Softube’s new Console 1 Channel Mk III boasts two high-resolution smart screens and numerous workflow improvementsSoftube has unveiled the third iteration of its acclaimed Console 1 Channel mixing control surface.

READ MORE: “When he recorded Blackstar, when he knew that his time could be limited, it didn’t stop his sense of humour in any way”: Tony Visconti recalls David Bowie’s final years

Arriving this fall, the new Console 1 Channel Mk III boasts a number of feature and design upgrades that help you “put the focus back on the creative process.”
For one, going mouseless is easier than ever with the Console 1’s knob-per-function design which allows you to get a lot more hands-on with your mix. The controller also features two high-resolution smart screens and an industry-defining 1:1 workflow, ensuring you understand the adjustments you are making and where to find the most important parameters.
With this release, Softube has also improved the feel of the Console 1 Channel’s knobs. According to Softube, Mk III’s knobs boast an increase of more than ten times the resolution over the earlier generation, helping you future-proof your mixing setup.
Image: Softube
Additionally, the Console 1 can now accommodate two instances per Shape, EQ, and Compressor section. It also comes with Softube’s Core Mixing Suite software, featuring the following:

Softube Tape/Preamp section
Shape: Transient Shaper plus new utility tools
Two equalisers: passive vintage and precise modern
Three compressors based on FET Compressor Mk II, Bus Processor, and OPTO Compressor
Newly designed drive algorithm

Extra features include dual USB-C ports with daisy chain compatibility, as well as VESA and 19-inch rack mounting options for you to create your dream setup. And finally, the Mk III’s sleek look is complete with a premium bead-blasted aluminium in Nordic Night Sky finish.
Each unit is priced at $899.
Learn more at Softube.
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AI legislation could unintentionally affect cover bands, law firm partner claimsDr Christian Mammen, an intellectual property expert and law firm partner, has said that if legislation is to be put in place to protect artists against AI-generated ‘sound-alike’ voices, this could have an “unintended consequence” on cover bands.

READ MORE: “Sampling led to hip-hop… AI music has the potential to do something similar”, says Holly Herndon

As stated in a recent interview with The Verge, Christian Mammen, an experienced lawyer with over 20 years of expertise in patent, intellectual property, and technology litigation, highlights the current laws surrounding cover bands.
He says that while the music industry has “struck a balance” with tribute bands so that labels and artists cannot sue cover bands as long as the groups don’t claim to be the original artists, this law could be affected if AI legalisation was to be introduced.
“If we change the law in order to restrict AI-generated audio ‘sound-alike’ recordings, we also need to consider whether the change in the law would upset the equilibrium for cover bands – an unintended consequence if the law is overbroad,” Mammen says.
Also in the piece, which explores the potential introduction of laws covering AI-generated voices that mimic other voices, Andrea Gleeson, CEO of TuneCore, says that there needs to be a process where artists have a say in who can use their voices.
“Generative AI that is transparent and very clear in what went into creating that AI art goes a long way, but we also need a process of control where artists have a say about how and who gets their likeness,” she says.
Many artists, streaming platforms and record labels are calling for legislation to protect artists in cases where AI is being used to copy the voices of others, such as Drake and The Weeknd. The Council of Music Makers recently outlined five key principles for AI use they want policymakers to adopt when considering how to regulate AI for use in music. These are:

Music-makers should give consent for AI model training
Protect music-makers’ publicity and personal rights
Share AI-generated music profits fairly
Collaborate with music-makers on revenue sharing
Clearly label AI-generated works and disclose training data sources

Read more about AI’s role in music via musictech.com.
The post AI legislation could unintentionally affect cover bands, law firm partner claims appeared first on MusicTech.

“When he recorded Blackstar, when he knew that his time could be limited, it didn’t stop his sense of humour in any way”: Tony Visconti recalls David Bowie’s final yearsTony Visconti has shared his final memories of David Bowie, noting how the late popstar’s humour had remained intact despite turning into a “deep thinker” in his later years.

READ MORE: The xx are making new music, Romy reveals

Speaking to MOJO magazine, the producer describes Bowie as an “eager young guy, very enthusiastic” when they first met.
“He’d hardly met an American, so he was all over me,” Visconti recalls. “Once we started talking, we found out that we liked the same things. Before we had any success, for about two or three years we were just friends. We furthered our friendship by living under the same roof. We’d always have visitors over, Haddon Hall was practically an open house.”
“I remember once we had some guy with an amazing quiff there and David was staring at him intensely all through this visit. And as soon as he left, David ran to the bathroom and combed his hair into that quiff. He was always open to any kind of influence,” says Visconti, who’s worked with Bowie on-and-off across six decades. “His antennae were always up.”
He continues: “Then in later years, wealth and fame introduced him to a whole circle of people who were out of my realm: very famous actors, gazillionaires and all that. He moved in the art world. He could speak eloquently on any subject and fit in anywhere. If [he was with] a bunch of Londoners he would go back to speaking like he came from Bromley.”
“There was a lot of gravity about him in his final years, he was a deep thinker. But when he recorded Blackstar, when he knew that his time could be limited, it didn’t stop his sense of humour in any way. He was still very open and friendly. He told everyone, ‘I can’t come to the studio every day for medical reasons.’
“But he was still happy as anything to be in the studio.”
Bowie passed away due to liver cancer in 2016, just two days after both his 69th birthday and the release of his final album, Blackstar.

The post “When he recorded Blackstar, when he knew that his time could be limited, it didn’t stop his sense of humour in any way”: Tony Visconti recalls David Bowie’s final years appeared first on MusicTech.

How to optimise your computer for the best DAW performanceLeading Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) have decades of development behind them. They’re now supremely capable in all areas of audio production. Alongside these advancements, the computers we run them on have also become exponentially more powerful. But, of course, we all still run into performance issues.

READ MORE: The Scarlett 4th Gen story: Focusrite’s journey from George Martin’s AIR to bedroom studios everywhere

What we expect of our systems has increased dramatically. It’s immensely frustrating running into bottlenecks during a creative flow when all you want to do is add that seventh instance of Omnisphere without your system slowing down. Thankfully, there are some core settings you can tweak and some concepts that are common to most DAWs and computers that will help you avoid or fix any issues. Let’s dive in and find out what they are.
Multithreading is normal now
Most computers’ CPUs have, for many years, used multiple cores and within those, multi- or hyper-threading to maximise computing power, splitting complex tasks across multiple cores. All DAW developers have written their applications to use this, and it’s generally switched on by default.
In truth, there are few reasons why you’d ever need to lower the number of cores and threads your DAW has access to – maybe you really need to run a power-hungry video app at the same time – but it’s worth a visit to your DAW’s preferences to check it’s using the maximum amount of hardware available to it.
Despite modern computers being much faster than those of even a decade ago, it’s still a good rule of thumb to only run the apps you absolutely need, to ensure they receive maximum resources. Heavy apps like games or Final Cut Pro running in the background will sap power and steal RAM from your DAW, so keep it lean.
Logic Pro, like many other DAWs, lets you specify the number of cores or threads available to the software
Latency is still a thing
As powerful as computers are, there’s still the issue of latency to contend with – the gap between singing or playing a guitar, for example, and hearing the result back through your speakers or headphones. It’s compounded by the fact that we assume we can leave a project open with hundreds of live insert effects running and just carry on, but that loads up the system in a way that steals CPU cycles needed for low-latency processing.
DAW developers have come up with some clever ways of getting around this. In Cubase for example, Steinberg uses ASIO Guard, which pre-processes all channels and VST instruments that don’t need to be calculated in real-time, freeing up resources for you to use smaller buffer sizes. In Logic Pro, multithreading can be assigned differently to live and playback tracks, again to prioritise lower latency settings.
ASIO Guard in Cubase
In any DAW’s preferences, you can set your buffer size manually; as low as 32 samples for super quick processing, (virtually no latency but high CPU usage) and as high as 1,024 samples for less system load but more latency. When recording live – especially through plugin effects – you want the signal to be fed back to you with as short a delay as possible, and ideally none at all, otherwise the experience is disconcerting. But this requires more processing to be done by your computer
Typically, you’ll switch to a lower buffer setting when tracking and a higher value when mixing, at which time live input is less of a priority. Remember that you can always freeze tracks to temporarily remove the processor load of their instruments and effects, again freeing up power for smaller buffer sizes. Audio tracks that have been frozen require minimal power to play back since their effects have been ‘glued’ down. You can unfreeze them to make edits to their effects, at which point they start to consume more CPU cycles again.
FL Studio’s Audio Preferences where you can manage its performance settings
Practice good housekeeping
When it comes to general DAW performance, some things never change and there are general rules to keep things running as best as possible.
Be mindful of storing and sending files on cloud services. If they’re in the cloud, you can still use them and import them, but loading times will be much slower than if they are directly on your hard drive. Storing project-critical samples and recordings on your boot drive or a connected SSD (solid state) drive will ensure the best possible read and write speeds and hence overall performance.
Keeping project folders properly organised, as opposed to having files scattered all over the place, will minimise the risk of crucial data getting lost or deleted by accident.
Even something as simple as disconnecting unnecessary peripherals can head off potential issues with drivers and resource usage, so unhook those scanners, printers and game controllers.
The good news: your computer is smarter than it used to be
For many years, the first stop on your DAW-tweaking journey would be to dive into macOS or Windows’ systems and start changing the way they handle your DAW’s performance. This is, for the most part, no longer necessary or even possible.
Long gone are the days when you could manually choose RAM allocation on the Mac, or prioritise one app’s performance over others. Now, your system handles everything automatically and dynamically. In the case of Apple’s M-series Macs, this even extends to the unified memory that’s shared between all the system’s components.
But even if you are on a newer machine, and especially if you are on an older one, the advice we’ve set out still holds true. A lean, mean system that’s running only what you need, and where your data is properly organised, will give you the best possible DAW experience. Of course if you do have the option of upgrading components or adding RAM (we’re looking at Windows users here, Macs are barely user-upgradeable) then that’s another weapon in your arsenal. But even if that’s not on the cards, there’s plenty you can do to ensure your system is performing at its best.
The post How to optimise your computer for the best DAW performance appeared first on MusicTech.

Sensoria Festival 2023 The UK’s festival of film, music and digital art returns for its 16th edition, bringing a selection of live music, film screenings, exhibitions and events to a range of iconic venues across Sheffield, UK.

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Out Take: Matt NovackMatt Novack

Composer

Web: mattnovack.com

Contact: kate.twilley@impact24pr.com

Most Recent: Miracle Workers: End Times

Composer Matt Novack, who wrote the music for TBS’ Miracle Workers: End Times, which premiered this summer, says this most recent project was a challenge in experimenting with synths to match the show’s ‘80s, VHS-movie aesthetic with the use of junkyard sorts of instruments working in conjunction with the synths. 

Novack’s credits also include the cult comedy series Children’s Hospital and Neftlix’s A Murderville Holiday Special, as well as work for podcasts and video games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. With such a variety of genres and types of projects he’s worked on, including co-composing credits, Novack says he’s not sure if he has a distinct composing voice. “That’s something I think about a lot. I don’t know if I have a voice and could quantify it. There are things I know instinctively that I want to do musically with particular scenes, but I’m always trying to grow as a composer.” 

Novack said the comedy series Miracle Workers pushed him as a composer. “I’d used synths before, but never had the opportunity to dive deep with particular synth sounds and writing,” he says. “It was so much fun to get out of my comfort zone and learn new things. It reminded me of working on Children’s Hospital, which involved writing for so many parodies in different styles. That experience was a boot camp for a young composer.” 

With a degree in film scoring from USC, and an early-career gig as a composer’s assistant to Steven Stern, Novack took his own advice to aspiring composers: get a formal education and apprentice under a composer for real-world experience. 

“From a technical standpoint, aspiring composers should get to know different digital audio workstations (DAWs) like it’s your instrument, and learn how to write music in these programs and produce it,” Novack says. “And when you’re cold-emailing composers, producers, directors, etc., do your research on whomever you’re contacting. No one wants to read a generic email, and it’s obvious if you send one. If they’re a composer, check out their scores. If they’re a director, research their films.”

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The xx are making new music, Romy revealsBritish electronic trio The xx are making music for the first time in six years, band member Romy has said.

READ MORE: Remastered version of Brian Eno’s The Ship to land on vinyl this year

Speaking to Spanish magazine Binaural, Romy, who released her solo album Mid Air in September, reveals that all three members, Romy, Oliver Sim – who released his own debut solo album, Hideous Bastard in 2022 – and Jamie XX have been in the studio making music this year.
“Well, the three of us recognised the need for something new to explore,” she says. “We all acknowledged the importance of giving ourselves the time and space to learn and grow.”
In the interview, she also shares her insights gained from collaborating with Fred again.. and others, expressing her desire “to offer Oliver and Jamie everything I’ve gathered.”

“This year, we’ve spent time in the studio together, with no pressure, although I’m mindful that our last album was released in 2017,” she says.
During a recent conversation with Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1, Romy discussed the potential direction of a new record with The xx and her eagerness to reconnect with the guitar.
“I have no idea,” she replies regarding the potential sonic palette. “We joke about it. Imagine trance pads from me, Oliver’s vocals, and Jamie on hectic drums. It’s amusing. However, we deeply appreciate The xx’s signature sound.”
She continues, “Personally, I’m thrilled to return to the guitar and revisit that sound in a fresh way. I believe in constant evolution. That’s why I embarked on this project, to learn and collaborate with others, to bring that newfound energy to Oliver and Jamie.”
Romy performed her solo show at All Points East festival in London this summer. MusicTech was there to witness the event, describing it as a “euphoric, technicolour performance” that saw the once introverted singer come out of her shell more.
Stream Romy’s solo album, Mid Air, via Bandcamp, and Oliver Sim’s Hideous Bastard via oliver-sim.com.
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