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!

The Music Creator Economy: Reshaping Opportunities for Artists [Mark Mulligan]Explore how the evolving landscape of the music creator economy is reshaping opportunities for artists and industry professionals alike. 
The post The Music Creator Economy: Reshaping Opportunities for Artists [Mark Mulligan] appeared first on Hypebot.

Join the SOUND Connections music conference in LA next weekThe new music industry tribe is gathering in LA next week for the SOUND Connections music conference. The day event offers a unique opportunity to build relationships and gain insights as part of the creative and business community driving the music industry forward.
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“Professors and mastering engineers were like, ‘What the fuck were you smokin’ man?’”: RZA on his Wu-Tang Clan production styleRZA‘s production style on Return to the 36 Chambers, the debut solo album by Wu-Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard, foxed a group of professors and a mastering engineer who were tasked with remastering it.
The rapper and producer explains that his production style is guided by instinct rather than any particular musical rules, meaning that music experts who don’t work in that way were confused by the “weirdness” of the production ODB’s 1995 debut.

READ MORE: Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA to Receive 2024 NAMM Innovation Award at the TEC Awards

“No one has dissected the weirdness of Return To The 36 Chambers as much as my others, but there’s some crazy shit going on. Warner Bros. did a remaster of it recently. I wasn’t involved but I went in to listen,” he tells Tape Op. “They had professors there, and the mastering engineer, and they were like, ‘What the fuck were you smokin’, man?’
“It took them so long to understand it and to recall my mix that they said if you moved one fader by half a decibel the whole track would fall apart! My brain wasn’t technical, it was just what my ear wanted. The science wasn’t applied; it was more instinct.”

RZA also mentions elsewhere in the interview that he primarily used the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler on the album, which he estimates he made his “first 100 songs” with.
“When you’d go to make a new sequence on the ASR, the default tempo would be 100bpm. Most other machines create tempos at 120bpm,” he explains. “When I was making tracks back then, I didn’t know the difference and I would force a sample into the tempo that I was feeling.
“So if you take a sample like this [hums syncopated horn melody] and put it in the 100bpm tempo, it will speed up and cut the sound off. If you want it to fit, you have to speed the sample up or change the tempo. If I liked the tempo of the sample as is, I’d change the tempo of the beat. Or, if I’m feeling the tempo of the beat, I’m going to change the speed of the sample.”
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Focal reveal Lensys Professional headphones Featuring a closed-back design and promising to deliver a clean and accurate sound, the Lensys Professional are said to be a must-have tool for creators on the move. 

Amuse adds Stream Check to help artists detect fraudulent streamsDistributor and artist services company Amuse adds Stream Check – a new tool to equip DIY and independent artists with the resources to fight artificial streams proactively. 
The post Amuse adds Stream Check to help artists detect fraudulent streams appeared first on Hypebot.

Best FREE Linear-Phase EQ VST Plugins
This article covers the best free linear-phase EQ VST plugins for Windows and macOS. Linear-phase EQs are essential for achieving transparent equalization, especially in mastering. Unlike traditional EQs, a linear-phase equalizer preserves the phase of your audio, making it ideal for mastering and handling complex multi-mic recordings. While free linear-phase EQ plugins are hard to [...]
View post: Best FREE Linear-Phase EQ VST Plugins

Audified Just Dropped the FREE ToneKnob Saturator One-Knob Plugin
On Tuesday, Audified released the ToneKnob Saturator, a free one-knob plugin for macOS and Windows. The 64-bit-only release is available for VST3, AAX, and AU.  Audified describes the satch as “simple on the outside, sophisticated on the inside.” The plugin is the developer’s first drop in a new one-knob series, which will see further releases [...]
View post: Audified Just Dropped the FREE ToneKnob Saturator One-Knob Plugin

Sennheiser launch MD 421 Kompakt Sennheiser's latest launch delivers the sound and performance of their renowned MD 421-II in a much smaller package. 

Universal Audio unveils new Apollo X Gen 2 interface series — but some aren’t impressedUniversal Audio has announced a complete overhaul of its award-winning line of Apollo audio interfaces.
Featuring seven new models, the Apollo X Gen 2 now comes equipped with “elite-class” 24-bit/ 192kHz conversion – the highest available in any Apollo model to date. The series also introduces a host of hardware and software upgrades aimed at improving workflow, including Monitor Correction (powered by Sonarworks), Assistive Auto-Gain, Bass Management, and a refreshed UAD Console app.

READ MORE: AlphaTheta’s new DJ controller hosts a new feature for freely manipulating drum parts and creating original grooves

Firstly, Monitor Correction allows users to import Sonarworks SoundID correction profiles directly into the Apollo DSP, enabling real-time calibration of monitors, headphones, and room acoustics for maximum sonic accuracy.
Gen 2 also comes with Assistive Auto-Gain, which allows for one-click level setting across all input channels, be it microphone, line level, or hi-Z. The feature also works with Unison mic preamp emulations from API, Neve, and SSL.
Users can also enjoy greater control over their low-end with the all-new Bass Management feature. Add a subwoofer for full-range stereo and surround monitoring, featuring trim, mute, solo and crossover controls per speaker.
Meanwhile, new modes for alternate monitoring allow immersive users to easily switch between immersive and stereo monitoring setups. And with Plug-In Scenes, you can instantly change plug-in settings across all of your UAD Console channels – perfect for taking your Apollo onstage.
Image: Universal Audio
Finally, all of the interfaces come standard with Antares Auto‑Tune and are available with Essentials+ or Studio+ Edition UAD plug‑in bundles. The Apollo x16 and Apollo x16D are available with either Essentials+ or Ultimate+ Editions.
That said, responses to the new Apollo X Gen 2 series have been mixed, with many expressing disappointment over the perceived lack of significant hardware upgrades – the new models feature the same DSP chips as their predecessors – to a lineup that has been around for over a decade.
“If you haven’t upgraded the Processing power/ CPU’s, why are you even bothering?” one user questioned under the Apollo X Gen 2 introduction video. Another also pointed out that most of Gen 2’s new features could be done via a “software update” and that a bigger advancement is needed to convince users to upgrade from their existing units.

Learn more about the full range at Universal Audio.
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“The more confusing I am as an artist, the better”: Or:la on music and mythology“My interest in production was born out of necessity,” says Northern Irish producer Or:la. “I needed to make the idea I heard in my head and was constantly chasing that feeling of catharsis and contentment when you finish something creative that you’re happy with.”

READ MORE: Ninajirachi: “People love to ask artists how they’d describe their sound… I just want to surprise myself”

As a DJ, label head and electronic artist, Or:la has long been on one-to-watch lists but is now firmly in the scene’s spotlight with her debut album, Trusting Theta, via Fabric Originals.
Eclectic and spiralling in sound, drawing on a genre-pushing palette ranging from breakbeat to tribal house, there are wide ambitions in its tracks. Or:la draws on Irish and ancient Greek mythology, delves into queer identities, moments of sapphic love, and calls out female injustices.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that you need to have a strong ‘sound’ as a producer or DJ,” Or: la says of her production approach and restless creative striving.
“I’ve learned to accept that a signature ‘sound’ doesn’t necessarily have to be succinct and linear to come across as authentically cohesive. And just like the human spectrum of emotion, the music I make and play can be playful, sassy, moody, introspective or chaotic at times.”
Image: Kasia Kim Zacharko
Foundations
Or:la’s love of electronic music came from a collage of influences. She picked up a copy of Mood II Swing’s Do It Your Way with Barbara Ann Teer’s vocals in Berlin; social media platform Bebo allowed her to experiment with sound and image while she moved to university from Ireland in 2012, a period she remembers as being particularly potent for club music; and Sasha’s Involver CDs released via Global Underground all sent creative sparks shooting through her too.
“Sasha’s mixes led me to become fascinated with the idea that tracks can sometimes sound better together and juxtaposed between one another than alone,” she remembers. “Mixes like this that made disparate sounds feel cohesive were interesting and exciting.”
Or:la’s first club experiences were at under-18 nights, initially by way of a fake ID during her teenage years. Despite what she describes as Ireland’s “backwards licensing laws” she experienced some of the greats do their thing.
“Celtronic were regularly bringing people like DJ Hell and Andrew Wetherall to my hometown and I’d always be in the front row,” she says. “Promoters like Celtronic and Twitch in Belfast were really pushing the boat out and thinking outside the box to nurture a tiny scene.”
Image: Kasia Kim Zacharko
Production ambitions
Or:la’s own music production dalliances came via mashups and edits at a time when house music was less bothered by pristine sounds, and more by creative energies.
“Around 2010 I downloaded a free version of Virtual DJ and made a few mashups including a version of Nina Kraviz’s Pain In The Ass together with a friend’s drum track,” she says.
This gave her the confidence to experiment more, particularly with Ableton. One of the productions, a bumping take on Beyoncé’s Me Myself And I, was released back in 2022.
“My early interest in producing music coincided with the lo-fi house movement, which demonstrated that you could experiment with and celebrate certain imperfections within your tracks,” Or:la states. “It felt unpretentious and super freeing and I got obsessed with this free plug-in called CamelCrusher which opened a whole gateway into the world of distortion.”
Image: Kasia Kim Zacharko
Trusting Theta
Trusting Theta came into focus during the pandemic and is the result of years of hard work and dancefloor dedication. Before this, Or:la set up her Cead label and released via Scuba’s Hot Flush too, a connection that came via a Facebook message.
“I was feeling cheeky and sent Scuba a demo,” she remembers. “He replied the next day asking to hear more. I was organising these raves around Liverpool and he came to the city to see what they were all about. I must’ve done an okay job because after that we did a b2b UK tour and he released two of my EPs!”
After her initial releases, a pile of unheard tracks and ideas started to build up with the latest official release, 2017’s Farewell 24. Rather than keeping the music under lock and key, Or:la opted to rip the band-aid off and let it loose in the public domain.
“I just thought ‘fuck it, I need to stop being so precious,’” she says. “In recent years I realised that my best ideas come when my brain is in a deep wandering state, or when my brain is in a Theta or default mode state – falling asleep or just waking. So I relinquished a lot of control after this and waited for this internal inspiration.”
The hypnotic, sometimes slippery electronic productions on the record are pitched over themes exploring the Medusa myth from ancient Greece, and ideas of female rage and the male gaze. Thoughts surrounding identity and the impermanence of the internet were also swirling around her mind, too.

“These were just the zeitgeist of my mind at the time of writing, so that’s what naturally came up,” she states. “Then there was the lived experience of a queer person growing up in a place like Northern Ireland which inspired my decision to collaborate with SOAK on the opening track, Milky Way Of Glitter.”
The artwork for the record is a hybrid version of Or:la and Medusa, representing each’s metamorphosis and misinterpretation.
“Certain themes within myths have a durability over other versions and one of the popular stories about Medusa is that she would turn men into stone with her glare,” she explains. “I wanted to challenge this in my version of the artwork so I had a 3D body scan of myself digitally rendered to stone.”
The concepts surrounding identity are sonically represented in the tracks of the record too with what she describes as “subtle nods” to expression and queer subcultures.
“The whip noises sampled in Sea Slugs are reminiscent of the dramatic snare crashes in ballroom vogue tracks, or the title of the outro track Ode To Sister Boom Boom which I hoped would prompt listeners to research Sister Boom Boom.”

A mixture of software and hardware were utilised to make the concepts of the record become a reality, including U-He’s Diva which Or:la relied on to create texture and impactful moments in her productions.
“It has a nice range of percussive and effects presets which you can modify and modulate to your liking,” she says. “I also like using the Soundtoys’ Crystallizer for vocal FX and the Ratshack Reverb (the plugin is super cheap) for dub style delays.”
Elsewhere, the Microcosm Hologram pedal was combined with Ableton for external audio effects.
“This has been mostly for ambient leaning tracks like Goodnight Sister Boom Boom,” she explains. “The Vermona Mono Lancet comes in handy for bass and bleeps, you can hear that feature in Slay The Beast.”
The latter track features Eliza Rose while other collaborators include SOAK and Mary Lake. These sparring partners are among Or:la’s own social circle or music makers she had some connection with. By working with those she already knew, she’s ensured that the sound of these collaborations has been kept light and fun despite the weighty themes.
“With SOAK, we share many similarities having both grown up as queer musicians in Derry,” she says. “Mary (Lake) and I are good friends, and we were having a conversation once about how crazy it is that pepper defense spray is illegal to possess in the UK. So I was like ‘Let’s make our own’ and Mary suggested we record ourselves reading out the ‘recipe’ as vocals for a track. Slay The Beast also emerged from a conversation when myself and Eliza were laughing about creepy men in nightclubs and the male gaze.”
Houghton Festival. Image: Press
Studio process
Or:la is certainly a different kind of artist to the one who first appeared, having DJed at festivals and clubs all over the world since first breaking through. She attributes her experiences playing on big sound systems as having a defining influence on her approach to her music.
“After playing so many gigs you become more aware and familiar with lower frequencies and how these hit on a big system, so I guess my newer music is informed by that,” she says. “I’m making a lot more use of space in my tracks now and I’m using my own vocals and lyrics rather than just pulling samples from old R’n’B tracks. I’m also experimenting more with polyrhythms and less common time signatures.”
It’s often the variety of her production style that makes her sound stand out, where any boundaries between light and dark are often smudged and blurred. Refusing to be pinned to one style or take on electronic music is the only constant that unites her music. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Or:la is a firm believer in aspiring producers staying true to themselves.
Houghton Festival. Image: Press
“Try to be authentic and take more risks,” she advises. “If you’re scared to put yourself out there because that thing you’ve made isn’t like what others are making then that’s all the more reason to do it. Also try not to force things, if a track is meant to be, it will come intuitively and will almost make itself.”
“I’m also realising that being easily categorised and packaged into one box is an ideal capitalistic scenario, so the more confusing I am as an artist the better actually.”
With the album out, it’s the latest chapter in a creative life well-lived so far. It’s the cherry on top of what Or:la describes as one of her favourite summers to date with lifestyle changes, a dedication to focusing on the source and new sense of optimism for the future of electronic music’s community.
“Since moving away from London I’ve been simplifying my life, so I cut down on touring and only chose to play festivals I wanted to attend outside of just playing a set and leaving straight after,” she says.
“Houghton festival was a memorable one,” she continues. “I came away feeling buzzing that there’s still a scene in the UK which leaves you talking about the music well after the festival has finished.”
Trusting Theta is out now on Fabric Originals
The post “The more confusing I am as an artist, the better”: Or:la on music and mythology appeared first on MusicTech.

XDJ-AZ: first impressions of the four deck standalone (from an XDJ power user)Alphatheta just announced their XDJ-AZ – it’s an all-in-one standalone with four decks built into the unit. In this piece, I’ll share some of the details on the unit and offer a few first impressions and thoughts on how it is to mix on. In the world of digital DJ gear, standalone devices seem to […]
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SEC, FBI, DOJ coordinate takedown of 4 fraudulent crypto firmsA complex set of overlapping companies, individuals and alleged crimes have been tackled by US federal authorities.

Tesla Robotaxi reveal: What to expectTesla is gearing up to reveal its Robotaxi this Thursday, and everyone wants to know what it will look like, whether Tesla will unveil a commercialization strategy, and what outrageous timelines Elon Musk might announce to bump Tesla’s stock.  The “We, Robot” event will take place at 7 p.m. PT at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie […]
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Fail of the Week: The Case of the Curiously Colored StreetlightsWhat color are the street lights in your town? While an unfortunate few still suffer under one of the awful colors offered by vapor discharge lamps, like the pink or orange of sodium or the greenish-white of mercury, most municipalities have moved to energy-saving LED streetlights, with a bright white light that’s generally superior in every way. Unless, of course, things go wrong and the lights start to mysteriously change colors.
If you’ve noticed this trend in your area, relax; [NanoPalomaki] has an in-depth and surprisingly interesting analysis of why LED streetlights are changing colors. After examining a few streetlights removed from service thanks to changing from white to purple, he discovered a simple explanation. White LEDs aren’t emitting white light directly; rather, the white light comes from phosphors coating the underlying LED, which emits a deep blue light. The defunct units all showed signs of phosphor degradation. In some cases, the phosphors seemed discolored, as if they experienced overheating or chemical changes. In other LEDs the phosphor layer was physically separated from the backing, exposing the underlying LEDs completely. The color of these damaged modules was significantly shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum, which was obviously why they were removed from service.
Now, a discolored LED here and there does not exactly constitute a streetlight emergency, but it’s happening to enough cities that people are starting to take notice. The obvious solution would be for municipalities to replace the dodgy units Even in the unlikely event that a city would get some compensation from the manufacturer, this seems like an expensive proposition. Luckily, [NanoPalomaki] tested a solution: he mixed a wideband phosphor into a UV-curable resin and painted it onto the lens of each defective LED in the fixture. Two coats seemed to do the trick.
We have to admit that we have a hard time visualizing a city employee painstakingly painting LEDs when swapping out a fixture would take an electrician a few minutes, but at least it’s an option. And, it’s something for hobbyists and homeowners faced with the problem of wonky white LEDs to keep in mind too.