MusicTech is giving away over £1,200 of gear. Here’s how to win a complete studio packageLooking to upgrade your studio setup, but not ready to drop £100s on brand new gear? We’re running a free prize draw that just might help you out.
We’re giving one winner a total of six pieces of brilliant studio gear, including some which have earned stellar scores in our reviews, to help flesh out your studio and make your production workflow super smooth.
The bundle includes an audio interface for tracking instruments and connecting to necessary audio equipment, two condenser mics, a bass synthesiser, a MIDI controller keyboard and a pair of headphones to complete the rig.
The giveaway will see one lucky winner get all of the gear below:

Universal Audio Volt 876
AKG C114 and C151
Donner B-1 Synth
Novation Launchkey 25
AIAIAI TMA-2 Headphones

The Universal Audio Volt 876 recently received an 8/10 in our review, where we said, “the Volt 876 is an excellent centrepiece for your recording setup. With sufficient physical channels for small to medium-sized studios, it can add more via its dual optical channels, sync via word clock and connect your MIDI gear.”
Image: Press
AKG’s C114 mic was awarded our 10/10 excellence award earlier this year. It forms part of a shiny, new C-Series from AKG consisting of three microphones, including the C151 small-diaphragm condenser design, which we’re also throwing in. We noted the C114 offers “articulate sound with plenty of presence”. You can’t go wrong.
Marking a first for Donner, the B-1 is a 303-style bassline synth with a sequencer, and was the first ever analogue synth to join its lineup. It features a single oscillator, and you can choose from two waveforms (sawtooth or square), and you can also introduce pitch modification, like the original Roland TB-303.
For controlling your virtual instruments and MIDI gear is the  Launchkey 25. This controller is designed for Ableton Live, but can also fully integrate with Logic and Reason. It has 25 velocity-sensitive keys, as its name suggests, and 16 velocity-sensitive pads for expressive performances. Its five-pin MIDI output is compatible with any MIDI device.
And, finally, to listen to all of the sweet tunes you’re about to make, you’ll need a pair of headphones. We’re bundling in a trusty pair of AIAIAI TMA-2s, a brand of headphones used by the likes of MF DOOM and Kaytranada.
How to enter
Please note that this free prize draw is open to UK residents only, aged 18 and over. Entry opens on 26 June 2026 and closes at 23:59 on 3 July 2026. One winner will be drawn at random from all entries and notified by email within 5 days, so keep an eye on your inbox. Read our full terms and conditions at NMEnetworks.com.
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David Kuckhermann brings calabash to Celemony Tonalic Celemony’s latest update for their virtual session musician platform complements the existing line-up of instruments with something a little different: the calabash. 

AllMus‍ic Pi‌cks the 10 Gr​ea‌test Alb‌um O‌peners of the '70sThe 1970s treated the album opener as a statement of purpose. AllMusic ranks the 10 greatest — from the Ramones' two-minute punk explosion to Led Zeppelin's 10-minute prog epic.

Foreign Body Signs with Brutal PandaDate Signed: March 2026Label: Brutal PandaType of Music: Noise-Rock, PunkManagement: bob@brutalpandarecords.comBooking: bob@brutalpandarecords.comPublicity: dave@earsplitcompound.com A&R: bob@brutalpandarecords.comWeb: instagram.com/foreignbody_nyc

The members of Brooklyn-based grimy noise-rockers Foreign Body have been knocking around in different bands for the best part of a decade, often crossing paths during their college years. That’s where they met—at school in New York—and the idea of forming a band together took shape during COVID. Foreign Body was born.

“We wanted to try playing a style of music we felt not many other bands were approaching in a meaningful way,” they say.

They certainly achieved that. The music of Foreign Body is devastatingly ferocious and, dig beyond the uncompromising brutality, it’s also razor sharp and intelligent.

“We are a noise rock band that prioritizes aggression and immediacy,” they say. “Our influences lean towards the heavier, noisier, side of the genre. We have no use for Sonic Youth. When we first started playing there was a more overt post punk sound but that has been thoroughly rooted out over time. Now our sound is closer to orthodox blue collar noise rock bands like Flipper or even some power electronics than something like Unwound. In trimming a lot of the whiny moodiness, our sound has become more unified and intense in the process.”

Earlier this year, Foreign Body signed to Brutal Panda, known for its consistently excellent roster, and released the “Strung Out” single.

“It came about through word-of-mouth from our friends in Couch Slut who passed along the album to the team there,” they say. “Given the label’s roster, especially with bands like Cherubs, who we’ve always held as one of the best of our contemporaries, we thought it was a natural fit. Everyone at the label has been supportive of our music, art, and ideas for the release.”

The guys say that the “Strung Out” single is both the opening track of and the best distillation of their forthcoming full-length album.

“Despite being the first track, it was ultimately one of the last songs we wrote for the album, as we thought it needed something that felt more like a kick in the teeth to start,” they say. “We began working on the album almost immediately after our first album Fixed and in a lot of ways addressed the shortcomings of that record. The sound is simultaneously more dynamic and noisier while throwing in a couple of curveballs which we won’t spoil. Thematically it progresses naturally from themes present in the first—fantasy, vices, and a race to the bottom—while also diving further into subjectivity and a more profound sense of disgust.”The post Foreign Body Signs with Brutal Panda first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Bitcoin bounces off new 2026 price lows: Will US stock weakness push BTC lower?Bitcoin’s trek into new 2026 lows continued as spot BTC ETF outflows, a bearish monthly options expiry and Strategy’s unrealized losses widened its gap with AI-connected stock returns.

How to write a dramedy cue for TV: A step-by-step guide
Expert media composer Dave Croft breaks down how to write a dramedy cue for reality TV, covering sound selection, arrangement, and more.

Patronus AI lands $50M to build ‘digital worlds’ that stress-test AI agentsAgent-testing startup Patronus AI, founded by former Meta AI researchers, is experiencing nearly insatiable demand, its investor says.

Cheap 80s Keyboard Gets Modern Brain UpgradeThe 1981 Casio VL-1 was a fine cheap keyboard. It had a robust build, though an admittedly limited sound palette. [Max Vega] had one of these charming instruments, and decided to use modern tech to rebrain it for the modern world.
The original electronics of the VL-1 were largely surplus to requirements for this build. The original interface and speaker were kept in service, while the rest of the monophonic sound synthesis hardware was removed. [Max Vega] enlisted an ESP32-C3 to run the show, turning the VL-1 into a ROMpler instead. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it refers to a keyboard or other instrument that relies on hardcoded sample playback instead of raw synthesis. The ESP32 loads its samples from a microSD card, which provides an enormous amount of storage for different sound packs. Selecting different instruments is handled with a simple interface built around the original buttons and a OLED screen.  Playing the instrument is still the same using the simple keyboard, though [Max] also implemented some extra fun modes that play chords at a single touch.
If you want a fun, versatile keyboard instrument that fits perfectly in a backpack, it’s hard to go wrong with a build like this. We’ve seen similar Casio keyboard hacks before, too. Video after the break.

Aqeel Aadam Sound CoastlineCoastline is a dual-engine audio sustainer with intermodulation, advanced filtering, support for custom samples, and more – all in the service of adding depth and character to your music. Designed to create complementary ambience for any sound or composition, Coastline uses a combination of additive and granular synthesis to stretch sounds infinitely. Coastline uses two sustaining algorithms to resynthesize audio and stretch it forever: Tide – an additive synthesizer for reimagining sound. Control which frequencies of the input are mapped to oscillators, rebalance them to highlight harmonic or inharmonic characteristics, and introduce new frequencies with waveshaping. Glade – a granular synthesizer that stretches sound forever with no clicks or transients. Balance the original timbre of your sound against Tide's distilled version. Coastline's Audio Matrix lets you route any channel to intermodulate another, or itself. Create unique harmonic distortions, or load samples to introduce a completely new texture. Coastline includes built-in field samples by Nathan Moody for naturalistic textures. Furthermore, manipulate any control in Coastline with a fully fledged Modulation matrix, including multiple LFOs, sequencers, smooth random sources, and performance effects. Build completely custom effects using Coastline's state-of-the-art filter and reverb. Each engine and effect inside is designed to be immediately usable and configurable, or pushed into the territory of distortion and creative sound design. Connect to Coastline's sibling application, Waymaker, for even more sequencing and additional control over the pitch of Coastline's output. Full preset control over every parameter. Supported formats: VST3, AU (macOS), AAX, AUv3 (iOS). Manual Video manual and demo Read More

Diljit Dosanjh breaks his own record for biggest North American tour by a Punjabi artist with $32M Aura runLive Nation-promoted run sold more than 225,000 tickets, according to the concert giant.
Source

The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards on working with Andrew Watt: “He’s a bit impetuous at times, but then so what?”Keith Richards has shared what it’s like to work with producer Andrew Watt, describing him as a “breath of fresh air and a kick up the ass”.
Richards, who plays guitar for The Rolling Stones, notes that Watt can at times be “impetuous”, but it seems his nature is exactly what the band needed when it came to crafting their previous record, Hackney Diamonds, and forthcoming record Foreign Tongues.

READ MORE: “It all started with Ozzy”: How Andrew Watt pushed through self-doubt to become one of the world’s top producers

Speaking to The Guardian, Richards says, “Mick [Jagger]’s been very prolific lately, which is one reason this album has come out so quick, because he won’t bloody stop. And the momentum from Hackney Diamonds was such that this is basically carrying on in the same breath. I was just letting it roll – we had enough stuff if we wanted to keep pushing, and so Mick and I gave each other the usual wry look and said: ‘Yeah, let’s keep pushing.’”
Richards goes on to credit Watt, who at 35 years old has already worked with Paul McCartney, Elton John, Iggy Pop and a slew of contemporary acts like Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, for their current creative synergy.
“He knows his stuff musically and technically, and he doesn’t put up with any bullshit – he just gets on with it. So I found him very easy to work with. He’s a bit impetuous at times, but then so what?” Asked if Watt has ever “given him a talking to”, Richards replies, “No. But he may have given somebody a talking-to.”

Paul McCartney also made similar comments about Watt earlier this year. He told MOJO, “I came away from the first session thinking, ‘Well, I like him, but he’s a bit pushy.”
In a 2025 interview with And The Writer Is…, Watt himself spoke of his intense approach to production. He said: “I’m so detail-oriented in my mixing process and production process. There’s not a thing in, like, a millisecond of any of my records that I don’t know exactly what it is and what it’s doing and why it’s there. So mixing the record is a very intense process for me.”
He added, “Once it’s out, I’d never listen to it again. If I did listen to it, I would want to change 100 things.”
The Rolling Stones’ new album, Foreign Tongues, lands on 10 July. Find out more via The Rolling Stones website.
The post The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards on working with Andrew Watt: “He’s a bit impetuous at times, but then so what?” appeared first on MusicTech.

Rev Ocean reverb from Arturia Described as an “instantly rewarding reverb”, the latest addition to Arturia’s range of creative effects plug-ins brings together multi-stage diffusion and deep modulation possibilities in an ocean-inspired interface. 

Ticket platform StubHub UK to refund more than 50,000 customers after drip pricing “platform error”Ticket resale platform StubHub UK has been ordered to refund over 50,000 customers due to not displaying total costs upfront to ticket buyers.
Not only is the platform refunding affected customers, with each customer expected to receive £10 on average per transaction according to reports, but it must also pay a £900,000 fine.

READ MORE: AVA London 2026 speakers include Moby, Oklou, Richie Hawtin and more

These orders follow an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The BBC reports that the CMA investigated several firms as part of a review of online pricing practices, such as drip pricing – when fees and charges are introduced later into the buying process – which was banned last year.
StubHub International claims the hidden fees were as a result of an “isolated platform error” that led to some charges appearing at checkout, rather than earlier in the buying process.
Emma Cochrane, executive director of consumer protection at the CMA, tells the BBC: “Hitting customers with hidden fees is illegal. It’s not fair to draw people in with what looks like a good deal, only for them to find the real price is higher when they get to the checkout due to extra charges that can’t be avoided.”
StubHub International says, “Our UK platform is designed to display all fees upfront,” adding that it “identified and corrected the issue promptly, and all affected customers will receive an automatic refund.”
In other ticketing news, a new resale platform was launched earlier this year to combat high ticket prices and sales above face value. Tickets9 is described as an “ethical” ticket resale platform, and is backed by the Music Venue Trust.
Ticket pricing for events has been a hot topic over the last few years, with the Oasis reunion spotlighting the issue after many fans expressed disappointment at having to pay inflated prices due to dynamic pricing.
The post Ticket platform StubHub UK to refund more than 50,000 customers after drip pricing “platform error” appeared first on MusicTech.

Dusty Plugins releases Dusty Tube 2, a FREE guitar/bass amp sim for Windows
From developer Dusty Plugins comes Dusty Tube 2, a free guitar & bass amp sim for Windows. We covered the original Dusty Tube plugin in early 2025, and for anyone who missed it, it’s an amp simulator built on the Neural Amp Modeler (NAM). Dusty Tube 2, as you’d expect, is the same thing with [...]
View post: Dusty Plugins releases Dusty Tube 2, a FREE guitar/bass amp sim for Windows

Safari Pedals gives away 10,000 Gorilla Drive licenses to BPB readers
Safari Pedals is giving away 10,000 free Gorilla Drive licenses exclusively to BPB readers. Gorilla Drive normally costs $39.99, but you can get it for free at checkout with the coupon code BPB-Gorilla100. The offer is limited to 10,000 copies, so it is absolutely worth grabbing sooner rather than later if you want it. Gorilla [...]
View post: Safari Pedals gives away 10,000 Gorilla Drive licenses to BPB readers