WaveMind AmpSuite - Rev FThe Amplifier This amp sim closely recreates this 90's classic amplifier. Every mode available: Channel Select: Green, Orange and Red channels available; from clean to high gain modern tones. Channel Cloning: Make either channel have a modern or vintage sound. Tube Select: Choose between 6L6 and EL34 output tubes. Power Select: Choose wether or not to run in low power mode, to emulate the use of a variac. Rectifier Select: Choose between old school saggy tube rectifiers, or diode rectifiers for a tight and modern sound. Pedals X-Drive: A classic drive with a bit more bite than you're used to. The sharper midrange makes it a perfect match for the Rev F. Forte Boost: 22 dB of pure boost. Perfect for when you need to tune just that little bit lower. Cabinet Simulation An amplifier is nothing without a good cabinet, that's why we included not one but two fully modelled cabinets based on an oversized 4x12 and a 2x12. Each cabinet is captured with a total of 7 studio-grade microphones, giving you almost endless possibilities for shaping your tone. Our speaker simulator not only lets you precisely place your virtual microphone in front of the cabinet, but also makes the amplifier respond differently to different loads. Each cabinet truly gives its own sound, even when using your own IRs. 7-band EQ With the 7-band equalizer you can shape your tone exactly as you see fit. Chorus, Delay and Reverb A selection of time based fx pedals is included to create inspiring lead tones. Utilities Gate: Tighten your sound with the built in gate. Drop: Transpose your guitar down by up to 12 semitones for those ultra low notes. Tight: Control the low end with this proprietary low frequency compressor. It only clamps down on the palm mutes, without sucking too much tone out of the guitar. Smooth: Get rid of that icy pick sound by turning up the smooth knob. Tuner Quickly tune up your instrument. The built in tuner allows you to always stay in tune and with the built in mute button, you won't have to annoy anyone in the process. YouTube.com/watch?v=qLGzEyvsZes Read More

Contacts for Music Festivals That Book Emerging ArtistsHoping to land a spot on a festival lineup in 2026? Here are contacts for music festivals that are now accepting artist applications.
The post Contacts for Music Festivals That Book Emerging Artists appeared first on Hypebot.

How Artists Can Shape Their Brand in 2025In this era of music marketing, it's crucial for artists to take an active role in shaping their brand look and narrative. Here's a handy guide to artist branding to help you get started!
The post How Artists Can Shape Their Brand in 2025 appeared first on Hypebot.

Save big on soft synths and plugins at Plugin Boutique during Synth Month – including a £1,885 Waves bundle for just £89While September marks the official beginning of Autumn, it’s also the official month of Synths over at Plugin Boutique.
To celebrate Synth Month this September, Plugin Boutique have plenty of exclusive deals on quality synth bundles. One of the biggest savings comes in the form of Waves’ Platinum Bundle, now over 95% off its usual £1,885 pricetag – that means you can get 67 comprehensive mixing and mastering plugins for just £89.

READ MORE: The best free and paid-for plugins you need to know about this week

Native Instruments is also hosting a super exclusive £17 Synth Month deal, with everything from the company’s mono bass synth Monark to FM synthesis plugin FM8 all available for under £20.
[deals ids=”7ehcy3aqrxyFNO77s2L3Rq”]
iZotope’s Everything Bundle is also over 90% off, dropping from £2,899.00 down to just £265. The bundle quite literally includes EVERYTHING iZotope has ever released, including the company’s latest Ozone 12 Advanced, Aurora reverb, Plasma saturation, Velvet 3-in-1 sibilance vocal tool, and way more.
Or, if you’re not wanting to overload your system, you can opt for Ozone 12 Advanced on its own for £192 – nearly a hundred quid off the usual £289 asking price.
Universal Audio has also got a couple of great bundles up for grabs, with the Essentials Edition Bundle currently just £44, packed with 12 ‘must-have’ UAD tools. You can also opt for the Classics Bundle, which is available for £54. The Classics Bundle will get you five great UAD tools at the fraction of the price, saving you £545.
Softube is also offering its Monoment Bass & Statement Lead plugins as a bundle for a whopping 74% off. That’s two high-quality bass and lead synths for just £43. Baby Audio also has its Tekno drum synth up for a respectable £59, rather than its usual £99.
Some Solid State Logic gems are also in the mix, with the SubGen sub-bass harmonic synth available for £26. Korg has also got a plethora of synths going at a great price, with a 54% discount on the M1 meaning you can get it for £45, or you can get Triton and Triton Extreme for just £134.
Head to Plugin Boutique for more Synth Month deals.
The post Save big on soft synths and plugins at Plugin Boutique during Synth Month – including a £1,885 Waves bundle for just £89 appeared first on MusicTech.

MOTU introduce the 848 Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 audio interface Thanks to Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 connectivity, the 848 is capable of delivering up to 256 channels (128 inputs and 128 outputs) to a macOS, Windows or iOS system. 

MOTU introduce the 848 Thanks to Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 connectivity, the 848 is capable of delivering up to 256 channels (128 inputs and 128 outputs) to a macOS, Windows or iOS system. 

What is Tonal Harmony?Tonal harmony is the foundation of most Western music, from Bach to jazz standards. At its core, it is a contract between composer and listener: if you follow its rules, the listener will always feel a sense of home—a tonal center called the tonic.

This sense of direction comes from how chords function and move within three main regions of tonality:

The Three Regions of Tonality

Every chord in tonal harmony has a function—a role it plays in the story of tension and release. These functions are grouped into three regions:

Tonic (Home Base)

The point of rest, least tension.

Where the music feels settled.

Example: C major in the key of C.

Subdominant (The Journey)

Transitional, moderate tension.

Feels like moving “away from home.”

Often described as “the mountain” in hymns, descending back to tonic.

Dominant (The Tension)

The highest level of tension.

Creates expectation to return to tonic.

Think of it as “the storm at sea” before returning to safe harbor.

The Circle of Fifths & The Harmony Map

The circle of fifths organizes all 12 tones and shows how chords relate to each other. By building triads on each scale degree in C major and C minor, we can classify every chord into one of the three regions.

The V7 chord (G7 in C) always sits at “1 o’clock” on the map.

The IV chord (F in C) is always at “11 o’clock.”

The I chord (C) is always at “12 o’clock.”

This fixed placement means that no matter what key you’re in, functions always live in the same place.

Harmonic Progressions & Cadences

Music is a journey through this map. Each path between regions creates a recognizable cadence:

V7 → I = Perfect Authentic Cadence (dominant to tonic).

IV → I = Plagal Cadence (subdominant to tonic, “Amen” ending).

ii → V7 = Subdominant to Dominant motion (the backbone of jazz progressions).

These are the main roads of tonal harmony. Exploring alternative “roads” is what reharmonization is all about.

A Real Example: “Sweet Home Alabama”

At first glance, the famous progression in Sweet Home Alabama seems to move from dominant → subdominant, which doesn’t establish the key strongly. This illustrates how important functional paths are in determining the real tonal center of a piece.

Key Takeaways

Tonal harmony organizes chords into three regions: tonic, subdominant, dominant.

Each chord function has a fixed place on the circle of fifths map.

Cadences are the most effective paths, guiding the listener’s sense of key.

Understanding these paths is the first step toward reharmonization.

Practice It Yourself

Try mapping out all diatonic functions in every key. Start with C major and C minor, then expand. Use worksheets like the one in The Art of Reharmonization or explore interactively in Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro.

FAQ: Tonal Harmony

What is the difference between tonal and atonal harmony?

Tonal harmony is built around a tonic (home note or chord), while atonal harmony avoids a central key, giving equal weight to all pitches.

Why is tonal harmony important for musicians?

Tonal harmony provides structure, creates tension and release, and helps listeners follow the “story” of a piece. Without it, music can feel unstable or directionless.

How do I know if a chord belongs to tonic, subdominant, or dominant?

Classify by function: tonic chords provide rest, subdominant chords create transition, and dominant chords build tension. The circle of fifths (and tools like Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro) make this classification clearer.

Is tonal harmony only for classical music?

No. Jazz, pop, gospel, and rock all rely on tonal harmony. The cadences and functions are universal, though each genre applies them differently.

How do I practice tonal harmony?

Practice ii–V–I and IV–I cadences, analyze songs to identify functional regions, and use worksheets or apps to map chord functions in all keys.

Want to dive deeper? Check out the full Art of Reharmonization book or explore tonal harmony interactively with Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro.

Altitude Audio releases Crossfeed, a free stereo imaging plugin for Windows and macOS
Altitude Audio has released Crossfeed, a free stereo imaging and monitoring plugin for Windows and macOS. If you use headphones for mixing and feel like you’re missing out, this one might help. To be 100% honest, I don’t think headphones will ever sound exactly like speakers, but tools like this one can at least emulate [...]
View post: Altitude Audio releases Crossfeed, a free stereo imaging plugin for Windows and macOS

Sound Advice fromAlphaTheta’s managing director Hiroaki Nishikawa: “Trust is incredibly important; micromanaging often causes friction”Hiroaki Nishikawa, or Hiro, is the managing director of AlphaTheta EMEA and a veteran at the company. A passion for DJing took him first to Pioneer Australia and then Japan, where he worked across product strategy, development, finance, sales and marketing. Now based in London, he continues to oversee the company’s expanding range of DJ-centric products with an eye on making gear that’s accessible to both newcomers and pros – but gear that helps people forge an emotional connection through music.
Here are five pieces of Sound Advice that Nishikawa has learned throughout his career.
1. Music is about meaning, not just hardware
“At AlphaTheta we believe music has a power to bring people together no matter where they’re from or how old they are. We started with strong engineering and product design, of course, but now we focus more on creating meaningful experiences, not just tools. We have evolved from being a product-centric to a purpose-driven company, which means we care not only about what we make, but why we make it.
“And so our goal is to help DJs and music creators express themselves, to connect with others and build communities through music. One example is our partnership with Bridges for Music, a non-profit in Cape Town, South Africa. Together we help to give people in under-resourced communities access to education, creative tools and skills for music careers.”
2. Legacy brands live long in people’s minds
“Last year, we introduced AlphaTheta as a business brand, which led to some mixed interpretations. But Pioneer DJ is still very much alive and well with a strong legacy. The launch of AlphaTheta gave us a chance to express a bigger mission, one that’s focused on the human experience of the music. It’s named after two brain wave states, Alpha and Theta, which we believe DJs often reach while performing.
“AlphaTheta is about the connection between technology, creativity and human emotion. Of course, our CDJ systems are well known, but our goal is to keep moving forward by imagining what comes next while respecting what has gone before.”
3. In a better world, everyone has access to music-making tools
“We are really passionate about making it easier for people to get started with music. That means designing easy-to-use products, offering accessible learning resources and creating a welcoming, inclusive environment for everyone. That’s why we created the Start From Scratch Workshop Program. This campaign is all about breaking down barriers and making DJing open to everyone. The workshops are hands-on and beginner-friendly, helping people learn the basics like beat matching and mixing, all in a fun and supportive space.”
4. Good leaders trust their teams
“I’ve had the opportunity over the last 15 years to lead teams in fast-paced and high-stakes environments, and I’ve found trust to be incredibly important. I think micromanaging often causes friction. On the other hand, empowering others boosts morale and unlocks better productivity. Early on, I felt like I had to have every answer, but over time, I learned that good leaders listen and ask questions. I think it’s a continuous journey, and I’m still on it.”
5. DJs help make products better
“We have an artist relations team and a product planning team and, basically, we are constantly talking to DJs about their wants and needs with regard to products. We might show some DJs a product at an early stage, get feedback, make another version and so on over many months. We might talk to a hundred or more DJs over the course of developing a product. One example is we found that people were using Apple Music in their daily life, so we incorporated support for that directly into our hardware and software.”
This interview with Hiroaki Nishikawa appeared in the MusicTech Magazine July/August 2025 issue.
The post Sound Advice fromAlphaTheta’s managing director Hiroaki Nishikawa: “Trust is incredibly important; micromanaging often causes friction” appeared first on MusicTech.

“Listening is not just about hearing, it’s about understanding”: Guedra GuedraAlthough house music, techno, rock ‘n roll, jazz, and hip-hop are all products of Black culture, the story of Africa remains largely untold in modern popular music.

READ MORE: Meet the engineer building Beatnik Audio, the open-source alternative to Sonos

There have been some recent advances. The internet has helped dance subgenres like Afro House and Amapiano reach Western audiences. Furthermore, major artists such as Drake are incorporating these styles into their music, while Nigerian-born acts such as WizKid and Burna Boy are gaining serious traction. Looking to the past, certain African figures like Afrobeat inventor Fela Kuti and early electronic pioneer Francis Bebey are crucial to the history of music.
But given the sheer size and cultural diversity of the continent — which includes 1.6 billion people living in 54 countries and speaking over 2,000 languages — such awareness does not come close to demonstrating the full breadth of African musical creativity.
Guedra Guedra, the Moroccan experimental producer, notes that even music technology brands can inherently reject African culture by limiting African styles like polyrhythms and unconventional time signatures from their libraries of loops and samples. He’s had to manually program these types of patterns into Ableton and reassign step sequences to match traditional cycle lengths on his drum machines.
Image: Press
“Technology companies could integrate these presets easily, but until they do, the responsibility is on producers to hack and re-map their tools,” says Guedra Guedra, real name Abdellah M. Hassak.
Hassak is doing much more to honour his heritage than shifting things around in his DAW, though. On his new album, MUTANT, he sought to present Africa’s modernity and history through sound. He travelled to different African countries, including Egypt, Senegal, Mauritania, and Tunisia, gathering all manner of field recordings and integrating them into his brand of leftfield dance music.
“The African continent is vast, with a surface area roughly three times larger than that of Europe. Travelling across Africa has always been a dream for this project,” Hassak says. “Travelling to different African countries was not just about collecting sounds. It was about engaging with living archives. Each place carries its own sonic DNA, shaped by history, environment, and social rituals. Whether travelling physically, culturally, or intellectually, I wanted MUTANT to connect the rhythms of today to the ancestral pulse of the continent.”
Throughout his travels, he gathered any kind of audio that caught his interest. Musical performances, conversations, interviews, and atmospheric sounds. He would use mobile recording devices — a Zoom H4 and his iPhone — to capture them readily. He also gathered recordings from friends and fellow artists who live in different parts of Africa. Moving between countries can often be a complex process in Africa, as many require separate visas, and travel is generally expensive.
Image: Press
“Throughout my career, I have met many artists from across Africa, and we have built strong mutual support. Thanks to my network, I was able to access a wide range of sounds through their efforts, even without physically travelling to every place,” Hassak says, mentioning that people from around Africa sent him everything from their own field audio to vinyl samples to recordings of oral traditions.
Regardless of the recording sources, Hassak’s guiding principle comes from a Moroccan proverb told to him by his grandmother: “Jdid loo jadda o lbali latefarat fih,” which translates to “New things are good, but never abandon the old ones.”
“That wisdom has stayed with me in everything I do. Each voice, each environment, each accidental sound is part of a larger story about who we are and how we’ve come to be,” Hassak says. “Listening is not just about hearing, it’s about understanding, discovering, and allowing yourself to be reconstructed by what you encounter. The stories embedded in these recordings are not only about the people who told them, but also about the spaces, silences, and histories that shaped their words.”
Gathering these recordings as such made maintaining a consistent sound quality impossible, but that speaks to the idea of a story being told. If one piece of audio is low quality, that reflects how and why it exists. So, when Hassak was integrating them into the final masters, he would find ways to manipulate them into the music he made with his array of machines, creating a bespoke mesh of the organic and synthetic.
Technical perfection is secondary to the value of the sound itself for me
The centrepiece of Tribes With Flags is a spoken-word piece from French-Egyptian director, Jihan El-Tahri, surrounded by different sonic elements such as vinyl surface noise, tuned percussion, chopped up vocal samples, and electronic undertones. On The Arc of Three Colours, Hassek configures a traditional African call into reverberant, high-frequency coating.
“Technical perfection is secondary to the value of the sound itself for me. When making MUTANT, I refused to use AI tools to clean or isolate elements. The challenge was to work with the recordings as they were, fragmenting them and blending them with analogue machines and Ableton Live,” Hassak says. “This ‘mobile quality’ gave the sounds a unique texture that became a strength rather than a limitation, adding authenticity and depth to the final mix.”
To have maximum control over each sound, one tool he used was the Arturia DrumBrute, which allowed him to very intentionally manipulate each sound and place them within different sequences. “This separation was essential because it let me treat field recordings almost like individual instruments, shaping them alongside analogue percussion with precision,” Hassak says.
Many of the field recordings that ended up in the album weren’t the original form that Hassak gathered on the ground. He would find individual moments within them, such as a hand striking wood or the reverb of a voice, creating an overall sonic picture that was more fluid and nebulous than direct.
Image: Press
“These fragments would be layered with analogue beats, often built sound-by-sound rather than loop-by-loop, which gave the music a more organic and unpredictable pulse,” Hassak says, explaining how he reprograms African stylings into his machines. “I like to reduce the reliance on software at the early stages, letting the machines and recorded materials speak first. It’s a way of making music that’s almost archaeological: uncovering layers, recontextualising them, and allowing their original acoustic DNA to influence the rhythm and harmonic choices.”
Other times, happy accidents would occur when field recordings and other pieces of audio would converge in random ways:
“On Enlightenment, for example, the track began with a two-year-old synth improvisation that I rediscovered while archiving files. At the same time, a raw field recording was playing in the background. The unplanned collision of the two sounds immediately sparked the core idea for the piece,” Hassak says.
MUTANT is an album about collisions. Hassek collided with the cultures of his continent and grabbed the sounds that represented his experiences. He relied on other African artists he’s connected with to share their cultures through audio. Then he brought those sounds together with machines in his studio. The result is an authentic expression of African culture presented through a lens that modern audiences are poised to understand.
“When global attention is coupled with respect for origin and innovation rooted in tradition, it becomes a true dialogue rather than just a trend.”
The post “Listening is not just about hearing, it’s about understanding”: Guedra Guedra appeared first on MusicTech.

Toontrack launch Real to Reel SDX Toontrack’s latest SDX expansion includes eight new kits recorded at the legendary Real World Studios, and has been created in collaboration with Grammy-winning engineer Kevin Killen.

Race for global stablecoin rails heats up with Stripe, Fireblocks launchesStripe and Fireblocks networks will go up against crypto-native players such as Ripple and Stellar, as well as established global processors like Visa.

Facebook is trying to make ‘pokes’ happen againThe poke-tracking feature is largely designed to appeal to younger users who have grown up with gamification elements built into their social apps, like Snapchat and TikTok Streaks.

Focusrite Group hosts inaugural Educational Summit at Create-it StudiosAttendees of the Focusrite Group’s inaugural Educational Summit, held August 14-15 at the cutting-edge Create-it Studios in Franklin, TN.The Focusrite Group announced on Thursday that it, "hosted its inaugural Educational Summit on August 14-15 at the cutting-edge Create-it Studios in Franklin, TN. Organized by Dr. Lee Whitmore, Vice President for Education, Focusrite Group Americas, the summit brought together leading voices in music, audio, and education for two days of thought leadership, collaboration, and exploration of best practices in preparing the next generation of creators.""The event followed closely on the heels of the July 26th Focusrite Group Create-it Takeover, held at Create-it Studios, a groundbreaking creative innovation space developed in collaboration with Walmart and sponsored by Full Sail University," they said in a statement. "Located inside Walmart in Franklin, TN, Create-it Studios is a one-stop destination for podcasting, music production, video creation and live events, open to everyone, regardless of experience or background.""At the Education Summit, attendees participated in panels, workshops, and discussions that spanned topics such as immersive audio, curriculum design, music technology innovations, and cross-industry collaboration. A highlight of the program was a Dolby Atmos® panel moderated by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer and audio educator John Merchant, with guest experts GRAMMY-winning engineer Jon Blass and noted electronic music producer/DJ Greg “Stryke” Chin sharing insights on the future of spatial audio.""Special thanks were extended to the Create-it team, along with Full Sail University’s Andrew Duncan and Michael Orlowski, for their contributions to the event."Attendees included representatives from:Belmont University

Calhoun Community College

Columbia State Community College

Dark Horse Institute

Dolby Laboratories

Eastman School of Music

Florida State University

Full Sail University

Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT

Lipscomb University

Loyola University New Orleans

Metro Nashville Public Schools

Miami Dade College

Middle Tennessee State University

North Carolina State University

University of Alabama at Birmingham

University of North Alabama

Virginia State University“Focusrite has always been deeply committed to supporting education and empowering the next generation of music creators,” said Dr. Lee Whitmore. “This summit gave us the opportunity to bring together a remarkable group of educators, industry leaders, and innovators to share knowledge, inspire one another, and advance the role of music technology in education.”"The Focusrite Group Educational Summit marks the beginning of an ongoing initiative to foster dialogue and collaboration between academic institutions, industry leaders, and creators, ensuring that the tools, resources, and inspiration needed for tomorrow’s music innovators remain accessible and impactful."The post Focusrite Group hosts inaugural Educational Summit at Create-it Studios first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

On… The China ParadoxThis article originally appeared in Tim Ingham’s latest MBW+ Review email, issued exclusively to MBW+ subscribers.
Source