Reactions
Another large indie distributor inks direct agreement with TikTok, as Ditto leaves behind expiring Merlin deal with platformEstablished acts currently distributing their music through Ditto include Chance The Rapper, Russ Millions, and Darkoo
SourceProduct Profile: Sony MDR-M1 Headphones Sony Pro Audio’s new MDR-M1 reference closed back monitor headphones feature an ultra-wideband playback dispersion curve that is designed to support many different usage applications that an artist or producer may encounter on a daily basis including tracking, mixing, and singing in front of a studio microphone where open back headphones, because of their sound leakage, are not necessarily the best choice for a lot of situations. The MDR-M1’s have a frequency response from 5kHz to 80kHz, which is the same as Sony’s open MDR-MV-1 open back headphones.
Finding the correct balance of a high degree of isolation is important when you are recording, and the Sony MDR-M1 headphones are designed to eliminate a large percentage of ambient noise and sound leakage in the recording process. When tracking vocals, the music, or whatever the artist is playing or singing along with, the source material needs to be at the correct volume. If it is too quiet, the singer might not project enough and if it is too loud, then sound can leak out of the headphones and make its way into the microphone, causing a hollowing out of the intended vocal capture, and in some cases, can even result in feedback.
The MDR-M1 headphones are designed to allow singers and vocalists to be able to sing out naturally and give all that a song or the performance deserves. The Sony MDR-M1’s are closed back headphones that have a high degree of sound isolation which make them a perfect choice for singing into a microphone when you want the microphone only to pick up the sound coming out of your voice.
Sony has a long legacy of headphone design and making headphones extremely comfortable. When you put the MDR-M1’s on they are like wearing a well-worn pair of jeans. They are so comfortable that it is easy to forget the fact that you are wearing them. Another great feature is that the MVR-M1’s can lie flat making them easier to transport. This is a useful feature if you are, for example, just packing them into the sleeve of your backpack and you’re traveling with them.
Since Sony has a long history of developing headphones, they have amassed a huge database of head shapes and sizes as well as need ear shapes and sizes which allowed Sony to determine the best shape and material for ear pads, headphones, headbands, and the appropriate amount of grab on your head. Sony also extensively used beta testers to give real world feedback in designing the MDR-M1 headphones. The end result is a pair of headphones that are exceptionally comfortable to wear for long recording sessions.
In terms of wearing headphones all day long, the parts and pieces of a headphone to be sufficiently strong to stand up to the abuses of real world use, balancing it with the weight of the headphone when you wear them on your head. In designing the MDR-M1 headphones, Sony was able to reduce the weight of the headphones down to 216 grams while making them strong enough to stand up to real world situations.
If you have the luxury of working in a high-end recording studio control room, you can crank up monitors as loud as you want. Obviously, the application is for headphones engineers to check whatever musicians or singers are actually listening to, checking their own mixes, things like that, however a huge part of the population do not have that luxury. If you live in an apartment, perhaps you can’t track or mix at loud volumes, or maybe you have a spouse that is going to be upset when you are recording too loud at whatever time of the day or night it is. In those cases, you have to do your work with headphones. The MDR-M1’s are comfortable to wear for hours and hours at a time, which is particularly important in a lot of home recording situations.
The MDR-M1s come with two different cables. One is a longer cable, about two and a half meters, and stretches from the left ear cup down to the ground and is perfect for connecting to a headphone distribution amplifier. The headphones also come with a little quarter-inch adapter, like what comes with the MDR7506 headphones. The headphones also come with a short cable, 1.2 meters, for when you are just listening to music on your phone, and you do not want to carry a long cable with you.
A lot of a headphones’ capability is in the design of the diaphragm. The diaphragm must be able to go from extremely low all the way out to 80 kHz and do so with a smooth transition between the frequency ranges in between. When designing the MDR-M1, Sony took into account that the center dome of the diaphragm had to be stiff enough to cover the top end of the frequency curve from 5Hz all the way out to 80 Hz, however it needs be pliable enough to be able to reproduce extremely low frequencies. The challenge with low frequencies, especially in headphones and in designing the diaphragm, is as you increase the volume, your low frequency distortion goes up, which can be a problem. The Sony M1’s are designed to minimize low frequency distortion, which is an important consideration if you are going to have headphones that can manage extremely low frequencies.
Sony’s MDR M1’s, because of their extremely high resolution and high wide frequency response, are capable of capturing and expressing the full details of your sound sources. Sony designed the MDR M1’s to be a reference standard for non-pro studio users and Sony went to great lengths to make and voice the MDR-M1 headphones to be as close as possible to a pair of high-end studio monitors in an acoustically designed control room. They are designed to be a reference standard against which to make your critical EQ choices as well. Having accurate sound localization is important to determine the distance of the sound recorded by the microphone. Sony’s MDR-V1 open-back headphones are designed for immersive mixing, where you do not have resonances inside of the earphone inside of the earcup, that can hurt the localization cues. But the MDR-M1’s are also fully accurate in terms of this localization.
The MDR-M1’s has a feature which Sony calls Beat Response Control. This is actually a tuned port built into the headphones which acts as an air resistor. Having headphones that can go all the way down to 5 Hz is great but if that bass is not well defined it won’t give you an accurate picture of the low end of your recordings. Having this acoustic port allows for the low frequency to stay very tight with sharp transients and the Beat Response Control helps make that possible. This can be important for example when you have two players, a bass player who is trying to tightly match his rhythms with the kick drum or some other bass groove.
Designing a pair of headphones that can reproduce a wide frequency response that are strong, lightweight and are extremely comfortable to wear for hours at a time is quite a challenge, but Sony with the MDR-M1’s succeeded in doing just that.
Sony’s MDR-M1 reference closed back monitor headphones are available now for MAP $249.99.
Find out more at pro.sony/ue_US/products/audio/pro-audio The post Product Profile: Sony MDR-M1 Headphones first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.
What happens to Bitcoin price if Microsoft shareholders vote to buy BTC?Microsoft’s upcoming vote on whether or not to build a Bitcoin position is just another sign of corporations’ and institutional investors’ growing interest in BTC.
FTC hits Lyft with $2.1M penalty for luring drivers with false earnings claimsLyft has agreed to a $2.1 million settlement proposed by the FTC over the car-hailing company’s “deceptive earnings claims about how much money drivers could expect to make.” As documented in the FTC’s complaint document, Lyft systematically inflated the incomes it advertised to drivers it was attempting to recruit in 2021 and 2022. For instance, […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.Can You Homebrew A Running Shoe?Unless you spend all your time lounging on the sofa, you probably own at least one pair of shoes. But have you ever thought to make your own to improve some aspect of your life? YouTube channel Answer in Progress set out to do precisely that, but it didn’t quite work out.
When you (well, other people) get into running, it’s tempting to believe a lot of the shoe company hype and just drop hundreds of dollars on the latest ‘super shoe’ and hope that will help you break your target time. But do you actually need to buy into all this, or can you make something yourself? The project aimed to get the 5k time down significantly, at any cost, but primarily by cheating with technology. The team set out to look at the design process, given that there is indeed a fair amount of science to shoe design. Firstly, after a quick run, the main issues with some existing shoes were identified, specifically that there are a lot of pain points; feet hurt from all the impacts, and knees take a real pounding, too. That meant they needed to increase the sole cushioning. They felt that too much energy was wasted with the shoes not promoting forward motion as much as possible; feet tended to bounce upwards so that a rocker sole shape would help. Finally, laces and other upper sole features cause distraction and some comfort issues, so those can be deleted.
A thicker mid-sole allows for a rolled shape
The plan was to make a ‘sock’ shoe style, with an upper in one piece and stretchy enough to slip on without laces. The process started by wrapping the foot in cling film and then a few layers of duct tape to fix the shape. This was split down the top to extract the foot, open out the pattern, and transfer it to some nylon fabric. The outer profile was transferred and cut out with simple hand tools in a fashion that would allow the shape to be reconstructed as it was glued to a sole. It sounds simple, but it’s pretty fiddly work.The latest running shoes use specialised rubber materials for the midsole. The solid foam wedge between the outer rubber and the inner sole cushions the foot. Those materials are only a few per cent ‘better’ than much more accessible foams that can be 3D printed. After sculpting a sole shape by hand using Blender, a friend 3D printed it. After that, the upper part was glued and ready for a test run. Which didn’t last long. It turned out that the lack of a stable heel counter (the bit around the back) that helps lock the heel in place meant the foot was too loose in the shoe, causing potential issues such as an ankle roll. That would be not good. A follow-up session with a sports-focused chiropodist demonstrated that all this was rather pointless before the fundamental issues of strength and fitness were addressed. So, whilst it was fun to see an attempt to beat the big boys at their own game, it sure isn’t easy to pull it off, especially if you can’t get off the sofa.
The invention of flexible 3D printing filaments spurred the development of a wide range of 3D-printed footwear, like these low-poly beauties. While we’re 3D printing shoes, we also need some lace locks. Finally, with winter approaching for us Northerners, perhaps it’s time to run off a pair of 3D-printed strap-on cleats.Thanks to [fluffy] for the tip!
‘Upgrading’ a Microwave Oven To 20 kWWhilst microwave plasmas are nothing new around here, we were curious to see what happens at 20x the power, and since YouTuber [Styropyro] had put out a new video, we couldn’t resist seeing where this was going. Clearly, as your bog standard microwave oven can only handle at most one kilowatt; the ‘oven’ needed a bit of an upgrade.
A 16 kW water-cooled magnetron. Why not over-drive it to 20 kW for fun?
Getting hold of bigger magnetrons is tricky, but as luck — or perhaps fate — would have it, a 16 kW, water-cooled beast became available on eBay thanks to a tip from a Discord user. It was odd but perhaps not surprising that this Hitatch H0915 magnetron was being sold as a ‘heat exchanger.’
[Styropyro] doesn’t go into much detail on how to supply the anode with its specified 16 kW at 9.5 kVDC, but the usual sketchy (well down-right terrifying) transformers in the background indicate that he had just what was needed kicking around the ‘shop. Obviously, since this is a [Styropyro] video, these sorts of practical things have been discussed before, so there is no need to waste precious time and get right on to blowing stuff up!
Some classic microwave tricks are shown, like boiling water in five seconds, cooking pickles (they really do scream at 20 kW) and the grape-induced plasma-in-a-jar. It was quite clear that at this power level, containing that angry-looking plasma was quite a challenge. If it was permitted to leak out for only a few seconds, it destroyed the mica waveguide cover and risked coupling into the magnetron and frying it. Many experiments followed, a lot of which seemed to involve the production of toxic brown-colored nitrogen dioxide fumes. It was definitely good to see him wearing a respirator for this reason alone!
Is it purple or is it indigo? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
The main star of the demonstration was the plasma-induced emissions of various metal elements, with the rare indigo and violet colors making an appearance once the right blend of materials was introduced into the glassware. Talking of glassware, we reckon he got through a whole kitchen’s worth. We lost count of the number of exploded beakers and smashed plates. Anyway, plasma science is fun science, but obviously, please don’t try any of this at home!
For those who didn’t take an ‘electron devices’ course at college, here’s a quick guide to how magnetrons work. Plasma physics is weird; here’s how the plasma grape experiment works. Finally, this old hack is a truly terrible idea. Really don’t do this.2B Played Music offers FREE QFX Echo Delay Plugin until October 31
2B Played Music is giving away its QFX Echo one-knob delay plugin (normally €19) for FREE until October 31, 2024. QFX Echo is a MacOS and Windows release available in AU and VST3 formats. To get your free copy of the plugin, enter the coupon code “ECHO” when you check out after hitting the Buy [...]
View post: 2B Played Music offers FREE QFX Echo Delay Plugin until October 31Another large indie distributor inks direct agreement with TikTok, as Ditto leaves behind expiring Merlin deal with platformEstablished acts currently distributing their music through Ditto include Chance The Rapper, Russ Millions, and Darkoo
SourceFrom Timbaland’s Suno partnership to UnitedMasters’ direct TikTok deal… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest stories from the past week – all in one place…
SourceAre TikTok Song IDs accurate? Pex found 20 for every songAre TikTik Song IDs accurate? Pex examined 141,000 songs on TikTok and found 2.8 million unique Song IDs and over 830 million videos containing these songs.
The post Are TikTok Song IDs accurate? Pex found 20 for every song appeared first on Hypebot.Jacob Collier partners with Google on new AI tool MusicFX DJJacob Collier has partnered with Google on a fresh new AI music production tool, MusicFX DJ.
MusicFX DJ aims to “revolutionise” music creation, allowing users to create entire tracks from simple prompts. Available on aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com, the tool allows users to explore instruments and other sonic palettes.READ MORE: LANDR Composer is an AI-driven plugin for creating chord progressions, melodies and harmonies
Sharing the news via Instagram, Collier calls the tool a “master-amalgamator of sonic elements”.
He says MusicFX DJ has the potential to create “non-linear, weird, continuously evolving tapestry”. He’s even donned his brightest outfit to reflect the technicolour ‘tapestry’ of sounds the tool can experiment with.
“As somebody who has long been obsessed by never-before-heard sounds, this process has fully delighted me,” Collier notes. “[MusicFX DJ’s] continuous, evolving nature makes it feel like orchestrating or arranging – a marvellous sort of sonic soup that can be steered in meaningful and uncharted directions.”View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Jacob Collier (@jacobcollier)
Collier puts a heavy focus on this “uncharted” territory that AI tools will be able to explore. “In this rushing tide of new technology, I think it’s important to cultivate tools that facilitate new and unusual creative thinking, and are not just imitative of what already exists,” he says.
“What I love about this tool is that it’s not designed to replicate my style or that of any other artist. Rather, it explores and forges fresh and unique materials in real time, that can inspire and feed into the music making process.”
Learn more about MusicFX DJ at aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com.
The post Jacob Collier partners with Google on new AI tool MusicFX DJ appeared first on MusicTech.“When Auto-Tune first came out, it was a tool. That’s what Suno is – the best tool of the future”: Timbaland says he spends 10 hours a day using Suno AIWhile many musicians disapprove of the lack of legal regulation with regard to AI use in music, producer Timbaland is a big proponent of artificial intelligence, and uses it regularly in his workflow. He’s even a Strategic Advisor of Suno.
READ MORE: “I trained it ethically using all of my own music” Meet LoopMagic, the AI sound generator by producer !llmind that lets you create copyright-free loops and melodies from scratch
Timbaland’s endorsement of the AI music creation firm has been shared on the company’s YouTube channel. Opening with a shot of the producer grooving along to a Suno-generated track, Timbaland enthuses: “I just love innovation. I love things that can take what I’ve been doing for 30 years of my life and make it better.”
The video then showcases a section of Timbaland’s creative process, which has become highly entwined with AI. He takes advantage of Suno’s Covers feature in particular, allowing it to remix his latest single, Love Again. “Suno is the tool – it’s the tool to turn your music into something that you have never heard,” he says.
At the centre of his excitement is how refreshing Suno feels to use. “I haven’t been excited about a tool in a long time,” he explains. “I loved Ableton when it came out, but [Suno] is the new everything… I’m like a kid. It’s like I’m 19 years old. It’s like falling back in love with the purity of creativity.”
Timbaland is also hosting a competition to create a remix of his new song Love Again using Suno AI, with a total of $100,000 up for grabs.Speaking to Rolling Stone about the partnership, Timbaland has waxes lyrical about Suno, claiming he uses it for 10 hours a day. He’s so fond that he even calls Suno “Baby Timbo”, apparently.
Asked about the lawsuits aimed at AI regulation, Timbaland is undeterred by such controversy: “When they talk that talk, I’m like, ‘Come on, bro. Everything y’all use is [like] AI, from Auto-Tune on down,” he frowns. “When Auto-Tune first came out, it was a tool. That’s what Suno is – the best tool of the future. It allows you to get any idea in your imagination out of your head.”
He also waves away worries about AI replacing musicians in the future: “You still need that human element to operate this tool. It doesn’t replace anything. All it does it add to your arsenal. The attack sometimes lets you know, like, OK, we’re onto something. We got something special. I understand it comes with some some stones thrown.”
However, the ‘stones’ being thrown are more like boulders. The RIAA filed lawsuits back in June against Suno and Udio, citing “copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale.”
The post “When Auto-Tune first came out, it was a tool. That’s what Suno is – the best tool of the future”: Timbaland says he spends 10 hours a day using Suno AI appeared first on MusicTech.
