“He was like, ‘I only work with people who use Pro Tools’”: Sarz says using Fruity Loops once cost him a job with one of Nigeria’s top artistsGenerally speaking, the best DAW for any producer is the one they feel most comfortable using and are most familiar with.
That said, Pro Tools is (or was, at least) regarded as the industry-standard digital audio workstation – although many find it to be a little too convoluted for their requirements – and for some audio professionals, using anything else is tantamount to blasphemy.

READ MORE: Apple unveils Logic Pro 11 and Logic Pro For iPad 2 – with AI front and centre

Award-winning Nigerian producer and artist Sarz found this out the hard way when he told a client he used Fruity Loops, now FL Studio. The client then refused to work with him, claiming he only worked with producers who used Pro Tools.
Sarz tells the story in a new episode of MusicTech’s My Forever Studio podcast, in which we invite producers to chat all things music and hypothetically kit out their perfect recording studio.
“Early in my career, there was this artist from Nigeria – one of the biggest artists at that time – he wanted me to make some beats for him, and I was so excited, you know, like this would be big for me. And I played some beats, he loved them. And he asked me what I make music with. I said, ‘Fruity Loops,’ and he was like, ‘I only work with people who use Pro Tools.
While Sarz doesn’t explicitly name the artist whose demands cost him a job, he says that he is “not relevant anymore”.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Sarz – who has collaborated with the likes of Skepta, WizKid, Skrillex and Gunna to date – discusses why producer tags on tracks are more important than ever, which Amapiano sound he thinks is “genius, and how a software mishap early in his career made him the producer he is today.

To listen to all the latest episodes of the My Forever Studio podcast, head to MusicTech.
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Navigating the Music Streaming Landscape: New Challenges for ArtistsIn this oversaturated music market, artists face endless challenges in getting their music heard on platforms like Spotify. To overcome these hurdles, you first need to identify and understand them....
The post Navigating the Music Streaming Landscape: New Challenges for Artists appeared first on Hypebot.

6 Things Every Musician’s Portfolio NeedsInclude all six of these things in your music portfolio/toolkit and increase your chances of getting booked, selling more music, and more.....
The post 6 Things Every Musician’s Portfolio Needs appeared first on Hypebot.

Songwriters & Spotify clash over lyrics, videos, altered songs and moreMusic publishers are up in arms as Spotify's latest lyrics and video features push the boundaries of copyright laws and their deals with music publishers, potentially costing creators millions in royalties.....
The post Songwriters & Spotify clash over lyrics, videos, altered songs and more appeared first on Hypebot.

SUPERBOOTH24: AudioScape Engineering EuroBuss A remarkably faithful sonically period-correct recreation of the legendary British-Console’s centre-section quad compressor, reimagined in 18 hp!

“We got Tom Oberheim’s consent”: Behringer’s UB-Xa becomes the best-selling synth at ThomannBehringer’s UB-Xa, which took six years of development, has become Thomann’s best-selling synthesiser.
The UB-Xa was first launched in November 2023, and takes inspiration from the classic Oberheim synth used on records from the likes of Depeche Mode, Tangerine Dream, Prince, and more. At its release, Behringer revealed it cost an eye-watering $3.5 million to develop.

READ MORE: Behringer’s Vintage plugin is now out and available to download for free – for real this time

Writing on its official Facebook page, Behringer says: “UB-Xa is now officially [Thomann’s] best-selling synthesiser. It is the world’s first and only analogue synthesiser with 16 voices, polyphonic aftertouch, and eight atrophy modes, all for a revolutionary price.
“Our product development team has spent six years working on delivering this legendary and revolutionary analogue synth. Thank you for all your patience and we hope it was worth the wait.”

UB-Xa is now officially the best selling synthesizer. It is the world's first and only analog synthesizer with 16…
Posted by Behringer on Friday, May 17, 2024

The UB-Xa includes all of the original factory patches, and its VCOs and VCFs are heavily based on the original 3340 and 3320 chip designs. It hosts the ability to split its keyboard so you can layer two different sounds, and it also has a Vintage Mode loaded with eight presets.
If you need a refresher, you can find out more in the video below:

Interestingly, Behringer also says it got consent from Tom Oberheim himself to create the UB-Xa. Responding to comments on Facebook, the brand says “he designed a fantastic product” and that the UB- Xa “is no copy but took inspiration from the original synth and brought it to a complete new level”.
Responding to a comment which appears to have been deleted, Behringer also adds, “We discussed the UB-Xa with Tom Oberheim and got his consent… How many other products such as VSTs take inspiration from legacy products? Why is it okay for others but not for us?”
MusicTech recently spoke to Tom Oberheim for a new cover feature on the launch of the TEO-5. We asked the legendary effects engineer and Oberheim founder what he thought about his synths being subject to emulation: “Anything that brings new sounds to, let’s say, young musicians just starting out, is exciting to me. And I don’t care what the brand is,” he said.
“There’s been a few different simulations of Oberheim over the years and, I have to say, GForce did a great job. I don’t have the ear training to get into the fine details – I’ve been relying on musicians to tell me what sounds good since the 70s. But the reaction to the GForce stuff was very positive, and I certainly think it sounds really good.”
Shop Behringer’s UB-Xa now via Thomann, or view the latest from Oberheim.
The post “We got Tom Oberheim’s consent”: Behringer’s UB-Xa becomes the best-selling synth at Thomann appeared first on MusicTech.

Hans Zimmer collabs with AJHSynth on super synth reviving the sounds of BBC Maida Vale’s RadioPhonic workshop from the ‘60s and ‘70sHans Zimmer and AJHSynth have joined forces to build a mighty super synth called the RadioPhonic. The unit revives the classic sounds of the BBC Maida Vale RadioPhonic workshop from the 1960s and ’70s.
The synth is made up of four rows of modules, of which there are 40 in total, and weighs 18kg. Looks wise, it’s heavily inspired by the EMS VC3 –  the very first synthesiser owned by Zimmer and one of the earliest synths used by the BBC – featuring an American Walnut and Cherry wood case, similar to the VCS3 “Putney” case design.

READ MORE: “You can’t hide behind the screen forever!”: How Pharrell Williams and Johnny Marr inspired film legend Hans Zimmer to go on tour

When it comes to sound however, the range of modules included “takes the sonic possibilities way beyond that of the larger EMS Synthi 100 ‘Delaware’ system”, also widely used at the Radiophonic Workshop, according to AJHSynth.
In August of 2023, Zimmer became co-owner of Maida Vale alongside Love Actually and Cats producers, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. It was reported that Zimmer purchased the studios for £10.5 million.
The RadioPhonic System was specially commissioned to take pride of place in the new Radiophonic workshop which he will be recreating soon, back at its original site in Maida Vale.
“Hans Zimmer has dedicated his life to creating music and soundscapes using synthesisers together with orchestral sounds. He is without doubt the world’s greatest film soundtrack composer… No one has a better understanding of what sounds pleasing and how to use it best,” says the brand.
“He also has one of the largest collections of synthesisers in the world, as anyone who has seen pictures of his huge studio will testify – modular synthesisers cover the walls instead of wallpaper! So when Hans says that a particular synth sounds more engaging and fuller than others then he is speaking from a position of experience and authority.”
It later adds, “It is a great honour that Hans has chosen to work exclusively with AJHSynth to create a one of a kind analogue modular synthesiser. It has been designed from the ground up as an uncompromised analogue modular system, a sonic creation tool without equal.”
The RadioPhonic was first unveiled at this year’s Superbooth event. You can take a closer look in the video below:

A limited number of exact recreations of the RadioPhonic synth are to be produced, and each will be individually numbered. Those who would like to be added to the waiting list should contact AJHSynth.
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SUPERBOOTH24: Enjoy Electronics DeFeel The Enjoy Electronics DeFeel module can be placed after a sequencer and allows users to generate a huge range of rhythmic variations via a touchscreen interface.

Êpica Audio releases The Hammer for macOS, FREE for a limited time
Êpica Audio has released The Hammer compressor for macOS, which is free for a limited time. As a lowly macOS user, too set in my ways to jump ship (and not responsible enough to steer two ships), I’m occasionally left on the sidelines. At the same time, the Windows folks enjoy various plugins I might never [...]
View post: Êpica Audio releases The Hammer for macOS, FREE for a limited time

Brain injury survivor says learning to DJ has “reawakened his brain”Brain injury survivor David Wilson has spoken about how learning to DJ has “really awakened his brain”.
The 38-year-old was injured after being stabbed in his right eye in an unprovoked attack in 2005, with the blade penetrating his brain. He is now taking lessons to be a drum and bass DJ under the mentorship of Wiltshire DJ Emma Ryalls.

READ MORE: “I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is actually a really good song!’”: Rick Rubin made Beabadoobee relearn all her demos on acoustic guitar before recording her new album

Speaking about the long-term effects of his brain injury, Wilson tells the BBC: “My thinking is a bit blurred. I can’t focus or anything for too long without getting confused. I’m learning to walk again now.”
Wilson, who’s already been a drum and bass MC before the incident, explains that it’s “something I’ve always loved doing”.
“He started doing the DJ lessons with Emma… and all of a sudden he’s started coming out with these lyrics,” says David’s mother Kim. “It’s really awakened his brain.”
“Significantly,” Wilson adds, sharing that he can now listen to a song and learn it word for word: “I’ve got a superpower.”

I’ve been teaching DJ’ing to Dave – he was brain injured back in 2005 so badly that doctors were asking his parents to plan his funeral. B4 his injury – he was a talented MC – he’s still got his incredible talent and passion – as you can see! It’s a pleasure working with Dave pic.twitter.com/PMBvq0sfeh
— _dj_emma_ (@DJEmmaRyalls) October 12, 2022

Earlier this year, cancer patient Christian Nolen played Deftones and System of a Down songs on guitar while his brain was being operated on. The mini-concert was played at the request of Nolen’s neurological team in Miami, who said that Nolan needed to be awake during the procedure in order to avoid major damage.
“When a tumour is involving or near a critical part of the brain — something that controls the ability to speak or understand language or move — we want to do the surgery awake to continually monitor the patient, so you know if you start to violate normal brain functions,” said Dr. Ricardo Komotar.
“The surgeries actually become much more dangerous [when the patient is asleep] because you can take out a tumour that involves normal brain function and cause real harm without knowing it.”
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Spotify faces lawsuit over alleged unpaid royalties after “bundling” moveSpotify has been sued in a United States federal court for allegedly underpaying royalties to songwriters and publishers by tens of millions of dollars.
According to Music Business Worldwide, the lawsuit, filed last Thursday by non-profit organisation Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), stems from Spotify’s decision in March to reclassify its Premium Individual, Duo, and Family subscription plans as “bundles” because they now include audiobook access.
The tech giant added 15 hours of audiobook access to its premium plan last year, before launching a standalone audiobooks subscription this March.

READ MORE: Sony Music sends letter to over 700 firms over concerns they “may already have made unauthorised uses” of its music to train AI

Per the 2022 Phonorecords IV settlement, bundled services in the United States can pay lower mechanical royalty rates to publishers and songwriters than standalone music subscriptions.
In the suit, MLC argues that after adding audiobook access, Spotify “improperly” categorised its service in a way that would significantly reduce the amount of royalties it paid despite there being “no change to the Premium plan and no corresponding reduction to the revenues that Spotify generates.”
“On March 1, 2024, without advance notice to the MLC, Spotify unilaterally and unlawfully decided to reduce the Service Provider Revenue reported to the MLC for Premium by almost 50 percent,” states the complaint. “[This was done] by improperly characterising the service as a different type of Subscription Offering and underpaying royalties.”
Nothing else “about the Premium service has actually changed,” MLC adds.
In a statement responding to MLC’s legal action, Spotify says: “The lawsuit concerns terms that publishers and streaming services agreed to and celebrated years ago under the Phono IV agreement. Bundles were a critical component of that settlement, and multiple DSPs include bundles as part of their mix of subscription offerings.”
“Spotify paid a record amount to publishers and societies in 2023 and is on track to pay out an even larger amount in 2024. We look forward to a swift resolution of this matter.”
Legal woes aside, the streaming giant has also made headlines recently after users accused its new AI Playlist feature of being homophobic.
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D16 Group’s Sigmund 2 is surprisingly creative — but is it a delay plugin?€99, d16.pl
Sigmund 2 from D16 is one hell of a plugin. It boasts four independent delay lines and immense scope for complex, layered tone shaping.

READ MORE: Musik Hack Master Plan plugin: Mastering isn’t supposed to be this easy

The original was released 11 years ago and was beloved for its flexibility and high-quality sound. But we’ve seen plenty of top-notch delay plugins since then, so Sigmund 2 is in a much tougher market compared to 2013. Sigmund 2 doesn’t rewrite the rule book but is refined to be extremely versatile and impressively easy to use. But is it the only delay plugin you need? Probably not.

How does Sigmund 2 work?
The trick to understanding Sigmund is in its signal path — how the audio travels through each of the individual delay lines — and then how it’s routed to the output.
The path starts with a one-knob compressor with five compression types to choose from, before moving onto a lovely-sounding overdrive. Here, you can drive the signal into a symmetrical diode-clipper and adjust a Color dial to tweak the balance of added harmonics. The signal then hits a multimode filter with four types (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and a new band reject mode), plus the usual cutoff and resonance controls. You can change the routing to place the filter after the overdrive, letting you dramatically shape the tone of the saturation.
Sigmund’s main delay is split into a stereo Pre Delay section and a stereo Loop Delay. You can tweak the delay times freely, tapped, or synced to your DAW’s tempo. You also get a stereo Spread dial that offsets one side, a large feedback dial (with positive and negative values), and a momentary Freeze button that makes the feedback jump up to 100 per cent.
As the delay times range from a tiny 0.1 up to 1,000 milliseconds, you can create some pretty wild comb filter and phaser sounds, or go for more traditional, longer echoes. The quality is pristine, even when using very short delay times, so you can easily craft cool-sounding pitched glitches.
Although the filter sounds delicious, there’s an issue if you want to make dub-style delays that get filtered on each repeat: You can add a filter into the delay loop by clicking the Feedback button, but you’re limited to using one of the aforementioned filter shapes. This makes it hard to get the perfect shape for your repeats as they either have too many lows or highs — or sound too thin when using the band-pass filter — which results in them fading to silence too quickly. You might be able to do some trickery using serial routing, but that’s a lot of work for something so simple; D16 should have given us a dual low-pass/high-pass combination or more control over the width of the band-pass.
As such, we’d reach for a different plugin if we wanted more traditional and simple dub delay lines.
Sigmund 2 presets
Sigmund 2’s mid/side modes and modulators
Each of Sigmund’s delay lines can run in either left/right or mid/side modes. So you can have different delay times in the mid and side channels, which is really cool. There’s also a button to collapse the input to mono and a new Channel Cross Fade dial that swaps the two channels.
You can get a lot of sound design mileage out of the main delay controls, but add modulators into the mix and you’ll have much more fun. Each can be switched between LFO, envelope or peak modes. The LFO can run freely or sync to the host, with four shapes plus a random sample-and-hold option.
You can also invert the shape, adjust the phase, and smooth the edges. Interestingly, both the LFO and envelope can be retriggered by an incoming MIDI note, or by a transient in the signal.
Combine this with the peak follower and you have the recipe for some seriously audio-reactive modulation such as wah-wah effects or transient shaping. Also, although there’s not an obvious ducking effect as found on many modern delay and reverb plugins, you can easily create your own by routing the peak modulator to the volume of the delay lines.
There are limitations, though. You only get four modulators globally across the plugin, and they can only affect the filter cutoff, volume and delay time of each individual tap. You can, at least, stack all four to create more wild modulation shapes.
Sigmund 2 modulation
Sigmund 2’s final touches
You can balance each of the delay lines with the simple mixer section, which features volume, pan, mute and solo buttons. The four delay lines can be set to run in serial, in parallel, or in various combinations of the two. It’s incredibly flexible, but it’s hard to know exactly what kind of difference it will make until you start experimenting — happy accidents occur from choosing or programming a preset and then flicking between the routings to see what happens.
The final destination for the signal is the Master section, which includes a limiter, wet/dry slider (with lock option) and Output dial.
Other useful features we love include a resizable plugin window, separate real-time and offline quality settings, lock buttons for each of the four delay lines, and MIDI mapping for all controls.
Sigmund 2 delay line
Should you buy Sigmund 2?
We tested Sigmund 2 on an array of material and found some surprising results. The combination of the four taps, overdrive, filter and transient triggering in the Modulator section makes it more like a multiband, multi-effects processor rather than just a delay. To that end, a large number of the 400 presets are different variations on characterful distortions, chorus, phaser, flanger and tremolo effects.
So rather than Sigmund being simply four delays, it’s more like four textural layers of processing that can dramatically transform any signal. Simple drum tracks mutate into crunchy, rasping grooves, synths can be brought to sizzling life, and vocals can be twisted with original echoes.
Programming and routing aren’t as intuitive as more visually-led delay plugins such as FabFilter’s Timeless, which has more visual representations of the delay taps, filter shapes and modulation. However, the interface has a satisfyingly tactile look, and the superb sound quality and varied results mean your patience is well rewarded. We would probably choose a different plugin for traditional, vintage delay duties, yet for creative sound design and exploration, it’s hard to beat.

Key features

Multi-tap delay plugin
Mac & Windows, 64-bit VST2, VST3, AU, AAX
4 identical and independent delay lines
Overdrive with new optional dynamics module
Filter (LP, HP, BP and new BR)
L/R and M/S modes with stereo spread options
4 modulators with LFO, envelope and peak modes
Modulators have optional transient or MIDI retriggering
Mixer section
Master output limiter
9 routing configurations
Resizable plugin window
Real-time and offline quality mode options
Improved preset section with search and tagging functions
400+ presets

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Springtime Sounds to Brighten Your PlaylistAs the weather warms up and the sun begins to come out, you may be finishing your spring cleaning and enjoying the move towards summer. Having the right music to accompany the seasonal transition is key, so check out this list of springtime tunes if you need some upbeat melodies to brighten up your days before summer fully arrives.

Lost Foam Casting In ActionEven though not all of us will do it, many of us are interested in the art of casting metal. It remains a process that’s not out of reach, though, especially for metals such as aluminium whose melting points are reachable with a gas flame. The video below the break takes us through the aluminium casting process by showing us the lost-foam casting of a cylinder head for a BSA Bantam motorcycle.
The foam pattern is CNC milled to shape, and the leftover foam swarf is removed with a hot wire. The pattern is coated with a refractory coating of gypsum slurry, and the whole is set up in a tub packed with sand. We get the impression that the escaping gasses make this a tricky pour without an extra sprue, and indeed, they rate it as not perfect. The cooling fins on the final head are a little ragged, so it won’t be the part that goes on a bike, but we can see with a bit of refining, this process could deliver very good results.
For this pour, they use a gas furnace, but we’ve seen it done with a microwave oven. Usually, you are losing wax, not foam, but the idea is the same.

Ripple publishes math prof’s warning: ‘public-key cryptosystems should be replaced’Mathematician Massimiliano Sala says current encryption methods won’t protect blockchain systems from quantum computers.