Acon Digital releases Multiply 2, latest update to its FREE chorus plugin
Acon Digital has released Multiply 2, a major update to its free chorus effect plugin for macOS and Windows. Acon Digital shipped the update earlier today, and I checked it out right away. Multiply has long been one of my favorite free chorus plugins, and this new version is even better than before. If you [...]
View post: Acon Digital releases Multiply 2, latest update to its FREE chorus plugin

How EREZ turns Ableton Live into an improv dance partnerMusic producer and DJ EREZ is at a friend’s house by Lake Tahoe, taking a well-deserved break, when I catch up with her. After an exciting surge in her career, playing Coachella and opening for Gorillaz, she set her sights on a new mission: Future Forms.

READ MORE: How a sound-free concert is streaming music to d/Deaf people’s brains

In essence, EREZ’s new collaborative project is a multidisciplinary performance installation that originated from private sessions between her and dancer Madi Tanguay. “I met Madi through a friend of a friend. I was doing this music video, and I was looking for a dancer of her style. Guttural, very raw, and European-leaning,” says EREZ. That music video never came out, but their connection evolved into a romantic relationship. Developing their mutual creative language would soon follow: “We didn’t set off to make Future Forms. It was more like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’”
Initially, EREZ and Tanguay met once a month for a few hours. EREZ’s laptop came packed with stems from her older tracks, many of which were unfinished. “I didn’t want to sit there and figure out the chords. That felt heavy to me. After touring, I had a massive Ableton session that I’d built for months with all my music. I thought, ‘What if I fire different clips from different songs at the same time?’” That’s how Ableton Live’s Session View became integral to their process. Responding to Tanguay’s movements with music, EREZ would then record her improvisations into Arrangement View, with each compositional element laid out in separate channels.

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“I would have two hours of material, then go in and listen to everything. You know how you can add little play points? I would write, ‘great,’ ‘sucks,’ ‘amazing,’ or ‘use this,’” she recalls, while explaining how extracting her favourite moments led her to compose a 22-minute score.
“I feel like every DAW informs creativity. For Future Forms, Ableton Live makes so much sense. The warping algorithms and being able to chop samples up so quickly— I could take a guitar stem and chop it into twenty little bits. Some could be a four-bar loop, some could be one sample of the flesh touching the string,” she says, pointing out how this technique alone enables her to obtain countless textures from one source.
By deconstructing and reconstructing her creations, guided by Tanguay’s choreography, EREZ found herself in a sonic territory that falls somewhere between IDM, techno, and cinematic music. At its core,  she says, “it’s underground, unapologetic, feminine, sassy, and punk.” But it’s rave culture that feeds Future Forms above all: “We go out dancing all the time. The community and the feeling you get on the dance floor is a massive source of inspiration for us.”
And that’s why the live experience that they’ve designed reflects their own. The first part of the show, titled Base, involves multiple dancers who know EREZ’s score well. Then, the rehearsed choreography disintegrates and spontaneity gradually takes over in the following chapters, Modular and Output. EREZ’s improvisational input on stage mostly occurs in the second chapter.
Image: Press
“Modular is elastic. I have a Push with me that I use to trigger different clips and an APC40 that I’ve mapped out to different effects like filters, reverbs, and delays. So, that allows the ability to react in real time to Madi and also the audience,” she says. I ask her to give an example. “In the last show, I stopped a few clips that usually would be playing there. I only left one kick and snare to create this dramatic effect of explosion after.”
EREZ takes a skeletal approach to the interactive portion of the show. The only other instrument she plays, in addition to the MIDI controllers, is her guitar. But her dream is to expand her setup with live vocals, synthesizers, and drum machines.
In her workflow, she often benefits from her go-to plugins, such as Valhalla VintageVerb, Soundtoys Decapitator and PhaseMistress, or Ableton’s own bitcrusher Redux. Still, she values the warmth and weight of analogue processing. Each piece of audio in her session is treated with saturation and EQ to be mix-ready. On stage, she live-processes her sounds with master effects through Macros in Ableton Live, tweaking multiple parameters with the turn of one knob at a time.
She likens this method of controlling effects to performing with CDJs, but her Future Forms sets are much more complex in comparison. Ableton Live’s Session View comes with visual limitations, which is why EREZ has everything mapped and colour-coded in a way that makes sense to her. “Every song has a colour in terms of scenes. If the colour changes mid-song, I know what that means. I just find ways to hack my brain to immediately understand where I’m at.”
Image: Press
To have maximum control over her live mix, EREZ typically gives in-house engineers a stereo mix out of her UAD Apollo Twin interface. She even dials her electric guitar tone inside the UA console on her laptop.
“Some in-house sound engineers are pretty jaded or tired. They don’t care. But I put so much time into making the music sound incredible. I want it to translate into the space. So I walk around the room and start mixing.” To engineers who protest, EREZ’s response is polite but straightforward: “It’s all good. It’s less work for you. Just make sure that I don’t clip.”
Of course, there are exceptions. She remembers the time she played Refuge in New York fondly, where she barely had to tweak anything at all, as the sound system was already phenomenal. And at National Sawdust, she had an incredible live sound engineer, Arno Miller, guiding her through the process of spatial mixing.

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Although EREZ is very hands-on, she cares deeply about collaboration. In each Future Forms event, there are guest DJs setting the tone for the final chapter, Output. “Last time we had x3butterfly, who is one of our best friends and one of my favourite DJs. And Physical Therapy was also playing,” says EREZ, and hints at involving other artists in the future: “I have so many incredible electronic musician friends that never dabbled in making anything for dance. Not only would they absolutely crush it, but they’d also be inspired by it. Part of the mission is bringing these two worlds together.”
When asked how making music with a dancer feels, she elaborates: “You have a 3D figure in the room that’s embodying your sound. It’s crazy what one note can carry with a dancer in the room. You can tell a three-minute story by just playing around with the delay on that one note because the dancer is reacting to it.” If there’s one thing she’s sure of, it’s that she wouldn’t have arrived at the same result if she were working alone.
Future Forms has become EREZ’s experimental playground, free of song structures and predictable sound design. It’s not meant for digital platforms or the radio, but that doesn’t mean some recorded components of the project won’t be available in the future. With a single titled Beauty already out, EREZ feels the urge to share more tracks from, or inspired by, the score. And that may not be all: “I want to release a vinyl and an art book and make things that are physical. I’m playing it by ear right now.”
The post How EREZ turns Ableton Live into an improv dance partner appeared first on MusicTech.

The MusicTech Magazine July/August 2026 issue is coming: here’s how to get your copyThe MusicTech Magazine July/August 2026 issue goes on sale this week, bundled with NME Magazine. Here’s how you can get a copy.
Last April, we announced the relaunch of the MusicTech print edition after a four-year hiatus, and we’ve since had Blake Slatkin, Sudan Archives and KÁRYYN grace the print cover. Now, we’re gearing up to launch the July/August 2026 issue, which will as always come bundled with a copy of NME Magazine.
Mark your calendars for Thursday July 30 at 2pm BST – that’s when the cover stars of both magazines will be revealed and the mags go on sale exclusively via retailer Dawsons. The waiting room is open, so check it out now.
Besides MusicTech, Guitar.com has also returned to print. Guitar.com, MusicTech and NME are sister publications under NME Networks. The new Guitar.com and MusicTech print editions alternate with every bi-monthly edition of NME Magazine – which itself was relaunched in 2023 – meaning three print editions per calendar year for each brand.
Subscribe here for more information about MusicTech Magazine and to receive an exclusive queue jump opportunity, where readers can get their hands on a copy before anyone else. MusicTech will send out queue jump tickets shortly before the magazine goes on sale to subscribers.
The post The MusicTech Magazine July/August 2026 issue is coming: here’s how to get your copy appeared first on MusicTech.

NULLIFY is a new Spotify streaming quality checker plugin, FREE until August 31
Boomer Hotel has released NULLIFY, a codec audition and null-test plugin that is free with a coupon code until August 31st, 2026. NULLIFY normally costs $19, but you can get it for free at checkout with the coupon code BHPLUGINS2026. The checkout runs through Lemon Squeezy, and your email address is required at checkout, but [...]
View post: NULLIFY is a new Spotify streaming quality checker plugin, FREE until August 31

Dusk Audio releases TapeMachine 2, a FREE tape plugin with a new interface
Dusk Audio has released TapeMachine 2, a free tape emulation plugin for macOS, Windows, and Linux. We featured Dusk Audio’s original Tape Machine plugin earlier this year, when it arrived alongside 4K EQ and MultiComp. TapeMachine 2 is a new version with a redesigned interface and a new tape engine. The main point is that [...]
View post: Dusk Audio releases TapeMachine 2, a FREE tape plugin with a new interface

Thingstone Track8’s tape-style workflow is almost the perfect DAWless recording solution£1,580, thingstone.com 
‘DAWless’ has become a slippery term. Sometimes it means a table full of hardware; other times, a DAW-like experience compressed into a standalone device. Either way, it’s usually about stepping away from the computer in favour of a more hands-on, present approach to making music.

READ MORE: Is Novation’s FLkey 2 the ultimate FL Studio controller?

That setup is immediately gratifying — until the point where you need to record something, and a promising loop collapses into cable-swapping, menu-diving, or another evening in the DAW.
Thingstone’s Track8 might bypass that bottleneck. Inspired by yesteryear’s eight-tracks, it exploits the immediacy of tape workflows while keeping the computer out of the room for as long as possible. That prospect is compelling enough for the first batch to have sold out, but can it cement Track8 as a permanent studio fixture?
First impressions of Track8
Arriving in a Peli-style hardcase, Track8’s olive drab chassis and utilitarian keycaps feel more Cold War bunker than modern recording device. The vintage affectation extends to the screen, featuring a toggleable CRT-style filter.
Track8 and case. Image: James Langley
Given that DAWless is partly about escaping screens, Track8 strikes a convincing balance. The display is large enough to read at a glance, but it’s not imposing. It’s touch-sensitive too, though only for carefully chosen tasks like naming tracks and drawing automation.
Track8 buttons. Image: James Langley
Physicality is another major part of the DAWless appeal, swapping mouse clicks for dedicated knobs and buttons. Track8’s mechanical keys feel excellent, to the point that tapping them is mildly addictive. It’s instantly rewarding to use a device with this much personality.
Recording with Track8
I plug my guitar into the mono input and create a new project, which is automatically titled ‘LeanIntoMist’ by the playful name randomiser. Track8 is straightforward enough that I can get going without a manual, laying down guitar atop a drum loop imported from my USB stick.
My guitar takes aren’t particularly sharp, and without modern DAW tools like warping or tuning, nailing the performance matters a lot more. After using punch-in/out to mop up a few mistakes, I discover Track8’s varispeed—set by pitch or percentage—that makes difficult parts easier to track.
Varispeed is also a sound design tool in its own right. I speed the project up, record a transposed guitar line, then slot it down and repeat the process in reverse. Returning Track8 to its original tempo retunes everything back to baseline, but leaves behind a subtly warped, tape-like character.

Endless overdub is another tape-inherited trick. Setting it up is slightly convoluted, requiring punch-in/out to be enabled—recording stops at the end of the loop by default—but once configured, it’s one of Track8’s most immediate creative modes.
I use it to record lush pad chords with a monophonic synth before adding varispeed and effects (more on those later):

Track8 includes stereo jacks alongside the mono one, and an XLR input with phantom power and preamp, but you can only use one at a time, and the stereo input can’t be split between two tracks.
That feels like a missed opportunity on a machine otherwise tailor-made for capturing small hardware jams, minimally mic’d drum kits, or rough guitar-and-vocal demos. Although, external class-compliant audio interfaces can expand inputs/outputs via USB-A to enable simultaneous multitrack recording.
Editing audio and MIDI with Track8
Track8’s tape-style workflow also extends to editing, at least for simpler arrangement tasks. You can create slice markers, then cut or copy each designated section to paste it elsewhere in the timeline. In no time at all, I escape eight-bar purgatory in a process that’s both quick and satisfying.
More granular audio editing is possible, but it requires wrangling multiple controls: start and end points, cursor scrolling, grid size, and so on. I try to chop a drum break into a new beat, but finessing individual hits into place is too slow-going. Editing recorded MIDI is even more fiddly, and is not Track8’s forte.
One more creative editing tool is clipboard mod. After recording eight bars of my Electribe ER-1, I copy sections to the clipboard and apply stutter, reverse, and downsampling effects before pasting them on the timeline.
The results are more performative than polished, but that suits the device. It’s a quick, dirty way to inject variation, and things can get quite extreme:

Applying effects with Track8
Track8 includes a considered set of essentials: per-track EQ and compression, plus sends for delay and reverb. These fundamentals can take a mix surprisingly far, turning a scrappy arrangement into something relatively fully formed.
Delay and reverb settings are global, and both effects are tools for mixing more than sound design. The former is fairly simple, capping out at 350 ms, with no way to set dotted notes unless you calculate the time manually. As for reverb, four flavours provide ample spatial character.

Automation is one of my least favourite DAW chores, but Track8 makes it feel unusually approachable. It’s drawn freehand via the touchscreen, or linear changes can be entered manually with the encoders. However, ramping curves aren’t available.
Track8 is well-equipped on the mastering side, too. The Drive control glues everything together, while low/high gain controls add punch and sparkle in tandem with the stereo enhancer. I quickly dial in my guitar-and-drums sketch, resulting in a bounce that sounds remarkably robust for about 15 minutes of recording and mixing.

Once you’re ready to export, Track8 can bounce a stereo mix or full stems to a USB stick or the internal drive, which is accessible on computers via USB-C. The one thing I’d love here is a fade-in/out option for the master. For now, you can achieve this by automating individual track volumes.
Should I buy Track8?
Track8 occupies an unusual space. Its feature set is deliberately focused, yet its price puts it far above most standalone recorders and even MPC-style workstations.
Without using an interface, the limited inputs and outputs are perhaps the biggest flaw. It’s hard to overlook given Track8 costs £1,580, removing the possibility of out-of-the-box multitrack recording on a device that otherwise seems perfect for the job.
However, the more time I spend with Track8, the more natural it begins to feel, and capturing ideas without the usual DAW-based faff is liberating. It isn’t perfect, especially once you explore more advanced functionality, but it delivers exactly the immediate, distilled recording experience it sets out to provide.
Keep in mind, this is a boutique product. Thingstone mastermind Collin Raddatz assembled the first batch by hand in Weingarten, Germany. He’s also continuously improving the platform: users can request new features via the Track8 GitHub, many of which have been implemented since the device launched.
Ultimately, Track8 is not the most flexible way to record without a DAW, and it’s certainly not the cheapest – if you’re on a budget, classic digital or cassette multitracks from the likes of Tascam or Zoom offer their own nostalgic workflows for around £200.
Physically though, the device is a joy to use, and over time, its creative influence becomes progressively powerful. Rather than endlessly tweaking parameters and editing takes, I find myself listening harder, playing with more intent, and simply creating faster. The focus is part of the product – and for the right setup, it may be Track8’s most valuable feature.
Track8 effects screen. Image: James Langley
Key Features

Up to 8 audio tracks (32-bit float WAV) and 8 MIDI tracks simultaneously
Mono and stereo line inputs plus XLR mic input
Emulates tape workflow with punch-in/out
Level, pan, mute, EQ, and compression per track
Delay, reverb, and mastering effects
USB for connecting class-compliant interfaces, memory sticks, and MIDI devices
Export stereo mixdown or stems
19.05 cm x 6.35 cm touch-sensitive screen, plus encoders and mechanical keys
120 GB of internal storage
Comes in a Thingstone-branded Peli-style hardcase
Dimensions: 34 cm x 17 cm x 6.1 cm
Weight: 1.5 kg

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TK Audio unveil the TK-Lizer 3 As with its predecessor, the TK-Lizer 3 includes three bands of EQ along with a pair of high-pass filters, and boasts an onboard Mid-Side encoder and decoder. 

Satya Nadella says companies that trust one AI for everything may not surviveCompanies without their own models — or without a layer of AI infrastructure known as AI gateways to separate their prompts from the model itself — will be in trouble, Nadella says.

Cross River to enable P2P payments, banking services for X MoneyThe banking-as-a-service provider will power X Money’s peer-to-peer payments, FDIC-insured accounts and Visa debit cards as the platform expands its financial services.

RON PASTORE SHARES NEW SINGLE “ROBOT HANDS” FROM LATEST ALBUM TURTLE ROCKN.Y.C.-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Ron Pastore has released “Robot Hands,” the lead single from his new album Turtle Rock, now available on all major streaming platforms.

Blending analog synths, live drums, and layered improvisation, the track introduces a seven-song project shaped by Pastore’s steady, self-driven creative process and his evolving approach to melodic, groove-focused composition.

The post RON PASTORE SHARES NEW SINGLE “ROBOT HANDS” FROM LATEST ALBUM TURTLE ROCK first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

AI Music Is An Abomination – It’s Time We Stop Normalizing ItThe Recording Academy just published a panel discussion from a "Grammys on the Hill" event where CEO Harvey Mason Jr. repeated his favorite talking points regarding generative AI music. How did we get here?

Reviving a Retro Mouse with BlueTooth low Energy supportOne of the disadvantages to collecting retro peripherals is that they’re not necessarily easy to use anymore. [eSPee77] changes that by retrofitting a Genius GM-6000 mouse with modern hardware, all while preserving the feel.
To make this mouse without compromising on the feel of the original, means replacing the PCB with a new one while retaining the same buttons and encoders. So [eSPee77] did exactly that. At the heart of the conversion lies an nRF52840 on a custom PCB. It uses new optical sensors to read the existing quadrature encoders, and uses the same type of switch for the mouse buttons as the original.
But from there, it diverges because–powered by the BLE capabilities of the nRF–this is actually a wireless mouse! And the modern features don’t end there, either. To support scrolling on a mouse which did not originally have it, you can press the middle mouse button while moving it forward/backward. Finally, as the cherry on the cake, it features an “air mouse” mode using an inertial measurement unit, handy for use in presentations.

The 6 fastest-growing sounds on Splice (and how to get started with them)
From botanica to cloud rap, here are the six fastest-growing sounds on Splice that music producers should know about.

Nebula Audio Nebula ClusterNebula Cluster is an open-source dirt box plugin made by Nebula Audio. It is built for one job: take clean, polite audio and give it weight, bite, heat, movement, and attitude. Put it on drums, bass, synths, vocals, guitars, loops, rooms, buses, or anything that needs to stop behaving. Nebula Cluster is released under the AGPL v3.0 license. It is not proprietary software. The Sound Nebula Cluster is not a transparent utility plugin pretending to be exciting. It is a character box. At low settings it adds thickness, density, and subtle harmonic lift. Push it harder and it turns into a crunchy saturation engine with enough harmonic control to go from warm and rounded to sharp, torn, and aggressive. The filter and compressor sections make it easy to shape the chaos into something that still works in a mix. Use it when a track needs: - More grit. - More forward motion. - More body. - More edge. - More impact. - More strange little sparks around the sound. It can be gentle, but it is happiest when you ask it to misbehave. Why Use It Nebula Cluster gives you the classic dirt-box workflow: drive, shape, squeeze, blend, and compare. The controls are immediate, the UI is built around fast decisions, and the post-effects analyzer shows what the plugin is doing to the signal in real time. It is especially good for: - Smashing drum loops. - Making kicks and snares hit harder. - Turning plain bass into a mix anchor. - Adding edge to soft synths. - Giving vocals a gritty parallel layer. - Warming up sterile digital sources. - Creating aggressive transitions and sound-design layers. - Making boring buses feel alive. Plugin Formats - CLAP. - VST3. Platforms - macOS Universal: Apple Silicon and Intel. - Linux x86_64. Nebula Cluster is 64-bit only. Interface The editor uses a deep black neon sci-fi look with resizable controls. The main analyzer stays visible globally while the effect sections live in tabs, so you can shape the sound without losing sight of the output. The UI includes: - Global toolbar. - Post-effects spectrum analyzer. - Waveform display. - Output peak meter. - Gain reduction meter. - Tabbed Global, Distortion, Filter, and Compressor controls. - Preset save/load. - Undo and redo. - A/B comparison. - Chaos randomization. - MIDI learn. The Dirt Engine The distortion section is the heart of Nebula Cluster. Instead of giving you one fixed distortion flavor, it lets you build the character from multiple harmonic layers: - Saturation intensity. - 2nd order harmonics for warmth and thickness. - 3rd order harmonics for bite and aggression. - 4th through 7th order harmonics for extra edge, texture, and fuzz-like complexity. - Dedicated distortion mix. - Distortion phase flip. - Pre-shaping HPF and LPF controls. - Continuously variable filter slopes. Turn up Saturation for more grind. Blend the harmonic controls to decide whether the sound gets round, sharp, buzzy, raspy, or broken. Filter Section After the distortion stage, the filter section lets you carve the result into place. Use it to: - Remove low-end mud after heavy saturation. - Tame harsh high end. - Add resonant bite around cutoff points. - Create focused midrange grit. - Shape parallel dirt layers so they sit under the dry sound. Controls: - HPF. - HPF Slope. - HPF Resonance. - LPF. - LPF Slope. - LPF Resonance. Compressor Section The compressor is there to make the dirt move. Modes: - Down: classic downward compression. - Up: brings lower-level detail forward. - Boost: pushes the signal with controlled upward-style energy. Use it after distortion to clamp, pump, thicken, or pull hidden texture forward. Controls: - Mode. - Ratio. - Knee. - Makeup. - Boost. - Attack Threshold. - Attack Time. - Release Threshold. - Release Time. - Hold. Global Controls Nebula Cluster also includes the practical controls needed to keep extreme tones usable: - Input Level. - Input Pan. - Output Level. - Output Pan. - Global Mix. - Oversampling: Off, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x. - Global Phase. - FX Bypass. The pan knobs are bipolar: center is 12 o'clock, left turns left, and right turns right. Analyzer The analyzer is placed after the effects, so it shows the signal coming out of Nebula Cluster. It includes: - Real-time spectrum view. - Real-time waveform view. - Output peak readout. - Gain reduction readout. - Frequency grid. - dB grid. This makes it easy to see when the low end is getting too wild, when the high end is getting fizzy, or when compression is pulling the sound into shape. Presets, A/B, and Chaos Nebula Cluster is built for fast exploration. Presets. Save your current setup and recall it later from the preset menu. A/B Set up one tone on A, switch to B, create another tone, then flip back and forth until one wins. Chaos Chaos randomizes the plugin controls and section states. Sometimes it creates something subtle. Sometimes it creates a problem. Sometimes the problem is the sound. Use it when you want the plugin to surprise you. MIDI Learn Nebula Cluster includes MIDI learn for mapping hardware controls. Basic workflow: 1. Click MIDI Learn. 2. Click a knob, button, or menu control. 3. Move a MIDI controller knob or slider. 4. The mapping is assigned. Right-click MIDI Learn to manage mappings: - MIDI On/Off. - Clean Up. - Roll Back. - Save. Safety Nebula Cluster can get loud if you push it. That is part of the point. To keep the output host-safe, the plugin includes a final stereo safety limiter at approximately -0.3 dBFS. This helps prevent extreme settings from overloading the output while still letting the plugin hit hard. Reporting Issues: For reporting any issues create an issue on the Github repository. https://github.com/subhankardas15071992-cloud/Nebula-Cluster Read More

‘Respect your fans above everything else.’As heavy metal giants Iron Maiden mark their 50th anniversary with a global stadium tour, long-time manager Rod Smallwood OBE tells MBW in this exclusive interview about the honesty that sustains a decades-long artist partnership, his war on ticket touts, and what the industry gets wrong about superfans…
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