Bitcoin bulls favored in $22.6B BTC monthly options expiry, but bears still lurkBitcoin’s $22.6 billion monthly options expiry is led by the bulls but macroeconomic headwinds could give the bears a last minute advantage.

Types of microphones: A guide to how they work and best use cases
Join us as we explore a few of the most common types of microphones, what makes them work, and what sets them apart.

3D Printed “Book” Demonstrates Mechanical ActionsA book of mechanical actions is a wondrous thing — mechanically inclined children have lost collective decades pouring over them over the generations. What could possibly be better? Why, if the mechanisms in the book were present, and moved! That’s exactly what [AxelMadeIt] produced for a recent video.
Being just four pages, you might argue this is but a pamphlet. But since it takes up a couple inches of shelf space, it certainly looks like a book from the outside, which is exactly what [AxelMadeIt] was going for. To get a more book-like spine, his hinge design sacrificed opening flat, but since the pages are single-sided, that’s no great sacrifice.
At only 6 mm (1/4″) thick, finding printable mechanisms that could actually fit inside was quite a challenge. If he was machining everything out of brass, that would be room for oodles of layers. But [Axel] wanted to print the parts for this book, so the mechanisms need to be fairly thick. One page has a Roberts linkage and a vault-locking mechanism, another has planetary gears, with angled teeth to keep them from falling out. Finally, the first page has a geneva mechanism, and an escarpment, both driven by a TPU belt drive.
All pages are driven from an electric motor that is buried in the last page of the “book”, along with its motor, battery, and a couple of micro-switches to turn it on when you open the book and off again when you reach the last page. Rather than a description of the mechanisms, like most books of mechanical actions, [Axel] used multi-material printing to put lovely poems on each page. A nice pro-tip is that “Futura”, a font made famous by flying to the moon, works very well when printed this way. If you just want to watch him flip through, jump to 8:00 in the video.
This reminds us of another project we once featured, which animated 2100 mechanical mechanisms. While this book can’t offer near that variety, it makes up for it in tactility.

Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firmsA new call recording app is gaining traction for offering to pay users for voice data from calls, which is sold to AI companies.

On… Spotify and the ‘more free’ burger giveaway.MBW founder Tim Ingham on Spotify making 'free' better, in its bid to fight YouTube and TikTok
Source

Spotify (finally) slides into Rekordbox, Serato, and Algoriddim djay (again) – for better or worse?Spotify Premium subscribers can now stream playlists directly into Rekordbox, Serato DJ, and Algoriddim's djay. It makes discovery and prep easier than ever, but with no offline mode, limited cue support, and licensing gaps, is it ready for pro DJs?
The post Spotify (finally) slides into Rekordbox, Serato, and Algoriddim djay (again) – for better or worse? appeared first on DJ TechTools.

NoiseRverb is a free convolution reverb plugin capturing historic churches in Quito
NoiseRoom UIO has released NoiseRverb, a free convolution reverb plugin that brings the acoustic character of Quito’s historic churches to your DAW. Created by sound designer Jhonatan López (whose free CCMkI: Classic Compressor plugin we featured a while ago) in collaboration with engineers Analí Pinto and Fausto Espinoza, NoiseRverb is more than just a reverb [...]
View post: NoiseRverb is a free convolution reverb plugin capturing historic churches in Quito

Venn Audio V-Clip 2V-Clip 2 is the sequel to Venn Audio's signature plugin, V-Clip. It offers fully featured multiband saturation, pre/post emphasis, mid-side processing, modular and fully resizable GUI, advanced asymmetric waveshaping with brand new clipping functions, and up to 512x oversampling and more. Video V-Clip 2 offers: Highly customisable levels of saturation, featuring mulitband and mid-side processing, using up to 10 separate clipping stages. A pre/post emphasis stage for advanced tone control of the distortion. Large selection of static and variable clipping sigmoid functions to choose from, including the brand new 'super soft knee', providing a variable knee transfer curve in the decibel domain. A modern all new modular, fully resizable GUI. Almost all components can be popped out into separate floating windows to give you an extra level of control. A brand new interactive live shaper visualisation. Multiple new visualisations to choose from, all resizable to preference: shaper, waveform, oscilloscope, envelope, spectrum and histogram views for each clipper. Up to 512x oversampling with three different filter types. Advanced asymmetric clipping supported natively in each clipper, easily set separate waveshaping and thresholds for positive and negative samples. New test generators to help you fine tune your wave shaping, including an adjustable test tone, noise generators and a sampler. Available in VST3, AUv2 and AAX for MacOS and Windows. Read More

Plugin Alliance release Shadow Hills OptoMax The latest arrival to the Plugin Alliance range delivers a new compressor plug-in based on the much-loved Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. 

Shadow Hills OptoMax turns the prized optical section of the popular Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor into its own dedicated pluginBrainworx and Shadow Hills have lifted the lid on the new Shadow Hills OptoMax, a new optical compressor which takes the optical section from the popular Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor and reworks it into a “new and exciting beast”.
Brainworx says it has used its “industry-leading analogue modelling expertise” to capture “every nuance” of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor’s optical circuits.

READ MORE: You can now access your Spotify Premium library directly from rekordbox

“The result is a musical, characterful compressor with multiple transformer colourations and powerful new modes that make it adaptable for everything from transparent levelling to aggressive, saturated compression,” says Brainworx.
For anyone in need of a history lesson, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plugin recreated the iconic hardware compressor used by the likes of Muse, Green Day, Gnarls Barkley and many more.
The new OptoMax plugin features an expanded set of controls; ratio and speed controls (slow, med, fast) open the realm of new sonic possibilities, but while retaining the “essential bloom and smoothness of optical compression”.
There’s also a Push mode, which enables the user to tap into an “ultra-fast” timing mode for “aggressive modern sounds”.
Three distinct harmonic flavours are on tap, too, courtesy of Shadow Hills’ Nickel, Iron and Steel transformer circuits from the original Mastering Compressor.
Other modern-thinking features include a dedicated Tone control, with which the user can switch between Air for “silky brilliance” or Smooth to rein in top end.
There’s also advanced sidechain routing options, and the GUI window is resizable for the optimum creative workflow.
“Analogue optical compressors transform the non-linear characteristics of light glowing and fading into smooth, musical compression,” the company says. 
“However, due to this essential mechanism, they are often limited to slower attack and release times. OptoMax preserves that classic, bloom-without-bite feel, but uses the power of digital processing to add deeper timing control and a robust sidechain section for modern engineers.”
Shadow Hills OptoMax is available now for an introductory price of $69 until 24 December, after which it will rise to $150.
Get yours at Plugin Alliance.
The post Shadow Hills OptoMax turns the prized optical section of the popular Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor into its own dedicated plugin appeared first on MusicTech.

Filterverse 1.2 Review + GIVEAWAY
Polyverse Music has carved out a reputation for plugins that don’t just tweak your sound but completely reinvent how you interact with it. From I Wish to Supermodal and freebies like Wider, they’ve always leaned toward tools that sit at the edge of conventional mixing and full-blown sound design. Filterverse is their flagship filter playground, [...]
View post: Filterverse 1.2 Review + GIVEAWAY

You can now access your Spotify Premium library directly from rekordboxAlphaTheta’s rekordbox DJ software now supports playback from Spotify, allowing Premium Spotify subscribers to utilise its library of over 100 million tracks within their mixes.
Spotify’s music catalogue and playlists can be accessed directly from rekordbox, and then mixed with tracks from your rekordbox music library. Spotify’s tracks can be played on all compatible DJ equipment when using Performance mode in rekordbox for Mac/Windows, including any AlphaTheta or Pioneer DJ setup.

READ MORE: AlphaTheta CDJ-3000X review: Bigger, sharper, smoother, and cloud-ready — but you’ll need very deep pockets

The integration is now available as of 24 September in a vast range of countries and regions, including: the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and more.
This news arrives just after the launch of AlphaTheta’s next-generation flagship DJ player, the CDJ-3000X. Described as an evolution of the CDJ-3000 – which landed in 2020 under Pioneer DJ (which is part of the AlphaTheta Corporation) – the player brings new features and upgrades including improved online music access, updated connectivity, and multiple hardware improvements.

A software version of the player is also coming to virtual reality thanks to a collaboration with Tribe XR. As part of the partnership, AlphaTheta is bringing the CDJ-3000X and its DJM-A9 professional mixer to virtual reality setups, including Meta Quest and Steam VR, and says they are “authentic 1-to-1 recreations”. These virtual versions are also accompanied by interactive lessons and real-time guidance from AI mentor, DJ Beatbot.
“Our partnership with Tribe XR builds on AlphaTheta’s ‘One Through Music’ mission, enabling DJs everywhere to discover, connect, and perform with a global community through our innovative products in new and inspiring ways,” comments Yoshinori Kataoka, CEO of AlphaTheta.
Find out more about these new launches via rekordbox and AlphaTheta.
The post You can now access your Spotify Premium library directly from rekordbox appeared first on MusicTech.

Chicago house legend and DJ Ron Carroll dies aged 57Chicago house DJ, vocalist, and producer Ron Carroll has died at the age of 57.
Carroll’s passing was confirmed on Monday (22 September) by fellow DJ and close friend Deonte Pennington, who wrote in a Facebook post: “The news we just received while in this hotel room for my birthday just broke my heart. Was not expecting the call to be that.” No cause of death has been disclosed.
Nicknamed the ‘Minister of Sound’, Carroll was born in Chicago in 1968. He began singing in his church as a teenager before discovering the city’s burgeoning house scene and teaching himself to DJ. By the early ’90s, he had stepped into production, releasing his debut record My Prayer in 1993 with Hula, Kay Fingers and Ron Trent.
Carroll’s career reached a turning point in 1994 when Louie Vega asked him to write lyrics for Barbara Tucker’s I Get Lifted, a track that went on to become a house music classic. From then, Carroll’s voice and songwriting became fixtures on dancefloors worldwide.
Over the decades, he collaborated with a long list of artists, including Mike Dunn, Byron Stingily, CeCe Peniston, Hardsoul, David Guetta, Axwell, and French producer-DJ Bob Sinclar – with whom he collaborated with on tracks like Tribute and Love Generation. His music also appeared on key house labels such as Defected, Glitterbox, and his own Body Music Chicago imprint.
Beyond his studio work, Carroll remained deeply connected to his hometown community and the global house circuit. He had just performed at the Summer’s Last Dance festival in Chicago over the weekend and was scheduled to appear at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) next month.
Tributes from across the electronic music world have poured in following news of Ron’s passing. Fellow DJ and vocalist Mr. V remembers Carroll as “a unique voice in house music, a solid DJ behind the decks, funny enough to share laughs with, but most importantly he was as real as it gets.”
“Was looking forward to seeing him next month at ADE,” he says. “Unfortunately I can only have the moments and memories I had collected.”

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Read more tributes below.

RIP Ron Carroll
One of the best to ever do it pic.twitter.com/dWkwLYE3au
— ARC Music Festival (@arcmusicfest) September 22, 2025

RIP Ron Carroll pic.twitter.com/dfuV8nVfKr
— 𝕍⋓ ꗟ𝕚 (@svukeve) September 22, 2025

I will truly miss my dear friend, a beautiful soul who will forever live in our hearts. Rest peacefully, @RONCARROLLBMC. #RonCarroll pic.twitter.com/FaYfDyuReq
— EDX (@edxMusic) September 22, 2025

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A post shared by Cece Peniston (@cecepeniston)

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A post shared by ꜰᴜɴ•ᴀᴛ•ɪᴋ (@housefunatik)

The post Chicago house legend and DJ Ron Carroll dies aged 57 appeared first on MusicTech.

This Merch Company Has Paid Artists $30+ MillionThis week, Ari is joined by Seamus Menihane, CEO and Co-Founder of the merch company, Downright Merch (now known as Armada).

Nordic Audio Labs launch new NU-100K The latest iteration of the NU-100K has been upgraded with Nordic Audio Labs' proprietary FloFET circuitry, a move which is said to deliver a warmer, valve-like sound.