El Salvador stacks 7 Bitcoin in last week, despite IMF dealThe government of El Salvador continues stacking Bitcoin (BTC) for its national crypto reserve, despite an ongoing deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stipulating that the Central American country stop using public funds to purchase Bitcoin as one of the conditions for a loan agreement.According to data from the El Salvador Bitcoin Office, the country acquired an additional seven BTC in the last seven days, bringing its total holdings to 6,173 BTC, valued at over $637 million.El Salvador's Bitcoin Office has continued its steady pace of Bitcoin acquisitions months after the IMF agreement was signed and shows no sign of halting its Bitcoin purchases.The Central American country is one of the only nations actively purchasing Bitcoin in open market operations, and its national Bitcoin treasury strategy will serve as a blueprint for other countries also considering Bitcoin strategic reserves, according to crypto industry executives.El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings and acquisitions since March 13. Source: El Salvador Bitcoin OfficeRelated: El Salvador works with Nvidia to develop sovereign AI infrastructureEl Salvador remains defiant against IMF pressure El Salvador signed a $1.4 billion loan agreement with the IMF in December 2024. As part of that agreement, the government of the country agreed to rescind its Bitcoin legal tender law and make Bitcoin payments voluntary.The agreement also stipulated that El Salvador must scale back its Bitcoin accumulation, refraining from using public funds to finance Bitcoin purchases. Additionally, the deal required the government privatize the Chivo Wallet, which was publicly funded but saw little use among residents.In January 2025, lawmakers in the Central American country repealed the Bitcoin legal tender law in a 55-2 Congressional vote, although this did nothing to pause or slow Bitcoin acquisitions.The IMF issued another request to the country to halt Bitcoin buys in March 2025, reiterating the original terms of the agreement. However, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele pushed back against the requests.Bukele emphasized that the country would not stop its Bitcoin purchases or slow down its accumulation of BTC in the face of mounting pressure from the supranational financial institution."No, it’s not stopping. If it didn’t stop when the world ostracized us and most 'Bitcoiners' abandoned us, it won’t stop now, and it won’t stop in the future," Bukele wrote in a March 4 X post.Magazine: El Salvador’s national Bitcoin chief has been orange-pilling Argentina

Elizabeth Holmes’ partner reportedly fundraising for new blood-testing startupBilly Evans, partner of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is working on a new startup that seeks to deliver “human health optimization” through blood testing, according to The New York Times. The Times reportedly spoke to two investors pitched on the startup, called Haemanthus, and also viewed some of Haemanthus’ marketing materials. In those materials, the […]

Move over, Lithopane: 3D Printed 3D Photos with Gaussian SplatsIf you had asked us yesterday “How do you 3D Print a Photo”, we would have said “well, that’s easy, do a lithopane”– but artist, hacker and man with a very relaxing voice [Wyatt Roy] has a much more impressive answer: Gaussian splats, rendered in resin.
Gaussian splats are a 3D scanning technique aimed at replicating a visual rather than geometry, like the mesh-based 3D-scanning we usually see on Hackaday. Using photogrammetry, a point cloud is generated with an associated 3D Gaussian function describing the colour at that point. Blend these together, and you can get some very impressive photorealistic 3D environments. Of course, printing a Gaussian smear of colour isn’t trivial, which is where the hacking comes in.

14-face isospheres do a good job of replicating the complicated Gaussian, as seen with this experimental long-exposure shot.
[Wyatt] first generates the Gaussian splats with an app called Polycam, which outputs inscrutable binary .ply files. With AI assistance of dubious quality, [Wyatt] first created a python script to decompile this data into an ASCII file, which is then fed into a Rhino script to create geometry for printing. Rather than try and replicate the Gaussian splat at each point perfectly, which would melt his PC, [Wyatt] uses 14-face isospheres to approximate the 3D Gaussian functions. These then get further postprocessing to create a printable mesh.
Printing this isn’t going to be easy for most of us, because [Wyatt] is using a multi-color DLP resin printer. The main body is clear resin, and black or white resin used for the space defined by the isospheres created from the Gaussian Splat. When the interior color is white, the effect is quite similar to those acrylic cubes you sometimes see, where a laser has etched bubbles into their depths, which makes us wonder if that might be a more accessible way to use this technique.
We talked about Gaussian splats when the technique was first announced, but it’s obvious the technology has come a long way since then. We did feature a hack with multicolor resin prints last year, but it was much more manual than the fancy machine [Wyatt] uses here. Thanks to [Hari Wiguna] for the tip.

Live Music Industry News Roundup: Live Nation, Festival Fears, Top May Tours…Let’s recap this week’s top live music news, ranging from festival fans with climate concerns, Bandsintown shares top tours this month, and more…
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Brian Wampler expands DIY pedal curriculum Brian Wampler has released a comprehensive new learning program aimed at players and builders looking to move beyond the basics of pedal design.

Last week’s Top Music Business News: Doechii, Music Marketing Awards, More…This week’s top news posts include the Music Marketing Awards highlights, women topping Hip-Hop charts with honest lyrics, and more…
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DIY and Independent Musician News Last WeekThis week, we shared tips and advice for all the independent and DIY musicians out there, focusing on how to market your music, how to practice mindfulness, and more…
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IsoAcoustics introduce GAIA Neo IsoAcoustics have unveiled GAIA Neo, a new generation of isolators designed to enhance the performance of floor-standing speakers and subwoofers.

Scaling startups in the European marketFrom cybersecurity and aerospace to generative 3D, startup leaders are scaling ambitious companies from European soil and taking on global markets. In this conversation at the StrictlyVC event in Athens, we talked to three founders about what it takes to go from idea to impact while navigating the continent’s unique challenges — and why building […]

NUGEN Audio Tackles Dialogue Clarity with New Plug-in, DialogCheckNUGEN Audio, a respected name in the world of professional audio tools, has just launched a new plug-in designed to solve a long-standing frustration in media production: unclear dialogue. Called DialogCheck, the software provides a precise way to assess how intelligible speech is in any audio project—be it film, television, radio, podcasting, or video games.For years, poor dialogue clarity has been a top complaint among viewers and listeners. While viewers at home crank up the volume or switch on subtitles, sound engineers are often left guessing how their mixes will translate outside the studio. NUGEN’s new plug-in is aimed at closing that gap.A statement from the company discloses that “poor speech clarity is commonly cited as a major source of television audience complaints, making dialog intelligibility increasingly important for audio professionals,” said Dr. Paul Tapper, CEO of NUGEN Audio.DialogCheck works in mono, stereo, and multichannel formats and allows users to measure intelligibility across a selected portion or the entirety of an audio track. This gives audio professionals the ability to identify problematic sections that may be difficult for end-users to understand—before the final render.A statement from the company states that "NUGEN Audio DialogCheck provides an objective measure of speech in a portion of the audio file or through an entire project.” This means the days of relying solely on trained ears and subjective impressions are numbered—now there's a tool to back up those instincts with data.Understanding dialogue is influenced by a host of factors: language, accent, enunciation, background noise, reverb, effects, and even the listener’s environment and equipment. DialogCheck takes these challenges into account, providing users with a clear view into how their audio might sound outside of the controlled studio environment. "It can be difficult for [engineers] to judge whether further changes are needed to improve clarity” due to the acoustic differences between a studio and a typical listening space.NUGEN Audio will officially present DialogCheck at the upcoming Media Production & Technology Show (MPTS) 2025 in London at the HHB stand (F40). For professionals seeking to ensure their dialogue tracks are as clear to audiences as they are in the studio, DialogCheck may prove to be an essential addition to their toolkit.The post NUGEN Audio Tackles Dialogue Clarity with New Plug-in, DialogCheck first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Inside a Selective Voltmeter[Martin Lorton] has a vintage Harmon 4200B selective voltmeter that needed repair. He picked it up on eBay, and he knew it wasn’t working, but it was in good condition, especially for the price. He’s posted four videos about what’s inside and how he’s fixing it. You can see the first installment below.
The 4200B is an RMS voltmeter and is selective because it has a tuned circuit to adjust to a particular frequency. The unit uses discrete components and has an analog meter along with an LCD counter.

The initial tests didn’t work out well because the analog meter was stuck, so it wouldn’t go beyond about 33% of full scale.
Since there are four videos (so far), there is a good bit of information and detail about the meter. However, it is an interesting piece of gear and part 3 is interesting if you want to see inside an analog meter movement.
By the fourth video, things seem to be working well. You might want to browse the manual for the similar 4200A manual to get oriented.
Forgot why we measure RMS? You weren’t the only one. RMS conversion in meters is a big topic and there are many ways to do it.

Spitfire Audio HeirloomThe emotional ensemble From the mind of acclaimed artist Keaton Henson comes a compositional toolkit of unique, modern scoring sounds, bestowed to enhance your sonic fingerprint with a beautiful human touch. Heirloom features delicate strings, raw woodwinds, an inspiring piano and haunting guitars captured in London's stunning Church Studios (Adele, The XX. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds). Inherently contemporary and perfect for emotive writing, this sound library is the audial equivalent of the worn away seat of your father's favourite chair. Traces, marks and imprints left behind by those who are perhaps no longer with us. Gone, but never forgotten. Complex emotions made simple Heirloom is perfectly poised to express emotions that are hard to put into words, capturing the contemplation of complex existential feelings, the human condition and the passing of time. The quality of the performances captured is pure and expansive in character, lending themselves to enhanced emotive scoring. This expansive character provides endless inspiration, via sounds that will slot into any composer's signature sound palette and compliment without taking over. Heirloom has a strong sense of home comforts, with a beguiling familiarity that allows the composer to feel comfortable using the sounds in a stripped back setting. Beautiful raw woodwinds, delicate strings, an inspiring piano, rich guitar tones and textures - these were all selected by Keaton Henson to hone in on that humanity, the subtle artefacts of these kinds of recordings. Write between the notes The unique beauty of this library can be found in its imperfections. It is between the notes that you will feel those human moments that stop you in your tracks. The natural sounds of the players and their instruments captured during a performance. Capturing new and alternative expressive techniques creates a great foundation for this sound library, but Spitfire Audio have also expertly captured a selection of small, exquisitely performed moments that can be found in the studio section, including swells and "chimes" (chime-like tones). These focused elements will make compositions sound even more real, and even more human. Heirloom features 8 string players (3 violins, 2 viola, 2 cello, 1 bass), woodwind including a Contrabass Clarinet, and Tubax, an achingly beautiful Piano (the beating heart of the library), and Guitar. All intimately recorded by the highly talented Fiona Cruickshank at London's atmospheric Church Studios. Past presence and future All musicians know that recording studios are sacred spaces. The Church is quite literally so, a beautiful, old place of worship in north London, whose stone walls and stained glass have for 170 years reverberated with the sound of prayers and some of the greatest music ever made. To record at Church Studios today is to play a part in music history that has included Adele, Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Florence + the Machine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Now Keaton Henson (Supernova, Six Lethargies, as well as 7 acclaimed solo albums) continues that lineage by acting as a medium between the decades of musicality shared there and Spitfire Audio — shaped through his own artistic lens and reverence for the beauty in imperfections. All of my favourite writing comes from not caring what to play next – but just wanting to hear the note ring out. Keaton Henson What's included Piano - This piano has the perfect amount of character, like an old but loved and well looked after piano that sits at a relatives house that you can't help but play every time you walk past. It is inspiring to play and unbelievably real: Piano Pedal Up. Piano Pedal Down. Strings (3.0.2.2.1) - Kept small and recorded close and never playing too loud, so that you can achieve an emotionally epic sound, but never lose the intimacy of the playing: Legato. Long. Long Flautando. Long Viol. Brushed. Short Rounded. Chimes. Guitar - The sounds range from a really authentic sounding picked guitar, to some more complex techniques which have created some rich and haunting pads and swells, all performed by Keaton on his trademark telecaster and re-amped inside the beautiful Church Studios: Swells. Shimmers. Harmonics. Plucked Bends. Plucks. Contrabass clarinet - An achingly soft and beautiful contrabass, with the perfect amount of breath without losing the tone. a perfect deep bed to build from, or soft section to play rumbling chords: Long. Stab. Air. Tubax - An incredibly warm, smokey and characterful Tubax, contrabass in register, but with the tones and warmth of a saxophone) the subtle breaths captured, the soft shifts in tone, and at the louder dynamic- guttural growls and snarling drones: Long. Stab. Air. YouTube/U2HFNyN8QhA Read More

Control an entire studio with Midi Fighter Spectra (like Mad Zach)If you’ve got a studio setup with tons of outboard gear, it could be an easy thing to get overwhelmed. Today in Mad Zach’s new video, he shows off how he uses a single controller – our Midi Fighter Specra to act as the brains of the entire operation. As an added bonus, he’s also […]
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“An entirely new process of artist–algorithm collaboration”: “Quantum-powered” AI music platform claims to respect ownership – but how does it work?UK tech company MOTH has developed a new “quantum-powered” AI music generator which it says respects the rights of those whose songs it has been trained on.
Dubbed Archaeo, the platform uses strictly artist-provided data, as opposed to “ethically murky, scraped datasets” which some AI platforms have been criticised for using.

READ MORE: Will GTA 6 change the way gamers discover music?

MOTH also claims the platform is enhanced by quantum computing, marking a “breakthrough in quantum’s real-world creative applications – with wider potential across music, media, gaming and more”.
Quantum computing is a developing technology which uses the principles of quantum mechanics to perform calculations, in theory significantly speeding up performance of certain functions.
In order to showcase the capabilities of Archaeo, MOTH has teamed up with British electronic artist ILĀ to create RECURSE, a new track which uses the quantum-powered AI. Showcased online via a 24/7 interactive stream, RECURSE generates and evolves in real time.
“This is a defining moment – not just for MOTH, but for the future of creativity itself,” says Dr. Ilana Wisby, CEO of MOTH. “RECURSE demonstrates the power of quantum AI to support and enhance, and not just take from, artists. It’s a blueprint for a new kind of creative technology – one that’s driven by imagination, rooted in ethics and designed to serve artists, not replace them.
“With Archaeo, we’ve supercharged generative AI by plugging a quantum capability into the engine room empowering artists like ILĀ to break new creative boundaries in ways never before possible.”
“Working with MOTH’s technology was a fascinating experience and has helped me create something genuinely new which feels like it’s pushing boundaries,” ILĀ continues. “As a tool, it focuses on expanding creative possibilities rather than simply replacing the artist. This feels very much like a collaboration – working with a technology that’s pushing me to do new, interesting, and surprising things.”
“AI predicts what’s likely. Quantum reveals what’s possible,” Dr. Wisby says. “That’s the future we’re building. Archaeo isn’t just another generative AI tool – it’s a quantum-powered engine for creativity. Our collaboration with ILĀ is a demonstration of what’s possible when we stop training models on the past and start creating tools that empower artists to define the future on their own terms.”
Learn more about Archaeo at MOTH.
The post “An entirely new process of artist–algorithm collaboration”: “Quantum-powered” AI music platform claims to respect ownership – but how does it work? appeared first on MusicTech.

WXAudio WebSamplerWebSampler is the easiest way to sample web audio. Sampling web audio sucks. Producers are all too familiar with the hassle of sampling web audio—either risking downloads from unreliable sites or wrestling with intricate audio setups in their DAW. Picture this. A web browser in a plugin. Record from any website and then just drag and drop into your DAW. You might be saying, 'But hey WXAudio, I already have my fancy setup to record audio into my DAW.' We think you will find WebSampler to be a far easier and better experience. Pros of WebSampler: Super quick. Just record and drag into your DAW. No routing setup required. Just a plugin. Built in sample manager for organization of recorded samples. Single monitor users no longer need to swap between their DAW and web browser. Extra ability to play audio directly into DAW (Can place audio FX on any web audio). High quality WAV recordings. Read More