost, just playful sound design.”

Massive X Player comes loaded with 60 presets, with more on the way via expansion packs built by expert sound designers.
Massive X Player is included with Native Instruments’ Komplete Start bundle, a free plugin suite loaded with synths, instruments, effects, and loops.
Learn more at Native Instruments.
The post Massive X Player is a new soft synth from Native Instruments – and it’s free appeared first on MusicTech.