Evergreen Audio introduce free Mini Meter plug-in Evergreen Audio have announced the release of a new free metering plug-in designed to provide users with fast visual feedback of audio levels in their DAW and devices. 

Gigi Perez Creates Pride T-shirt With Bravado to Benefit The Trevor ProjectSinger, songwriter, and producer Gigi Perez has, according to a report on Monday, "created a new t-shirt for Pride month, with 100% of the artist’s proceeds to benefit The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ+ young people. Perez is signed to Bravado, the world’s leading artist merchandise and lifestyle company, which worked closely with her to launch this charity t-shirt to celebrate and support Pride. The shirt is available starting today in Gigi’s shop here: https://shop.gigiperezmusic.com/pages/the-trevor-project."The shirt, seen above, has been designed by Perez and her younger sister Bella. "The t-shirt’s typography and black and white imagery match the style of her most recent album, At The Beach, In Every Life (Island Records), and its accompanying animated lyric videos. The artwork also echoes the cover art for Perez’s viral breakthrough hit, 'Sailor Song.' The black t-shirt features the words “Love Is The Law” handwritten in block letters in white above a drawing of two figures standing on a black and white abstract, graphic globe."“Gigi’s music is deeply rooted in vulnerability and introspection, both of which have quickly earned her legions of devoted fans who see themselves in her songs,” said Matt Young, President of Bravado. “From the start, Gigi has been a strong voice for the LGBTQ+ community and champion of mental health, speaking out and supporting causes throughout the year. This collaboration for Pride Month is a powerful statement of her commitment to the community. We’re proud to stand with her and The Trevor Project in this important work.”"The Trevor Project offers 24/7 crisis services, connecting highly trained counselors with LGBTQ+ young people whenever they need support," a statement reads. "To drive prevention efforts, The Trevor Project also operates robust research, advocacy, education, and peer support programs. The Trevor Project envisions a world where all LGBTQ+ young people feel safe, seen, and accepted exactly as they are. More info at https://www.thetrevorproject.org."Photo by Caity KroneThe post Gigi Perez Creates Pride T-shirt With Bravado to Benefit The Trevor Project first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Run A Lawnmower on Diesel With Hot Bulb HackIf you’re into automotive hacks and don’t watch [Robot Cantina], you are missing out. This hack has [Jimbo] taking a break from automotive hacking to butcher a poor, innocent Tecumseh lawnmower to run diesel fuel (or anything else) by converting the motor into a hot bulb engine. (Video embedded below.)
The secret is a long stack of anti-fouling adapters, which are essentially extension tubes that move the spark plug out of the combustion chamber to keep it from getting crudded up in an engine that’s burning too much oil. In this case, burning is what’s happening inside the anti-fouling adapters: by stacking seven of them, [Robot Cantina] is able to create a hot-bulb– volume that stays hot enough between strokes to induce spontaneous combustion of the fuel-air mix.
Hot-bulb engines were popular for certain tractors (the Lanz Bulldog being the most famous) and stationary engines from the late 19th century until Rudolf Diesel’s eponymous invention drove them out of their niche completely sometime after WWII.

Traditionally, a torch would have been used to heat the hot bulb, but here [Jimbo] starts the engine on gasoline with a spark plug at the end of the stack, and disconnect the spark once the hot bulb has warmed sufficiently. Given how rough the engine runs before the ersatz hot bulb heats up enough for spontaneous combustion, tradition seems like the way to go. Even once heated up, the “chaos in the combustion chamber” (probably knocking) is enough to pop the (now disconnected) spark plug from the end of the stack of adapters at one point.
While shockingly an inspection revealed no obvious damage to the engine after the first day’s experiments, this is probably not a hack you would want to use on a motor you intended to keep — or run for very long, for that matter. Practical or not, it is fascinating to know you can go back in time to the hot-bulb era with such a simple modification. Watching this motor pop and snarl while drinking down diesel fuel, acetone, or 190 proof alcohol is a bit like watching the proverbial dancing bear: the point is not how well it dances, but that it can dance at all. If you can’t get enough of it, they made a second video that features further fuel-testing fun, and even a mowing montage.
We’ve featured other [Robot Cantina] hacks that were arguably more practical, like hacking an old Saturn’s ECU to allow for Honda Insight-style lean burning or this DIY dynomometer for similarly small engines.

Visions TNT Music MORPHED 2 - Analog AtmospheresMORPHED 2 – Analog Atmospheres Kontakt Player & NKS Ready · Visions TNT Music. Crafted from classic analog synths. Designed to create sounds never heard before. MORPHED 2 is the second installment in the MORPHED series, built from the ground up, crafted entirely from classic analog synths and designed to let you create and perform evolving sounds in real time. Pick and blend three layers, morph between them while playing, or let the randomizer surprise you with unexpected inspiration. With 154 expressive Morph Snapshots and 135 Single Instruments, MORPHED 2 delivers analog warmth, sonic depth, and raw character, all inside a flexible, redesigned engine made for composers, producers, and sound designers alike. YouTube/IwICr2-41u4 "Playthrough" (no talking) video showcasing some of the sounds of MORPHED 2. https://youtu.be/Ds7UZjf51-Q Features: - 135 crafted Single Instruments - 154 curated MORPH Snapshots - 3-Layer Morph Engine - Design your own MORPHS - One-Click Morph Randomizer - Live Morphing while playing - Global Filter & FX Controls - 9755 individual Samples - Size: 13.6 GB (uncompressed). Read More

UJAM announce Beatmaker 3 With the launch of Beatmaker 3, virtual instrument experts UJAM have combined all of their Beatmaker titles into a single, unified plug-in that sports a redesigned user interface and enhanced browsing features.

Give your mixes a lo-fi flavour with the second iteration of Lese’s Codec pluginLese has launched the second version of its Codec plugin, which uses internet compression algorithms to give your mixes a vintage, lo-fi quality.
Codec 2.0 introduced a smattering of new features designed to give you greater control over how your mixes are affected.

READ MORE: The best free and paid-for plugins you need to know about this week

Essentially, Codec divides an audio file into individual packets, and users can drop some of them out using its Loss control. The plugin then attempts to conceal the packet loss, leading to a digitally degraded sound. Additionally, there’s a choice of three modes, with each affecting how the packet loss is handled by the plugin.
New to Codec 2.0, though, is a new Disorder control, which tweaks the order of the packets processed by the internal decoder to create a somewhat glitchy effect, and a new Noise function which adds noise to an audio file before it’s fed into the encoder.

Before the encoding stage, a Crunch control lets you turn up the gain on a frequency range and dials it back down once the plugin compresses the audio. This helps you to create more distortion artefacts on your track without any extra volume.
“Unlike other plugins that simulate degradation in “old school” ways like vinyl, tape or cassette, Codec degrades sound in the most common way we hear today, through internet compression algorithms!” Lese explains.
“Codec is essentially a container that holds an audio compressor (not that kind of compressor) so you can compress and then decompress your sound, in real time, in your DAW of choice.”
Codec 2.0 is available to both PC and Mac users in AU and VST formats. You can download it free of charge from Lese.
The post Give your mixes a lo-fi flavour with the second iteration of Lese’s Codec plugin appeared first on MusicTech.

New York kills ticket resale restrictionsVotes on bills that would put modest restrictions on New York State ticket resellers have been delayed until at least next year. Instead, a one-year extension of the existing ticketing laws until June 30, 2026 was introduced on Sunday night.
The post New York kills ticket resale restrictions appeared first on Hypebot.

Soule DSP releases an early version of the Resonarium free experimental waveguide synth
Soule DSP releases an early version of the free experimental, semi-modular, waveguide synth, Resonarium, for macOS and Windows. First and foremost, Resonarium is still in development (version 0.0.10), and this is the time for constructive feedback. In addition to the typical bugs and crashes that we might expect from any early-stage software, the developer reminds [...]
View post: Soule DSP releases an early version of the Resonarium free experimental waveguide synth

Why Music Fans Are Traveling for Connection, Not Just ConcertsToday’s ticket buyers aren’t just going to concerts, they are looking for deeper experiences. Learn why music fans are travelling and how artists are transforming shows into unforgettable journeys of connection and community.
The post Why Music Fans Are Traveling for Connection, Not Just Concerts appeared first on Hypebot.

Epidemic Sound Removes Rights and Royalties From the EquationThis week, Ari is joined by Oscar Höglund, co-founder and CEO of Epidemic Sound, a leading music and soundtracking platform for content creators.

Best wired headphones under $500 in 2025: Our picks for mixing, recording and moreWhether you’re mixing in your home studio, recording in a professional space or making beats on the go, having a reliable pair of headphones to work on is vital. But – ‘closed-back?’ ‘Impedance?’ What do these terms mean, and how should they factor into your decision when searching for the perfect pair?
Open-back vs. closed-back
When picking a set of headphones, you’ll want to decide whether to opt for closed or open-back.
Largely considered to be ideal for mixing, open-back headphones allow air to pass through the ear cups to the driver. Because pressure doesn’t build up, this tends to create a more natural and spacious sound.
Closed-back headphones, on the other hand, offer better isolation. This makes them ideal if you’re recording or if you’re an engineer working in a live environment. They also have their place in mixing – particularly if you find yourself working in a noisy environment.
Impedance
In a nutshell, the higher the impedance on a set of headphones, the more power you need to make the drivers move and project audio. Consumer-grade audio gear, like your phone, offers weak amplification and so tends to work better with low-impedance headphones.
So, if they’re harder to drive, why on earth would you want a high-impedance set of headphones? Well, for one thing, they won’t blow out when you plug into something with more power – which includes a fair amount of pro-audio equipment.
The best all-purpose headphones at a glance:

RØDE NTH-100
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro X
Austrian Audio Hi-X65
Sony MDR-M1
Audeze MM-100
AIAIAI TMA-2
ADAM Audio H200
Sennheiser HD600

Our top pick for mixing: RØDE NTH-100

[products ids=”75Bm4BrBuuJOCYoshARtlt”]
RØDE is best known for its line of respected, affordable microphones, but scored a flawless 10/10 in our review with its first pair of studio headphones, the closed-back NTH-100. Our reviewer, John Pickford, found no negatives, instead commenting on the full range and a transparent sound that doesn’t shy away from crucial mid-range detail like many headphones do. CoolTech-laden memory foam ensures max comfort, while the competitive price tag is another definite plus.
In our review, we said: “RØDE means business here. The beautifully contoured looks and fantastic functionality are only half the story… The NTH-100’s sonic abilities are nothing short of breathtaking.”

Price: $149
Type: closed-back
Impedance: 32 Ohms
Frequency range: 5Hz – 35kHz

Loved by the industry: Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro X

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The closed-back D T770 Pro Xs from Beyerdynamic have been a reliable studio staple for many years, and for good reason. They offer decent isolation when tracking, their frequency response is not scooped or boomy like many closed-back competitors, and they’re comfortable and extremely reasonably priced. We’ve seen a pair of these in a ton of recording studios over the years, from lavish gear-laden spaces to barebones bedroom setups.
In our recent 9/10 review of the DT 770 Pro X Limited Edition, we said that “At this price, they have always been, and remain, a very easy recommendation and something of a steal.”
Pair these with Sonarworks’ SoundID Reference for Headphones, and you have a killer, articulate and calibrated monitoring set-up that sounds many times more expensive than the total spend.

Price: $199/£169
Type: Closed-back
Impedance: 48 Ohms
Frequency range: 5Hz – 40kHz

Most comfortable: Austrian Audio Hi-X65

[products ids=”5bR3JlBtcVTEC9sM3z0OkR”]
These open-back headphones from the ex-AKG team at Austrian Audio impress with their pinpoint clarity, accurate stereo field and articulate low-end. They immerse you within the music, revealing every important detail in a mix, master or influential commercial reference track. Their brightness takes some getting used to, but we find our personal headphones sound dull when swapping back to them.
These are among the most comfortable headphones we’ve ever tested, so much so that you tend to forget they’re even on your head. What’s more, all the memory foam ear cups and headband parts are user-replaceable, so you can tend anything worn or grubby after intensive use.

Price: $399/£269
Type: open-back
Impedance: 24 Ohms
Frequency range: 5Hz – 28kHz

Great for revealing a bad mix: Sony MDR-M1
Credit: Sony
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A more affordable version of the beloved MDR-MV1 headphones, Sony’s wired reference cans cost around half as much while offering performance that’s pretty close in everyday listening scenarios. In our review, we praised the headphones’ neutral, clean and open sound, crazy wide frequency response and comfort when wearing for long listening sessions.
Being closed back in design, they boast minimal sound leaking, which is helpful for studio and recording use. Meanwhile, their precise drivers reveal deficiencies in imperfect mixes and masters, allowing you to improve your tracks. As well as being great to mix and master on, they are also very suitable for everyday studio use and general listening, presenting a balanced and uncoloured soundstage to give you a true picture of what’s going on in your audio.

Price: $248/£211
Type: Closed-back
Impedance: 50 Ohms
Frequency range: 5Hz – 80kHz

Find out more at Thomann.
Affordable planar magnetic: Audeze MM-100
The MM-100s
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Want a taste of premium-grade headphones at a fraction of the price? High-end headphone designer Audeze blew us away with its MM-100 open-backed planar magnetic headphones when we reviewed them recently. Priced at just £399 — an absolute steal for a pair from this company — we loved their premium fit and finish and praised the low impedance that makes them suitable for use with all kinds of hardware.
The 90mm transducers “offer great transient detail and rich low-end without the onset of distortion that could detract from critical details in the mix”, and while we found it necessary to tame the gritty high mids a little with external EQ, with a modicum of attention, the overall reproduction from these headphones is superb, and definitely warrants your attention even for mixing and mastering where precision is required.

Price: £399/$399
Type: Open-back
Impedance: 18 Ohms
Frequency range: 20Hz – 25kHz

Best for DJ-producers: AIAIAI TMA-2
AIAIAI TMA-2
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AIAIAI invites you to build your own pair of headphones with the TMA-2 modular set. You can also replace parts of the headphones, including the speaker unit, headband, earpad and cable. This is fantastic news both your wallet and the planet, because you’re not forking out to replace or upgrade your headphones every few years.
There are multiple variations of the TMA-2 headphones with interchangeable parts suited for different needs. For example, the TMA-2 Studio models have highly detailed audio and lush comfort, while the DJ model focuses on providing punchy bass frequencies. Then, you can switch between a variety of punchy or detailed speaker diaphragms, on-ear or over-ear cushions, lightweight or padded headbands and cables dependent on length and style, coiled or straight.
These are excellent for artists who want one pair of reliable headphones for DJing and producing.

Studio: $230/£169
DJ: $200/£159
Type: Closed-back
Impedance: 32 OHMs
Frequency range: 10Hz to 40kHz

Excellent value: ADAM Audio H200
Image: Press
[products ids=”pZPvFSOExuWjyipj8pJ4N”]
A snip at around $150, when we reviewed ADAM Audio’s H200 headphones, we were suitably impressed by their amazingly accurate natural sound right out of the box, effective isolation for use when tracking, a companion plugin and a flexible, detachable cable. At the low end, they can reproduce sounds at a frankly crazy 2Hz, while the top end isn’t quite so extreme, topping out at 23.5kHz. Nonetheless, you will be impressed by their musicality, too.
Replaceable components mean they can be repaired rather than left for dead if they should happen to suffer damage from the rigours of studio use. Meanwhile, the DAW plugin lets you optimise and set up your headphones to better reproduce the effect of loudspeaker mixes when working on headphones. They also experience very low levels of distortion while being able to handle fairly high sound pressure levels. These are a worthy addition to any studio.

Price: $160/£140
Type: Closed-back
Impedance: 32 Ohms
Frequency range: 2Hz – 23.5kHz

Superb all-rounders: Sennheiser HD600

[products ids=”mm78dazR19Q9CNVAYqlsU”]
Deemed indispensable by a plethora of engineers, including Abbey Road’s Paul Pritchard, the Sennheiser HD600s are superb all-rounders that offer a natural and spacious sound, thanks to their open-back design. These headphones make use of what Sennheiser terms computer-optimised magnet systems to reduce distortion and deliver a more transparent sound.
Compared to their siblings, the HD650s, which add a small bass and mid-bass boost, these offer a flatter frequency response curve and are ideal for mixing and critical listening.

Price: $299
Type: open-back
Impedance: 300 Ohms
Frequency range: 12Hz – 40kHz

The post Best wired headphones under $500 in 2025: Our picks for mixing, recording and more appeared first on MusicTech.

NoirSonance Releases Three FREE Compressor Plugins + a BPB Giveaway!
NoirSonance has released free “Lite” versions of its three new compressor plugins: D-Comp Lite, B-Comp Lite, and S-Comp Lite. We’re also giving away five free copies of the complete NoirSonance Compressor Bundle to five lucky BPB readers! Each of the three new NoirSonance compressor plugins offers a different type of compression in an easy-to-use form [...]
View post: NoirSonance Releases Three FREE Compressor Plugins + a BPB Giveaway!

Sharon Osbourne slams labels for “bastardising” artists’ music: “There is no development currently at record labels. They take everything”Sharon Osbourne has slammed modern record labels and streaming platforms for “bastardising” the music of today’s artists.
With five decades in the business and a career managing her husband, metal icon Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon has seen the music industry evolve dramatically, and she’s less than impressed by where it’s ended up.
“There is no development currently at record labels,” the veteran manager proclaims in a new interview with Music Business UK. “They take everything.”
“Record labels developing (artists) doesn’t exist. A&R departments just go on the internet. That’s it,” Sharon says. “They’ll take your publishing, your merchandise and everything else, and all they do is press and distribute and stream you.”

READ MORE: “Labels have found a new way to put artists in a position where they seem to be making a lot of money, but they essentially own nothing”: Rick Beato and Anthony Fantano discuss the impact of Spotify and streaming

Taking aim at the streaming economy, in particular, Osbourne continues, “Most of the record companies own the streaming anyway and all of this about, ‘Oh, I’ve got a billion streams, it’s amazing.’ Well, you’re getting less than a fucking penny for a stream. It’s absolutely bastardising an artist’s music.”
Which is why she urges artists, especially younger ones, to hold on to their publishing at all costs, explaining that giving it up too early can come back to haunt you financially.
“Never let your publishing go, until you get to the stage where you think you want to bail, and then you sell it all for a fortune. You look at where your songs could end up; you could get a couple of million each time your song is used in an advertisement.”
“Other people could cover your song and have a hit with a song that wasn’t a hit for you. It’s something which, now, I know a lot of artists, they go in, and they want deals, [and the] record companies want their publishing. It’s like, ‘Fuck you, no way.’”
Reflecting on how the role of the manager has changed over the years, Osbourne notes that true artist development – once a major part of management – is all but extinct.
“Managers in my day would support an artist so they didn’t have to support themselves, so they were able to write and hone their craft,” Sharon says. “You would literally put them in an apartment or a house, if it was a band, and you’d pay everything. You would invest your own money in an artist. That doesn’t happen today!”
She adds that performance skills, once honed through relentless gigging, have also taken a backseat in the age of social media where artists can gig “from their back garden” and “play to the dogs”.
“The years of trailing around the world, trying to break territories. It’s just instant now, which is fantastic for the artists,” she says, “but then you have to wait for the artist to develop their performance skills, because they didn’t have to tour and know how to work with an audience and all of that.”
“Even mic techniques, you get young kids today that don’t understand how to even work with a microphone. They just stand in front of it.”
Her sentiments echo those of other artists who’ve grown wary of the strategies of modern majors. Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows previously criticised modern record labels for offering little support for musicians beyond chasing online clout.
“When Avenged Sevenfold were on Warner Bros., they were trying to figure out how to create a viral TikTok moment,” he said. “What? I’m a fucking 42-year-old man, I’m not trying to figure out how to do a viral TikTok moment. I’m sorry. You’re going to take 24 cents on our dollar and that’s all you can do, come up with a fucking fake viral TikTok moment?”
The post Sharon Osbourne slams labels for “bastardising” artists’ music: “There is no development currently at record labels. They take everything” appeared first on MusicTech.

Eminem files $109 million lawsuit against Meta for unauthorised use of his musicEminem is suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, for allegedly using his songs without permission.
According to The Wrap, the lawsuit, filed 30 May by Eminem’s music publishing company Eight Mile Style, accuses the social media giant of distributing the rapper’s song without a valid license via its Reels Remix and Original Audio features.
Eight Mile Style is seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 per track, per platform – a figure that could total as much as $109.35 million.

READ MORE: “It would basically kill the AI industry overnight”: Nick Clegg thinks asking artists for use permission is a bad thing

The suit alleges that Eminem’s songs were made available in Meta’s “Music Libraries” and used in user-generated content via tools like Reels Remix and Original Audio. This resulted in the songs being used in millions of videos and streamed billions of times.
Court documents also state that Meta sought to obtain licenses through Audiam, Inc., a digital music royalty collection company, though Eight Mile Style claims it did not grant them.
In the suit, the rapper’s team accuses Meta of “rampant infringement” and “knowing infringement” of his compositions, alleging the company “encourag[ed] billions of users of its online services to do so, all willfully, and without a license.”
It also argues that Meta is fully aware it “does not enjoy and is not eligible for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (‘DMCA’) safe harbor provisions.”
While Meta has removed some of the songs including the 2002 hit Lose Yourself following complaints, Eminem’s lawyers say that the company “continues to host unauthorised cover and instrumental versions.”
In addition to statutory damages, Eight Mile Style is also seeking actual damages and lost profits, along with a permanent injunction against any future unlicensed use of Eminem’s music. Mata, meanwhile, has requested for a jury trial.
The news arrives less than a year after Eight Mile Style lost a long-running copyright infringement case against Spotify. At the time, Eight Mile Style sought around $30 million [per MusicRadar] from Spotify, claiming the streaming giant had racked up billions of plays on Eminem’s songs without proper licensing rights.
In September, a Tennessee judge ruled that while Spotify did not have the proper license (as the publisher claimed), the streaming giant would not be liable to cover the unpaid royalty bill. Instead, Kobalt Music Group – which handles rights and collects royalties for artists – had to pay.
The post Eminem files $109 million lawsuit against Meta for unauthorised use of his music appeared first on MusicTech.

Imaginando Celebrates 11th Anniversary with Massive Discounts up to 70%
Imaginando has launched the “We Turn 11” sale to mark its 11th anniversary, offering up to 70% off its full product range through June 13 (excluding GRFX). The sale includes everything from individual plugins to expansive bundles, with a unique twist: you can stack a 30% discount on your first purchase, making the deals even [...]
View post: Imaginando Celebrates 11th Anniversary with Massive Discounts up to 70%