Marketing music with Short Videos: Latest UpdatesYouTube Shorts are getting longer and Spotify Wrapped video clips are timed to take off again as important tools for marketing music with short videos. Michael Brandvold and Jay Gilbert. Continue reading
The post Marketing music with Short Videos: Latest Updates appeared first on Hypebot.

Italian Band Nu Genea Revives Neapolitan Funk and DiscoFrom Naples to the global stage, Neapolitan funk band Nu Genea is bringing Italy's disco-funk legacy out of the shadows.
The post Italian Band Nu Genea Revives Neapolitan Funk and Disco appeared first on Hypebot.

Music Tech Startup Finalists named in ASCAP Lab, Music Ally contestsTwo of the top startup contests focused on music have named their 2024 music tech startup finalists.
The post Music Tech Startup Finalists named in ASCAP Lab, Music Ally contests appeared first on Hypebot.

SPL announce P8 & Pre One preamps SPL's latest high-quality preamps both employ a discrete design that utilises individual transistors with no ICs. 

Native Instruments’ KOMPLETE Synthesizer Collection is $49 On Plugin Boutique
Plugin Boutique is currently running a great sale on a Native Instruments bundle. Until the end of October, you can grab the KOMPLETE Synthesizer Collection for only $49 and save 89%! The KOMPLETE Synthesizer Collection bundle includes 4 powerful synthesizer plugins that can be used in various music styles. Let’s take a closer look. Massive [...]
View post: Native Instruments’ KOMPLETE Synthesizer Collection is $49 On Plugin Boutique

“It’s like having a seasoned engineer in a classic analogue studio”: Universal Audio’s Topline Vocal Suite is a $399 vocal production plugin packed with pro presetsUniversal Audio has released Topline Vocal Suite, a one-stop-shop vocal production plugin that marries classic analogue effects with modern vocal tuning.
Released as part of the brand’s Constellations launch (featuring the new Apollo X Gen 2 audio interfaces), the plugin gives you all the tools necessary to record and mix professional vocals from a wide range of genres.

READ MORE: “Professors and mastering engineers were like, ‘What the fuck were you smokin’ man?’”: RZA on his Wu-Tang Clan production style

Topline Vocal Suite is like having a seasoned engineer in a classic analog studio, says UA. The interface is intuitive and modern, and you get more than 150 professional presets crafted by the engineers of Beyoncé, The Weeknd, U2, and more, letting you create radio-ready vocal mixes instantly.
The plugin boasts a powerful vocal tuner, which offers everything from “subtle, transparent correction” to bold robotic effects. With the integrated Topline Key Finder, users can quickly identify the key and scale of their tracks, streamlining the tuning process.
Universal Audio has also included a low-latency Live Mode which enables near-real-time processing, allowing artists to record pro-quality vocals on the fly or even use the plugin for live performances.
Image: Universal Audio
The suite doesn’t stop at pitch correction though; it also boasts a rich array of production tools and effects that give vocals an authentic, record-ready sound. Users can take advantage of vintage-style mic preamps, tape saturation, and a studio-grade compressor to add warmth and character to their recordings. The built-in EQ, meanwhile, includes an “Air” band for adding clarity without harshness. Classic reverb, delay, and modulation effects are also included in the multi-effects section.
At $399, the Topline Vocal Suite is most certainly not a budget option, though users who fancy UA’s latest “all-in-one vocal chain” can purchase it at a special introductory price of $199 from now till 31 December.

Learn more at Universal Audio.
The post “It’s like having a seasoned engineer in a classic analogue studio”: Universal Audio’s Topline Vocal Suite is a $399 vocal production plugin packed with pro presets appeared first on MusicTech.

“Everyone likes to hear the human voice – even if it’s a vocal chop or just a texture”: Why Ninajirachi loves experimenting with vocal elements in songsElectronic DJ and producer Ninajirachi has opened up about her production process and her love for including elements of the “human voice” in songs.
The 25-year-old musician speaks in the latest MusicTech digital cover, where she takes us through her new full-length release, girl EDM – disc 1, and the creative philosophies that underpin her work.

READ MORE: “In high school, I was making songs on my laptop that sounded fully professional”: Ninajirachi on the democratisation of music technology

Explaining her process, Nina says that she’s all about treating her vocals with a light touch: “It sounds really basic, but I love to use delay in interesting ways. Having the delay kind of pitch bend and then resampling that can often yield really interesting results,” she explains. “I also love to fully reverb out vocals and resample that.”
“I find having some element of vocal in every song makes it feel more familiar,” she adds. “Everyone likes to hear the human voice — even if it’s a vocal chop or just a texture.”
As a songwriter, Nina constantly draws inspiration from the world around her, capturing snippets of everyday life to infuse into her music.
“I’m voice memo-ing all the time,” she says. “I like to be surprised by stuff that I hear just going about my day. It’s so much fun.”
The musician also enjoys sampling her own tracks and breathing new life into familiar sounds. A prime example is Ninacamina, a collaboration with British-American producer Izzy Camina, which samples Tiankeng, an ambient cut from her 2022 release Second Nature. This track itself samples a snippet from a YouTube documentary about China’s Xiaozhai Tiankeng sinkhole.
“Sampling is so fun, because samples are so frequency rich,” she says. “You kind of put a whole song in one little bit of audio. And by doing that from my own discography, I also avoid any copyright problems.”
Also in the chat, Ninajirachi talks about her disappointing encounter with AI music generators in the studio, saying “we didn’t get anything good.”
The post “Everyone likes to hear the human voice – even if it’s a vocal chop or just a texture”: Why Ninajirachi loves experimenting with vocal elements in songs appeared first on MusicTech.

African nation of Eswatini releases design for tokenized retail CBDCThe tiny kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland, is looking at better domestic accessibility and cross-border trade with a proposed CBDC.

FTX’s Ryan Salame posts jokes on LinkedIn as he heads to prisonAfter the criminal implosion of the crypto exchange FTX, many of the company’s executives have been found guilty on various counts of fraud or conspiracy to commit such acts. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, is starting his seven-and-a-half-year fraud sentence today, but not before posting an all-time absurd LinkedIn post (and […]
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Building A Sound Camera For Under $400[Benn Jordan] had an idea. He’d heard of motion amplification technology, where cameras are used to capture tiny vibrations in machinery and then visually amplify it for engineering analysis. This is typically the preserve of high-end industrial equipment, but [Benn] wondered if it really had to be this way. Armed with a modern 4K smartphone camera and the right analysis techniques, could he visually capture sound?
The video first explores commercially available “acoustic cameras” which are primarily sold business-to-business at incredibly high prices. However, [Benn] suspected he could build something similar on the cheap. He started out with a 16-channel microphone that streams over USB for just $275, sourced from MiniDSP, and paired it  with a Raspberry Pi 5 running the acoular framework for acoustic beamforming. Acoular analyses multichannel audio and visualizes them so you can locate sound sources. He added a 1080p camera, and soon enough, was able to overlay sound location data over the video stream. He was able to locate a hawk in a tree using this technique, which was pretty cool, and the total rig came in somewhere under $400.
The rest of the video covers other sound-camera techniques—vibration detection, the aforementioned motion amplification, and some neat biometric techniques. It turns out your webcam can probably detect your heart rate, for example.
It’s a great video that illuminates just what you can achieve with modern sound and video capture. Think SIGGRAPH-level stuff, but in a form you can digest over your lunchbreak. Video after the break.

[Thanks to ollie-p for the tip.]

Accentize unveil Chameleon Surround In response to significant user demand, Accentize have announced that Chameleon, their popular reverb-matching tool, is now available to those working in multi-channel surround and immersive formats. 

Africa-focused streaming service Mdundo hits 37.8m monthly active users, as paid subscription revenue jumps 112% in local currency termsThe company reported a revenue decline in fiscal 2023/24, amid weakness in African currencies
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Ticketmaster hit by ‘billions’ of bots in Oasis ticket sale, and 3 other things Michael Rapino said at Bloomberg’s Screentime eventThe Live Nation CEO criticized scalpers saying there shouldn't be "a middleman that has nothing invested in the business making any money from it."
Source

Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services Announces Partnership with ANALOGr Authentication Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services, the leading archival and media preservation company, has announced its partnership with ANALOGr Authentication, the music industry’s destination for highly curated music-related assets, with the mission of helping artists protect their cultural legacy through proper valuation of their assets. Music icons and GRAMMY-winning producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis became the first artists to participate in this collaboration, and will releaseexclusive video documentation of the valuation process of their legacy, spanning across their most historic instruments and recording gear. Most known for their collaborations with notable artists such as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, George Michael, and Gwen Stefani – this marks the first time the duo producers have engaged in the legacy assets valuation process, properly archiving, restoring and preserving key archival moments across their 40+ year career.

Artists today struggle with safeguarding against false claims and illegal or unauthorized duplication of their physical assets. The new partnership establishes an end-to-end solution for creators, providing agency for artists to protect their legacies and effectively monetize and preserve their work for future generations. Notably, iconic producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have worked closely with both companies to evaluate some of their most valuable assets, particularly those tied to pivotal moments in their legendary careers. Their involvement not only strengthens the partnership’s credibility but also underscores the importance of proper asset management in shaping an artist’s long-term legacy.

“Partnering with ANALOGr, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis has helped us to pioneer an end-to-end solution that allows creators to be in the front seat of protecting their legacy,” says Greg Maratea, Director of Global Client Solutions for Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services. “With the support of our proprietary technology Smart Vault, Iron Mountain’s highly secure digital media preservation platform, we’re breathing new life into legacy assets and shielding artists' legacies by directly working with them to preserve what they find most valuable for generations to come.”

“In over 40 years of working together, we have amassed warehouses filled with instruments, gear and memorabilia,” says Jimmy Jam. “One of our goals has been to future-proof our assets and understand their true value. So, when Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services introduced us to ANALOGr, we were excited to work with them. Now, our assets are properly covered by special insurance for their true value, and most importantly, our stories associated with our gear and memorabilia are forever secure. When the time comes to sell these items or pass them on to our heirs, we know the history is intact and truthful, and the value is there for the future.”

"At ANALOGr Authentication, our mission is to ensure that artists' legacies are not only preserved but also elevated through comprehensive valuation and protection strategies. Partnering with Iron Mountain and working with legends like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis allows us to pioneer a new way for creators to safeguard their cultural contributions and inspire future generations," says Thomas Scriven, CEO of ANALOGr.

The end-to-end services provided through this new partnership include both ANALOGr’s research and documentation services to organize, authenticate and validate the provenance and value of artists’ physical assets, and Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services’ media preservation services, in which the unique video documentation and digital images of the artists’ assets are stored on Iron Mountain’s Smart Vault digital media preservation platform.

The post Iron Mountain Media and Archive Services Announces Partnership with ANALOGr Authentication  first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Supercon 2023: Receiving Microwave Signals from Deep-Space ProbesHere’s the thing about radio signals. There is wild and interesting stuff just getting beamed around all over the place. Phrased another way, there are beautiful signals everywhere for those with ears to listen. We go about our lives oblivious to most of them, but some dedicate their time to teasing out and capturing these transmissions.
David Prutchi is one such person. He’s a ham radio enthusiast that dabbles in receiving microwave signals sent from probes in deep space. What’s even better is that he came down to Supercon 2023 to tell us all about how it’s done!

Space Calling

David’s home setup is pretty rad.
David notes that he’s not the only ham out there doing this. He celebrates the small community of passionate hams that specialize in capturing signals directly from far-off spacecraft. As one of these dedicated enthusiasts, he gives us a look at his backyard setup—full of multiple parabolic dishes for getting the best possible reception when it comes to signals sent from so far away. They’re a damn sight smaller than NASA’s deep space network (DSN) 70-meter dish antennas, but they can still do the job.  He likens trying to find distant space signals as to “watching grass grow”—sitting in front of a monitor, waiting for a tiny little spike to show up on a spectrogram.
Listening to signals from far away is hard. You want the biggest, best antenna you can get.
The challenge of receiving these signals comes down to simple numbers. David explains that a spacecraft like JUNO emits 28 watts into a 2.5-meter dish, which comes out to roughly 44.5 dBm of signal with a 44.7 dBi gain antenna. The problem is one of distance—it sits at around 715 million kilometers away on its mission to visit Jupiter. That comes with a path loss of around -288 dB. NASA’s 70-meter dish gets them 68 dBi gain on the receive side, which gets them a received signal strength around -131 dBm. To transmit in return, they transmit around the 50-60 kW range using the same antenna. David’s setup is altogether more humble, with a 3.5-meter dish getting him 47 dBi gain. His received signal strength is much lower, around -152 dBm.
His equipment limits what he can actually get from these distant spacecraft. National space agencies can get full signal from their dishes in the tens-of-meters in diameter, sidebands and all. His smaller setup is often just enough to get some of the residual carrier showing up in the spectrogram.  Given he’s not getting full signal, how does he know what he’s receiving is the real deal? It comes down to checking the doppler shift in the spectrogram, which is readily apparent for spacecraft signals. He also references the movie Contact, noting that the techniques in that film were valid. If you move your antenna to point away from the suspected spacecraft, the signal should go away. If it doesn’t, it might be that you’re picking up local interference instead.

THIS. IS. JUST. AWESOME. !!!
This is video decoded from the 8455MHz high rate downlink @uhf_satcom received yesterday. All the work on the decoder and data analysis really paid off in the end!
Video shows solar panel of Chang'e-5 glistening in the sun and dust floating around. pic.twitter.com/FKc92kgskl
— r00t (@r2x0t) November 25, 2020

Some hobbyists have been able to decode video feeds from spacecraft downlinks. 
Working at microwave frequencies requires the proper equipment. You’ll want a downconverter mounted as close to your antenna as possible if you’re working in X-Band.
However, demodulating and decoding full spacecraft signals at home is sometimes possible—generally when the spacecraft are still close to Earth. Some hobbyists have been able to decode telemetry from various missions, and even video signals from some craft! David shows some examples, noting that SpaceX has since started encrypting its feeds after hobbyists first started decoding them.
David also highlights the communications bands most typically used for deep space communication, and explains how to listen in on them. Most of it goes on in the S-band and X-band frequencies, with long-range activity focused on the higher bands.
David has pulled in some truly distant signals.
Basically, if you want to get involved in this kind of thing, you’re going to want a dish and some kind of software defined radio. If you’re listening in S-band, that’s possibly enough, but if you’re stepping up into X-band, you’ll want a downconverter to step that signal down to a lower frequency range, mounted as close to your dish as possible. This is important as X-band signals get attenuated very quickly in even short cable runs. It’s also generally required to lock your downconverter and radio receiver to some kind of atomic clock source to keep them stable. You’ll also want an antenna rotator to point your dishes accurately, based on data you can source from NASA JPL. As for finding downlink frequencies, he suggests looking at the ITU or the Australian Communication and Media Authority website.
He also covers the techniques of optimizing your setup. He dives into the minutae of pointing antennas at the Sun and Moon to pick up their characteristic noise for calibration purposes. It’s a great way to determine the performance of your antenna and supporting setup. Alternatively, you can use signals from geostationary military satellites to determine how much signal you’re getting—or losing—from your equipment.
Ultimately, if you’ve ever dreamed of listening to distant spacecraft, David’s talk is a great place to start. It’s a primer on the equipment and techniques you need to get started, and he also makes it sound really fun, to boot. It’s high-tech hamming at its best, and there’s more to listen to out there than ever—so get stuck in!