Standing Desk Uses Pneumatics To Do The JobMost standing desks on the market use electric motors or hand cranks to raise and lower the deck. However, [Matthias Wandel] found a Kloud standing desk that used an altogether different set up. He set about figuring out how it worked in the old-fashioned way—by pulling it apart.
The Kloud desk relies on pneumatics rather than electrical actuators to move up and down. Inside the desk sits a small tank that can be pressurized with a hand-cranked mechanism. A lever can then be used to release pressure from this tank into a pair of pneumatic cylinders that drive the top of the desk upwards. The two cylinders are kept moving in sync by a tensioned metal ribbon that ties the two sides together. The mechanism is not unlike a gas lift chair—holding the lever and pushing down lets the desk move back down. Once he’s explained the basic mechanism, [Matthias] gets into the good stuff—pulling apart the leg actuator mechanism to show us what’s going on inside in greater detail.
If you’ve ever thought about building your own standing desk, this might be a video worth watching. We’ve featured some other great pneumatics projects before, too. Video after the break.

Stereo widening: What it is and 4 techniques for a wider mix
Learn about four stereo widening techniques that can help you achieve an effective mix, including the Haas effect, mid-side EQ, and more.

AI music platform Suno acquires browser-based DAW WavToolDespite being in the midst of a class action lawsuit led by an independent artist who claims it used his music to train its AI models, Suno has just acquired browser-based DAW WavTool.
Back in December, the AI-powered DAW went offline – now seemingly in preparation for Suno’s acquisition.
“Although the product has been taken offline, we are far from done with [our] mission,” WavTool teased in a statement. “Everything you love about WavTool will return soon, and let us assure you: it will be worth the wait.”

READ MORE: MusicTech’s favourite plugins of 2025 — so far

The purchasing of WavTool marks the AI music platform’s first venture into the DAW market. It will see WavTool being integrated into Suno’s existing platform.
CEO and co-founder of Suno, Mikey Shulman, discusses the acquisition with Music Business Worldwide: “We’re finding that many of Suno’s early adopters are professional songwriters and producers who are seeing immense value in integrating AI into their creative process.”
“Our ultimate goal is to empower musicians, build tools that amplify human creativity and open up access to making great music,” he continues.
“By bringing in WavTool’s elite DAW technology, and their team of experts, we’re in a position to better deliver on our mission.”
The WavTool team are also excited to join forces with Suno.
“Once we came to understand how Suno operates, and how aligned the Suno team is with our vision for AI in the music creation process, we knew joining forces was the right move,” Sam Watkinson, co-founder and former CEO of WavTool, explains.
“It’s a great privilege to be part of a team with such deep passion for music and a shared commitment to advance the future of music production – I can’t wait to show off what we’ve been building together.”
Despite the current lawsuit against Suno and the divisive nature surrounding AI as a creative tool, a lot of artists use AI in the studio. Though few like to admit it, Timbaland wears his AI love on his sleeve, even claiming to use Suno for up to 10 hours a day.
The post AI music platform Suno acquires browser-based DAW WavTool appeared first on MusicTech.

Gallery: Out West, presented by Milk & Honey with LaPolt Law, Music Business Worldwide and other friendsHosted by Milk & Honey CEO, Lucas Keller, Out West was a 'Social Sunday' for LGBTQ+ creatives and executives in the music industry.
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Live Music Industry News: NIVA ’25 wraps • How scalpers evade laws • Tixel to US • DJ events rule • Eventbrite study • Blue Note to LA • MoreLatest Live Music Industry News Under The LIVE INDUSTRY NEWS tab above
The post Live Music Industry News: NIVA ’25 wraps • How scalpers evade laws • Tixel to US • DJ events rule • Eventbrite study • Blue Note to LA • More appeared first on Hypebot.

Klevgrand introduce Walls reverb plug-in Klevgrand have announced the release of a new algorithmic reverb plug-in which they say deconstructs the traditional ideas of what a reverb should be.

“It’s like, ‘Okay, I’m the drummer now and I’m a bit of an arsehole and I’m feeling angry’”: Emma-Jean Thackray on her vocal mixing tricks and going “full method” in the studioAward-winning artist, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray has never been one to follow a conventional playbook, not least when it comes to mixing.
Fresh off the release of her new self-produced album Weirdo, Thackray stopped by MusicTech’s My Forever Studio podcast (made in partnership with Audient) to share her mixing secrets and the delightfully “method” approach she takes to building the different parts of her songs.

READ MORE: “Screw the gear. Develop your skills before you go and buy something”: Emma-Jean Thackray explains why musicians should invest in creativity, not gear

“When I’m mixing, it’s about placement more than anything else,” Thackray explains.
“So I’ll usually have the lower harmonies slightly wider center, and then as things get higher, they’re going further and further away from the centre. Which is, I think, always a good way to kind of approach stuff first of all in terms of where your frequencies are sitting.”
“And then I like to double everything, minimum. So you’ve got left and right, and then sort of double them again and have one of them slightly closer to you, one of them slightly further away.
“So you can mess with how much is being sent to the reverb, and it just creates not just space this way, but space this way. You’ve got the depth and you’ve got the wideness of it.”
She also uses a go-to room reverb to help build a convincing sense of space: “The amount that I send to each person is very slightly different to help me sort of create a 3D image of the room.”
“And then that on top of me singing the stuff with slightly different texture of my voice or being in slightly different positions – away from the microphone or to the side or whatever – to make it seem like it’s one mic, like this AE ribbon capturing a bunch of people,” Thackray adds.
Technical tricks aside, the musician also reveals that she goes “full method” when laying down parts for her records – sometimes even dressing the part.
“When I made my Ley Lines EP years ago, I literally was doing all the performances and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m the drummer now and I’m, you know, a bit of an arsehole and I’m feeling angry,’” she laughs.
“And then I’m the bassist. I’m cool, I’m a chill person, it’s fine, I’ve got a cup of tea and it sort of helped me be a little bit further behind the beat.
Whereas the drummer, who’s angry, is a bit further ahead of the beat.”
These days, she doesn’t necessarily need the costume changes to get into character.
“I can just sort of try and embody, like, okay, where am I going to sit in terms of the groove? Am I ahead? Am I behind? Am I this or am I that? I do go a bit method,” Thackray concludes.

The post “It’s like, ‘Okay, I’m the drummer now and I’m a bit of an arsehole and I’m feeling angry’”: Emma-Jean Thackray on her vocal mixing tricks and going “full method” in the studio appeared first on MusicTech.

How Ticket & Scalper Financing Inflates Prices and Excludes FansChris Castle on how ticket and scalper financing inflates prices and make it harder for real fans to buy. As resellers get millions in credit to hoard tickets, fans are left paying more - or missing out entirely.
The post How Ticket & Scalper Financing Inflates Prices and Excludes Fans appeared first on Hypebot.

“These are not songs coming out of Sabrina Carpenter’s head”: Rick Beato says most modern popstars are just “vehicles” for songs crafted by professional songwritersRick Beato has called out the machinery behind modern pop and the way most popstars today just function as “vehicles” for songs crafted by teams of professional songwriters.
Using Sabrina Carpenter’s latest hit Manchild as an example, the producer and YouTuber explains how most fans don’t realise just how curated the process really is – or how little of the song may actually originate from the artist themselves.

READ MORE: “Labels have found a new way to put artists in a position where they seem to be making a lot of money, but they essentially own nothing”: Rick Beato and Anthony Fantano discuss the impact of Spotify and streaming

“When an artist like Sabrina Carpenter is doing a new record,” says Beato, “she’s presented hundreds of songs to choose from. Or, she will go and ‘write’ with people she had hits with from the last record. Which she did – Amy Allen was one of the writers, and so was Jack Antonoff. And they will write new songs for this thing.”
“Yeah, she might be in the room for some of this stuff. But the fact of the matter is, these same people are all over multiple hit songs.”
According to Beato, hitmakers like Allen and Antonoff are part of a “professional songwriter group of people that write a majority of big hit songs out today that we hear constantly.”
“These things are created by the producers. And then they figure out what the image is going to be for the video, for the record. This stuff is all put together. And when I see people make videos on YouTube where they’re talking about her lyrics – what this Manchild thing means – it’s like ‘it doesn’t mean anything!’”
“They’re not written by these people. They’re no statement,” he says. “All of it is a completely calculated thing.”

While Beato acknowledges that artists like Carpenter may be musically capable – “I know she plays guitar and piano and everything. You can see videos of her doing that” – he remains skeptical of their involvement on the actual records.
“You think she’s playing anything on here? That’s Jack Antonoff playing that, I’m sure. These things are all just programmed. They bring her in, she sings over it, she reads all the lyrics, she might say ‘You know, I wouldn’t say that, I would say this,’ and she gets her songwriting credits on there. The fact of the matter is that these songwriters need artists that are young – let’s be honest about it – that are vehicles for their songs.”
“These are not songs coming out of Sabrina Carpenter’s head,” he continues. “I bet she doesn’t play one note on any of her records.”
At the heart of it, Beato says, is an old truth about the music industry: “This has been going on since the beginning of the music business. In order to get your song cut by a huge star, you have to give a piece of the song. Even if they wrote nothing, and it’s really terrible. Especially when there’s so little money in the business these days as compared to 25 years ago, even.”
The exception, in his view, is Billie Eilish and Finneas – one of the few major acts who not only co-write their music but play the parts too.
“She and her brother write the songs together. Not only do they write them, but he plays all the parts,” says Beato. “They’re one of the very few people.”

The post “These are not songs coming out of Sabrina Carpenter’s head”: Rick Beato says most modern popstars are just “vehicles” for songs crafted by professional songwriters appeared first on MusicTech.

GIK Acoustics: Room EQ Wizard Tutorial This GIK Acoustics tutorial video talks through the process of using REW to measure the likes of frequency response, SPL, decay times and more, along with details on how to configure the software and generate waterfall graphs. 

Book Store: "501 Essential Albums of the 1980s" Edited by Gary GraffMC contributor Graff has played an absolute blinder here, working with a long list of esteemed scribes (Cary Baker, Rob St. Mary, many more) to compile the 501 essential albums of the '80s. Naturally, with any sort of book like this, everyone will point to albums that should be in there but aren’t. That said, this is damned extensive. All the appropriate new wave, new romantic, pop, and hair metal albums from that decade are present and correct. But Graff makes sure that gospel, country, jazz, punk, hip-hop, soul, and just about everything else gets a fair shake too. Essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in that decade.(Hardcover) $40The post Book Store: "501 Essential Albums of the 1980s" Edited by Gary Graff first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Google launches Doppl, a new app that lets you visualize how an outfit might look on youGoogle is launching a new experimental app called Doppl that uses AI to visualize how different outfits might look on you.

Meta hires former OpenAI top talent amid AGI pushMeta's latest AI hire follows several developments and partnerships aimed at making the tech giant a leader in the burgeoning sector.

Room360 Audio Room360Room360 represents a step forward in the field of algorithmic reverb. No cut corners, and no cheating. Every aspect of the resulting sound comes directly from the hundreds of thousands of traced reflections, made possible in real time with carful optimization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSZ41kznQmo Read More

What is a verse in a song? How to write a verse
Learn about what a verse is, its purpose in a song, and techniques for how to write effective verses of your own.