Tascam announce DA-3000SD master recorder Tascam have unveiled an updated version of their flagship two-channel master recorder and A-D / D-A converter unit.

Techstars is laying off 17%, ending its J.P. Morgan-backed programsTechstars is cutting 17% of its staff and will end its $80 million J.P. Morgan-backed AdvancingCities program once the fund is completely deployed.
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FLOSS Weekly Episode 795: Liferay, Now We’re Thinking With PortalsThis week Jonathan Bennett and Doc Searls chat with Olaf Kock and Dave Nebinger about Liferay! That’s a Java project that started as an implementation of a web portal, and has turned into a very flexible platform for any sort of web application. How has this Open Source project turned into a very successful business? And how is it connected to most iconic children’s educational show of all time? Listen to find out!

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Compiling Four Billion If StatementsWith modern tools, you have to try very hard to do something stupid, because the tools (rightly) recognize you’re doing something stupid. [Andreas Karlsson] can speak to that first hand as he tried to get four billion if statements to compile.
You may ask what state space requires four billion comparisons to evaluate? The answer is easy: the range of an unsigned 32-bit integer. The whole endeavor started with a simple idea: what if instead of evaluating whether an integer is even or odd with a modulo or bit mask, you just did an if statement for every case? Small ranges like 0-10 are trivial to write out by hand, but you reach for more automated solutions as you pass 8 bits and move towards 16. [Andreas] wrote some Python that outputs a valid C program with all the comparisons. For 16 bits, the source only clocks in at 130k lines with the executable less than 2 MB.
Of course, scaling to 32 bits is a very different problem. The source file balloons to 330 GB, and most compilers barf at that point. Undeterred, [Andreas] modified the Python to output x86_64 assembly instead of C. Of course, the executable format of Windows (PE) only allows executables up to 4 GB, so a helper program mapped the 40 GB generated executable and jumped into it.
What’s incredible about this whole journey is how performant the program is. Even large numbers complete in a few seconds. Considering that it has to thrash 40 GB of an executable through memory, we can’t help but shake our heads at how even terrible solutions can work. We love seeing someone turn a bad idea into an interesting one, like this desoldering setup.

Sony unfazed by streaming music revenue growth slowdown in calendar Q2Sony says it's now expecting the music market to grow at mid-to-high-single-digit rates
Source

NAMM "Bonzai Beat" Features Betty BennettBetty Bennett, president, CEO and one of the founders of Apogee Electronics, joins Bonzai Beat for a look into the world of pro audio. With 30 employees and a 40-year history of being in business, Apogee develops professional audio devices, from mics to audio interfaces. For young professionals who are interested in exploring the field, she offers insights into the types of roles that she values at her company, shares an intern success story, and pinpoints some of the things that make a great team.

Visit here: https://www.namm.org/blog/apogee-betty-bennett-talks-pro-audio-career-opportunities

Mr. Bonzai is an award-winning photographer, author, and interviewer. He has written more than 1,000 articles for pubs in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has published numerous books, including Studio Life (Mix, 1984), Hal Blaine and The Wrecking Crew (Mix, 1992), The Sound of Money (Focal, 2000), Faces of Music (Cengage, 2006), Music Smarts (Berklee Press, 2009), John Lennon's Tooth (BookBaby, 2012) and the forthcoming Record Plant Diaries. http://www.mrbonzai.com

NAMM is a not-for-profit association with a mission to strengthen the $17 billion music products industry. NAMM is comprised of approximately 10,400 member companies located in 104 countries and regions. NAMM events and members efforts to promote the pleasures and benefits of music, and advance active participation in music making across the lifespan. For more information about NAMM, please visit https://www.namm.orgThe post NAMM "Bonzai Beat" Features Betty Bennett first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Alix Kram appointed Head of Marketing at Universal Music Publishing Group in new global roleKram is a former Netflix and Warner Music Group exec
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Alternative Social Media apps for Marketing MusicWith every musician using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to market music, it can be smart to add some alternative platforms. Don't miss these alternative social media apps for marketing music to tens of millions of fans.
The post Alternative Social Media apps for Marketing Music appeared first on Hypebot.

DJ Fresh: “We don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music”While there’s never been a better time to be a music consumer – basically all the music you could ever want to listen to is available at, at most, a couple of clicks – this is not without its drawbacks. 
Perhaps the most glaring is that artists are struggling to be fairly compensated for their music by the tech giants who have ushered in this golden age of music consumption. For example, it was recently revealed that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek earned more in the past 12 months alone than any artist ever has on the platform.

READ MORE: Daniel Ek confirms “deluxe version” of Spotify is coming soon with high-resolution audio

And while tech giants tend to be consumer-problem solvers by nature, they aren’t always sympathetic to the fields they so often disrupt.
As producer and AI startup founder DJ Fresh explains in a new interview with MusicTech, there is a real danger of the music industry ending up “in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music”.
It’s why he chose to create Voice-Swap, an AI voice modelling service aimed squarely at music producers.
He explains: “There is a feeling, within the company, that we are fighting for the cause of artists,” says DJ Fresh, real name Daniel Edward Stein. “And not just artists; we respect the importance of labels, rights holders, distribution companies. Basically, we don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music.”
Stein says that in the midst of the global AI boom – which is affecting the music industry in so many ways – Voice-Swap aims to keep things ethical, and ensure fairness between artists and labels.
“Some of the less ethical people just view this as a gold rush,” he says. “They don’t really care if they mess things up because they’ll just jump on the next tech fad in a few years time.”
He goes on: “However, a lot of the people involved in Voice-Swap have had long careers in the music industry and we care a lot about our reputations.” Such professionals at Voice-Swap include Benn Jordan, Declan McGlynn, Michael Pelczynski, Ausrine Skarnulyte and Nico Pellerin, among others.”
For more information, head to Voice-Swap.
The post DJ Fresh: “We don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music” appeared first on MusicTech.

Why Musicians Need a Team to Succeed: Avoid Career SabotageMusicians need a team to succeed, but too often, the artists themselves or their immediate team sabotage their careers.
The post Why Musicians Need a Team to Succeed: Avoid Career Sabotage appeared first on Hypebot.

Twitch launches 808 Live, an eight-hour programming track featuring “all-star” DJ lineupTwitch has partnered with Roland for the creation of 808 Live, an exclusive eight-hour programming track with an all-star lineup of DJs.
As we reported back in June, Twitch has become the first major service to provide a home for DJs to legally livestream using a vast library of popular music due to partnerships with major labels like Universal, Warner, Sony, and plenty of indies too.

READ MORE: “Human-created works must be respected”: 50 major music tech brands sign Principles for Music Creation with AI

Before this, DJs on Twitch were facing takedowns due to copyright issues. Now, streamers will pay a percentage of their earnings from a stream to rights holders. The amount will vary slightly depending on which monetisation methods streamers use. Twitch will split the cost with them 50/50 but to start with, the platform will cover “more of the cost”.
The 808 event will be showcased across Twitch, reaching a global audience of music enthusiasts, coinciding with Twitch’s launch of its DJs Category. 808 Live is part of a 24-hour programming block to launch the category on 808 Day, 8 August.
808 Live features appearances by legendary artists such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ Roueche (Official DJ of the Los Angeles Lakers), Skratch Bastid, DJ Melo-D, DJ Bella Hue, and more. Roland Lifestyle will also host a special launch event at The Spotlight LA on 808 Day with Roland DJs starting at 10pm PDT.

Among other 808 festivities, Roland has also joined forces with footwear brand New Balance for a snazzy pair of 808-themed sneakers. The shoes come in a sleek black colour, with accents of orange, yellow and white reflecting the aesthetic of the famed drum machine.
The shoes are also launched in partnership with skateboarder Tiago Lemos, who says that hip-hop and the sound of the 808 has been the “soundtrack” of his skating journey.
Find out more about 808 Live and other 808 Day news over at Roland.
The post Twitch launches 808 Live, an eight-hour programming track featuring “all-star” DJ lineup appeared first on MusicTech.

Creating Next-Gen Music Festivals using AI and StreamingFind out how cutting-edge promoters are creating next-gen music festivals using AI and streaming to create hybrid events that combine in-person and online experiences.
The post Creating Next-Gen Music Festivals using AI and Streaming appeared first on Hypebot.

DJ Fresh doesn’t want AI to fall in the wrong hands — so he started Voice-SwapDaniel Stein, better known to the world as DJ Fresh, has a unique vantage point from which to see the future of music. After rising to fame in the early 2010s with a string of dance hits, including the ultra-catchy Hot Right Now, Stein has spent the last few years not on the decks but digging deep into machine learning algorithms.
The fruits of that effort is Voice-Swap, an AI voice modelling service aimed squarely at music producers. However, Stein is not simply jumping on the ‘vocal deepfake’ bandwagon – he’s laying out a framework for how AI technology can be used ethically in the music industry.

READ MORE: How will young people learn music and production in a post-AI music industry?

“There is a feeling, within the company, that we are fighting for the cause of artists,” Stein says. “And not just artists; we respect the importance of labels, rights holders, distribution companies. Basically, we don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music.”
Unbound creativity is exactly where AI will have an exciting impact on music creation
The platform partners with singers to create artist-authorised voice models that can be used for demos or legally licensed music releases. Users can choose from three monthly subscription tiers, depending on how many minutes of audio they need to generate. Moreover, 50 per cent of the platform’s gross subscription income goes directly to the artists making their voices available on the platform.
Credit: Voice-Swap
Since launching in mid-2023, Voice-Swap has racked up a host of high-profile users like Diplo, Skream, and Pendulum’s Rob Swire. “It was a surreal moment showing Farley “Jackmaster” Funk a video of Skream blowing up a club with Farley’s voice-swap model,” Stein enthuses. “Farley, one of the fathers, if not the father of Chicago House, and Skream, the father of dubstep — these guys are both pioneers. Seeing Skream embracing the weird artefacts that the models sometimes create — we think that kind of unbound creativity is exactly where AI will have an exciting impact on music creation.”
Voice-Swap has also steadily expanded its roster of artists, which now includes vocalists like Ruth Royall, Robert Owens, and legendary house vocalist, Angie Brown. Recently, the team began working with electro-pop’s premiere innovator, Imogen Heap, on a voice model, and, while there’s no word yet on whether Heap’s voice will become available for the Voice-Swap platform, Stein says the company will be announcing “new projects in collaboration with Imogen and other well-known artists in the near future.”

The service was initially positioned as a tool for creating high-quality demo tracks, with users free to share their creations with collaborators, management teams, record labels, or post on social media. However, Stein says the use cases have expanded to include translating songs into other languages, communication assistance for those with speech difficulties, and even as a gimmick for influencers and podcasters looking to make interesting content.
Then there are users who want to take their demo and turn it into an official release. Voice-Swap offers three AI ‘session singers’ whose voices can be commercially released at no extra charge – however, if a producer wants to release a track using a model from one of Voice-Swap’s featured artists, then Stein says they need to first attain the artist’s “blessing” in the form of a commercial licence.
Luckily, the platform offers a straightforward system to facilitate this process, and artists retain an 80 per cent cut of any licence fee. Crucially, vocalists signed up to the platform have the final say over these licence requests and, if they have any artistic or moral objections, are free to deny permission for the song’s release.
Stein says users who monetise a track without attaining a proper licence can expect takedown requests to be issued, along with a promise of potential legal action: “We’re making sure that people are aware of the consequences of doing things illegally, and trying to make sure users value the artists who we’re working with.”

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“At the moment,” he continues. “There’s a number of platforms out there selling models of people’s voices without any permission — that is wrong on so many levels. We’re competing against those platforms and, in some sense, we’re competing at a disadvantage because we’re trying to do things the right way.”
Putting artists at the centre of Voice-Swap’s founding ethos is not just the right thing to do, says Stein, it’s also a practical consideration for the businesses’ long-term success: for artists to have their voices modelled and released on Voice-Swap, there needs to be a sense of trust in the platform.
“Some of the less ethical people just view this as a gold rush,” he says. “They don’t really care if they mess things up because they’ll just jump on the next tech fad in a few years time. However, a lot of the people involved in Voice-Swap have had long careers in the music industry and we care a lot about our reputations.” Such professionals at Voice-Swap include Benn Jordan, Declan McGlynn, Ausrine Skarnulyte and Nico Pellerin, among others.
Much of the discussion around AI voice models has centred on the potential negatives for singers, and for good reason. Stein himself says that, over the past couple of years, “artists and creators have been abused by the AI industry”. However, he makes clear that Voice-Swap is more than an attempt to redress the balance and claw back some remuneration – he believes the technology opens up whole new ways of working and even new career paths for singers.
DJ Fresh. Image: Press
“Big artists don’t have time to go into the studio and demo every song idea being sent to them by producers,” Stein says. “There is this whole layer of the industry that determines which songs actually get made into demos and played to labels, but the question is – why do these artists have to demo anything? In theory, they don’t have to. Producers can use a model of their voice to create demos and the artist only goes into the studio when they’re sure the song is going to be released.”
Such a system would be a massive shift in how the music industry works at a functional level, but productivity is just one area where Stein sees positive outcomes. The technology could also offer new revenue streams for artists who find themselves unable to tour or record in-studio.
He points to Mylène Schuler, one of the artists whose vocal model is available on the platform. “She was an up-and-coming singer in Switzerland, part of an electro-pop group that was doing really well,” Stein says. “She had to bow out because she had a kid and she needed to focus on her family, but she still wanted to keep a foot in the music industry.”
After uploading her vocal model to the platform, Stein says that within two weeks he got an excited call from Pendulum’s Rob Swire, who had written a song using Schuler’s model.
“It’s such a great example of this technology having benefits for people that, for one reason or another, can’t sing anymore,” Stein exclaims. “Maybe it’s a physical reason, maybe their lives have changed, but they can still be involved in the industry and know that a producer might find their voice and make a massive hit record with it.”

In an industry whose ‘move fast and break things’ maxim has left many creatives disillusioned, Voice-Swap aims to show that tech start-ups can put fair remuneration and artist rights at the centre of the business and still succeed. Part of that is creating a culture of transparency around the datasets being used, and ensuring that the correct people are credited. Recently, the company partnered with one of the world’s largest music rights attribution services, BMAT, to certify their voice models.
If we don’t get the policy around this under control soon, there could be a few companies that make a fortune and a lot of people that lose out.
“Our partnership with BMAT helps us make sure that models are not trained with copyright data,” Stein points out. “We very much believe that AI is to benefit humans, not the other way around, and the roots that we put down at the beginning of 2023 are now sprouting into partnerships that cement our ethos.”
What makes that stance even more notable is that, right now, platforms like Voice-Swap are operating in a profound legal and political vacuum. “When it comes to policy and high-level governance, there’s no clarity,” Stein says frankly. “We’re talking to lots of people in the music industry, to lawyers and government bodies, but it feels like nobody wants to set the agenda. Instead, everybody’s waiting to see what happens. We’re trying to get it right, and to set a precedent that artists and labels can look to – but we’re certainly not getting any guidance.”
The need to set the right precedent is a topic that comes up repeatedly in conversation with Stein. Over the coming years, he sees personalised audio content for games, media, and marketing kicking off an explosion of demand for AI voice models. If artists, platforms, and governments can coalesce around a shared set of standards for this new economy rather than engaging in a cut-throat race to the bottom, then generative AI could ultimately be a net positive for music creators.
“The market is growing at this enormous rate,” Stein says. “There’s a lot more money to be made. As long as artists are being paid fairly it’’ a bright future – but, if we don’t get the policy around this under control soon, then, just like so many other things that have happened over the past 20 years, there could be a few companies that make a fortune and a lot of people that lose out.”
Learn more about Voice-Swap. 
The post DJ Fresh doesn’t want AI to fall in the wrong hands — so he started Voice-Swap appeared first on MusicTech.

Learn how to use a spectrogram in #musicproduction, posted at #Splice. #Audio #Editing #Education

#twitch #DJ category to appear, was quite predictable to provide it for #artists and #Musicians