Meta’s new AI council is comprised entirely of white menMeanwhile, women and people of color are disproportionately impacted by irresponsible AI.
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Passive Diplexer Makes One Antenna Act Like TwoStay in the amateur radio hobby long enough and you might end up with quite a collection of antennas. With privileges that almost extend from DC to daylight, one antenna will rarely do everything, and pretty soon your roof starts to get hard to see through the forest of antennas. It may be hell on curb appeal, but what’s a ham to do?
One answer could be making one antenna do the work of two, as [Guido] did with this diplexer for dual APRS setups. Automatic Packet Reporting System is a packet radio system used by hams to transmit telemetry and other low-bandwidth digital data. It’s most closely associated with the 2-meter ham band, but [Guido] has both 2-meter (144.8-MHz) and 70-cm LoRa (433.775-MHz) APRS IGates, or Internet gateway receivers. His goal was to use a single broadband discone antenna for both APRS receivers, and this would require sorting the proper signals from the antenna to the proper receiver with a diplexer.
Note that [Guido] refers to his design as a “duplexer,” which is a device to isolate and protect a receiver from a transmitter when they share the same antenna — very similar to a diplexer but different. His diplexer is basically a pair of filters in parallel — a high-pass filter tuned to just below the 70-cm band, and a low-pass filter tuned just above the top of the 2-m band. The filters were designed using a handy online tool and simulated in LTSpice, and then constructed in classic “ugly” style. The diplexer is all-passive and uses air-core inductors, all hand-wound and tweaked by adjusting the spacing of the turns.
[Guido]’s diplexer performs quite well — only a fraction of a dB of insertion loss, but 45 to 50 dB attenuation of unwanted frequencies — pretty impressive for a box full of caps and coils. We love these quick and dirty tactical builds, and it’s always a treat to see RF wizardry in action.

Key Songs In The Life Of… Max LousadaMBW hands our turntable over to Max Lousada, Global CEO of Recorded Music at Warner Music Group
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Cruel World 2024Cruel World 2024 celebrated its third birthday at Brookside Park at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl.

Mother Nature hit last year’s festival as a lightning storm forced the show mid-way though Iggy Pop’s main-stage performance.  This year there were no natural disasters jeopardizing the event – just new wave massiveness and some big “firsts” that many didn’t think would ever happen. The lightning was all on stage – Duran Duran, Blondie, Simple Minds, Adam Ant, and two dozen other acts lit up Pasadena with their timeless musical energy.  With 3 stages and 30 or so bands spread across them, some hard decisions had to be made in order for even the most hardcore new wave fan to see all their faves on stage. 

Attendees are still talking about the “firsts” that they witnessed on the Cruel World stages.  Gary Numan was the initial act to deliver as he treated the fans to a rare performance of his 1979 debut album “The Pleasure Principle.” Numan strategically executed a very different and unique set compared to his Cruel World performance last year.  In typical Gary Numan fashion, he exploded on stage and poured out the energy and brilliance that you come to expect at his shows.

Cure and Siousxie fans clawed their way to the Sad Girls stage to witness a one-of-a-kind performance by Lol Tolhurst x Budgie – former drummers from The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees / The Creatures.  The dynamic drumming duo cunningly performed their distinctive and quirky set with pre-recorded vocals and a handful of guest vocalists.  It was a truly standout and innovative production that may never happen again.

Ministry - in what seemed to be the surprise festival highlight - took over the Outsiders stage.  This time, the Chicago wax-trackers did not deliver the expected guitar onslaught; instead the band assaulted fans with synth-pop.  Yes, it really happened! In a daring move, Al Jourgensen, along with a 13 piece band, performed music from the first two Ministry albums, 1983’s With Sympathy and 1986’s Twitch, which Jourgensen had vowed to never perform again in his lifetime. 

Tones On Tail ended the firsts with the only proper and stand alone Tones On Tail show since 1984.  Even with original bass player Glen Campling not taking part for reasons unknown, this was a big deal to fans of Bauhaus and its universe. With Daniel Ash, drummer Kevin Haskins and his daughter Diva Dompe on bass, the trio delivered the dark and gloomy goods - Go, Twist, Performance, Ok This Is The Pops, Lions and There’s Only One.

Goldenvoice has done an incredible job evolving and maturing the Cruel World Festival year after year.  Not only do they know their target audience, but the promoter has figured out how to open this niche up to a new generation of music fans by keeping the spirit alive with a modern touch.  The diverse lineups on the three stages now include a handful of contemporary artists that would please even the most critical Gen Xer. The pride of Nebraska - The Faint, and California Super-Group - Dream Car dazzled attendees at the Outsiders stage while New York Innovators - Interpol headlined the Sad Girls stage later that evening.

In classic Pasadena style, the weather was perfect for an all-day music festival.  The music started early and continued without a glitch – nearly 12 hours of non-stop performances.

The Motels kicked off my day.  Martha Davis took over the stage and proved she still has the voice and the heart that catapulted her to the top of the early 80’s L.A. music scene. The band delivered a powerful set with all the hits you would hope for - Where Do We Go From Here, Suddenly Last Summer, Take The L, andof course Only The Lonely.

Currently on their 50th anniversary tour, The Stranglers, who are down to just one original member, brought the audience to its feet early in the afternoon.  Original bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel is still going strong and continues to offer fans sweet pop songs with an early punk attitude like Golden Brown and Always The Sun. 

Dave Wakeling returned to Cruel World, this time with General Public.  Wakeling’s first visit was with The English Beat at the very first Cruel World Fest in 2022.  These days, it seems that the band names and the songs are interchangeable, but the hits are consistent - Never You Done That, Tenderness, Mirror In The Bathroom, and Save It For Later.

Following the secret Viper Room warm up show as “Blood Brothers UK” that kicked off their recent leg of their 2024 tour, The Mission UK reminded fans of their power to mix the dark moods of early ‘80s goth with colorful melodies, proving they are just as good today as they were 30 years ago.  The post-punk innovators retuned to Southern California and delivered a high-energy set featuring crowd pleasers such Tower of Strength, Severina, Wasteland and Deliverance.

In a rare daylight performance, The Jesus And Mary Chain dazzled the fans with their unique blend of pop hooks and shattering feedback.  Despite equipment problems that brought on some strong sibling stares, the Scottish bothers Reid poured out their hearts and the hits - Happy When It Rains, Head On, Some Candy Talking, In A Hole and Just Like Honey.

Simple Minds took the stage in their first US show in 6 years.  Vocalist Jim Kerr’s performance and energy just got bigger and better as the show went on.  At one point Kerr yelled out, “We don’t want to go home.”  Waterfront, Promised You A Miracle, Sanctify Yourself, and Alive & Kicking were some of the highlights in their set.

Adam Ant, who was originally scheduled to play at last year’s festival but cancelled shortly before the event, was one of the day’s most anticipated performers.  Ant looked ageless and delivered a blistering set that covered his time with both Adam and the Ants and his illustrious solo career - Ant Music, Stand And Deliver, Vive Le Rock, Friend Or Foe, Goody Two Shoes, and Prince Charming.

In a rare West Coast appearance, Soft Cell, consisting of Marc Almond and sadly – due to health reasons - without fellow bandmate and fellow founding member Dave Ball dazzled the Cruel World crowd just as the sun was dropping.  Soft Cell was the first act to take advantage of extravagant stage lighting and strong pre-filmed elements, taking the festival to a new level of visual excitement.  Bringing their dirty and dingy New York ‘80s feel to the stage, the band delivered some of Soft Cell’s most iconic songs, including Memorabilia, Seedy Films, and Sex Dwarf.

Hailing from Manhattan, NY, Interpol closed out the Sad Girls stage.  Some consider the band to be a bit too contemporary for the annual gloom fest, but the band’s set proved the influence and staying power of the ‘80s post-punk era.  The band delivered a flawless set both musically and visually that included Narc, My Desire, Obstacle 1, Evil, PDA and Slow Hands.  Thanks to the genius of Goldenvoice, Interpol finally gained their rightful place in the allegiance of dark and gothic music legends by playing The Cruel World Festival.

Blondie also made their triumphant return to Cruel World.  Debbie Harry looked stunning in her shimmering outfit and classic dark sunglasses, wowing the crowd as only she can do.

Harry exploded on stage with her super solid bandmates and solid gold hits.  Drummer Clem Burke and bass player Glenn Matlock drove the beat through classics like One Way Or Another, Rapture, Heart Of Glass, and Hanging On The Telephone. 

Pasadena lit up as Duran Duran took to the stage.  Many considered the band to be a bit of a risky headliner for the massive dark wavers in attendance.  But in classic Duran Duran foresight, the Birmingham boys opened their set with The Chaffeur – arguably the band’s darkest and gloomiest of their hits – a genius move.  The band delivered a brilliant set including just about every song a hard core “Duranie” would have on their wish list - Wild Boys, Hungry Like The Wolf, Save A Prayer, Notorious, Careless Memories, A View To A Kill, New Moon On Monday, The Reflex, Girls On Film and Rio.

If anything, the Cruel World Festival proves that new wave and post-punk was not just a fad…the music that was created in the 1980’s has impacted the lives of so many and continues to influence bands of today.  Cruel World 2025?  Absolutely!  Vegas is probably already taking bets. 

The post Cruel World 2024 first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Amber Compiles to BashIt certainly isn’t a new idea to compile a language into an intermediate language. The original C++ compiler outputs C code, for example. Enhanced versions of Fortran were often just conversions of new syntax to old syntax. Of course, it makes sense to output to some language that can run on lots of different platforms. So, using that logic, Amber makes perfect sense. It targets — no kidding — bash. You write with nice modern syntax and compile-time checks. The output is a bash script. Admittedly, sometimes a hard-to-read bash script, but still.
If you want to see the source code, it is available on GitHub. Since Windows doesn’t really support bash — if you don’t count things like Cygwin and WSL — Amber only officially supports Linux and MacOS. In addition to compiling files, Amber can also execute scripts directly which can be useful for a quick one-liner. If you use Visual Studio Code, you can find a syntax highlighter extension for Amber.

To get a flavor of how it works, here’s a simple Amber file to rename some files:

let files = ["config.json", "file.txt", "audio.mp3"]

loop index, file in files {
$mv {file} {index}{file}$ failed {
echo "Failed to rename {file}"
}
}

Here’s the output shell script:

__AMBER_ARRAY_0=("config.json" "file.txt" "audio.mp3");
__0_files=("${__AMBER_ARRAY_0[@]}");
index=0;
for file in "${__0_files[@]}"
do
mv ${file} ${index}${file}
__AMBER_STATUS=$?;
if [ $__AMBER_STATUS != 0 ]; then
echo "Failed to rename ${file}"
fi
let index=${index}+1
done

Looks much easier. Still, bash isn’t that hard. If you must have bash scripts for some reason, this might be worth a look. As a general-purpose programming language, you should probably stick with something more traditional.
Catching errors early is a good thing, but there are other ways to do that. While you could probably use a debugger on the output bash code, it looks a bit hard to follow, so an Amber debugger would be welcome.

Warner Music to expand into Lagos with its first fully-owned office in NigeriaCompany met with government officials in Nigeria's capital, Abuja last week and outlined plans to establish a creative hub in Lagos
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SUPERBOOTH24: Korg Berlin phase8 At Superbooth 2024 we caught up with Tats from Korg Berlin to check out the phase8, the latest prototype instrument which employs their innovative new acoustic synthesis method.

SUPERBOOTH24: Melbourne Instruments Delia The Delia from Melbourne Instruments takes many of the key features of their Nina synth module and places them in a keyboard.

MLC is up for re-designation, and you have until May 29th to be heardThe Music Modernization Act (MMA) requires that the US Office of Copyright review the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) designation as the sole conduit of digital music royalties to songwriters and. Continue reading
The post MLC is up for re-designation, and you have until May 29th to be heard appeared first on Hypebot.

Scaper is a plugin that turns anything into an ambient soundscape — even a sneezeIndependent plugin developer Sampleson has released the Scaper plugin, promising it will turn absolutely any audio signal into a droning cinematic atmosphere. To convince you, Sampleson’s loaded everything from an acoustic guitar to a sneeze into Scaper, with impressive results.
Scaper might be able to create deep, intricate soundscapes, but the interface and workflow seem far from complex. It’s neatly laid out with just a handful of dials and parameters.
Simply load in your audio (WAV, OGG or AIFF) file into the plugin and hit the Generate button, which should give you a decent starting point. Then, you can tweak the six parameters — three for Pitch, another three for Speed — and dictate how many particles you want the audio split into (from ‘A few particles’ to ‘Too much particles’). There’s a four-pole low-pass filter to further shape the sound, as well.
The main visual display lets you see the audio signal being affected in real-time, with nodes for each parameter moving around as you turn the dials. You can browse and select presets from the top bar, too. It all looks pretty slick and modern.
According to Sampleson, Scraper works “by extracting essential attributes from dropped audio files and incorporating them into the creation of atmospheric soundscapes.” It’s capable of generating “hours” of soundscapes, with a generative algorithm creating slightly different compositions each time.
And, yes, Sampleson does demonstrate Scaper’s capabilities by loading a sneeze into it. But the developer has also published an entire hour of cinematic soundscapes made solely with the plugin. Check both demos out below.

Scaper is also reasonably affordable, coming in at $29 on the introductory sale. It’s available as a standalone piece of software, or as a plugin for your DAW in VST3 and AU formats for macOS and Windows. You can grab it at sampleson.com.
Sampleson has a bunch of other plugins, all focusing on specific production techniques and quirks. They’re all pretty affordable, too. You can check them out at Plugin Boutique and Thomann.

Read more music tech news.
The post Scaper is a plugin that turns anything into an ambient soundscape — even a sneeze appeared first on MusicTech.

SUPERBOOTH24: Tiptop Audio Art Modules Tiptop Audio show off the latest modules to join their Art line-up, a series of modules which make it possible to build a polyphonic Eurorack rig.

Just 2 days left to pre-register a .MUSIC domain freeTime is running out before the May 24th deadline to pre-register a .MUSIC domain when up to one million domains can be registered for free.....
The post Just 2 days left to pre-register a .MUSIC domain free appeared first on Hypebot.

How Columbia University’s 89.9 FM found Radio’s ‘lost script’ [Fred Jacobs]Live campus radio coverage of recent protests proves that Gen Z is ready to reinvent broadcast radio if the current gatekeepers let them.....
The post How Columbia University’s 89.9 FM found Radio’s ‘lost script’ [Fred Jacobs] appeared first on Hypebot.

Tom Oberheim stayed up “36 hours straight” to play the first synthesizer he ever bought American synth designer Tom Oberheim has revealed his favourite synthesizers of all time – beyond the ones with the Oberheim branding on, of course.
In a recent interview with MusicTech, he talks about his first encounter with the ARP 2600 after being hired by Alan Robert Pearlman as an ARP Instruments dealer in Los Angeles.

READ MORE: “A listening experience unlike any other”: Sonos’s eagerly awaited launch into the headphone market is here – meet Sonos Ace

“I got my ARP 2600, and I was up playing it for 36 hours straight,” Oberheim says. “And I thought, ‘This is amazing! Where have these things been? Why has it taken so long?’ I still remember the sounds I made. I don’t really play an instrument but I found lots of things to do with that 2600, and it stayed with me.”
Interestingly, despite making some of the most coveted synths ever, Oberheim says he’s “never had a studio.” But that never quite stopped him from keeping an eye on other synthesizers and having a secret lust for them.
“It’s hard to ignore the Roland Jupiter-8,” he says. “At the time it came out, we were making either the OB-Xa or the OB-8. I saw the machine and just didn’t think I had the resources to go as far as [Roland did with the Jupiter-8. That’s a great machine.”
Tom Oberheim and the TEO-5. Image: Oberheim
Oberheim also discusses the one synth that he never really fell in love with – one that was so complex to use that he couldn’t get on board. Any guesses?
“I was never enamoured with the Yamaha DX7,” Oberheim says. “It was just too mysterious. You know, maybe five people on planet Earth could programme it – and they’re getting old now, like me!”
Oberheim has made some stellar instruments, from the OB-X to the DMX and now the TEO-5. But, when asked if there’s a synth he wishes he made but didn’t he instead reflects on a decision his late friend and colleague Dave Smith made; one that Oberheim wished he did, too. 
“One thing that I wish I had done sooner is what Dave did in the early 2000s. He realised that analogue was coming back. He got back into the business. At first, it was with the Evolver but when he did the Prophet ’08, it just exploded. I wasn’t going to start another company at the time but now things have changed. Now I’m in alliance with Focusrite and I’m back in the business.”
Oberheim is back in the business with the new TEO-5. You can read more about its creation in the MusicTech interview.
Read more news via MusicTech.
The post Tom Oberheim stayed up “36 hours straight” to play the first synthesizer he ever bought  appeared first on MusicTech.

“A listening experience unlike any other”: Sonos’s eagerly awaited launch into the headphone market is here – meet Sonos AceAfter years of clamouring by fans to bring their high fidelity sound to a pair of cans, Sonos is finally releasing a pair of headphones, Sonos Ace.
The brand’s new over-ear Bluetooth headphones feature lossless and spatial audio, world-class Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Aware Mode, while the company also promises “the most precise and immersive home theatre experience possible using Sonos’ new TrueCinema technology”.

READ MORE: Sonos’ Move 2 might just be 2023’s best portable speaker 

The headphones come in both Black and Soft White variations and will be available from 5 June, retailing at £449.
“They’re here! Fans have asked us for years to bring the Sonos experience to headphones – and we knew our first foray into the category needed to champion the type of innovation and sound experience Sonos has become synonymous with,” says Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos, in a press release.
“Sonos Ace leverages everything we’ve learned over two decades as an audio leader to bring stunning sound, sleek design and long-standing comfort to one of the largest and most popular audio categories worldwide.”

“Sonos Ace represents our ambition to create moving sound experiences that are equal to the moment we live in. It is an exciting new chapter as we embark on what it means to design for personal listening,” adds Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, Sonos Chief Product Officer. “True to Sonos’ heritage of premium products, each individual detail of Sonos Ace has been expertly crafted, custom designed, and tuned by the world’s leading sound experts to give you a listening experience unlike any other.”
Sonos Ace features two custom-designed drivers that help to produce the brand’s signature high-fidelity sound. The brand has also promised that the headphones can be part of “your own private cinema”, wherein users can swap the TV audio from a compatible Sonos soundbar to Sonos Ace with just the tap of a button. Meanwhile, spatial audio with Dolby Atmos means the sound remains detailed and clear in all directions while dynamic head tracking keeps users centred in the sound even if they move.
The headphones have an extended 30 hours battery life and charging for just 3 minutes gives an extra 3 hours of power.
Meanwhile, Sonos has emphasised that its new headphones are responsibly made to last with replaceable ear cushions, circular materials using 17 per cent less virgin plastic, and a 75 per cent recycled felt travel case made from plastic bottles. For improved energy efficiency, wear detection pauses your music when you remove Sonos Ace from your ears to reduce the need for charging.
Sonos’s Ace headphones have already begun whipping up a storm online, with MacRumors saying, “This is what the [Apple] AirPods Max should have been.” Meanwhile, The Verge calls them “damn impressive”.

The post “A listening experience unlike any other”: Sonos’s eagerly awaited launch into the headphone market is here – meet Sonos Ace appeared first on MusicTech.