New Music Critique: RashaannRashaannContact: rashaann10.karma@gmail.com

Web: linktr.ee/rashaann_karma

Seeking: ReviewStyle: Hip-Hop

N.Y.C. emcee Rashaann channels the old school on his latest release Far From Home. The title track clocks in at over 8 minutes, and, right out of the gate, Rashaann raps quickly reflecting on his past and present, encouraging through the lessons he’s learned. Given the length, you can imagine there is movement, though we feel there is not enough variance in his delivery or the smooth jazz instrumental. “Unfinished Business” features an exciting crunch rock guitar on a loop. The song sounds like a cypher by De La Soul or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, with multiple guests and fluid verses. “Times Like This” is emotional and observational, with enticing soul samples spiced up with Rashaann’s jokes and wordplay.

This California agency wants to know what happens to all that connected car dataThe troves of data collected by today’s modern connected cars has long been viewed as a cash cow — a yet untapped opportunity that could boost profits for automakers. Now one California agency wants to know exactly how that data might be used.
The California Privacy Protection Agency announced plans this week to review the data privacy practices of automakers that make and sell connected vehicles embedded with all kinds of data-mining features, from cameras and location sharing to web-based entertainment and smartphone integration.
“Modern vehicles are effectively connected computers on wheels. They’re able to collect a wealth of information via built-in apps, sensors, and cameras, which can monitor people both inside and near the vehicle,” CPPA executive director Ashkan Soltani said in a statement. The aim, Soltani said, is “to understand how these companies are complying with California law when they collect and use consumers’ data.”
The CPPA’s review is a first in the United States, where automakers have enjoyed a more lax data privacy environment compared to Europe. But that could soon change, at least in states that have passed data privacy laws like California, Connecticut, Colorado, Utah and soon Virginia.
So far, California is the first to conduct a review of how automakers use connected car data, an action that aligns with the state’s lead in data privacy laws. The Agency is conducting this review under the California Consumer Privacy Act, a law adopted in 2018 that gives individuals in the state the right to know the personal information collected about them by businesses, the right to delete that information and the right to stop its sale or sharing.
Privacy advocates have raised concerns about the downside of connected cars for years because these vehicles often automatically gather consumers’ locations, personal preferences, and other details about their daily lives. Those concerns have grown as automakers have stepped up their software game in a bid to catch up with Tesla.
Today, a new 2023 model year vehicle likely has an infotainment system with an array of third-party apps as well as cameras, including one facing the driver as part of its advanced driver assistance system. A growing number of vehicles have “Google built-in,” software based on the company’s Android operating system that has been adapted for automotive and integrates all of Google’s app directly into the vehicle.
The agency said California has more than 35 million vehicles registered in the state. That’s not counting the millions more registered in other states that are on California roads. This saturation of connected cars has implications even for individuals who don’t own the vehicle, including ride-hailing customers and even pedestrians.
Internet-connected vehicles produce huge amounts of data when driven, data which is then shared with manufacturers and held for years under privacy policies that allow vast and near-unrestricted use of the data they collect. Manufacturers can share or sell that information with data brokers, which when combined with web browsing and phone data can be used to profile users for targeted advertising.
Collecting huge amounts of vehicle data also makes it obtainable by law enforcement agencies, which can demand vehicle data from in-car entertainment systems, collected by car manufacturers, and used for tracking and surveillance.
Google noted in a statement provided to TechCrunch that it does not have access to any vehicle data unless automakers choose to license Google products.
“In all instances data is used in accordance with our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy,” the company said, providing a link to that policy. “Drivers also have the option to change privacy settings for Google apps and services at any time. This extends to what is shared with third parties.”
GM pointed TechCrunch to its policy as well, noting that it is committed to protecting customers’ personal information.
“GM takes data privacy seriously and is committed to safeguarding personal information,” the company said in an emailed statement. “For every GM vehicle, the vehicle owner must accept GM’s User Terms and Privacy Statement to use these products and services. These documents detail our data practices and are available online for consumers to review.”

California’s Privacy Act: What you need to know now

GameStop will stop support for its crypto wallets, citing ‘regulatory uncertainty’The retail company used to be known primarily for its brick-and-mortar retail stores but has also launched an NFT marketplace and a soon-to-be-canceled line of crypto wallets.

Dua Lipa faces new lawsuit over ‘Levitating’ as producer Bosko Kante sues for alleged copyright infringement on remixesLawyers for Bosko Kante, a music producer, engineer and entrepreneur, filed a complaint on Monday (July 31)
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What does AI mean for music producers?
Music technology journalist Declan McGlynn discusses the potential implications of AI in music, how creators can apply it to their creative processes, and more.

Soundiron Hopkin Instrumentarium: Weighted Strings Hopkin Instrumentarium: Weighted Strings is a set of two amazing custom creations from the mind of master instrument inventor Bart Hopkin: The Weighted Lyre and Weighted Zither. These handcrafted... Read More

Sound Devices expand Astral wireless series Sound Devices' latest wireless system promises to offer a portable and rugged solution for live and recording applications anywhere in the world.

Reactional Music strikes personalized-music-for-games deal with mobile games publisher Amanotes, which reaches 100m monthly usersAmanotes is claimed to be the number one mobile game publisher in South East Asia with over three billion downloads of its games
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LEP’s Raymond Scott-inspired generative analogue groovebox, ArpoLoop, nears completionItalian boutique synth brand Laboratorio Elettronico Popolare (LEP) is nearing the final stages in the development of its stunning generative analogue groovebox, ArpoLoop.

READ MORE: Love Hultén’s custom device translates biodata from a cactus into MIDI

ArpoLoop, as you might already be able to spot, is inspired visually by Moog’s classic Minimoog synthesizer but with a funky blue and yellow colour scheme. Conceptually, it takes inspiration, according to LEP, from Raymond Scott, an electronic instrument inventor.
This final stage of ArpoLoop’s creation sees LEP add an eight-step capacitor sequencer and a one-octave keyboard to the unit.
LEPLoop Arpoloop
What is it exactly? An analogue groovebox is a generative instrument that combines sequencing and melody creation features. The generative aspect involves inputting commands to the sequences algorithmically, resulting in generative music – a system that changes and evolves over time, as famously described by Brian Eno.
The groovebox is wholly analogue, meaning it has no digital components such as a microprocessor inside. This delivers an off-kilter, organic charm in its sound.
It’s split into six sections – a voice board, a ramp generator, a newly added capacitor sequencer, a note generator, a rhythmic generator, and a newly added octave keyboard.
There are four VCOs with different sets of features for each. VCO 1 and 3 create a sine wave with sync and FM. The second is a sine wave with FM and fourth VCO is a sine-square-sawtooth wave with an LFO option.
LEPLoop Arpoloop
The analogue groovebox features include four cascadable VCAs controlled by an envelope generator or ring modulated by VCO 4, three AR envelope generators with three modes (gate, repeat, trig), a clock generator, and three ramp generators for general timing.
ArpoLoop also offers four rhythm generators for notes and drums, a note generator with two S&H CV outputs, a bass drum (CASSA) with pitch, resonance, and distortion, a snare drum with tom pitch and noise decay, and a six-channel audio mixer with individual outs for CASSA, snare, VCA1/2, and VCA 3/4.
According to LEP’s founder, Peppo Lasagna, Arpoloop’s “final shape” will follow the Minimoog with a foldable voice board. This voice board will be available also in euro rack format.
No release date has yet been revealed. Keep your eyes peeled on MusicTech for all the latest updates on this intriguing groovebox and head to leploop.org to learn about the brands other creations.
The post LEP’s Raymond Scott-inspired generative analogue groovebox, ArpoLoop, nears completion appeared first on MusicTech.

Believe and Tunecore study looks at how DIY Musicians view and use AIA new survey by Believe and subsidiary TuneCore of 1558 self-releasing artists from 10+ countries examined the use of and attitudes toward artificial intelligence in the independent music community. Denis. Continue reading
The post Believe and Tunecore study looks at how DIY Musicians view and use AI appeared first on Hypebot.

Reels now get 200 billion views per day on Facebook and InstagramMeta’s TikTok-like Reels now get more than 200 billion views daily across Instagram and Facebook, the company revealed in a report to investors this week. TikTok has not shared its. Continue reading
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A step-by-step guide to music marketingSo many new things are already altered the music industry, from the advancement of AI to the rise of new social apps. So, here are ten music marketing strategies to. Continue reading
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Soundtoys support Vermont flood victims On 2 and 3 August 2023, Soundtoys will donate all of their sales proceeds to non-profit organisations providing relief to flood victims in Vermont, USA.

Bitwig Studio 5 continues to innovate with a new tranche of creative toolsBitwig enjoyed an entirely blank canvas when designing its eponymous DAW, Bitwig Studio. It made strong use of it too, combining some of the best features found in rival workstations with unique and innovative features of its own devising.
READ MORE: Beginner’s Guide: Everything you need to know about music production

The results speak for themselves, driving an ever-growing user base that includes many die-hard users of other DAW. The newly released version 5 is set to make Bitwig Studio even more tempting still.

Extension of the creative process
In his video of 15 tips for Bitwig Studio beginners, Venus Theory illustrates the features of the DAW that drew him in and makes it stand out from its peers. “I use a lot of different DAWs and audio programs” he explains, “but what continuously keeps me coming back to Bitwig is that it feels like an extension of the creative process, and is kind of an instrument in-and-of itself, which is really inspiring.”
Perhaps what makes Bitwig Studio feel like an instrument is its Modulators – synth-style LFOs, envelopes and the like – that can be attached to practically any device, where they provide a creative and musical alternative to using automation lanes to drive parameter movement.
Bitwig Studio 5 main view.
Having these synth-like tools available outside of the confines of a synth or effect really does make Bitwig Studio feel more intimately entwined with the sounds and music you are creating, compared to Logic Pro and Pro Tools. Boundaries between Bitwig and the musical elements it’s hosting can become quite blurred, but in an intuitive way, loaded with creative potential.
Modulators and remotes
New to Bitwig Studio 5 is the ability to create project-wide Modulators. This sees a project device stub added to the Device panel, to which you can assign Modulators. This makes it super-easy to share the same Modulators across multiple devices, and ties into the newly acquired ability to modulate mix- and project-level parameters. This goes so far as allowing the project tempo to be modulated… strange and infectious grooves are waiting to be explored!
Similarly, the Remote Control pages included on most device panels, which map incoming controller messages to device parameters, are now available at the project level too, and this is ideal for managing mix parameters. More to the point, it allows you to easily combine the most important parameters from anywhere within a project into top-level controller pages, eliminating the frantic search for the track you wish to control before you waggle the knobs on your controller.
Modules and MSEGs
Bitwig 5 comes with a bunch of new modules for use in the Grid, a modular environment for creating custom synths and effects, and some of these are also available to use as Modulators and within the modular synth, Polymer. The most attention-grabbing of these new modules is Wavetable LFO which – you guessed it – sources its LFO waveforms from wavetables. Add another Modulator to control the wavetable position and you unleash ever-shifting LFO patterns that never get boring – the creative potential is practically limitless!
Bitwig Studio 5 MSEG Curve Browser.
Alongside this are a new family of “MSEG” (Multi-Segment Envelope Generator) modules. MSEGs allow the user to draw point-to-point curves of any length using a common set of tools, with these curves sharable amongst all MSEG modules.
The MSEG modules themselves are incredibly intuitive to work with, helped in no small part by their resizable, pop-up editing panels. Nodes can snap to a timing grid or be set completely freehand, lines between nodes can be straight or curved, and a set of editing tools simplify the creation of common shapes such as ramps and steps.
The sheer flexibility of this MSEG system makes it an excellent feature. Complex oscillator and LFO waveforms, envelopes, sequences and keyboard tracking responses can all be created with ease using a common toolbox, and it’s great fun to explore how the same curve works in all of these different contexts.
Bitwig Studio 5 MSEG Curve.
Launch time
One of Bitwig Studio’s most compelling features is Clip Launcher, which allows you to trigger and sequence audio and MIDI loops, snippets and scenes in a non-linear fashion. Jamming with these clips and scenes – typically using a Launchpad-style controller – is perfect for creating spontaneous, organic arrangements of your musical ideas. Such an approach to arranging has received a big boost in Bitwig Studio 5.
Clip launch modes have been overhauled, with two new modes that allow a clip to pick up playback immediately relative to either the currently-playing clip or the project timeline. Better still, you can now define alternate launch modes that are triggered by holding down the shift button on an external MIDI controller, or the computer keyboard’s ALT key if triggering with a mouse click.
Bitwig Studio 5 Launcher Gesture and Next Action List.
Bitwig Studio can also now react when you release a launch trigger, and this works whether you are launching clips using external hardware or the mouse pointer. Continue leaves the clip playing (i.e. the usual action), Stop stops the clip, Return returns to the previously playing clip, and Next triggers a further action selectable from a list of 20 possibilities.
All of these new options provide tons of flexibility when performing and jamming, and are easy to manage too. Project-level Clip Launcher settings govern the default behaviour of the Launcher’s slots, however these can then be overridden on a per-slot basis as required.
New content browser
The most visually noticeable change is the re-imagined content browser. This is markedly different to its predecessor, with a smarter appearance, more focused layout, and improved filtering and searching. The new browser might take some getting used to and, although it’s a clear improvement, there is little carry-over from old to new, which may be frustrating, albeit temporarily, for existing users.

Hiding behind all of these big-ticket changes are the expected tranche of smaller and less-visible tweaks. Amongst these are a new audio onset detection algorithm that improves beat detection and slicing, along with a bunch of new utility modules for the Grid, and new controller integration scripts for recently-released Akai and Novation controllers.
There remain some omissions that users have been asking for, most notably offline audio processing tools such as normalising, reversing and so on. A free external wave editor can deal with this, but it is preferable for such things to be integrated into the DAW. Users
Perhaps we will have to wait for the next major update for such tools to appear, but in the meantime, we’ll be very busy getting creative with all of the excellent additions to Bitwig Studio 5.
Learn more at bitwig.com.
Price
€399 / $399
Producer edition: €199 / $199
Essentials edition: €99 / $99
Key features
Modern DAW for macOS, Linux and Windows
Available in full, Producer and Essentials versions
Combines nonlinear Clip Launcher and linear Arranger Timeline
Powerful and flexible device chaining system
All devices feature modulation slots and customisable remote control mappings
Integrated, modular Grid for creating custom instruments and processors
Extensive content library included
Built-in support for many popular hardware controllers
Open-source scripting tools for creating custom hardware controller scripts
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The future of turntables? Pioneer DJ launches hybrid PLX-CRSS12Pioneer DJ has launched a professional digital-analogue hybrid turntable aimed at vinyl DJs, and digital-analogue turntablists alike. It’s called the PLX-CRSS12.

READ MORE: The Big Review: Is Pioneer DJ’s DJM-A9 the new monarch of DJ mixers?

While competitors such as RANE, Phase and Denon have dipped their toes into the world of DVSs (Digital Vinyl Systems) previously, PLX-CRSS12 is Pioneer’s stride into a new phase of hybrid DJing.
Why is this new digital turntable so special? Well, firstly, it’s the first-ever digital turntable to be made by the world’s leading DJ tech brand.
Secondly, the PLX-CRSS12 is the first turntable to allow both analogue and digital playback and thirdly, it has both tone-arm-free DVS control and a Magvel clamp, making it easier to scratch.
Pioneer DJ
By simply flicking a switch between analogue and digital, you can use the turntable in two ways. Analogue mode lets you use real vinyl records. The digital mode, however, lets you lay down your control vinyl (blank vinyl record emulation made for DVS) and play music from your digital collection in Serato or Rekordbox.
When in digital mode, the tonearm can rest in its holder, thanks to the PLX-CRSS12’s tone-arm-free DVS control ability. Without a tonearm, pesky needle skips are eliminated. This, along with a Magvel clamp that securely holds the vinyl and allows for direct control of digital music files during scratching, makes things sturdier for turntablists.
You can adjust the weight setting of the clamp and, via a nifty high-contrast OLED display, adjust the turntable’s torque settings. Here, you can also see the current track’s BPM, tempo range, key, deck number, and software name. Break speed adjustment is found externally on the side of the unit with three position switch.
Built-in MIDI-mappable Performance Pads below the platter offer quick access to favorite features, programmable for Hot Cues, samples, and more.
Talking of pads, Serato and Rekordbox’s stem separation technology is available to use These are selected via pads below the platter. This means you can play specific elements of your track, be it the bass, the melody, the drums or the vocal either in groups or by themselves.
Watch the PLX-CRSS12 in action, showcased by 2013 DMC Online World Champion, turntablist and producer Jon1st, below:

We asked Jon1st about what excited him most about the turntable. He said: “For me, it’s how intuitive the wireless clamp technology is to use, how sturdy it is locked onto the record and how reliable the tracking with it is. Plus, having MIDI pads available means if I’m in a situation where these are available and a DVS mixer isn’t, I’ll be able to use cue points and new features like stems from the turntable.
“My current setup is these paired with the DJM S11 mixer, and the MIDI pads mean I can have the turntables set to stems mode and keep cues active on my mixer, which makes things really streamlined for me.
Pioneer DJ’s PLX-CRSS12 is expected to be available in September 2023 and will cost around $1,399.
Find out more information at pioneerdj.com.
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