REWIND: Last week’s Top Music Business NewsCatch up on what everyone's talking about with last week’s top music business news from Clio Music Award winners, to an FCC investigation of iHeartRadio, a NIVA SXSW must-attend panel, and more...
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Marshal Brass from The Crow Hill Company Sample library combines the sound of a flugelhorn and three euphoniums, adding a unique character compared to more typical brass ensembles.

Darkpalace Studio ButterflyButterfly is the ultimate audio plugin designed for precise stereo manipulation. With Butterfly, you gain full control over your mix, featuring Mid/Side Gain and Phase adjustments,... Read More

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets Stun a packed TroubadourThe combination of veteran Brit pub-rocker Nick Lowe and Nashville surf rockers Los Straitjackets doesn't make any sense at first glance. Lowe has never really been one for flamboyance on stage; a dapper shirt and pants is his usual get-up. So the idea of him sharing a stage with these Tennessee titans, all sporting startling Mexican wrestling masks, is a bit odd.The thing is, when you actually witness it, and hear the wonderful noise that they create together, it makes all the sense in the world.To be fair, this is nothing new. Lowe and Los Straitjackets have been touring and recording together since 2019. Clearly, and perhaps against the odds, this is a match made in heaven. Despite the aesthetic gimmick, the Los Straitjacket fellas are tremendous musicians. Alright, it's not that weird after all.The pairing performed at the Troubadour on two consecutive nights, and we were at the first. The room, an L.A. institution, was sardine can-packed, making it difficult to maneuver around the place at all (never mind actually take some photos). The set was a career-spanner for Lowe. The brilliant "So it Goes" kicked things off, and we would later get new wave classic "Heart of the City," his version of "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding" (popularized by his pal Elvis Costello), and his original version of "Cruel to be Kind" (a hit for Letters to Cleo).There was time for some Los Straitjackets interludes--manic versions of "The Theme from the Magnificent Seven" and "Bird Dance Beat." That afforded Lowe the chance of a breather. The show ended with Lowe alone on stage, strumming though Costellos's "Alison" (which Lowe produced).It was a beautiful way to conclude a stunning set.The post Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets Stun a packed Troubadour first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Bitcoin spot and margin longs push BTC to $85K, but the bottom isn’t in yetIs the Bitcoin bottom in, or is today’s price action simply an oversold bounce that will trap overleveraged bulls?

Startup co-founded by longevity guru Peter Attia emerges from stealthBiograph, a company co-founded by longevity guru Peter Attia and a prominent Silicon Valley VC, has emerged from stealth.
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Cheap Fiber Optic Wand Toy Becomes Tiny Weird DisplayIf you’ve ever seen those cheap LED fiber optic wands at the dollar store, you’ve probably just thought of them as a simple novelty. However, as [Ancient] shows us, you can turn them into a surprisingly nifty little display if you’re so inclined.
The build starts by removing the fiber optic bundle from the wand. One end is left as a round bundle. At the other end, the strands are then fed into plastic frames to separate them out individually. After plenty of tedious sorting, the fibers are glued in place in a larger rectangular 3D-printed frame, which holds the fibers in place over a matrix of LEDs. The individual LEDs of the matrix light individual fibers, which carry the light to the round end of the bundle. The result is a tiny little round display driven by a much larger one at the other end.
[Ancient] had hoped to use the set up for a volumetric display build, but found it too fragile to be fit for purpose. Still, it’s interesting to look at nonetheless, and a good demonstration of how fiber optics work in practice. As this display shows, you can have two glass fibers carrying completely different wavelengths of light right next to each other without issue.
We’ve featured some other great fiber optic hacks over the years, like this guide on making your own fiber couplings. Video after the break.

[Thanks to Zane and Darryl and Ash for the tip! This one was all over the tipsline!]

UK-based physical distributor Proper Music Group acquired by Netherlands’ ArtoneProper will no longer be affiliated with Switzerland-headquartered Proper Group AG, formerly known as Utopia Music.
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THE MUSIC CONNECTION MARCH 2025 DIGITAL RESOURCES PLAYLIST IS LIVEListen along with MC!Our monthly issue playlists will allow you to hear the featured artists as you read about them, and the March, 2025 Everything Indie playlist is live now!Check out cover star Damiano David, the DIY Spotlighted Clay & Kelsy, and all of the artists included in our Signing Stories, Album Reviews, New Music Critiques, and Live Reviews (as long as they are on Spotify).Hear the playlist here:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/51PdJx2k59Kz9MSeJvXcqv?si=335d8185321646c9While you're there, please "Like" the playlist and "Follow" Music Connection's profile.Previous playlistsHear our 2024 Year End playlist here!Hear the Mastering Studios playlist here!The post THE MUSIC CONNECTION MARCH 2025 DIGITAL RESOURCES PLAYLIST IS LIVE first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Zynaptiq announce Balance adaptive EQ Due for full release on 3 March, Balance offers fresh and uncomplicated multi-channel processing.

What is a music superfan and Why do they matter so much?
Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon along with UMG, WMG and Sony are all aggressively exploring how to serve and monetize superfans. But what is a music superfan and why do they matter so much?

The post What is a music superfan and Why do they matter so much? appeared first on Hypebot.

NIVA at SXSW: Live Independent Panel, Showcases & Day PartyThe National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) will host an important Small Stages, Big Impact: Saving Indie Stages for Artists panel and two official parties at this year’s SXSW to amplify the essential role of the live. Continue reading
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ADDAC System reveal Power Starvation Rev.02 The ADDAC300 Rev.02 provides users with a way to intentionally ‘starve’ their other modules of power, leading to unconventional effects and “unruly sonic behaviour”. 

Is Teenage Engineering’s EP-133 K.O. II still worth getting in 2025?In late 2023, Teenage Engineering, Sweden’s premier vibe merchant and synth maker, found itself in a somewhat jarring position. Its much-anticipated portable polyphonic sampler, the EP-133 K.O. II, had just entered the ring and was a smash hit. Simultaneously, the company was getting pummelled over ‘fadergate’ – a host of build quality issues that incensed the devoted user base.
We’re now a year or so down the road. As the dust, and hype, have settled, it’s worth stepping back to evaluate the EP-133 K.O. II with a clear head. Does it have staying power? Or is it a one-round wonder?

READ MORE: Teenage Engineering’s EP-1320 Medieval review: Fan service or folly?

One of the key draw cards for the EP-133 K.O. II, as with its ancestor, the PO-33 KO!, is the fun factor. From its premium packaging to its cartoony instruction manual, there’s a well-honed playfulness here that says ‘I’m serious about not taking myself seriously’. Poor packaging and delivery practices were at the heart of the much-publicised damage to faders, the speaker, and other parts of the device that we saw on first release; this certainly appears to have been solved and the review unit arrived safe and sound, swaddled in bubble wrap.
An all-plastic exterior is realised in Game Boy-esque shades of grey, with an LED panel populated by obscure but charming icons. And instead of pads, it sports 12 velocity-sensitive mechanical switch keys that make jamming a rhythm feel more like beating up on a faulty typewriter. All of this comes in a portable form factor that gets about 20 hours of playtime from just four triple-A batteries, has a built-in speaker and microphone, and weighs in at just 620g.

It may appear toy-like, but as you start using the EP-133 K.O. II things begin to feel much more grown up. The workflow centres on four groups. Each of these can be loaded with up to 12 samples and each can hold their own sequence (referred to as patterns). Recording patterns live or step-by-step is simple enough, and once you’ve got a groove going, hitting the ‘Commit’ function copies everything you’ve made into a new ‘Scene’ – this is the process by which you can start building up variations.
Something that feels even more grown up is the learning curve. Even if you’re an intermediate user of samplers, getting to grips with the EP-133 K.O. II feels much like learning a new instrument. There are plenty of multi-button combinations to learn if you want to access its full capabilities, and this necessitates a regular back and forth between the hardware and the instruction manual until features are embedded into muscle memory. But once you get over that initial hump the reward is a creative, energising groove box packed with nifty features.
You can sample via the microphone or line input and then use the Chop feature to automatically map these across an entire keygroup. You can record patterns unquantised and then, after entering Time Correction mode, you can punch in quantisation for individual notes. In a concept borrowed from the Pocket Operator range, there are a variety of ‘Push Effects’, such as stutters, bit crushing, and time warps that can be slapped on during performance, all adding hugely to the musicality of the instrument. There’s also a looper whose length and position can be adjusted for scrubbing and a key mode that maps any sample melodically across 12 pitches.
Speaking of samples, a factory selection of 300+ sounds broadly covers drums, bass, and melody. You can fine-tune the start and end points for these and set the pitch, envelope, and play mode – one-shot, legato, or gated – from the Sound Edit menu.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
One complaint at launch was the inability to easily back up the unit’s factory samples to a computer. This issue has thankfully been addressed by firmware upgrades, along with workflow improvements for copying and pasting patterns, setting loop lengths, overdub recording, and a host of minor bug fixes. There’s also an effective web-based sample management tool that lets you drag and drop files from your computer and quickly map them across keys.
All in all, there are 999 slots available for samples – which sounds fantastic until you consider the unit’s paltry storage space. Having 64 megabytes of storage on a sampler with close to a thousand sample slots felt like a bad joke in 2023, and it certainly hasn’t gotten any funnier in 2025. For a device that encourages you to load or record in your own audio, this amount of storage is just silly, and, by comparison, the Ableton Move sports 64 gigabytes of memory as well as three times as many factory samples.
Once you start noticing the EP-133 K.O. II’s shortcomings, they come thick and fast. As a place to jam out ideas it excels – but refining those creative bursts, or even just slotting them into a larger workflow, is full of trade-offs.
You can record patterns up to a whopping 99 bars long, but there’s no song mode for chaining patterns together. The Push Effects are incredibly fun but can’t be recorded as part of a pattern, while the send effects sound excellent but can’t be applied to individual samples, only to entire groups. There’s a good selection of in/out options to connect other hardware devices, but audio output is limited to a stereo line out.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
True, at £299 it’s one of the few offerings in Teenage Engineering’s product lineup with an accessible price point, but with such strong competition on the market, the EP-133 K.O. II is increasingly hard to recommend. If you’re looking for an ultra-portable idea pad then Ableton’s Move has a better build quality and a workflow that seamlessly integrates with Live. For serious music-makers looking for a powerhouse, Roland’s SP-404 MkII offers amazing versatility and far more sculpting options for roughly £60 more.
If there’s one area where the EP-133 K.O. II still reigns supreme, it’s style. That may sound silly when talking about a hardware sampler, but it’s actually not. Teenage Engineering has picked an aesthetic and followed it all the way through to the end. The result is an instrument that feels unserious in the best possible way; cool, quirky, surprising, often awkward, but always fun. You will want to play this thing, and that matters.
It’s also worth noting that this sampler has plenty of fans. Many see its idiosyncrasies as creatively stimulating and its high-concept aesthetics as irresistible. It’s why artists like Azealia Banks routinely praise Teenage Engineering’s approach to hardware design, K.O. II included.
However, this sampler rests too heavily on its admittedly good looks. Style can’t cover awkward feature navigation, a steep learning curve, and tiny storage. EP-133 K.O. II’s limitations are beginning to feel decidedly claustrophobic.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Key features

500+ factory samples
999 sample slots
64MB storage
12 mechanical keys with velocity sensitivity and polyphonic aftertouch
Built-in microphone and speaker
MIDI In, MIDI Out, and Sync connectivity
Power via USB-C or 4 AAA batteries
Weight: 620g

The post Is Teenage Engineering’s EP-133 K.O. II still worth getting in 2025? appeared first on MusicTech.

Teenage Engineering’s EP-1320 Medieval review: Fan service or folly?£299 / $299 / €349, teenage.engineering
An office joke? A dare? It’s impossible to know just where the idea for the EP-1320 Medieval came from, but it’s here, and it’s weird.
After the smashing success of the original EP133 K.O. II, anticipation was riding high for the next entry in the EP line. Once Teenage Engineering dropped the announcement for its ‘Instrumentalis Electronicum’ there was a moment of collective confusion as we all processed the fact that this wasn’t just a Middle Ages theme re-skin, but a whole new product with additional features, effects, expanded storage, and a curated sound set.
So let’s look at what’s different, what’s the same, and whether any of it makes sense.

READ MORE: Is Teenage Engineering’s EP-133 K.O. II still worth getting in 2025?

The most obvious changes are visual. As with all things Teenage Engineering, the EP-1320’s aesthetic is impeccable. The device’s new colour scheme dispenses with 80s retro grey in favour of olive greens and chocolate browns. There is a lot of talk that the sampler’s buttons had been purposely scented with cocoa and we can confirm that this is actually true. Why do this? What relevance does chocolate have to medieval Europe? Does it allude to the discovery of the New World and the beginning of the Age of Discovery? Are we being trolled? The puzzle will remain unsolved.
Anyway, the EP-1320 also gets a suite of new icons for its LED panel and these, naturally, feature castle turrets, cannons, coats of arms, and quills. There’s a refreshed naming convention, rendered in an Old English font, that draws liberally from Latin and faux Latin. It’s all so well executed that even sceptics will probably find themselves at least partially enchanted by the silliness of it all.

The hardware itself is much the same, with velocity- and aftertouch-enabled mechanical keys, built-in speaker and microphone, ports for audio and MIDI in/out and data transfer, plus a removable panel that hides slots for four AAA batteries. It’s an identical layout configuration to the EP-133 K.O. II.
The workflow is similarly unchanged – we can hold up to nine projects, each project has four sample groups, and each group can hold patterns ranging from 1-99 bars in length. These groups can be independently mixed using the fader located on the left-hand side, and scenes, which can be created using the ‘Comitto’ button, allow you to build pattern variations and then mix and match between them. As with the EP-133, there’s still no song mode for chaining patterns together.
Getting properly comfortable with the EP-133 took some time, with lots of multi-button combos to learn before you could harness its full power. The EP-1320 takes that weakness and turns it into a fatal flaw. The archaic naming convention quickly moves from funny to frustrating. Velix, summa, demus, fabula – what do these things mean? Consult the hardware manual.
Image: Press
Small but essential visual clues, such as the copy, paste, and undo icons are now gone, and we’ve also lost some functionality on the LED screen. Whereas on the EP-133 there were a series of visual meters on the right-hand side to show what level a parameter might be at, on the new model this has been replaced with the image of an angel dropping a beat, so you’ll have to dial in envelopes blind.
The biggest advancements over the EP-133 are a new arpeggiator, the ability to properly loop samples with crossfade, and a handful of pleasing new send effects. There’s now a dark and dungeon-y echo, a droning ensemble effect, and Dimension; which sounds like a stereo widener with added creative controls for tremolo thrown in. Pleasing push effects have also been added, and these have clearly been designed to play well with the unit’s early music sample library.
Flicking through those factory samples is where things get truly bizarre. It’s not that there aren’t some useful sounds on offer (there are) but the overall palette is not just niche – it’s intentionally comical. Interestingly though, the EP-1320 arrives with nine demo projects, something Teenage Engineering didn’t feel the need to do with the EP-133 K.O. II, and these showcase the factory samples and give some idea of what kind of music you might make with them.
Image: Press
The percussion samples are likely the most intriguing and these could easily find their way into many different production styles to add an unusual timbre. The flutes and lutes sound decent, there’s a tasty bowed harp, and the Gregorian chants are pretty cool. From there, however, it’s a downward spiral of diminishing returns, as the novelty of jamming out sword clashes, armour impacts, yelling peasants, and the cries of farmyard animals lasts about as long as you’d expect.
Maddeningly, these hyper-specific samples are non-negotiable – they cannot be removed from the device. So if you wanted to keep some sonorous drum hits and clear out the samples of squealing pigs, you can’t. Out of the unit’s 128 MB of storage, 96 of those precious megabytes are off-limits, leaving you with even less space for your own samples than you could theoretically achieve on the EP-133.
This, more than anything else, gives the impression that Teenage Engineering is not even trying to elevate the EP-1320 above the level of gimmick. This is not a workhorse sampler, it’s a decrepit mule dragging a rickety cart piled with antiques and ornaments, and that’s just what its designers intended.
Image: Press
So, who is this actually for? If you compose a lot of period-specific music, there could be some interest here – but then again, you probably already have sample libraries that offer higher quality and variety. Likewise, if you’re looking to spice up your productions with some lesser-known early music instruments, there are easier and cheaper ways to source this material. If you’re neck deep in the Dungeon Synth scene then this device will have you salivating. For everyone else, it’s worth a giggle and not much more.
That said, this wouldn’t be the first time Teenage Engineering has gambled on a risky joke and had it pay off. Remember that £1,600 desk? It’s currently sold out. We may yet see DJs dropping hurdy-gurdy grooves on the dance floor.
The EP-1320 had a chance to be a genuine step forward. The new sample looping feature, arpeggiator, and additional effects are all things that users of the EP-133 would probably love to see ported over to that device. However, these improvements are ultimately hamstrung by a confusing user interface and a hyper-specific, non-removable sound set that will be useful only to the vast minority of music makers.
I’m glad that something this crazy actually exists. When the history of samplers is written, the EP-1320 will surely deserve an entry – but would I recommend it to anyone who’s not a collector or a mega-fan? Nay good sire, nay.

Key features

6 stereo / 12 mono voices
Built-in mic and speaker
128 MB memory (96 MB dedicated to factory samples, 32 MB available for user samples)
9 built-in demo songs
12 punch in effects
7 send effects
MIDI In, MIDI Out, and Sync connectivity
Power via USB-C or 4 AAA batteries

The post Teenage Engineering’s EP-1320 Medieval review: Fan service or folly? appeared first on MusicTech.