CarbonDSP TextureTexture turns any sample into a playable instrument: finds a seamless loop in your source, then plays a drifting granular cloud key tracked across the whole key range. Three layers, a reorderable FX rack, 36 modulation sources into 198 destinations, and an offline render that bounces the result to a loop-ready WAV. SPOTLIGHT Texture is built on one idea: a sample should not stay a sample. Give it a field recording, a guitar take, a synth pad or thirty seconds of someone talking, and it finds a seamless loop inside that audio automatically, then plays it back as a cloud of overlapping grains that drifts, spreads and evolves while you hold a chord. The source stops being a fixed recording and becomes an instrument you can play across the full keyrange. The sound is the point. The granular engine is not a simple loop-slicer -- grain size, density, position, spray, drift rate and depth, stereo spread and keytrack are all continuous and all modulatable, and every grain is spawned with its own jitter in pitch, gain, onset timing and playback direction. Onset jitter in particular breaks up the periodic spawn grid that gives cheap granular engines their characteristic buzz. Each grain runs through its own filter -- a morphing low-pass/band-pass/high-pass, a diode ladder, or a Moog-style ladder -- with anti-derivative antialiased drive, so pushing it hard adds harmonics instead of aliasing. Behind the cloud sits a full effects section. A reorderable rack runs Filter, Gate, Delay and Reverb in whatever order you drag them into, followed by a fixed post-rack pair -- a Karplus-style string resonator and a tempo-synced slice sequencer -- and an 8-band parametric EQ. The reverb offers six algorithms including a shimmer with real pitch-shifted feedback, and an "Air" mode for very long tails. The filter block is three independent bands with thirteen types each, from ordinary 12/24 dB slopes through ladder, comb and formant, running in parallel or in series. Modulation is where it scales. Thirty-six sources -- four LFOs, four ADSR envelopes, eight macros, the rhythmic gate, MIDI performance controls, five generative sources (chaos, Euclidean, locked random, ratchet, probability) and four audio-reactive sources that analyse Texture's own output - route into 198 destinations across sixteen slots, with per-slot depth, response curve and layer targeting. The matrix can modulate itself: an envelope can open a macro that sweeps an LFO's rate. Any control can be assigned by right-clicking it, from either end of the routing. The rhythmic gate is a proper sixteen-step sequencer rather than a tremolo: per-step level, plus per-step accent and tie, so a pattern can phrase rather than simply chop. And when you have built something you want to keep, the RENDER page bounces the entire live patch offline to a tempo-synced, loop-ready WAV or AIFF with loop points and ACID metadata embedded -- one note, or a batch across the keyboard -- so your texture can leave as a sample and go straight into anything else. Key Features: Automatic seamless looping - point Texture at any audio and it finds the best loop internally, with an editable crossfade, so a sustained cloud never clicks or reveals its loop point. Three independent sample layers - up to 30 seconds each, with per-layer key zones, gain, monoand reverse -- stack three sources into one instrument, or split them across the keyboard. Live sampling - capture straight from the input bus in the plugin or the standalone app, with noround trip through a file. Granular engine with per-grain character - size, density, position, spray, drift, spread and keytrack, plus per-grain pitch jitter, gain jitter, onset jitter and reverse probability, and four selectable grain window shapes. Per-grain filter - Three characters (morphing, diode ladder, Moog ladder) and a live response graph you can drag, and anti-aliased drive. Reorderable FX rack - Filter, Gate, Delay and Reverb, dragged into whatever order the sound needs followed by a string resonator, a slice sequencer and an 8-band parametric EQ. Six reverb algorithms - Room, Hall, Plate, Shimmer, Air and TextureVerb -- an 8-line feedback delay network with real pitch-shifted shimmer feedback, not a chorused approximation. Three-band multimode filter - 13 types per band (12/24 dB low/high pass, band, notch, peak, shelves, allpass, ladder, comb, formant), parallel or series, with draggable response nodes. Sixteen-step rhythmic gate - Per-step level, accent and tie, swing, per-step decay, and 1/4 to 1/32 rates locked to host tempo. Modulation matrix - 36 sources into 198 destinations across 16 slots, with response curves, bipolar depth, per-layer targeting and self-modulation. Right-click any control to assign it. Generative and audio-reactive modulation - chaos, Euclidean gates, locked random, ratchets and probability gates, plus threshold, transient, sidechain and pitch-follower sources driven by Texture's own signal. Offline patch render - bounce the whole live patch to a tempo-synced, loop-ready WAV or AIFF with embedded loop points and ACID metadata -- single note or multi-note batch, with bit depth, sample rate and mono options. Five-page interface - Source, Grain, FX, Mod, Output -- with a per-page user guide built into the plugin, and a resizable window. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Format: VST3, Standalone. Platform: Windows, 64-bit. Host: Any VST3-compatible DAW, or the included standalone application. Validation: Verified against pluginval at strictness level 10. MacOS: In progress. PRICE: $79 when released. VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Read More

SEC proposes new crypto rules in absence of CLARITY ActThe proposed rules from the US securities regulator would provide companies with a safe harbor from tokens being treated as “investment contracts” and certain exemptions for token issuance.

"LEMONADE" by AespaSM EntertainmentProducers: Various

Aespa shines the brightest when their bold personalities take center stage. Their second studio album LEMONADE startsoff strong with the catchy hooks and explosive lyrics of “LEMONADE” and “SHAKIN.” The album’s clear production really highlights the K-pop group’s vocal prowess especially in the rock inspired track “Can’t Help Myself.” The biggest stand out is “Switchblade (feat.Ty Dolla $ign),” the songs experimental electronic production is euphoric and Ty Dolla $ign’s feature works nicely. The last half is when things start to fall apart as songs feel less ambitious and more generic. Overall, LEMONADE is filled with more sweet notes than sour. The post "LEMONADE" by Aespa first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

DOJ’s probe into Andreessen Horowitz over board seats baffles VCsSince portfolio companies often pivot and expand into competing markets, investors view occasional conflicts of interest as unavoidable for large VC firms.

Reverse Engineered Grill Controller Gets Open FirmwareIf you are a regular reader, then the odds are you have taken apart an electronic gadget, either for a fix, or simply because your curiosity got the better of you. Once inside, it’s all but impossible to help yourself from doing at least a little reverse engineering. That’s what happened when [PRBS23] took a look inside a Gravity 800 Grill for a simple wire fix. But one thing led to the next, and now open source firmware for the grill is freely available!
Control board schematic.
The first order of business in creating the firmware is reverse engineering the original controller. Opening it up immediately reveals an ESP-32 and a well-labeled programming port. The rest of the control board is equally simple, including connectors for four thermistor temperature sensors, lid open/close switch, fan driver, 16 segment LCD, piezo buzzer, and some physical inputs.
The thermistor along with the physical inputs are connected to a 16 pin chip, interfacing with the MCU over a 9600 baud UART connection. [PRBS23] cannot determine an ADC chip meeting these specifications, so the most likely answer is a cheap MCU programmed to act as a simple analog fronted.
The neatly labeled programming header is used to quite easily dump the firmware with the espflash utility. Analyzing this dump reveals a rather strange ADC correction function used by the original firmware. The necessity and overall utility of this function remains unclear, does corrects a maximum of around 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Most of the other features ended up being at least somewhat easier. The CS1621 segmented display driver is reasonably well documented with datasheets making its implementation far easier. Likewise, the other odds and ends were implemented in a far more normal manner compared to the thermistors.
All this reverse engineering work got tied together into a neat little firmware package. It comes with over the air updates PID controlled temperature, and a real-time web interface. This also isn’t the first time we have seen an IoT device liberated from proprietary firmware, and this remains one of our favorite uses of reverse engineering!
 

Focusrite extend Control 2 support Focusrite have just launched an update that extends Control 2 software support their Scarlett 3rd Gen, Clarett+, Clarett USB and select Scarlett 2nd Gen USB audio interfaces

Why Gen Z’s most culturally powerful rappers aren’t its biggest starsCultural relevance in hip-hop has decoupled from mainstream scale. The artists proving it are reshaping where the industry should be looking, says Diana Umana…
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Technics celebrates 55th anniversary of the SL-1200 turntable with limited drop of gold-accented modelsTechnics is launching a special, limited-edition version of the SL-1200 turntable for its 55th anniversary.
Marking this significant milestone for the SL-1200 Series, the drop will be released in September 2026 with only 12,000 units available. Each turntable will feature an individually engraved anniversary badge featuring its serial number, and offer classy gold accents.

READ MORE: KRK’s V Series Five studio monitors feature wireless control, so you can tweak them without leaving your seat

The foundation of the SL-1200 story begins with Technics’ pioneering direct-drive technology. In 1970, it introduced the SP-10, widely recognised as the world’s first direct-drive turntable.
The SL-1100 followed in 1971, combining direct drive with an integrated tonearm and compact construction, before the SL-1200 arrived in 1972 as the model that would become a global reference point for club and DJ use.
This new anniversary version will be available in seven colours: Gold, Blue, Red, Black, Green, White, and Grey. All colours include a gold anodised S-shaped aluminium tonearm, a platter with a gold coloured rim and strobe marks, matching gold knobs and buttons, a gold finished tonearm base, the commemorative anniversary badge, and a specially designed gold themed slip mat.
Credit: Technics
As for its technical features, the SL-1200 55th Anniversary Edition will be based on Technics’ MK7 platform, meaning it will carry the iron-coreless direct drive with single-stator/single-rotor, with digital control for speed stability and fast start-up time.
Speed can be adjusted with a pitch of up to +/- 16 percent via the classical vertical pitch fader. The aluminium S-shaped tonearm aids precise tracking of the vinyl grooves, while its adjustable height allows for usage of a wider variety of pickup cartridges. Completing the model is a Reverse Play mode.
The Technics SL-1200 55th Anniversary Edition is planned for global release in September 2026. Find out more via Technics.
The post Technics celebrates 55th anniversary of the SL-1200 turntable with limited drop of gold-accented models appeared first on MusicTech.

Guilt-Free AI: These 6 AI music tools actually pay the artists behind them
AI should be exciting. In a shockingly short amount of time, this tech has spawned new tools, techniques, sounds, and workflows. But despite all the creative potential this opens up, some of the world’s biggest AI companies have managed to turn what could be a positive into a queasy negative.
With an amoral ‘sucks to be you’ ethos and dubious legal justifications, the sum of all human-made music has been inhaled by the algorithms and belched back at us.
But thankfully, some companies are developing AI with music and musicians front of mind.
What makes an AI music tool ethical?
Some may argue that ‘ethical’ and ‘AI’ don’t belong in the same sentence. However, there are plenty of developers and creatives using the technology in ways without stealing creative works to train their software.
When we talk about ethical AI in the context of this article, we’re looking specifically at brands that work collaboratively with musicians, producers and artists to build tools for other creators to use. Far from “make my record sound like XYZ artist”, these tools license material from their collaborators to empower your music-making process. Crucially, these brands also don’t use your material to improve their products.
If you’re looking to harness AI in your music in a more ethical way, these tools should be top of your list.
LANDR
Images: LANDR

You could argue that mastering was the canary in the AI coal mine. Long before we had full song generators and near-perfect vocal deepfakes, computers were mimicking mastering engineers with ear-catching results.
First to gain popularity was LANDR, offering algorithmic mastering services as early as 2014. Although it didn’t prove immensely popular upon launch, in the intervening years the company has steadily improved its algorithms by learning directly from consenting mastering engineers.
Now, even with plenty of stiff competition, LANDR arguably still offers the best balance of affordability, flexibility, and quality. The only downside is that its online mastering comes bundled with music distribution services and other plugins, so if you don’t want these, you’ll have to shell out for the company’s standalone mastering plugin.
Neutone
Project LYDIA by Roland and Neutone. Image: Press

How can we create brand new, never-before-heard sounds with AI? That’s what Neutone hopes to find out. Committed to the ethical use of AI from day one, it’s come armed with datasets either recorded in-house or sourced from the public domain.
From that data, Neutone built Morpho, a tone morphing plugin that takes real-time audio input and transforms its timbre based on the sonic characteristics of an AI model. In simple terms, this means you could use your voice to output drums or use a guitar riff to drive Gregorian chants.
In collaboration with artists, with whom it shares 50% of the model’s profits, Neutone’s already arrived at some fascinating places. One AI model was solely trained on human heartbeats — we’ll leave you to imagine what you could make with that. For an added layer of transparency, you can check out how each model was trained and sourced right inside the plugin.
With the ethics sorted, Neutone is pushing to discover new timbres. This includes a partnership with Roland to embed AI into a physical stompbox, currently named Project LYDIA. On the side, it also has a handful of Max for Live Ableton objects that are worth checking out.
Voice-Swap
Credit: Voice-Swap
AI voice cloning gained a bad reputation early on, and for good reason. While many companies had zero qualms about offering dodgy ripoffs of famous singers and actors, Voice-Swap pursued a radically different path.
From the get-go, it chose to partner directly with singers to create artist-authorised voice models that could legally be used in commercial music. Voice-Swap also adopted a revenue model that pays 50% of the platform’s subscription fees directly to the artists involved.
Beyond the ethics, its voice cloning tech is among the best in the business, and with a VST plugin available and with options to create your own custom voice models, it’s a great option for producers and singers alike.
ACE Studio
ACE Studio 2.0 interface. Image: MusicTech

Perhaps the only way to know what AI music tools will work in the future is to go all in on a head-to-toe AI workstation. It’s a bold move, but ACE Studio is willing to make the leap.
ACE has built a DAW overflowing with AI features, from generating instrumental parts to rendering entire songs from a sketch. In our review, we thought the AI text-to-music concepts weren’t quite there yet, but amongst the many trials and errors there was something to be said for its AI vocal models.
With the musicians involved paid and compensated for their work, we felt free to explore the 140 vocal models on offer. They were stunningly realistic, easy to use with no experience, and there was the added ability to mix and match, blend and tinker with the models to build custom tones.
Moises AI
Moises AI’s Stem Generator. Image: Moises AI
AI in music is a topic almost certain to kick off debate. However, one use you rarely hear people grumble about is stem separation — because it’s just so damn useful. The ability to split a finalised recording into its constituent parts has been a game changer for DJs, remix artists, and anyone needing to perform some audio restoration.
Moises AI partners with musicians, labels and platforms to fully license the music data its models are trained on. In addition, Charlie Puth was appointed as chief music officer of the brand this year, joining Jordan Rudess and Cory Henry as a music partner of the brand.
Major DAWs such as Ableton Live 12, FL Studio and Logic Pro now boast built-in stem separation tools. But, if you’re looking for a focused, lightweight, cheap solution that commits to ethical AI development, then Moises AI is a strong option.
Safari Audio Meaw Chain
Meaw Chain mastering chain. Image: MusicTech

Safari’s Meaw Chain is one of the most interesting AI music plugins to hit the market this year. The premise is simple: play some audio in your DAW, let Meaw Chain analyse it, enter some text prompt directions, and within a few seconds you’re furnished with a full plugin chain. This is a nuts-and-bolts application of AI that, at least for some, will be far more welcome than stem or full-song generators.
The plugin is based on the custom-made, in-house AI model that’s used on Safari’s Meaw Assist, with a stated commitment to never train its AI on customers’ audio. Meaw Chain supports a growing list of third-party plugins, and the ability to set individual parameters within those third-party plugins, which opens up some genuinely new workflows for bedroom producers.
Our review noted a number of drawbacks in this initial release, but luckily ethics wasn’t one of them. This innovative plugin chain builder is definitely one to keep an eye on.
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MusicTech reviews hundreds of new products every year, from powerful synthesizers, DAWs and pro plugins through to everyday headphones and portable speakers. Our expert reviewers are producers, engineers and enthusiasts with hundreds of years of collective experience, with a keen ear to the ground on new trends and technologies.
Every guide on MusicTech is created by a producer, musician and tech enthusiast just like you. We understand what you’re looking for when searching for a new MIDI controller, and we want to ensure you purchase genuinely useful products for your craft. So you can guarantee that every product MusicTech recommends to you is a product we’d be happy to have in our studios.
Check out more buyer’s guides on MusicTech here.
The post Guilt-Free AI: These 6 AI music tools actually pay the artists behind them appeared first on MusicTech.

FrozenPlain updates Floe, its FREE sample library player
FrozenPlain has released Floe 2.0, a major update to its free and open-source sample library player for Windows, macOS, and Linux. We covered Floe in beta last year, when it was already looking like a more modern successor to FrozenPlain’s older Mirage engine. Version 2.0 feels like a big update, and it’s worth checking out [...]
View post: FrozenPlain updates Floe, its FREE sample library player

Panoramic from Panorama Labs Created after years of creating custom processing chains, experimenting with different routing options and creating a number of experimental processors, Panoramic provide users with detailed control over a track's stereo image, but without relying on any delay or phase-based processes that harm mono compatibility.

Cradle State Machine Alt Textures relies heavily on its epic sounds$99 ($79 introductory offer), cradle.app
Alt Textures is the 11th sound collection for Cradle State Machine, created by producer and former Bring Me The Horizon keyboardist Jordan Fish, who collaborated on the initial sound capture with Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor. The collection includes leads, pads, basses, rhythmic patches, and outlandish sound effects designed to give your productions a dark, cinematic edge.

READ MORE: “There’s no rules and nothing you can’t do”: Jordan Fish on production without boundaries

The sounds were created with the very same hardware synths and effects Fish uses in his production workflow, and he also brought important contributions in the form of a selection of patches specially designed by producers and heavy-hitters in the sound design game like Mick Gordon, Noah Sebastian, and Zakk Cervini.
As an instrument, State Machine uses a sample-based architecture with dual layers and sufficient synth parameters to reshape any sound in the library and meld it with your own production style. However, Alt Textures is a genre- or aesthetic-specific collection, so you’re buying into the style of the sounds and the vision of the musicians who created them. This means I can’t expect to find sounds that suit every niche, but there are certainly areas where stylistic intersection allows crossover into applications I may not have expected, so I’m exploring Alt Textures to find out about its capabilities and limitations.

Using State Machine
Many synth purists sneer at sample-based synth instruments, often referring to them as simply a ‘ROMpler’ when describing them. However, for producers looking to find the right sounds and immediately incorporate them into their arrangements, State Machine is a platform that certainly doesn’t overwhelm you technically or interrupt your creative flow.
State Machine uses two layers for each patch, which can be linked with a leader/follower hierarchy or controlled independently across the Synth and Audio Effects sections, while the macros and MIDI effects are global. Within Alt Textures, which has 232 patches, there is a collection of 67 sound sources that can be filtered according to their characteristics and used across the two layers.
While State Machine doesn’t have an additional synthesis engine like Omnisphere to let you combine synthesis with samples, it does have some basic synth waveform samples and provides a straightforward platform for sound shaping and creating expressive instruments from well-crafted sample layers.
With a choice of mono, poly, duo, or legato modes in the Source section, you can determine your approach with any sound, and the MIDI effects allow you to define the scale, create chords from single-note input, and build sequences with an arpeggiator. Meanwhile, you can change the way the sample is triggered with the amp envelope, or shape it dynamically with the filter and LFO, as well as a selection of five effects unique to Alt Textures, including a custom DIY distorted chorus created by Jordan Fish, bitcrusher, tape saturation, modulated delay, and reverb.
For a commercial music producer or composer, this makes the State Machine instruments appealing because the sound design work has been done for the most part, so you can easily rework the sounds that catch your ear into your projects without having any previous experience with synthesizers. While each State Machine collection is relatively small compared to the average preset library, it never feels limited – I always manage to find a group of sounds I could easily repurpose and knit together.
Image: Press
Exploring Alt Textures
Browsing through the Alt Textures sound library, I’m particularly impressed by the attention to detail in terms of the layering of each sound, and how alive and organic it feels to play. Naturally, many of these sounds are designed to cut through heavy rock mixes with guitars, so they have a distinctive edge to them when played in isolation. However, this isn’t a problem because State Machine allows you to bypass effects and solo each sound layer to quickly find the part of each sound you actually want to work with.
In this process, I discover that the quality of the built-in effects is incredible and each one really adds a unique flavour in a warm and natural way, with a simple set of controls that prevent you from getting lost in the sauce. Although you can’t manipulate sample-based sound sources with the same level of flexibility and control as synth waveforms, the quality of the filter and envelopes in State Machine allows you to sweeten sounds and change the focus of sounds that are perhaps too far forward in the mix.
The range of sound sources—synth layers, guitars, vocals, stabs, plucks, and more—lets you replace a component of a sound to give it a different timbre or change the character and feel of the instrument completely using synth parameters and effects. While most of the sounds will easily suit bright and punchy rock, EDM, or pop mixes, there is also potential for use in motion picture scoring; the macro controls on the home page make it easy to automate risers and other time-based effects to suit the pace of your composition.
What stands out to me is the sheer simplicity of the workflow and the fact that I don’t feel the need to add anything to these instruments once I have arranged them. With a few elements working together, they sound relatively polished and mix-ready, which is something that certainly favours professional workflows, hence the popularity of Kontakt instruments for commercial applications such as film scores and advertising music.
Image: Press
Is there more to Cradle’s State Machine than meets the eye?
Although somewhat limited in their applications, it is refreshing to find that State Machine collections like Alt Textures do what they say on the tin, as it were. Rather than becoming your go-to instrument, each collection is a specifically curated selection of shades within your palette. Like a sample pack designed for a particular music style or film genre, they are ideal tools to reach for when that particular project comes along.
In the case of Alt Textures, this could be an EP you’re producing for an artist with a dark cyber-punk aesthetic, a soundtrack for an intriguing action film, or for scoring a futuristic sci-fi game.
The only thing that doesn’t make sense about the State Machine collections is that, although the control interfaces are identical (except for the themed graphics), the presets and sound sources are not interchangeable, and your DAW recognises each one as a separate plugin.
If there was integration between the 11 State Machine libraries within a single plugin interface, it would instantly become a far more powerful instrument and sound creation tool. Hopefully, this is something Cradle will look into in the future because it would add loads of value to the platform and all the hard work done by the talented sound designers who created these instruments. Rather than cherry-picking, it would incentivise purchasing the entire suite of State Machine instruments as a bundle.
Until then, Alt Textures remains a niche purchase that will suit those with appropriate projects in mind, rather than forming part of a larger, essential toolkit for all.
Image: Press
Key features

Curated sound library created with hardware synths and effects
232 patches from 67 sound sources
AU, VST3, and AAX plugin formats
Collection works within Cradle’s State Machine instrument
Dual-layer sound source blending
5 effects including reverb, delay, and tape saturation
Creative MIDI effects for inspiring new ideas

The post Cradle State Machine Alt Textures relies heavily on its epic sounds appeared first on MusicTech.

Jordan Fish doesn’t want you to sweat about the details when you’re making music“I’m not an expert in synthesis by any stretch of the imagination; I just know what I like,” says Jordan Fish with a modest shrug. Lucky for us, he likes apocalyptic levels of distortion, sizzling synth leads, and pads deep enough to swim in.
As a member of British metalcore giants Bring Me The Horizon, Fish helped expand the band’s sound after joining the outfit in 2012. Across a five-album run, his songwriting, production, and rough-edged approach to synthesis played a key role in the act’s rise to become one of the most popular heavy bands in the world.

READ MORE: Cradle State Machine Alt Textures relies heavily on its epic sounds

Since departing the band in 2023, Fish has been far from idle. He’s now among the most in-demand producers in metal, working on high-profile singles for acts like Babymetal and Evanescence’s Amy Lee, and helping craft career-best albums from more experimental artists like Poppy.
Now, he’s partnered with plugin maker Cradle to release State Machine: Alt Textures, a punchy collection of sounds tailored to the heavier side of music production.

With a number of well-regarded plugins under its belt, Cradle’s State Machine sample player has grown into a sprawling series covering everything from early 2000’s digital nostalgia to the sound of retro 8-bit video game soundtracks. Naturally, it was the perfect place for Fish to prove, once again, that synths can hit every bit as hard as the loudest guitar riff.
The seeds for this collaboration were actually planted long ago, with Fish emphasising that both parties have been determined to work together for years. However, it was only in the last 12 months that stars, and schedules, finally aligned.
“The brief for me was to make something that had the type of sounds that I tend to use in heavy music,” Fish says of the plugin’s guiding vision. “They’re probably on the darker side: a little warble, a little grit. But, at the same time, if you take these sounds out of that heavy context, they can work in all styles of music.”
Having spent well over a decade immersed in rock and metal, Fish had plenty of existing material to draw from – however, for Alt Textures he decided to go back to first principles. “We started from scratch,” Fish says of the sample library that powers the instrument. “Obviously I have go-to sounds and synths that I’ve collected over the years, but we wanted to make everything new.”

Working alongside Misha Mansoor, of the progressive metal band Periphery, and a few other friends, Fish put together an ensemble of synths and effects pedals and started making noise.
“It was an interesting process for me because it took me a minute to realise how much of the sound shaping can be done within the architecture of the plugin itself,” he reflects. “You don’t want to sample a defined sound with too much cooked into it; you need to leave some room for people to be able to tweak and manipulate the sounds. I had to wrap my head around that and sample things a little cleaner than maybe I would normally like.”
Fish compares the process to curating – making sure the end result was sonically cohesive, without simply repeating the same timbres ad nauseam. “We made a lot of presets, a lot more than ended up in the plugin,” he recalls. “There was a lot of trimming, and then I’d think ‘OK, we’re missing this, we’re missing that’, and we’d go and do it again. We went through that process quite a few times over to refine the presets and make sure they were really strong.”
The amassed samples of guitars, bells, synth leads, and vocals all slot into the easy-to-use architecture of Cradle’s State Machine player – which features the ability to morph between two sample layers, separate sections for audio processing and modulation, and playback control via MIDI chord triggers, arpeggiation, and scale quantise. It’s a plugin paradigm that fits Fish’s rapid-fire writing style, and he says the finished instrument is something he now “uses a lot” in his own productions.
Image: Press
“I work quite fast when I’m creating,” he says. “It’s very song-focused, and speed is of the essence in the way I work. I don’t want to be fussing over details and sounds for too long; I want to keep moving while the song is being formed, I want to be riding the excitement to get that ‘lightning in a bottle’ type of music. I care about that more than I do a very detailed, specific synth sound.
“So this type of plugin suits my process – but it won’t suit everyone,” he allows. “It’s a great tool to have alongside Serum or Omnisphere or a Kontakt library. Obviously you’re still going to need to have those options where you can craft a specific sound or really dig into the preset.”
State Machine’s fast and intuitive engine is also relevant to another group of users: beginners. Fish says that throughout the process one of his priorities was to release something that would feel relevant to producers still learning their craft.
“I had it in my mind that this would be a launchpad for people who are starting out,” he says. “It’s definitely something that I would have found helpful when I was 15 or 16. When you’ve been experimenting and working in music for years and years, you know what to use if you want a certain kind of sound – but, for people at the beginning of their journey creating music, especially in heavier music, they might not yet know what to do.”
To be clear, this is far from a training-wheels instrument, and Fish says he was conscious of the need to balance the needs of both newbies and veterans alike. “It’s about trying to make something that’s appropriate and useful for a starter producer, but that’s still going to be high quality, well sampled, and interesting enough to be usable by someone who’s further down the line.”
Image: Press
An avowed Pro Tools user, Fish eschews the mantle of ‘electronic music producer’ and says his approach still draws on early experiences recording local bands. “From the age of about 16 until 24, I was just working with whoever wanted to come into my studio,” he recalls. “That was my life and I loved it. Really, my process is the same now – it’s just that I was involved with [Bring Me The Horizon] and that has helped me to become a bit more well known.”
To say Fish is ‘well known’ in heavy music circles would be an understatement – the term ‘super-producer’ has been thrown around on more than one occasion. However, in his view, the sound that he’s become known for is less to do with sonics and more to do with songwriting.
“I don’t think my sound is particularly distinguishable because a lot of people do all the things I do,” Fish says plainly. “I think it is probably more about the fundamentals of how a song moves, how it hits for the chorus, how the melody flows – those are the things that are more identifiably me.”
However you define it, Fish’s influence on the bands he works with is easy to spot. In his view, part of that can be explained by how hands-on he is as a producer. “It’s very rare that I come in as a producer for pre-existing songs,” he explains. “More often than not, if I’m working with someone, the songs are created from zero. I work in heavy music a lot and there are things I naturally do. So, if I’ve helped write and create something, it’s hard to take my sound entirely out of that equation.
Image: Press
“But the stronger the vision of the artist, the stronger their identity, the easier it is for me to help nurture it,” Fish continues. “What I really like is when there’s an artist who will say, ‘I want the album to be about this, I want to use these kinds of instruments.’ I love that kind of challenge.”
It would also be a mistake to assume that his style will forever stay rooted in rock and metal. In conversation, he references a number of as-yet-undisclosed projects that push beyond what he’s done in the past. Moreover, Fish is adamant that, even with all his accomplishments as a songwriter and producer, he still sees room to grow and habits to break.
“There’s still this barrier of ‘stuff I’ve learned you shouldn’t or can’t do,’” he muses. “You can’t have a chorus without cymbals on it, or the guitar needs to be this loud. I’m still learning that, really, none of it applies, ever. You’ve got to try and stay in touch as a listener and not resort to defaults because you’ll miss out on so much potential good stuff. If you want to have a thousand synths doing one part, then do it, and if you want to just have one synth alone for three minutes, then just do that too. There are no rules and nothing you can’t do.”
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The Night the Rolling Stones Played Altamont - And Nobody Could Stop What Happened Next

ProWave Audio GainStageAll You Need Is Just a Volume An all-in-one gain-staging plugin for your channel strip. One module combining: -Gain control: precise level adjustment -Phase rotation: align phase cleanly -High-pass filter: clean up unwanted low end An essential tool to prep your signal before it hits the rest of the chain. Also perfect for post-automation tweaks! Already wrote your volume automation but just need to nudge it a few dB up or down? Drop this on top instead of touching the automation itself. Looks as good as it sounds: a clean analog-style interface that's a pleasure to look at while you work. Format: VST3, AU Great for: mix engineers, producers, anyone who wants fast, clean gain-staging. Read More