Can You Homebrew A Running Shoe?Unless you spend all your time lounging on the sofa, you probably own at least one pair of shoes. But have you ever thought to make your own to improve some aspect of your life? YouTube channel Answer in Progress set out to do precisely that, but it didn’t quite work out.
When you (well, other people) get into running, it’s tempting to believe a lot of the shoe company hype and just drop hundreds of dollars on the latest ‘super shoe’ and hope that will help you break your target time. But do you actually need to buy into all this, or can you make something yourself? The project aimed to get the 5k time down significantly, at any cost, but primarily by cheating with technology. The team set out to look at the design process, given that there is indeed a fair amount of science to shoe design. Firstly, after a quick run, the main issues with some existing shoes were identified, specifically that there are a lot of pain points; feet hurt from all the impacts, and knees take a real pounding, too. That meant they needed to increase the sole cushioning. They felt that too much energy was wasted with the shoes not promoting forward motion as much as possible; feet tended to bounce upwards so that a rocker sole shape would help. Finally, laces and other upper sole features cause distraction and some comfort issues, so those can be deleted.
A thicker mid-sole allows for a rolled shape
The plan was to make a ‘sock’ shoe style, with an upper in one piece and stretchy enough to slip on without laces. The process started by wrapping the foot in cling film and then a few layers of duct tape to fix the shape. This was split down the top to extract the foot, open out the pattern, and transfer it to some nylon fabric. The outer profile was transferred and cut out with simple hand tools in a fashion that would allow the shape to be reconstructed as it was glued to a sole. It sounds simple, but it’s pretty fiddly work.

The latest running shoes use specialised rubber materials for the midsole. The solid foam wedge between the outer rubber and the inner sole cushions the foot. Those materials are only a few per cent ‘better’ than much more accessible foams that can be 3D printed. After sculpting a sole shape by hand using Blender, a friend 3D printed it. After that, the upper part was glued and ready for a test run. Which didn’t last long. It turned out that the lack of a stable heel counter (the bit around the back) that helps lock the heel in place meant the foot was too loose in the shoe, causing potential issues such as an ankle roll. That would be not good.  A follow-up session with a sports-focused chiropodist demonstrated that all this was rather pointless before the fundamental issues of strength and fitness were addressed. So, whilst it was fun to see an attempt to beat the big boys at their own game, it sure isn’t easy to pull it off, especially if you can’t get off the sofa.
The invention of flexible 3D printing filaments spurred the development of a wide range of 3D-printed footwear, like these low-poly beauties. While we’re 3D printing shoes, we also need some lace locks. Finally, with winter approaching for us Northerners, perhaps it’s time to run off a pair of 3D-printed strap-on cleats.

Thanks to [fluffy] for the tip!

‘Upgrading’ a Microwave Oven To 20 kWWhilst microwave plasmas are nothing new around here, we were curious to see what happens at 20x the power, and since YouTuber [Styropyro] had put out a new video, we couldn’t resist seeing where this was going. Clearly, as your bog standard microwave oven can only handle at most one kilowatt; the ‘oven’ needed a bit of an upgrade.
A 16 kW water-cooled magnetron. Why not over-drive it to 20 kW for fun?
Getting hold of bigger magnetrons is tricky, but as luck — or perhaps fate — would have it, a 16 kW, water-cooled beast became available on eBay thanks to a tip from a Discord user. It was odd but perhaps not surprising that this Hitatch H0915 magnetron was being sold as a ‘heat exchanger.’
[Styropyro] doesn’t go into much detail on how to supply the anode with its specified 16 kW at 9.5 kVDC, but the usual sketchy (well down-right terrifying) transformers in the background indicate that he had just what was needed kicking around the ‘shop. Obviously, since this is a [Styropyro] video, these sorts of practical things have been discussed before, so there is no need to waste precious time and get right on to blowing stuff up!
Some classic microwave tricks are shown, like boiling water in five seconds, cooking pickles (they really do scream at 20 kW) and the grape-induced plasma-in-a-jar. It was quite clear that at this power level, containing that angry-looking plasma was quite a challenge. If it was permitted to leak out for only a few seconds, it destroyed the mica waveguide cover and risked coupling into the magnetron and frying it. Many experiments followed, a lot of which seemed to involve the production of toxic brown-colored nitrogen dioxide fumes. It was definitely good to see him wearing a respirator for this reason alone!
Is it purple or is it indigo? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
The main star of the demonstration was the plasma-induced emissions of various metal elements, with the rare indigo and violet colors making an appearance once the right blend of materials was introduced into the glassware. Talking of glassware, we reckon he got through a whole kitchen’s worth. We lost count of the number of exploded beakers and smashed plates. Anyway, plasma science is fun science, but obviously, please don’t try any of this at home!
For those who didn’t take an ‘electron devices’ course at college, here’s a quick guide to how magnetrons work. Plasma physics is weird; here’s how the plasma grape experiment works. Finally, this old hack is a truly terrible idea. Really don’t do this.

2B Played Music offers FREE QFX Echo Delay Plugin until October 31
2B Played Music is giving away its QFX Echo one-knob delay plugin (normally €19) for FREE until October 31, 2024. QFX Echo is a MacOS and Windows release available in AU and VST3 formats. To get your free copy of the plugin, enter the coupon code “ECHO” when you check out after hitting the Buy [...]
View post: 2B Played Music offers FREE QFX Echo Delay Plugin until October 31

Another large indie distributor inks direct agreement with TikTok, as Ditto leaves behind expiring Merlin deal with platformEstablished acts currently distributing their music through Ditto include Chance The Rapper, Russ Millions, and Darkoo
Source

Quite unique discovery thing by a former Warner A&R and Meddling CEO @tkrosenblatt

From Timbaland’s Suno partnership to UnitedMasters’ direct TikTok deal… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest stories from the past week – all in one place…
Source

Are TikTok Song IDs accurate? Pex found 20 for every songAre TikTik Song IDs accurate? Pex examined 141,000 songs on TikTok and found 2.8 million unique Song IDs and over 830 million videos containing these songs.
The post Are TikTok Song IDs accurate? Pex found 20 for every song appeared first on Hypebot.

Jacob Collier partners with Google on new AI tool MusicFX DJJacob Collier has partnered with Google on a fresh new AI music production tool, MusicFX DJ.
MusicFX DJ aims to “revolutionise” music creation, allowing users to create entire tracks from simple prompts. Available on aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com, the tool allows users to explore instruments and other sonic palettes.

READ MORE: LANDR Composer is an AI-driven plugin for creating chord progressions, melodies and harmonies

Sharing the news via Instagram, Collier calls the tool a “master-amalgamator of sonic elements”.
He says MusicFX DJ has the potential to create “non-linear, weird, continuously evolving tapestry”. He’s even donned his brightest outfit to reflect the technicolour ‘tapestry’ of sounds the tool can experiment with.
“As somebody who has long been obsessed by never-before-heard sounds, this process has fully delighted me,” Collier notes. “[MusicFX DJ’s] continuous, evolving nature makes it feel like orchestrating or arranging – a marvellous sort of sonic soup that can be steered in meaningful and uncharted directions.”

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A post shared by Jacob Collier (@jacobcollier)

Collier puts a heavy focus on this “uncharted” territory that AI tools will be able to explore. “In this rushing tide of new technology, I think it’s important to cultivate tools that facilitate new and unusual creative thinking, and are not just imitative of what already exists,” he says.
“What I love about this tool is that it’s not designed to replicate my style or that of any other artist. Rather, it explores and forges fresh and unique materials in real time, that can inspire and feed into the music making process.”
Learn more about MusicFX DJ at aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com.
The post Jacob Collier partners with Google on new AI tool MusicFX DJ appeared first on MusicTech.

“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 AIWhile many musicians disapprove of the lack of legal regulation with regard to AI use in music, producer Timbaland is a big proponent of artificial intelligence, and uses it regularly in his workflow. He’s even a Strategic Advisor of Suno.

READ MORE: “I trained it ethically using all of my own music” Meet LoopMagic, the AI sound generator by producer !llmind that lets you create copyright-free loops and melodies from scratch

Timbaland’s endorsement of the AI music creation firm has been shared on the company’s YouTube channel. Opening with a shot of the producer grooving along to a Suno-generated track, Timbaland enthuses: “I just love innovation. I love things that can take what I’ve been doing for 30 years of my life and make it better.”
The video then showcases a section of Timbaland’s creative process, which has become highly entwined with AI. He takes advantage of Suno’s Covers feature in particular, allowing it to remix his latest single, Love Again. “Suno is the tool – it’s the tool to turn your music into something that you have never heard,” he says.
At the centre of his excitement is how refreshing Suno feels to use. “I haven’t been excited about a tool in a long time,” he explains. “I loved Ableton when it came out, but [Suno] is the new everything… I’m like a kid. It’s like I’m 19 years old. It’s like falling back in love with the purity of creativity.”
Timbaland is also hosting a competition to create a remix of his new song Love Again using Suno AI, with a total of $100,000 up for grabs.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about the partnership, Timbaland has waxes lyrical about Suno, claiming he uses it for 10 hours a day. He’s so fond that he even calls Suno “Baby Timbo”, apparently.
Asked about the lawsuits aimed at AI regulation, Timbaland is undeterred by such controversy: “When they talk that talk, I’m like, ‘Come on, bro. Everything y’all use is [like] AI, from Auto-Tune on down,” he frowns. “When Auto-Tune first came out, it was a tool. That’s what Suno is – the best tool of the future. It allows you to get any idea in your imagination out of your head.”
He also waves away worries about AI replacing musicians in the future: “You still need that human element to operate this tool. It doesn’t replace anything. All it does it add to your arsenal. The attack sometimes lets you know, like, OK, we’re onto something. We got something special. I understand it comes with some some stones thrown.”
However, the ‘stones’ being thrown are more like boulders. The RIAA filed lawsuits back in June against Suno and Udio, citing “copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale.”
The post “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 appeared first on MusicTech.

How much will TikTok cost Musicians with its indie track takedown?How much will TikTok cost musicians with the looming take down of millions of tracks on independent labels?
The post How much will TikTok cost Musicians with its indie track takedown? appeared first on Hypebot.

Join The Discussion On Hypebot: We want to hear from you!Join the discussion on Hypebot. The Comments section is open, and we want to hear from you!
The post Join The Discussion On Hypebot: We want to hear from you! appeared first on Hypebot.

Audio-Technica launch affordable ATH-ADX3000 headphones Handcrafted in Tokyo, the ATH-ADX3000 build on the success of the ATH-ADX5000, and promise to deliver a natural, authentic soundstage at a more affordable price. 

Audio-Technica launch ATH-ADX3000 headphones Handcrafted in Tokyo, the ATH-ADX3000 build on the success of the ATH-ADX5000, and promise to deliver a natural, authentic soundstage at a more affordable price. 

“This plugin transforms your audio sources into deep, mesmering textures”: ModeAudio Airspace review£60, modeaudio.com
Since 2013, ModeAudio has released a large number of sample and loop packs in various styles. The UK brand specialised in creating rich and evocative ambient samples, and the team has used this knowledge to create its first plugin – a hybrid convolution reverb and delay effect.
With a broad collection of curated impulse responses and presets, Airspace transforms even your simplest audio sources into mesmerising, deep and enveloping pads and textures.

READ MORE: Baby Audio Transit 2 review: Haters beware, this plugin is actually awesome

The plugin is made up of a stereo delay and two convolution modules that load impulse responses. Although these two modules are named ‘Colour’ and ‘Space’, they are in fact identical, and you can load any of the over-450 included responses (IRs) into each.
These IRs are the core elements that give Airspace its unique sound. They include authentic recordings taken from a cathedral, a nuclear reactor, a submarine, and a chocolate factory (didn’t expect that one, did you?). There’s also vintage reverb hardware, found percussion, analogue drum machines, an upright piano, experimental sound effects and textural loops. Everything is neatly organised into folders, and the longer responses are listed with reverb times to help with browsing.
Although the IRs can be accessed from either convolution module, the general idea is that you use the Colour module for shorter impulses such as amp sims or found sounds, and the Space module for longer reverbs. You can dramatically change the timbre and character of the sound with some of the shorter IRs, introducing extra movement, frequencies or additional harmonics, and then place it into a real or imagined space using the longer impulses. Some of these extend all the way up to 16 seconds, for an instantly epic sound.

Additional controls let you reduce or increase the impulse response size, up to a massive 500%. This empowers you to experiment with tighter versions of the longer reverbs, or longer, drawn-out versions of the shorter settings. Size also affects the pitch, which can help when you want to tune pitched impulses such as the piano resonances.
Taking things further, you can then add predelay and change the envelope using attack, hold, release and Env Curve envelope controls. These let you tighten the tails further to wrap stereo spaces around drum transients, or increase the attack portion to create smoother-sounding reverbs that leave more space for the dry signal. Each module also comes with a built-in EQ with low and high shelves, and two notch filters.
Sandwiched in the middle of the interface is the stereo Delay module. This includes the usual features you might expect, like separate Feedback and Time controls for each channel, tempo sync, a link L+R button, and a Crossfeed button to feed signals between each side. There are also low-pass and high-pass filters, with resonance for added character.
Want more spice? There’s a Delay Mod section at the bottom of the plugin window that offers delay time and pan modulation with five LFO shapes and tempo sync. These can be used to add subtle (or not-so-subtle) pitch and spatial movement to liven up the repeats. Rather than throw the whole signal left and then right, the pan modulation just switches the left and right signal over, which results in a more subtle effect. There’s also a +/-24 semitones pitch shift effect that you can blend in, with a Recursive Shift button that applies the transposition incrementally for glissando effects. This is a fun way to add a harmony note into the effect tail, or to make the entire effect run an octave up or down.
Main GUI of the Airspace. Image: Press
Each section has its own wet/dry control, along with a main Mix slider for the whole plugin. There are also several places that you can gain-stage, including the main volumes for each module, plus individual IR gains for the convolution modules. These are useful, as volumes can vary dramatically depending on the type of material fed being in, and how it reacts with the resonances in the chosen impulse responses.
With these level fluctuations in mind, it would have been useful to have a safety limiter option to stop excessive overs occurring. With such long tails on a lot of the presets, you might find that strong resonances build up at the output over time. Consequently, you may need to follow up with EQ taming or a resonance suppression plugin like Soothe2.
At a glance, there’s nothing that especially stands out with Airspace, but when it all comes together, the results are astonishing. A simple arpeggio or dry vocal can be instantly morphed into an ethereal drone that sounds like the soundtrack to heaven.
There’s a richness to the impulse responses that adds texture and character that you just can’t get from algorithmic reverbs. It’s also surprisingly versatile. Although it’s at its best making longer textures, it can also be used to create original-sounding short spaces and special-effect reverbs to envelop a sound, making it more complex and interesting.
Impulse List in the Airspace. Image: Press
To help showcase this effect, there are over 240 presets divided into Ambient, Blur, Cosmos, Reflect, Transform and Warp categories. These make full use of the controls and impulse responses, including more extreme and glitchy sound design presets.
Our only real gripe is that you can’t change the routing of the effects. It would add even more flexibility if you could separate the two convolution modules and then pan them, for example. It might also be useful to have control over the overall width of the output.
These are fairly minor criticisms, given the quality of results and the reasonable asking price. It might not replace your favourite reverb and delay for simpler tasks, but it’s versatile enough to cover a lot of ground when it comes to sound design.
If you’re writing ambient or soundtrack work and create a lot of drones or textures, then Airspace is a no-brainer.

Key features

Plugin with resizable interface (VST3/AU)
2 convolution reverb modules and a stereo delay
450+ varied impulse responses covering real-world spaces, reverb hardware, found sound, drum machines, amp sims and more
240 presets
Impulse waveform display
Stretch responses up to 500%
Envelope controls and EQ for each convolution module
Delay has high-pass and low-pass filters with resonance and crosstalk
Delay time and pan modulation with tempo sync
Delay pitch shifter with Recursive Shift mode

The post “This plugin transforms your audio sources into deep, mesmering textures”: ModeAudio Airspace review appeared first on MusicTech.

“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 AIWhile many musicians disapprove of the lack of legal regulation with regard to AI use in music, producer Timbaland is a big proponent of artificial intelligence, and uses it regularly in his workflow. He’s even a Strategic Advisor of Suno.

READ MORE: “I trained it ethically using all of my own music” Meet LoopMagic, the AI sound generator by producer !llmind that lets you create copyright-free loops and melodies from scratch

Timbaland’s endorsement of the AI music creation firm has been shared on the company’s YouTube channel. Opening with a shot of the producer grooving along to a Suno-generated track, Timbaland enthuses: “I just love innovation. I love things that can take what I’ve been doing for 30 years of my life and make it better.”
The video then showcases a section of Timbaland’s creative process, which has become highly entwined with AI. He takes advantage of Suno’s Covers feature in particular, allowing it to remix his latest single, Love Again. “Suno is the tool – it’s the tool to turn your music into something that you have never heard,” he says.
At the centre of his excitement is how refreshing Suno feels to use. “I haven’t been excited about a tool in a long time,” he explains. “I loved Ableton when it came out, but [Suno] is the new everything… I’m like a kid. It’s like I’m 19 years old. It’s like falling back in love with the purity of creativity.”
Timbaland is also hosting a competition to create a remix of his new song Love Again using Suno AI, with a total of $100,000 up for grabs.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about the partnership, Timbaland has waxes lyrical about Suno, claiming he uses it for 10 hours a day. He’s so fond that he even calls Suno “Baby Timbo”, apparently.
Asked about the lawsuits aimed at AI regulation, Timbaland is undeterred by such controversy: “When they talk that talk, I’m like, ‘Come on, bro. Everything y’all use is [like] AI, from Auto-Tune on down,” he frowns. “When Auto-Tune first came out, it was a tool. That’s what Suno is – the best tool of the future. It allows you to get any idea in your imagination out of your head.”
He also waves away worries about AI replacing musicians in the future: “You still need that human element to operate this tool. It doesn’t replace anything. All it does it add to your arsenal. The attack sometimes lets you know, like, OK, we’re onto something. We got something special. I understand it comes with some some stones thrown.”
However, the ‘stones’ being thrown are more like boulders. The RIAA filed lawsuits back in June against Suno and Udio, citing “copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale.”
The post “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 appeared first on MusicTech.