Musicians: Don’t Give Up! Success May Be Right Around the CornerSuccess as a musician can be illusive and it's natural to get discouraged. But our message is simple: musicians, don't give up! Keep trying, because success may be right around the corner.
The post Musicians: Don’t Give Up! Success May Be Right Around the Corner appeared first on Hypebot.

UVI’s World Suite 3 offers “unmatched” global instrument libraryBack in 2021, UVI‘s World Suite 2 gave producers an impressively comprehensive sound library with software instruments from India, South America and, well, all around the world, basically. And now it’s time for another trip around the globe; World Suite 3 is here.
We gave World Suite 2 a perfect 10/10, but World Suite 3 arrives to give its predecessor a run for its money. The sound library comes with 46 new instruments, offering sounds from Native America all the way back to ancient Greece. And that’s on top of the 369 instruments World Suite 2 already had to offer.

READ MORE: Our favourite plugins, effects and VST instruments released this week

Every instrument has been meticulously recorded to sound as authentic as possible. It’s a library that UVI argues is “unmatched”, and it’s been compiled and recorded with the utmost care and attention to detail.
Each instrument is kitted out with its own unique controls. The intricate, instrument-specific controls allow users to tweak sounds to a detailed level, all the while not compromising the raw texture of the instrument.
UVI has also loaded World Suite 3 with over 1,900 presets, as well as over 80,000 samples, loops and phrases, providing you with an unimaginably vast library ripe and ready for experimentation.

World Suite 3 also offers a smoother user experience with a shiny new user interface. While its predecessor boasted a nifty search function, allowing you to peruse by Region and Instrument Type, World Suite 3 also offers a reimagined way to discover new sounds.
The World Traveller and Voice Traveller exploration functions encourage users to step out of their comfort zone. The functions make it easier than ever to find bold new sounds, a colourful interface tempting you to experiment. Whether it be toying with some South American Bossa Drums, or maybe trying out the African Juju Bass, UVI has made experimentation simple, quick and easy.

Voice Traveller works in a similar fashion, unifying sounds by region and voice types, making it simpler to explore and experiment with different vocal traditions from across the globe.
World Suite 3 offers native 64-bit stand-alone operation with Falcon or UVI’s Workstation. It also provides support for all your favourite DAWs.
World Suite 3 is available now, with a special introductory price of $199 / 199€. After 30th September, it will hike up to $299 / 299€. For more information, head to UVI.
The post UVI’s World Suite 3 offers “unmatched” global instrument library appeared first on MusicTech.

France’s recorded music market generated $450m in H1, as paid subscription revenues grow 11.3% YoYSixteen of the top 20 albums in France in H1 2024 were domestically produced
Source

MIDI Innovation Awards Show 2024 As this year’s MIDI Innovation Awards draw to a close, The MIDI Association will be hosting a streamed event on their YouTube channel to showcase the finalists and select the winners.

Why Justin Jay quit releasing tracks and started tutoring other music producersMaking music is supposed to be fun.
It sounds obvious, but many artists get lost in the Sisyphusian struggle of making whatever genre is popular at the time to reach a certain goal. They may push a boulder up a hill and reach that goal, only to realise there’s a newer, bigger goal — and the boulder comes tumbling down again.

READ MORE: NERO talks production, plugins and modern dubstep: “There’s always a Depeche Mode influence in what we do”

Justin Jay, the seasoned producer, DJ, label boss, and educator, chooses not to follow this pattern.
“You can do whatever you want. You can speed up the BPM. You can change the drum beats. You can sample other things and just explore,” Jay says. “People can often be trapped by really arbitrary ideas in their own heads, and once they realize that you’re actually free to do whatever you want you can have so much fun.”
A few years ago, Jay was so lost in the Sisyphusian cycle that it eviscerated his mental health. He found himself planted in front of his laptop, letting the blue light erode his corneas as he grinded away until sunrise — making music for money, not music he loved.
When he realised continuing that way wasn’t sustainable, he quit touring and moved back in with his parents to separate himself from the music industry. In that phase, he became self-aware that he wanted to be an artist who creates whatever he wants; that’s what he did on his third album, You Are The One.
Image: Press
Across the 12 tracks on the record, Jay’s uncaged attitude shines through. From the soulful house of the opener, I’ll Always Love You, to the seething UK garage-tinged Walk Away, then to the classic trance sound of You’re Fake, this album keeps the listener guessing from start to finish.
But it always sounds like Justin Jay, thanks to the intense energy he put into the songwriting for this particular record. Songwriting is now his baseline for manipulating different sounds and genres.
“For so much music, it’s not about doing something new with the sounds. It’s actually about using the exact sounds that we’re used to to create an illusion or create a feel that is nostalgic or whatever. I think it’s super fun, because then it becomes more about the songwriting, which is my favorite part,” Jay says.
In fact, that was one thing he was struggling with when he took his hiatus from music. He was scared of the vulnerability of sharing his songwriting and the authentic elements of that like lyrics. Now he is facing that fear head-on:
“We make music to express ourselves. The more we can do that honestly, the better,” Jay says.

When he returned to music, he started writing songs with new band, Fantastic Voyage (also the name of his record label). The band featured some of his close friends and fellow musicians. Together they released tracks such as What Do You Want and Can’t Complain, and they performed at various major US festivals including Bonnaroo and Dirtybird Campout.
Then the pandemic made touring impossible. The band dissolved and in those two years without gigs, most of Jay’s bandmates moved on from music to other careers.
Jay was back to making music by himself. Except he now had the confidence to write songs that reflected his authentic feelings, and he was facing isolation along with all the other complicated experiences that came with the pandemic. This is the phase when he wrote most of the songs on You Are The One.
In listening to the underlying composition beneath the electronics, the album sounds quite a bit like a breakup record. On the acoustic-guitar-driven Reflections, he sings: “I got some things to improve on. I got some things to admit/If I keep lying to you. How will you ever forgive?”
Then on the folk acoustic album closer, On My Own (Ft. Austin), Austin sings: “I must be changing because I can’t wait to move on.”

But despite this sombre messaging, he didn’t write this music to get over a breakup. He wrote it to depict what it’s like to be in a situation of unrequited love.
“I look at this album as this self-help exploration which comes with some challenges. But ultimately can be really positive,” Jay says. “There’s a lot in a situation like that that you cannot control. It’s really important to shift focus onto what you can control, which is yourself.”
He shifted his focus towards cultivating inner strength and independence. Since then, his production pallet started expanding exponentially and it hasn’t slowed down.
In the first part of 2024, he travelled around the US making music with different dubstep and bass artists such as Chef Boyarbeatz and Bauuer. They gave him a crash course in different sound design techniques, leading to Jay’s debut bass EP on Zeds Dead’s label, Deadbeats, titled Wait For The Drop.
Image: Press
Jay also ventured into the far reaches of techno when he travelled to Berlin to work with an underground artist named Freeman 713.
“I’ve never made music with anyone who is so particular about techno,” Jay says. “He makes tracks that don’t have breakdowns, that are the most elite, hypnotic techno. That could not have been a more different experience from anything I’ve done all year.”
While he respects and enjoys that each subgenre is different, all this experimentation helped him to understand where these different genres overlap. That’s what allows him to link them so fluidly within his productions and DJ sets.
“The difference can be, ‘What are the drums?’ Then you change the drums. Now it’s a different subgenre..” Jay says. “It’s all much more similar than one might think.”
In fact, one of the challenges of You Are The One stemmed from the similarities. After diving deep into making so many different subgenres (an experience he equates to the grad school of music production), he had to contain himself to ensure the album felt like a cohesive body of work as opposed to a hodgepodge of all his musical interests.
Image: Press
“The aspiration during COVID was to push the absolute limits of chaos and eclecticism; making it as varied as possible. It took a couple of years for me to figure out that this album doesn’t need to be everything. It can be more focused,” Jay says.
His songwriting was key to making the album more focused, but so were his production methods. For example, a sample pack he heavily relied on to make You Are The One was the JungleJungle Sample Pack, a completely free collection of sounds from jungle tracks produced between 1989 and 1999.
According to Jay, this sample pack is part of the DNA of all electronic music. Labels such as Shall Not Fade and Lobster Theremin have the samples all over their catalogues, he adds.
“It’s funny because it is all just illegal samples of other people’s songs, but just really short snips,” Jay says. “The key for making something nostalgic can sometimes just be using something old.”
Image: Press
Jay also applied this approach to his synths as well. He frequently used Rave Generator 2, which is similar to JungleJungle but lets you chromatically play samples from old rave tracks.
“Justice, on their most recent album [Hyperdrama], has a song called Generator. They used all the Rave Generator sounds,” Jay says before going on to revel in the rumour that Justice made their legendary debut album on Garageband. “It’s so sick that you can hear a masterpiece like Cross by Justice and be like, ‘Wait this was made on a piece of software that literally, everyone has access to for free on their computer’.”
This is the exact approach Jay passes on to his students. He has been teaching Ableton courses since 2019, many of which are free, and all anyone needs to join the class is a computer that can run a free trial of Ableton.
When Jay makes music, he uses his laptop and a pair of Bose earbuds. One time when he was on a call with a student, Jay said the word “balls” into his earbud mic. That sample became the track Ballz which John Summit played to a sold-out crowd at BMO stadium in Los Angeles.
Jay’s put out numerous collaborations with his students. The title track from his Deadbeats EP was produced with one of his students, Bayer & Waits. He also released a hard groove single called Back to the Groove with student coldsweat.
Image: Press
“I don’t know why every producer doesn’t teach. I’ve experienced the most amount of technical growth in the past years since I’ve started teaching,” Jay says. But improving his own skills is only a bonus he gets from teaching. “I was just in Vienna, Austria and I didn’t remember the absurd percentage of famous classical composers that are all from this one city. Part of the reason is each great composer taught the next great composer. They all taught each other.”
While Jay is too humble to compare himself to the Viennese masters like Hadyn, Mozart, and Beethoven, the principle is the same. He is teaching a new generation of music producers to make music based on one idea: having fun.
The post Why Justin Jay quit releasing tracks and started tutoring other music producers appeared first on MusicTech.

Novation on the future of MIDI control and why Launchkey MK4 is “a big step forward”If you walk into a major studio anywhere in the world, there’s a strong chance you’ll find a Focusrite Novation product. Since its 1992 inception, Novation’s created some of the most iconic synths of that decade as well as developing specialised MIDI controllers, notably the Launchpad family which began a long-running collaboration with Ableton that continues to this day. In 2013 came the first Launchkey keyboard controller and now, over a decade later, Novation’s fourth generation of Launchkeys has arrived in a range of sizes to suit different users’ needs.
The question is, will they keep Novation at the forefront of cutting edge studio control, and who exactly are they designed for?
Novation Launchkeys. Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
There are six Launchkey models in total, sharing a core set of features with slight differences depending on the physical size of the models, from the Launchkey MINI 25 up to the Launchkey 61. But who are these different controller keyboards aimed at? “It’s not that there’s one particular and specific customer that might want to use a given model, it’s more tied to a use case,” says Novation product manager Mario Buoninfante. “You can have a professional musician that plays five gigs per week, every week of the year, that might want to use a smaller keyboard because of its portability because it fits better in their setup.”
He continues, “for those who are just getting started on their music journey, it might be that they want to start with [a controller] that feels more manageable, both from a price point of view and in terms of services. Then maybe a more advanced user or someone that’s not travelling might prefer the 49 or 61 key version. But what’s important is that the core functionality is the same across all the models.”
The MK4 will also work with USB-C-equipped iPads, meaning it can be used with Logic Pro for iPad, though at present there’s no direct template. But even where an app isn’t natively supported, you’re able to create custom maps instead.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
While the models have very similar core functions, their varying sizes result in a few physical differences. Hence only the larger 49 and 61 key models have faders and fader buttons, while the two Mini models have dual touch strips in place of the more conventional pitch and mod wheels found on the other units – though crucially all of this can be re-mapped to suit your needs. Thanks to their greater number of keys, the 49 and 61 permit MIDI zoning and layering, and the two smallest models have 3.5mm MIDI outputs while the larger boxes sport regular five-pin ports.
As Mario explains when discussing the changes from version 3 of the Launchkey family, the controllers’ ability to function independently of a computer makes them feel more like instruments than ever before. “A big thing is that all the creative tools that have been made part of the firmware, which makes it feel like an instrument, it’s a big step forward compared to the Mark 3. And then there are some really nice upgrades on the mechanical side of things like the overall design, the overall feeling, buttons and encoders instead of fixed pots, and sliders with a good length as well. On the 49 and 61, there’s been a big upgrade to the key mechanism.”
The controllers still integrate with all the major DAWs and especially tightly with Ableton Live, with upgraded Launchpad-style backlit pads now featuring polyphonic aftertouch meaning they are pressure-sensitive for more expressive performance. This tech sadly doesn’t extend to the keybeds since doing so would have added both to the cost and the bulk of the units, something Novation was keen to avoid. And, unlike the MK3, there is currently no 88-key version of the MK4 — though our impression from our conversation is that we wouldn’t be surprised to see one unveiled soon.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
The controllers’ MIDI functions are now baked into the firmware meaning their tools including Scale and Chord modes. Meanwhile, the eight-step generative arpeggiator can be used directly connected to MIDI hardware like modular gear or grooveboxes with no computer involved. So it’s truly a standalone controller or can just as easily unite the hardware and software sides of your setup.
Although there’s plenty of visual feedback on the hardware itself, Novation also released the Components app, which runs either on your desktop or via a browser. This lets you manage and customise its setup, uploading and downloading templates or bespoke patches.
Mario explains that Components is essentially “a librarian that lets you create custom templates so that you can configure every single control on the device in terms of faders and encoders and paths to send whatever MIDI message you need to send. It goes from the more common standard CC messages but it also deals with more complex ones like 14-bit CC messages, so it’s quite comprehensive.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
At this point in the chat, we’re joined by Sam Counihan, senior product manager and previously with Moog and Ableton for a number of years. He adds that “you also can map keystrokes. So as shortcuts become ever more convoluted there’s more and more added into each application. It’s a nice way to cut back on that complexity and keep you within the context of the controller”.
We ask Sam what he thinks producers look for in a MIDI controller in 2024 that perhaps they might not have sought out a decade ago.
“When you’re working with hardware that connects to software,” he says, “there’s a significant difference in what you’re interacting with and the amount of recontextualization, reorientation you need to do when you go from looking at what’s in front of you, to what’s on the screen.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
“We think that offering many of these functions and tools within the MIDI controllers allows you to reduce that cognitive strain, that left-right brain interrupt that can get in the way of having the idea and expressing it. A MIDI keyboard is never going to completely replace the computer keyboard and mouse. But what we can do is, when you’re in those flow moments of creativity, keeping those in one context and one control surface and probably not having every option under the sun but some sort of constraints helps your creativity. That’s what’s exciting about MIDI controllers.”
Mario agrees that the way to make MIDI controllers better is to improve their smarts rather than necessarily adding hundreds of hardware features which inevitably affects both the size and the cost of the hardware. “When we speak about the evolution of MIDI controllers, clearly a deeper and more in-depth integration with software is required — we’re delivering that with this product.”
The developers also plan to upgrade and enhance the system’s functionality going forward via firmware updates. However, they’re not convinced that anything significant was omitted from the MK4 generation due to cost constraints. Sam comments, “I’d like to think that we make as good products as anybody. And we put a lot of effort into trying to get the best result at the price point in terms of the musical experience, the robustness of the product, the level of integration.”
Mario agrees, telling us, “we really take a lot of pride and we spend endless conversations and hours working and tweaking every single little detail that ended up being part of the product. Of course, you always want to push things further but we’re already providing from the get-go a really rich set of features.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Sam continues, “I couldn’t honestly sit here and say if only we’d done X, then it would be X, as opposed to what it is. We do have room to move with the firmware. That’s something we can play with and build on user feedback with later updates. So I think we’re really keen to just get them out to users. We’ve had some great feedback from reviewers, and we have an excellent beta group with feature requests and tweaks. There’s no shortage of ideas about where we can go within the constraints of the hardware we’ve got, but it doesn’t feel like anything’’s missing.”
The Launchkey MK4 family seems to tick a lot of boxes, from the pre-mapped support for multiple DAWs, the modularity of working both as a standalone and a software controller and the flexibility to configure every parameter exactly as you want. USB power and an impressive set of performance tools like scale, chord and pressure-sensitive pads make them powerful performers with even the smallest, hyper-portable Mini models featuring sustain pedal inputs and MIDI output. There’s also a generous software bundle, again common to every model that includes Live Lite, software instruments and effects from Klevgrand, orchestral tools and GForce and the Melodics app to help you learn to play.
As we seek to blur the lines ever more between our studio hardware and software, developers like Novation are spending a great deal of effort refining and streamlining these workflows with an understanding that it’s more important to strike a balance between functionality and efficiency – to keep you creating and in the moment – than to necessarily provide an avalanche of features. And, to keep things affordable enough that all musicians can take advantage of these tools. With the Launchkey MK4 and the work that Novation is continuing to put into empowering players and producers, it’s an exciting time to be a musician – with even more sure to come.
The post Novation on the future of MIDI control and why Launchkey MK4 is “a big step forward” appeared first on MusicTech.

New Toys: The Fender On-the-Go Amplifier (Mustang Micro Plus)Fender has released the latest version of its most versatile on-the-go mini amplifier, the Mustang Micro Plus. Building on the success of The Mustang Micro launched in 2021, this new update offers personal guitar amplification that fits in your pocket and has a wide selection of tones, amp models, and effects from popular Mustang Series amps. 

The Mustang Micro Plus now has 25 guitar amplifier models and 25 effects combinations. Classic Fender tones can be quickly and easily dialed in anywhere. As the name Micro Plus implies, this device is just a bit larger than a pack of Tic Tacs. It plugs straight into your electric guitar, and musicians can effortlessly select from a variety of amp models tailored to their musical style. And as you would expect from Fender, the jack is designed to plug in easily even if your guitar has a recessed jack, like on a Telecaster.

Right out of the box, 70 different sounds are ready to go for hours of inspiration. From creamy clean swirling chorused echoes to clean jazz, '70s hard rock to '90s metal… any guitar player should be able to find some great sounds they will enjoy right away. Each preset has nine different EQ presets available. The integrated LED display is bright and clear, and the built-in tuner works well.

A metronome with a Tap feature can help you find and set a tempo right away. You can use your favorite headphones wired with a mini plug or connect to ear buds via Bluetooth to enjoy the stereo sounds. If you spend a lot of time with the Micro Plus, you may do well to memorize all the buttons as you can’t really see them once the unit is plugged in, but you can change them by touch.

The level of sophistication and power in this little amp is huge, but don’t let that scare you. It is easy to navigate. Musicians can save and instantly recall their favorite amp and effect settings with the 100 editable presets. If you want to get deep into saving presets, programming and getting other players programs, the Micro Plus is compatible with the Fender Tone: iOS and Android app for use with your tablet or phone. Additionally, it has Bluetooth audio streaming with audio/video sync to enable playing along in real-time with your favorite music. 

The Micro Plus ships with 6 months free of Studio One+, the Digital Audio Workstation and music creation “ecosystem” partnership with PreSonus and Fender. $129.00

fender.comThe post New Toys: The Fender On-the-Go Amplifier (Mustang Micro Plus) first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Court approves Terraform Labs winding down in bankruptcy hearingAfter collapsing in 2022, facing an SEC lawsuit in 2023, and filing for bankruptcy in 2024, many of Terraform’s legal cases in the US are beginning to wind down.

MIT develops recyclable 3D-printed glass blocks for constructionThe team points to glass’ optical properties and its “infinite recyclability” as reasons for turning to the material.
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Nelly sued for at least $50m over allegedly not crediting former St. Lunatics bandmates on hit album Country GrammarUS rapper Nelly has been sued by his former bandmates, the St. Lunatics, over a copyright dispute regarding several tracks from his hit album Country Grammar, which was released in 2000. The complaint was filed by lawyers in New York on Thursday (September 18) on behalf of Ali Jones (Ali), Torhi Harper (Murphy Lee), Robert … Continued
Source

Reverse Engineering A Keyboard Driver Uncovers A Self-Destruct CodeShould you be able to brick a keyboard just by writing a driver to flash the lights on it? We don’t think so either. [TheNotary] got quite the shock when embarking on a seemingly straightforward project to learn C++ on the x86-64 architecture with Windows and sent it straight to Silicon Heaven with only a few seemingly innocent USB packets.
The project was a custom driver for the XVX S-K80 mechanical keyboard, aiming to flash LED patterns across the key LEDs and perhaps send custom images to the integrated LCD. When doing this sort of work, the first thing you need is the documentation of the communications protocols. Obviously, this was not an option with a closed-source project, so the next best thing is to spy on the existing Windows drivers and see how they worked. Using Wireshark to monitor the USB traffic whilst twiddling with the colour settings, it was clear that communications were purely over HID messages, simplifying subsequent analysis. Next, they used x32dbg (now x64dbg, but whatever) to attach to the existing driver process and trap a few interesting Windows system calls. After reading around the Windows API, a few candidate functions were identified and trapped. This gave them enough information to begin writing code to reproduce this behaviour. Then things got a bit odd.

There apparently was a lot of extra protocol baggage when performing simple tasks such as lighting an LED. They shortened the sequence to reduce the overhead and noticed an additional byte that they theorized must encode the number of packets to expect in case only a subset of the LEDs were being programmed. Setting this to 0x01 and sending LED code for single keys appeared to work and was much faster but seemed unreliable. After a short experiment with this mystery value, [TheNotary] reverted the code to send all the packets for the full LED set as before, forgetting to correct this mystery value from the 0xFF it was programmed to during the experiment. They were surprised that all the LEDs and LCD were switched off. They were then horrified when the keyboard never powered up again. This value appeared to have triggered an obscure firmware bug and bricked it—a sad end to what would have been a fun little learning project.
Keyboard hacks are so plentiful it’s hard to decide where to start. How about upgrading the keyboard of your trusty ZX81? Here’s a lovely, minimal mechanical keyboard powered by a Pi Pico, and finally while we’re thinking about drivers bricking your stuff, who can forget FTDI gate? We may never forgive that one.
Header image: Martin Vorel, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Irving Azoff’s GMR just struck a $3.3 billion private equity deal, say MBW sourcesLook. We’ve broken some pretty big news of late. Proper news. But this? Size-of-transaction-wise, this tops the lot. MBW has confirmed via well-placed sources that Irving Azoff’s US-headquartered PRO, Global Music Rights (GMR), struck a multi-billion dollar deal yesterday (September 18) with a new private equity partner. The deal, we’re told, valued GMR at USD … Continued
Source

Music production is officially in its ‘subscription’ eraThe best way to make music is by spending $60 a month on bundles and services that will ultimately never be yours. Yep, in 2024, opening your DAW is easier when you open your wallet.
That’s what some software companies seemingly want you to believe, anyway. And, as more developers head down a subscription route, more music producers are feeling alienated.
Artists and producers aren’t strangers to subscription services. Splice, Tracklib, and Output have operated on a subscription basis since their inception, which most creators have warmly embraced. With these platforms, your cancel-anytime subscription guarantees a regular stream of new material to keep and use in your music — even if you end your subscription after downloading it.
READ MORE: VCV unveils VCV+ subscription plan – but it’s not rent-to-own, and fans are disappointed
And subscriptions are everywhere, anyway, right? Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, PlayStation Plus — even my HP home printer has an ink subscription option. It’s not a novel concept.
So why are music producers so frustrated that plugin companies are heading down the same path?
Last year, Waves, a long-beloved brand in studios around the globe, attempted to pivot to a subscription-only model. This move was seen as extreme by fans, who could no longer purchase Waves plugins outright; under this plan, they could not use them in their projects unless subscribed to Waves’ platform. It was seen as a paywall to creativity and an insult to long-standing customers who have always purchased plugin licenses and paid for regular upgrades.
Producers revolted and Waves overturned the decision in under 48 hours.
Much to many fans’ disappointment, modular synth software brand VCV Rack is the latest to offer a subscription service. It’s $29 monthly or $228 per year, and you get access to “VCV Rack Pro for DAWs; All premium VCV-brand modules; Official virtual Eurorack modules; and Hundreds of premium third-party modules.”
VCV Rack 2
Thankfully, you can still purchase its stellar software, Rack 2 Pro, for $149 but, crucially, none of VCV’s customers were asking for such a service before launch. In fact, very few producers are ever asking for subscription plans to plugins.
A quick look at Native Instruments’ 360 service — which starts at $150per year and goes up to £440 per year — comes with a disclaimer: “All content offer details are subject to change without prior notice. Cancellation and downgrade effects depend on your subscription plan.”
In theory, this means that the software included in your subscription package could change without warning. Got a synth part in your project from Massive X? If NI were to remove that from your subscription, you could say goodbye to that sound. But if you own Massive X, the sound is yours forever.
Native Instruments has told us, however, that the note “allows us to introduce new features, products, or improvements, as well as to adjust the included features, such as online experiences. While products or features may be retired over time, we are committed to ensuring that users will not lose their sessions. In the event we end-of-life a product, subscribers will be provided with a way to maintain access and ensure continued compatibility with their work.”
Avid‘s Pro Tools, once the essential DAW for every major recording studio in the world, is now pushing producers to a sub model. You can buy a license from a reseller but, otherwise, it’s a monthly fee, with no rent-to-own option to allow you to eventually buy Pro Tools, even after paying $299 per year.
Pro Tools. Image: Avid
It’s easy to understand creators’ concerns. Our work is precious and deeply personal, if not to us then to someone we’re working with. Imagine your frustration if, after spending considerable time tweaking a plugin’s automation across a 5-minute track, adding movement and depth to your new masterpiece — only for it to be removed the next time you open the project. Or you miss a payment, leaving you without a DAW to even open. That’d suck.
You’ll rarely find anyone actively looking for a subscription to software they’ll never own. Adobe faced intense backlash in 2013 when it introduced Creative Cloud, marking an end to perpetual licenses of its software. If you want Photoshop in 2024, you need to pay $20 per month for as long as you use it — if you’re a photographer, that’s a lot of cash over the course of your career.
As Benn Jordan points out, with VCV+: “If you had to subscribe from [VCV Rack’s] initial 2017 release, VCV Rack would have cost you $2,436 and you wouldn’t own a single thing.”

If you had to subscribe from the initial 2017 release, VCV Rack would have costed you $2,436 and you wouldn't own a single thing. pic.twitter.com/LlGPxHzvdp
— Benn Jordan (@bennjordan) September 7, 2024

But subscriptions aren’t all bad.
Services like Splice and Output seem to have it (mostly) nailed. And if you’re a casual music producer, or just want to try out a few NI products before buying them, for example, it’s a bargain; $11 per month for over 60 plugins is pretty good.
To that end, subscriptions aren’t a paywall to creativity, they’re lowering the barrier to creativity. There will be many young producers out there who are capable of being the next Timbaland, Brian Eno or Daft Punk — they should be provided with affordable tools to create and learn.
As companies continue to look to subscriptions as an option for their customers, we ask only the following: Consider a rent-to-own option whenever you can; don’t remove plugins abruptly without prior notice; be more realistic with your monthly subscription costs.
Our DAWs are much more fun when we know there isn’t a monthly payment of $100 required to keep the plugins open.
Read more music technology news. 
The post Music production is officially in its ‘subscription’ era appeared first on MusicTech.

Lathe Outfitted with Electronic GearboxRunning a metal lathe is not for the faint of heart. Without proper knowledge and preparation, these machines can quickly cause injury or destroy expensive stock, tools, or parts. The other major problem even for those with knowledge and preparedness is that some of their more niche capabilities, like cutting threads with a lead screw, can be tedious and complicated thanks to the change gear system found on some lathes. While these are useful tools for getting things done, [Not An Engineer] decided that there was a better way and got to work building an electronic gearbox to automate the task of the traditional mechanical change gear setup in this video.
What makes change gears so tricky is that they usually come as a set of many gears of different ratios, forcing the lathe operator to figure out the exact combination of gears needed to couple the spindle of the lathe to the feed screw at the precise ratio needed for cutting a specific thread pattern. It is possible to do this task but can be quite a headache. [Not An Engineer] first turned to an Arduino Nano to receive input from a rotary encoder connected to the shaft of the lathe and then instruct a motor to turn the feed screw at a set ratio.
The first major problem was that the Arduino was not nearly fast enough to catch every signal from the encoder, leading to a considerable amount of drift in the output of the motor. That was solved by upgrading to a Teensy 4.1 with a 600 MHz clock speed. There was still one other major hurdle to cross; the problem of controlling the motor smoothly when an odd ratio is selected. [Not An Engineer] used this algorithm to inspire some code, and with that and some custom hardware to attach everything to the lathe he has a working set of electronic change gears that never need to be changed again. And, if you don’t have a lathe at all but are looking to get started with one, you can always build your own from easily-sourced parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSDNKmk5B20
 

Sonarworks update SoundID VoiceAI Sonarworks' SoundID VoiceAI plug-in has been treated to an update that introduces some user-requested features and licensing changes.