Multiply 2: Free plug-in from Acon Digital Multiply 2 boasts a redesigned GUI and a set of 80 new factory presets that showcase its range of chorus and widening effects. 

Flame Sound releases VATRA loudness and tone enhancer plugin ($39 intro price)
Flame Sound has released VATRA, a mix finisher and loudness enhancer plugin for Windows and macOS. The intro price of $39 is available until August 16. As many of you already know, Flame Sound is my cinematic sound label. VATRA comes after almost two years of development, with countless iterations in the meantime. I’ll write [...]
View post: Flame Sound releases VATRA loudness and tone enhancer plugin ($39 intro price)

Steinberg SpectraLayers Pro 13 is an excellent value spectral editor£298
Updates from £75
(Also available in Elements edition: £75, updates from £29)
steinberg.net
Following its 2019 acquisition of SpectraLayers and inaugural V6 release of the software, Steinberg has lavished much of its development efforts on the app’s roster of processing modules. Often this has taken the form of adding new machine-learning (ML) processors, and giving an ML retrofit to those modules that can benefit from it.

READ MORE: I’ve finally found a unique reverb in Arturia Rev Ocean

This makes sense given the rapid advances in ML technology and the impressive functionality it enables, but has arguably come at the cost of improving SpectraLayers’ workflow and actual spectral editing. A quick glance at SpectraLayers 13’s release notes, though, shows that many of its updates are aimed precisely at these core fundamentals. There are a few module additions and improvements, of course, but no honing of the existing ML datasets. I need a closer look to see if this makes for a worthwhile update.
Fade. Image: Press
Flexible feathering… finally!
Spectral editing borrows some ideas from image editing apps. It’s just that the image in question is a spectrogram rather than a photo of your cat. A good example of this is selection feathering, where the edges of a selected area are faded to help the results of any editing blend with the surrounding content.
SpectraLayers has long allowed control over both X-axis (time) and Y-axis (frequency) feathering via sliders that are shown when a marquee (selection) tool is active. Annoyingly, though, these needed to be set prior to making a selection – if you wanted to change an existing selection’s feathering, the only recourse was a pair of fiddly and awkward mouse tools to soften or sharpen the feathering.
Although a small change in and of itself, then, I’m stoked that SpectraLayers 13 can adjust an existing selection’s feathering using just the X and Y sliders, not to mention the ability to quickly enable or disable feathering altogether. The old selection softening and sharpening tools are still here and have their uses, but the sliders are much more precise and much easier to use.
Attenuate (after). Image: Press
Spectral editor streamlining
Another small workflow change that brings an outsized benefit is that selections can now be adjusted by dragging their corners – not perhaps a major difference from only being able to drag selection sides to resize, but it saves a few moments and makes editing feel more fluid.
This streamlining continues with Paste Into Selection, which crops the content of the clipboard so that it fits within a target selection (if the target selection is larger in either dimension than the clipboard audio, the excess area is filled with silence). Similarly, ‘Paste Insert’ is a massive timesaver, placing clipboard contents at the cursor position and moving subsequent audio rightwards to make space. Both of these new paste modes are infinitely more convenient than the awkward multi-step procedures needed to achieve the same results previously.
Finally, selection changes can now be excluded from SpectraLayers’ undo history. This is useful in workflows where you hone selections while experimenting to find the best processor configuration, and so want only to undo and redo changes to those processor settings, so it’s a handy option to have. Unfortunately, the implementation misses the mark, being presented as a program preference that completely disables and deletes all selection history when enabled. It would be far better as an on-the-fly option that simply omits or includes selection changes in undo/redo requests.
Unmix Two Voices. Image: Press
What processor additions and improvements are there in SpectraLayers 13?
A new-for-13 Voice DeClick module senses for and reduces tongue clicks, lip smacks, and other mouth noises that mics have a habit of accentuating. There’s a definite need to balance the strength of reduction against a commensurate loss of high-frequency detail but, with the sweet spot found, the module does an excellent job of eliminating these icky organic noises without leaving a patina of processing in its wake.
Voice DeCrosstalk and Unmix Two Voices share the same underlying ML-based sensing to rebalance or separate, respectively, dialogue containing two voices. Both modules identify a ‘primary’ voice based on whether it’s the first to talk, the loudest, or the one that talks for the longest, regarding everything else as the ‘secondary’ voice. Analysis and processing of both modules is on the slow side, but I’m exceptionally impressed by the accuracy and cleanness of the results.
Unmix Sound Effects separates long-term background noise—crowd noise, wind, traffic, etc.—from ‘spot’ sound effects such as door slams and footsteps. This is a significant processing challenge given both sources will typically consist largely of noise, and this is reflected in the various parameters exposed by the module for tuning its processing. Results are respectable given the challenge but, even so, I don’t find them to be outstanding, although much depends on the source material.
Reconstruct replaces the old Heal function, fixing short gaps and dropouts by analysing the surrounding audio and extrapolating from this to fill the gap. Again, the effectiveness depends on the source material. In some cases, its ability to recreate audio that isn’t there is near-magical. In others it seems to get confused, linking harmonics from the left of the gap with different harmonics on the right, even where the harmonics on either side of the gap match. It’s an interesting effect, but not the one being aimed for!
Ambience Heal (after). Image: Press
I’m dubious about Ambience Heal, whose job is to fill the spectral gaps left in background noise/ambience after a component—a voice or instrument, for example—has been separated from it. It does its job well enough; it’s just so specialised in its use-case that I can’t envisage ever needing it.
More widely useful are the Attenuate, Fade and Level Check modules. The first reduces the intensity of the audio within a selection based on the surrounding audio – perfect for dealing with ‘hot’ notes and resonances. Fade makes it easy to apply standard fades and crossfades directly within SpectraLayers, something that previously required volume automation or fiddly editing. And Level Check provides a detailed readout of your audio’s statistics, including vital true peak, RMS and loudness measurements.
Finally, mention must be given to the DeNoise and Unmix Components modules, both of which have been improved. The former, which was already an excellent performer, has gained additional parameters to smooth and hone the processing – particularly helpful when dealing with ultra-noisy sources that need a lot of reduction strength to be applied. The latter has been tweaked to give better recognition and separation of tonal, transient and noise components of audio.
DeNoise (updated). Image: Press
Do I need SpectraLayers Pro 13?
Alongside all these updates are a handful of quality-of-life improvements. Open project tabs can now be added to batch processing jobs (previously only project files could be added), and this works hand-in-hand with the overhauled Pro Tools AudioSuite Bridge Plugin that can now handle multiple source clips simultaneously. It also allows exchange of Ambisonics and multi-channel audio (up to 9.1.6 configuration), and to support this the app can now work with audio devices with more than 128 channels.
Is all of this worth the update price or, indeed, the full outlay?
Updates are well-priced, although with many of the most popular tools not having been updated from v12 (in particular musical stem separation), some users may decide to sit this one out. Those who make deeper use of the app’s editing tools and processing modules, though, will find plenty of value in the improved workflows and updated roster of processing modules.
As for full licenses, when pitting SpectraLayers Pro 13 against its closest comparable competitor, iZotope RX 12 Advanced, there’s very little to choose between the two, and certainly nothing that I see as justifying RX’s additional £1,001 of asking price. RX Standard is a closer price match, but it has fewer features and so the comparison isn’t particularly illuminating.
Therefore, far from falling behind, by streamlining workflows and making useful, if not revolutionary, improvements to the roster of processing modules, this v13 update cements SpectraLayers’ place as delivering by far the best price-to-performance value of any spectral editor.

Key Features

Spectral editing and processing software
45 processing modules for correction, enhancement and component separation
For macOS Sonoma (and higher); Windows 10 (21H2 and higher)
Operates as standalone editor, as an ARA Plugin, or via Bridge plugin for Pro Tools
Available in Pro edition with all features, or Elements edition with limited features

The post Steinberg SpectraLayers Pro 13 is an excellent value spectral editor appeared first on MusicTech.

Bot-detection startup Spur nabs $200M from InsightSpur Intelligence has raised a $200 million round from Insight Partners for its tech that can identify legit human traffic from bots.

Kristian Downs promoted to Executive Director, Platform Operations at Secretly DistributionDowns continue to oversee SD's Digital Operations team, while taking what the company called "strategic ownership, governance, and long-term operational direction" across its core platform infrastructure.
Source

Morgan Stanley expands crypto lineup with Ether, Solana ETPsThe new exchange-traded products track Ether and Solana, offer staking rewards and follow the firm’s Bitcoin fund launched earlier this year.

Why Is Textile Work Not Taught To Engineers?A talk from the recent Electromagnetic Field event in the UK caught our eye, in which [Amy Jeskins] looked at the overlooked engineering skill of pattern cutting. She takes us through the mechanics of creating a pattern for a piece of clothing, and asks why it is not a skill taught to engineers.
She’s a specialist in theatrical costume, and the talk takes us through some examples of her work before looking at the history of tailoring and pattern making. She explores flat cutting and draping a pattern on a form before coming into the present day with CAD packages designed for clothing work. It’s the social aspect of the talk that’s perhaps the most interesting, looking at how it has become a gendered skill and thus not something considered where it should belong, as engineering. We’re reminded of one of the most important additions for a healthy hackerspace, a textile room, as we’ve seen people there bridge this divide from both directions.
If you have never made a piece of clothing then we’d suggest giving this talk a watch, and maybe taking up a sewing machine to give it a try. In the past we’ve taken you through some of the prerequisites for a textile bench. The full talk is below the break.

ENHYPEN Takes Over Comic-Con 2026 with DARK MOON franchiseENHYPEN made history as the first South Korean group to host a panel discussion, immersive booth, and offsite event at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. At the convention, ENHYPEN promoted their fantasy vampire franchise DARK MOON. DARK MOON is part of ORIGINAL STORY, the multi-platform story IP initiative by global entertainment lifestyle platform company HYBE. The franchise features characters based on the K-pop group. The story follows seven vampire boys at Decelis Academy who find their hidden lives upended by a new female student named Sooha. DARK MOON has grown from a webtoon with over 200 million cumulative views into an animated series available in more than 80 countries and regions, closely intertwining with the group's music and storytelling.
On July 23, ENHYPEN took part in the panel discussion "Bite Me: Calling All Vampires" in Ballroom 20. Hosted by TV Guide Magazine Senior Writer and Comic-Con moderator Damian Holbrook, the panel also featured Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, along with Peter Facinelli and Ashley Greene, best known for portraying Carlisle Cullen and Alice Cullen in the Twilight saga. Together, they discussed how vampire storytelling has evolved across film, television, music, webtoons, and animation. ENHYPEN discussed how the vampire lore is closely intertwined through their songs and music videos. All attendees of the panel received a special keychain and a chance to attend their offsite event. Inside the convention center, fans could visit the official DARK MOON booth. The immersive booth introduced attendees to the DARK MOON lore. The booth sold merchandise and gave away newspaper fliers and tattoo stickers. 
Photo credit: BELIFT LAB (HYBE)
The excitement continued on July 24 with DARK MOON BLOOD NIGHT with ENHYPEN, an exclusive event at the House of Blues in the Gaslamp Quarter. Moderated by DJ and radio host JoJo Wright, the intimate event featured a talk session and live performances by ENHYPEN. The event featured a vampire-themed dress code. During the show, the best on-theme attendees were invited on stage for a “Vampire Queen Contest.” The winner was decided by different activities including pose-offs, DARK MOON trivia, and crowd cheers. 
The fans' screams were deafening as Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon, and Ni-Ki took the stage after the contest. The group started the night with the aptly on-theme track “Bite Me.” After the performance, the group introduced themselves one by one and chatted with Wright about their Comic-Con experience. Afterwards, the group performed the energetic tracks “Karma” and “Brought the Heat Back.” Wright came back on stage for another talking segment. During this chat, the group teased their upcoming 8th Mini Album, THE SIN : BLISS, which will be released on August 21. The group went on to chat about fan interactions. “We don’t get many chances to get this up close to fans, so this is very nice,” said Sunghoon in Korean. They followed up with performances of “Moon Struck” and “Criminal Love.” The songs showcased the group's powerhouse vocal techniques and melodic high notes. During their closing segment, the group chatted one last time with Wright and interacted with fans. “Performing and seeing ENGENES in person is very precious because we debuted during COVID. This was impossible back then, but it’s very precious to us this time. So thank you to everyone who came tonight,” said Jake. The group ended the night with a performance of their upbeat hype track “Drunk-Dazed.” Unfortunately, the song cut off midway and left ENHYPEN stumped for a few seconds. The group handled the moment as total pros, hyping up the crowd and restarting the song. This moment got everyone's adrenaline pumping, as fans sang and danced along to an unforgettable evening.
 

Photo credit: BELIFT LAB (HYBE)The post ENHYPEN Takes Over Comic-Con 2026 with DARK MOON franchise first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Umami Audio Grandma's SpiceWhat is a detail‑preserving clipper? In conventional hard clipping, pushing a signal beyond its limit flattens the peaks into something resembling a square wave. Along with those peaks, the finer details riding on them — high‑frequency harmonics and transient textures — are lost. Grandma's Spice is a next‑generation detail‑preserving clipper plugin. Inspired by ideas from au5_official and tomfinster, we've taken the concept further. Instead of simply chopping peaks, Grandma's Spice employs an "infinite foldback" technique that allows the signal to be reflected back an infinite number of times until the signal is fully within the permitted range, and letting you drive the signal into ultra‑hot territory without sacrificing nuance. On top of that, we've added multiple foldback modes, arbitrary delta gain, oversampling, and a versatile saturation stage controlled via XY pad — giving you precision, flexibility, and that unmistakable "spice" in your mix. Read More

LOOM is a FREE HTML-based instrument for extreme time stretching
Remo De Vico has released LOOM, a free browser instrument for extreme time stretching, textures, pads, and drones. Time stretching is a lot of fun. I use it for cinematic sound design all the time, mainly for turning everyday sounds into otherworldly textures and ambient drones. LOOM makes that process even more fun by adding [...]
View post: LOOM is a FREE HTML-based instrument for extreme time stretching

Vangelis’s very first Yamaha CS-80 is up for sale on Reverb – for an eye-watering figure
If you’ve ever hoped to craft your own Chariots of Fire, now’s your chance. Someone on Reverb is selling a vintage Yamaha CS-80 that apparently belonged to the track’s iconic composer, Vangelis – and if you’re lucky, some of his mastery might brush off on you.
While the seller does hail from Athens, there is no concrete evidence linking this Yamaha synth to Vangelis. Though, the listing claims that the vintage synth was the very same one used throughout the Greek composer’s 1977 debut, Spiral. It was also apparently Vangelis’ first Yamaha CS-80, and, in the seller’s words, it is priced “accordingly” at £401,465.62.

READ MORE: How not to make an organ album, according to Michael Cloud Duguay

Other details include the lack of blemishes on the synth – bar “a little cigarette burn on the top A key”, which does fit the bill, considering Vangelis did partake in a smoke here and there.
The seller promises that the CS-80 is fully functional, “with its original stand and lid”. It also apparently has no serial number, due to it being an “early prototype”.
Image: Getty
A vintage CS-80 is already a guaranteed pay day – last year, Gear News branded the synth one of the most expensive of all time, and we concur. You can easily bag tens of thousands on a standard CS-80… but, if it was also owned by the mind behind the epic 1994 Blade Runner soundtrack, it’s sure to hike up the price a bit.
If the claims are true, this would be a very significant piece of musical history to own. A CS-80 owned by Vengelis would certainly have been treated with care; the composer famously spoke of his adoration for the Yamaha CS-80, with the synthesier becoming a mainstay in his life.

In a 1984 interview with Electronics & Music Makers journalist Dan Goldstein, Vangelis said: “[The Yamaha CS-80] is the most important synthesiser in my career – and, for me, the best analogue synthesiser design there has ever been… It needs a lot of practice if you want to be able to play it properly.”
He even went on to dismiss Yamaha’s attempts to improve on the CS-80, calling the DX7 a “commercial little toy” of a synthesiser that was “a step back from the CS-80”.
If the synth sells, and it is proven to have belonged to Vangelis, it would make it the most expensive synth sale in history. Last year, Kraftwerk had a clear out and bagged $256,000 at auction for their Kling Klang Sennheiser VSM-201 Vocoder.
To inspect the Yamaha CS-80 listing, head to Reverb.
The post Vangelis’s very first Yamaha CS-80 is up for sale on Reverb – for an eye-watering figure appeared first on MusicTech.

Acon Digital releases Multiply 2, latest update to its FREE chorus plugin
Acon Digital has released Multiply 2, a major update to its free chorus effect plugin for macOS and Windows. Acon Digital shipped the update earlier today, and I checked it out right away. Multiply has long been one of my favorite free chorus plugins, and this new version is even better than before. If you [...]
View post: Acon Digital releases Multiply 2, latest update to its FREE chorus plugin

How EREZ turns Ableton Live into an improv dance partnerMusic producer and DJ EREZ is at a friend’s house by Lake Tahoe, taking a well-deserved break, when I catch up with her. After an exciting surge in her career, playing Coachella and opening for Gorillaz, she set her sights on a new mission: Future Forms.

READ MORE: How a sound-free concert is streaming music to d/Deaf people’s brains

In essence, EREZ’s new collaborative project is a multidisciplinary performance installation that originated from private sessions between her and dancer Madi Tanguay. “I met Madi through a friend of a friend. I was doing this music video, and I was looking for a dancer of her style. Guttural, very raw, and European-leaning,” says EREZ. That music video never came out, but their connection evolved into a romantic relationship. Developing their mutual creative language would soon follow: “We didn’t set off to make Future Forms. It was more like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’”
Initially, EREZ and Tanguay met once a month for a few hours. EREZ’s laptop came packed with stems from her older tracks, many of which were unfinished. “I didn’t want to sit there and figure out the chords. That felt heavy to me. After touring, I had a massive Ableton session that I’d built for months with all my music. I thought, ‘What if I fire different clips from different songs at the same time?’” That’s how Ableton Live’s Session View became integral to their process. Responding to Tanguay’s movements with music, EREZ would then record her improvisations into Arrangement View, with each compositional element laid out in separate channels.

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“I would have two hours of material, then go in and listen to everything. You know how you can add little play points? I would write, ‘great,’ ‘sucks,’ ‘amazing,’ or ‘use this,’” she recalls, while explaining how extracting her favourite moments led her to compose a 22-minute score.
“I feel like every DAW informs creativity. For Future Forms, Ableton Live makes so much sense. The warping algorithms and being able to chop samples up so quickly— I could take a guitar stem and chop it into twenty little bits. Some could be a four-bar loop, some could be one sample of the flesh touching the string,” she says, pointing out how this technique alone enables her to obtain countless textures from one source.
By deconstructing and reconstructing her creations, guided by Tanguay’s choreography, EREZ found herself in a sonic territory that falls somewhere between IDM, techno, and cinematic music. At its core,  she says, “it’s underground, unapologetic, feminine, sassy, and punk.” But it’s rave culture that feeds Future Forms above all: “We go out dancing all the time. The community and the feeling you get on the dance floor is a massive source of inspiration for us.”
And that’s why the live experience that they’ve designed reflects their own. The first part of the show, titled Base, involves multiple dancers who know EREZ’s score well. Then, the rehearsed choreography disintegrates and spontaneity gradually takes over in the following chapters, Modular and Output. EREZ’s improvisational input on stage mostly occurs in the second chapter.
Image: Press
“Modular is elastic. I have a Push with me that I use to trigger different clips and an APC40 that I’ve mapped out to different effects like filters, reverbs, and delays. So, that allows the ability to react in real time to Madi and also the audience,” she says. I ask her to give an example. “In the last show, I stopped a few clips that usually would be playing there. I only left one kick and snare to create this dramatic effect of explosion after.”
EREZ takes a skeletal approach to the interactive portion of the show. The only other instrument she plays, in addition to the MIDI controllers, is her guitar. But her dream is to expand her setup with live vocals, synthesizers, and drum machines.
In her workflow, she often benefits from her go-to plugins, such as Valhalla VintageVerb, Soundtoys Decapitator and PhaseMistress, or Ableton’s own bitcrusher Redux. Still, she values the warmth and weight of analogue processing. Each piece of audio in her session is treated with saturation and EQ to be mix-ready. On stage, she live-processes her sounds with master effects through Macros in Ableton Live, tweaking multiple parameters with the turn of one knob at a time.
She likens this method of controlling effects to performing with CDJs, but her Future Forms sets are much more complex in comparison. Ableton Live’s Session View comes with visual limitations, which is why EREZ has everything mapped and colour-coded in a way that makes sense to her. “Every song has a colour in terms of scenes. If the colour changes mid-song, I know what that means. I just find ways to hack my brain to immediately understand where I’m at.”
Image: Press
To have maximum control over her live mix, EREZ typically gives in-house engineers a stereo mix out of her UAD Apollo Twin interface. She even dials her electric guitar tone inside the UA console on her laptop.
“Some in-house sound engineers are pretty jaded or tired. They don’t care. But I put so much time into making the music sound incredible. I want it to translate into the space. So I walk around the room and start mixing.” To engineers who protest, EREZ’s response is polite but straightforward: “It’s all good. It’s less work for you. Just make sure that I don’t clip.”
Of course, there are exceptions. She remembers the time she played Refuge in New York fondly, where she barely had to tweak anything at all, as the sound system was already phenomenal. And at National Sawdust, she had an incredible live sound engineer, Arno Miller, guiding her through the process of spatial mixing.

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Although EREZ is very hands-on, she cares deeply about collaboration. In each Future Forms event, there are guest DJs setting the tone for the final chapter, Output. “Last time we had x3butterfly, who is one of our best friends and one of my favourite DJs. And Physical Therapy was also playing,” says EREZ, and hints at involving other artists in the future: “I have so many incredible electronic musician friends that never dabbled in making anything for dance. Not only would they absolutely crush it, but they’d also be inspired by it. Part of the mission is bringing these two worlds together.”
When asked how making music with a dancer feels, she elaborates: “You have a 3D figure in the room that’s embodying your sound. It’s crazy what one note can carry with a dancer in the room. You can tell a three-minute story by just playing around with the delay on that one note because the dancer is reacting to it.” If there’s one thing she’s sure of, it’s that she wouldn’t have arrived at the same result if she were working alone.
Future Forms has become EREZ’s experimental playground, free of song structures and predictable sound design. It’s not meant for digital platforms or the radio, but that doesn’t mean some recorded components of the project won’t be available in the future. With a single titled Beauty already out, EREZ feels the urge to share more tracks from, or inspired by, the score. And that may not be all: “I want to release a vinyl and an art book and make things that are physical. I’m playing it by ear right now.”
The post How EREZ turns Ableton Live into an improv dance partner appeared first on MusicTech.

The MusicTech Magazine July/August 2026 issue is coming: here’s how to get your copyThe MusicTech Magazine July/August 2026 issue goes on sale this week, bundled with NME Magazine. Here’s how you can get a copy.
Last April, we announced the relaunch of the MusicTech print edition after a four-year hiatus, and we’ve since had Blake Slatkin, Sudan Archives and KÁRYYN grace the print cover. Now, we’re gearing up to launch the July/August 2026 issue, which will as always come bundled with a copy of NME Magazine.
Mark your calendars for Thursday July 30 at 2pm BST – that’s when the cover stars of both magazines will be revealed and the mags go on sale exclusively via retailer Dawsons. The waiting room is open, so check it out now.
Besides MusicTech, Guitar.com has also returned to print. Guitar.com, MusicTech and NME are sister publications under NME Networks. The new Guitar.com and MusicTech print editions alternate with every bi-monthly edition of NME Magazine – which itself was relaunched in 2023 – meaning three print editions per calendar year for each brand.
Subscribe here for more information about MusicTech Magazine and to receive an exclusive queue jump opportunity, where readers can get their hands on a copy before anyone else. MusicTech will send out queue jump tickets shortly before the magazine goes on sale to subscribers.
The post The MusicTech Magazine July/August 2026 issue is coming: here’s how to get your copy appeared first on MusicTech.

NULLIFY is a new Spotify streaming quality checker plugin, FREE until August 31
Boomer Hotel has released NULLIFY, a codec audition and null-test plugin that is free with a coupon code until August 31st, 2026. NULLIFY normally costs $19, but you can get it for free at checkout with the coupon code BHPLUGINS2026. The checkout runs through Lemon Squeezy, and your email address is required at checkout, but [...]
View post: NULLIFY is a new Spotify streaming quality checker plugin, FREE until August 31