UVI launches Vintage Casio Legacy – with six software versions of classic Casio synthsUVI has unveiled its new VST suite Vintage Casio Legacy, offering software versions of six classic Casio synthesizers.
As UVI explains, in the landscape of the early ’80s, many synths on the market boasted premium price tags, putting them out of reach of many would-be players. “Casio took a different path,” the brand says, specialising in more affordable digital synths, like the now-iconic CZ range.
Now, with UVI’s new Vintage Casio Legacy pack, producers can access the early digital synths that inspired a wave of burgeoning electronic music makers some four decades ago.

READ MORE: Reason 14 is coming, with a new track panel, sequencer upgrades, and more

The package includes software versions of six classic Casio machines, and, of course, is Casio approved.
As such, in developing the plugins, UVI had access to the original Casio hardware and recorded them in multiple sessions to capture their unique characteristics, like tonal variations, voicing, and signal path colour, on top of the faithful sound.
Here is the lineup of synths included in the package:

CZ, which is based on the flagship CZ-1 that’s known for its phase distortion.
FZ, the popular 16-bit sampler.
VZ, the interactive phase distortion.
HZ, based on the spectrum dynamic synthesis of the HZ-600.
CTK, modelled after the Integrated Cross-Sound Architecture (iXA) from the rare CTK-1000.
RZ drum engine, inspired by the RZ-1, and also featuring additional Casio-sourced material.

On top of the individual machines, all six of them can be combined with Multi mode into one workstation. Plus, UVI has added contemporary features to the old school machines via sound-shaping tools, performance controls, and hundreds of presets.

Vintage Casio Legacy is available now, priced at €199. Head to UVI to learn more.
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Audiotool is hosting a “hackathon series” to teach people how to make virtual instruments, plugins and music education toolsAudiotool, a free multiplayer music studio, is launching a new initiative to get more people making virtual instruments, music-related games, and music education tools, without any need for coding skills.
The initiative, called Let’s Build!, partners with organisations and educational institutions around the world, and will run from 11 May – 6 July this year. This “hackathon series” will bring together students, musicians, music lovers, and developers to make apps and DAW extensions using AI-powered coding and NEXUS, Audiotool’s SDK.

READ MORE: Reason 14 is coming, with a new track panel, sequencer upgrades, and more 

Events will happen online on Audiotool’s Dev Discord, as well as in real life at partnering organisations. The resulting projects will go before a panel of judges, including Manon Dave, Head of Future World Design at BBC Research & Development and award-winning music producer who has worked on projects for will.i.am and Idris Elba.
Along with top music schools, such as Berklee and NYU, Audiotool will collaborate with some of its long-standing supporters, including the Esports World Cup, Esports Nations Cup, and the WHO Youth Council. Let’s Build! is also supported by OpenAI, Base44, and ElevenLabs, among others.
Audiotool says that Let’s Build! is “the first step in what promises to be the complete transformation of music into a flexible world where everyone can play thanks to AI code assistants”. Andreas Jacobi, its co-founder and CEO, says its core ethos is to be “community-first”.
Jacobi says, “We have worked for years to remove barriers to collaboration, creativity, and exploration, and now technology is allowing us to tear down yet another – the technical barrier between a cool idea and an amazing new piece of software. If you can describe it, you can now build it. We can’t wait to see what community members, music-loving developers, artists, really anyone who’s excited about coding, come up with.”
Manon Dave adds, “I’m super excited to be invited to judge the Let’s Build! hackathon. I started out making tunes in my bedroom and hacking away on software similar to Audiotool, trying to find a unique sound for my music, so I know how powerful it is when you’re given the chance to get under the hood and bring your ideas to life.
“What Audiotool is doing here is opening that up even further, bringing creativity and coding together so people can build entirely new ways of making music. I’m excited to see what people create when you have the space to experiment.”
Find out more or sign up for free via Audiotool.
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This bright-pink Rhodes piano is inspired by marshmallows – and it’s a serious piece of eye candyRhodes Music has unveiled a very dreamy and very pink piano known as the MK8 Marshmallow.
The new piano forms part of its Custom Shop series, which offers a limited-run of unique MK8 pianos, each shaped by a distinct visual concept. Hand-built in Leeds, UK, by Rhodes Master Builders, each instrument is made to order, individually numbered, and will not be reissued once the order window closes.

READ MORE: Bang and Olufsen marks its 100th birthday with half a million dollar speakers

Rhodes says its aesthetic is inspired by the “pillowy forms” and, er, “nostalgic tones” of “classic marshmallows” – think soft sounds that channel their sweet and foamy insides, perhaps.
All of this is of course expressed through its soft pastel pink aesthetic, including a pastel pink hood and matching hood strip, as well as a pink tolex base and cheekblocks. Additional details include a matching front panel with rose pink preamp and FX inlays, custom rose pink dial caps, and silver-on-rose-pink logo plates, and it even has a colour-matched sustain pedal and footplate.
Aside from its good looks, the MK8 Marshmallow offers a 73-note Kluge Klaviaturen keyboard (Steinway Group), onboard custom stereo analogue FX, including compressor, phaser, chorus, and delay (true bypass). Its analogue preamp also comes with parametric EQ, drive, envelope, wah, and vari-pan.
Take a closer look at the model in the images below:
Credit: Rhodes
Credit: Rhodes
Credit: Rhodes
Credit: Rhodes
Back in March, Rhodes also expanded its lineup of virtual pianos and keyboard instruments with Pianology, a collection of three “timeless pianos”: a concert grand, acoustic upright and vintage electric grand.
The collection offers producers and composers access to instruments which are “rare and seldom encountered outside renowned studios, concert halls and private collections”. Its three software instruments were sampled by Rhodes’ engineering and sound design teams “with a focus on instant playability”.
The Marshmallow is available exclusively through the Rhodes Custom Shop from 9 April to 23 April 2026, with optional MIDI for an additional £1299. Pricing without MIDI stands at £11,995 (+VAT) / €13,995 (+ local taxes) / USD: $15,995.
Find out more or buy now via Rhodes Music.
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Conceptual Machines releases MAGDA, a FREE AI-assisted DAW
MAGDA is a free and open-source DAW built on JUCE and Tracktion Engine, and Conceptual Machines has just released version 0.4.0. It’s very early days for MAGDA, so updates might come with significant additions, but before we get into what the latest version has to offer, let’s take a broader overview. Although it’s early days, [...]
View post: Conceptual Machines releases MAGDA, a FREE AI-assisted DAW

TuneCore partners with RoyFi to offer royalty advances to indie artistsArtists can secure direct cash advances without giving up equity or transferring ownership of copyrights.
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Reason Studios preview Reason 14 Currently available as a public beta, Reason 14 introduces a new track-centric layout, an enhanced sequencer, a new effects module and more. 

Journalist proves how easy it is to trick Suno Studio’s copyright filter to make rip-offs of Beyoncé, Black Sabbath and moreAs Suno and other AI music companies such as Udio and ElevenLabs begin cutting deals with major labels, concern over the ability to use copyrighted material as a source for AI music is growing.
Terrence O’Brien, Weekend Editor at The Verge, has proven that the AI safeguards in Suno Studio, the AI company’s in-house DAW, are pretty easy to bypass.

READ MORE: Elektron acquired by investment firm Bonnier Capital: “The beginning of a more ambitious journey”

O’Brien notes that by using a free tool like Audacity to simply slow down or speed up the tempo of a copyrighted piece of music, Suno Studio isn’t able to identify it as copyright-protected. Producers can also apparently add a few seconds of white noise to the beginning and end of a song to sidestep Suno Studio’s safeguards.
The above changes were made by O’Brien to popular songs such as Freedom by Beyoncé and Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Perhaps more concerningly, O’Brien was able to directly upload music from indie artists without making any changes.
For songs that needed changes, once the altered audio is within the platform, the modifications can be reversed.
Suno Studio’s copyright safeguards are also supposed to flag lyrics. Similarly to tweaking the full audio, O’Brien notes that slight changes to lyrics can bypass such protections.
O’Brien said of trying to recreate Freedom:
“I was able to trick Suno Studio by tweaking the spelling of a handful of words in Freedom – changing ‘rain on this bitter love’ to ‘reign on’ and ‘tell the sweet I’m new’ to ‘tell the suite’ – and beyond the first verse and chorus, I didn’t even need to do that. The voice closely mimics the original recording, summoning slightly off-brand renditions.”
Copyright infringement is a huge area of concern as AI music generators become more and more sophisticated. While the democratisation of music – “accessibility” is a core principle of Suno as it looks to expand its user base – undoubtedly has some benefits, the ability of bad actors to illegally earn royalties from covers made using Suno – while bypassing shaky safeguards, will no doubt raise concerns among musicians and rights holders.
Indeed, Suno says “accessibility” is the reason for its success, but in February, I argued why accessibility might be the very problem with AI music.
Suno recently added voice cloning in its v5.5 update, months after raising $250m in a funding round leading to a valuation of $2.45 billion.
The post Journalist proves how easy it is to trick Suno Studio’s copyright filter to make rip-offs of Beyoncé, Black Sabbath and more appeared first on MusicTech.

Signing Stories: Matthew StevensDate Signed: January 2025Label: Candid RecordsType of Music: JazzLegal: George HowardPublicity: Ashley Natareno - Big Feat PRA&R: Terri Lyne CarringtonWeb: mattstevensmusic.com

John Burk co-founded Concord Records in 1995, where he’s had major success with artists including Carlos Santana, Ray Charles, and Esperanza Spalding. He eventually created Exceleration Music in partnership with Glen Barros, Charles Caldas, Amy Dietz, and Dave Hansen. In 2020, that organization acquired jazz label Candid Records, the venerable home to many of the genre’s greats, such as Charlie Mingus, Max Roach, and Lee Ritenour.

After taking over Candid, Burk hired drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington to serve in an A&R capacity. GRAMMY-winning guitarist and producer Matthew Stevens knew both Burk and Carrington. He was part of Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah’s band in the early 2000s, which Burk signed to Concord Records as part of a multi-album deal. They did a bunch of recordings together at Fantasy Studios, which Concord then owned. And Carrington is someone who’s been a musical collaborator and mentor to Stevens for years.

“I started doing a bunch of sessions for Concord, like a Harvey Mason record,” recalls the Berklee College of Music professor. “And ultimately a Concord all-stars thing called NEXT Collective. John was involved in all of that, so he was the person I was around at the beginning of my career.”

Carrington first offered the deal with Candid in February of 2024. The contract was signed by the end of that year, and recording began the following May. The Toronto native previously released albums with U.K.-based Whirlwind Recordings. Contrary to what one might assume, Stevens was less cautious this time around. “Because I know John and Terri Lyne so well, I was happy to jump right in,” he proclaims. “It was a wholehearted gut feeling.”

The jazzman further chose Candid in part because he’s a huge fan of the label’s catalog, from Abbey Lincoln and Cecil Taylor to Memphis Slim. “They have a lot of historic significance,” Stevens remarks. “And I’m excited by the fact that they’re also signing new artists and pushing forward.”

Matthew Stevens (out May 8 via Candid Records) – pre-order hereThe post Signing Stories: Matthew Stevens first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

WireGuard VPN developer can’t ship software updates after Microsoft locks accountThe popular open source VPN maker is the second high-profile developer to say Microsoft locked his account without notifying him and are blocking their ability to send software updates to users.

Secretly Distribution acquires music data and analytics firms Entertainment Intelligence and Babel OpsBabel Ops was founded in 2020 by Erik Gilbert and Greg Delaney, who previously co-founded Entertainment Intelligence in 2014.
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Dodging a 60-Year-Old Design Flaw In Your RAMModern computers use dynamic RAM, a technology that allows very compact bits in return for having to refresh for about 400 nanoseconds every 3-4 microseconds. But what if you couldn’t afford even such a tiny holdup? [LaurieWired] goes into excruciating detail about how to avoid this delay.
But first, why do we care? It once again comes down to high-frequency trading; a couple nanoseconds of latency can be the difference between winning or losing a buy order. You likely miss all the caches and need to fetch data from the remote land of main memory. And if you get unlucky, you’ll be waiting on that price for a precious 400+ nanoseconds! [Laurie] explains all the problems faced in trying to avoid this penalty; you try to get a copy of the data on two independent refresh timers. That’s easier said than done; not only does the operating system hide the physical addresses from you, but the memory controllers themselves also scramble the addresses to the underlying RAM!
For the real computer architecture nerds, there’s a lot more to it, and [Laurie] goes over it in meticulous detail in the video after the break.

Thanks to [Keith Olson] for the tip!

Merging Technologies launch Pyramix 16 Designed for engineers who demand uncompromising sound quality and production flexibility, the latest version integrates the PanNoir plug-in with the DAW’s mixer, adds a built-in Dolby Atmos Renderer and introduces an array of other new additions and improvements. 

Reason 14 is coming, with a new track panel, sequencer upgrades, and more Reason Studios has announced the latest edition of its primary DAW, Reason 14. There are many new features included in this version, such as the Track Panel, improvements to the sequencer function, and the RV-9 Reverb Station device.
With the new Track Panel function, signal chain, levels, and sends can be accessed in the mains sequencer window. Now users won’t have to switch views in order to alter the sounds of individual tracks. Simply select a track to work in, and the panel will appear with all its specific info alongside the full session.

READ MORE: Elektron acquired by investment firm Bonnier Capital: “The beginning of a more ambitious journey”

Reason has also made significant upgrades to the sequencer function by refining the piano roll and clips, in addition to adding track folders to help with organisation.
Plus, the entire DAW will default to dark mode now for an easier experience on the eyes, and there are new navigation buttons for the Track Panel, Edit Area, and Groove Mixer, among other elements, for a simpler workflow. Other updates for workflow include automatic tempo detection on import and MIDI note chase.

A significant upgrade to Reason 14 is the RV-9 Reverb Station. This replaces the RV7000. In the new version, there are nine new algorithms to mimic everyday spaces, such as a cathedral, as well as spaces Reason describes as “infinite, experimental soundscapes.”
Lastly, Reason 14 adds over 900 new drum samples, 50 Europa patches, and 20 impulse responses for more experimentation.
“With Reason 14, we set out to rethink the music-making workflow,” says Mattias Häggström Gerdt, Product Manager at Reason Studios.
“By centering the experience around the sequencer and bringing key elements of each track and Rack into view, it’s easier to stay focused on what matters most: making music.”
Reason 14 is currently in Beta. Everyone who purchased or upgraded to Reason 13 and/or Reason Rack 13 after March 1, 2026, can upgrade to the next respective version for free. Reason 14 is expected to be available in May 2026. Reason+ and Reason Rack subscribers will have access to Reason 14 immediately upon launch.
For more information and to sign up for the Reason 14 Beta, head to Reason.
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Hivetune releases Relica 2, a FREE 8-bit synthesizer plugin
Hivetune has released Relica 2, a free subtractive synthesizer designed to recreate the sounds of the 8-bit era. If you’re after NES-style leads, classic handheld console percussion, or chiptune sequences, this one is worth a look. Relica 2 is the sequel to the original Relica synth from the same developer. It offers four classic oscillator [...]
View post: Hivetune releases Relica 2, a FREE 8-bit synthesizer plugin

Superlunar TS-440TS-440 is a cassette tape machine emulation that faithfully models 20 real cassette recorders and 4 tape formulations, capturing the unique preamp characteristics, EQ topology, head response, and transport behavior of each machine. Every cassette recorder features a preamp with its own sonic fingerprint. The TS-440 models each one, from the warm JFET input stage of the original TEAC 144 to the punchy op-amp circuits of the Tascam 424 series. Crank the input to overdrive the preamp and push it into harmonic saturation, or bypass the tape entirely to use TS-440 purely as a channel strip. TS-440 also includes four tape formulations, each offering different styles of compression and saturation. Type I Ferric, Type II Chrome, Type III Ferrichrome, and Type IV Metal. Driving each formulation differently is one of the most powerful creative tools in TS-440. Beyond the preamp, TS-440 gives you hands-on control over the physical degradation of the tape and transport. Simulate years of use and damage by dialing in tape aging, head wear, drift, wow and flutter, dropouts, hiss, and other lo-fi artifacts. Like many of these vintage recorders, TS-440 lets you control the pitch of the playback for detuned, warped effects. Three tape speeds further shape the character, with slower speeds naturally increasing hiss, saturation, and wow and flutter. 33 factory presets provide instant starting points across the full range of TS-440's capabilities, from clean studio masters to fully destroyed tape effects. Use them as-is or as a jumping-off point for your own sounds. Whether you are looking for destroyed lo-fi textures on individual tracks or reaching for subtle analog warmth and natural compression across your mix buss with a pristine hi-fi deck on Metal tape, TS-440 delivers. Twenty unique preamps, four tape formulations, and deep degradation controls give you a range that stretches from tape machine as an instrument to tape machine as a mastering tool. Read More