Musicians Guide To Spotify Wrapped 2025With the release of Spotify 2025 Wrapped just weeks away, the countdown is on for every musician to be part of this rare global cultural moment. Fortunately, Spotify makes it easy with a guide to help musicians get ready for Spotify Wrapped.
The post Musicians Guide To Spotify Wrapped 2025 appeared first on Hypebot.

Alcons Audio to launch M-Series monitor range After more than three years of intensive research, development and real-world evaluation, Alcons Audio are set to officially make their long-awaited entry into the studio and critical-listening market.

Market crash 'does not have long-term fundamental implications' — AnalystThe crash was caused by a perfect storm of short-term factors, causing $20 billion in liquidations — the worst 24-hour drain in crypto history.

Xilentch XMTape&ClipAn idea... A philosophy... Meet the newest member of the XM family — XMTape&Clip. I was searching for an answer to the question: "How does a real device behave?" — and I decided to create it. A true fusion of both worlds. With nearly zero aliasing, it delivers flawless clarity. It adds life and loudness to your material in the most precise and transparent way possible — without sacrificing depth or distorting transients. The curve shape is unique. It always responds differently to the left and right channels — just like real hardware — but with surgical precision. As always, it's free, and operates solely on a donation basis. Read More

Entering the Wild World of Power Over EthernetAs Ethernet became the world-wide standard for wired networking, there was one nagging problem. You already have to plug in the network cable. But then you have to also plug in a power cable. That power cable needs to be long enough. And have the right plug on it for your country. And provide the right current and voltage. That’s how Power over Ethernet (PoE) was born, first in a veritable Wild West of proprietary standards and passive injectors, then in a standardized process. Recently [T. K. Hareendran] wrote a primer on PoE, with more of a DIY intro focus, including some favorite PoE PD (powered device) chips to use in your own design.
You can still totally use passive PoE if that’s your jam, and you have full control over the network and any connected devices. This would allow you to, for example, power your SBCs for a couple of bucks, although for adding PoE to your Mac Mini you may want to look at some more refined options, if only as a safety precaution.

Much depends on the needs of each device, as PoE is meant mostly for low-power devices such as VoIP phones and the like. The more common IEEE 802.af and .at standards (Type 1 and 2) cap out at 30 Watts, with about 25 Watts available to the device after losses, while 802.3bt (Type 3 and 4) takes this up to 90 Watts, or just over 70 Watts after losses. Before making a decision, it would be good to read a detailed guide from someone with experience, like the one by [Alan] that we covered a while ago.

Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Andrew Tulloch heads to MetaAI researcher Andrew Tulloch reportedly announced his departure to employees in a message on Friday.

Music Business News Last WeekMusic Business News last week included a Musician's Guide to Spotify Wrapped, two pieces on live show marketing, the Supreme Court saying no to Live Nation and more.
The post Music Business News Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.

Sound Semiconductors introduce new BBD chip The new SSI2100 is available in a compact SOP-8 package, and is believed to be the first BBD IC to be offered in surface-mount form.

Dennis "Roc.am" Jones Reaches for Solid State Logic's THE BUS+A profile from Solid State Logic (SSL) sent on Friday revealed that, "On any given day, engineer, producer and artist Dennis 'Roc.am' Jones might be remastering a Frank Sinatra collection, mixing a Rihanna album in Dolby Atmos or producing music for a movie soundtrack or for release under his own name. Whatever the project, he says, Solid State Logic’s THE BUS+ two-channel compressor is always in the chain."

"Roc, born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City and regularly working on both the east and west coasts, is perhaps best known for his immersive mix projects, reimaging and remastering material by legendary artists like James Brown and Frank Sinatra, global icons such as Mary J Blige and Mariah Carey, and rising stars including Ice Spice and H.E.R.," they continue. "He has also contributed to movie soundtracks such as Pitch Perfect and the original immersive soundtrack for Wicked and releases original material as an artist under his own name."

“Since I installed THE BUS+, I've used it on every single project, religiously,” Roc reports. His principal focus currently is on reimagining and remastering releases from the Universal Music Group. When he embarks on a new project, he says, he carefully considers what using THE BUS+ can bring to it. “The obvious thing is that I can do standard compression, but I usually take it beyond that. With THE BUS+, I can go extreme, or I can add just a little touch. Often, multiple little touches, which add up to a much bigger whole, are my usual process. All the things this box can do: Saturation, dynamic EQ, transient enhancement, and the various compression types, they all make a difference while giving me so much flexibility across different genres. Just one- or two-dB gain reduction, a little bit of dynamic EQ and some 4K flavour to tie it all together. It gives me the tools to create a nice, smooth translation from what I'm imagining to delivering the final remaster.”

"Specifically, he says, he will often work with the MID SIDE mode selected. The mode engages THE BUS+’s Mid-Side encode-decode circuitry, enabling the left side of the unit to process the mid signal — the mono sum of the left and right channels — and the right to process the side signal — that is, the stereo differences when the left and right signals are subtracted from one another," they said.

“I'm compressing my sides to widen the records a little bit, to give the record and the stereo portion of the sounds more movement,” Roc explains — depending on what is appropriate to that piece of music, of course. “Sometimes I'll work with the mid to give more of a solid low end or presence to the midrange frequencies.”

4K and F/B feedback modes"But his favourite workflow through THE BUS +, he continues, is using 4K Mode, which offers 9 different levels of saturation, in combination with the D-EQ dynamic EQ," they say.

“That's my general day-to-day use with this box,” he says. “And a lot of times, if the record is very powerful or aggressive, I love being able to tone it down with THE BUS+ in F/B Mode to slow things down, so we're not just hitting everything so hard.”

Getting creative with SSL SiX

“I was traveling a lot — about every two weeks — from New York to L.A., so I was that guy on the plane with all this stuff in front of him, working. The SiX was cool because I could use its analogue circuitry to get all of the warmth and separation that I want from an SSL console, in a small, portable desktop unit.”

“I discovered how versatile it was for music creation and production. There are all these inputs, so I would hook up my microphone to it, I would hook up my vintage synthesisers and my [Teenage Engineering] OP-1 [synth], and I would use SiX to bring together all my sounds in the analogue domain and create music. It's a cool tool and has an SSL console sound to it, you can tell that SSL have put their SuperAnalogueTM technology in it. It really is something unique. What's cool about SSL gear is that there’s an endless opportunity for creativity, and it's for us to discover more.”

"The SiX offers two mono recording channels featuring SuperAnalogue mic pres, two-band EQ and one-knob version of the classic SSL Channel Compressor, along with two stereo line-level channels, and the unique Listen Mic Compressor on the talkback," they say.

“I could hook up all these instruments, use the SiX as a mixer and just take a line out into my interface,” he says.

“My first board was the SSL Matrix, years and years ago, which still to this day is one of my favourite boards. I learned how to track and mix on it and do all sorts of things. I didn't go to school for any of this stuff; I learned everything by watching videos on YouTube.”

Summing up, he says, “I was into rap and hip-hop, and in the ‘90s SSL was a huge influence on hip-hop. I love Dre and Snoop, and they're using SSL boards. I love Jay Z, so I looked at what Jay Z's engineer, Young Guru, was doing. I remember the first time I was introduced to EQ and compression was on an SSL channel strip. I’ve always tried to incorporate as much as I can with the tools that I have. But if there's an opportunity for me to work with any new tool or something that I haven't worked with from SSL, I always go for it, because SSL has been part of my life.”The post Dennis "Roc.am" Jones Reaches for Solid State Logic's THE BUS+ first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Trump announces 100% tariffs on China, Bitcoin plummets below $110KBitcoin plunged below $110,000 after Trump announced sweeping tariffs on China on Friday, reigniting fears of a broader trade and market sell-off.

AudioThing JUNEJUNE is a faithful emulation of the Roland JUNO-60, one of the most iconic polyphonic analog synthesizers of the early 1980s. After extensive study of the original instrument, every detail was captured, from the warm, stable DCO and silky filter to the unmistakable character of its chorus, with carefully modeled circuits that preserve the soul of the hardware in software form. Video Demo Read More

Possibly the Newest ISA CardBack when the IBM PC was new, laying out an ISA board was a daunting task. You probably didn’t have a very fast ‘scope, if you had one at all. Board layout was almost certainly done on a drafting table with big pieces of tape. It was hard for small companies, much less hobbyists, to make a new card. You could buy a prototype board and wirewrap or otherwise put together something, but that was also not for the faint of heart. But with modern tools, something like that is a very doable project and [profdc9] has, in fact, done it. The card uses an ATMega328P and provides two SD cards for use as mass storage on an old computer.
The design tries to use parts that won’t be hard to get in the future. At least for a while, yet. There’s capacity for expansion, too, as there is an interface for a Wiznet 5500 Ethernet adapter.

Can you imagine if you could transport this card back to the days when the ISA bus was what you had? Just having a computer fast enough to manipulate the bus would have been sorcery in those days.
We don’t know if you need an ISA mass storage card, but if you do, [profdc9] has you covered. Then again, you do have options. Or, if you’d rather take a deep dive into the technology, we can help there, too.

Why Deloitte is betting big on AI despite a $10M refundAI companies are making their much-anticipated enterprise plays, but the results are wildly inconsistent. Just this week, Deloitte announced it’s rolling out Anthropic’s Claude to all 500,000 employees. On the very same day, the Australian government forced Deloitte to refund a contract because their AI-generated report was riddled with fake citations. It’s a perfect snapshot […]

Get Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE for just $1 in IK Multimedia Humble Bundle
Right now, you can score Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE (normally $99.99) for just $1 in the cheapest tier of the IK Multimedia Ultimate Music Production Bundle Encore at Humble Bundle.  The three-tier deal ends on October 30 at 6 PM UTC, as noted on the countdown on the bundle page.  All the products in all [...]
View post: Get Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE for just $1 in IK Multimedia Humble Bundle

Last Chance to Win Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Guitar PickThe iconic Kurt Cobain Unplugged exhibition at the Royal College of Music Museum in London is nearing its final days, and with it, your last opportunity to own a piece of rock history: one of Cobain’s original guitar picks used during Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged performance.

This rare Dunlop 60mm plectrum was discovered in the case of Cobain’s Martin D-18E guitar, which was purchased at auction in 2020 for a record-breaking $6.01 million USD by RØDE Founder Peter Freedman AM. The guitar currently serves as the centerpiece of the exhibition, and now the plectrum becomes the focus of a global prize draw, with entries open worldwide for just £5 per entry.

All proceeds will directly support the Royal College of Music’s Future Music Fund, an initiative empowering the next generation of musicians from diverse backgrounds to shape the future of music.

True to his promise, Mr. Freedman has ensured that Cobain’s guitar has not been locked away in a private collection but has instead become a symbol of inspiration and support for the global creative community. “When I purchased this guitar, my intention was to have it begin a worldwide tour of exhibitions to support performing artists,” he said. “I wanted it to be seen, to inspire, and to give back to the creative community that helped shape my life. Its inclusion in this exhibition has honoured that intention, and I’m delighted that it has been realised at the Royal College of Music, an institution incredibly close to my heart.”

The Kurt Cobain Unplugged exhibition, running until November 18, 2025, has drawn thousands of visitors to experience the story behind one of music’s most iconic performances. At its heart is Cobain’s Martin D-18E guitar, alongside other legendary artifacts, including Cobain’s olive-green mohair cardigan from the MTV Unplugged performance. This exhibition marks the first time these items have been displayed together, offering fans a deeply personal glimpse into the artistry and legacy of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

Entries for the plectrum prize draw are open now and will close on November 18, 2025, the final day of the exhibition. Unlimited entries are allowed, and every £5 entry directly supports the Royal College of Music’s Future Music Fund.

Don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of rock history and support the future of music. Enter the prize draw now and help shape the next generation of musical talent.

For more information and to enter the prize draw, visit the Royal College of Music's official website.

Exhibition Dates:June 3rd – November 18th, 2025Royal College of Music Museum, Prince Consort Road, London

The post Last Chance to Win Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Guitar Pick first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.