DDMF Releases FREE Endless Reverb Plugin
DDMF released a new free plugin called Endless, available for both Windows and Mac platforms. If you’re unfamiliar with the brand, DDMF has provided us with great audio perks over the years, such as the infamous Plugindoctor and Metaplugin tools. Endless is a reverb plugin designed to create huge, ethereal spaces with seemingly endless decay, [...]
View post: DDMF Releases FREE Endless Reverb Plugin

New York DJ Mister Cee dies aged 57: “He wasn’t just a DJ; he was a pillar of our stations”Trailblazing Brooklyn DJ Mister Cee has died at the age of 57.
His death was confirmed by New York radio station Hot 97 in a statement: “As a family at HOY 97 and WBLS, we’re deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved Mister Cee. He wasn’t just a DJ; he was a pillar of our stations, bringing joy to countless listeners with his legendary Throwback at Noon and Friday Night Live sets.”
“Mr. Cee’s influence stretched far beyond the airwaves, shaping the very fabric of NYC’s DJ culture. Our hearts are heavy as we send our love and condolences to his family and the fans whose lives he touched his music. Rest easy, Mr. Cee, Your legacy will live forever.”
No cause of death has been revealed.

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Born Calbiun Lebrun in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood, Mister Cee made a name for himself as one of the pioneers of the city’s hip-hop scene.
Having learned to DJ at a young age, the musician got his start in the music industry as a DJ for Big Daddy Kane. In 1988, Mister Cee appeared on Big Daddy Kane’s debut album Long Live The Kane with the track Mister Cee’s Master Plan. He would go on to become the rapper’s official DJ on tour.
Cee is also often credited with discovering fellow Brooklyn hip-hop star The Notorious B.I.G. He served as executive producer on Biggie’s debut album, Ready To Die. Speaking of the late Biggie last year, Cee said: “I knew he was dope. I didn’t think he would become what he would before passing away. All I did at the time was try to get anybody and everybody to listen to him.”
In addition to his role as a producer, Mister Cee had a long career as a DJ on the renowned New York hip-hop radio station, Hot 97.
Tributes from fellow artists and fans have poured in from around the world following the news of Cee’s passing.
Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg wrote on X, “We have lost the iconic Mister Cee. I listened to him yesterday and am in complete shock. He was a dear friend to all of us, a wonderful man, and one of the most important and impactful DJs of all time. I love you Cee.”

We have lost the iconic Mister Cee. I listened to him yesterday and am in complete shock. He was a dear friend to all of us, a wonderful man, and one of the most important and impactful DJs of all time. I love you Cee.
— Peter Rosenberg (@Rosenbergradio) April 10, 2024

“R.I.P to the legend MR. Cee, God bless him, to all his family and friends I send my condolences,” wrote 50 Cent.

R.I.P to the legend MR. Cee God bless him, to all his family and friends I send my condolences. pic.twitter.com/poOcoaruVe
— 50cent (@50cent) April 10, 2024

Read more tributes below.

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Rest In Beats my man. A good dude to the fullest. @djmistercee @hiphopgods @RockTheBells @RockTheBellsSXM pic.twitter.com/sAEDtXcf0C
— Chuck D (@MrChuckD) April 10, 2024

Rest In Peace DJ Mister Cee pic.twitter.com/yY9y7KgU8e
— DJ Jazzy Jeff (@djjazzyjeff215) April 10, 2024

Rest In Peace DJ Mister Cee
Thank you for everything…
Enjoy this Biggie 'freestyle' he gave the world in 1994 pic.twitter.com/DO2T7mNY4U
— Andrew Barber (@fakeshoredrive) April 10, 2024

Damn. RIP to The Finisher..Brooklyn's Own Mister Cee. Damn yo smh pic.twitter.com/OzCvf5AR2j
— Mad Skillz (@SkillzVa) April 10, 2024

The post New York DJ Mister Cee dies aged 57: “He wasn’t just a DJ; he was a pillar of our stations” appeared first on MusicTech.

Did Nothing just match their latest earbuds to the Playdate video game console?Leaked images of Nothing’s newly announced earbuds have emerged online — and it looks like the quirky tech company has given their upcoming release the Playdate treatment.
Named the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a) — the company (which was co-founded by Teenage Engineering) previously announced that it will be dropping the numbers from its naming strategy — the new buds maintain the iconic transparent design the brand is known for. According to leaked renders shared by Android Headlines, the Ear and the Ear (a) will come in black and white variants, with the latter also available in a striking shade of yellow.

READ MORE: Mike Dean leaks a glimpse of Moog’s Muse, a forthcoming mystery synth

While it’s certainly possible that Nothing’s new colour scheme bears no relation to the peculiar video game console, the brand has previously teased some sort of Playdate partnership on their socials. On 3 April, Nothing shared an image of a black beetle next to a yellow frog, with the mysterious tagline ‘Play Date’, which sent fans buzzing in the comments section.

Play Date.
Want to hear more? Don’t miss our next Community Update.
18 April 2024. pic.twitter.com/KMAXbDWlb1
— Nothing (@nothing) April 3, 2024

Specs-wise, the report states that both models will feature active noise cancellation, dual connection, and an IP54 water-resistance rating just like their predecessor, the Ear 2. While the case of the higher-end Ear will come with an IPX2 splash resistance, the case of the Ear (a) will still feature a respectable IP55 rating.
The Nothing Ear also offers an improved battery life of 7.5 hours with active noise cancellation turned off, and 33 hours with the case, with the Ear (a) clocking in at eight hours of playback with ANC off, and a total of 38 hours with the case. Both earbuds will reportedly include a fast-charging feature that gives you 10 hours of use from a 10-minute charge.
The buds will be released officially on 18 April, with the Ear reportedly priced at €150 and the Ear (a) at €100.
The post Did Nothing just match their latest earbuds to the Playdate video game console? appeared first on MusicTech.

The Minimoog Book by Bjooks is a visual deep-dive into the most famous synth in music historyThe perfect coffee table book for synth lovers and Moog fans has finally arrived.
Launching on Kickstarter later this month, The Minimoog Book — the latest project of the excellent independent book publisher Bjooks — will take you through more than five decades of electronic music history through the lens of one synthesizer that changed it all.

READ MORE: How Moog’s Minimoog Model D became a massive miniature icon

Years in the making, The Minimoog Book is a comprehensive work chronicling the Minimoog’s entire journey — from its prototypes and the very first Model D #1001 through the Minimoog Voyager models and into the present day.
The book opens with a foreword from Rush frontman Geddy Lee, and features more than a decade’s worth of research by esteemed journalist and music historian Joe Silva.
“When I started digging into the history of the Minimoog back in 2010, I quickly realised how universal it was,” Silva said of the project. “I was continuously stumbling upon artist after artist or another famous piece of music that used it. It was pretty clear right away how important the instrument became once it came out.”
Readers can expect exclusive interviews and features with legendary musicians like Kraftwerk, Air, J Dilla, Mac DeMarco, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Chick Corea, Tony Visconti (David Bowie), George Duke, Anne Dudley (Art of Noise), Bernie Worrell, Devo, Gary Numan, and many others — as well as some of the most respected songwriters and multi-instrumentalists of today, such as Greg Kurstin (Adele) and Yumiko Ohno (Buffalo Daughter).
The book also features detailed photography and schematics, historical promotional materials, engineering interviews, illustrated sound patches, and over 70 artist features. A must-have for any electronic music fan out there.
Kim Bjørn, founder of Bjooks said, “The Minimoog Book is our most vital project yet, documenting and delving deep into the iconic electronic instrument that has shaped generations of musicians and songs.”
“We’re deeply privileged to bring this beautiful book to Kickstarter for our loyal readers and enthusiasts everywhere. Your support in making this labour of love a reality will mean the world to our small team.”
The Minimoog Book will be available for pre-order on Kickstarter later in April. Early supporters will get access to special perks and insider info like never-before-seen photos, behind-the-scenes content, a special edition of the book, and more.

Bjooks is renowned for its collection of thick, premium books that focus on synthesizer history and culture, including deep dives on Roland, Korg, modular synths, and guitar pedals.
For more information on backing the book and securing your early copy, visit the Bjooks website.
The post The Minimoog Book by Bjooks is a visual deep-dive into the most famous synth in music history appeared first on MusicTech.

Excite Audio’s Bloom Bass Impulse is a plugin designed to make “groundbreaking bass”Excite Audio has released Bloom Bass Impulse, a minimal-looking plugin that merges a range of modern synth bass loops, samples, and one-shots into a virtual instrument for “groundbreaking bass.”

READ MORE: Arturia AstroLab puts all of the brand’s synth emulations in one hardware unit

The Bloom Bass Impulse helps you increase low-frequency content in your tracks, with a particular focus on bass-heavy genres. With it, you can blend between bass styles – from drum and bass to tech to dubstep — and shape unique bass layers with expressive modulation. It’s designed to let you swiftly put together sequences with a varied library of bass sounds and explore the royalty-free loops and one-shots that are ready for use.
There are four macro controls (Sub-EQ, Noise, Crush, and Width) for instant tonal adjustments,  and the Edit page lets you customise almost everything you’d need to, with control over sample manipulation, sequence creation, modulation, and effects over 250 presets.

According to Excite Audio, to get started you can choose a key, pick a preset or sample bank, and start one of the 14 bpm-synced bass loops across two octaves. The white keys place bass samples and loops, while the black keys alter features like playback speed and pitch.
There are eight banks of sounds, each one focused on a different type of bass. You can trigger a sample with MIDI to add bass, or use the Phrase Player to integrate the sample into a more complex bassline. Bloom Bass Impulse has three bespoke effects modules, too. There’s Saturation, an Envelope Filler, and Reverb.
Bloom Bass Impulse Intro currently costs £39, down from the regular price of £59. It’s also included in the expanded Bloom Bundle and Excite Audio Bundle, while the Bloom Bass Impulse Lite edition is £19, down from the regular price of £29. Or, you can choose the rent-to-own option for £3.29 per month.
Find out more about Bloom Bass Impulse.
The post Excite Audio’s Bloom Bass Impulse is a plugin designed to make “groundbreaking bass” appeared first on MusicTech.

Light as a feather: Nujabes’ lasting impact on hip-hop and electronic musicBeatmaker, producer, DJ, musician, crate digger, record store and label owner — Nujabes did it all. Tokyo born and raised, he soaked up inspiration from the overseas jazz and hip-hop music that he loved, flipped the script, and sent it back west, in turn influencing the countless producers that have come after him. His life was sadly cut short in 2010 at 36 years old, but his records continue to inform and inspire, with lo-fi hip-hop as just one modern manifestation of his output.

READ MORE: Kevin Saunderson is the past, present and future of techno

To understand his music — and the outsized influence his work has had on modern music — first you have to understand Tokyo.

Birth of the modal soul
Up the hill from Shibuya’s famous Scramble intersection, where tourists and locals alike jostle to make it across the road unscathed, lies Udagawa-cho. Packed with tiny record stores aimed at working DJs, you can find anything you want, including hip-hop, house, downtempo and jazz. It was here that Jun Seba, later known as Nujabes, owned not one but two record shops: Guinness Records (we advise taking a tour here) and Tribe. Amidst this mix of genres is where Nujabes’ journey as one of the most important hip-hop producers ever began. And, if you know Shibuya, the youth and music epicentre of Tokyo, it couldn’t have happened any other way.
Born Jun Yamada just a few miles away from Shibuya, he took the pen name Jun Seba when he began writing for Japanese music magazines. Staking his claim in Udagawa-cho with his record stores, he soon added beatmaker to his growing list of talents. Flipping his name like a sample, he quietly announced himself as Nujabes with a bootleg 12-inch remix of Nas dropped surreptitiously into the bins of his own stores.
Rather than toot his own horn, he preferred to sample the horns of others. A consummate sample spotter, his chosen melodic jazz riffs and boom-bap-inspired beats were like nothing else around. His debut album, 2003’s Metaphorical Music, confirmed that a rare talent had arrived, with its release and the precious few that followed before his death creating ripples throughout the music world like pebbles dropped into a placid temple pond.

Nujabes’ production style: deceptively simple
Nujabes’ music has the same core pieces as many other hip-hop records, namely jazzy melodies and sampled breakbeats, and yet there’s no mistaking a Jun Seba production. Relaxed and spiritual but always emotional, his songs have a unique flavour that sets them apart from others.
Frequent collaborator Shing02, who rapped on several Nujabes cuts including the incredible Luv(sic) Hexology, puts it this way to us: “Overall, the Japanese minimalist aesthetic and interpretation of 90s hip-hop shaped the sound of his beats. They were deceptively simple in terms of composition.”
Deceptively simple is the key. Break down any of his tracks and you’ll find precious few elements: a sampled beat left largely in peace, a melodic bar or two snatched from a classic jazz record, and possibly a counter melody, either sampled or played live. And that’s it.
Shing02. Image: Press
An instinct for discovering samples
It was the choice of samples, though, that made his music unique.
“Honestly it’s hard to articulate why,” answers Shing02 when we ask him about Nujabes’ ever-increasing popularity. “But, musically speaking, he did have a knack for discovering samples, whether they were famous artists or not. His huge vinyl collection was a testament to how much time he spent listening to records.”
Nujabes was a crate digger first and foremost. He did own two record stores, after all. It’s easy to imagine him spending his afternoons in the records stores of Shibuya and nearby Shinjuku, searching for bottled magic to release from locked grooves.
But more than just finding obscure records to sample, he had an ear for melody, for the most emotional bits of a track to use in his compositions. Rather than pull out unrelated snippets, he preferred to let the original tracks define the chord progressions. He respected the songs.
Unlike J Dilla who, as well as being born on the exact same day as Nujabes, transformed our understanding of rhythm, Nujabes amplified our appreciation of melody. Armed with hardware samplers like the Akai MPC 2500 and 2000XL and Akai S950, plus a keen understanding of what makes records work, he was able to craft new records that built on the melodic explorations of jazz masters like Miles Davis and Pharoah Sanders and Brazilian artists such as Luiz Bonfá and Toquinho.

Jazztown Tokyo
It’s hard to oversell the importance of jazz to many Tokyo-ites. Jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Herbie Hancock regularly played massive concert halls in the Japan capital. Listening bars and cafes, presided over by audiophile owners with massive jazz collections, dot the landscape. Even famous author Haruki Murakami owned a jazz cafe in his early days.
This love of jazz and other American music permeates the Tokyo scene and it’s this saturated environment that Nujabes grew up in. Always the guy asking the DJ the name of the record playing, he loved music to such an extent that he wanted to celebrate it with samples. His music succeeds because of his deep love for the source material.

The lo-fi connection
Of course, Nujabes’ productions are more than just a few well-selected samples. There’s a whole vibe to them; an aesthetic that set down the blueprint for the genre of lo-fi hip-hop.
While not specifically lo-fi in the modern sense, Nujabes’ tracks are warm and unpolished, with a high-frequency roll-off that you don’t hear in other cuts from the era. This most likely comes from the source material, largely 1960s and 70s records captured from vinyl.
His use of effects also makes him stand out from other hip-hop producers. Nujabes often coated his samples in modulation and sometimes even delay. Another common Nujabes trick is to cut out all the highs and boost resonance with a Waldorf 4-Pole analogue filter, a practice more common in house than hip-hop. He’s even been known to use a filtered layer of the same sample underneath as a bassline. Throw in some imperfectly chopped samples with audible onset pops and clicks and you have the makings of proto-lo-fi beats.

Choice of a new generation
We can’t talk about Nujabes without mentioning Samurai Champloo, the 2004 anime series that Nujabes made the soundtrack for. A melding of Japanese and hip-hop stylings, it failed to make much of an impact in its country of origin. However, it was a hit overseas, and many who grew up watching it — and hearing Nujabes’ unique beats soundtracking the action — have since gone on to become lo-fi hip-hop producers themselves.
“For boys around the world who were still young at the time, Samurai Champloo was a very interesting anime,” says Japanolofi Records on its site. “Not only was the quality of the work high, but the music, which was smooth, jazzy, comfortable, and somehow hip-hop … left a strong impression on them.”
There’s a deep sense of nostalgia that permeates lo-fi hip-hop and harkens back to a relaxed, analogue time before our modern and anxiety-fueled digital age. Nujabes’ music fits this perfectly.
According to Japanolofi Records, Nujabes tried to pioneer a more laid-back, non-aggressive style of hip-hop. “Nujabes’ style of sampling always employed vinyl records to create warm noises, and (his) music tended to lean toward jazz and soul, so there is no doubt that (it) created a relaxing sound,” the label sums up. “The essence of such music permeated the world and created the lo-fi hip-hop sound.”

The anime connection
Nujabes’ influence has lately transcended from lo-fi hip-hop to background music for social media users and content creators. Whether in its original form or remixed, Araurian Dance from Samurai Champloo has become the go-to soundtrack for the internet.
And then there’s the anime connection. The face of the chill genre is the lo-fi study girl, a short animation of a teen girl sitting at a desk by an open window, drawn in a very Studio Ghibli style. The visual component to YouTube streaming channel lo-fi hip hop radio, it’s the end point of a variety of threads that, once you start pulling, go all the way back to Samurai Champloo and Nujabes.

Towards the future (passed)
This year, Nujabes would have turned 50. It’s tempting to wonder how his music may have evolved had his life not been cut short by a car accident.
“Surely he would have appreciated it,” answers Shing02 when asked how Nujabes may have reacted to the modern adulation of his music, “but I’m not sure what kind of music he would be making. Towards the end, he was gravitating towards making faster BPMs and more live instrumentation.”
Like an apprentice studying at the feet of the jazz masters of the past, Nujabes moved on from just sampling towards using more live instruments in his music, as Shing02 mentions, either playing them himself or alongside collaborator and jazz musician Uyama Hiroto.
Uyama’s Nujabes-produced album A Son of the Sun could offer clues as to what a future Nujabes may have sounded like. A true fusion of hip-hop and jazz, it’s a heady album for heads and modal jazz fans alike. Had he been able to keep on producing, would we have seen a Galaxy 2 Galaxy-like touring live band combining hip-hop, jazz and Brazilian sounds? The mind boggles.

We may not have new Nujabes music, but we do have new music descended from his DNA in lo-fi artists like Eevee and Tomppabeats, as well as those he worked with like Shing02, who keeps Nujabes’ legacy alive in his live shows.
“As far as our catalogue together that spanned 10 years, it is always going to be a part of our live performances,” he says. “I try to embody what our spirit was like creating those songs.”
In Japanese religious beliefs, the spirit can become a kami, a kind of god after death. Hip-hop has many kami, from Tupac to Biggie, and Nujabes is surely among them, helping guide modern music to a more chill and emotional place.
The post Light as a feather: Nujabes’ lasting impact on hip-hop and electronic music appeared first on MusicTech.

Alternative browsers report uplift after EU’s DMA choice screen mandateA flagship European Union digital market regulation appears to be shaking up competition in the mobile browser market. It’s been a little over a month since the Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into application and there are early signs it’s having an impact by forcing phone makers to show browser choice screens to users. On […]
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Antares unleash Auto-Tune Pro 11 Users can now create and mix four-part harmonies in Auto-Tune, and even trigger them via a MIDI input. 

Baseboard Heaters Get AutomatedIf you’re lucky enough to have central heating and/or air conditioning, with an automatic thermostat, you probably don’t have to worry too much about the outside temperature. But central HVAC is far from the only way of maintaining temperature in a home. From wood stoves to boilers there are many options depending on your climate and home type, and [Murphy’s Law] has a decentralized baseboard system instead of something centralized. An ESP8266 solution was found that was able to tie them all together.
There are other types of baseboard heaters, but in [Murphy’s Law]’s case the heaters were electric with a separate thermostat for each heater. Rather than build a control system from the ground up to replace the thermostats, turnkey smart wall switches were used instead. These switches happened to be based on the popular ESP8266 microcontroller, like plenty of other off-the-shelf automation solutions, which meant less work needed to be done on the line voltage side and the microcontroller’s firmware could be easily customized for use with Home Assistant.
While [Murphy’s Law] doesn’t live in the home with the fleet of electric baseboard heaters anymore, the new home has a single baseboard heater to keep a bathroom warm since the central heating system doesn’t quite keep it warm enough. This system is able to scale up or down based on number of heaters, though, so it’s still a capable solution for the single room and has since been updated to use the ESP32. All of the code for this project is available on GitHub as well, and for those of you attempting to add other HVAC components to a home automation system this project that loops in a heat pump is worth taking a look at as well.

‘I’m not going to get embarrassed or feel awkward if someone begins weeping when they start talking about a story that becomes a song. If they start to cry, I don’t try to stop that.’Dan Wilson, co-writer of Someone Like You and many other award-winning songs over the last 20 years, reflects on his time as an artist, why he's happier behind the scenes and never ruling out the waltz option
Source

New AI-powered ‘instant’ music-making app Udio raises $10m; launches with backing from will.i.am, Common, UnitedMasters, a16zUdio, developed by former researchers at Google DeepMind, says it can create a mastered track from user prompts in less than 40 seconds
Source

Chandra X-ray Observatory Threatened by Budget CutsLaunched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in July of 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory is the most capable space telescope of its kind. As of this writing, the spacecraft is in good health and is returning valuable scientific data. It’s currently in an orbit that extends at its highest point to nearly one-third the distance to the Moon, which gives it an ideal vantage point from which to make its observations, and won’t reenter the Earth’s atmosphere for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Yet despite this rosy report card, Chandra’s future is anything but certain. Faced with the impossible task of funding all of its scientific missions with the relative pittance they’re allocated from the federal government, NASA has signaled its intent to wind down the space telescope’s operations over the next several years. According to their latest budget request, the agency wants to slash the program’s $41 million budget nearly in half for 2026. Funding would remain stable at that point for the next two years, but in 2029, the money set aside for Chandra would be dropped to just $5.2 million.
Drastically reducing Chandra’s budget by the end of the decade wouldn’t be so unexpected if its successor was due to come online in a similar time frame. Indeed, it would almost be expected. But despite being considered a high scientific priority, the x-ray observatory intended to replace Chandra isn’t even off the drawing board yet. The 2019 concept study report for what NASA is currently calling the Lynx X-ray Observatory estimates a launch date in the mid-2030s at the absolute earliest, pointing out that several of the key components of the proposed telescope still need several years of development before they’ll reach the necessary Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for such a high profile mission.
With its replacement for this uniquely capable space telescope decades away even by the most optimistic of estimates, the  potential early retirement of the Chandra X-ray Observatory has many researchers concerned about the gap it will leave in our ability to study the cosmos.

The Sky Through X-Ray Vision
Just a few years after the launch of the incredibly powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), it might seem odd that scientists are concerned about the fate of an observatory that was launched 25 years ago.
Remnants of supernova SN 1006, as imaged by Chandra in 2023
But for all the capabilities of the JWST, making observations in the X-ray spectrum simply isn’t one of them. It was designed almost elusively for performing infrared astronomy, a specialization to which it owes many of its unique design elements. Other well known space telescopes, such as the European Space Agency’s Euclid or the legendary Hubble Space Telescope operate primarily in the visible spectrum.
It’s not that Chandra is the only space telescope capable of x-ray imaging — but it’s unquestionably the best we currently have. Of course, this was by design. While most of the other x-ray telescopes in space are either secondary payloads or otherwise relatively small, Chandra was designed and built as one of NASA’s flagship missions. Like Hubble it was part of the Great Observatory program, and was intended to push the state-of-the-art in detection technology for its particular slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, setting the standard for decades to come.
Compared to optical or IR telescopes, x-ray telescopes are ideal for directly imaging high-energy objects such as supernovas and galaxy clusters. It’s also possible to make indirect observations by studying how a given object reflects or absorbs ambient x-ray energy. X-ray telescopes are also key for studying what might otherwise be invisible, such as black holes and dark matter.
Rising Temps, Rising Costs?
According to the NASA budget request, winding down Chandra’s funding to what it calls “minimal operations” by 2029 isn’t just some arbitrary decision. The report specifically cites increased program costs directly related to the age of the spacecraft, or more specifically, the extra effort that’s now required to get usable data from onboard systems which are increasingly operating out of spec:

In a post titled “A Letter to the Chandra Community“, program director Dr. Patrick Slane addresses these NASA claims directly. While he acknowledges that Chandra has suffered system degradation, he points out that it’s hardly unexpected for a spacecraft of this age. Despite being designed for a planned mission duration of 5 years, Chandra is approaching 25 years in orbit. He also admits that it’s made observations more difficult than they were when the observatory was launched.
That said, Dr. Slane argues that Chandra’s rising operating temperature isn’t a new problem, and was first identified as far back as 2005. Over the years the teams have been able to characterize the temperature fluctuations, which vary depending on orbital position and spacecraft attitude, and develop new models that allow them to compensate for any thermally-induced shifts in the data. He says these efforts have been greatly successful, and that even today, Chandra’s observation efficiency “far exceeds the initial requirements for the mission.”
The documentation for this isn’t difficult to find. In the 2016 paper “Evolution of temperature-dependent charge transfer inefficiency correction for ACIS on the Chandra X-ray Observatory“, it’s explained how the responsiveness of Chandra’s Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) had changed since launch, and how teams on the ground were adjusting to the system’s new characteristics.
Even in 2015, the instrumentation’s temperature was clearly rising
While the paper notes that the ACIS had suffered some radiation damage, it identifies the reduced effectiveness of Chandra’s thermal control systems to have introduced the largest changes. At the time of publication, now nearly a decade ago, it was already clear that the ACIS temperature was on the rise. The paper notes that in 2000, 99% of observations were made at what it considers “cold” temperatures of below -119.2° C, but by 2015, that figure had dropped to just 33%.
The paper explains that, after gathering sufficient calibration data, algorithms were developed to compensate for the increasingly erratic ACIS temperatures. That said, it did note that the team’s initial assumptions that the temperature fluctuations would remain relatively minor were already being challenged. Should instrumentation temperature continue to climb higher, more data would need to be collected to verify their compensation software still worked as expected.
Still, the authors closed the paper with the belief that Chandra would still be able to meet its performance goals even in theis newly dynamic thermal environment.
The Fight Has Only Just Begun
Between the published data on telescope’s instrumentation, and the passionate response of Dr. Slane, it would seem the Chandra story isn’t quite over yet. There’s an excellent case to be made that the thermal issues with the observatory, while a valid and documented concern, are a largely solved problem that doesn’t require any additional financial outlay. Why the NASA budget request seems to indicate otherwise is beyond the scope of this article, but with the ever-rising cost of the Artemis program, it’s not hard to imagine that the agency is looking to justify cost cutting measures wherever it can.
At the end of his letter, Dr. Slane notes that the Chandra X-ray Observatory would be going through a review in April to further clarify its budgetary needs going forward. After giving the program a closer look, and perhaps after feeling a bit of pressure from the astrophysics community, NASA may yet change its plans for this valuable instrument.

Ron Keel Band at the Whisky A Go GoThere's a photo on this writer's office wall at Music Connection Towers, one of the many vintage promo shots that this publication has received over the years, of the band Keel in their A&M Records prime. It's pinned up next to King Diamond, Maria McKee, the Ramones and the Cure, and the Keel guys look spectacular. We'd publish it here if we could be sure that we had the permissions.

People often forget how close Keel was to really breaking. Fresh out of the band Steeler and a two-week spell in Black Sabbath (they demoed together but nothing was ever released), Ron Keel formed Keel, released a ton of great music, got produced by Gene Simmons, scored a major deal and went on the road with Bon Jovi on the Slippery When Wet tour. The sky was the limit, but they were destined to remain a cult favorite.

That said, the Whisky hosts a lot of these '80s hair/glam/sleaze rock shows, and few of them are as on it as the Ron Keel Band were on Saturday night. Ron himself looked determined to enjoy the fact that, at midnight and as the date turned to April 7 2024, he was celebrating 40 years since the first ever Keel show.

So we got a career-spanner. Steeler faves like "Cold Day in Hell" sat comfortably alongside Keel classics such as "Right to Rock" and their awesome cover of Patti Smith's "Because the Night." Keel even gave a nod to his brief Black Sabbath history, performing "Mob Rules."

The RKB played for well over two hours, and not a moment of it was wasted.

My Forever Studio: Benn Jordan’s concrete cabin is a low-key science labHow will Benn Jordan kit out his fantasy forever studio? Will it be a futuristic tech pad or analogue gear galore? Maybe a bit of both — just make sure that it has his all-time favourite DAW and that it’s guarded by a moat. Yes, a moat.
READ MORE: My Forever Studio: Raphaella’s Persian production paradise
The producer, content creator, researcher and artist, who has been making music for over 20 years as The Flashbulb, joins us in this week’s episode of My Forever Studio, in partnership with Audient. Learn how Benn mixed and mastered his first few records on an extremely low-end rig, the “open secret” of the music tech industry, which unexpected song he uses to tune touring sound systems, and the only Forever Studio item he’d be heartbroken to lose if his house burnt down.

Benn has been a prominent figure in the music production world in recent years, thanks to his innovative discography and his investigations into the science of sound on his YouTube channel. His analyses of the music industry and some of its major players have also gained him popularity online, with a strong community built on Patreon.
His most recent endeavour has been in AI with fellow producer DJ Fresh, who has founded Voice.Swap, a stem-swapping tool that aims to pay session musicians fair royalties. Benn was made creative director of the company in late 2023, which has made him “busier than I’ve ever been in my entire life”.

The My Forever Studio podcast sees artists, producers and engineers create their dream fantasy Forever Studio, wherever they want in the universe. However, there are strict rules in the Forever Studio. Our guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they must choose carefully. There will be nostalgia. There will be anecdotes. There may be gags. But there will be no bundles!

Subscribe to My Forever Studio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and check out all episodes so far via musictech.com

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Coming Soon: The Minimoog Book from Bjooks Independent publisher Bjooks have announced the upcoming launch of a Kickstarter campaign to fund their latest release, The Minimoog Book.