The MacBook Neo is Apple’s cheapest MacBook model ever – will it be any good for music production?Apple has overhauled its current lineup of MacBook models, recently introducing the 2026 MacBook Pro and Air equipped with the brand’s latest and most high-performing M5, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
But perhaps most intriguing of the Cupertino tech giant’s latest round of launches is the £599 MacBook Neo, the brand’s most affordable MacBook ever, powered by an A18 chip, the same used in the iPhone 16.

READ MORE: How Apple’s new M5 Pro and M5 Max-equipped MacBook Pro could supercharge your music projects

Designing the perfect music production rig is a costly endeavour, helped in no part by the inevitable expense of the machine at the heart of the thing. Tech brands are very good at enticing you into considering the latest and highest-spec gear, but if you’re a hobbyist producer – or even a professional not working with heavily CPU-intensive projects – springing for top of the line is probably a little overkill and will leave you with an unnecessarily large hole in your wallet.
But is a laptop powered by an iPhone chip going too far the other way? Let’s take a look at the MacBook Neo’s specs, and the system requirements for music producers at different levels.
Credit: Apple
The performance of your computer is dictated largely by the processing power of the chip at the heart of the circuitry, but also by RAM – effectively the machine’s headroom or short-term, high-speed memory for performing tasks.
Generally, most music producers are recommended to get a computer with 8GB RAM minimum, with many recommending 16GB for more complex projects running a large number of tracks or plugins concurrently.
The MacBook Neo comes standard with 8GB RAM, so it certainly meets that minimum requirement, but again, it may struggle with more complex projects. It’s also worth noting that the base Neo has only 256GB of storage which, with the ever-increasing data size of software libraries and plugins – plus the masses of files you’ll invariably accrue during your creative endeavours – you’ll most likely need to spring for an external hard drive before long. There is a 512GB MacBook Neo available, too, for £100 extra. In terms of connectivity, the MacBook Neo features a 3.5mm headphone jack plus two USB-C ports.
The MacBook Neo is currently accompanied by all the shiny marketing Apple is so very good at, making it a pretty tempting prospect. But could you be better off as a music producer in this budget range going for a second-hand MacBook Pro – with an M1 or M2 chip, let’s say – that’s a couple years old? Honestly, probably.

Personally, I’ve got an M2-equipped MacBook Pro which comfortably handles my Logic Pro projects, even those that become a bit unwieldy with loads of plugins (including several instances of the same plugin on multiple channels when I should have one instance on a single send, but let’s not get into that).
The point is that music production is not as CPU-intensive a discipline as, let’s say, video editing or animation, so shelling out for the new M5 MacBook Pro is probably a bit unnecessary for the average producer (assuming music production is the main thing you’re buying it for). But might you run into issues running the Neo with its A18 iPhone chip? Perhaps. Simple programmes like GarageBand you’ll probably be flying. But complex Logic or Ableton projects, or Pro Tools? That remains to be seen.
As I publish this it’s 9 March, two days before the MacBook Neo – and new MacBook Pro models – hit the market. So we can’t say for sure yet whether the Neo will be any good for music production. But we’re certainly excited to find out.
Check out the MacBook Neo at Apple.
The post The MacBook Neo is Apple’s cheapest MacBook model ever – will it be any good for music production? appeared first on MusicTech.

BPB Deal: Get the UnitedPlugins MasterMind mastering plugin for €19 (normally €129)
UnitedPlugins is offering BPB readers an exclusive discount on MasterMind, a mastering channel strip developed by Soundevice Digital. The plugin normally costs €129, but you can get it for €19 by applying the coupon code BPBMM110 at checkout. BPB readers can use this discount until March 28, 2026. MasterMind is basically an all-in-one tool for [...]
View post: BPB Deal: Get the UnitedPlugins MasterMind mastering plugin for €19 (normally €129)

Kobito just released GrabTone, an experimental synth, for FREE for a limited time
GrabTone from Kobito is an experimental synthesizer plugin that lets you turn any sound into a playable instrument with MIDI, and it is free for a limited time. It uses two audio files, A (Shape) and B (Tone), to create a new synthesizer voice. Sound A provides the movement, articulation, and rhythm, while Sound B [...]
View post: Kobito just released GrabTone, an experimental synth, for FREE for a limited time

Diginoiz releases Layer It Lite, a FREE drum layering plugin with one big limitation
Diginoiz has released Layer It Lite, a free version of its Layer It drum layering plugin for Windows and macOS. Layer It is a sampler built specifically for layering drum sounds. It lets you load samples as stacked waveforms and trigger them all with a single MIDI note. You can offset the timing of each [...]
View post: Diginoiz releases Layer It Lite, a FREE drum layering plugin with one big limitation

Blinksonic release ECLO.RE/GEN The latest arrival to Blinksonic's ECLO.RE PLAYER series delivers a DAW-style instrument that's capable of transforming loops and stems into new sounds. 

Get 92% off this SSL Mixing Bundle in celebration of Plugin Boutique’s Mixing MonthPlugin Boutique is currently offering a whole bunch of deals on mixing tools as part of its ‘Mixing Month’ promotion, and you can get 92 percent off an exclusive Solid State Logic mixing bundle.
The bundle deal runs until 15 March, though many of its other mixing deals last until the end of the month or longer. Other brands included in the promotion include IK Multimedia, Sonarworks, Slate Digital, and Universal Audio.
[deals ids=”2PAOsPh9JKrhpdKEucLJ2E”]
The SSL bundle consists of four of its top-rated plugins, all for just £58. Inside, you’ll get the SSL Native X-EQ 2, X-ValveComp, X-Gate, and its Native FlexVerb plugins.

READ MORE: The best free and paid-for plugins you need to know about this week

Find out more about each one below:
SSL Native X-EQ 2
The X-EQ 2 is a highly configurable 24-band EQ plugin built upon SSL’s proprietary anti-cramping algorithms. This EQ toolkit offers 17 different EQ types and filter shapes, and each band is switchable between bell, shelf, low pass or high pass filter types, with both classic and customisable shapes available for each band. It also offers spatial processing options, band soloing, and the classic X-EQ ‘Parallel’ mode for recreating the characteristic sound of old parallel passive EQ circuits.

X-ValveComp
This plugin is a fully-featured mono or stereo channel compressor with a full set of classic channel compressor controls and an added ‘valve’ emulation stage. The valve emulation stage sits after the compressor in the signal path and adds a variable degree of primarily 2nd order harmonic saturation and distortion that “thickens and colours the sound”, according to Plugin Boutique. The compressor can be switched between Peak or RMS modes and has a full set of controls including; Threshold, Ratio, Knee, Attack, Release and Hold.

X-Gate
This visual gating plugin is inspired by the workflow from SSL’s digital broadcast consoles, and features a rolling waveform graph, mid/side processing options, plus tweakable hysteresis using independent open and closed thresholds. For extended sound sculpting there’s an intuitive sidechain filter interface and mid/side balance options to focus the gate on unwanted sounds and leave the processed signal as natural or affected as you’d like.

Native FlexVerb
FlexVerb is a reverb plugin designed to deliver a “professional mix-ready sound”. It has a split early-late reflection interface, allowing users to experiment with the sounds of different early room reflections, and a variety of expansive reverb tail options. It features a six-band EQ, High and Low Pass Filters, three-band reverb time multipliers and an input sidechain compressor.

To shop this Mixing Month deal and more, head over to Plugin Boutique.
The post Get 92% off this SSL Mixing Bundle in celebration of Plugin Boutique’s Mixing Month appeared first on MusicTech.

“Record, chop, and perform your sounds anywhere”: The Groovesizer Mynah is a pocket-sized, build-it-yourself sampler with bags of characterIf you’ve ever wished your sampler could fit in your pocket – and maybe look like a toy straight from your childhood – Groovesizer’s new release, Mynah, just might be your dream come true.
With its bright red, chunky plastic case and a delightful grid of round white buttons, Mynah looks more like a vintage handheld game than a serious piece of music gear. But don’t let its playful design fool you.
Beneath the cheerful exterior lies a powerful 6-voice polyphonic sampler equipped with a 16-step sequencer, real-time effects, and enough sonic possibilities tools to keep you busy for hours.

READ MORE: How I built a live track from scratch using only the Roland TR-1000

Powered by an ESP32 microcontroller and designed for musicians who want a “truly tactile creative tool”, Mynah lets you sample from dual inputs – whether a microphone or line-level source – and load up to 16 samples per song. These samples live on an SD card but get loaded into RAM, offering over two minutes of total sample time.
Real-time effects including delay, reverb, filter, stutter, gate, and bit crusher let you sculpt and twist your sounds on the fly, whether you’re programming beats or performing live.
Mynah‘s 16-bit, 32kHz ADPCM audio engine also delivers the gritty, crunchy tone reminiscent of classic vintage samplers. To keep your workflow fresh and modern, a companion web app lets you manage and import samples, build songs, and export high-quality stems directly from your browser.
If you enjoy soldering and tinkering, Mynah comes as a DIY kit with everything you need, including the PCB, enclosure, and all necessary components. “Basic soldering skills are all you need,” says the company. For those who’d rather skip straight to making music, Groovesizer also offers a fully built (and tested) version, ready to play right out of the box.
Thanks to its compact design and versatile features, Mynah puts sampling power literally in the palm of your hands. MIDI in/out jacks and MIDI clock sync mean it integrates easily with your other gear and setups, keeping everything locked in tight whether you’re in the studio or on the road.

Learn more at Groovesizer.
The post “Record, chop, and perform your sounds anywhere”: The Groovesizer Mynah is a pocket-sized, build-it-yourself sampler with bags of character appeared first on MusicTech.

Steven Slate’s VSX Immersion One headphones are making me consider selling my speakers£885 / $899 (headphones and VSX software), stevenslateaudio.com
I reviewed Steven Slate’s original VSX system in 2021, but little did I know at the time just how much they would integrate themselves into my mixing workflow. The headphones — paired with a room and speaker simulation software — now account for 90% of my studio time, with my studio monitors only being used for occasional mix checks.

READ MORE: Bringing open-back: The Grado headphones making life harder for music makers

The VSX software has seen multiple updates that refine and improve how its virtual rooms are captured and presented. Despite users worldwide getting effective results, it always felt that the system was slightly held back by the somewhat modest, closed-back headphones that were supplied with the system.
That is, until now.
Image: Press
The new Immersion One’s are open-back headphones with planar magnetic drivers housed in a high-quality enclosure. Like the closed-back design, each production run has been fine-tuned to work with the VSX software, offering improved transient and bass response, and a wider, three-dimensional sound stage. Could these headphones finally get me to ditch my studio monitors entirely?
Out of the box, the Immersion One feels like a quality product. The maple wood ear cups and aluminium casing are solid and sit comfortably on the ear. There’s also a twisted Y-cable that connects to each side separately. I find it a perfect fit, although some users online report that it sits a little low if you have a smaller head. At around 480 grams, they’re not light, but I don’t find them uncomfortably heavy. Planar magnetic cans tend to be on the heavier side and these sit alongside comparable units. The headphones are a a modified version of Sendy Audio’s AIVA, but have been fine-tuned by Steven Slate to get the best binaural sound via the software.
The planar driver is 97 x 76 mm, delivering a frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz. While this isn’t quite as big a spread as headphones from the likes of Audeze (which can achieve 10Hz to 50kHz), it’s more than enough to get a hi-fidelity sound.
Screenshot of VSX Club. Image: Alex Holmes
The impedance is low at 32 ohms, but as these are planar magnetic drivers, they benefit from being paired with a proper headphone amp due to current demands and sensitivity. Yes, you can power the Immersion Ones from a laptop or audio interface, and they will sound wide and detailed but you may not get the absolute best out of them. Using a dedicated headphone DAC/amp will provide more headroom, which means more potential volume, cleaner transients and less distortion when pushed. To be clear, this isn’t an issue that is unique to these particular headphones, rather it’s generally relevant for any planar magnetic models because of the need for increased voltage. I’m testing these on an Apollo X6 and also via a Fiio QX13 headphone DAC/amp (around £175).
Before I talk about the sound, it’s important to explain the VSX software, which is where the real magic in this system lies. It can either be loaded as a plugin in your DAW, or as a system-wide app. The Immersion Ones come with the full Platinum version of the software, which includes seven virtual headphones, 11 studio and listening rooms, two clubs, four cars, plus a boombox and cellphone. Many of these environments come with more than one setting, with most rooms featuring options for near, mid and far field monitors. With so much choice on offer, it pays to start by picking a single room and listening to a lot of reference material. Once you’ve built a mix, you can then easily switch to check how the low-end will translate in a club environment, and also balance parameters like vocal levels via the NS-10s or cellphone. By checking on several setups, you can refine your mix so that it translates across a range of speakers.
Screenshot of VSX Ecco EQ. Image: Alex Holmes
Since launch, the VSX software has enjoyed free updates, each of which has improved the process of capturing and presenting the modelled spaces. It’s comforting to see a company that’s so dedicated to continuously improving a single product — Steven Slate himself is active on forums helping users tune their software. The latest version of VSX includes technology that models the subtle interactions of the inner ear. It includes an E.CCO (Ear Canal Curve Optimization) EQ that can be modified to work with your unique ear shape. You can choose the recommended option of moving a single slider to customise the upper midrange of VSX to your ears, since ears have varying resonances between 2kHz and 5kHz according to their unique shape. Alternatively, you can get more granular and perform a custom calibration across the spectrum. I’m hoping that a separate left/right ear calibration option will eventually appear in an update.
Planar magnetic headphones are generally known for quick and accurate transients, along with low distortion and a linear and consistent response at both low and high listening volumes. All of these things are present here. I listen through a range of material and get totally lost in the detail. I can hear the tiniest of high-end transients in Max Cooper’s Spectrum, a forceful sense of weight listening to Noisia bass drops, and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky feels like a live performance, with multiple Pharrell harmonies clearly positioned in three-dimensional space. Throwing pop into the mix, I hear specific reverb and panning choices in the many vocal layers of Taylor Swift’s Fate of Ophelia. All of this translates to me being able to hear these kinds of details in my own mixes with more fidelity, ultimately making it easier to make settings and macro adjustments.
Although the headphones sound impressive enough through the Apollo’s headphone amp, I notice an improved high-end lift and less bass distortion at loud volumes when listening through the QX13. Also, these are incredibly open headphones, with close-to-zero noise cancellation. You’ll struggle to use these for tracking or in any space that has a lot of ambient noise, so there’s still a reason to keep the closed-back version if you’re upgrading.
Screenshot of VSX Archon. Image: Alex Holmes
Other companies make similar products to the VSX software, such as dSoniq’s Realphones and Lewitt’s Space Replicator. While these are effective when working with a range of different headphones, they simply can’t compete with the rigorous testing and refinement that comes from pairing specific hardware with software. Steven Slate and his team are now years deep into research into this topic, and each update has found a new way to improve the balance and accuracy of what you’re hearing.
There are times when the headphones melt away, and it really feels like you’re sitting in front of speakers. The combination of a calibrated headphone and a calibrated hearing EQ means that, in theory, any two VSX users can hear exactly the same thing. This can’t really be said for any other speaker or headphone system.
 

There’s still value in the physical sound of speakers, and I plan to continue checking mixes on my monitors. However, if I were working remotely, I would be happy to trust my mixes or masters from working on these headphones alone.
Although the raw sound from the Immersion Ones is decent enough, some may argue that there’s better headphone hardware out there for the overall asking price. However, when you factor in the big improvements in sound that come from the software, along with the usefulness and flexibility of mixing in different environments, then they’re really in a class of their own.
Key features

Open-back headphones and room simulation software
97 mm x 76 mm planar magnetic driver
20 Hz – 40 kHz frequency response
32 Ohms impedance
Maple wood earcups and aluminium casing
VSX Platinum V6 plugin and system-wide software
11 studio and listening rooms, 2 clubs, 7 headphones, 4 cars, a boombox and a cellphone
Multiple modeled speakers from Genelec, Kali Audio, ATC, Adam, Neumann, PMC and more
E.C.C.O (Ear Canal Curve Optimisation) EQ
Weight: 480 grams
Comes with softshell case/hemp cable pouch; 2.5m unbalanced cable

The post Steven Slate’s VSX Immersion One headphones are making me consider selling my speakers appeared first on MusicTech.

Kemper’s Profiling technology evolves Kemper’s amp-modelling systems already have a great reputation, but the latest update to their systems’ underlying technology promises to deliver even more lifelike results. 

Watch KSHMR transform a rubber chicken into an epic arrangement
Watch KSHMR take his sampling skills to the test, flipping everything from his own sounds to a rubber chicken into a larger-than-life arrangement.

Saylor signals another Bitcoin buy as BTC hovers near $66KStrategy's Bitcoin treasury is valued at over $48.4 billion at the time of this writing, but with a net asset value of less than 1, it's trading at a discount.

Palmer Luckey’s retro gaming startup ModRetro reportedly seeks funding at $1B valuationThe company launched its first product, a Game Boy-style handheld device called the Chromatic, in 2024.

Revealed Recordings Revealed Serum 2 Reese RenaissanceRevealed Serum 2 Reese Renaissance is a collection of 50 presets and MIDI that embody the rebirth and artistic expansion of the sublime Reese sound. Each preset delivers fluid movement, cinematic depth, and a harmonic richness designed to impart mastery into your productions. Every preset is equipped with modwheel controls and intuitive macros, giving you a wealth of expressive modulation options to completely transform your sound. As the second chapter of this trilogy, Reese Renaissance provides the tools to infuse your music with renewed inspiration. Reveal Yourself. Revealed Serum 2 Reese Renaissance - Details BASS (50). Revealed Serum 2 Reese Renaissance (MIDI) - Details MIDI (50). 50 presets, 50 MIDI Core synthesizer patch mapping and programming All presets assigned intuitive modwheel parameters All presets assigned all eight macro controls for easy tweaking and multiple sound variations. Preset format(s): .SerumPack (Full Bank) Note: Presets Require Full Retail Version of Xfer Record's Serum 2 version v2.0.22 or later Approx. 14.7MB compressed .zip download. Read More

How Usable is Windows 98 in 2026?With the RAM and storage crisis hitting personal computing very hard – along with new software increasingly suffering the effects of metastasizing ‘AI’ – more people than ever are pining for the ‘good old days’. For example, using that early 2000s desktop PC with Windows 98 SE might now seem to be a viable alternative in 2026, because it couldn’t possibly make things worse. Or could it? As a reality check, [SteelsOfLiquid] over on YouTube gave this setup a whirl.
The computer of choice is a very common Dell Dimension 2100, featuring a zippy 1.1 GHz Intel Celeron, 256 MB  of DDR1, and a spacious 38 GB HDD. Graphics are provided by the iGPU in the Intel i810 chipset, all in a compact, 6.9 kg light package. As an early Windows XP PC, this gives Windows 98 SE probably a pretty solid shot at keeping up with the times. At least the early 2000s, natch.
Of course, there is a lot of period-correct software you can install, such as Adobe Photoshop 5, MS Office 97 (featuring everyone’s beloved Clippy), but a lot of modern software also runs, with the Retro Systems Revival blog documenting many that still run on Win98SE in some manner, including Audacity 2.0. This makes it totally suitable for basic productivity things.

YouTube in Netscape 4.5 on Windows 98. (Credit: Throaty Mumbo, YouTube)
Gaming on Win98 is naturally limited to games from around that early 2000s time period or before, but the gaming library even for just Win98 and MS-DOS is pretty massive, so as long as you’re fine not playing the latest and greatest games, this is also pretty easy.
Where things get dicey is of course with using the modern Internet, as you need a modern browser and support for the latest TLS encryption features to not have many websites throw a hissy fit. Using Frog Find and similar proxies that target retro computing help here, fortunately.
Previously we covered ways that you can use Discord even on Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.1, others have ported .NET applications to Windows 9x, got Win98 up and running on a 2020-era system, and you can totally use modern YouTube in even the Netscape 2.x browser using an NPAPI plugin.
Although there are many arguments to be made for using at least a Windows version with an NT kernel over the 9x one, it’s hard to deny that software Back Then was less complex, less resource-hungry and still got all the things done. Maybe it is worth another look, before the AI Crisis forces us all back on Windows XP systems like the one featured in this video.

Release Title:
Я приму тебя всю
Main Artist:
Pchelsh
Release Date:
08/03/2026
Primary Genre:
Pop
Secondary Genre:
Indie Rock
https://publme.lnk.to/422855-
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #pop #rock