Rippling wants UK fintech Revolut to reveal who paid off Deel’s alleged “spy”Another highly-valued startup has just been added to the mix in the ongoing legal drama between Rippling and Deel: U.K. fintech giant Revolut. In his blockbuster affidavit that reads like it’s straight out of a movie, Irish Rippling employee Keith O’Brien claimed that he was paid about $6,000 a month to spy on Rippling. He […]

Solana price is up 36% from its crypto market crash lows — Is $180 SOL the next stop?Solana’s native token SOL (SOL) failed to maintain its bullish momentum after reaching the $134 level on April 14, but an assortment of data points suggest that the altcoin’s rally is not over. SOL price is currently 57% down from its all-time high, partially due to a sharp decline in its DApps activity, but some analysts cite the growth in deposits on the Solana network as a catalyst for sustained price upside in the short term.Blockchains ranked by total value locked, USD. Source: DefiLlamaSolana has established itself as the second-largest blockchain by total value locked (TVL), with $6.9 billion. After gaining 12% over the seven days ending April 16, Solana has pulled ahead of competitors such as Tron, Base, and Berachain. Positive signs include a 30% increase in deposits on Sanctum, a liquid staking application, and 20% growth on Jito and Jupiter.Solana's DEX volume surpasses Ethereum layer-2sOne could argue that Solana’s TVL roughly matches the Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem in deposits. However, this comparison overlooks Solana’s strong position in decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes. For example, in the seven days ending April 16, trading activity on Solana DApps totaled $15.8 billion, exceeding the combined volume of Ethereum scaling solutions by more than 50% during the same period.Blockchains ranked by 7-day DEX volumes, USD. Source: DefiLlamaSolana reclaimed the top spot in DEX activity, surpassing Ethereum after a 16% gain over seven days. This was supported by a 44% increase in volume on Pump-fun and a 28% rise on Raydium. In contrast, volumes declined on the three largest Ethereum DApps—Uniswap, Fluid, and Curve Finance. A similar trend occurred on BNB Chain, where PancakeSwap, Four-Meme, and DODO saw reduced volumes compared to the previous week.It would be unfair to measure Solana’s growth only by DEX performance, as other DApps handle much smaller volumes. For example, Ondo Finance tokenized a total of $250 million worth of assets on the Solana network. Meanwhile, Exponent, a yield farm protocol, doubled its TVL over the past 30 days. Similarly, the yield aggregator platform Synatra experienced a 43% jump in TVL during the past week.Synatra DApp screenshot. Source: CointelegraphAnalysts are confident that a Solana spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) will be approved in the United States in 2025. However, expectations for significant inflows are limited due to a general lack of interest from institutional investors and the recent poor performance of similar Ethereum ETF instruments. If the spot ETF is approved, it could strengthen Solana’s presence—especially if the US government’s Digital Asset Stockpile plans come to fruition.Related: Real estate fintech Janover doubles Solana holdings with $10.5M buyInvestors are eagerly awaiting the full audit of US federal agencies’ crypto holdings, initially expected by April 7. However, after missing this deadline, some journalists suggest that the executive order signed on March 7 did not require the findings to be made public. Regardless of whether SOL appears on that list, there are currently no plans from the government to acquire cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin (BTC).Currently, there are few catalysts to justify a rally to $180, a level last seen 45 days ago on March 2. Without external factors causing a large influx of new participants into the crypto ecosystem, the increase in TVL and DEX market share alone is unlikely to push SOL’s price to outperform the broader market.This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Judy Collins at the GRAMMY MuseumMusic legend and GRAMMY-Winner Judy Collins discussed her poetry book Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss, and Redemption with  three-time Emmy-winner, On-Air Reporter, and Senior Producer for Extra TV Adam Weissler in the Clive Davis Theater at the Grammy Museum on April 5th. Collins, just a month away from her 86th birthday, has had quite an extraordinary career—the following night she performed at the Fred Kavli Theater in Thousand Oaks, CA. Since her first album release in 1961, Collins has released over 30 albums and her music has spanned the genres of Pop, Folk, Country, and Show Tunes. During the discussion, she spoke of her friendship with Leonard Cohen (they did a duet album together in 2004, Democracy). Of the poems read from her book, Collins read one that she had written quite some time ago about Gene Hackman, who recently passed. Although the event was a book discussion and not a performance, Collins did sing quite a bit throughout the conversation. Afterwards, she signed copies of her book and talked with fans. Collins continues to tour across the U.S.—most recently, in 2023, she toured across England and in 2024, she toured in Australia. Collins first appeared at the GRAMMY Museum for "An Evening With" event in 2011, which was just two years after the museum opened.Photos by Alex KluftThe post Judy Collins at the GRAMMY Museum first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

The Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building opens with Sonic JubilanceJohann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), the German polymath whose life and work embodied the connections between the arts and sciences, is said to have described architecture as “frozen music.” When the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building at MIT had its public opening earlier this year, the temperature outside may have been below freezing but the performances inside were a warm-up for the inaugural concert that took place in the evening. During the afternoon, visitors were invited to workshops in Balinese gamelan and Senegalese drumming, alongside performances by the MIT Chamber Music Society, MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, and the MIT Laptop Ensemble (FaMLE), demonstrating the synergy between global music traditions and contemporary innovation in music technology. The building was filled with visitors from the MIT community and the Boston area, keen to be among the first to enter the new building and discover what MIT Music had planned for the opening occasion.The evening’s landmark concert, Sonic Jubilance, celebrated the building’s completion and the pivotal role of MIT Music and Theater Arts (MTA) at the center of life on campus. The program was distinguished by five world premieres by MIT composers: “Summit and Mates,” by assistant professor in jazz Miguel Zenón; “Grace,” by senior lecturer in music Charles Shadle; “Two Noble Kinsmen,” by professor emeritus in music John Harbison; and “Madrigal,” by Keeril Makan, the Michael (1949) and Sonja Koerner Music Composition Professor. The premieres were interwoven through the program with performances by MIT ensembles demonstrating the breadth and depth of the conservatory-level music program — from the European classical tradition to Brazilian beats to Boston jazz (the full list of participating ensembles can be found below). Each performance demonstrated the different ways the space could be used to create new relationships between musicians and audiences. Designed in the round by the architecture firm SANAA, the Thomas Tull Concert Hall allows sound to resonate from the circular stage or from the aisles above the tiered seating; performers might be positioned below, above, or even in the midst of the audience.“Music has been a part of MIT's curriculum and culture from the beginning,” said Chancellor Melissa Nobles in her opening address. “Arriving at this magnificent space has taken the collective efforts of past presidents, provosts, deans, faculty, alumni, and students, all working to get us here this evening.” Jay Scheib, the Class of 1949 Professor and MIT MTA section head, emphasized the vital role of Music at MIT as a source of cohesion and creativity for students, faculty, and the wider MIT community. “The new building is an extraordinary home for us. As a destination to convene communities around world musics and cultures, to engage in emerging music technologies, and to experience concerts and premieres featuring our extraordinary students and our internationally renowned faculty — the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building is truly a transformational thing." The concert was also the launch event of Artfinity, MIT’s largest public festival of the arts since 2011, featuring more than 80 free performing and visual arts events. The concert hall will host performances throughout the spring, ranging from classical to jazz to rap, and more.Institute Professor Marcus Thompson — the faculty co-lead for Artfinity alongside Azra Akšamija, director and associate professor of the Art, Culture, and Technology Program (ACT) at MIT — shared thoughts on the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building as a point of orientation for the festival. “Our building offers the opportunity to point to the presence and importance of other art forms, media, practices, and experiences that can bring us together as practitioners and audiences, lifting our spirits and our sights,” Thompson reflected. “An ensemble of any kind is a community as well as a metaphor for what connects us, applying different talents to create more than we can do alone.”The new compositions by the four faculty members were a case in point. The program opened with “Summit,” a brass fanfare projected from the top of the hall with ceremonial zeal. “The piece was specifically written as an opener for the concert,” Zenón explained. “My aim was to compose something that would make a statement straight away, while also using the idea of the ‘groove’ as a driving force. The title has two meanings. The first is a mountaintop, or the top of a structure — which is where the ensemble will be placed for the performance. The second is a gathering of great minds and great leaders, which is what MIT feels like for me.” Later in the program, Zenón premiered a jazz contrafact, “Mates,” playing on Benny Golson’s Stablemates, a tribute to Herb Pomeroy, founder of MIT’s jazz program. “The idea here is to use something connected to the jazz tradition — and to Boston’s history — and approach it from a more personal perspective,” said Zenón.“Two Noble Kinsmen,” by Harbison, was composed as a benediction for the new home of MIT Music. “In choosing to set Shakespeare’s final words in this new piece for choir and strings, I wanted to convey the sense of an invocation, an introduction, an address to unseen forces,” said Harbison. “In this case, I wanted to leave the musical structure as plain as possible so that we understand why these words are chosen. I hoped to capture the stoic balance of these lines — they are in themselves a kind of verbal music.”In setting the words of the poem “Grace,” by the Chickasaw poet Linda Hogan, Shadle — a composer of Choctaw heritage — envisioned a “sonic extension” of the MIT Land Acknowledgement. “‘Grace’ intended to speak to the Indigenous presence at the Institute and to open the new building with a reminder of the balm music that can bring to a troubled world,” said Shadle. “I hope that I have composed music that links Indigenous and Western traditions in ways that are compelling and thoughtful and that, while recognizing the ‘pieces of hurt,’ still makes a place for grace.”Before the concert’s euphoric finale — a performance by Rambax Senegalese Drum Ensemble directed by Lamine Touré — “Madrigal” (the evening’s fourth world premiere) served to demonstrate the spatial dimensions of sound made possible by the design of the concert hall. Makan’s composition was performed by four student violinists positioned at the top of each aisle and a fifth, Professor Natalie Lin Douglas, at the center of the stage, simultaneously showcasing the geometry of the hall and referencing the ever-shifting perspectives of the sculpture that stands at the north entrance of the building — “Madrigal (2024),” by Sanford Biggers.“My piece aims to capture the multifaceted quality of Sanford Biggers’ sculpture. From whichever vantage point we might look at it, we see the same patterns in new relationships with one another. In other words, there is no one point of view that is privileged over another.”As faculty lead for the building project, Makan developed a friendship with Joyce Linde, who provided the principal gift that led to the building. “Joyce and I were on the selection committee to choose an artist to create a site-specific sculpture outside the building. She was very excited about the process, and very engaged with Sanford,” said Makan. “Joyce passed away before she was able to see the building’s completion, and I wanted to honor her legacy by writing an original piece of music in her memory.”That sense of relationship, pattern-making, and new beginnings was articulated by Frederick Harris, director and senior lecturer in music and the co-producer of the concert, alongside Andy Wilds, program manager in music. “The hall is an instrument; we’re communing with this incredible space and getting to know it,” said Harris. “It’s a relationship. The circular form of the hall is very welcoming, not only to immersive experiences but also to shared experiences.”The role of music in cultivating community will ensure that the building will become an integral part of MIT life. The work taking place in rehearsal rooms matches the innovation of the Institute’s labs — proving that the arts are a necessary counterpart to science and technology, continuous with the human instinct to express and invent. Sonic Jubilance sets the tone of what’s to come. MIT Music ensembles (in order of concert appearance):MIT Concert ChoirMIT Chamber ChorusMIT Chamber Music SocietyMIT Vocal Jazz EnsembleMIT Jazz Advanced Music Performance EnsembleMIT Axiom EnsembleMIT Wind EnsembleMIT Gamelan Galak TikaRambax MIT 

Making a Variable Speed Disc Sander from an Old Hard DriveThis short video from [ProShorts 101] shows us how to build a variable speed disc sander from not much more than an old hard drive.
We feel that as far as hacks go this one ticks all the boxes. It is clever, useful, and minimal yet comprehensive; it even has a speed control! Certainly this hack uses something in a way other than it was intended to be used.
Take this ingenuity and add an old hard drive from your junkbox, sandpaper, some glue, some wire, a battery pack, a motor driver, a power socket and a potentiometer, drill a few holes, glue a few pieces, and voilà! A disc sander! Of course the coat of paint was simply icing on the cake.
The little brother of this hack was done by the same hacker on a smaller hard drive and without the speed control, so check that out too.
One thing that took our interest while watching these videos is what tool the hacker used to cut sandpaper. Here we witnessed the use of both wire cutters and a craft knife. Perhaps when you’re cutting sandpaper you just have to accept that the process will wear out the sharp edge on your tool, regardless of which tool you use. If you have a hot tip for the best tool for the job when it comes to cutting sandpaper please let us know in the comments! (Also, did anyone catch what type of glue was used?)
If you’re interested in a sander but need something with a smaller form factor check out how to make a sander from a toothbrush!

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt: AI that is ‘as smart as the smartest artist’ will be here in 3 to 5 yearsSchmidt predicts AI that is 'as smart as the smartest mathematician, physicist, artist, writer, thinker, politician...'
Source

Behind the sample in Pokémon’s “Pikkaan!”: A conversation with Petal Supply
Petal Supply breaks down how her sample heard in Pokémon's ending theme "Pikkaan!" was made and shares her top tips for budding producers.

Triple Spiral Audio OriginsOrigins is a new soundset for Pigments 6 with 110 presets created from new custom samples and wavetables, the new modal engine and all features that Pigments has to offer. Inspired by composers such as Ludwig Göransson, Theodore Shapiro, Ólafur Arnalds and more, the Origins soundset brings you a collection of modern, dark and light presets that can be used for a large variety of music productions. Included are a a great collection of arp's, sequences, pulses, keys, pads, textures, atmospheres, basses and otherworldly presets. Requirements: Pigments 6.0.2 or higher and 790mb free HD space. Read More

Support for a 10% cap on ticket resales grows in UK and USOnce almost unthinkable, a 10% cap on ticket resales is inching closer to reality in the UK and the US.
The post Support for a 10% cap on ticket resales grows in UK and US appeared first on Hypebot.

How to Find Copyright Owners For Covers and SamplesWant to use a someone else's audio legally but don’t know who owns it? This expert guide shows you how to find copyright holders fast - and get the permissions you need without the legal headaches.
The post How to Find Copyright Owners For Covers and Samples appeared first on Hypebot.

JKriv: “A finished track is better than a perfect track, every single time”As a producer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and co-founder of Brooklyn’s revered Razor-N-Tape label, JKriv has helped shape the sound of underground house and disco for over two decades. A trained jazz musician addicted to crate-digging and a deep admiration for texture, the artist is constantly chasing and creating sounds for dancefloors full of fellow groove obsessives — and can count Disclosure and Gilles Peterson among his fans.
But his latest project, Intuition, hits a little deeper. Completed during JKriv’s treatment for lymphoma in the autumn of 2024, the record is a personal triumph and a reflection of creative resilience. Inspired by the 90s-style sounds of Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Morales, and harnessing his arsenal of analogue synthesizers and talented vocal collaborators, the EP is JKriv’s ode to the sounds that have shaped him.
During a stretch of performances in Europe, we caught up with JKriv to learn more about life as an artist and label boss, how his diagnosis impacted his music-making process, and why he won’t release music that’s been made only on his laptop.
Intuition EP by JKriv
This is your first release back on Razor-N-Tape in 2 years. As a label owner, do you feel any tension when working with competing labels?
JKriv: So, I wear two hats: the label owner hat and the artist hat. As an artist, I have my own goals — releasing on labels I like and involving myself in things I’d love to be part of. Then I have the goals for the label, but there’s a sort of Venn diagram where they overlap in a certain portion, and I think that spreading some of what I do around helps the label profile, too.
Does that get tough to balance?
JKriv: Yeah. Before what I went through last year, I was starting to feel overloaded and overwhelmed with everything that I committed to. One of the things that I’m trying to do now is say no to some things and make space for the important stuff, so I can give everything important to me the attention that it deserves. And that’s not just music, but other things that are important to me — family, and just taking time for myself.
But to be honest, I love it all. And I get in that situation because I want to do everything — I want to do that remix, I want to do this event, I want to do that gig. And some days it can be self-defeating, because if you feel overwhelmed and you’ve got too much, then you’re not doing any of it — you just kind of shut down. So, yeah, you do have to find the balance, but it’s tough.
Did you intend for your new music to be reflective of last year’s events in your personal life?
JKriv: I wouldn’t say that the music is aesthetically reflective of what I was going through, but it was very important to me to finish it. [I didn’t want it to] not get done because of what I was going through.
I was fortunate to have the energy to work on music, and it really helped me get through the process. So it’s a really meaningful EP to me, in that sense. It was just important to me to feel, mentally and emotionally, that I didn’t let it get the better of me to the point where I didn’t complete the work that I wanted to.
Image: Press
How do you actually get from an idea or sketch to a finished track?
JKriv: Yeah…Finishing music is the hardest part; the start, the inspiration, that’s the fun part. That last 10% is the really challenging part. I think that ‘finished’ is better than ‘perfect’ every single time, so I try to keep that in mind. And another thing to remember: sometimes, a track is not meant to be finished now. Sometimes it sits, and then later, elements of it become useful for something else. I’ve had so many songs that at some point I’ve been like, ‘Oh, you know what? I’ve got that thing I never finished. It’s got the perfect element in there for this new song.’ And I go back and repurpose it into something I’m doing. If you’re organised about the way you keep stuff, then you can do that — and it’s really satisfying when you’re able to do it.
You’re DJing and performing in a ton of cities this year. Are you often making and finishing music on the road, or are you waiting until you’re back in the studio?
JKriv: Very few of my productions go straight from laptop to vinyl. I need to get stuff home. I like to write parts that I can replace later; maybe start with a soft synth emulation, then replace it [with the real thing]. I can build out ideas on a laptop, but they’re never going to be finished ideas. For me, the process involves getting real instruments into a track and potentially collaborating with some people.
The exception to that is edits. I’ll make edits all the time while I’m travelling, and then play them the same night during a DJ set.
The Intuition EP has a lot of 80s- and 90s-style sounds. Do you tend to use the real hardware of the era to create those tones?
JKriv: I have a lot of analogue equipment at home — some synths and drum machines from the era — but I’m not a purist about that. I’m not going to buy a Yamaha CS-80 just because I want a CS-80 sound on there. I feel like, over time, you learn how to work with software instruments and get them to sound the way that you want, through processing.
I just think it’s important to bring stuff out of the box — processing it through hardware, like dynamic processors or effects. That can help music sound a bit more alive and dynamic. But also, if it sounds good, it’s good.
Image: Press
I’m told that Intuition is “a strong statement of how far your sound has travelled in the 2+ years” — what does that mean exactly?
JKriv: This EP, sonically, is a little different from what some people might expect from me. It’s a lot less live instrument-driven; it’s more electronic. My main instruments are bass and guitar, but Intuition is all synthesisers, drum machines and vocals. So it’s a departure, in that sense.
It’s pretty clubby; it’s maybe reflective of the music that I like to DJ. And it’s also in line with the direction that Razor-N-Tape has been going — a bit more modern house and a bit less retro-disco. And it’s got vocal features from two artists that we’ve worked with on the label Megatronic and Pahua, both wonderful artists and singers. I actually sang a little bit myself – I can sing, but I’m not that crazy about my own voice. I’ve actually never sung on a record that I’ve released before. So that’s new.
Speaking of your DJ sets, you tend to gravitate more towards vinyl and rotary mixers…
JKriv: It’s not feasible to schlep let around Europe, but I love records. Vinyl isn’t exactly how I started DJing, but it is the way that I feel the most comfortable these days. If I could play records every gig and know it’s going to be set up perfectly and all the conditions were going to be right, and I didn’t have to break my back dragging them around, then that’s what I would do.
My favourite type of mixer is a rotary mixer. There are a lot of different ones, and they all have their own character. I own two E&S mixers — a two-channel and a four-channel. I’ve had them for 10 or 11 years. We have one in the shop now, in the Razor-N-Tape shop, made by Dima Khramov. It’s a very unique mixer — it’s really beautiful and smooth. You DJ a little bit differently when you play on one of those, compared to playing on a Pioneer DJ mixer.
Image: Press
We’ve seen a rise of hi-fi bars recently, particularly in major cities like New York, which are kitted out with nice rotary mixers and high-end equipment. Do you often visit these venues?
JKriv: I have — they’re popping up all over. It’s a big new outlet and venue for DJs. My feelings about them are a bit mixed. It really depends and varies from one to another. Some of the hi-fi bars end up just being restaurants with a nice sound system. It’s really hard to instil the ethic of listening to the music once people are paying a lot of money for food and drinks, you know? It can be hard to get out of the background music thing.
That said, sometimes that’s cool. Maybe you’re just playing for the people around you, your friends who come and sit down. It’s nice to share music in that way, in a more casual kind of way, that’s less about dancing and partying.

READ MORE: Inside 5 of New York City’s best hi-fi bars

As someone who’s pretty active in electronic music culture, what do you hope to see more of in clubs and venues?
JKriv: I’d love to see a move back towards dark rooms and more anonymity for the DJ. My least favourite way to play is up on a stage where the focus is directed towards you and less about the energy in the room and people interacting and dancing. I think festival culture has driven that — it’s now about the personality of the DJ and the “performance” they’re giving.
We need more listeners and dancers and less DJs, too. Back in the day, music discovery was a different process. You had to spend money on it. You’d have to go and dig for records and learn the craft of doing it. And now, with digital DJing and digital record collecting, it’s much easier. That’s good, obviously, but also the market is just flooded.
Image: Press
Before we go, I want to ask you about streaming. As an independent label that presses to vinyl, what’s Razor-N-Tape’s approach to modern music consumption?
JKriv: It’s tricky. I don’t want to say it’s a battle that’s been fought and lost. I’m hopeful that there’s a way to change the model a bit. But as a label, we’re working within the parameters of what the system is, and we’re finding a lot of success with streaming. Over time, things start to grow.
[With vinyl], you sell a white label record, you press 1,000 copies, you sell it, and when that’s done, you’re probably not going to repress it. So that’s all the money the artist will make from it, right? Streaming is obviously pennies, but the music will sit there forever. And it grows — you start to see over time how that income stream can build for you and for the artists. So that’s a positive thing.
I would love to see a platform like Bandcamp build out some features that could compete with a streaming service like Spotify. Most people would love to know that the money they’re paying for music is supporting artists a bit more. I think if you gave people the opportunity to do that, they would go for it, and it would be a real success.
Check out the full Razor-N-Tape catalogue and JKriv’s Intuition EP on Bandcamp.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The post JKriv: “A finished track is better than a perfect track, every single time” appeared first on MusicTech.

“Do we need another 909 kick drum? No we don’t”: Why Will Clarke opts for this obscure Russian drum machine when crafting beatsWhen it comes to choosing your beat-making hardware, is it best to pick something tried and tested like the Roland TR-808 or 909, or opt for something a little more obscure in pursuit of new drum sounds?
British DJ, producer and podcast host Will Clarke thinks it’s wiser to choose the latter, as he explains in the first episode of MusicTech’s My Forever Studio Season 7.

READ MORE: 19,000 sq ft music education campus opens in Shoreditch, with 13 studios, Dolby Atmos mixing facilities and a dedicated DJ space developed with Pioneer DJ

Speaking to MusicTech’s Chris Barker and Will Betts, Clarke notes how he opts for a little-known Russian drum machine – the AVP ADS-7 – when it comes to crafting certain elements for his beats.
Clarke first became aware of the ADS-7 – an analogue drum machine with an onboard sequencer, MIDI, CV and individual outputs – after seeing a clip online around 2018, when he was beginning to dip his toes into techno music.
“I was like, ‘I really want to change drums. I really want to have a specific sound of what my techno side sounds like.’ And I said, ‘What can help me get that?’” He reached out to AVP via DM, who said each ADS-7 is made by hand to order.
“So I ordered the MkI and it just rocked up from Russia on my doorstep,” he says. “It’s very easy to use. It’s a very unique sound – it’s very noisy.
“Everyone can get a 303, everyone can get a 909. Do we need another 909 kick drum? No we don’t. I still use it to this day.
In terms of what he regularly uses the ADS-7 on, Clarke replies: “Hats, all of my hats, all of my shakers. It’s just really noisy. I like twisting shit. I’m not a super nerdy synth guy [who knows] everything about synths, but I know what I need to know to get the job done.
Even the most seasoned synth nuts will attest to the intimidating nature of the ADS-7’s interface. As Clarke so eloquently puts it, “It looks Russian as fuck.”
“It’s not a clean sound,” he concludes, “but I’m not looking for a clean sound. I’m looking for something gritty. I’m looking for something to get textures that you wouldn’t get from a sample.”

[products ids=”46KMPPCynrf3lxfAakOBap”]
The My Forever Studio podcast – created in partnership with Audient – sees artists, producers, and engineers create their dream fantasy Forever Studio. However, hosts Chris Barker and Will Betts impose some strict rules. Our guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they must choose carefully. There will be nostalgia. There will be anecdotes. There may be gags. But there will be no bundles!
You can subscribe to My Forever Studio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and check out all episodes so far via MusicTech.
The post “Do we need another 909 kick drum? No we don’t”: Why Will Clarke opts for this obscure Russian drum machine when crafting beats appeared first on MusicTech.

Concatenator from Datamind Audio Datamind Audio have announced the launch of a new AI-powered plug-in that’s capable of creating complex new sounds and textures based on any audio file or input source. 

19,000 sq ft music education campus opens in Shoreditch, with 13 studios, Dolby Atmos mixing facilities and a dedicated DJ space developed with Pioneer DJIn recent years, cuts to arts funding have taken their toll on music education, but it’s not all bad news. London’s pointblank Music School has just opened a new 19,000 square-foot Shoreditch campus, hosting 13 studios catering to DJing, production and engineering.
Studios include two immersive Dolby Atmos facilities fitted with Solid State Logic Duality Delta and Origin consoles, Adam Audio S Series monitors, and Avid Pro Tools HD, offering students the “most advanced spatial audio experience available”.

READ MORE: Five of the best free software and apps for DJs

There’s also a new DJ Performance studio developed in partnership with Pioneer DJ, with 16 DJ workstations with industry-leading gear including the OPUS-QUAD, DJM-A9, CDJ-3000 and DJS-1000. These workstations are equipped with state-of-the-art software including Ableton live, Beatport/Beatsource, Logic Pro, Neural Mix Pro, Mixed In Key, rekordbox, Serato and Traktor Pro.
The spaces also include six “cutting-edge” music production studios with Ableton Push 3 suites – for mastering real-time production and performance techniques – a specialist MuSE (Music Production and Software Engineering) classroom, enabling students to code and develop software for Mac and Windows, and Music Business Classrooms, where students can learn about artist management, label operations, music marketing and other music industry specialisms.
At the centre of the campus, though is a central performance Hub, which doubles as a bar for socialising and a place for students to host gigs, and features two dedicated singing studios for musicians keen to train their vocals.
Credit: pointblank
“Our new Shoreditch campus is more than just a school, it’s a creative hub designed to inspire the next generation of music professionals,” says Rob Cowan, CEO & Founder at pointblank Music School. “With cutting-edge technology, immersive learning spaces, and a strong focus on hands-on experience, our students are in the best possible environment to launch their careers in music.”
pointblank has offered music education for three decades, with its original Hoxton school opening in 1994. Since, it has expanded to locations in Los Angeles and Ibiza, and also offers online courses.
The school has even earned the honour of being the UK’s only TEF Gold-rated music production institution for teaching excellence. Students can dig into a slew of unique courses, each focusing on a specialised corner of music, from Music Production, Sound Engineering, DJ Performance, Vocal Performance, to Music Business, and Radio and Podcasting.
Applications are still open to enrol at pointblank in September for the 2025-26 academic year.

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How Tobi Lou is turning countless voice notes into masterpieces: “I’m never going to run out of ideas”Ad feature with Splice
Tobi Lou has me hanging onto his every word during our interview. It’s 10 am in Los Angeles, where the vocalist and producer lives, and he’s passionate but calm as he reveals the universe’s deepest artistic secrets as vivid metaphors, casually sipping coffee between bursts of wisdom.
The Lagos-born, Chicago-raised artist, athlete and anime lover has been producing music in his bedroom for over two decades. Sure, he’s found himself working in lavish studios with revered labels and world-class producers, but most of the ideas for his four studio albums and viral hits — such as 2019’s Buff Baby — are conjured in one familiar place.
“It always comes back to me, locked in my room, just like when I started [making music] in eighth grade,” says Tobi. “I love the process of getting an idea and fleshing it out. It’s like I have to take this invisible thing and give it some physical properties so that it’s echoing off the walls in the room, rather than in my mind.”
Image: Press
Tobi likens the act of expanding these musical ideas to “raising a little bird.” His latest means of nurturing his songbirds is Splice’s Mobile App. “In terms of recording ideas, I’ve always lived in voice memo land, where I play a beat and record a freestyle over the top — but my phone turns into a bit of a graveyard of ideas”, he explains. “Splice’s app helps me keep in the flow. The second I get on the app, I’m working in an environment where I can take an idea as far as I need it to go.”
Specifically, Tobi is enjoying the Splice Mic feature, which is part of the Splice Mobile app and allows him to record any sound over a Stack of complementary samples. Instead of letting his ideas dwindle and lose energy, Splice Mobile helps him invigorate them. In a tap, he can effortlessly shuffle the genres, style, tempo and key of his Stack. Another swipe on his smartphone and he can transform his mellow neo-soul spark into a melodic lo-fi track or a country-style beat. Given that Tobi has mastered the art of creating music in myriad styles with a wide palette of instrumentation, this is a boon to his workflow.
“Rather than starting from this completely blank canvas, where you open a DAW and think, ‘What do I do now?’, it’s like, you go to Splice and instantly get the building blocks of what a song should be,” Tobi says. “I’m really appreciative of that right now.”

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Since he started making music, Tobi has been obsessed with capturing his ideas as they happen, no matter what gear he had access to. His introduction to producing came when he bought a microphone for $10 from RadioShack — it’s a far cry from what he has access to now, but plugging that first mic into his old computer was enough to get him hooked.
“From there, I was obsessed with trying to get a clearer signal of my recordings on my own, without having to go to studios — I couldn’t really afford studio time,” he says. As he started putting his musical mind to work, he found that the barriers between him and his creativity became less about the gear he was using; it was a battle of confidence.
“It’s cute when you’re a kid and you’re like, ‘Mom, look what I made,’ he says. “And then once you start to be aware of judgment — that not everyone’s going to pat you on the back for what you did — you start to look around and compare like, ‘How do I sound?’”. If I had a really good song idea that maybe my family and friends really like, it felt like, ‘Okay, I got one, good job’. But I would always think, ‘Damn, is that my last good idea?’”
Thankfully, he quickly assures me, it’s never anyone’s last good idea.
“After making thousands and thousands of songs, I realised, ‘Okay, I’m never going to run out of ideas.’ I actually don’t have enough time to record all the ideas I have. No matter if I live another 50 or 100 years, I will still have way more ideas than I ever got time to put on wax. So then it all just became about getting better at executing each idea.”
Image: Press
It’s tools like Splice Mobile that help Tobi materialise his creativity. He’s able to take a galaxy’s worth of sketches, build on them in the app, and export them as stems to his DAW with functions such as AirDrop and Export to Project. The app even lets Tobi text his ideas to friends and producers, who will add to the idea and send it back to him.
Tobi is comfortable when he’s working solo, but has also become an adept collaborator. He’s worked with the likes of T-Pain, Chief Keef, and Warren Hue, and a wealth of esteemed producers throughout his career.
“I’ll send a producer a sample, they’ll send me back what they did on it, then I’ll get the stems and do something with it, maybe organise it a different way, then I might send it to another producer. We’re just experimenting. I love taking the ideas of three or four producers and putting them in one big sandwich.”
Being able to easily collaborate and expand on his projects quickly with Splice Mobile is helping Tobi make more music and is becoming a natural part of his workflow. The artist once looked to fellow LA-based songwriter Steve Lacy, who famously created music using just his iPhone, and thought “that’s too crazy”, he recalls, shaking his head. How could his smartphone be such a catalyst for his sonic inventions?
“Since I started using Splice Mobile, I realised, ‘Wow, you can actually do this,’ he explains. “And being able to switch up genres on my iPhone — I’m doing different styles but it’s still Tobi Lou. It’s like I’m accessing a different side of who I am within the music.”
Image: Press
It’s not all about crafting serious and meticulous performances, though. Tobi’s found that music is how he channels what he calls “playing as an adult.” He’s happy to freestyle wacky and spontaneous songs, and record whatever comes to mind, just in case it proves to be useful later on.
“That’s what some of the best ideas are,” he says, beaming. “Like, what you thinking about right now? You’re thinking about bananas and pineapples? Great. Go with it. Show me your song about bananas and pineapples.”
“That’s what I think you can get out of using Splice Mobile — even though you’re working, it’s still a form of play.”
Tobi Lou has managed to turn his version of play into a profession, and also likens it to his form of therapy. But he’s, of course, still learning, experimenting and building, every day; he’s just trying to create as much music as he can.
And, naturally, Tobi leaves me on the edge of my seat for one more vivid metaphor.
“When you start a music career, you’re really building a house. So if I started building a house right now, I may get 20 songs in and have a roof over my head, but you want to make this house as comfortable and as dreamy as you can. So rather than thinking, ‘I’m going to drop this one song and it’s going to be a mansion.’ Like, no, — you’re laying the foundation. And the foundation isn’t laid down with one song, it’s repeating, and repeating, and repeating that. That’s the best advice I can give — it’s all really just on you, and what you can do.”
The post How Tobi Lou is turning countless voice notes into masterpieces: “I’m never going to run out of ideas” appeared first on MusicTech.