The Woodworker’s CyberdeckComputers were supposed to be personal, customizable, and cool. At times, in this cold modern world, we forget that. However, the cyberdeck scene is chock full of people building creative, original computers that suit their own tastes, aesthetics, and needs. [DIY Tinkerer] is one such individual, and he made the most of his woodworking skills when it came time to build his own cyberdeck!
The technological basics are along the lines of what we’re used to in this field. The build is based around a Raspberry Pi 4, with [DIY Tinkerer] selecting an 8 GB model for his needs. It’s paired with a 9000 mAh onboard battery, and there’s a power jack on the front to let the thing run on anything from 5 to 20 volts DC. For ease of use, there’s a multi-memory card reader and several USB 3 ports available.
The rest of the video focuses on the woodworking side of things. [DIY Tinkerer] shows us how he managed to build a new housing out of a rugged plastic case that would also be practical to use. The final product is both functional and attractive, and comes with an oscilloscope built in to boot! It came a long way from his earlier build, too.
We’ve seen a great load of cyberdeck builds over the years.

Audient launch ORIA iPad Remote & Dante Card Audient's Atmos-capable interface and monitor controller now offers remote control via an iPad and up to 16 channels of Dante connectivity when being used in standlone mode.

Concord closes $850m Asset-Backed Securities transaction to ‘fuel strategic growth and acquisitions’Transaction was led by Apollo
Source

Ditto dumps Merlin as TikTok takedown of millions of indie tracks loomsDitto dumps Merlin deal and signs directly with TikTok as this week's takedown of millions of tracks by independent artists used in videos looms.
The post Ditto dumps Merlin as TikTok takedown of millions of indie tracks looms appeared first on Hypebot.

How To Book More Gigs: Essential Tips for Indie ArtistsBooking gigs as an indie artist can be challenging, but we've got you covered. Discover proven strategies to land more shows, build your fanbase, and take your live performances to the next level.
The post How To Book More Gigs: Essential Tips for Indie Artists appeared first on Hypebot.

Avenged Sevenfold hold intimate 25th anniversary concert exclusively for members of NFT-based fanclubStill NFT-sceptic? That makes you and millions of others. But many forward-thinking artists and their communities are already reaping the benefits of having faith in the blockchain, and its potential to provide exclusive real-world utility.
Take Avenged Sevenfold as an example. The Huntington Beach metal titans are no stranger to the blockchain, having launched an NFT-based fanclub, Deathbats Club, in 2021, and earlier this year, Season Pass, a Fortnite-style progression system which rewards the band’s most dedicated fans with special perks.

READ MORE: Avenged Sevenfold celebrate their 25th anniversary with spooky virtual museum inside Fortnite

And Deathbats Club members were treated to a very special intimate concert at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California on Friday (25 October), with a setlist composed entirely of songs from the band’s first three albums: Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001), Waking the Fallen (2003) and City of Evil (2005).
Tickets were made available exclusively for Deathbats Club members back in August, priced at $25 each.
Supported by Orange County hardcore punk outfit Death By Stereo, A7X took to the stage for an 11-track setlist, with fan favourites like Beast and the Harlot, Seize the Day and Unholy Confessions interspersed with rarities including Remenissions, Desecrate Through Reverence, and even Sounding the Seventh Trumpet opener To End The Rapture.
In the spirit of Spooky Season, frontman M Shadows performed in a skeleton one-piece, while guitarist Synyster Gates donned a trilby which may or may not have been a nod to his City of Evil-era look.
Take a look at the full setlist below:

To End The Rapture (first time since 2017)
Chapter Four (first time since 2018)
Burn It Down (first time since 2018)
Blinded In Chains
Remenissions (first time since 2016)
Seize The Day
Second Heartbeat (first time since 2018)
Desecrate Through Reverence (first time since 2004, first performance with Brooks Wackerman)
Unholy Confessions
Beast And The Harlot (first time since 2018; fans playing with band)
M.I.A. (first time since 2018)

When we spoke to M Shadows earlier this year, he acknowledged that many music fans still have a way to go in understanding how the blockchain can make their experience better, but said that in the case of the “6,000” people already on the Deathbats Club, they “don’t want it any other way”.
“It’s gonna take time for that to permeate into society and for other artists to say, ‘We’re gonna put the work in and build out something like this,’” he said. “Because it did take us a lot of work. We were building for two years in the bear market, even though that was irrelevant to us; the price didn’t ever matter.
“But we were building for two years when everyone else gave up on it. They didn’t see the vision, they didn’t care about the technology, they didn’t understand it. They were just trying to fucking sell shit to their fans.”

The post Avenged Sevenfold hold intimate 25th anniversary concert exclusively for members of NFT-based fanclub appeared first on MusicTech.

SSL release free X-Orcism II plug-in SSL have announced the launch of a free voice-transformation plug-in that combines a range of processors including delay, pitch-shifting, reverb, noise generation and more

Imaginando TV3: This TB-303 emulation is free until DecemberImaginando has released TV3, a software emulation of the legendary Roland TB-303 that’s free to download from now until 1 December 2024.
Inspired by the classic acid bass synth that revolutionised the electronic music industry, TV3 packs all the power of the original while offering a completely unique design and workflow.

READ MORE: “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

TV3 features two oscillators (main and sub) and two selectable waveforms (square and sawtooth). The signal is fed into a 24dB/oct low-pass resonant, non-self oscillating filter, with cutoff and resonance controls.
Users also get an envelope section, and 4 unique distortion modes: Saturation, Saturated Wavefolding, Fuzz and Nock, along with an inbuilt high-pass filter.
Featuring a minimal set of parameters, the plugin offers a simplified control set, with an Advanced Panel for those seeking deeper control.
Notably, TV3 features a Pattern Generator, making bassline creation not only effortless but also fun. Simply click on the generate button to instantly produce an original pattern and explore unlimited sequences.
You can adjust the complexity, length, scale (21 to choose from) and key of your sequences, and export generated patterns as MIDI files directly from the plugin interface into your DAW for immediate use. Alternatively, you can drag the MIDI file to your computer’s desktop or file system, allowing you to assemble your own bassline MIDI pack in a flash.
Feel free to save patches in the plugin and recall them anytime as well. There’s also a bunch of built-in classic acid basslines for you to get creative.
TV3 is available for Windows and macOS in VST, VST3 and AU plugin formats. The plugin will return to its original price of $19 after the promotion.

Learn more at Imaginando.
The post Imaginando TV3: This TB-303 emulation is free until December appeared first on MusicTech.

“What AI means to Universal Audio is less important than what it means to the music-making community”: CEO Bill Putnam Jr. shares why the brand doesn’t “make a big deal” out of AI featuresUniversal Audio CEO Bill Putnam Jr. isn’t worried about artificial intelligence.
In a new interview with MusicTech, the executive reveals why the brand doesn’t “make a big deal” out of having “important” AI-based features in its products, such as in the case of LUNA, the DAW it made free to download for Mac users back in 2023.

READ MORE: “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

Putnam, who admittedly uses AI to assist with prompts for his daily writing exercises, says that while anyone can make music with a single line of text and a ‘Generate’ button these days, the true magic often lies in the creative process and not the end result – a lesson his woodworking hobby has taught him.
“What AI means to Universal Audio is less important than what it means to the music-making community and the overall professional community,” he says.
“Obviously, if a computer can make music fool a listener as to whether it was created by a human or a computer, it’s certainly provocative. And then I realised, [with woodworking], I will never make a piece of furniture as well as I can go out and buy one. …Yet I find joy in making.”
“We’re makers – humans are creative beasts, you know? I can press a button right now and make music better than I’ll ever be able to, yet playing music with friends is still one of the biggest joys.”
“I don’t think I’m ever going to lose this childlike glee with new technology. I still love new stuff,” he adds. “And obviously, the most recent being everything that AI is bringing, both good and bad.”
Earlier this month, UA launched Apollo Constellations, which included an upgrade to its lineup of beloved Apollo X audio interfaces, the Topline Vocal Suite, UAD Guitar Amp plugins, and the announcement of the Apollo Monitor Correction, in collaboration with Sonarworks.
The post “What AI means to Universal Audio is less important than what it means to the music-making community”: CEO Bill Putnam Jr. shares why the brand doesn’t “make a big deal” out of AI features appeared first on MusicTech.

AllMusic's Favorite Actually Scary AlbumsHalloween novelty tunes are altogether ooky and all, but we here at AllMusic wanted to reveal the albums that actually scared us. Brooding themes and stark instrumentation. Real (perceived) devil worship and horrifying abandonment. Stabbing strings and haunting vocals. Psycho mansions and Lux Interiors. These are the themes of the recordings we've chosen to showcase: Actually Scary Albums.

New Music Critique: RGBContact: bari@pressherepublicity.com

Web: listentorgb.com

Seeking: Booking, Sync Placements, Film/TV         

Style: Pop

Not only are all tracks from RGB's latest A Place for Lovers "radio ready," it begs the question, "How are they not already huge?" The Tel Aviv-based trio (singer-songwriters Roy Bartal, Noi Agam, keyboardist/ producer Alon Kenett) are full-fledged artists, mindful of showing off their whole package--well-branded, with talent to boot.

Bartal and Agam trade off as lead vocalists, often dueting and evoking the push and pull of love, heartbreak, pain and rejoice. "Parties," "Pain Killer," "Meeting at Dawn," "Pizza" and "Green" are standouts. When Bartal sings falsetto, Agam is crooning from the soul and the bass is bumping, RGB is a RBD (real big deal).    The post New Music Critique: RGB first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Bitcoin price push through $68K adds strength to SOL, DOGE, RUNE and BGBBitcoin’s bounce back to $68,000 raises the chance of a rally in SOL, DOGE, RUNE and BGB.

Instagram is lowering video quality for unpopular videosThe popularity of an Instagram video can affect its actual video quality: According to Adam Mosseri (the Meta executive who leads Instagram and Threads), videos that are more popular get shown in higher quality, while less popular videos get shown in lower quality. In a video (via The Verge), Mosseri said Instagram tries to show […]
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BNCs For An Old InstrumentBack in the summer our eye was caught by [Jazzy Jane]’s new signal generator, or perhaps we should say her new-to-her signal generator. It’s an Advance E1 from around 1950, and it was particularly interesting from here because it matches the model on the shelf above this bench. She’s back with a new video on the E1, allowing us a further look inside it as she replaces a dead capacitor, gets its audio oscillator working, and upgrades its sockets.
Treating us to a further peek inside the unit, first up is a leaky capacitor. Then a knotty question for old tech enthusiasts, to upgrade or not? The ancient co-ax connectors are out of place on a modern bench, so does originality matter enough to give it a set of BNC sockets? We’d tend to agree; just because we have some adapters for the unit here doesn’t mean it’s convenient. Following on from that is a period variable frequency audio mod which has failed, so out that comes and a little fault-finding is required to get the wiring of the audio transformer.
These instruments are not by any means compact, but they do have the advantage of being exceptionally well-built and above all cheap. We hope readers appreciate videos like the one below the break, and that you’re encouraged not to be scared of diving in to older items like this one to fix them. Meanwhile the first installment is here.

Apple iOS 18’s New Repair Assistant: Easier Parts Pairing Yet With Many LimitationsOver the years, Apple has gone all-in on parts pairing. Virtually every component in an iPhone and iPad has a unique ID that’s kept in a big database over at Apple, which limits replacement parts to only those which have their pairing with the host system officially sanctified by Apple. With iOS 18 there seems to be somewhat of a change in how difficult getting a pairing approved, in the form of Apple’s new Repair Assistant. According to early responses by [iFixit] and in a video by [Hugh Jeffreys] the experience is ‘promising but flawed’.
As noted in the official Apple support page, the Repair Assistant is limited to the iPhone 15+, iPad Pro (M4) and iPad Air (M2), which still leaves many devices unable to make use of this feature. For the lucky few, however, this theoretically means that you can forego having to contact Apple directly to approve new parts. Instead the assistant will boot into its own environment, perform the pairing and calibration and allow you to go on your merry way with (theoretically) all functionality fully accessible.

The bad news here is that parts whose IDs show up as being locked (Activation Lock) are ineligible, which is something you cannot tell when you’re buying replacement parts. During [iFixit]’s testing involving swapping logic boards between two iPhone 15 Pros they found many issues, ranging from sudden reboots during calibration and boot looping. Some of these issues were due to the captive-portal-based WiFi network at [iFixit] HQ, but after eliminating that variable features like Face ID still refused to calibrate among other issues.
Meanwhile [Hugh]’s experiences have been more positive, but the limited nature of this feature, and the issues surrounding used and third-party parts, mean that the practical use of this Repair Assistant will remain limited, with tons of perfectly fine Activation Locked parts scrapped each year and third-party parts requiring pairing hacks to make basic features work, even on Apple’s MacBooks.
IOS 18 also adds battery monitoring for third-party batteries, which is a nice touch, but one cannot help but get the feeling that Apple is being dragged kicking and screaming into the age of easy repairs and replacements with Apple devices.

Featured image: A stack of Activation Locked MacBooks destined for the shredder in refurbisher [John Bumstead]’s workshop.