Strymon announce the Fairfax Inspired by a little-known valve device from the 1960s, the Fairfax is said to take an altogether different approach to overdrive, and marks the introduction of a new Series a line-up that contrasts the company’s DSP-based offerings.

Cast Your Vote in the AllMusic 2025 Readers' PollAs we review our favorite albums of the year, we turn it over to you to vote in our annual readers' poll. ​Each of you has five votes to spend in our annual year-end poll, with a ballot built from our readership's best-rated albums of 2025.

Jim "Kimo" West Earns Global Grammy Nod with "Sounds of Kumbha"Pictured standing is Jim West and (seated L-R) are Siddhant Bhatia, Kala Ramnath, Charu Suri.

According to news on Thursday, "Jim 'Kimo' West, well known as the versatile guitarist for 'Weird Al' Yankovic, is also recognized as a Grammy-winner who brings his own unique musical perspective to world music, nominated for the 2026 Global Album Sounds of Kumbha."

"Sounds of Kumbha is an historic 12 track / 12 video 'sonic memoir' that celebrates this year's Maha Kumbh, the world's largest-ever spiritual gathering, and features seven producers and over fifty world-class artists."

"Being there in India at the Kumbh was truly an unforgettable experience," says West. "As a co-producer and featured artist I'm really proud of this - both the sonics and the cinematography are top notch."

"West utilized his TELEFUNKEN ELA M 260 Stereo Set, which features two small diahragm matched condenser mics and a custom dual power supply."

"I've been doing all my own recording as long as I've played guitar," says West. And the instrument, the player and the microphones are equally important. I've always loved great mics and especially Telefunken." 

"Sounds of Kumbha is a 12-song and 12 music video living memoir of the Mahakumbha, the world's largest gathering of humanity devoted to peace, prayer, and spiritual unity, led by Indian classical singer, composer and producer, Siddhant Bhatia."

"With seven creative producers, Jim 'Kimo' West, Ron Korb, Madi Das, Charu Suri, Raghav Mehta, Siddhant Bhatia, Devraj Sanyal; and over 50+ global artists, Sounds of Kumbha is an unforgettable immersive experience."

"Acoustic guitar is a complex instrument and you have to be very careful of boominess, and sometimes it can just be too big sounding," West explains. "So mic placement is really important. You want to make sure you stay away from the sound hole. There's something about small diaphragm condenser mics that makes them really responsive. I like all the little nuances, and things really pop out with a small diameter condenser. With the shape of the 260 plus the tube there's a richness there. These mics just sound really natural."

Looking back, West remembers, "I was at a Weird Al session a few years ago and the engineer was using a pair of these Telefunken M 260 mics on different instruments and I really thought they sounded great. I've always loved the idea of tubes in the chain somewhere, especially for acoustic guitar, because it adds a really nice harmonic richness. When I redesigned my studio I thought it was time to get a pair of new mics. These 260s were my first choice, and they are really spectacular sounding."

"Sounds of Kumbha" is entered in the Best Global Album category. Learn more: https://soultraxstudios.com/sokfyc/    

The post Jim "Kimo" West Earns Global Grammy Nod with "Sounds of Kumbha" first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

1X struck a deal to send its ‘home’ humanoids to factories and warehousesDespite launching as a humanoid robot designed to help consumers around the house, 1X's Neo robots are heading to industrial use cases.

Terraform co-founder sentenced to 15 years in prison after guilty pleaA federal judge heard statements from some of Terraform Labs’ and Do Kwon’s victims for hours before deciding on the co-founder’s sentence.

Amiibo Emulator Becomes Pocket 2.4 GHz Spectrum AnalyzerAs technology marches on, gear that once required expensive lab equipment is now showing up in devices you can buy for less than a nice dinner. A case in point: those tiny displays originally sold as Nintendo amiibo emulators. Thanks to [ATC1441], one of these pocket-sized gadgets has been transformed into 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer.
These emulators are built around the Nordic nRF52832 SoC, the same chip found in tons of low-power Bluetooth devices, and most versions come with either a small LCD or OLED screen plus a coin cell or rechargeable LiPo. Because they all share the same core silicon, [ATC1441]’s hack works across a wide range of models. Don’t expect lab-grade performance; the analyzer only covers the range the Bluetooth chip inside supports. But that’s exactly where Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and a dozen other protocols fight for bandwidth, so it’s perfect for spotting crowded channels and picking the least congested one.
Flashing the custom firmware is dead simple: put the device into DFU mode, drag over the .zip file, and you’re done. All the files, instructions, and source are up on [ATC1441]’s PixlAnlyzer GitHub repo. Check out some of the other amiibo hacks we’ve featured as well.

2Rule TugMoveEffectTugMoveEffect is an audio fx plugin that brings 2D positioning to audio effects processing. Core Concept: Place mulltiple effects instances on a 2D workspe and control their influence through distance-based mixing. A movable control point determines how much each effect contributes to the final sound based on its proximity. Adding Effects: Drag & drop an effect from the right-side panel onto the black 2D workspace window. Moving the Listener Point: Move the orange listener point manually with your mouse inside the workspace. Or choose movement modes: Sinusoidal or Bouncing for automatic motion. Sequential Movement (Step-Sequencer Mode): Hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) + drag an effect from the workspace into one of the boxes in the Sequentialsection. When your DAW playback is running, the listener point will move between these assigned effect positions in the sequence. Sequence options: Forward, Backward, Mirror, Random. Main Features: 13 Effect Types: Distortion, Reverb, Delay, Chorus/Flanger, Filter, Compressor, Pitch Shifter, Decimator, Phaser, Vibrato, Tremolo, Repeater, Ring Modulator, and related many parameters. Up to 10 Effect Instances: 3 slots per effect type, each with independent parameters. Spatial Mixing: Distance-based volume control via adjustable coverage areas. Movement Automation: Manual, Sequential (step sequencer), Sinusoidal, or Bouncing control point motion. 16-Step Sequencer: Automate effect switching and create rhythmic patterns. Preset Management: Save/load configurations with custom folder support. Real-time Visual Feedback: Volume meters, coverage visualization, and effect highlighting. https://youtu.be/9jkZaPd7MKg https://youtu.be/87OBqjeKRdU Notable Effects: Repeater: Musical tone generation with MIDI note/octave control and triggering modes. Pitch Shifter: Phase vocoder-based pitch manipulation for creative sound design. Ring Modulator: Frequency modulation for metallic, bell-like, and experimental timbres. Decimator: Bit-depth and sample-rate reduction for lo-fi, retro digital textures. Read More

10cc’s Graham Gouldman sues ex-manager for allegedly ignoring copyright terminationsGouldman says ex-manager Harvey Lisberg has ignored termination notices on the copyrights of 13 compositions
Source

Arturia unveil the MiniFuse 2 OTG As its name suggests, the MiniFuse 2 OTG includes USB OTG (On-The-Go) connectivity that allows audio from a computer connected via its main USB port to be passed directly to a phone or tablet.

Somerville Sounds releases Christmas Percussion, all the FREE sleigh bells you can handle
It’s that time of year again, when you’re going to hear some of the cheesiest music ever recorded, whether you like it or not. With that in mind, Somerville Sounds released Christmas Percussion for all the free sleigh bells you can handle! Christmas is a time of year when everyone gets a free pass to [...]
View post: Somerville Sounds releases Christmas Percussion, all the FREE sleigh bells you can handle

DJs and producers are now marketing their music as “not AI slop” on YouTubeI listen to a lot of music mixes on YouTube, particularly passively while working — I’ve always found it an invaluable platform for music discovery. In the past year, I’ve noticed more curators, DJs and producers being forced to label their music as “human-made” or “not AI slop” as proof that it’s not part of the swarm of generative AI music flooding the platform.
Arcologies, a d’n’b artist with millions of views on mixes of his self-produced music, leaves this disclaimer in his YouTube description: “This is NOT AI music…Many of these songs were made with hardware samplers, synths, and mixers. The songs in this video were recorded to cassette.” They follow this with a list of production notes for each song.
Meanwhile, gesus8, a DJ uploading to YouTube, titled his latest mix “real deep house mix (no AI slop)”, and lists the artists and tracks in the mix. Another channel, Orion, is uploading an hour’s worth of original music every day, which is admittedly much more dubious, but claims that a group of nine friends are responsible for the tracks, with notes on the tools they use to produce.

Their reasoning is genuine. Countless channels have erupted alongside the advancement of AI apps like Suno and Udio, with their content blurring the lines between music made with a text prompt versus music made with hours of human toil. MusicMagpie estimated earlier this year that there are 1.63 million AI cover songs on YouTube. Meanwhile, mood mixes have surged in popularity — that is, hour-long mixes on YouTube with titles such as time stopped about three hours ago and Alone Tonight — Jazz for the Quiet Soul — which are track after track of generated music.
‘Just Thinking…Retro Jazz’ is a three-hour playlist of mellow, reflective jazz with soft piano, guitar, sax, double bass and brushed drums. The songs themselves are unidentifiable, replete with digital artefacts, and — at the very end of the video’s description — come with a label: “How this was made: Altered or synthetic content.” This doesn’t even disclose to the millions of viewers that the music is made with artificial intelligence; it instead uses more ambiguous language.
The top comment reads: “I’m 73 years young. My daughter and I had a fantastic day together. I got home, and a few minutes after, she texted me to say she had arrived. She then sent me the link because I’m a big fan of jazz. I’ve been listening to it for the past 3 hours.”

Shouldn’t we be more concerned that listeners are being hoodwinked into thinking they’re hearing authentic musicianship in the music they come to love?
Interestingly, some of YouTube’s audience seem undeterred by AI-created content. Many celebrate the ‘artistry’ of the AI used to make said music, and pass it off with comments such as “music is music as long as it is good and fun to listen to, that’s all there is to it.”
On the AI-focused channel, Hyperdrive Sound, you’ll find a slew of charming comments. Here’s one in response to a user pointing out that the music is generative AI: “For most of us, it was obvious that this was AI from the moment we clicked. If you lack the pattern recognition to identify AI, then you aren’t entitled to an explicit warning. Maybe start paying a little closer attention.”
Where do we go from here? One next step is obvious: force a more visible label on any AI-generated content. Across most major platforms, the ‘made with AI’ label (if it’s there at all) feels tucked away, as if to intentionally deceive users that they’re consuming AI-made content. It must be front-and-centre to prevent 7-year-olds and 73-year-olds believing they’re listening to genuine human musicianship.
As MusicTech writer Clovis McEvoy said earlier this year: “Record labels, and even some artists, might baulk at the prospect of having to disclose whether a song was produced using AI mixing and mastering tools, but professionals at all levels of the industry – not just those at the top – deserve some protection from AI counterfeiting their work.”
A hopeful prediction is that we start to see smaller, human-focused platforms arise to push against the major services offering up AI content. Dystopian as it may seem, the opposite already exists in OpenAI’s Sora, which is a social media-style app delivering solely AI content, and attracted a million users in just five days. If giant corporations are to continue rolling out such material in the pursuit of increasing shareholder value, we must have independent entities platforming only the opposite, with a blanket ban on anything that’s AI-generated. Disappointingly, the reality is likely that these businesses would not prove as popular, but it’s possible they could flourish with a dedicated, proactive community.
In any case, the burden of proof should not lie on independent artists who are painstakingly crafting and marketing their music. And listeners should not be forced to seek out “not AI slop” labels when discovering new music.
Read more music production news. 
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Exposing the Normalized Harm and Safety Issues for Youth in the Live Music IndustryRead about the Youth Music's new report exposing harmful practices affecting young musicians and audiences in live music culture in the UK.
The post Exposing the Normalized Harm and Safety Issues for Youth in the Live Music Industry appeared first on Hypebot.

Music League, Roxxem Take Top Honors in Music Tectonics Startup Competition 2025Music tech startup Music League and Roxxem claimed the top prizes at Music Tectonics’ 2025 'Swimming with Narwhals' competition. Each year the competition highlights companies reshaping how music connects people, powers creativity, and expands into new areas of culture and technology.
The post Music League, Roxxem Take Top Honors in Music Tectonics Startup Competition 2025 appeared first on Hypebot.

Syngular for Modartt Pianoteq 9 A few months on from its release, Modartt’s Pianoteq 9 has gained a new instrument pack that uses the software’s praised physical modelling to create a range of keys and synth pad sounds. 

RipX just levelled up again: Version 8 of Hit’n’Mix’s AI DAW brings you one-click looping, new effects, and dynamic Track Starters to help spark creativityHit’n’Mix has revealed RipX DAW 8, a significant upgrade to its flagship DAW focusing on next-gen audio/MIDI editing and AI-powered features including stem separation and more.
The 8th version of RipX introduces new chord progression tools, dynamic Track Starters designed as starting points to help creators formulate ideas, loopable selections, 11 new effects, new sounds and loops and “countless other enhancements”.

READ MORE: Get the “unmistakable vibe of classic spring reverb” with Solid State Logic’s new SpringVerb plugin

“Our vision for RipX has always been about empowering artists with a more natural and human way of interacting with sound,” says Martin Dawe, Hit’n’Mix CEO and creator of RipX.
“We designed this update with the goal of helping them tap more easily into their own creativity: When you’re locked into a project, losing track of time in your DAW, reaching a flow state… This is what makes music human.”
The update arrives in the wake of last month’s RipX for iPhone app debut, which brought RipX’s core tools to mobile with an immersive AR Mode, motion-based sound shaping, and built-in performance capture.
RipX’s hallmark MIDI and audio ‘as one’ approach remain at the heart of RipX DAW 8 and RipX DAW PRO, where everything is treated in the same editable Rip Audio format. PRO users also gain expanded cleanup tools for AI-generated material, deeper sound manipulation via Audioshop, and Python scripting for programmatic control over your audio.
Version 8 also introduces a refreshed UI, with a cleaner toolbar layout and workflow refinements designed to keep you focused on creative decisions rather than menu diving.
“RipX DAW is my go to for extracting stems and creating instrumentals and acapellas,” says Spencer Ludwig, Grammy-winning and Grammy-performing trumpeter, songwriter, producer, DJ and musical director.
“I also love using RipX DAW to pull out stems to creatively use pieces of songs as sampled material in productions that I’m working on.”
To mark the launch, Hit’n’Mix is offering 20% off RipX DAW and RipX DAW PRO from now till 1 January 2026, including upgrades from RipX DAW to PRO. A 21-day free trial of RipX DAW PRO is available at the Hit’n’Mix website, where full licences can also be purchased. RipX for iPhone is available now on the iOS App Store, with a complimentary one-month subscription for all features.
Prices are as follows:

RipX DAW: $99/£99/€114
RipX DAW PRO: $198/£198/€228
RipX for iPhone: Free, or $7.99/£7.99/€8.99 monthly for full features (first month free)

Learn more at Hit’n’Mix.
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