JMG Sound launch Cyberdrive Core Cyberdrive Core contains the same 64 distortion models as its larger sibling, but with a simpler set of controls and a more straightforward signal path. 

Save $19,000 on this completely restored Yamaha CS-60 – but you’ll still need deep pocketsWould you like to be the proud owner of a Yamaha CS-60? There’s one currently up for sale on Reverb, and it’s had over $19,000 slashed off its asking price. You’ll still need deep pockets, though, as its discounted price is still $35,000…
The CS-60 was first released in 1977 as a smaller version of Yamaha’s CS-80 synth, and has been used by artists such as Air, Gary Numan, Stevie Wonder, and more. This particular model is described as being in excellent condition.

READ MORE: Could Google NotebookLM help you never read a gear manual again?

The seller describes the synth as fully recapped, and says the original power cord has been swapped with one that’s longer and more high-end, with larger diameter conductors, and better quality copper. The power cord also features a premium CEE7/7 Schuko plug which fits most EU outlets, though this is a simple swap if you are based elsewhere.
[deals ids=”1orOgUJnMEQ0cy69NbAt8f”]
The original audio connectors from the 70s have also been replaced with modern Neutrik gold-plated 1/4” jack connectors, and an LED has been added on every voice board for assistance with tuning. The instrument has also been cleaned inside and out, but all of its original Yamaha type IG and YM chips are still on board, and have never been moved. Its original cover and chrome music stand are included.
Credit: Reverb
The seller has also shared a demo of this specific CS-60 in the below YouTube video:

While the Yamaha CS-60 is a scaled down version of the CS-80, you’ll still need a big budget in order to afford one. Thankfully, though, there are plugin emulations out there that need not destroy your bank balance. In our 9/10 review of Softube’s Model 77, we called it possibly the “most impressive Yamaha CS emulation out there”. There’s also Cherry Audio’s GX-80 which offers another cost-effective entry point to the CS sound palette.
In other Yamaha news, the company announced plans to invest $50 million in startups in the music tech and audio space earlier this year. The investment will be the first initiative from the Yamaha Music Innovations fund, which was established in December.
According to Yamaha, the corporate venture capital (CVC) fund comes as part of the company’s mission to “explore innovation opportunities with startups and other companies.” The main aim is to “contribute to the well-being of people around the world through sound and music”.
To purchase or find out more information on the CS-60, head over to Reverb.
Credit: Reverb
The post Save $19,000 on this completely restored Yamaha CS-60 – but you’ll still need deep pockets appeared first on MusicTech.

Production tips: Exploring digital distortion and mimicking retro samplersHardware samplers of the mid-80s and 90s are utterly outclassed by modern software samplers, but there are still producers who use them religiously. Workflow is a factor, but this feeds into a more fundamental attraction: The sound.

READ MORE: How to create your own drum sample packs for hardware and software samplers

Limited bit depths, downsampling to save memory, comparatively crude processing algorithms and relatively unsophisticated analogue input and output electronics combine to give classic samplers a distinct — and often genre-defining — sonic character. Fundamentally, this is just a blended sauce of different distortion flavours.
Some software samplers can emulate these distortions to some degree but offer only limited ways to hone – and abuse – the effect for specific creative results. Thankfully, you can create your own version of this blended distortion sauce, and once you know how to do it you can make it spicier, fruitier or smokier as you see fit. You can also slather this tasty retro sauce on anything you like – software samplers, synths or live performances.
1. Input and Output Treatment

A hardware sampler’s transistor-based preamps will always have a sonic impact and, when pushed, will lean towards a gritty, hard-clipped distortion. To emulate this, add a suitable distortion at the front of your signal chain. A good option may be included with your DAW; alternatively, something like BLEASS Saturator or Kilohearts Distortion will do the trick.
Analogue to digital converters include filters to remove frequencies that could cause aliasing. We can control this stage by adding a low-pass filter to the chain. Ideally, this should be part of the input distortion processor or placed after it in the chain, but you can place it at the top of your signal chain if needed.
The output circuitry of a real-world sampler would rarely, if ever, get overdriven, but consider adding a second hard clipping processor at the end of the chain nevertheless. It isn’t essential, but it can add some realistic colour, leading to a slightly harder sound. Plus, it lets you add a bit more drive if you want. You can also add another low-pass filter here, ideally placed prior to the distortion, but it’s OK if placed at the very end of the chain.
Bear in mind that if the sound source you are using is adding reverb to the sound, then you may want to bypass this and recreate it after the distortion processing — although distorted and downsampled reverb can have a charm all of its own!
2. Simulating Digital Conversion and Processing

A sampler’s digital specification is the most important factor in the character of its sound. Bit depth is fixed for any particular sampler. The sample rate is more fluid and sampling at lower rates and applying additional downsample processing are common techniques for maximising sample memory.
Plugins that create these digital distortion flavours tend to combine both bitcrushing and downsampling. Better examples will also provide control over jittering, aliasing and/or imaging artefacts introduced by a hardware sampler’s converters and processing algorithms.
Place this type of distortion after any processing that’s emulating the sampler’s input path, and before any processing emulating the output path. We’ve decided to use SSL Digicrush because of the amount of control it gives over the details of its digital distortion. It also features a suitable input overdrive of its own, allowing us to dispense with the separate input distortion stage (we’ll retain the other input and output treatments). If you don’t have Digicrush then grab the demo to follow along; alternatively, apply the following techniques using your bitcrusher/downsampler plugin of choice.
3. Emulating Vintage Samplers

The first two iterations of the E-mu Emulator were 8-bit samplers with a 27kHz maximum sample rate, qhile its SP-12 drum machine lifted this to 12-bits and 27.5kHz. The first truly affordable sampler, the Ensoniq Mirage, was also 8-bit but boasted a 32kHz sample rate. And the samplers that started Akai’s rise to the forefront of the sampling revolution, the S900 and S950, were both 12-bit devices with 40kHz and 48kHz (respectively) maximum sample rate.
If you wish to emulate the sound of any vintage sampler, the first step is to configure your bitcrusher and downsampler to match that sampler’s specs. Artefacts such as jitter, aliasing and imaging tend to be more pronounced with older hardware, so dial in more if you’re after an early E-mu or Ensoniq sound, and a bit less if you’re chasing a classic Akai sound.
As a general rule, older units will also tend to introduce more colouration at the input and output stages, so bring in some dirt at the input and, maybe, a tiny bit at the output too. Experiment with different amounts of input drive to see what tones and harmonics come out.
4. Downsampling

To maximise hardware sample memory, it was common to reduce a sample’s rate to as low a value as possible. Going even lower can give some interesting results.
So, how low to go? There is a rule, the Nyquist frequency, that specifies how low the sample rate can be before aliasing and other artefacts are introduced. Put simply, this is twice the highest frequency contained in the sample. Therefore, bass sounds and kick drums can be taken to much lower rates than pianos or vocals before they start to get mashed up.
Load up a bass instrument and create a bassline for it, then insert Digicrush (or your preferred plugin) on the channel. Choose a bit depth – we’re going for a marginally crispy 12-bit – then, with the bassline playing, adjust the downsample frequency. When you just start to hear aliasing and degradation you’re close to the Nyquist frequency for the sound you’re using. Experiment with different frequencies to find one that gives a pleasing colouration and dirtiness.
Explore how the aliasing controls impact the results. Aliasing can enhance high frequencies, which can sound a bit incongruous on a bass or kick, so use an output filter to tame these if need be. Also explore the impact of the input drive on the overall sound.
Be sure to repeat the above using different types of sound, noticing how those containing higher frequency components will have a higher Nyquist frequency, and so will start to distort earlier as you reduce the sample rate.
5. Low Bit Depths

As well as adding a general gritty patina, lowering the bit depth both reduces dynamic range and enhances noisiness. 12-bit gives a pleasant balance between grit and clarity, and 8-bit is a good choice if you want a lot of dirt but still want the original sound to come through.
If you head much below 8-bit then noise is going to become a major component. To make this more useable, consider using your post-distortion filter to take away some of the harshness of this noise. Also, if using Digicrush, experiment with the ‘Bit Mode’ setting, as this can also calm the noisiness…
Or, unleash it: Using the un-gated ‘Destroy’ and ‘Noisy’ modes along with low bit rates can do some serious damage to your audio. You can also use this combination to create some very cool retro gaming effects – just drag the bit rate low, the jitter high, and sweep the Downsample frequency.
6. Going Beyond

Recreating a retro sampler vibe aside, one of the most interesting things about this distortion setup is how the various stages interact with, and impact upon, each other.
Load up a sound with a wide frequency range – we’re using an upright piano – and insert your distortion chain on the instrument’s channel. Dial in some strong bitcrushing and downsampling settings for a nice, gnarly digital distortion, then continue to explore the chain, pushing it and backing it off in different places to see what results you can achieve.
Notice that strong digital distortion produces frequencies and overtones that remain somewhat static no matter what it is given to chew on. Because of this, automating and modulating the downsampling rate can produce dramatic and very accentuated comb-filter-ish sweeps that sound great on pads.
Be sure to explore the interactions between the input filter and the downsampling rate, and add automation or modulation to the former as a means of adjusting the prominence of digital artefacts. And don’t forget to try different filters and distortions at either side of the digital distortion processing.
Learn more music production tips and techniques.
The post Production tips: Exploring digital distortion and mimicking retro samplers appeared first on MusicTech.

Why you should “bail on bad ideas instead of pumping them through $20,000 of outboard gear”, according to FINNEASBefore a song can shine in production, it has to stand strong on its own – such is the philosophy FINNEAS swears by as he balances his roles as a songwriter and producer.
The 27-year-old Grammy-winning producer, best known for his work with his sister Billie Eilish, released his self-produced sophomore album, For Cryin’ Out Loud! last October. Discussing his creative approach in a new Tape Op interview, FINNEAS shares a conversation he recently had with St. Vincent, who, too, produced her latest album All Born Screaming.
“She was asking the other day, ‘How do you not go down a rabbit hole while you’re writing a song if you’re also the producer?’” he recalls. “I replied, ‘Well, I know I don’t have the one right answer to this, but I do think that the song comes first.’”

READ MORE: BBC Radiophonic Workshop archive will be made available for the first time for use by musical artists and producers

The musician explains that focusing on production too soon can be a trap: “An example of a bad use of time to me would be: I start writing a little song – say I have two lines – and then I start doing some production,” he says.
“I start figuring out drums for it, because I get inspired. And then I spend seven hours on a kick drum because I’m haunted by it, I want it to be perfect, and I get the kick drum sounding so good. It sounds perfect on those two lines. Then I go back in, and I write a terrible song.”
“Of course I might write some bad songs. I’ve written many,” FINNEAS concedes. “But if I can write a bad song before devoting hours of production time into my bad idea, that is smarter. So, I try to think about it from that perspective.”
FINNEAS also notes how many producer friends of his who are “much more technically savvy” than he is about gear would often “get distracted by something that is so not making the song better.”
“I have spent many hours in studios with producers where they’re off on a tangent,” he says. “I’m saying, ‘Guys, this chorus is bad.’ [laughs] This would be a great time to bail on this idea instead of pumping it through $20,000 worth of outboard gear, and saying, ‘Hear how much it shines?’ No, the lyric’s still bad, dude. [laughs]”

The post Why you should “bail on bad ideas instead of pumping them through $20,000 of outboard gear”, according to FINNEAS appeared first on MusicTech.

If you’re an independent producer, TuneCore has just released an advanced analytics dashboard that will improve your lifeTuneCore has launched an advanced trends and analytics dashboard, “designed to equip artists with deeper insights and performance metrics to accelerate their growth”.
The dashboard is now available globally to all TuneCore artists, letting self-releasing creators track their streaming success, optimise their release strategies, and discover new opportunities for career advancement.

READ MORE: BBC Radiophonic Workshop archive will be made available for the first time for use by musical artists and producers

The dashboard features cross-platform performance tracking, plus exclusive social media analytics from TikTok and Douyin. It also offers real-time engagement metrics and provides daily updates with data on views, shares, saves, likes, comments, creations, and average watch time.
Audience insights with visualised data are also on board, tracking listener engagement by location for more effectively targeted marketing, and an interactive timeline shares performance trends as well as highlighting actions – such as the release of a new track or a social media post – that have driven growth. Artists using the TuneCore Accelerator platform can further track streaming uplift driven by TuneCore Accelerator’s marketing programmes.

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TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson comments: “TuneCore is committed to helping independent artists grow, not just by providing distribution solutions, but by giving them the data-driven insights that lead to real, measurable growth, in keeping with [parent company] Believe Group’s core principle of transparency.
“Our new trends and analytics dashboard is the first and only solution of its kind, designed specifically for self-releasing artists to make smarter, more strategic decisions that directly impact their careers. With these unparalleled insights, artists can track their performance, engage their fan base more effectively, and fuel sustainable growth in today’s competitive music landscape.”
Last year, TuneCore launched its own mastering service that uses AI to produce “professional-quality tracks” for artists on a budget, and increase the chances of their songs being played by listeners worldwide. The AI was not trained on any copyrighted material, in line with its “four pillars for responsible AI engagement”: consent, control, compensation, and transparency.
To find out more, head over to TuneCore.
The post If you’re an independent producer, TuneCore has just released an advanced analytics dashboard that will improve your life appeared first on MusicTech.

Sam Fender says the music industry is “rigged”: “It’s 90% kids who are privately educated”British singer-songwriter Sam Fender has slammed the current state of the music industry, calling it “rigged” and dominated by artists from privileged backgrounds.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Fender expresses frustration over the lack of working-class representation in the industry: “The music industry is 80 percent, 90 percent kids who are privately educated,” he says.
“A kid from where I’m from can’t afford to tour, so there are probably thousands writing songs that are ten times better than mine, poignant lyrics about the country, but they will not be seen because it’s rigged.”

READ MORE: “Without small venues, you wouldn’t have Depeche Mode, which is a world like not really worth living in!”: Kellie Lee Owens on state of electronic music

Fender, who recently released his third studio album People Watching, also admits to feeling conflicted about his own success, noting how many of his friends back home are still struggling “on the bones of their arse”.
“It’s because their stories won’t be told in the current climate,” he adds.
Referencing the song TV Dinner and its lyrics (Like Winehouse/she was just a bairn/They love her now/but bled her then) from his latest record, Fender highlights the industry’s tendency to build artists up only to tear them down.
“It was wild. I wrote that, then Liam Payne died,” he says. “You think of the amount of times he was getting dragged through the press and he didn’t help himself, did he? Bless him. I remember watching some videos he was in and being, like, ‘God, what a tit.’ But the reality was that he was just a young lad, famous far too young, who had addiction trouble – and everyone hit him with the pitchforks.”
“It was wild. I wrote that, then Liam Payne died. You think of the amount of times he was getting dragged through the press and he didn’t help himself, did he? Bless him. I remember watching some videos he was in and being, like, ‘God, what a tit.’ But the reality was that he was just a young lad, famous far too young, who had addiction trouble – and everyone hit him with the pitchforks.”
The post Sam Fender says the music industry is “rigged”: “It’s 90% kids who are privately educated” appeared first on MusicTech.

Acustica release Lime 3 plug-in suite Lime 3 includes preamp, saturation, EQ and channel strip plug-ins that are said to deliver a classic British console sound while offering improved flexibility and efficiency. 

New Music Critique: Aubrey LoganContact: olivia@olivialongpr.comWeb: aubreylogan.comSeeking: Film/TVStyle: JazzSeattle’s Aubrey Logan is a trombone-playing jazz singer and songwriter who is able to weave complex narratives into equally complex musicianship, yet the results seem startlingly, beautifully simple. She’s a songbird; her voice is stunning, whether she’s singing about being lovely while flying on “Airport Codes,” or enthusiastically scatting like one of the greats. “I Feel the Earth Move” is a cover of the Carole King classic, and it takes on new life thanks to this jazzy rendition, losing none of its original fire but gaining some improvisational wonder. Even those outside of the jazz world will find music to enjoy with Logan.The post New Music Critique: Aubrey Logan first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Google’s new AI video model Veo 2 will cost 50 cents per secondGoogle has quietly revealed the pricing of Veo 2, the video-generating AI model that it unveiled in December. According to the company’s pricing page, using Veo 2 will cost 50 cents per second of video, which adds up to $30 per minute or $1,800 per hour. Google DeepMind researcher Jon Barron contrasted this pricing with […]
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Over the Counter Glucose Monitor DissectedIf you deal with diabetes, you probably know how to prick your finger and use a little meter to read your glucose levels. The meters get better and better which mostly means they take less blood, so you don’t have to lacerate your finger so severely. Even so, taking your blood several times a day is hard on your fingertips. Continuous monitoring is available, but — until recently — required a prescription and was fairly expensive. [Andy] noticed the recent introduction of a relatively inexpensive over-the-counter sensor, the Stelo CGM. Of course, he had to find out what was inside, and thanks to him, you can see it, too.
If you haven’t used a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), there is still a prick involved, but it is once every two weeks or so and occurs in the back of your arm. A spring drives a needle into your flesh and retracts. However, it leaves behind a little catheter. The other end of the catheter is in an adhesive-backed module that stays put. It sounds a little uncomfortable, but normally, it is hardly noticeable, and even if it is, it is much better than sticking your finger repeatedly to draw out a bunch of blood.

So, what’s in the module? Plenty. There is a coin cell, of course. An nRF52832 microcontroller wakes up every 30 seconds to poll the sensor. Every 5 minutes it wakes up to send data via Bluetooth to your phone. There are antennas for Bluetooth and NFC (the phone or meter reads the sensor via NFC to pair with it). There are also a few custom chips of unknown function.
[Andy] makes the point that the battery could last much longer than the two-week span of the device, but we would guess that a combination of the chemicals involved, the adhesive stickiness, the need to clean the site (you usually alternate arms), and accounting for battery life during storage, two weeks might be conservative, but not ridiculous.
It’s amazing that we live in a time when this much electronics can be considered disposable. CGM is a hard problem. What we really want is an artificial pancreas.

Hollywood Audio Design Alien - Premium Kontakt LibraryHollywood Audio Design presents. "ALIEN" : Cinematic Industrial Loop Library. PREMIUM Kontakt VERSION [Also Includes full WAV file libraries]. ... Read More

Scene: Lotus from Native Instruments The latest addition to Native Instruments’ Scene series delivers a range of Japanese-inspired soundscapes designed for cinematic compositions.

Did xAI lie about Grok 3’s benchmarks?Debates over AI benchmarks — and how they’re reported by AI labs — are spilling out into public view. This week, an OpenAI employee accused Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, of publishing misleading benchmark results for its latest AI model, Grok 3. One of the co-founders of xAI, Igor Babushkin, insisted that the company was […]
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Album Review of "Dragon Season... The Awakening" by Busta Rhymes (5/10)The Conglomerate/Hitmaker Music Producers: VariousThis 6-track EP by hip-hop veteran Busta Rhymes illustrates a contrast on how a legendary artist can deliver a project which is less than remarkable. Busta possesses the ability to produce impressive verses and timeless music, but this offering is hard to engage with. Production is average. And at approximately 18 minutes in length, I’m left questioning the value of The Awakening; and if it had the potential to be more than what it turned out to be. The post Album Review of "Dragon Season... The Awakening" by Busta Rhymes (5/10) first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

KiCad 9 Moves Up In The Pro LeagueDo you do PCB design for a living? Has KiCad been just a tiny bit insufficient for your lightning-fast board routing demands? We’ve just been graced with the KiCad 9 release (blog post, there’s a FOSDEM talk too), and it brings features of the rank you expect from a professional-level monthly-subscription PCB design suite.
Of course, KiCad 9 has delivered a ton of polish and features for all sorts of PCB design, so everyone will have some fun new additions to work with – but if you live and breathe PCB track routing, this release is especially for you.

One of the most flashy features is multichannel design – essentially, if you have multiple identical blocks on your PCB, say, audio amplifiers, you can now route it once and then replicate the routing in all other blocks; a stepping stone for design blocks, no doubt.
Other than that, there’s a heap of additions – assigning net rules in the schematic, dragging multiple tracks at once, selectively removing soldermask from tracks and tenting from vias, a zone fill manager, in/decrementing numbers in schematic signal names with mousewheel scroll, alternate function display toggle on symbol pins, improved layer selection for layer switches during routing, creepage and acute angle DRC, DRC marker visual improvements, editing pad and via stacks, improved third-party imports (specifically, Eagle and Altium schematics), and a heap of other similar pro-level features big and small.
Regular hackers get a load of improvements to enjoy, too. Ever wanted to add a table into your schematic? Now that’s doable out of the box. How about storing your fonts, 3D models, or datasheets directly inside your KiCad files? This, too, is now possible in KiCad. The promised Python API for the board editor is here, output job templates are here (think company-wide standardized export settings), there’s significantly more options for tweaking your 3D exports, dogbone editor for inner contour milling, big improvements to footprint positioning and moving, improvements to the command line interface (picture rendering in mainline!), and support for even more 3D export standards, including STL. Oh, add to that, export of silkscreen and soldermask into 3D models – finally!
Apart from that, there’s, of course, a ton of bugfixes and small features, ~1500 new symbols, ~750 footprints, and, documentation has been upgraded to match and beyond. KiCad 10 already has big plans, too – mostly engine and infrastructure improvements, making KiCad faster, smarter, and future-proof, becoming even more of impressive software suite and a mainstay on an average hacker’s machine.
For example, KiCad 10 will bring delay matching, Git schematic and PCB integrations, PNG plot exports, improved diffpair routers, autorouter previews, design import wizard, DRC and length calculation code refactoring, part height support, and a few dozen other things!
We love that KiCad updates yearly now. Every FOSDEM, we get an influx of cool new features into the stable KiCad tree. We’re also pretty glad about the ongoing consistent funding they get – may they get even more, in fact. We’ve been consistently seeing hackers stop paying for proprietary PCB software suites and switching to KiCad, and hopefully some of them have redirected that money into a donation towards their new favorite PCB design tool.
Join the pro club, switch to the new now-stable KiCad 9! If you really enjoy it and benefit from it, donate, or even get some KiCad merch. Want to learn more about the new features? Check out the release blog post (many cool animations and videos there!), or the running thread on KiCad forums describing the new features&fixes in length, maybe if you’re up for video format, check out the KiCad 9 release talk recording (29m48s) from this year’s FOSDEM, it’s worth a watch.