2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: Plantpal Is a Friend to You BothOne easy way to get started on the home automation front is with something that makes a house a home in the first place — lush, green plants. As nice as it is to have them around, it can be difficult to care (or remember to care) for them all the time.
Plantpal makes easy work of that, with an e-paper display that makes it plain as day how your plant is feeling. As you might expect, it features a soil moisture sensor, but what might be unexpected is that it’s capacitive instead of the usual resistive type. This way, no traces are exposed to the elements of plant life. It also has a BME688 sensor to monitor air quality and CO₂, so your plant has the chance to thrive.
Around back you’ll find an ESP32-C6, an AEM10941 for solar energy harvesting, and another set of solar panels. Be sure to check out the project’s GitHub if you want to learn more about this adorable and useful device.

Ableton Live 12 is here: new Performance Packs, sounds, MIDI tools + a refreshed workflow and moreAfter teasing its release last fall, Ableton has released the new Ableton Live 12 software – available for purchase on the company’s website and downloadable via your Ableton account if you’ve pre-ordered the program. The company has also published a series of how-to videos, to get to know the program’s major feature updates and additions. It’s […]
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What’s new in Pigments 5?
Learn all about the newest features in Arturia's Pigments 5 and how they can improve your sound design and composition workflows.

From Warner’s potential bid for Believe to the unveiling of Interscope Capitol Labels Group… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…
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Apple Music Replay now offers monthly Wrapped-style listening stats – but what’s the point?If, like me, another month has passed soundtracked by a sonic merry-go-round of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works albums, a monthly recap of your listening habits could make for bleak viewing. Unfortunately for us, that’s just what the newly upgraded Apple Music Replay feature now provides.

READ MORE: No, Daniel Ek, the music industry isn’t like professional football

Of course, insights into your streaming statistics aren’t new – Apple Music Replay was first introduced in 2019 as a yearly insights tool, following the launch of Spotify Wrapped in 2016. TIDAL has also been running a similar Rewind feature since 2020.
However, now Apple has made this feature monthly, analysing your play counts and time spent, and calculating your top songs, albums, artists, playlists, genres, and stations. Yes, this roundup isn’t quite as visually or gamefully creative as Wrapped, but the analysis goes deep.
Subscriber retention might be one reason for the update. In a bid to cut ahead of the competition and keep users from jumping ship to the likes of Spotify, Qobuz, Amazon Music, Deezer or TIDAL, Apple Music’s made an eagerly-awaited feature appear 11 more times in users’ digital peripheries over the calendar year. And will other platforms follow suit? They usually do.
This seemingly innocent data-gathering exercise reminds us that every move we make – even listening to our favourite music – is constantly under the watchful eye of colossal tech giants. And these giants ultimately want us to stay on their platforms for as long as possible and drain us of our money. Following a week where Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek compared the music industry to sports in a statement he apparently assumed would justify the controversially low payouts artists receive from Spotify, perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to fall into another temptatious web spun by the likes of Apple Music.
Your data isn’t just there for a fun recap of your favourite music at the end of each month. Streaming services rely on your data to keep you subscribed to their apps. Your listening habits, preferences, and user interactions are analysed to create personalised playlists and suggest relevant content. It’s important to consider how the streaming giants benefit from your data, not just you.
So, your data is used to suggest music based on your preferences. And when you think about the fact that Spotify, in 2021, revealed it will give artists a prominent position in listeners’ suggested feeds if they agreed to receive a “promotional recording royalty rate”, AKA less royalties, you’ve got to ask, ‘what is my data even being used for?’.
Yes, there’s something undeniably joyful about discovering new music trends and patterns in our listening habits. I won’t lie that sharing your Spotify Wrapped with your friends – who do not care at all – can provide a self-discovery-fueled dopamine hit. But does this joy outweigh the potential stress of constant analysis?
Next time you find yourself refreshing your feed, impatiently awaiting your next Apple Music Replay rundown, spare a thought for the musicians receiving approximately $0.003 – $0.005 per stream. Perhaps your money would be better spent benefitting them directly via Bandcamp’s ‘Bandcamp Fridays’ where artists receive 93 per cent of your money, or on a Soundcloud subscription – a platform that in 2021 announced a revised “fan-powered” royalties model.
It’s about time we questioned our alignment with these music-streaming mammoths. Will we be sucked into another scheme laid out by an $8.3 billion corporation, or are we better than that?
For more op-ed features, head to MusicTech.
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Living Wage for Musicians Act put to US Congress would compensate artists at a penny per streamA Living Wage for Musicians Act has been put before US Congress which would introduce a new streaming royalty model. The act, introduced by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Congressman Jamaal Bowman, would pay artists by at least a penny per stream.
The legislation was created in partnership with United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) and local and national artists “who have been directly impacted by the lack of oversight in the music industry”.

READ MORE: “Football is played by millions of people – but there’s a very small number that can live off playing full time”: Daniel Ek addresses Spotify’s low royalty payments

Spotify, for example, pays the rights-holders of the music on its platform at an average rate of $0.003 per stream. As outlined on Tlaib’s webpage (via Mixmag), this means that it takes artists more than 800,000 monthly streams to equal the earnings of a full-time $15 per hour job.
The Act would mean music providers would be taxed on non-subscription revenues and a small fee would be added to the price of music streaming subscriptions. Platforms such as Spotify would pass their taxed revenues and royalties to a non-profit collection and distribution fund, that would in turn “pay artists in proportion to their monthly streams”. The bill also includes a maximum payout per track, per month.
Tlaib comments that “It’s only right that the people who create the music we love get their fair share, so that they can thrive, not just survive.”
Bowman adds, “Streaming services wouldn’t exist without the brilliant work of artists who choose to share their music with these platforms. Streaming services make billions of dollars a year off the hard work of musicians, but those creators make less than a penny every time we stream their songs. It is unconscionable that in order to buy a cup of coffee, an artist needs someone to stream their song over a thousand times.
“Artists and musicians across the country deserve to be paid for their work. I represent the Bronx, the birthplace of Hip Hop, where music is the foundation of our communities.”
Read the full bill.
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FL Studio partners with Native Instruments on new pluginsFL Studio has teamed up with Native Instruments to bring two new sets of instruments and effects to its DAW.
Both collections serve up a range of iconic synths, creative effects, and advanced mix and mastering processors. Users can expect classics like Guitar Rig 7 Pro, Ozone 11 Standard, Bite, Dirt, and a range of performance-based Play Series instruments. Each bundle also features Massive X, the successor to NI’s ground-breaking Massive software synth plugin. Check out our review of the Massive X to learn more.

READ MORE: New AI bassline generator by Sony can create accompaniments that match the “style and tone” of your input music

In the meantime, here is a rundown of each bundle:
KOMPLETE Collection for FL Studio
The KOMPLETE Collection for FL Studio offers 12 inspirational instruments, modern classic synths and effects, mix and vocal polishing tools, and mastering. The package includes Massive X, Empire Breaks, Feel It, Utopia, Lo-Fi Glow, Bite, Dirt, Freak, Ozone 11 Elements, Nectar 4 Elements, Neutron Elements, and Guitar Rig 7 LE.
KOMPLETE Signature Series for FL Studio
From legendary synths and track-ready riffs to industry-leading mix, vocal, and mastering tools, the KOMPLETE Signature Series for FL Studio delivers 15 essential instruments and effects for all your studio needs. The package includes Massive X, Ozone 11 Standard, Guitar Rig 7 Pro, Vocalsynth 2, Nectar 4 Elements, Neutron Elements, Empire Breaks, Feel It, Utopia, Lo-Fi Glow, Cloud Supply, Duets, Bite, Dirt, and Freak.
The best part? There’s currently a massive 85% discount on both bundles, which puts the KOMPLETE Collection at $99 (U.P $678) and the KOMPLETE Signature Series at $199 (U.P. $1,339).
While these bundles and prices are only available through 19 March 2024, the licences for the individual products never expire.
Check out a video of FL Studio Power User Larry Ohh using the new plugins below.

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Gary Kelly and Jason Kawejsza promoted to key roles at Interscope Capitol Labels GroupKelly appointed Chief Revenue Officer and General Manager; Kawejsza named Executive Vice President, Head of Business & Legal Affairs
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Why Sacred Society use spatial audio to enhance relaxing ambient musicFor thousands of years, people have used sound and music as methods for healing. Sacred Society Music Group is putting those methods in the hands (and ears) of the listener using the power of spatial audio, creating sonic landscapes with ambient music that induces visceral experiences.

READ MORE: Audient’s ORIA is the Atmos interface that engineers have been waiting for

Sacred Society Music Group (SSMG) is the record label arm of the Sacred Society Wellness Center, based in Denver, Colorado. Every song SSMG releases is mastered in 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos with one thought in mind: “We’re completely surrounding you,” says Bradley Roulier, one of the co-founders of SSMG, also a co-founder of Beatport and a member of the dance music project Manufactured Superstars.
Members of the Sacred Society Music Group
Studies have shown that surrounding oneself in sound baths benefits emotional and physiological health. Sacred Society Wellness Center hosts sound baths in a fully equipped Atmos room, but SSMG also streams its music on Atmos-compatible platforms like Amazon Music, Tidal, and Apple Music.
By making these Atmos mixes readily available, SSMG is enabling people to listen to their music for self-healing, and in 2024, more and more people are looking for ways to heal themselves.
In February of this year, “#selfhealers” on Instagram had 955,000 posts. In June 2020, it had 160,000. Furthermore, the self-improvement market in the US was worth $9.9 billion in 2019 and was expected to reach $13.2 billion by 2023, according to a Gitnux study from last year.
“When we were 22 years old, we weren’t depressed,” says Roulier, who was throwing raves as early as the late 90s. “There wasn’t this isolation that people have [today]. You’re going to spend a lot of time by yourself, so what can you do when you’re by yourself to help yourself? You can have all these people around you to give you support, but at the end of the day, it’s you. You’re the one that has to get yourself out of bed every morning. Society is making it really okay to do whatever it is to make you feel better.”
SSMG is equipping people to feel better through three playlists: FOCUS, ENJOY, and REST. Each playlist is curated for eight hours of the day.
Adelio Lombardi in the Kali Audio Atmos studio
FOCUS is for working, studying, or any activity that requires consistent attention. The playlist includes tracks like Blissful Afternoon that employ lighter beats and smoother motions around the Atmos soundscape. It’s active enough to maintain the listener’s attention, but not so intricate as to be distracting.
ENJOY is for relaxing after work. Ancient Chant is in the ENJOY playlist because it demonstrates the full power of Atmos. Drums, vocals, and dozens of other different sounds shift through the 12 speakers, placing the listener inside a cocoon of chillout music as they dance, cook, or do anything that lights them up.
Finally, REST, the sleep playlist, is almost entirely ambient. Many of the tracks like “Dream Space” have no drums at all. Instead, they submerge the listeners in fluid frequencies. No one sound captures any attention. It’s pleasant music to help clear thoughts from the mind. Perfect for winding down at the end of the day.
Roulier’s had trouble sleeping for years, and he listens to the REST playlist in Atmos every night as part of his routine before bed.
“Sleep is the most important aspect of our lives. When you rest is when you heal and recover. If you’re not rested, it’s really hard to have a good day,” Roulier says.
Adelio Lombardi in the Side 3 studio
“I’m 50 years old. When I was 45–46, I started having these issues with sleeping and anxiety. I turned to [ambient music] as my medicine, and it worked. It made me a believer,” says Adelio Lombardi, another co-founder of SSMG, founder of Side 3 Entertainment, and owner of Side 3 Studios.
Lombardi and Roulier have known each other for 20 years, and their team masters every SSMG release in Lombardi’s Kali Audio Atmos studio.
This collaboration was sparked about a year ago, while Roulier was working with Barbie Beltran, founder of the Sacred Society Wellness Center, on a spa that would feature immersive music for sound baths and other wellness activities.
That project fell through when Lombardi had just started working in Atmos.
“I was like, ‘Dude, if you want to do it next level, come check this out.’” Lombardi said to Roulier. When Roulier heard music in Lombardi’s studio for the first time, the thought of a rainstorm immediately popped into his mind.
“I have a vision of doing a track of a West Coast storm. You’re on a beach on the West Coast. You can see a thunderstorm coming from miles away. There’s nothing you can do. The storm rolls in, comes in super heavy, and leaves. Kind of a metaphor for life. Storms are going to happen, and we can translate that through our music,” Roulier says.
Adelio Lombardi in the Side 3 studio
Shortly after connecting with Lombardi via the Atmos studio, Roulier brought in Andy Flebe, Head Engineer and Studio Manager at Side 3 Studios, to serve as the lead engineer for SSMG, and Jeziel Quintela, who worked with Roulier on Manufactured Superstars, to be their in-house producer. Quinetela has made 23 of the over 50 tracks SSMG has released.
Quintela starts his SSMG productions in Ableton Live, using popular wavetable synthesizers like Xfer’s Serum. Oftentimes, there is a specific healing intention behind the tracks as well.
For example, Beltran wanted to release a track with a focus on sounds in the frequency range of 20-300Hz. That’s around the fundamental frequency of bees’ wings when they fly, which is reported to help people relax. From there, Quintela picked chords that resonate with the notes produced by that fundamental frequency range as the basis for the track Dance of the Bees.

 
Quintella makes these tracks in stereo, but because they will be mastered in Atmos, he can get creative with other elements like reverb and layering.
“When you create a pad, you can layer more sounds. More pads, more of a lead sound, more of an analogue sound, and from that, you can add texture to it. You can notice the difference in all of the speakers. In stereo, it’s just in two ears. You cannot hear the dynamics in all the sounds and the layers,” Quintela says.
When Quintela passes a track to Flebe for engineering in Atmos, Roulier listens to every speaker in the room individually. He checks what sound is coming from where and provides notes on what sound may need more volume or may need to come from a different angle. After he approves the final master, SSMG releases the track.
Adelio Lombardi in the Side 3 studio
“Pretty much all the time, stuff is coming out of every speaker. Especially in ambient, because ambient by nature doesn’t have drums,” Roulier says. “We’re trying to fill this space around you.”
“You want to maximize the tech, but you don’t want to make it a circus either. Immerse a person, but if it’s a relaxing song, you don’t want to have 90 million things flying around you just because you can,” Lombardi says. “You can have all the tech in the world; if the music sucks it doesn’t matter.”
While Atmos systems aren’t standard tech for consumers yet, they are becoming much more accessible.
For home theaters, a Polk Signa S4 soundbar is $299. Then, for headphones, there are RIG gaming headsets with Atmos capabilities for as little as $29.99. These certainly don’t come close to the 7.1.4 studio at Side 3, nor to the 64-speaker setups Dolby has created before. But they can give you a taste, at least.
However, SSMG ensures every song they release, regardless of format, will provide the desired sonic effect of FOCUS, ENJOY, or REST. In addition to the Atmos mix, Flebe also makes a stereo mix for each song. He does it immediately after the Atmos mix is approved to ensure the ideal sound is still in his head.
Adelio Lombardi in the Side 3 studio
Once the stereo mix is complete, Roulier AB tests the songs on numerous systems. He listens on headphones, laptop speakers, Alexa Studio, and his Sonos Arc system, which mimics Atmos by firing sound at different angles out of its three speakers. So far, Roulier has only taken down two tracks for additional polishing before posting them again.
“I put our song on a YouTube channel, and it still sounded cool,” Lombardi says. “The Atmos file is going to adapt to what you have, and it’s going to give you the best it can deliver you.”
No matter how the track is delivered, SSMG’s core intention is always to make people feel good. They want you to feel like you’re being celebrated at a sacred ceremony 2,000 years ago every time you play one of their songs.
“When you’re listening to this, you’re the most important person in the universe,” Roulier says. “This is all for you.”
Learn more at sacredsocietymusic.com.
The post Why Sacred Society use spatial audio to enhance relaxing ambient music appeared first on MusicTech.

Avid release Pro Tools 2024.3 The first Pro Tools update of 2024 introduces MIDI effects plug-ins, custom live re-renders for the integrated Dolby Atmos Renderer and enhanced integration with Pro Tools Sketch.

You can get a VCA Compressor from Softube totally free for a limited timeSoftube’s VCA Compressor plugin is currently free, and it’s branded as a “meticulous model” of a famous 1970s compressor – seemingly having taken inspiration from the DBX 160 of 1976.
The compressor already forms part of Softube’s Icons: The Compressor Collection, which is priced at €299, and is now available separately at no cost.

READ MORE: Softube Console 1 Channel MK III promises console-like mixing in your DAW

“Quirky and characterful, the legendary hardware we used to model our VCA Compressor is unique and highly acclaimed,” says Softube. “Much of that is owed to its famed hard knee compression curve and the harmonic content it adds in the gain stages.
“We left the grabby, vintage character and the unique attributes – such as RMS level detection and feed-forward gain reduction – intact,” says Softube. “But gave VCA Compressor a slate of modern features for mixing and production. The combination delivers snap and sheen in spades, plus superior Softube sound quality and an enhanced workflow.”
Controls available within this plugin include drive, dry/wet, compression, ratio, attack and release. There’s also a Sidechain section (with a punch switch and dials for filter/external level), and further switches for HF make-up and stereo link.
Check out more in the walkthrough below:

MusicTech rated The Compressor Collection an 8/10 in our review. We noted that the bundle offered well-judged new features which increased the flexibility of the processors, and that their aesthetic made them look just as good as they sound.
However, we also noted that there was no way to monitor the sidechain signal and that the Modern Extended Features of the plugin window were not accessible from all host DAWs.
View more of our choices for the best mastering compressor plugins and software processors.
You can get the free VCA Compressor plugin now via Softube.
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Pandora AMP adds spotlight picks, custom Bios, cover photosPandora does not get the headlines that its streaming competitors do, but with 50 million monthly active users, it would be a mistake not to include Pandora in every music marketing plan.....
The post Pandora AMP adds spotlight picks, custom Bios, cover photos appeared first on Hypebot.

TikTok offers Musicians new ways to make money and grow an audienceTikTok is under fire from Congress, music publishers, and the world's largest music group, but it's battling back on multiple fronts. In addition to asking users to call their Representatives, its trying to keep creators happy by offering them new ways to monetize content and grow on the platform.....
The post TikTok offers Musicians new ways to make money and grow an audience appeared first on Hypebot.

BEWARE: OpenAI Sora text-to-video AI may be the most dangerous threat yet!Attorney Wallace Collins looks at OpenAI's new text-to-video tool and its implications for creators and rightsholders.....
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The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me was recorded in a toilet with an SM58The Human League lead singer, songwriter, and co-founder Phil Oakey has reflected on the recording of the band’s 1981 hit song Don’t You Want Me.

READ MORE: Moby breaks down how he made his classic track Extreme Ways

Speaking to WA Today, Oakey reveals that the track’s rather unconventional recording location was chosen due to the superior acoustics it offered over any other parts of the Sheffield studio they were in.
“At one stage, while I was recording with the headphones on, our producer Martin Rushent sent the engineer to scare me by jumping down from above,” the musician recalls.
“Someone kept flushing the toilet behind me as well. Martin had quite a lot of little jokes for the artists and we did record that song in a toilet with quite a cheap microphone, a Shure SM58,” says Oakey. “But I’m not complaining.”
The synth-pop band is set to kick off their Australian tour this week, and the members have shipped out their synths from Sheffield in preparation for it.
“We can’t hire them in because then we’d sound like a cover band,” Oakey says.
Speaking about his love for electronic instruments and the annual Synthfest UK that’s held in Sheffield, he says: “It’s truly fantastic. You just walk into a room where there’s hundreds of bald guys with round glasses making horrible noises. I’ve bought two different voltage-control filters in the last two days alone. You can’t ever get enough of it.”
Elsewhere, Oakey also reflects on the band’s achievements over the years, a feat he attributes to being “incredibly lucky”.
“We’re not musicians. We never trained. We’ve managed to continue as a band by always just feeling lucky about everything we’ve ever done. I have never been the greatest songwriter in this group. I’ve never been the best singer in this group. I’m not a very good frontman or anything, we just do our best and hope that the audience will fill in the rest.”

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