Fast Company Names 10 Most Innovative Music Companies of 2024Business journal Fast Company has released its annual list of Most Innovative Companies, including ten focusing on music, and it contains a few surprises.....
The post Fast Company Names 10 Most Innovative Music Companies of 2024 appeared first on Hypebot.

Reiya By NN Audio Is FREE For A Limited Time On Pluginomat!
For a limited time, you can redeem the Reiya instrument by NNAudio for free via Pluginomat. Interestingly, the Digital Echoes plugin from the same developer is also available for free. Reiya is built upon the concept of four-layered sample-based engines. It has a vast library of 200 presets divided into various instrument categories. While it [...]
View post: Reiya By NN Audio Is FREE For A Limited Time On Pluginomat!

Five questions to ask yourself before supporting the TikTok banBefore backing the bipartisan supported ban, maybe ask yourself these questions about the true intentions behind the bill.....
The post Five questions to ask yourself before supporting the TikTok ban appeared first on Hypebot.

What is the ‘right amount’ to charge for tickets to your shows? Are your shows too cheap? Or maybe you worry you are robbing people? This guide explains calculating your door charges and finding your Goldilocks ticket price.....
The post What is the ‘right amount’ to charge for tickets to your shows?  appeared first on Hypebot.

LufsLimiterFree Is A New Free Limiter Plugin By SaschArt
LufsLimiterFree is a free VST plugin for Windows only, designed, according to its developer SaschArt, to revolutionize audio limiting. Who said the loudness wars were dead? Sure, some platforms optimize and normalize audio for certain loudness standards, but you don’t have to. Well, that’s at least what my mastering clients tell me occasionally. I’m a [...]
View post: LufsLimiterFree Is A New Free Limiter Plugin By SaschArt

Minimal Audio launch Flex Chorus The latest plug-in from Minimal Audio promises to deliver everything from precise stereo enhancement to huge-sounding unison effects

This isn't new at all 🦸‍♂️

SpaceX looks to scale astronaut launch capacity with second Florida padSpaceX is in the final stages of certifying a second pad for astronaut launches, which should ease launch site congestion and help the company scale the number of humans it sends to space. SpaceX has performed 13 crewed missions, and all of them launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It’s the […]
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DIY RC Controller Built With Old-School PartsOnce upon a time, RC transmitters were expensive units that cost hundreds of dollars even at the low end. Now, you can get them pretty cheaply, or, you can choose to build your own. [Phytion] did just that.
The design isn’t based around a modern microcontroller, nor does it rely on WiFi or Bluetooth connections. Instead, it’s a little more old school. It’s built using the HT12E parallel-to-serial encoder chip, and the HT12D decoder chip for the receiver. The controller uses a pair of HT12Es on the transmitter, and a pair of HT12Ds on the receiver. These accept inputs from a pair of analog joysticks and encode them as serial data. However, they essentially just act as digital joysticks in this design. The HT12Es feed into an STX882 module which transmits the data from the HT12Es over 433 MHz. Another STX882 module receives this signal, and passes it through HT12Ds for decoding.
At the receiving end, one joystick can turn four outputs on or off depending on whether it is pushed up, down, left or right. A channel select switch then allows it to do the same for four further outputs. The second joystick just mirrors the operation of the first. It’s just intended to make controlling something like an RC car easier by allowing one stick to be pushed forwards and backwards, and the other left and right.
You don’t see many designs like this anymore. Realistically, it’s possible to get far more functionality out of a design based on an ESP32 or similar wireless-capable chip. However, this one doesn’t require any complicated handshaking and powers up instantly, which is a nice bonus. Plus, it’s always interesting to see alternative designs tried out in the wild. Video after the break.

Still not convinced about TikTok’s AI music ambitions? This web of patents and trademarks will change your mind.MBW has uncovered a series of US patents and trademark applications filed by a mysterious ByteDance affiliate
Source

James Blake joins $5-per-month ‘artist subscription’ platformVault says that "artists can share their unreleased tracks directly" with fans and "tap into a new recurring revenue stream".
Source

How to find vocal harmonies: A step-by-step guide
Explore the qualities that make a vocal harmony effective and learn how to write your own harmonies from scratch.

2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: A DIY SCADA smart homeTouch-screen control and monitoring
Supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, systems sit in the background in industrial settings, performing all kinds of important jobs but in an ad-hoc setup, depending on the precise requirements of the installation. When we think about home automation systems, they’re pretty much the same deal: ad-hoc systems put together from off-the-shelf components and a few custom bits thrown in. [Stefan Schnitzer] clearly has significant knowledge of SCADA in an industrial setting and has carried this over into their home for their entry into the Hackaday 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation Contest.
Having built their own home from the ground up, [Stefan] could run wiring and add sensors anywhere needed whilst working on the interior, giving a clean, full custom installation covering lights, heating, ventilation, even the robot vacuum cleaner and the cat feeder. No dodgy conduits and visible wiring runs!
SCADA systems are designed in a hierarchical manner, which makes them easy to understand. At the bottom of the hierarchy, which is level 0, we have the physical variables and control mechanisms that include things like room temperature control, door lock status and the cat feeder. Above this is level 1, the physical interface between levels 0 and 2. This level 1 hardware is based around a collection of Arduino UNOs and Mega2560s, keeping costs low. One extra, fancy addition was a Pixtend I/O board, which connects directly to the level 2 hardware, a Raspberry Pi3, which forms the SCADA supervisor and runs the web server for direct low-level control, as well as the Modbus TCP driver for the ethernet modules used on the Arduinos. This Pi also runs the MQTT broker and the Codesys software PLC. Finally, levels 3 and 4 are the coordination/production layers and are implemented with another Raspberry Pi3 that runs NodeRed and Grafana. InfluxDB is used for local data storage. This Pi also receives images from the IP cameras placed around the area and any connections to services outside the home.
We don’t get DIY PLC hacks too often; this one is from 2016, but still relevant. If you’re wondering how to secure all this complexity, we had a hack chat on this subject a few years back.

James Blake launches Vault, a direct artist-to-fan unreleased music streaming platformAfter teasing a “solution” to low artist royalties from streaming platforms and TikTok over the last week, James Blake has unveiled Vault. It’s a streaming platform that allows artists to upload unreleased music, for which fans pay a monthly subscription fee set by the artist.

READ MORE: The music streaming revolution is here, thanks to these new streaming platforms

Revealed in a video posted to X and Instagram, the British singer and producer said: “Most musicians are not extroverts who are social media and branding geniuses, least of all me. And I wanted to find a way for musicians to make money directly from the music they make, not least to be able to reinvest in the very expensive process of renting studios, hiring musicians, etc.
“Also, I’ve spoken to a lot of artists who feel frustrated that so much great music goes unreleased because it doesn’t meet certain requirements or trends.
“So after my tweets did the rounds, I was contacted by the makers of the platform called Vault, who are trying to tackle this exact problem. So I’m going to start the experiment off by releasing from my Vault of unreleased music for a subscription of $5 a month. It’s music direct from me to you, where no one can gatekeep what I release to you, or delay my releases. And I’ve got a chat section for everyone to discuss the music.
“This thing was built fairly quickly after my outburst on social media so we’ll be adding features as we go along. But the concept of subscribing to an artist directly, I think can change the game and release artists from the relentless merry-go-round of the current state of things.
“This is hopefully a great step towards allowing artists to be as authentic as possible, while still making a living.”
Watch the video below:

Ok, so for the first time I’m going to be releasing from my vault of unreleased music
We are launching @vaultdotfm to show music has inherent value beyond just exposure
Subscribe to unlock pic.twitter.com/pIic7Ef47G
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 20, 2024

Leading with the slogan, “What if making music was enough?”, a video was also posted to the vault.fm X page showing how the platform works:

What if making music was enough? pic.twitter.com/oP64sE7llU
— Vault (@vaultdotfm) March 20, 2024

This all comes after Blake recently went viral on X for hitting out at TikTok after finding neither he nor Frank Ocean had received any payment for the wealth of uses on TikTok of his cover of Ocean’s track, Godspeed.
In a series of posts, Blake wrote, “Something I keep seeing is ‘if you’re lucky enough to go viral, just use the exposure to generate income some other way’. Musicians should be able to generate income via their music.
“Do you want good music or do you want what you paid for?”
He continued: “If we want quality music somebody is gonna have to pay for it. Streaming services don’t pay properly, labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn’t pay properly, and touring is getting prohibitively expensive for most artists.
“The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free,” he wrote.
We’ll keep you up to date as more details and reactions come out.
In the meantime, find out more at vault.fm.
The post James Blake launches Vault, a direct artist-to-fan unreleased music streaming platform appeared first on MusicTech.

Austrian Audio Extends Warranty for Studio-Grade Line of Professional HeadphonesCustomers can now benefit from up to five years of warranty coverage on the company's finest hand-crafted headphones.

Vienna, Austria, March 19, 2024 — Austrian Audio announced that each product in its line of high-precision made-in-Austria headphones will now include up to five years of comprehensive warranty coverage.

Effective immediately, purchasers of the pro audio company’s The Composer, Hi-X65, Hi-X60, Hi-X55, or Hi-X50 headphones can register their products on Austrian Audio’s website for the five-year warranty, and retaining proof of purchase will ensure they are covered.

Designed, engineered, and built in Austria, this line of pro audio headphones from the Vienna-based company delivers immersive sound quality ideal for any professional musician, producer, engineer, or discerning audiophile.

“We believe in the quality and durability of our products,” noted Martin Seidl, Austrian Audio’s CEO. “Extending the warranty to five years reflects our confidence in the tools we make and our commitment to the artists we design them for. It’s our responsibility to provide top-tier service for these top-tier products.”