NAMM 2024 lineup from 37 MIDI Association companies who will have booths at the Winter NAMM show.
https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/midi-association-namm-2024-booth-schedule
Interesting topics are there.

Audacity #Music #AI #Tools

Is SoundCloud a “unicorn”? Their investment group owners are seeking a $1 billion sale this year
SoundCloud has had a wild ride since it was founded in 2008, and today we learned that the current owners will attempt to sell it for one billion dollars. What does this price tag mean? How could it impact DJs and producers who rely on the platform? Could this be a sign of better things, or just a capital investment moving from one set of firms to another? We're left with a lot of questions - but we've collected some of the facts and speculation in this article.
The post Is SoundCloud a “unicorn”? Their investment group owners are seeking a $1 billion sale this year appeared first on DJ TechTools.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder On The Dancefloor to return to top 10 after use in SaltburnSophie Ellis-Bextor’s hit Murder On The Dancefloor is expected to return to the Top 10 of the UK’s Official Singles Chart today (January 5) after it appeared in the final scene of the recent film Saltburn.
The film had already been a success in cinemas but its addition to Amazon Prime over the Christmas period helped it to surge in popularity, and with it, the Ellis-Bextor song that was first released in 2001.

READ MORE: Fred again.. to release more of his live recordings on vinyl with unique artwork for first pressings

Before Saltburn‘s release, Official Charts Company data confirms that Murder On The Dancefloor was being streamed an average of 292,000 times every week. Now, it’s clocked up 1.5 million streams since the beginning of the week, meaning it stands a solid chance of returning to the Top 10. The song peaked at Number 2 when it was first released 22 years ago.
Saltburn stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike and follows Oxford student Oliver Quick (Keoghan) who becomes enamoured with popular boy Felix Catton (Elordi). The two bond and Felix invites Oliver to stay at his family’s ancestral home, Saltburn, over the summer.
Murder On The Dancefloor appears in the film’s final scene, where Oliver is shown dancing naked around the Saltburn house to the song.

“Emerald [Fennell] is a director who uses music like another character [in her scripts]. Obviously, it takes people back to a certain era,” Ellis-Bextor tells Official Charts. “There’s a nostalgia and a mood. But there’s layers [to the song] and what it evokes in you. Some people have come up to me and said ‘Oh my God, I didn’t realise the song was literal! It’s about a murder!’
“I don’t think I would quite take it that far, but it’s a got a little twist. It’s not wholly pure [like the characters in Saltburn].”
She also describes the song’s renewed success as “magical” in an interview with BBC Newsbeat.
“If I’m honest, I don’t think I’ve completely processed it really,” she says. “It’s extraordinary. It’s a song I’ve been singing for over 20 years, I still love singing it. I love the way people react when I do it live.
“But for new people to be discovering it, for it to be making new memories with people is kind of beautiful.”
Meanwhile, Lauren Kreisler, director of Brand & Digital at Official Charts adds: “We love to see the British public rediscovering chart classics, or young audiences discovering them for the first time, even, as happened with Kate Bush topping the Official Chart thanks to Stranger Things.
“The Official Chart has always reflected British popular culture, 10 years ago we introduced streaming data into the Official Singles Chart, and in the streaming era we’ve seen that a memorable song paired with a ‘memorable’ scene can be dynamite for chart success.”
The song has also proved popular on TikTok, with over 38.5 million views of its hashtag and the song being included in a quarter of a million videos. Ellis-Bextor herself also joined the trend, recreating Keoghan’s dance in a TikTok video.

@sophieebtiktok
Heading into 2024 like… Happy Saltburn New Year! Xx #murderonthedancefloor #sophieellisbextor #saltburnmovie
♬ sophs awful edit thats gone viral – sophie

The post Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder On The Dancefloor to return to top 10 after use in Saltburn appeared first on MusicTech.

Points are definitely an interesting idea...
"Songwriters today have it a lot tougher than previously, thanks to streaming. While artists aren’t making a whole lot per stream, songwriters only make about 20% of that, and chances are it’s split with a publisher. Now a number of small labels have pledged to offer songwriter points, or a royalty derived from the master streaming revenue."
#MusicBusiness #MusicIndustry #Musicians #artists #royalties

What a long, strange year it’s been in enterprise tech newsLooking back at the top enterprise news stories of the year, it's clear that generative AI dominated, but it wasn't the only news.
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Acustica Audio Christmas 🎄 compressor giveaway.
#free #Plugins #musicproduction #Mixing #Producers #Musicians

ChatGPT is the most-used AI tool among musicians, study findsA new study has revealed which musicians are using available AI tools and how, revealing that ChatGPT is currently the most-used tool among musicians.

READ MORE: YouTube’s Dream Track could be the tipping point for AI-generated music

The study, which was carried out by Pirate and involved 1,000 musicians, unveiled the top 10 AI tools utilised for music production. Topping this list is ChatGPT, which can help in songwriting and composition by generating ideas and providing valuable feedback on lyrics.
The OpenAI tool is closely followed by iZotope’s Ozone 11 plugin, which simplifies the mastering process with its one-click solution, enhancing workflow for artists.
Stem separation tool LALAL.AI secured the third spot while BandLab SongStarter, which aids in combating writer’s block and generates tracks based on user input, was fourth. GOYO, which specialises in audio segmentation, de-noising, and de-voicing for improved audio quality, was fifth.
AIVA, AWS DeepComposer, Moises.ai, Google’s Magenta Studio and StemRoller also made the cut.
In terms of how musicians are using these AI tools to create music, the study reveals that 30 percent of musicians use AI use it to help with songwriting and composition, while 21 percent use it for research and inspiration.
Credit: Pirate
Breaking it down even further, the study shows that twelve percent use it for beat and rhythm creation, according to Pirate, 10 percent for mastering, eight for arrangement, eight for mixing, and five percent for vocal processing, with the remaining six percent using AI for reasons categorised as ‘Other’.
This study also found that over 50 percent of musicians would conceal their use of AI to others.
The inclusion of AI technology in music creation has been a hot topic in 2023. Just recently, Disclosure launched a project in partnership with beatport.io and Bronze AI that lets fans remix their track Simply Won’t Do using AI.
Gorillaz and Blur frontman Damon Albarn recently praised the use of AI to help make the ‘new’ Beatles track, //Now And Then//, happen. He said he sees it as a “good opportunity for everyone”, saying “there could be hundreds of my songs released after my death”.
LimeWire also got in on the AI action recently, as it launched its new LimeWire AI Music Studio that lets you create a whole track using AI. Co-CEO Julian Zehetmayr said in a press release: “Our platform is designed to break down barriers, allowing aspiring musicians and creators to unleash their potential with the power of AI.”
Read more at Pirate.
The post ChatGPT is the most-used AI tool among musicians, study finds appeared first on MusicTech.

Let 1,000 AI Startups Bloom: Why the Time to Disrupt the Music Industry Is Now [Kyle Bylin]Former Hypebot editor Kyle Bylin argues that artificial intelligence will soon revolutionize the music industry even more than past innovations like MP3s and streaming. AI tools will enable anyone to. Continue reading
The post Let 1,000 AI Startups Bloom: Why the Time to Disrupt the Music Industry Is Now [Kyle Bylin] appeared first on Hypebot.

Completely agree with Bobby Owsinski 2024 prediction. The future should be a mixture of technologies, talent and discovery.
#MusicIndustry #Music #future #Musicians #Producers

Quite expected forecast from Armada's CEO. Let's make our own steps to #decentralization.
#MusicIndustry #Music #AI #artists #MusicBusiness #Streaming

Moises’ Music.AI is a “first-of-its-kind” music creation platform for businessesMoises, the brand behind the AI-powered app for music creation, has introduced a new “first-of-its-kind” ecosystem for enterprise-grade AI services called Music.AI.
As the Moises consumer apps grew to over 40 million users, the company had been “quietly” serving enterprise clients. The launch of Music.AI now allows businesses to quickly build and scale AI products and services, rather than sourcing multiple services from varying providers.

READ MORE: Moises’ AI Voice Studio offers a brand new model for creators to license AI vocals

The AI platform can process more than one million minutes of audio daily, according to a press release. It includes a wide range of proprietary AI models as well as “best-in-class” third-party technologies. Customers can combine any of Music.AI’s models without coding so they can save time in implementation and testing to quickly prototype and bring more services to the market.
Music.AI has already been assisting in voice modelling and audio restoration projects. Similar to the technology used on The Beatles’ last single, Now and Then, Music.AI assisted in the production of Elis and Tom, the documentary about Bossa Nova artists Elis Regina and Antônio Carlos Jobim that debuted in the US this September.
Much of the film consisted of behind-the-scenes footage recorded in 1972. These original recordings were restored using Music.AI’s source separation models. The company also worked with Papa Johns to help localise TV commercials and adapt Hispanic translations featuring Shaquille O’Neal.
“Our models are individually capable unto themselves, but we’ve built a one-stop hub with the ability to combine our various modules with those of third parties to create the powerful solutions demanded by top-tier clients,” says co-founder and CEO Geraldo Ramos. “The market for AI-powered music and audio applications is maturing away from point solutions in favour of broader, more capable, scalable solutions like Music.AI.”
Music.AI is currently powering 1700 applications, serving more than 40 Million musicians and producers.The company will announce additional B2B partnerships with enterprise clients in due course.
Find out more at Music.AI and Moises.
The post Moises’ Music.AI is a “first-of-its-kind” music creation platform for businesses appeared first on MusicTech.

Surround mixing on headphones just got serious with OLLO Audio’s S5X€539, olloaudio.com
OLLO Audio is an independent developer of pro audio-focused headphones based in Slovenia. Its latest release is the S5X, a set of analogue, wired headphones boasting clever design and additional software to help you accurately judge surround mixes while listening in stereo.

READ MORE: Universal Audio’s SC-1 and Hemisphere eight-mics-in-one are tempting additions to any studio’s mic collection

To be clear, while surround headphones do exist, the S5X are not the same. Rather they are “tuned for accurate object positioning in virtualised 3D audio”, according to OLLO. But what does that mean in practice, and can they be used for regular stereo mixing?
Before we get to that, a word on the build. The headphones are beautifully constructed in a combination of wood, metal and plastic. They’re an open-backed design with detachable plugs that terminate in a 3.5mm jack, and a 6.3mm adapter is supplied too.
The ear pads are soft, comfortable and replaceable, should they eventually start to wear out. The headband is, of course, adjustable and the phones feel light when worn, comfortable for the invariably long periods of mixing for which they’ll be employed.
OLLO S5X headphones on desk
You can just plug in and go but OLLO’s whole thing here is the idea of calibration. The headphones are designed to be as flat and neutral as possible to give the most accurate picture of a surround mix when downmixed into binaural (stereo) format. The thinking is that most surround content for games, movies and other applications is in reality experienced on stereo headphones rather than elaborate home cinema systems and as such it’s vital to mix it accordingly.
OLLO takes the idea of calibration very seriously indeed. To demonstrate just how seriously, part of your purchase is the company’s USC (unit specific calibration) plugin which you can download after registering. Then you send them the serial number of your headphones and based on their records of the build and analysis of your specific pair, they generate a calibration file which is emailed back to you. You then load this into the USC plugin, which you insert across the master bus in your DAW, and it calibrates the output for your personal pair of cans. The plugin itself is simple, with on/off and gain controls as well as the ability to hold up to eight configurations, should you own more than one pair.
The company is at pains to point out that this isn’t some kind of enhancement, which some other ‘personalisation’ systems use to magically make everything sound punchier. Nor is it they say for audiophiles expecting a similar result. Instead, it’s a very subtle 0.5 – 1dB change in tolerance where required. Since the headphones are already tuned to be as flat as possible, it’s making very minor tweaks based on the physics of your specific pair. It also works with the Waves NX plugin (for virtual room emulation for headphones), though our experience of trying to get Waves’ own software to authorise properly was frustrating to put it mildly.
So what’s happening here is that when working with a surround project the output from your DAW is being downmixed to binaural format for monitoring in stereo, and passed through the USC plugin to best calibrate it for your headphones. This does of course mean turning the plugin off before doing any actual exporting, or it would be included in the bounces. Most modern DAWs provide at least a few options here, like Logic’s Dolby Atmos with its multiple binaural monitoring modes.
OLLO S5X headphones USC plugin
If any of this sounds like a foreign language, it’s likely that this particular model of headphone is not aimed at your workflow. OLLO points towards its S4X model (€449) as a more conventional mixing tool, with a more mid-focused tuning. The S5X is tuned to have less bass and more high-end presence, which the developers say based on extensive testing offers the most accurate results for object positioning in 3D space.
As such, you would lean towards the S4X for more conventional stereo mixing duties. The S5X however is quite remarkable when fed downmixed surround content. Unless you’re a seasoned pro, it still feels a bit like magic being able to move sounds around in three dimensions and have this translated live to a stereo pair of headphones. But they are indeed extremely accurate, their flat response coping very well with the complexities of working in three dimensions.
When listening to regular stereo mixes they are too upper-mid-heavy and lacking bass but this is precisely because they are tuned for a different use. A good test – and a way to gauge their surround performance on a ready-made source – is to play back an album that has been properly mixed for Dolby Atmos, for example, and where the work has already been done.
We try the 2017 mix of R.E.M’s Automatic For The People since we’re intimately familiar with the original and the results are amazing. The talent lies with the people who mixed it of course, but the S5X does an incredible job of revealing all the detail, much of which isn’t even apparent in the original stereo mixes. Whole melodies appear and there’s just an incredible sense of space that elevates the record to new heights.
OLLO S5X headphones on desk
That’s where you’d hope to end up when mixing your own projects for spatial or surround and, with these carefully-tuned dynamic headphones, you can be assured that the monitoring side of things is taken care of. The goal is accurate translation of what’s on the surround speakers into your binaural mix in real time and on that front they certainly deliver. The sound is incredibly detailed, and separation is spectacular.
You may or may not be the type of user who cares deeply about the fine-grained calibration that the USC plugin offers. Either is fine, honestly. And you can use these without it, though it’s part of the purchase price anyway. While most serious reference phones will do a good job of handling a downmixed surround signal for mixing purposes, the specialised flat tuning on offer here really makes a difference and will be invaluable if you’re doing this kind of work with any regularity. OLLO does offer a 30-day money back guarantee with a few caveats, although you’re not likely to need it.
Key features

Reference class, open-back dynamic headphones with flat frequency response
Hand-picked, left/right matched transducers for better instrument separation
Dynamic Neodymium drivers
30 Ohms
Replaceable earpads with outer diameter of 95 mm
Detachable braided silicone cable with OFC core
Specially tuned for handling downmixed surround audio
USC calibration plugin (AU / VST3)
All components user-replaceable
Front-to-back air pressure equalisation
Works with Waves NX

The post Surround mixing on headphones just got serious with OLLO Audio’s S5X appeared first on MusicTech.

FREE AI-Powered Sample Pack Generator.
#AI #Tools #Music #samples #musicproduction

Helicity Space raises $5M to unlock fusion propulsion – and fast travel in deep spaceHelicity Space has closed a $5 million seed funding to accelerate development of a technology that could finally unlock fast, efficient travel in deep space. That technology is fusion propulsion, which has long been the domain of science fiction. The startup says that they have discovered a way to use plasma jets for fusion reaction. […]
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