Analog Obsession releases THEDI, a FREE colored DI box plugin
Analog Obsession has released THEDI, a free coloration plugin inspired by a famous colored DI box. The developer describes THEDI as a “colored DI box in the box” that tightens the low end, enhances the mids, and adds sparkle to the high end. Analog Obsession doesn’t name the exact hardware unit, but my guess is [...]
View post: Analog Obsession releases THEDI, a FREE colored DI box plugin

The Bass Particle is a FREE bass saturation plugin for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Jesus Oyola has released The Bass Particle, a free bass saturation and sub-resonator plugin for Windows, macOS, and Linux. This is a cool little plugin for saturating and thickening bass frequencies. To some extent, it reminds me of our own free BPB Bassaturator plugin, although the control setup is very different. The Bass Particle is [...]
View post: The Bass Particle is a FREE bass saturation plugin for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Am I Audio launch I Am Choir Created in collaboration with Tokyo-based music technology experts Neurotone, Inc., I Am Choir is capable of turning a single vocal track into a full choral arrangement while preserving the original words and melody of the original part.

Moby praises the UK for inventing rave cultureMoby – one of the most important figures in the history of dance music – has praised the UK’s contributions to the genre during his headline set at Brighton’s On The Beach festival.
In fact, the American musician went as far as to say the UK “invented rave culture”, thanks to the explosion of some of dance music’s most enduring subgenres like house music and techno on its shores.
“When I was growing up I was such an Anglophile,” Moby told the crowd [via MusicRadar]. “I was obsessed, probably from the time I was six years old because I was able to watch Monty Python TV on Channel 13.
“But later on when I discovered the Sex Pistols and Public Image and the Clash, then I discovered Joy Division and New Order and Echo and the Bunnymen. I just fell in love with music from the UK.”

READ MORE: “We just don’t see a point of ever being on a label again”: M. Shadows on Avenged Sevenfold’s new chapter as a fully independent band

He continued: “This is where house music exploded. This is where techno exploded. And thanks to the originators like Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Pete Tong and Carl Cox… I don’t think it’s overstating it. I don’t think it’s hyperbole – you guys invented rave culture.”
Officially, the origins of techno music can be traced back to Detroit, Michigan in the early ‘80s – and the origins of house music back to Chicago, Illinois around a similar time – but the sound quickly made its way across the pond, before UK acts like Aphex Twin and The Prodigy helped it explode along with the rise of illegal warehouse and free party culture.
Moby himself – real name Richard Melville Hall – has straddled the boundaries of many genres over the course of his career, but his defining work came with the release of 1999’s Play. While the album initially had poor sales, it topped multiple charts in the months following, and has since become one of the top-selling electronic albums of all time, with over 12 million copies sold worldwide.
The post Moby praises the UK for inventing rave culture appeared first on MusicTech.

Windows-G E-Gain100 (VST3)A Windows-only VST3 gain plugin. Features: * Gain (-100 dB to +45 dB): Zipper-noise-free gain control. * Dry/Wet (0% to 100%, hidden but automatable): Great for fade-in/fade-out automation. Automating the gain control itself can result in quick transitions; instead, you can set your desired gain (e.g., -30dB or +30dB) and then automate the Dry/Wet from 0% to 100% or from 100% to 0% for a gradual fade effect. Available for automation as "Dry/Wet" in the plugin's parameter list. * Mute: When the gain slider is set to -100 dB, the output is completely muted. This can be useful for creative effects. * GUI Bypass Button: A smooth bypass button for toggling the gain effect on or off without audio clicks or pops. Available for automation as "Bypass (Smooth)" in the plugin's parameter list. * Support for Retina/high-DPI screens. Right click anywhere on the plugin's GUI and choose from the "UI Zoom" options to increase the size of the plugin interface. * Double-click the gain slider to reset it to its default value. Hold Ctrl while clicking and dragging for fine slider increments. You can grab it for FREE. Email Support: info.windowsg@gmail.com Read More

In the Studio with IAN SWEETThe Artist:  IAN SWEET - Jilian MedfordProducer & Mixed by: Ben AllenEngineered by: Ben AllenAdditional Engineering by: Tomás Uribe and Kegan KroghMastered by: Joe LaPortaRecorded at: Maze Studios and Rock Lobster RecordingThe Origin: For nearly a decade, Jilian Medford’s silvery vocal presence has been the heart of IAN SWEET—soothing and strong, it continually draws listeners into her ever-shifting soundscapes. This signature strength has guided listeners through the collaborative, angular rush of her debut Shapeshifter and the denser haze of Crush Crusher, as well as the introspective Show Me How You Disappear and the electro-pop-tinged SUCKER.Strewn within these atmospherics and propulsive rhythms are Medford’s lyrics, documenting frictions found in everyday life, processing the world through a melancholic-meets-luminous, kaleidoscopic lens, and notating everything from the painful to the divine. For Medford’s newest release Shiverstruck, vocals and lyrics remain her definitive creative prism, yet she deepens her approach by leaning into a hyper-focused writing process.By lasering into these smallest lyrical and instrumental details before jumping into the studio, she allowed a brand-new sense of creative spontaneity to emerge. Below, Medford shines a light onto this process, detailing how reexamining her songwriting workflow allowed her to find an assured version of IAN SWEET.The Production: While chaotic spontaneity defined much of IAN SWEET’s prior recording history, for this collection of songs, Medford deliberately chose to let patience prevail. Before tracking began, she meticulously refined her demos, dialing in the exact shapes and structural foundations for each song. This newfound discipline became the ultimate core of the album's creation. Paradoxically, instead of feeling confined by this structure, having the underpinnings of each song completed gave Medford a pseudo-safety net—leaving her free to sonically explore while tracking. This elevated form of pre-production in turn allowed for deeper in-the-room exploration, securing her creativity before a single microphone was turned on.

“I just wanted to be confident with every song before stepping into the studio,” Medford explains. “I wanted to use the studio time for elevating it... It was like a little bit more mature way to approach creating, which is different for me. But it felt good to have everything in a very solidified place.”

This methodical approach to the first phase of recording—ticking the boxes for drums, bass, guitar, and piano—might seem counterintuitive, but it ultimately created the free time to dabble and dive into the unknown depths of sonic exploration. Medford credits producer Ben Allen's seasoned workflow for maintaining a sense of calm that allowed for the magic to happen. "He has a method to the madness and makes it so that we’re never over our heads,” she notes. “We’d get the basics tracked, leaving time to try whatever the hell we want, make crazy mistakes and run with those... It was just great to have the foundations and then be able to explore a bit more, giving a little glitter on top.”

This structural sense of security extended beyond instrumentation; it gave Medford the psychological permission to fully release her vocal register, navigating the quiet moments before blowing out the loud. “My favorite thing about singing is the release that you get,” Medford shares, highlighting her tracks' extreme emotional range. “You can have these really introspective, soft, personal moments… and then you can just explode at any moment.”For Medford, this vocal dynamic mirrors the complexity of the human experience. “We can be soft, vulnerable, shy, and insecure, and then we can be the most confident, loud, take-up-space person as well. Through the vocal production and the vocal takes, and where they sit in the mix, that complexity really gets a chance to shine.”

This emotional freedom was augmented by the copacetic, creative vibe of Maze Studios in Atlanta. The space, owned by Allen, offered Medford an alternative to the sterile confines of traditional recording spaces, mirroring her headspace. “What I loved about Maze is that they weren’t trying to be anything but themselves,” Medford reflects. “It’s a feeling like you're in your living room. The gear has been collected over the years, and it is part of it. Everything has a very personal story to it, a history. It felt like a similar place to where I'm at in my life… I'm just trying to work hard, get my hands dirty, and find my truest self.”

Liberated from outside expectations, this absolute creative environment allowed her to let the messy, physical world bleed straight onto the microphone. Because the foundations of the songs were already set, these environmental disruptions never derailed the tracks; instead, they became part of the record's accidental magic.“I think just the space in general that we were recording in felt very down and dirty and industrial and really raw,” Medford continues. “We would sometimes have to stop vocal takes because a storm outside was shaking the garage door in the room… But at times those earthly sounds made their way through anyway. That was the point though—even more than hearing my voice, you’re hearing the world around me.”

This deep alignment of values fostered an environment of total ease among her tight, three-person tracking team consisting of herself, producer Ben Allen, and engineer Ben Etter—a unified front that provided something invaluable: the freedom to claim absolute ownership over her performances without fear of judgment. Medford felt safe to try anything, including playing piano, a testament to the unspoken connection within the sessions.

“It was just the three of us really making this record together,” Medford notes. “I think them drawing something out of me—I wasn't afraid to say, 'Can I hop in there and play?'… I'm not an amazing piano player, but I wanted to play piano on this record. I wanted to be the one sitting at the piano playing it. It was important for me to do it, even though that's not my main instrument.”

Their answer was always an encouraging yes. “There was no question from the Bens. It was like, 'Yeah, go down there and play.' And even if I messed up the notes, nobody said anything,” she shares. “Just feeling that room felt like being equal in the process…it's my music, so I want to be the one there doing it. I don't want anybody else playing everything, because I'm going to look back and feel as though I wasn't a part of it. It was very important for me to feel very, very part of it.”

In the end, Shiverstruck stands as the sonic realization of an artist finally aligning with herself. By stepping out of the crowded, chaotic expectations of her early career, Medford used the studio to chisel away the noise, leaving a lean soundscape where her voice, lyrics, and instrumentation are entirely her own. In doing so, she conquered her chaotic instincts and reclaimed total creative confidence, turning daily tracking sessions into a space to embrace and push boundaries.

Photo Credit: Wrenne Evans

The post In the Studio with IAN SWEET first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Bessent’s top crypto adviser Tyler Williams exits US Treasury: ReportA key architect of the Trump administration’s digital asset agenda is leaving the Treasury Department as Congress struggles to advance landmark crypto legislation.

Circuit Bending, But Make It MIDICircuit bending is a chaotic art. At its simplest, it can just involve making connections between random points on a circuit board to create weird sounds in musical hardware. Or, you can complicate things, get really specific with your hookups, and twist them with various sorts of modulation. [Simon the Magpie] has been working on something closer to the latter category, with his neat project to add MIDI to the circuit bending world. 
The concept is straightforward enough. [Simon] has created a device that you place in line with your circuit bent connections, particularly those that create pitch bends with pots thanks to their variable resistance. You can then play your MIDI keyboard, and the device will vary the resistance in the circuit and bend the pitch at your command. [Simon] simply calls the device MIDI TO RESISTANCE, because that’s… precisely what it does, with the aid of a digital potentiometer. He then demonstrates it doing its thing on pitchbent toys, and it sounds pretty radical in use.
If you’re trying to make your circuit bent toys and instruments more musical, this build should serve as a great inspiration. We’ve featured other oddball musical hacks in a similarly creative vein before, too—such as using mixers as a synthesizer in their own right. Have fun out there.

BMG acquires Wolfmother frontman Andrew Stockdale’s publishing and recorded rightsBMG has published Stockdale globally since 2016, and the acquisition adds his recorded music royalties and neighboring rights to that relationship.
Source

AWS is helping vibe-coding startup Superblocks, and the implications are bigAWS now allows vibe coding tool Superblocks to be embedded into the private clouds of AWS customers. It's another step towards decoupling apps from models.

Sound Particles update Beat Panner Sound Particles have just added a new Metadata Automation function to their their recently launched Beat Panner plug-in, making it possible to copy the ‘movement’ generated by the plug-in and apply it to object-based tracks in immersive sessions. 

“We just don’t see a point of ever being on a label again”: M. Shadows on Avenged Sevenfold’s new chapter as a fully independent bandIs the concept of the record label obsolete? Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows certainly thinks so.
Earlier this year, the Huntington Beach metal outfit purchased back the master recordings for their 2016 album The Stage from Capitol Records, completing their transition to being a fully independent band for the first time in 26 years.
The move followed comments made by M. Shadows years prior in which he took aim at record labels. “You’re going to take 24 cents on our dollar and that’s all you can do, come up with a f**king fake viral TikTok moment?” he said.
Now, the singer has doubled down on his opinion that in 2026, record labels are no longer necessary to make it as an artist.

READ MORE: Vangelis’s first Yamaha CS-80 was listed on Reverb for £400k – and someone actually bought it

“Because of the way the music industry is now, we just don’t see a point of ever being on a label again. They really can’t do much for you,” he says in a new conversation with actor Nick Turturro. “They’ll tell you they can do a lot but they can’t. There’s no radio that matters. There’s no MTV. They’re gonna try to get you on TikTok which everyone can do themselves.”
Of course, once upon a time, record labels had more leverage in the ability to influence what was played on widely consumed channels like mainstream radio and MTV.
“They would hook you up with producers, engineers and mixers, and then they would pay Walmart and Target to put you on the endcaps,” Shadows continues. “And they would pay radio stations to play you. It was called ‘payola’ – it was illegal but they’d do it. And then they would go and hound MTV and get your records played on national television.
“Now it’s all gone. Now I upload something on YouTube and on TikTok, and I can go play shows. I can make more money in one show than it would cost to make a record, and when they give you the money, you’re paying four times what that money is to get it back. So, there’s just no point.”
Shadows encourages fledgling artists not to sign with major labels if they are able to go it alone.
“People are still very late to move,” he says. “They’re looking at it going, ‘Well, it’s really cool to tell my grandparents that I’m on Universal, but really Universal gives you $25,000, you have to make $100,000 to pay that back… And so if you can afford it yourself, you should do it yourself.”
While he notes that he’s “extremely grateful” to mediums like radio stations and MTV for “catapulting” Avenged Sevenfold to success, Shadows says those platforms led to a dilution of creativity, with musicians and labels chasing what they thought people would want to hear.
“When you have radio stations and MTV, you get a lot of favourites being played because this worked so go make more stuff like that. And there’s not a lot of creativity there,” he continues.
“It’s basically based on what people are listening to. And so the art form really becomes a full-on product. And that’s not really what music should be. It should be a free expression.”

Avenged Sevenfold have been on the cutting edge of fan club design since the launch of their NFT-based Deathbats Club in 2021. They also operate Deathbat Rewards, a free loyalty program through which fans can earn points by listening to their music, buying merch and attending shows, and spend those points on special perks.
“We’re taking power away from corporate networks, and saying, ‘No, we’re gonna reward our fans, not you,’” M. Shadows told MusicTech in 2024.
Recently, the band surprise-released a brand-new EP, STATICA. With a sound far removed from the twin guitars, earworm melodies and standard rock band instrumentation they’re known for, the EP has since divided fans…

The post “We just don’t see a point of ever being on a label again”: M. Shadows on Avenged Sevenfold’s new chapter as a fully independent band appeared first on MusicTech.

The Usual Suspects JADE: a FREE Roland JD-990 simulator (alpha)
JADE from The Usual Suspects is a Roland JD-990 simulator currently in alpha, and it’s available for free. You can download this alpha version from the developers’ Discord channel in AU, VST2, VST3, LV2, and CLAP formats for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Once an official release is announced, you’ll be able to download it directly [...]
View post: The Usual Suspects JADE: a FREE Roland JD-990 simulator (alpha)

Native Instruments FM8 drops to its lowest-ever $10 price at Plugin Boutique
Plugin Boutique is offering Native Instruments FM8 for $10 until August 16th. This is the lowest price I have ever seen for FM8. We have covered some great Native Instruments deals on BPB before, including FM8 at $24.50 last year, but I don’t remember seeing it drop below $10. If you have been waiting to [...]
View post: Native Instruments FM8 drops to its lowest-ever $10 price at Plugin Boutique

Peak Tamer from Nicky Howard Peak Tamer is a new standalone application that automatically applies gain automation to keep rogue peaks under control in an effort to avoid distortion, pumping or other unwanted artefacts from being introduced by dynamic processors during mastering.