I’ve fallen in love with ribbon mics all over again with Warm Audio’s Fen-toneSingle mic (street price): £599 / $699
Stereo pair (street price): £1,099 / $1,299
warmaudio.com
Warm Audio’s latest ribbon mic is inspired in design by the Bang & Olufsen BM3 of the 1950s, which was marketed under the name Fen-tone. Sonically, though, the new Fen-tone draws upon a more contemporary studio classic, this time the Royer R-121. Switchable passive and active modes on the new mic offer great versatility, removing the need for a quality, high-gain mic preamp, while also leaving the passive option open for much louder instruments.

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The £599 Fen-tone is pitted against other active mics that also take styling tips from the BM3. Royer’s R-122 MKII active model is £1,899, and Extinct Audio’s Active BM9 costs £999, with the UK-made BM9 also looking similar to the original. This type of ribbon mic is intended for instruments but this classification runs a wide and varied gamut, from drum overheads and guitar cab miking to spot-miking of far quieter acoustic instruments.
Image: Warm Audio
What are the features and specifications of the Warm Audio Fen-tone?
Fen-tone is a rocket-shaped beast finished in shiny aluminium. It has a Japanese-made 1.8-micron thick ribbon (thinner and therefore more responsive than Royer’s 2.5-micron ribbon), a seriously powerful Neodymium magnet that outperforms earlier magnet technologies, plus a CineMag output transformer. The transformer adds subtle saturation to result in a full mid-range and tamed transient peaks, resulting in a sweetness of tone plus a net increase of sustain from instruments you’re pointing the mic at.
There’s a fixed figure-8 polar pattern, and both sides of the mic sound exactly the same, worth mentioning since certain ribbon mics have a bright and a dull side to their figure-8 field. Such uniformity is a key selling point for prospective buyers wanting to record in mid/side stereo or set up immersive arrays.
Like the original Fen-tone, Warm’s version has a single toggle switch as its sole on-body control. Unlike the original, though, instead of the switch controlling a high-pass filter, the two positions select either the passive circuit (marked ‘VT’ for vintage) or active mode (‘+dB’), which introduces a 26dB Warm Lifter preamp.
The integrated preamp operates on phantom power but has true bypass, i.e. it doesn’t get in the way of the passive circuit when disabled. Fen-tone is more versatile in this way than competing active ribbon mics, which tend to be always active. The downside is that the phantom power must be switched only after toggling to active mode, so the passive circuit isn’t damaged by the voltage. I feel this important point needs to be signposted more clearly, e.g. a removable sticker on the mic body, for those who don’t read the manual before jumping in. I can’t help feeling that Royer’s approach – an always-active preamp, but with pad and high-pass filter switches – is far more user-friendly.
I received the stereo kit for my review. Mics come with a sturdy plastic flight case, mic socks and clips. Unboxed, the shiny Fen-tones certainly exhibit a wow factor, but the joy soon turns to sorrow as you catch sight of the mic clips. These are of the generic ‘bulldog’ type, reminiscent of a £3 Radioshack part from the 90s. They do clamp the mics fairly securely, but visually are a real disappointment. Although more challenging to engineer due to the body shape, a custom clip would have been far better, plus perhaps shock mount and stereo bar options, since many users will want to get these arranged as a stereo pair – Blumlein, mid/sides etc – for room mics.
Image: Barry Watson
What is the Warm Audio Fen-tone like to use?
In use, Warm Audio’s Fen-tone captures instruments with smooth highs and a seductive glue in the mid-range. Parts sound natural, thick and lack the spiking transients encountered with condensers. As you’d expect, there are masses of low-end due to the proximity effect; a high-pass filter would have been a welcome addition for those who like to monitor what they’re recording live and don’t have a high-pass option on their interface’s mic pre.
With the pair of Fen-tones set up in mid/sides to record acoustic guitar, the results are remarkable. There’s loads of sustain, the high end doesn’t sound woolly or muted, and the overall presentation is true to life, even when auditioning the mid mic alone in mono. The mid mic – being figure-8 – appears focused in the front as well as capturing more natural room sound from behind than a cardioid, which only enhances the realism. When added in, sides appear gloriously smooth and thick.
Ultimately, stereo blends are excessively bassy, so I place an instance of FabFilter’s Pro-Q 4 on the guitar bus with a separate high-pass filter set up for both mid and sides (with a higher cutoff on the sides to shift focus to the centre). And there we have it – tasty-sounding, centre-focused guitar chords, and a stereo spread that isn’t too wide or bulky as to interfere with other instruments panned wide in the mix. Perfect.
I also compare a single Fen-tone to my SE Electronics VR2 active ribbon mic (less expensive, at £379) when double-tracking acoustic guitar. The SE has a more condenser-like response, with increased high-mid bite, slightly sharper transients, but recessed mids lower down the spectrum. Although the SE might work better on its own in a busy rock mix, Fen-tone is the clear winner at providing a natural, non-brittle tone that you’d rather blend with brighter mics than mess with, tonally. I imagine Fen-tone would sit perfectly alongside an SM57 when capturing a guitar cab at close range, or blended with a condenser on an acoustic instrument requiring a combination of thickness and transient detail.
As a fitting finale, I bust out my accordion during the session, using Fen-tone to spot-mic the melody end. It works great here too – thick and rich once again with a pleasant high end. Once more, though, I need to engage the preamp’s high-pass filter to cut excess bass build-up.
Image: Barry Watson
Who should buy the Warm Audio Fen-tone?
Warm Audio’s Fen-tone is a versatile ribbon microphone that would be a worthy addition to anyone’s collection. It excels on acoustic guitar and a wide array of acoustic instruments, dealing effortlessly with both really loud and far quieter signals thanks to its passive and active switching.
A stereo pair of Fen-tones opens up countless more options, from spaced drum overheads and Blumlein-array room mics to fantastic results in mid/sides formation placed closer to an instrument. Given that the Warm Audio pair is only £100 more than a single Active BM9 from Extinct, and less than a third of the price of a pair of Royer R-122 MKIIs, I’d consider this a real steal. Pity about the clips though.

Key features

Passive/active ribbon mic
Figure-8 polar pattern
30 Hz – 15 kHz frequency range
Impedance: 300 Ohms (passive) / 150 Ohms (active)
+26 dB inline Warm Lifter preamp with true bypass
CineMag output transformer
Comes with hard carry case, mic pouch and hard-mount clip
Weight (per mic): 304g

The post I’ve fallen in love with ribbon mics all over again with Warm Audio’s Fen-tone appeared first on MusicTech.

Senate Committee unveils crypto market structure bill draftThe Senate Agriculture Committee has released a draft bill outlining the regulatory jurisdiction of the country’s two main financial market regulators.

GRAMMY Nominations 2025: Song of the YearThe 2025 GRAMMY nominations are here and we're going to help you to untangle it all right up until the big event, continuing with the Song of the Year category.

Take a listen to the nominated songs below--who do you think will win?

See the full list of nominees in every category here.

"Abracadabra"Lady Gaga, Henry Walter & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga)

"Anxiety"Jaylah Hickmon, songwriter (Doechii)

"APT."Amy Allen, Christopher Brody Brown, Rogét Chahayed, Omer Fedi, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Chae Young Park, Theron Thomas & Henry Walter, songwriters (ROSÉ, Bruno Mars)

"DtMF"Marco Daniel Borrero, Scott Dittrich, Benjamin Falik, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Hugo René Sención Sanabria, Tyler Thomas Spry & Roberto José Rosado Torres, songwriters (Bad Bunny)

"Golden [From KPop Demon Hunters]"EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick, songwriters (HUNTR/X:EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI)

"luther"Jack Antonoff, Roshwita Larisha Bacha, Matthew Bernard, Scott Bridgeway, Sam Dew, Ink, Kendrick Lamar, Solána Rowe, Mark Anthony Spears & Kamasi Washington, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar With SZA)

"Manchild"Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter)

"WILDFLOWER"Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)

Lady Gaga photo by Sebas Montesinos, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.The post GRAMMY Nominations 2025: Song of the Year first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Audio Damage AscentAscent is a sophisticated dual-reverb plugin that combines two powerful algorithms into one fluid interface: a lush, expansive hall reverb and an innovative pitch-shifting particle reverb that creates evolving, granular shimmer effects. Layer spacious, long-decay reverbs with dynamic pitch-shifted textures to craft everything from subtle ambient spaces to dramatic, otherworldly atmospheres. With intuitive controls, and built-in dynamic ducking that keeps your mix clean, Ascent delivers the acoustic character and creative possibilities of premium hardware reverbs in a streamlined, CPU-efficient plugin that works seamlessly across all major formats and platforms. Features: Dual reverb engine architecture combining a spacious hall reverb with an innovative granular pitch-shifting particle reverb. Particle engine features pitch transposition from -12 to +12 semitones with dual overlapping grains for artifact-free shimmer effects. Expanse control offers three room size modes (Small, Medium, Large) with carefully tuned delay networks for natural spatial imaging. Built-in dynamic ducking compressor keeps reverb tails from swamping your dry signal, maintaining mix clarity. Cross-platform preset manager with XML-based presets compatible across all plugin formats and operating systems. Read More

A better way of thinking about the AI bubble AI isn't all or nothing, and even good bets can turn sour if you aren't careful about how you make them. 

Testing Whether Fast Charging Kills Smartphone Batteries, and Other MythsCalendar aging of NMC Li-ion cells at 50 ℃ at various SoCs. (Credit: Wiljan Vermeer, IEEE, 2021)
With batteries being such an integral part of smartphones, it’s little wonder that extending the period between charging and battery replacement has led to many theories and outright myths about what may affect the lifespan of these lithium-ion batteries. To bust some of them, [HTX Studio] over on YouTube has spent the past two years torturing both themselves and a myriad of both iOS and Android phones to tease out some real-life data.
After a few false starts with smaller experiments, they settled on an experimental setup involving 40 phones to investigate two claims: first, whether fast charging is worse than slow charging, and second, whether limiting charging to 80% of a battery’s capacity will increase its lifespan. This latter group effectively uses only 50% of the capacity, by discharging down to 30% before recharging. A single control phone was left alone without forced charge-discharge cycles.

After 500 charge cycles and 167 days, these three groups (fast, slow, 50%) were examined for remaining battery capacity. As one can see in the above graphic for the Android group and the similar one for iOS in the video, the results are basically what you expect. Li-ion batteries age over time (‘calendar aging’), with temperature and state-of-charge (SoC) affecting the speed of this aging process, as can be seen in the SoC graph from an earlier article that we featured on built-in batteries.
It seems that keeping the battery as cool as possible and the SoC as low as possible, along with the number of charge-discharge cycles, will extend its lifespan, but Li-ion batteries are doomed to a very finite lifespan on account of their basic chemistry. This makes these smartphone charging myths both true, but less relevant than one might assume, as over the lifespan of something like a smartphone, it won’t make a massive difference.

EastWest Black Friday Sale EastWest’s annual Black Friday Sale has started early this year, and what’s more, it features some of the biggest discounts in the company's history. 

HYBE’s Weverse superfan platform is growing – and going big in ChinaHYBE's superfan platform Weverse is making significant inroads into China through strategic partnerships with two of the market's digital giants
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Dylan Mixer offers the Tape Filth Kontakt 8 Cassette Synth Library for FREE
Dylan Mixer has made the Tape Filth Kontakt 8 cassette synth library available for free download.  The freeware library requires the full version of Kontakt 8, and it is not compatible with the free Kontakt Player.  You’ll also need to create a Pulse Downloader account to access the plugin, as we’ll outline below.  Dylan Mixer [...]
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Get Ujam UFX Reverb Version 2 for $5 in 89% Off Deal at Plugin Boutique
Right now, you can get Ujam UFX Reverb Version 2 for just $5, down from $49, in an 89% off deal at Plugin Boutique.  The deal, which is part of Plugin Boutique’s Black Friday sale, expires on December 7, 2025.  UFX Reverb is a macOS (Catalina 10.15+) and Windows (10+) release for VST2, VST3, AU [...]
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SOS FOR ARTISTS Black Friday Offer Our Black Friday offer is now live, with a discount of 30% currently available for the Pro plan, and everybody who signs up for a subscription or free seven-day trial will get a a free Safari Pedals

Bandsintown’s 2025 High Notes Is Coming — Artists, Prep Your Profile!Bandsintown's exclusive trending High Notes recap is back for 2025. It's an annual profile of live music both personal and global. Stay tuned!
The post Bandsintown’s 2025 High Notes Is Coming — Artists, Prep Your Profile! appeared first on Hypebot.

Your Morning Coffee Podcast: Radio Royalties, Spotify Payola Accusations, MoreEpisode 275 of Jay Gilbert and Mike Etchart's podcast Your Morning Coffee: Weekly News for the New Music Business is available now.
The post Your Morning Coffee Podcast: Radio Royalties, Spotify Payola Accusations, More appeared first on Hypebot.

The previously leaked Behringer BQ-10 analogue sequencer has officially launched – here’s everything you need to knowBehringer has officially launched the BQ-10, its own spin on the Korg SQ-10, marking the brand’s very first semi-modular sequencer.
The launch arrives after a leak, which occurred way back in 2023 through a synthesiser news website. A photo posted on the site showed what looked to be its remake of the famed 1978 SQ-10, which is much larger than this condensed and modern version.

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“Our goal has always been to make gear, even rare ones, more accessible, which is why we’re introducing the Behringer BQ-10,” explains Behringer on its website, “a fresh take on a vintage design that pays tribute to a classic and introduces new updated features.”
Behringer BQ-10 features
The BQ-10 is an analogue sequencer with 24 steps and full CV control in Eurorack format, which can function as a single 16-step sequencer or be split into dual 8-step sequences (via channels A and B). It also has a third channel, channel C, which is a separate 8-step channel where you can connect an external synth via CV. It also offers MIDI functionality.
Each step features a voltage output knob as well as a dedicated trigger output, allowing you to shorten sequences by connecting specific steps to the Reset input. It also has a rotary Sequence Mode knob that lets you select between eight play modes for channels A and B, while channel C can run continuously depending on the mode.
By default, a sequence runs on the internal clock of the BQ-10. This can be adjusted with a Clock Generator knob, and can go from 20 bpm all the way to 500 bpm. You can also use its CV inputs for plugging in external voltage sources to override the internal clock. Each channel features its own portamento control.
For a clearer idea on how it works, and to hear it in play, check out the walkthrough below:

How much does the Behringer BQ-10 cost?
The BQ-10 is priced at $149. Behringer says it is available now through distributors across the globe, though it appears that most retailers do not yet have it in stock. Some are taking pre-orders though, including Andertons.
To find out more about the BQ-10, head over to Behringer.
The post The previously leaked Behringer BQ-10 analogue sequencer has officially launched – here’s everything you need to know appeared first on MusicTech.

The Drox II glitch and stutter effect by Dystopian Waves is now available as a free plugin
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View post: The Drox II glitch and stutter effect by Dystopian Waves is now available as a free plugin