Transfigured Orchestra Vol 3: Cinema Brass from Sonora Cinematic The third instalment in Sonora Cinematic's Transfigured Orchestra series delivers a versatile collection of brass sounds that range from “quiet, intimate tones to bold, majestic textures”.

Revealed Recordings Revealed Serum 2 Melodic Leads Vol. 1Revealed Serum 2 Melodic Leads Vol. 1 is a collection of 50 presets and MIDI, built for producers seeking the highest standard in melodic lead design. Inside, you'll discover a variety of expressive sounds, from lush soaring tones to warm, evolving textures that stand out in the mix with depth, polished clarity, and emotion. You'll also find 50 original MIDI files crafted to bring each lead to life, giving you powerful starting points for your own hooks, themes, and anthems. Among every preset having modwheel assignments, each preset is assigned all eight macro controls, providing quick modulation options to customize and evolve your riffs. With Serum 2 Melodic Leads Vol. 1, you'll have a suite of source sounds for anthemic themes across Melodic Techno, Trance, and beyond. Reveal Yourself. Revealed Serum 2 Melodic Leads Vol. 1 - Details 1 Main Preset Category: LEAD (50). Revealed Serum 2 Melodic Leads Vol. 1 (MIDI) - Details MIDI (50). 50 presets, 50 MIDI Core synthesizer patch mapping and programming All presets assigned intuitive modwheel parameters All presets assigned all eight macro controls for easy tweaking and multiple sound variations. Preset format(s): .SerumPack (Full Bank) Note: Presets Require Full Retail Version of Xfer Record's Serum 2 version v2.1.2 or later Approx. 7.85MB compressed .zip download. Read More

Searches for wired earphones are up 88% – what’s behind the resurgence?Once upon a time, untangling wired headphones was regarded as a gruelling, Sisyphean task; put them in your bag for a second, and the earbud gods would weave them into a fresh, inconceivably challenging knot. Solidified by the death of the headphone jack, the dawn of the wireless earbud forever saved music lovers from the arduous chore – or so we thought.
Last year, The Guardian claimed that the ‘white wire’ of old school headphones has unexpectedly become the ultimate symbol of ‘digital fatigue’. As the world becomes increasingly AI-ridden and digital, many are winding back the clock and finding comfort in simpler forms of entertainment. The shift comes as a way of rebelling against an era of ever-updating iPhones, instead embracing practical tech that was built to last.

READ MORE: The best headphones for music producers, DJs and musicians to buy right now

If you hear anyone discussing ‘going analogue’, they might be fishing out their old iPod, or opting for a film camera instead of snapping smartphone photos. The resurgence of wired earphones is just another way of ‘going analogue’ – and according to a new study by Digital PR consultancy Cupid PR, Google searches for ‘wired headphones’ have spiked to around 2.6 million in the past month.
The figure is an 88% rise from May 2025, suggesting that the shift is more than just a passing ‘nostalgia’ trend. Take the vinyl revival – some considered the 2022 boom to be a ‘trend’, with the year marking vinyl’s highest number of sales since 1990, but vinyl has continued to draw in music fans. While 2022’s record-breaking year saw 5.5 million units shifted, Forbes reports that the market surpassed $1 billion in 2025.
Vinyl boom aside, the shift from wireless back to wired headphones is heavily rooted in swapping out expensive tech for something affordable and reliable. One only needs to consult the price of Apple’s latest AirPods Pro 3 model, a pricy £219, and then compare it to £19 wired EarPods. Back in the day, those EarPods would have also been included as a free accessory along with the purchase of an iPhone up until 2020, as well as any iPod until 2022… just another monetary factor to have you longing for the old days.

Alongside the cost, wired headphones can also come with a level of security for people who tend to lose wireless headphones. Rather than a separate earphone charging case, the security of a wire means you can keep your earphones attached to your phone. And – as frustrating as a wire can be – it’s easy to find a long, winding wire loose in your bag.
In another sense, while wireless headphones removed the pain of tangling wires, it introduced a new struggle: remembering to charge your earphones. There’s nothing more mortifying than sitting down on a long-haul flight and discovering you forgot to charge up your earbuds (trust me), but wired headphones are always ready to just plug in and go.
There’s also the issue of making sure the Bluetooth connection even works. Again, plugging in wired headphones instantly locks you into your tunes – but working out how to pair a set of new headphones can be a palaver. It also must be said that there is something so uniquely infuriating about shifting the Bluetooth connection between devices…
Plenty of high-profile actors are also being vocal about their frustration with wireless headphones, which is undoubtedly having some impact on the cultural shift back to wires. In a 2025 SubwayTakes interview, actor Zoë Kravitz said: “Bluetooth does not work… [Bluetooth] is ruining important moments.”
However, there is also something quite chic about the nostalgic wire, if you ask Daniel Rodgers, British Vogue’s the fashion news editor. Speaking to The Guardian in December, he called wired earbuds a “real, stylable accessory” nowadays. “[It says] I’m very effortless, I’m very nonchalant…” he explained.
It also doubles as a badge of “opting out” of modern tech, visibly rebelling against the tech giants keen for you to splash hundreds on subtle, wireless earbuds. Rodgers notes that the visibility of wired headphone also helps people seem less rude: “They’re visible in a way that AirPods aren’t. There is a sense of ‘do not disturb.’”
It’s been reported that other concerns surrounding wireless headphones include safety – the possible negative effects of continuous Bluetooth use near the head – and reduced audio quality.
It’s unclear whether everyone will embrace the wires once again, it’s clearly a trend that’s here to stay. While music producers have always preferred the plug-in and play approach, it’s worth taking a punt and seeing if you prefer the wired life.
“This is not just a nostalgia trend,” says Sophie Rhone, founder of Cupid PR. When ‘wired headphones’ is getting 2.6 million searches in a month, and ‘wired earphones’ is seeing 712,000 searches with an 88% year-on-year rise, that tells us this is bigger than one product name or one viral moment. It suggests wired audio is moving back into consumer consideration as a wider category.”
Check out MusicTech’s list of best wired headphones under $500.
The post Searches for wired earphones are up 88% – what’s behind the resurgence? appeared first on MusicTech.

Dua Lipa sues Samsung for $15M over unauthorized use of her image on TV boxesElectronics giant is accused of using Dua Lipa's photo on TV packaging without her permission
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SUPERBOOTH 2026 Video Show Reports Watch all our SUPERBOOTH 2026 video coverage in one place.

GARUC Audio releases Prism Sat, a FREE analog saturation plugin
GARUC Audio has released Prism Sat, a free analog-style saturation plugin for macOS and Windows. The prism on the interface immediately reminded me of Pink Floyd, though I’m not sure if it’s an intentional reference. Either way, it gets bonus points from me, even though I’m more of a The Wall fan than a Dark [...]
View post: GARUC Audio releases Prism Sat, a FREE analog saturation plugin

Overload Audio releases MOODYSIX, a FREE modded Korg Polysix emulation
Overload Audio has made MOODYSIX free, a six-voice analog-style synth modeled on the 1981 Korg Polysix. MOODYSIX was originally a $6 release (a dollar per voice, as developer Andy Morrison put it), but he just informed me that the price has been dropped to free on Gumroad. It’s a pay-what-you-want listing, so enter $0 at [...]
View post: Overload Audio releases MOODYSIX, a FREE modded Korg Polysix emulation

Devious Pocket: a €249 open-source DVS that ditches the laptopDevious Pocket is a €249 standalone DVS from Amsterdam that turns any turntable into a digital vinyl rig. No laptop, no library software, no setup.
The post Devious Pocket: a €249 open-source DVS that ditches the laptop appeared first on DJ TechTools.

phasenpunkt Interferator M4LInterferator M4L is a quad-layer noise modulation engine for Max4Live (Ableton Live Suite 12+). Instead of a conventional LFO, Interferator builds a living two-dimensional interference field from four independent noise generators. Three probes sample this terrain simultaneously and map their output to any automatable parameter in Ableton Live. Features: Four independent noise layers with seven pattern types: Perlin, Simplex, Cell, Rigid, Voronoi, Cloud, Fluid. Three blending algorithms for different interference characteristics. Three independent probes with freely positionable X/Y coordinates. Per-probe Min%/Max% range control with inverted modulation support. Per-layer Density, Flow, T-Tilt, Duration, Offset, R-Entropy, and R-Tilt controls. Global smoothing for all probe outputs. Real-time visualization of the interference field and probe positions. Price: 15€ (intro price: 10€) Requires: Ableton Live Suite 12 or higher. https://phasenpunkt.de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_frLK9TiRg Read More

Get ready for the whisper-filled office of the futureHow will work setups change if we spend more and more time talking to our computers?

Why Using Cardboard for a PC Case is a ChoreThe idea of using cardboard for a sloppy PC case isn’t new; it’s a time-honored tradition dating back to at least the 1990s. That said, with today’s CNC cutters and other advanced tooling available to hobbyists, you might be curious to see how far you can push the concept. As demonstrated in a recent video by [mryeester], the answer appears to be that good planning and a solid understanding of cardboard’s limitations are as essential as ever.
After having the PC case drawn up in CAD and cut on a professional CNC cutter by a buddy who makes commercial cardboard displays, the installation procedure for the PC components showed where a bit of foresight could have saved a lot of time and effort.

The first problem was that the GPU couldn’t be installed due to wrong measurements on where the IO bracket normally is screwed into the case. Some cardboard cutting later, the GPU slid into place, but of course, there’s no way to screw it down, putting the full weight on the PCIe slot of the mainboard. Fortunately, the mainboard was quite literally bolted into place, and the case consists of multiple layers of corrugated cardboard to add some rigidity.
Next was more carving as the PSU cut-out was designed for an SFX PSU, not an ATX one. After that ordeal, one could say that perhaps a nice thing about a cardboard case is that you get to pick where buttons are located, though this comes with its own logistical issues.
Finally, mounting side panels turned into another chore, with perhaps some engineering possible to make it work better. For example, we recently looked at making cardboard hinges that would look pretty good on a cardboard PC case. You can also waterproof cardboard and make it much stronger, turning a throwaway, temporary cardboard solution into something that will last for years, even with occasional exposure to moisture and a water-cooling leak.

Saylor signals another Bitcoin buy, after hinting at selling in Q1 earnings callStrategy's average cost per Bitcoin is about $75,537, and its BTC investment is up about 7.6% at the time of this writing, according to data from the company.

cloph-dsp releases Freeze95, a FREE stochastic stutter and freeze plugin
Indie developer cloph-dsp has released Freeze95, a free zero-latency stutter and freeze effect with a Windows 95-era CRT interface. Freeze95 is a three-band glitch engine designed to add motion to static audio. The signal is split with a phase-coherent LR4 crossover, and each band is then independently glitched using randomized capture, reverse, slow-mo, and granular [...]
View post: cloph-dsp releases Freeze95, a FREE stochastic stutter and freeze plugin

So you’ve heard these AI terms and nodded along; let’s fix thatThe rise of AI has brought an avalanche of new terms and slang. Here is a glossary with definitions of some of the most important words and phrases you might encounter.

Windows-G E-AutoFilter300A JSFX automatic filter plugin for REAPER that features: * Two Filter Slots (Filter 1 & 2): Each slot can be set independently to Off, a 12dB/oct high-pass filter, or a 12dB/oct low-pass filter. * Two Routing Modes: 1. Parallel: Both filter slots (Filter 1 & 2) are simultaneously fed with the same dry signal to be processed independently, and then their outputs are blended back together using summing with -3.0 dB gain compensation. 2. Serial: Both filter slots are processed in series (one after the other). So the output of Filter 1 becomes the input of Filter 2. * Lower Limit (Hz): Sets the lower frequency boundary of each filter's sweep from 10.0 Hz to 21.0 kHz. * Upper Limit (Hz): Sets the upper frequency boundary of each filter's sweep from 40.0 Hz to 21.0 kHz. * Position: Displays the current position of each LFO-driven filter within the defined lower and upper frequency limits as a visual reference. * Q (0.1 – 10): Sets the resonance of the high-pass and low-pass filters to shape how pronounced the cutoff frequency is. * LFO Shape: Choose from six LFO waveforms (Sine, Cubic S-curve, Triangle, Square, Ramp Down, and Ramp Up) per filter. * Phase (0–100%): Adjusts the starting position of the selected LFO waveform per filter. Setting the Phase slider to 50% (180°) on symmetrical waveforms (Sine, Cubic S-curve, Square, Triangle) gives you the inverse of these waveforms. For asymmetrical waveforms (Ramp Down, Ramp Up), when Ramp Down is selected and the Phase slider is set to 50% (180°), it produces an inverse sawtooth wave; and when Ramp Up is selected and the Phase slider is set to 50% (180°), it produces a sawtooth wave. * BPM Mode: Use host BPM or set a custom BPM from 1 to 960 per filter. * Rate: Provides 22 rate divisions, from 4/1 (slowest) to 1/32 (fastest), including dotted and triplet options per filter. The rates are arranged in order of speed: 4/1, 2/1 D, 4/1 T, 2/1, 1/1 D, 2/1 T, 1/1, 1/2 D, 1/1 T, 1/2, 1/4 D, 1/2 T, 1/4, 1/8 D, 1/4 T, 1/8, 1/16 D, 1/8 T, 1/16, 1/32 D, 1/16 T, and 1/32. * Depth (0–100%): Controls the intensity of each filter's frequency modulation across the defined lower and upper frequency limits. At 0%, no modulation occurs (the filter does not move); at 100%, the filter sweeps the full lower and upper frequency range. * Dry/Wet Mix (%): Blends the unprocessed dry signal with the filtered wet signal from 0% to 100%. * Output Gain (dB): Sets the final output level of the plugin from -35 dB to +35 dB to compensate for volume changes introduced by the automatic filtering. * Advanced Host Sync: Each LFO phase is synced to the DAW timeline, and the plugin automatically re-syncs on playback start, stop, or when jumping along the timeline. * GUI Filter Status Indicators: Show the active status of each filter slot and whether it is set to HPF or LPF. * GUI BPM Readout: Displays the current DAW tempo for each active filter. * GUI Pos Readout: Shows the real-time frequency position of each active filter in Hz as the LFO moves. * GUI Bypass Button: A dedicated bypass button for toggling the effect on or off without audio clicks. Available for automation as "Bypass (Smooth)" in the plugin's parameter list. * Zipper-Noise-Free Operation: Advanced interpolation ensures no zipper noise during slider automation or real-time adjustments. * Minimal CPU Usage. * 16 Factory Presets: The plugin comes with 16 factory presets that can be imported via the included RPL file. Instructions for importing the presets are provided in the "Installation & Preset Library Import" file included in the Gumroad plugin download. You can grab it for $10. All future updates are free, just make sure to use a valid email so I can send future updates to you. Listen to the audio demos below to hear what the plugin can do: Email Support: info.windowsg@gmail.com ================================================== Using This JSFX Plugin in Other DAWs: If you want to use this JSFX plugin in other DAWs, you can do so using the open-source YSFX plugin. YSFX is available in VST3, AU, and CLAP formats for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Download your preferred version of YSFX from here (Click on "Assets" for the downloads to appear): https://github.com/JoepVanlier/ysfx/releases YSFX comes in two versions: * ysfx-s FX (for JSFX effects). * ysfx-s instrument (for JSFX instruments). 1. Open ysfx-s FX in your DAW, 2. Then click "Load", find your "E-AutoFilter300_Windows-G" file, and click "Open." The JSFX plugin will now run inside the YSFX host, working perfectly in any DAW that supports VST3, AU, or CLAP plugins. Read More