Soundtoys offers Little MicroShift for FREE in its 12 Days of Christmas promotion
Soundtoys is giving away Little MicroShift for free today as part of its annual 12 Days of Christmas promotion, and if you’ve been following BPB for a while, you’ll know this is a big deal. Little MicroShift is hands down my favorite Soundtoys freebie. I originally grabbed it during a similar promotion back in 2020, [...]
View post: Soundtoys offers Little MicroShift for FREE in its 12 Days of Christmas promotion

UltraRare Maestro-1https://youtu.be/F9_v4pjOgcE Maestro-1 is the «little brother» of the famous Soviet Maestro synthesizer. Only one surviving example is known to exist. It is polyphonic, with two tones—high and low—and built-in vibrato on both, giving a total of four tones. Read More

Swamps from BOOM Library BOOM Library’s latest release brings together a collection of sounds captured across two expeditions to the wetlands of Florida over a three year period.

DoorDash driver faces felony charges after allegedly spraying customers’ foodA woman is facing felony charges in Evansville, Indiana over a DoorDash delivery in which she allegedly sprayed the food with a substance that made the customers vomit.

Condensing Diesel Heater Hack Is Dripping With EfficiencyNot a huge percentage of our readers probably get their heat from diesel fuel, but it’s not uncommon in remote areas where other fuels are hard to come-by. If you’re in one of those areas, this latest hack from [Hangin with the Hursts] could save you some change, or keep you  ̶2̶0̶%̶ ̶c̶o̶o̶l̶e̶r̶  25% warmer on the same fuel burn.
It’s bog simple: he takes his off-the-shelf hydronic diesel heater, which is already 71% efficient according to a previous test, and hooks its exhaust to a heat exchanger. Now, you don’t want to restrict the exhaust on one of these units, as that can mess with the air fuel mix, but [Hurst] gets around that with a 3″ intercooler meant for automotive intake. Sure, it’s not made for exhaust gas, but this is a clean-burning heater, and it wouldn’t be a hack if some of the parts weren’t out of spec.
Since it’s a hydronic heater, he’s able to use the exhaust gas to pre-heat the water going into the burner. The intercooler does a very good job of that, sucking enough heat out of the exhaust to turn this into a condensing furnace. That’s great for efficiency — he calculates 95%, a number so good he doesn’t trust it — but not so good for the longevity of the system, since this intercooler isn’t made to deal with the slightly-acidic condensation. The efficiency numbers are combustion efficiency, to be clear. He’s only accounting for the energy in the diesel fuel, not the energy that heats the water in his test, for the record; the electrical power going into the blower is considered free. That’s fair, since that’s how the numbers are calculated in the heating industry in general — the natural gas furnace keeping this author from freezing to death, for example, is a condensing unit that is also 95% efficient.
Another thing you can do to get the most from your diesel heating fuel is add some brains to the operation. Since this is a hydronic system, the cheapest option, long-term, might be to add some solar energy to the water. Sunlight is free, and diesel sure isn’t getting any cheaper.

KV331 Audio makes SynthMaster One FREE until January 4
KV331 Audio has made SynthMaster One free until January 4th (and you can, of course, keep your free license afterwards). The popular wavetable synth is yet another fantastic Christmas giveaway we’ve seen this month, following the freebies from Soundtoys, Universal Audio, iZotope, and others. SynthMaster One typically costs $49 (and often sells for around $25 [...]
View post: KV331 Audio makes SynthMaster One FREE until January 4

Cycles & Spots Reaktor Vectorhttps://youtu.be/vlZta5ctE-k Cycles & Spots crafted a soundscaper which modulates the levels balance of 4 samplers featuring 200 WAV loops implemented. The loops can all have different freely adjustable lengths for polyrhythms and a out-of-phase effect over time. Another huge feature is a randomizer that is well balanced to get best results. In fact because of it this instrument doesn't come with presets (except an intial one for default settings) as it is quick and easy to generate new ones. Of course from there onwards you could further fine-tune if you wish to. A chorus and stereo grain delays are added to the output to make it more thick and rich. Pack Details: Instrument for NI Reaktor feat: Vector XY Mixer With 2 LFOs 200 Implemented Loops Stereo Grain Delay 4 Sample Player Randomizer Chorus. Full Version Of NI Reaktor 6.5.0 (Or Higher) Needed. Read More

TOP MUSIC BUSINESS NEWS LAST WEEKTop music business news last week includes a playbook for small venues, a K-Pop scandal, new mechanical royalty rates, Audiomack, why fans by merch, and much more.
The post TOP MUSIC BUSINESS NEWS LAST WEEK appeared first on Hypebot.

Soundgas’ December Gasaway now live Soundgas have announced that their second monthly Gasway prize draw is now live and open for entries until 7 January 2026.

Sampleson introduce Funkastic Designed primarily to generate Clavinet-style parts, Sampleson's latest offering has been trained on an array of “funky grooves”, and is said to be capable of generating organ and bass lines as well as electric piano parts. 

SOL struggles as Solana TVL slides and memecoin demand fadesSOL demand cools as its total value locked drops by $10 billion and memecoin trading slumps. Traders’ lack of appetite for long leverage could further complicate the situation.

Ice Audio ICE FILTERICE FILTER A FREE auto filter with few curve parameters to shape your melodies and your transitions. Read More

Riding onboard with Rivian’s race to autonomyRivian demonstrated the progress it's made, and in the process showed just how far it still has to go to make its cars autonomous.

Hidden Camera Build Proves You Can’t Trust WalnutsTypically, if you happened across a walnut lying about, you might consider eating it or throwing it to a friendly squirrel. However, as [Penguin DIY] demonstrates, it’s perfectly possible to turn the humble nut into a clandestine surveillance device. It turns out the walnut worriers were right all along.
The build starts by splitting and hollowing out the walnut. From there, small holes are machined into the mating faces of the walnut, into which [Penguin DIY] glues small neodymium magnets. These allow the walnut to be opened and snapped shut as desired, while remaining indistinguishable from a regular walnut at a distance.
The walnut shell is loaded with nine tiny lithium-polymer cells, for a total of 270 mAh of battery capacity at 3.7 volts. Charging the cells is achieved via a deadbugged TP4056 charge module to save space, with power supplied via a USB C port. Holes are machined in the walnut shell for the USB C port as well as the camera lens, though one imagines the former could have been hidden purely inside for a stealthier look. The camera itself appears to be an all-in-one module with a transmitter built in, with the antenna installed in the top half of the walnut shell and connected via pogo pins. The video signal can be picked up at a distance via a receiver hooked up to a smart phone. No word on longevity, but the included batteries would probably provide an hour or two of transmission over short ranges if you’re lucky.
If you have a walnut tree in your backyard, please do not email us about your conspiracy theories that they are watching you. We get those more than you might think, and they are always upsetting to read. If, however, you’re interested in surveillance devices, we’ve featured projects built for detecting them before with varying levels of success. Video after the break.

nakst Integrate virtual analog synthesizer for Windows and Linux is now FREE
Developer nakst has announced that Integrate, a virtual analog synthesizer for Windows and Linux, is now available for free. The instrument was initially priced at $54.99 when released in 2022. Integrate takes inspiration from classic virtual analog synths but isn’t a straight emulation of any single piece of hardware. Instead, it feels like a modern [...]
View post: nakst Integrate virtual analog synthesizer for Windows and Linux is now FREE