Universal Audio SSL 4000 Series Console BundleWorking in close partnership with Solid State Logic, Universal Audio proudly unveils the SSL 4000 Series Classic Console Bundle for Native and UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces — a perfect match of exacting circuit emulations from these certified hit-making machines: Track and mix with an exacting emulation of SSL E Series Console Type E "black" and "brown" knob channel EQ and filters. Harness famous SSL E Series VCA Compression — from transparent to "in your face". Harness the SSL E Series' highly responsive Gate including "no-chatter" mode derived from later designs. Easily add G Bus glue and cohesion to drums, strings, and background vocals. Elevate your mix bus with legendary SSL G Bus compression. Use the G Bus's Auto Fade feature (1-60 seconds) as found in original console. Included in This Bundle SSL 4000 E Series Channel Strip Collection The SSL E Series Channel Strip plug-in gives you everything you need to dial in professional, polished tracks with classic SSL sonics. With the inclusion of both the Type E "black knob" and "brown knob" four-band EQ and filters — hallowed in SSL lineage — you can apply refined punch to drums, presence to vocals, and heft to bass. Other features include high and low cut filters, an expander/gate, and compression. SSL 4000 G Bus Compressor Collection A faithful circuit emulation of the legendary SSL 4000 G console's bus compressor, this iconic dynamics processor delivers undeniable drive and punch that helped make the original 4000 G Series the world's most successful production console. Top engineers have come to rely on this master compressor to "glue together" mixes like nothing else, as well as patching into it for stunningly musical results on drums, pianos, and more. Read More

“We’re doubling down on what we stand for”: How Moog delivered the MessengerMoog’s Messenger has a lot to prove, standing beside legendary monosynths such as the Minimoog Model D, Voyager, and Subsequent 37. Expectations on a Moog instrument like this will always be sky high.
But its arrival is notable for another reason: this is the first synth Moog has developed, start to finish, since being acquired by music tech conglomerate InMusic in 2023. Since then, there has been no shortage of online handwringing and doomsaying about what might become of the beloved American instrument maker. Now the results are in, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief because the Messenger delivers.
The Moog Messenger is on the MusicTech Cover. Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
“This feels like a watershed moment for the brand,” Joe Richardson, president of Moog Music and chief commercial officer at InMusic, tells MusicTech. “But it’s also been an anchor moment. We’re doubling down on what Moog stands for, and not deviating from it.”
The Messenger boasts a classic sound palette, but its near-compact form factor also gambles on a host of new-gen features that we’ve never seen in a Moog before. Steering this high-stakes release was the company’s Director of Keyboard Product Development, Erik Norlander, a veteran designer whose contributions to synthesis include IK Multimedia’s excellent UNO Synth line and the influential Alesis Andromeda.
Norlander says the team’s vision for the Messenger was “a compact analogue synthesiser that has all the mojo of Moog’s glorious past, along with some cutting-edge new features for the present”. “And we wanted to put all this in an accessible package that’s within reach for all musicians,” he adds.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Analogue & Accessible
At £725 ($799), the Messenger actually is a viable purchase for average music-makers – something that hasn’t really been true of Moog’s product lineup in recent years. “This is a space that Moog had not played in for a long time,” Norlander concedes. “Having a sub-$1,000 synthesizer… You’d have to go back to the 80s for this kind of a product; the Rogue and Prodigy, those sorts of instruments.”
Thankfully, this cost reduction has not resulted in lacklustre build quality – something that Moog-watchers have been particularly worried about since the company announced its manufacturing would move from its North Carolina HQ to Taiwan. “For it to be a Moog, in my book, it’s got to have amazing sound quality and build quality,” Richardson says. “That would have been easy to abandon; it would have been easier to make a cheaper instrument, but we didn’t do that.”
“We wanted this to be a visceral, hands-on experience” – Erik Norlander
Accessibility is also front and centre in the instrument’s layout and learning curve. Adopting a familiar left-to-right signal path influenced by 1970’s Minimoog Model D, the Messenger largely keeps to a one-knob-per-function paradigm. There’s also plenty of mod-cons for 21st-century players wanting a fast workflow. Recallable presets, some nifty generative features for the unit’s 64-step sequencer, and extensive I/O options, including six CV patch points, external audio in, and high-resolution MIDI over USB-C, all make this feel like an instrument ready for today.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Screen-Free Synthesis
But the Messenger notably lacks one ubiquitous feature of the modern world we all love to hate and hate to love: a screen.
“That was very much a deliberate choice,” Norlander explains. “We could have put a display on there – there was room for it and it wasn’t a cost issue – but it would change the whole aesthetic of the instrument. We didn’t want you looking at a display. We wanted you to look at the knobs and think about the music. We wanted this to be a visceral, hands-on experience.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
The lack of a display isn’t what’s gotten head turning; it’s the new analogue improvements that the Messenger brings to the table. There’s wavefolding and FM, two styles of synthesis which Moog has historically neglected, and a sub-oscillator enhanced with continuously variable waveshape. For noise lovers, there’s a deliciously crunchy feedback circuit directly inspired by a classic Minimoog Model D hack, where users would take the headphone output and plug it back into the external audio input.
“We gave it a lot of gain,” laughs Norlander. “If you turn the feedback up, it gets really aggressive. On some of the earlier prototypes, we had even more gain, but we were like, ‘Okay, okay, let’s pull this back, it’s getting a little out of control.’”
“The Messenger is much more universal than the other gear we’ve got. You should expect to see more of that going forward” – Joe Richardson
The sonic lynchpin of all this is the Messenger’s supercharged ladder filter. Employing an innovative pole-matching design, it boasts multiple slopes, multimode functionality, and a sought-after Res Bass feature, which preserves the low end even as you dial up the filter’s resonance. The results are genuinely impressive, but Norlander says the team’s initial decision to tinker with perfection was not taken lightly.
“At Moog, there are things that are sacred,” he says. “The filter is one of them. We can add to the sound, but we can’t take anything away. So, when we were reimagining the filter on the Messenger, we had to make sure it still had that classic sound. If you turn off the Res Bass and you keep it in 4-pole low-pass mode, it still sounds like a 904A from 1967.”
Norlander also makes clear that, no matter what additions we might see on future filters, some things will never change. “The filter is always going to be discrete,” he assures me. “I don’t think you’ll ever see one that’s chip-based. In a Sequential or an Oberheim, it’s perfectly fine to have a chip-based filter – those are beautiful sounding synthesizers – but the Bob Moog transistor ladder filter is a discrete design. That’s something we can’t and won’t mess with.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
A Legacy of Innovation
The relationship Moog Music has to its own history is fascinating. No other synth maker has a founder who looms so large, whose influence is still so directly felt in the sound, features, and feel of the instruments. Yet, despite a palpable reverence for Bob Moog’s legacy, neither Richardson nor Norlander seems to have any interest in letting that past narrow the company’s future.
“Bob Moog was famous for listening to artists and sound engineers,” Richardson points out. “What he heard from them informed the next thing. If we stop introducing innovation, then we’re not going to get those new messages from the creative community to help inform us on what happens next. So, it’s a fuel to the innovation machine that exists inside Moog.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
“The feedback we’ve gotten before, during, and after launch,” he adds, “will affect this instrument through updates. But it’s already informing the next instruments that are going to come online in the next 12 to 18 months.”
What can we expect from these in-development instruments? Richardson hints that the digital side of synthesis will be “an important part of the future” and outlines a broad focus on efficiency, creative flow, and deep sound design. More than anything, he simply points to the new paradigms established by the arrival of the Messenger.
“The Messenger is going to be the beginning of a new category of instruments,” he says. “It’s much more universal than the other gear we’ve got. You should expect to see more of that going forward.”
In truth, the Messenger really does send a message – and more than one at that. For longtime fans, it’s proof that the company is still in safe hands and still a force to be reckoned with. For the analogue-curious, it’s an open invitation to join the Moog party, now with a significantly lower door charge.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
For the Moog team, the Messenger feels like a statement of intent: a framework for how the company plans to balance the realities of a highly competitive marketplace with long-held, and deeply felt, ideals.
“It was really important to me, to the folks at Moog, to keep the spirit alive and well in this instrument,” reflects Richardson. “To show that new things can be added to what Moog’s always been, that it can be affordable and accessible, but, very importantly, to show that things don’t have to be cheapened to get there. I think we’ve succeeded in doing that.”
The Moog Messenger appeared in the MusicTech Magazine July/August 2025 issue.
Words: Clovis McEvoy
Photography: Simon Vinall
The post “We’re doubling down on what we stand for”: How Moog delivered the Messenger appeared first on MusicTech.

SYSTEM DigiDestroy plug-in from HOFA Aimed at engineers seeking vintage flair, experimental transitions and destructive sound effects, SYSTEM DigiDestroy combines a bit-crusher with a variable jitter control and includes a versatile clipper module. 

How Live Music Stocks Performed Last WeekLive Nation reported as strong Q2 on Thursday. Here is a recap of how it and major live music stocks performed during the week ending Friday, August 8, 2025, along with a comparison to the broader stock market.
The post How Live Music Stocks Performed Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.

2025 One Hertz Challenge: Using Industrial Relays to Make a FlasherThese days, if you want to flash some LEDs, you’d probably grab a microcontroller. Maybe you’d go a little more old-school, and grab a 555. However, [Jacob] is even more hardcore than that, as evidenced by this chunky electromechanical flasher build.
[Jacob] goes into great detail on his ancillary write-up, describing how the simple building blocks used by industrial control engineers can be used to make a flasher circuit that cycles once per second. Basically, two relays are paired with two 0.5-second delay timers. The two relays tag each other on and off on delay as their timers start and expire, with the lamp turned on and off in turn.
We’ve had lots of other great entries to our One Hertz Challenge, too — from clocks to not-clocks. There’s still time to get an entry in — the deadline for submission is Tuesday, August 19 at 9:00AM Pacific time. Good luck out there!

The hidden cost of living amid Mark Zuckerberg’s $110M compoundMark Zuckerberg has spent 14 years gobbling up his leafy Palo Alto neighborhood, according to a New York Times report detailing how the Meta CEO has purchased 11 properties for over $110 million to create his own personal fiefdom in Crescent Park. The piecemeal compound features a main residence, guest homes, manicured gardens, and a […]

World Mobile launches drone-based, decentralized telecom projectThe decentralized telecommunication project uses unmanned aerial drones in the stratosphere to provide wireless services to users.

Founder of music streaming service BlueBeat indicted over alleged $3.1m fraud schemeA federal grand jury has indicted Hank Risan, the 70-year-old founder of music streaming service BlueBeat, on four counts of wire fraud
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Revealed Recordings Revealed Serum 2 808 Vol. 1Revealed Serum 2 808 Vol. 1 is a collection of 80 presets, 320 samples, and 30 MIDI patterns covering the entire 808 spectrum. Inside, you'll discover a versatile palette of 808 sub sounds, ranging from punchy and precise to distorted and destructive. Every preset includes intuitive modwheel assignments and all eight macro controls, providing quick modulation options to shape tone, timbre, and intensity. The pack also includes 30 MIDI Pattern files, giving you a quick start to customize your own patterns and drops. Finally, each preset has been sampled multiple times with macro shaping expressions, sorted by key, and symmetrically in phase for instant, out of the box inspiration. Whether you are generating custom kick drums or searching for the perfect sub bass, Serum 2 808 Vol. 1 gives you a suite of source sounds to elevate your productions in House, Moombahton, DnB, Tech House, Hard Techno, Trap and more. Reveal Yourself. Revealed Serum 2 808 Vol. 1 - Details 808 (80). Revealed Serum 2 808 Vol. 1 (MIDI Patterns) - Details MIDI (30). Revealed Serum 2 808 Vol. 1 Samples - Details REV-SERUM28081 [320 samples]. 80 presets, 320 samples, 30 MIDI Core synthesizer patch mapping and programming All presets assigned intuitive modwheel parameters All samples labeled with exact key All samples symmetrically in phase. Preset format(s): .SerumPack (Full Bank) + .SerumPreset (Individual Presets) Note: Presets Require Full Retail Version of Xfer Record's Serum 2 version v2.0.20 or later Approx. 20MB compressed .zip download. Read More

HY-Plugins releases HY-MBMFX3 Free multiband multi-effects plugin
HY-Plugins has released HY-MBMFX3 for Windows, macOS, and Linux, along with a free version that offers plenty of creative power for sound design enthusiasts. HY-MBMFX3 is a modular multiband multi-effects processor that can split your signal into up to three frequency bands, applying different effects to each band independently. This lets you sculpt everything from [...]
View post: HY-Plugins releases HY-MBMFX3 Free multiband multi-effects plugin

Techivation unveil M-Exciter The latest addition to Techivation’s M-Series plug-in collection is said to act as a natural-sounding musical extension of users’ audio, and go beyond what is possible with simple saturation or EQ processing. 

Bo Hines, director of the White House Crypto Council, steps down.Hines said he is leaving the crypto advisory group to rejoin the private sector but will continue to support the cryptocurrency industry.

2025 One Hertz Challenge: Estimating Pi With An Arduino Nano R4Humanity pretty much has Pi figured out at this point. We’ve calculated it many times over and are confident about what it is down to many, many decimal places. However, if you fancy estimating it with some electronic assistance, you might find this project from [Roni Bandini] interesting.
[Roni] programmed an Arduino Nano R4 to estimate Pi using the Monte Carlo method. For this specific case, it involves drawing a circle inscribed inside a square. Points are then randomly scattered inside the square, and checked to see if they lie inside or outside the circle based on their position and distance of the circle’s outline from the center point of the square. By taking the ratio of the points inside the circle to the total number of points, you get an approximation of the ratio of the square and circle’s areas, which is equal to Pi/4. Thus, multiply the ratio by 4, and you’ve got your approximation of Pi.
[Roni] coded a program to run the Monte Carlo simulation on the Arduino Nano R4, taking advantage of the mathematical benefits of its onboard Floating Point Unit. It generates 100 new samples for the Monte Carlo approximation every second, improving the estimation of pi as it goes. It then displays the result on a 7-segment display, and beeps as it goes. [Roni] readily admits the project is a little too close in appearance to a classic Hollywood bomb.
We’ve seen some other neat Pi-calculating projects before, too.

Eventide Offers CrushStation Distortion Plugin FREE for a Limited Time
Eventide is giving away its CrushStation distortion plugin for free for a limited time (usually priced at $99, currently on sale for $19). CrushStation is Eventide’s all-in-one distortion workstation, capable of everything from subtle saturation to complete sonic destruction. It’s based on the distortion algorithms from the company’s H9 Harmonizer pedal, but with extra tone-shaping [...]
View post: Eventide Offers CrushStation Distortion Plugin FREE for a Limited Time

UnplugRed ModManmodulation effect that produces organic and ever changing randomized movements, based on a perlin noise algorithm. allows modulating a tape drift, low pass and its resonance, saturation, and amplitude. with this effect you can add movement to a pad, widen the stereo field, create a tape style effect, or experiment with bizzare settings to create interesting textures. its cool. Free version includes a non-intrusive banner. Available for mac, windows and linux, in AU, CLAP and VST3 formats, 64-bit only. More info: https://vst.unplug.red/ Read More