The BBC Sound Effects Archive now has over 33,000 free samples ready to downloadEver wanted to experience the roar of the crowd of the 1989 FA Cup Final? Or perhaps immerse yourself in the sounds of an African market? What about simply going on a muddy walk, or creeping close to a pack of grunting reindeer? Well, you’re in luck. With over 33,000 samples on offer, the BBC Sound Effects Archive might have the sound you’re itching for.
While BBC’s Sound Effects Archive opened in 2018, its library has more than doubled in the last 6 years. The selection spans from the sound of hands being washed in a bucket, to croaking frogs, to crackle and chatter of around a bonfire. Samples date back to the 1920s, with the earliest sounds being gas engines, chiming clocks and whirring sewing machines.

READ MORE: Sample libraries are here to stay – so why do some producers still find their use illegitimate?

The entire library is free to download – but you can’t use any sounds on music you plan to sell. Each archival sound has a non-commercial RemArc License, meaning you can’t legally use any of these samples for profit.
If you’re just experimenting in the studio or using it for a personal project, it’s fair game. And the site even has its own Mixer Mode, so you can build your own soundscapes without having to download anything.
The RemArc License aims to aid with research and education alongside personal projects. The tracks have also been shared specifically with dementia research in mind. The RemArc, short for ‘Reminiscence Archive’, was designed to assist those with dementia “by stimulating their long-term memory with material from the past.”
Musicians and sound designers can certainly learn a lot from the high-quality recordings. The BBC has put ample effort into atmospheric sampling for decades – and it all stems back to the height of entertainment radio. From cutting tape film with shears to simulate ‘cutting grass’, to mic-ing up and hopping into a shower to record ‘rainfall’, the 1920s welcomed in a bold age of sampling experimentation.
In a BBC article exploring the broadcaster’s sampling history, Radio 4’s Andrew Partington notes the importance of immersive sound design. “It is very easy to underestimate the importance of the sound effects because very often they’re going on at an almost subconscious level behind a scene where someone’s making a cup of tea,” he says. “But take them away and you realise how important they were.”
The BBC’s 1931 Yearbook notes that it would be “a great mistake to think of [sound effects] as analogous to punctuation marks and accents in print.” A strong archive of sound effects is the “bricks with which to build” any sonic world, and thus they should be considered with equal care as “speech and music.”
You can access the BBC’s Sound Effects Archive now.
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Spike Stent offers his expertise in Spike AI The acclaimed mix engineer with credits including The Beatles, Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran is attempting to bring his expertise to a much wider audience through Spike AI.

IK Multimedia T-RackS 6: the most accessible mixing and mastering suite on the market?Intro version: Free
Standard: $/€99.99
Pro: $/€199.99
MAX: $/€299.99
Upgrades available for existing users
ikmultimedia.com
For well over twenty years, IK Multimedia has been distilling the dark art of mastering and pouring it into T-RackS. Over those long years, this oddly-named software has gone from strength to strength, expanding from a standalone mastering console, to a sprawling one-stop shop for bedroom producers and studio professionals alike.
Now on its sixth release, T-RackS is bigger, better and more affordable than ever.

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There are four pricing tiers to choose from. On the lowest end, we have a completely free ‘Intro’ version that comes with a tasting flight of three plugins, and from there we move up in €100 increments with progressively more plugins, reaching 60 when you get to the $299 MAX version.
Balancing faithful hardware emulations and original creations, these plugins cover just about all aspects of modern mixing and mastering. You get classic dynamic processors like the excellent Dyna-MU, modelled from the Manley Stereo Variable MU compressor, EQ modules such as the Pultec-inspired EQP-1A, and channel strips like the British Channel which appears to take cues from the SSL 4000.

Additionally, there’s the Mic Room plugin which, much like Waves’ The King’s Microphones, models high-end microphones like the Neumann U87 and AKG C-414. While we can’t say it truly gets you the authentic sound of these microphones, it works great as a tone control, adding new flavours to recordings that sound flat or uninspiring.
There’s plenty of workhorse reverbs and delays, but, new with T-RackS 6, there’s also a selection of forward-thinking effects that stray into creative sound design territory. The new Dual Spring reverb has five spring materials to choose from and lets you artificially compress or stretch the spring length for decidedly experimental textures. Filter Fusion comes with a step sequencer, envelope follower, LFO, and a joystick that lets you dynamically blend between all three modulation sources. Lo-Fi Punch excels on bass and percussion stems, but can get downright chaotic if you dial up the pitch and flutter controls. These are attractive options not just for mixing but for production as well.
Most intriguing of all though might be IK Multimedia’s hybrid, all-in-one plugins. Since T-RackS 5, and the introduction of the ONE mastering plugin, the brand has been working on a set of tools to unify various audio processes into a single module, with an easy-to-use interface slapped on top. Far from being a gimmick, ONE has come to be well regarded as a powerful mastering tool used by novices and pros alike. In a similar vein, the new Channel Strip X features single-dial controls for compression, de-essing, EQ and stereo imaging, while the Bass One module tackles the low end to produce fantastic results with a minimum of parameters.
On the furthest end of the automation spectrum, we have Master Match X – an AI-powered mastering plugin that analyses your mix and matches it to a reference track. Where the previous version of Master Match could only tweak the EQ curve, it now can match compression, limiting and stereo imaging too. Another new feature is a selection of inbuilt reference mixes covering a range of different musical genres.
Master Match X in T-RackS 6
The feature set has improved, and so has the quality. Where automated mastering plugins once served as a good starting point, Master Match X can now get you surprisingly close to release-ready results. Thankfully, however, you’re not committed to what the plugin dictates; once it’s worked its magic there are options to modify the output with further EQ, compression, limiting and imaging.
Together, T-RackS’ plugins do a great job of meeting the current moment. Many creators prioritise accessibility, speed, and digital tools that ‘just work’ – at the same time, our continued fascination with vintage music hardware is alive and well. T-RackS 6 serves up the best of both worlds.
All of these modules can be individually loaded in as inserts in your DAW or quickly chained together using the excellent T-RackS plugin. With a well thought out, uncluttered user interface, the T-RackS plugin offers a speedy workflow for navigating the plugin library, building up effect chains, and processing sound in sequence or in parallel. It also boasts fantastic presets that provide plugin chains for individual instruments, mix busses, and mastering. The only fly in the ointment is that it can’t host third-party plugins – an addition that would make it truly formidable.
T-RackS 6 in Logic Pro
Despite the increasing focus on mixing and production, IK Multimedia hasn’t lost sight of where T-RackS started out: the Mastering Console. Load up the standalone application and you’ll be greeted by a clean workspace to drop in your master-ready mixes. Individual modules can be loaded in from a panel on the right, and there’s an additional Module Manager application where you can select which plugins you want to show up in the Mastering Console or in your DAW. It’s a simple but highly useful feature for professionals who don’t want to scroll through 60 plugins to find a handful of favourites.
Each track you load gets its own plugin chain, and each chain can have up to 16 modules. There’s four memory recall slots which allow you to quickly compare different mastering chains, and a helpful Equal Gain feature to volume-match these memory slots for more accurate comparisons.
A new Master Bus section holds an additional four modules which can be applied across every track in the project – incredibly handy if you wanted to run an entire album through the same tape emulation for example. Talking of albums, there’s also an Assembly View where you can sequence tracks, fine-tune start and end points, create crossfades between tracks and input metadata.
Mastering chain in T-RackS 6
The advanced metering section is another standout, with LUFS, peak, RMS, dynamic range meters and a host of industry-standard loudness references to choose from. There’s also a spectrogram, a spectral analyser, and phase and correlation meters. Many of these features will exceed the needs of average users, but that’s kind of the point: T-RackS 6 accommodates a range of skill levels and use cases – it also leaves you room to grow.
Between the near fully-automated mastering of Master Match X, the simplified parameters of plugins like ONE and Bass One, and the pro-level capabilities of Mastering Console, T-RackS feels appropriate for novices looking to get started with DIY mastering, bedroom producers who want to take their tracks to the next level, and professionals working to high standards and tight deadlines.
Achieving such a wide scope has to be commended. T-RackS has long since exceeded its initial remit as a suite of mastering plugins, and, with an increasingly diverse range of tools being added, there is always a danger of tipping over into ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ territory. But there’s no lack of focus here – this is still one of the most powerful and versatile software mastering solutions available, only now it also has relevance for mix engineers and even producers.
Full suite of professional tools in T-RackS 6
Sure, Ozone 11 might edge out in front when it comes to AI-powered mastering, Universal Audio arguably takes the lead on faithful hardware emulations, and a Waves subscription will net you a wider range of plugins. But once you really dig in, it becomes clear that the difference in quality between T-RackS 6 and its competitors is actually miniscule – the difference in price, however, is big.
Despite increasing the number of included plugins, introducing brand new modules and improving old ones, T-RackS 6 costs less than the previous version. Across the four pricing tiers there is remarkable value at every step. While the €299.99 MAX version may feel like a significant investment, for that price you can expect a fully-featured suite of professional tools.
Of course, once you factor in subscription libraries, the competition looks decidedly stronger, but as a standalone purchase there is simply nobody else offering a similar scope, quality, and utility at this price point. T-RackS is the one to beat.

Key features

Four pricing tiers including a new free option
Up to 60 plugins
8 new modules, adding sound design capabilities
Standalone Mastering Console
AI-powered Master Match X
Module Manager lets you pick which plugins appear in the library

The post IK Multimedia T-RackS 6: the most accessible mixing and mastering suite on the market? appeared first on MusicTech.

WOMEX full line-up announced Manchester Music City have revealed the full music and film line-up for the WOMEX 24 Festival, featuring over 50 live acts from around the world.

Bitcoin monthly close, fresh bullish narratives lead BTC traders to aim for new price highsBitcoin’s monthly close could reverse a 6-month-long downtrend and signal traders’ intent to push BTC price to new highs. 

Gov. Newsom vetoes California’s controversial AI bill, SB 1047California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB 1047, a high-profile bill that would have regulated the development of AI. The bill was authored by State Senator Scott Wiener and would have made companies that develop AI models liable for implementing safety protocols to prevent “critical harms.” The rules would only have applied to models that […]
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Thinkpad 13 Gets NVMe Support With Three JumpersHardware restrictions can be unreasonable, and at times, it can be downright puzzling just how arbitrary they are. Such is the case with the Lenovo ThinkPad 13 — it’s got a M.2 M-key socket, yet somehow only supports SATA SSDs in it, despite the CPU being new enough to support both SATA and NVMe effortlessly. [treble] got one of those laptops from a recycler, and decided to figure out just what this laptop’s deal is.
Armed with schematics, she and her friend looked at the M.2 implementation. The slot’s schematic sure looked ready to support either kind of drive, a surprising find. Here’s the catch — Lenovo only populated components for SATA drive support. All you need to switch from SATA to NVMe support is three magnet wire jumpers, or zero-ohm 0402 resistors, and voila; you can now use the significantly cheaper kind of M.2 drives in your ThinkPad.
All is documented, and [treble] even mentions that you could increase the link speed by adding more PCIe lane capacitors that Lenovo, again, left unsoldered. UEFI already has the modules needed to boot from NVMe, too – it’s an outright upgrade for your laptop with just a soldering iron’s touch required, and a reminder that proprietary tech will screw you over for entirely arbitrary reasons. Now, it’s not just laptops you can upgrade with a few resistors — same goes for certain electric cars.

First Tentative Sales of Tandem Perovskite-Silicon PV PanelsTo anyone who has spent some time in photovoltaic (PV) power circles, the word ‘perovskite’ probably sounds familiar. Offering arguably better bandgap properties than traditional silicon cells, perovskite-based PV panels also promise to be cheaper and (literally) more flexible, but commercialization has been elusive. This is something which Oxford PV seeks to change, with the claim that they will be shipping the first hybrid perovskite-silicon panels to a US customer.
Although Oxford PV prefers to keep the details of their technology classified, there have been decades of research on pure perovskite PV cells as well as tandem perovskite-silicon versions. The reason for the tandem (i.e. stacked) construction is to use more of the solar rays’ spectrum and total energy to increase output. The obvious disadvantage of this approach is that you need to find ways to make each layer integrate in a stable fashion, with ideally the connecting electrodes being transparent. A good primer on the topic is found in this 2021 review article by [Yuanhang Cheng] and [Liming Ding].
The primary disadvantage of perovskites has always been their lack of longevity, with humidity, UV irradiation, temperature and other environmental factors conspiring against their continued existence. In a 2022 study by [Jiang Liu] et al. in Science it was reported that a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell lost about 5% of its initial performance after 1,000 hours. A 2024 study by [Yongbin Jin] et al. in Advanced Materials measured a loss of 2% after approximately the same timespan. At a loss of 2%/1,000 hours, the perovskite layer would be at 50% of its initial output after 25,000 hours, or a hair over 2.85 years.
A quick glance through the Oxford PV website didn’t reveal any datasheets or other technical information which might elucidate the true loss rate, so it would seem that we’ll have to wait a while longer on real data to see whether this plucky little startup has truly cracked the perovskite stability issue.

Top image: Summary of tandem perovskite-silicon solar cell workings. (Credit: Yuanhang Cheng, Liming Ding, SusMat, 2021)

TikTok Music is shutting down next month. For #MusicBusiness and #MusicIndustry it means quite a lot I think and especially for #MusicTechnology. It seems the market will not be the same in several years.
Some time ago when I drew my #decentralization schemes to the community members and it was very exciting to think when these times are going to be. However, the difficult situation in the world makes people bring a number of questions to the table

HOFA Colour Delay available now HOFA have unveiled the Colour Delay, a new plug-in designed to provide a wide range of delay effects.

AllMusic's Favorite Oasis Song that’s NOT on Definitely Maybe or Morning GloryRevisiting this year's mammoth 30th Anniversary deluxe edition of their breakthrough premiere Definitely Maybe and invariably continuing on through the superior(?) second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? got us to thinking: What are our favorite Oasis songs that are not from those two landmark albums? B-sides? Deep cuts? Guest spots? Solo projects? Sprawling coke-fueled follow-ups? Once you've removed the arguable cream from the top, what delicious treats still remain in the cup?

Let's find out.

User loses $32 million spWETH in a sophisticated phishing attackAccording to crypto security firm Scam Sniffer, 9,145 users were victims of phishing attacks during August 2024, losing funds as a result.

X faces additional $1.9M fine to end ban in BrazilX (formerly Twitter) could soon resume service in Brazil — if it’s willing to pay an additional fine. Reuters and other publications have reported on an order from the country’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes stating that the Elon Musk-owned social network could “immediately return to its activities in national territory” if it pays […]
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Man-in-the-Middle PCB Unlocks HP Ink CartridgesIt’s a well-known secret that inkjet ink is being kept at artificially high prices, which is why many opt to forego ‘genuine’ manufacturer cartridges and get third-party ones instead. Many of these third-party ones are so-called re-manufactured ones, where a third-party refills an empty OEM cartridge. This is increasingly being done due to digital rights management (DRM) reasons, with tracking chips added to each cartridge. These chip prohibit e.g. the manual refilling of empty cartridges with a syringe, but with the right tweak or attack can be bypassed, with [Jay Summet] showing off an interesting HP cartridge DRM bypass using a physical man-in-the-middle-attack.
This bypass takes the form of a flex PCB with contacts on both sides which align with those on the cartridge and those of the printer. What looks like a single IC in a QFN package is located on the cartridge side, with space for it created inside an apparently milled indentation in the cartridge’s plastic. This allows is to fit flush between the cartridge and HP inkjet printer, intercepting traffic and presumably telling the printer some sweet lies so that you can go on with that print job rather than dash out to the store to get some more overpriced Genuine HP-approved cartridges.
Not that HP isn’t aware or not ticked off about this, mind. Recently they threatened to brick HP printers that use third-party cartridges if detected, amidst vague handwaving about ‘hackers’ and ‘viruses’ and ‘protecting the users’ with their Dynamic Security DRM system. As the many lawsuits regarding this DRM system trickle their way through the legal system, it might be worth it to keep a monochrome laser printer standing by just in case the (HP) inkjet throws another vague error when all you want is to just print a text document.

VR Headset With Custom Face Fitting Gets Even More CustomThe Bigscreen Beyond is a small and lightweight VR headset that in part achieves its small size and weight by requiring custom fitting based on a facial scan. [Val’s Virtuals] managed to improve fitment even more by redesigning a facial interface and using a 3D scan of one’s own head to fine-tune the result even further. The new designs distribute weight more evenly while also providing an optional flip-up connection.

It may be true that only a minority of people own a Bigscreen Beyond headset, and even fewer of them are willing to DIY their own custom facial interface. But [Val]’s workflow and directions for using Blender to combine a 3D scan of one’s face with his redesigned parts to create a custom-fitted, foam-lined facial interface is good reading, and worth keeping in mind for anyone who designs wearables that could benefit from custom fitting. It’s all spelled out in the project’s documentation — look for the .txt file among the 3D models.
We’ve seen a variety of DIY approaches to VR hardware, from nearly scratch-built headsets to lens experiments, and one thing that’s clear is that better comfort is always an improvement. With newer iPhones able to do 3D scanning and 1:1 scale scanning in general becoming more accessible, we have a feeling we’re going to see more of this DIY approach to ultra-customization.