A timeline of Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI — and the falloutIn a dramatic turn of events late Friday, ex-Y Combinator president Sam Altman was fired as CEO of AI startup OpenAI, the company behind viral AI hits like ChatGPT, GPT-4 and DALL-E 3, by OpenAI’s board of directors. Then, the company’s longtime president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, resigned — as did three senior OpenAI researchers. […]
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Audiomovers launches New Year Collection with six new bundles focusing on immersive content production Audiomovers has launched six new bundles as part of a New Year Collection to celebrate the beginning of 2024.
The collection offers three bundles aimed at “The Pros” and three branded as “The Essentials”.  Each covers different audio production workflows with a focus on immersive content production, according to the brand.

READ MORE: Audiomovers launches Binaural Renderer plugin providing ability to hear how audio will sound on Apple Music while still in any DAW

The “Pro” bundles include The Studio Suite, The Audiomovers Suite, and The Immersive Suite. For those seeking the “Essentials”, you can get your hands on the Immersive Essentials, Production Essentials, or the LISTENTO + Renderer bundle.
Let’s take a closer look at each:
For The Pros

The Studio Suite – 6x seats (licences) of The Audiomovers Suite: Three years of LISTENTO Pro, Binaural Renderer and OMNIBUS (both perpetual), plus one free year of product upgrades. $3749.99 (total value of $4979.94).
The Audiomovers Suite – Three-year LISTENTO Pro licence, Binaural Renderer and OMNIBUS (both perpetual), and one free year of product upgrades. $649.99 (total value of $829.99).
The Immersive Suite – Stream, route, review and share your immersive audio in 7.1.4 and Binaural. Includes annual LISTENTO Pro subscription, Binaural Renderer and Omnibus (both perpetual). $329.99 (total value of $429.99).

For The Essentials

Immersive Essentials – Features the Binaural Renderer and OMNIBUS (perpetual licences) for a one-off payment. $184.99 (total value of $229.99).
Production Essentials – An annual LISTENTO Pro subscription plus INJECT (perpetual licence). $199.99 (total value of $249.99).
LISTENTO + Renderer – Exactly what it says on the tin – an annual LISTENTO Pro subscription and the Binaural Renderer (perpetual licence) paired together. $224.99 (total value of $279.99).

Dominika Dronska, Ops Director of Audiomovers, says “After a successful 2023 where we delivered a portfolio of ground-breaking immersive production tools, we wanted to present packs designed around particular working scenarios; multi-room studios, mixing for Apple Music, monitoring, routing and sharing Dolby Atmos content, as well as recording and production workflows.
“We are focused on serving the needs of our loyal base, and continuing to innovate to super-charge audio professionals,” Dronska concludes.
Visit Audiomovers to find out more.
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Universal Audio cuts bundle prices by up to 96% for a limited timeThe Christmas holiday and Black Friday sale season may be over, but deals on music tech keep coming, with Universal Audio now offering 96 per cent off on its Guitar FX bundle and up to 90 per cent off on a number of its UAD producer bundles

READ MORE: Producers: these songs are now in the public domain and free to sample

The biggest discount is on the Guitar FX bundle. It’s a selection of sought-after studio effects meticulously crafted to emulate iconic vintage hardware units. In it, there’s the Brigade Chorus Pedavl, the Galaxy Tape Echo, the Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb, the Studio D Chorus, the Teletronix LA-3A Compressor and the Waterfall Rotary Speaker.
In the bundle, users gain access to a range of plugins such as Brigade Chorus Pedal, offering lush analogue chorus and vibrant vibrato effects ideal for guitars, vocals, and synths.
Alongside this, the Galaxy Tape Echo replicates the versatile tape delay and spring reverb effects of the Roland RE-201 Space Echo.

The Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb plugin recreates the tactile slider-based controls and lush reverb tails of the iconic Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb unit, known for its use on classic albums such as Talking Heads’ 1980 LP, //Remain in Light//.
Studio D Chorus emulates the analogue widening effects used by legendary artists, providing spatial enhancement for guitars, drums, synths, and vocals.
Additionally, the Teletronix LA-3A Audio Leveler plugin replicates the character and dynamics of the rare hardware LA-3A compressor.

Finally, the Waterfall Rotary Speaker plugin recreates the immersive modulation effects of the Leslie 147 rotary speaker cabinet, offering three-dimensional textures that go beyond traditional chorus and flange effects.
Universal Audio is also slashing prices on a number of its other effects bundles. Over on Plugin Boutique, you can grab the LA-2A Leveller Collection Crossgrade Bundle for 90 per cent off its original price, making it just $36.  The Producer Edition Crossgrade bundle, the Signature Edition Crossgrade bundle and the Studio Editon Crossgrade bundle are all now 50 per cent off. If you buy any of these bundles, you also receive a free LA-2A tube compressor – an exclusive offer to Plugin Boutique. These offers run until 17 January and are available at Plugin Boutique.
Universal Audio isn’t the only brand to be slashing the price of a plugin bundle at the moment. UVI, a brand owned by Native Instruments, is now offering its own UVI Select bundle for just £179, down by 89 per cent from £1619. This suite consists of 10 soft synths and a cool filter effect.
Universal Audio’s Guitar FX Bundle is now just $49, down from $1,586. This offer ends on 7 January.
Take advantage of this deal at Plugin Boutique.
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UK MI industry sector reveals 37% drop in imports of synthsA new independent report on the state of the UK MI sector has shown a substantial drop in imports of numerous instruments.
The report, compiled by industry veteran Alan Greensall, found that imports of almost all categories of MI products recorded huge falls in 2023, painting a troubled picture for UK retailers and distributors.

READ MORE: UVI Select Bundle is now 89% off until 22 January

There was a 37 percent reduction in imports of synths and 48 percent reduction in imports of digital pianos. “We have accurate figures for both item numbers and value and neither picture is good,” Greensall says.
Elsewhere, the numbers of electric guitars imported last year were down 31 percent, while acoustic guitar imports were down 56 percent and drums and percussion decreased by 11 percent.
Explaining his methods of data collection, Greensall says: “The industry desperately needs facts and figures, not vague feelings about what might or might not be happening. Relying on that is like driving a car with your eyes closed and waiting until you hit something. How can retailers and manufacturers plan what to order or stock if they have no idea where the market is heading?”
“If you want to know where an industry is going it’s vital to understand where it’s been and how it got where it is today so as to get some idea what will happen next and plan for this year and next.”
“There are are a lot of questions these statistics raise, for example, are there enough guitars arriving to sustain the historic sales numbers, or is the UK stock holding in distributors and retailers able to bridge the gap? Are the instruments in stock actually selling through?”
The post UK MI industry sector reveals 37% drop in imports of synths appeared first on MusicTech.

Indie Guitarist shares Growth Hacks, How much 10M Spotify streams paidIndependent guitarist Bernth Brodträger plays in several European rock bands, though he’s probably best known for his YouTube channel with 1.06 million subscribers. But Bernth, as he is known professionally,. Continue reading
The post Indie Guitarist shares Growth Hacks, How much 10M Spotify streams paid appeared first on Hypebot.

Phil Dudderidge awarded OBE Phil Dudderidge has been awarded with an OBE in the New Year Honours List in recognition of his contribution to the professional audio industry.

Aux adds Direct, a print-on-demand Bandcamp Direct to Fan alternativeMusic creation app Aux is broadening its offering with Direct. This direct-to-fan service joins a growing list of startups adding direct-to-fan commerce since the coatic acquisition of Bandcamp by Songtrader. Continue reading
The post Aux adds Direct, a print-on-demand Bandcamp Direct to Fan alternative appeared first on Hypebot.

SiriusXM’s most popular channels and how to submit musicLast month, SiriusXM leaned into its live content advantage with a reboot, a new app, and the addition of new channels and shows. So this week’s Hypebot Flashback Friday reaches. Continue reading
The post SiriusXM’s most popular channels and how to submit music appeared first on Hypebot.

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

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Fred again.. to release more of his live recordings on vinyl with unique artwork for first pressingsFred again.. has revealed he plans to release more live recordings from his intimate sets on vinyl records.
These limited drops will feature special artwork to celebrate the first pressings – which he likens to “Pokemon shinies” –  and while further pressings may be made available in the future, these first editions will always remain unique.

READ MORE: Fred Again.. has produced a track on Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s VULTURES album

The plans to release further pressings follow on from the vinyl release of Fred again..’s April 2023 Tiny Desk set. The limited release, which he titled as IRL001, sold out in just seconds.
When announcing the launch, the Grammy-nominated producer wrote on Instagram, “This process has inspired me to look at other things we’ve done the last couple years and I wanna start doing more of these releases.
“If the albums are like diary entries, these are like the bonus diary additions of specific moments.” He later adds, “I’m gonna try to always make the first pressings special, like the Pokemon shinies. They’re gonna have unique artworks and while we may do further pressings, the first ones will always be unique.”
At the time of writing this article, Fred’s Tiny Desk set has racked up 7.6 million views on the official NPR YouTube channel alone. He says that from “an audio/recording/quality perspective”,  it is one of his favourite things he’s ever done.

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Last year, Fred revealed that the bass sound on his track Jungle originated from a dodgy cable. In a video on TikTok, he shared how he recorded the sounds made when the cable was plugged in via a voice memos app on his iPhone, and then chopped it up into the main bassline for the song.
Further information on future vinyl releases is yet to be revealed. Fred Again.. is set to perform a collection of shows this summer, including sets at Reading and Leeds Festival. Find out more via his official website.
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UVI Select Bundle is now 89% off until 22 JanuaryUVI is offering an 89 percent discount on its Select Bundle, a collection of 10 software instruments and an effect, until 22 January.

READ MORE: Best new mixing plugins, effects and VST instruments out this week

The bundle is made up of forward-thinking instruments such as a hybrid orchestra and modern-sounding synths alongside high-quality emulations of vintage gear. There’s also a cool filter effect called Shade.
The Augmented Orchestra is arguably one of the headliners of this bundle, offering an expansive hybrid orchestra with over 400 meticulously crafted instrument layers. You can jump into a rich library of hand-crafted presets or craft your own. UVI describes it as an “expansive sonic playground ready to spark inspiration for breathtaking soundscapes”.

Emulation II+ pays homage to the 1980s by offering three iconic sampler synths and an expansive lo-fi drum machine. Featuring original sounds recorded from vintage hardware alongside loads of newly designed ones, this suite allows users to either play each synth individually or layer them for an immersive sonic experience.
The FM Suite introduces a set of five instruments that offer an extensive range of vintage FM sounds, faithfully capturing the essence of analogue originals like the Yamaha dual 6-operator DX1, the 8-operator FVX-1, the early GS2, the DX7, and more.
Included in the bundle are additional gems such as IRCAM Prepared Piano 2 – a distinctive instrument recorded on a grand piano at the IRCAM Institute in Paris, allowing for experimental exploration of piano sounds through customisable arpeggiators.
Also, Meteor offers a creative toolset delivering rich, layered swells, dramatic crescendos, and impactful sounds. Nagoya Harp transcends genres with over 20,000 samples and unique performance scripts, while Quadra presents a powerful four-part multi-instrument and sequence designer ideal for dynamic, rhythmic, and evolving sequences based on muted and harmonic sounds.
Credit: UVI
Shade is a filtering tool that blurs conventional boundaries between equalisers, filtering, and modulation effects. With 35 filter shapes and 10 modulators.
Synth Anthology 4 comprises 200 hardware synths with professionally designed patches and well-developed performance controls, offering an authentic hardware sound in an easy-to-use interface.
Whoosh is an interesting synth that generates movement, wind, and whoosh-type effects with customizable layers, while finally the 8-Bit Synth, inspired by vintage computers and gaming systems, provides a collection of sound samples for producers seeking nostalgic sonics.
The offer takes the price of the bundle, originally £1619, down to just £179.
Check it out at UVI.
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From Universal’s busy week to BMG’s pivot away from live music… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpFive of the biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days
Source

“We’ve started making some music and I’m really excited about it”: Romy confirms The xx are back in the studioIt’s official –  indie rockers The xx are back in the studio.
It’s been 7 years since 2017’s I See You, but Romy has confirmed the group are together again working on new music. Speaking to NME at the Beyond The Valley festival in Australia, the singer revealed that she was back in the studio with her bandmates.

READ MORE: Producers: these songs are now in the public domain and free to sample

“Yeah it’s fun,” she said. “It’s quite different being in the studio with The xx. I think Oliver [Sim] and Jamie [xx] and I have all tried new things and learned a lot from different projects and I think that’s quite healthy.”
“[It’s like], ‘What have you learned? What should we do now?’,” she continues. “I think it’s quite wide open and it’s exciting to be starting again, in a way. But we’ve started making some music and I’m really excited about it.”
“It’s still pretty early [but] I still think you’ll be able to tell it’s us but I think we’re excited to move it on and keep it feeling fresh.”

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While the group haven’t released an album since 2017, they’ve still been working together on other projects. Jamie xx and Romy recently worked together on Romy’s solo debut, Mid-Air, as well as Jamie producing Oliver Sim’s 2022 debut Hideous Bastard.
Speaking to Apple Music 1, Romy recently discussed what a potential new record may sound like. “No idea,” she admitted. “We have a laugh about it together though. If you get some trance pads from me, and Oliver wailing and then Jamie with really hectic drums. We were laughing. But I think that we have a lot of love for the sound we create with The xx.”
Romy says that time apart was healthy for the group. Creatively, she found she had learned a lot from collaborating with the likes of Fred again.. and others, and reflected in an interview with NME that she was excited “to offer Oliver and Jamie everything I have harvested”.
The post “We’ve started making some music and I’m really excited about it”: Romy confirms The xx are back in the studio appeared first on MusicTech.

Swarm Reverb is more of Minimal Audio at its best$49/from $10 per month as part of Current All Access subscription, minimal.audio
It takes a lot to stand out from the software developer crowd these days, thanks to myriad audio companies entering the plugin fray. Minimal Audio has made a name for itself with a clutch of well-received effects plugins and one synthesizer. Minimal is steadily building up a collection of music production gems, with distortion, delay, compression, and EQ plugins already represented. You can tick reverb off the list now as well, as Minimal Audio has just dropped the Swarm Reverb.

READ MORE: Best free plugins and freeware of the month

With a similar aesthetic to its other software and a welcome focus on sound design, it’s sure to be a hit with the Minimal Audio faithful. The question, however, is whether Swarm Reverb offers enough to get the rest of us to open our wallets.

Swarm breaks out
If Swarm Reverb looks familiar, it should. It first debuted as part of the effects suite in Current, Minimal Audio’s flagship synthesizer. Current is a stellar instrument. It’s a shame that the controversy surrounding the company’s subscription-based release strategy overshadowed its merits though. Now that things have calmed down (and the synth is available to purchase outright or as part of the Current All Access subscription plan), we can appreciate it for what it is: a solid, great-sounding synth.
Part of Current’s appeal is the effects section. Minimal Audio made its name with effects like Rift, after all, so it makes sense that any instrument bearing the same name would excel in this department; and one that especially piqued our interest was the Swarm Reverb.
As an algorithmic reverb, Swarm refreshingly isn’t an attempted emulation of hardware. The unique selling point is the way that it separates early and late reflection sections, offering a degree of control over the reverb’s constituent parts that is comprehensive without being overwhelming. Favour the early reflections and you almost have a delay. Go the other way for cloudy, dense reverbs. Blend them together for the best of both worlds. This all results in a plugin that excels at both standard reverb jobs — whack it on the vocal bus and you’re good to go — as well as sound design.
Minimal Audio Swarm Reverb Ice Cold demo
Looks can be deceiving
At first blush, Swarm Reverb looks fairly basic. The lack of controls, however, belies the degree of control that you actually have over the signal. Kudos to Minimal Audio, then, for creating an effects plugin that is simple to operate but still provides oodles of adjustability.
As mentioned, Swarm Reverb separates things into early and late reflections. Early reflections are the first few reflected sounds that return to your ears after an initial burst of sound, while late reflections are the wash that comes after; the cloud of sound that decays into silence. The two are represented by a graphic in the centre of the user interface.
Purple horizontal lines display the early reflections while the late ones are depicted as transparent light tapering towards the right. Altering the controls moves the bars and light, offering valuable visual feedback.
Minimal Audio Swarm Reverb Dark Glistener demo
Take control
Swarm provides controls for pretty much anything worth tweaking. There’s pre-delay (the short pause between the source sound and the onset of the reverb), with the convenient ability to make adjustments in either milliseconds or beat increments synced to DAW tempo. Rhythmic effects, ahoy. There’s even a feedback setting to create delay-like effects from pre-delay echoes.
There’s plenty of unique and convenient control over other aspects as well, such as attack for early reflections, effectively giving you amplitude envelope control over them. Combine this with Size to set the dimensions of the virtual room you’re creating. Use the width percentage to push the reverb effect into the stereo spectrum, plus modulation controls to set the whole thing in motion.
On the late reflections side, you can adjust decay, damping and the amount of diffusion plus the balance between early and late sections.
There’s more – including a high pass and low pass input filter, as well as a graphic-based diffusion output filter. Handy to have is the ducker, which is useful for vocals and drums. Interestingly, you can uncouple the input gain from the volume of the dry signal, which helps when automating effects. Wrapping things up are a dedicated dry/wet slider plus a soft clipper on the output with two modes.
Minimal Audio Swarm Reverb Cell Storm demo
Killer verbs on the swarm
With controls where you need them, we find Swarm Reverb allows us to craft pretty much any kind of reverberation a track requires. It can do long, yes, with effectively infinite tails possible (just watch your CPU use, as long tails can really tax the processor). It also excels at short verbs, making Swarm our new go-to for rooms. With its time-synced pre-delay and ducker parameters, the plugin is perfect not only for single drum hits but even on the bus. Wild or controlled, sober or psychedelic, Swarm Reverb can do it all.
And, with the immediate visual feedback, sound design is a breeze. Swarm Reverb may be the most intuitive reverb we’ve ever used.
Minimal Audio Swarm Reverb Nebulae demo
Intuitive and great-sounding
Swarm Reverb is not perfect. The presets are fun but many of them tend towards the freaky-deaky sound design type — it could do with a few more general use presets. And while we like the random preset button, which pulls a preset out by chance, a random button for the general settings could be fun too. We also noticed a few small bugs, such as the slight resizing of sliders and knobs while in motion but hopefully this will be fixed in a future update.
These are just quibbles, though. Minimal Audio’s Swarm Reverb is an intuitive, great-sounding and ultimately fun-to-use reverberation plugin. By separating early and late reflections, it provides a unique degree of control, excelling at both general purpose and sound design tasks and it looks great doing it. And we haven’t even mentioned the price. At $49, it’s practically a done deal. Minimal Audio has done it again.
Minimal Audio Swarm Reverb Large Room demo
Key features

VST/VST3/AU/AAX plugin
Algorithmic reverb that splits the signal into early and late reflection sections
Syncable pre-delay
Input and diffusion filters
Ducker
Modulation
Control attack, size and width of early reflections
Vary decay, damping and amount of diffusion of late reflections
Adjust balance between early and late reflections
Dry/wet slider, input and output controls
Soft clip limiter
Also available as part of the Current All Access subscription plan

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A look at Stimming’s hardware-driven production setup in 2024
We’re back with How I Play two-time veteran and German musician Stimming (check out his original episode, as well as his most recent How I Play featuring his Instant Mastering Chain). This time we’re taking a look at his intricate production process for his newest album Elderberry, released this fall on Awesome Soundwave. We sat […]
The post A look at Stimming’s hardware-driven production setup in 2024 appeared first on DJ TechTools.