Canada an unsung heavyweight of global music, but new Canadian content law could backfire: reportCanadian artists rank third behind only US and UK artists in their share of the world’s top 1,000 singles, a new report says
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Arturia unveil AstroLab stage keyboard Arturia's new standalone keyboard packs in 35 sound engines, bringing the power and sound of their virtual instruments to the stage. 

Arturia AstroLab puts all of the brand’s synth emulations in one hardware unitArturia announces AstroLab today during a 25th-anniversary livestream event on its YouTube channel.

READ MORE: Behringer releases its first synth plugin, Vintage, for free…or does it?

AstroLab is a 61-key stage keyboard that combines an ecosystem of software synths and intuitive tactility, with a wide range of both classic and modern sounds. It boasts ten synthesis engines, 35 engines, and over 1,300 presets to cater to myriad genres and eras.

The AstroLab ecosystem can be used to expand, manage, and control sounds and settings, and integrate with any DAW, thanks to Analog Lab, so it becomes easier for musicians to go live with their custom settings and sounds. It’s made with live musicians in mind, allowing them to personalise their own unique stage setup.
With the navigation wheel and screen, you can scroll through the vast library of presets, while there are delay and reverb controls to let you customise with up to 12 insert FX to choose from.
Another option is to plug in an external mic to AstroLab and send your voice through its vocoder and harness multi-octave vocal transformation. Combine with Vocoder V to boost supported voice-input presets. And with the chord, scale, and arpeggio modes, you can embellish your performance while staying in key and prompting more vibrant sequences all simultaneously.
You can loop any sound by up to 32 bars with AstroLab, too, which should come in useful if you want to add a back-bone melody or chord progression for freeform play. It captures the MIDI, too, so you can change to any instrument.
Don’t forget the mobile app, AstroLab Connect, either, which allows users to organise AstroLab’s library, find sounds faster, and get more sounds from the store. Meanwhile, there’s a desktop app, too, with over 2,000 sounds.
You can find out more about AstroLab on Arturia’s website.
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.MUSIC is giving away 1 million free domains: Get Yours Now!.MUSIC, the new top-level domain dedicated to music, is giving away a million free MUISIC domains through May 24th.....
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How are artist and royalty disputes resolved on SoundExchange?Artist and royalty disputes often happen when there is an overlap in royalty splits, or the cause could be as simple as a typo. Sound Exchange explains how they resolve these disputes.....
The post How are artist and royalty disputes resolved on SoundExchange? appeared first on Hypebot.

Shure announce MV7+ Podcast Microphone Shure's updated MV7+ boasts a new visual design, and benefits from software upgrades designed with the needs of modern content creators in mind.

“God bless Auto-Tune, it saves us, but modern vocal production makes everyone sound too similar,” says Vampire Weekend’s Ezra KoenigVampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig has discussed the pitfalls of modern vocal production techniques in a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe — and he seems to have mixed opinions on the sounds of contemporary artists.

READ MORE: Researchers claim to have invented a better version of Auto-Tune that uses AI

“God bless Auto-Tune,” says the Vampire Weekend frontman and son-in-law of Quincy Jones. “It saves us…but everybody’s voice sounds the same.”
He references the 1985 charity single We Are the World, produced by Quincy, which featured many of the era’s biggest stars: “Why that song is interesting to listen to and why people still get excited 30 years later watching the documentary is because people had really different voices. A modern We Are the World would not hit the same…because…everybody’s voice sounds the same”
“You think we’ve evolved as a species towards the Auto-Tune? Unconsciously, we’re becoming the AI?” asks Zane Lowe, as Koenig continues:
“If you take the 10 biggest pop stars [in 2024] and you throw in some indie rockers or whatever, our voices will be different but, with the quality of modern recording, it’s not going to be [like] when you hear Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, and Bob Dylan on the same song. They’re so different and it’s so clear.
“I’m just saying, God bless all these people, but even if you did it with The Weeknd and Ariana Granda and Lana Del Rey, it’s not gonna be the same,” he continues, before joking, “And millions will die because of this, because they won’t raise the money, because the vocal quality of modern recording is too similar. Whereas back then, lives were saved.”
Vampire Weekend have also been in the news this week for their album release, Only God Was Above Us, and accompanying show in Austin, Texas, which took place during the solar eclipse yesterday (8 April), which also coincided with Koenig’s 40th birthday.
If you missed it, it’s available on-demand on the streaming platform Veeps, exclusively for Veeps All Access subscribers.
To see the rest of the Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, check out the video below:

Read more MusicTech news.
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QUICK HITS: Secretly adds labels • Feedfm + Cynite • Image-Line buys MSXII • Bella Figura funding • KobaltSecretly Distribution is adding Jazz Is Dead and Linear Labs to its growing independent record label distribution roster.....
The post QUICK HITS: Secretly adds labels • Feedfm + Cynite • Image-Line buys MSXII • Bella Figura funding • Kobalt appeared first on Hypebot.

Chroma Console pedal from Hologram Electronics Hologram Electronics' new pedal is equipped with an intuitive set of controls designed to avoid the pitfalls associated with multi-effects units. 

Yooz Music Updates BL-303 Bassline Synth Plugin To 3.0
The BL-303 by Yooz Music was recently updated to 3.0 and comes with a few enticing features. We talked a bit about the legendary TB-303, and it seems like everyone and their uncle is trying to recreate one of the most well-known synths in history.  If you’re looking for a free acid line generator, this might be [...]
View post: Yooz Music Updates BL-303 Bassline Synth Plugin To 3.0

Behringer releases its first synth plugin, Vintage, for free…or does it?After surprising fans with the launch of the MS-5 last week, Behringer is back at it again — this time, with the release of its first synth plugin, Vintage.
Based on “meticulous modelling of the analogue circuitry of legendary vintage synthesizers”, the Vintage synth engine is said to deliver all the lush, classic synth tones that defined the 70s and 80s.

READ MORE: Best new mixing plugins, effects and VST instruments out this week

Most surprising of all is that the synth is totally free — if you can get your hands on it, that is. At the time of writing, the Behringer Vintage webpage appears to be broken. There is no messaging from the brand about the plugin and only a small number of producers have managed to download it. Some details have been reported, thankfully.
According to Behringer (via GearNews), the plugin features two oscillators with a hard sync function and selectable waveform: sine, square, saw, noise and sub-oscillator. Pulse width modulation of the square wave oscillator is included, in addition to a noise generator with a colour knob to control the low pass cut-off frequency.
There are two versatile filters featuring 12/24 dB switchable low-pass, band-pass, high-pass, notch and formant modes, plus selectable drive curves for lush harmonic saturation. A flexible routing scheme, meanwhile, allows for serial or parallel filtering. The audio signal path ends with two amplifier modules with a built-in ADSR envelope, panning, and levelling controls.
In terms of modulation, the synth has two LFOs to modulate the oscillators, filters and amplifiers. Each LFO features a separate control for rate, attack, delay, retrig and waveform, which encompasses triangle, sine, random and square wave with pulse width control.
The community’s impressions of the plugin are pretty mixed so far, with some saying that it sounds strikingly digital and “boring,” also claiming some aesthetic similarities between Vintage and Tone2 Saurus. Others, however, have their fingers crossed that a fix is on the way. In the meantime, you can check out a demo video of the plugin in action below.

 
The synth is available for both Windows 10+ and macOS 10.13+ and as a VST3 and AU plugin. A standalone version is also included. All you have to do is visit the Behringer website and sign up with your email. Any donations, entirely optional by the way, made for the plugin will be directed to the Playing For Change foundation.
Find more music production news in the MusicTech news section. 
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Behringer Releases FREE Vintage Synthesizer Plugin But There’s A Twist
Behringer launched Vintage, a free analog modeling synth, and the German company’s first synth plugin. However, there’s a twist – the plugin isn’t available for download right now. The Mac and Windows release is a Prophet-inspired synth that Behringer states they modelled on the analogue circuitry of iconic vintage synths.  However there’s been a bit [...]
View post: Behringer Releases FREE Vintage Synthesizer Plugin But There’s A Twist

Does your track sound good even when a DJ plays in the red? G-Sonique’s PA Club Soundsystem Emulator lets you find outEver tried playing your music in the club, only to find that it sounds completely different — or maybe worse — than it did in your studio? The discrepancy between small monitors or home systems and powerful PA setups used in clubs can amplify flaws in your mix, causing frequency collisions to become glaringly apparent.
For producers of electronic dance music especially, making sure your tracks sound great in club environments is crucial, but testing each mix in an actual club setting is often impractical. Here’s where G-Sonique’s new PA Club Soundsystem Emulator comes in.

READ MORE: Best free plugins and freeware of the month: April 2024

As its name suggests, the plugin lets you test and hear tracks as they would sound in a real club PA. It accounts for not only various sound systems (advanced IR response + modelling technology), but also amplifiers and processors such as the amplifier’s Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).
The interface is pretty straightforward: you get a giant volume knob in the middle, a dropdown menu for selecting club presets (there are 10), and a bypass switch.
But is it actually useful and practical? Peter Kirn at CDM thinks so, saying that “at this price, it’s a no-brainer to recommend as a learning tool to novice producers…It’s convincing enough that you can hear the strain of the amp and mixer (and my stress level as I watch a DJ redline from the booth), as you turn up the knob.”
G-Sonique has also included a variety of venue sizes and sound system conditions ranging from “a spatially divided club” with “many acoustic obstacles” and “a DJ who plays too loudly sometimes into clipping” to the perfectly tuned PA system with the listener standing right where they should be.
The brand also notes that in addition to DSP engineers, they’ve involved live sound engineers, DJs and producers such as Toxic Elements, Synthaix, DJ Byg Byzniss or DJ Adidaso with Slovakian slav squad in the plugin’s development process.
G-Sonique’s PA Club Soundsystem emulator is available as a 32-bit or 64-bit Windows VST, and will cost you €30 The first 70 customers can enjoy an introductory price of €18
Check out the plugin in action below.

Learn more at G-Sonique.
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Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows on his “biggest problem with Spotify” and why Web3 is the solutionAvenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows has spoken about how Web3 can revolutionise the music industry by offering both artists and fans fairer rewards.
In 2021, A7X launched Deathbats Club — an NFT-based fanclub that rewards members with real-world merch discounts and opportunities for meet and greets.
Three years on, with the launch of Season Pass, a Fortnite-style progression system that lets fans earn points and unlock rewards, the band continues to advocate blockchain technology, arguing that Web3’s decentralised nature affords artists greater control over their music and their revenue.

READ MORE: “VR concerts are here to stay but people will always complain”: Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows

“Not every artist deserves to be rich. You have to have market share,” Shadows tells MusicTech in a new interview. “People have to want to listen to you. It’s not, ‘Oh, I’m an artist, I should get paid more.’ It’s just not how it works.”
He adds that “the reason a lot of people don’t get paid a lot on Spotify is that they have shitty record deals.”
“We had a shitty record deal. And the fact that you signed in 1999 when you were 18 and you had no money, that’s a lot different than all of a sudden the internet coming along, streaming services being born and you still make 24 cents on the dollar, and Spotify is paying what it pays.”
According to Shadows, the “biggest problem with Spotify is that they don’t share the data with the artist” — an issue Web3 takes care of: “You can take your data as an artist and go somewhere else,” the singer explains. “So I don’t hate Spotify, I just wish they’d share with us who our listeners are, and they don’t.”
Beyond financial benefits, he says the technology also has the potential to revolutionise artist-fan relations.
“[Corporations] want to come to the artist and say, ‘We’ve built a business off of you, and now we want to reward the fan, but you can’t reward the fan, we want you to allow us to reward the fan in our own way,’” Shadows says.
“And [A7X is] taking that power away from them, and saying, ‘No, we’re gonna reward the fan – who is the same fan that participates in all of your corporate networks – and we’re gonna reward them in the way that we feel is the most meaningful, which is access to us, things that we want to give them, not through [corporate networks] but through us.’”
Read the full interview on MusicTech. 
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Korg Gadget 3 is a DAW-groovebox hybrid more fun than everMacOS desktop and plugins $299
Mac/Windows plugins only $199
iOS $39.99/£39.99
korg.com
It’s been five years since Korg released the second version of Gadget, which lies somewhere between a groovebox and a DAW but with a unique take on music-making. While version 3 sees some crucial upgrades, there’s still no Windows version of the full desktop app, with Korg focusing heavily on macOS and iOS users.
If you’re a Windows user, it’s possible to buy the Gadget collection — the individual instruments that come with the software — as a plugin bundle to use in your DAW of choice at a discounted price.
macOS users also get the Gadgets as plugins.

READ MORE: Zoom’s H6essential puts clip-free recording in the palm of your hand

Meanwhile, a big new change to the iOS version, which is a standalone purchase, is that most of the Gadgets are now available as AUv3 plugins on iPad or iPhone, making them available for use in any compatible audio app running on it such as Cubasis or Logic Pro. The exceptions to this are the versions of Korg’s bigger apps like Polysix and MS-20, but it seems likely that these will be added in an update.
Gadget is a standalone MIDI sequencer that comes with 45 Korg virtual instruments; all specially designed and rather beautiful-looking synths, drum machines and the like. Some are based on existing instruments and others are originals but it’s all geared towards making electronic music of all styles.
The single main window is divided into four sections which can be freely resized and each one shown or hidden to tailor your workspace. From left to right they are song sequencer, pattern sequencer, mixer and instrument. Selecting different gadgets will cause other parts of the screen to update to show the relevant pattern and controls.
Genre browsing in Korg Gadget 3.
It’s a very friendly and intuitive way to work and part of what makes Gadget so accessible for less experienced producers. It’s also only really possible with an app that has a relatively straightforward feature set and doesn’t have to accommodate the hundreds of tools found in a fully-fledged DAW.
While Gadget doesn’t have conventional audio tracking, the Zurich gadget is available for sample recording and it’s also possible to import samples into it for use in projects. There’s basic editing of start and end points but no time-stretching. Thankfully, the new Sydney sampler, a heavily user-requested looper with rather more advanced sample editing and also automatic time stretching to your project. This really extends Gadget’s usefulness by making it easier to bring in your own loops and fit them to tempo.
It’s MIDI that Gadget is all about though, and the idea is less about deep-dive sonic editing and more about immediacy and creating quickly. One new feature is a genre-based browser, plus improvements to searching in the existing browser to make it faster to get to what you need. The Genre Select browser has a choice of template projects you can use as a jumping-off point, or of course, you can just add Gadgets to a blank project, with unlimited tracks available.
Pattern sequencing is at the forefront of Gadget and, in addition to mouse input, you can connect your MIDI controller, with deeper integration available if you happen to be using one of Korg’s own controllers like the NanoKey or nanoKONTROL Studio.
Sydney Sampler on Korg Gadget 3.
Quantising and editing note velocity and length in a pattern are straightforward and, when you move a control on a Gadget during playback, it records automation data in the clip’s lanes which you can then edit. The same goes for the automation of the main mixer.
In the Song area, you can see the clips that make up your song and copy, delete or mute whole clips or lanes to create variations and build up an arrangement. Pressing the Function toggle button will also reveal a bunch of shortcuts for these actions which can be a quicker way to work. The other all-new Gadget is Santa Ana, a “rhythm guitar machine” loaded with 25 sampled electric guitar riffs and loops that you can tweak. They sound cool and add another dimension to Gadget’s sound palette, though are more suited to electronic music than other styles.
Each Gadget has a solid number of presets and also a fair few controls depending on its type including built-in effects, plus five insert slots per instrument so you can do a lot of processing in addition to the master channel’s limiter and reverb. Five new effects have been added including a stereo imager, eight-band EQ and transient shaper. One of the final new additions is a Play page, available for most Gadgets, that lets you set up and play chords and arpeggios using a single key. It’s easy to use and will be very helpful for less experienced players.
Gadget browsing on Korg Gadget 3.
Although the app is self-contained it does let you export in a few formats: GadgetCloud, Korg’s project sharing service; exporting the whole mix or individual / all tracks as stems and exporting a MIDI file or an Ableton Live project in either audio, MIDI or plugin format depending on how you want to continue working on it. There’s also an iCloud Drive option where you can upload and download projects and then work on them either on your Mac or iOS device.
Gadget is a lot of fun and an easy recommendation both for budding musicians and for more experienced producers who want something that sounds impressive, is inspiring and quick to create with.

The workflow encourages you to experiment and go with the flow and the instruments and patches (over 6,000 sounds) are geared towards a range of electronic genres from techno and house through hip-hop and trip-hop.
The new browsing features and looper module are very welcome as is AU compatibility on iOS, though your desktop purchase doesn’t include the iOS version, unfortunately. LE editions of both are available for free though with restricted feature sets should you wish to try them out. Gadget 2 users can – for now – get a free upgrade with a coupon obtained via their Korg account.
Korg Gadget 3 key features

MacOS and iOS, and Windows (plugins only)
45 Gadgets, also available as DAW plugins
Unlimited songs and tracks
Multiple insert and master effects
Genre-based browsing
MIDI sequencing and basic audio recording
Ableton project export
MIDI over Bluetooth
Automation of instruments and mixer
Projects interoperable between mobile and desktop

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