The Bendix G-15 Runs 75,000 Lines of CodeThere’s a Blue Bendix in Texas, and thanks to [Usagi Electric] it’s the oldest operating computer in North America.  The Bendix G-15, a vacuum tube computer originally released in 1956, is now booting, and running code from paper tape. [David, aka Usagi] received the G-15 about a year ago from The System Source museum. The goal was to get the computer running so museum patrons could interact with a real tube computer. We’ve been following along since the project began.
[Usagi’s] latest G-15 video covers the last few problems on the road to running code. The biggest hurdle was the fact that the system wasn’t responding properly to the GO button on the typewriter. [Usagi] was able to isolate the issue down to a flip flop and then to a particular signal on an AND gate — the RC signal. The gate appeared to be bad, but swapping the entire circuit card multiple times had no effect. Something else had to be going on.

After hours of troubleshooting and a bit of hair-pulling, [Usagi] changed a diode circuit card downstream of the suspect card. This miraculously fixed the problem. It turned out the diode card had a tiny solder bridge since it was built in the 1950’s. This bridge put a heavy load on a buffer, causing grid leakage. For those of us who aren’t old [TubeTimers], grid leakage is a tiny current from the grid of a tube into the drive circuitry. Leakage is present on all triodes, and tube testers would often misdiagnose good tubes as bad for this reason.
Once the bridge and a few other problems were fixed, the machine sprang to life, not with a roar, but with a solid thunk as it slammed the incredibly wide typewriter carriage into a nearby shelf.  If you do nothing else this year, watch the video from the 20-minute mark. You get to see the pure joy a hacker gets when their project starts to work.
The Bendix was executing DIAPER — Diagnostic Program for Easy Repair. DIAPER runs a series of tests on the machine and rings a bell every time a test passes. Not a little bell in the typewriter, but a big 120 V beast hiding inside the computer itself. Ding, fries are done indeed!
[Usagi] did have some help this time around — thanks to a tip from [Avery] he contacted HP Agilent Keysight to inquire about a basic scope. Apparently, they know his videos and are huge fans of the Bendix because they sent him a really nice 4-channel digital oscilloscope. It definitely helped push the Bendix over the finish line! We love seeing companies give back to the community this way — and hope to see more in the future.
Now, this isn’t the last Bendix G-15 video from [Usagi]. There are several more tapes to run a full DIAPER test. The typewriter itself needs quite a lot of work before it will accept keystrokes, and we’re sure [Usagi] has a few more surprises up his sleeves.
You can still find a few tube computer projects floating around. You can even replace your 555 with some.

OpenAI’s GPT-5 reportedly falling short of expectationsOpenAI’s efforts to develop its next major model, GPT-5, are running behind schedule, with results that don’t yet justify the enormous costs, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. This echoes an earlier report in The Information suggesting that OpenAI is looking to new strategies as GPT-5 might not represent as big […]
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Custom Firmware For Even Cheaper Bluetooth ThermometersReaders may recall when we first covered the $5 Xiaomi LYWSD03MMC temperature and humidity sensor back in 2020. Prolific hacker [Aaron Christophel] wrote a custom firmware for the affordable gadget that was so capable and well implemented that it kicked off a whole new community.
It’s recently been brought to our attention that the Xiaomi thermometer has become so popular that clones have started popping up. Often sold under the Tuya brand, these versions look very similar to Xiaomi’s offering but can be had for as little as $1 each from the usual Chinese importers. Even better, they’ve got their very own open-source custom firmware.
The firmware comes from [pvvx], who also helms the most active fork of [Aaron]’s original firmware for the Xiaomi thermometer. Doing a bit of spot-checking between the repositories, it’s not immediately clear that any meaningful code is shared between the two projects. However, once installed, they offer similar capabilities to the user, such as integration with Home Assistant. Perhaps the most significant difference between the two projects is that, at least for the initial flash, you need to hook the Tuya units up to your computer with a USB serial adapter. Considering that one of the highlights of the Xiaomi custom firmware was its exceptionally easy wireless installation, this is a considerable step backward.
Below is a video from a few months back that [Maker’s Fun Duck] put together, where he takes apart one of these clones and shows the installation process for the custom firmware. Our overall impression is that it’s probably worth the few extra dollars to get the original Xiaomi hardware, although the display on the clone seems much brighter. In any event, we’re always happy to see the community coming up with free and open-source firmware for an otherwise locked-down gadget.

Thanks to [ThoriumBR] for the tip.

DIY & Independent Musician News Last WeekLast week in DIY & independent musician news, our indie readers tuned into topics like a new affordable SoundCloud subscription, Holiday selfcare, starting a band, the importance of metadata, and more...
The post DIY & Independent Musician News Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.

Last week’s top Music Business NewsA busy week by any definition and music business news was no exception, with moves to reform concert ticketing in turmoil, UMG buying indie powerhouses Downtown and CD Baby, TikTok's end in the U.S approaching, and more...
The post Last week’s top Music Business News appeared first on Hypebot.

Sonible introduce prime:vocal Available as a plug-in or standalone application, prime:vocal has been developed to make less-than-ideal vocals sound as though they were recorded professionally in a well-treated studio.

Follow AllMusic on Bluesky and ThreadsWe're offering more ways to hear from us on new platforms.

Lack of proper indexing is throttling DApp speeds — Pangea CEOUsers typically leave an application that does not respond within three seconds, and Web3 apps can have load times of up to 20 seconds.

After causing outrage on the first day of Y Combinator, AI code editor PearAI lands $1M seedOn the first day of Y Combinator the founders of PearAI got “cancelled." They used the hate to launch a new product, raise $1 million.
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Making a Mechanical Watch From Scratch Is Fine WorkThere are plenty of hard jobs out there, like founding your country’s nuclear program, or changing the timing chain on a BMW diesel. Making your own mechanical watch from scratch falls under that umbrella, too. And yet, [John Raffaelli] did just that, and prevailed!
That’s a lot of work.
Only a handful of components were purchased—[John] grabbed jewels, sapphire crystals, the strap, and the hairspring and mainspring off the shelf. Everything else, he made himself, using a fine touch, a sharp eye, and some deft work on his machine tools. If you’ve never worked at this scale before, it’s astounding to see—[John] steps through how he produced tiny pinions and balance wheels that exist at sub-fingertip scale. Even just assembling something this tiny would be a challenge, but [John] was able to craft it all from scratch and put it together into a functioning timepiece when he was done.
The final piece doesn’t just look great—we’re told it keeps good time as well. People like [John] don’t come along every day, though we do have one similar story in our deep archives from well over a decade ago. If you’re cooking up your own bespoke time pieces in your home workshop, don’t hesitate to drop your story on the tipsline!

Building a Diet Coke Button[mars91] had an interesting problem to solve—his girlfriend often requested Diet Coke, but yelling for one across the apartment was frustrating and impractical. A dedicated Diet Coke button seemed like the perfect solution, so that’s precisely what he built.
The Diet Coke Button is a relatively simple device. A small silver push-button activates an Adafruit Feather M0 to send out a signal via its RFM95 LoRa radio. That signal is picked up by the receiver device, which runs on an ESP32. It’s got an RFM95 LoRa module, which receives signals from the button and sounds an alarm to indicate the request for a Diet Coke. The ESP32 also hosts a basic website which allows Diet Coke requests to be submitted via the web, as well as general submissions of a textual nature. The latter are displayed on a small OLED display. If you’re feeling bold, you can even set up the ESP32 to be accessible from the outside Internet, with [mars91] explaining how to do so using a Cloudflare tunnel for your own protection.
The only problem is that delivering the Diet Coke is still something you have to do by hand. Perhaps a future upgrade would involve some kind of small apartment-spanning railway for the delivery of ice-cold cans to designated stations.
It’s a unique project, and one that recalls us of an interesting talk about a different type of call button.

Here’s how to remake Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime with plugins and emulationsIt’s that time of year again – and we bet you must have heard Paul McCartney‘s Wonderful Christmastime at least a handful of times so far in the run-up to Christmas. He’s even been performing it recently on his current UK tour.

READ MORE: How 100s of hours of McCartney audio was edited into a podcast

For the music nerds among us, however, the often-polarising festive hit offers a smorgasbord of synth-based creativity. This is the basis of Reverb Machine’s Instrumental Synth Remake, which is impressively close to the original song.
The main synth heard in the 1979 hit is the Yamaha CS-80, a large, famously expensive synth famous for its use in Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack. It sounds especially unique thanks to polyphonic aftertouch, a 2-pole filter, a ribbon controller and more esoteric features.
Reverb Machine recreated the sound using Arturia’s emulation, the CS-80 V, using LFO modulation to the filter to achieve the rhythmic effect heard in the track.

Elsewhere, an emulation of the Sequential Prophet-5 is used for the strings heard in the background of McCartney’s track, and what seems to be a Gibson Les Paul taking on guitar duties.
Reverb Machine went deep into the tutorial and published an article demonstrating how to remake it yourself. You can also download Reverb Machine’s Ableton Live project for the tutorial and get the presets used.
 
If you’re looking for other emulations of the Yamaha CS-80, especially in the January sales, Softube recently unveiled the Model 77 Dual Layer Synth, a virtual instrument that “perfectly captures” the sound of the iconic Japanese synth. Cherry Audio also has an iteration, the GX-80, which emulates not only the CS-80 but also the Yamaha GX-1.
Otherwise, you can pick up a bona fide hardware Yamaha CS-80. Currently, there’s one available with a $65,385 price drop on Reverb.com…But you’ll still need $52,308. That might be a little too big for a Christmas stocking…
Read more music production news. 
The post Here’s how to remake Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime with plugins and emulations appeared first on MusicTech.

Check out this instrumental synth remake of Paul McCartney’s Wonderful ChristmastimeIt’s that time of year again – and we bet you must have heard Paul McCartney‘s Wonderful Christmastime at least a handful of times so far in the run up to Christmas. He’s even been performing it recently on his current UK tour.

READ MORE: How 100s of hours of McCartney audio was edited into a podcast

For the music nerds among us however, the often-polarising festive hit offers a smorgasbord of synth-based creativity. This is the basis of Reverb Machine’s Instrumental Synth Remix.
The main one heard in the 1979 hit is the Yamaha CS-80, a large, famously expensice synth famous for its use in Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack. It sounds especially unique because it has a 2-pole filter as opposed to the more common 3-pole filter.
Reverb Machine recreated the sound by starting with one of the CS-80’s presets and adding LFO modulation to the filter to achieve the rhythmic effect heard in the track.

Meanwhile, the synth patch was recreated using Arturia CS-80 V4, a software emulation of the original instrument.
Reverb Machine even published an article demonstrating how they made it work.
If you’re looking for a modern version of the Yamaha CS-80, especially in the January sales, Softube recently unveiled the Model 77 Dual Layer Synth, a virtual instrument that “perfectly captures” the sound of the iconic Japanese synth.
Softube says it has “component modelled and accurately articulated every detail of the circuits” of the three instruments.” The sound, interaction, and performance remain as close to the hardware units as possible, accompanied by an interface that’s been redesigned for an improved and modern workflow.
The post Check out this instrumental synth remake of Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime appeared first on MusicTech.

Sound Dust releases Drift Free – Bad Pianos, a FREE wonky-tonk piano for Kontakt
Developer Sound Dust has released Drift Free – Bad Pianos, a free wonky-tonk piano for Kontakt. We aren’t short of free virtual pianos, and while I can never have too many, some people might be thinking enough is enough. But, if you’re in the enough-is-enough camp, don’t tune out just yet because this piano is [...]
View post: Sound Dust releases Drift Free – Bad Pianos, a FREE wonky-tonk piano for Kontakt

Here are 10 free sample packs for neo-psychedelic soundsAd feature with BandLab Sounds
The woozy, FX-drenched sounds of the 1960s and 1970s psychedelic rock may have fallen out of favour somewhat as synths and dance music took over in the 1980s and 90s, but since the turn of the millennium, guitar bands, alternative and even pop producers have rediscovered the power of psychedelia to add character to their music.
Bands like Tame Impala and MGMT, to name a couple, brought back the sound of dusty amps, crusty synths and guitar pedals, blending them together in new ways to create what you might loosely call neo-psychedelia. Like so much that is postmodern, this wasn’t limited just to a couple of genres, with pop and electronica also embracing older production tricks and techniques and combining them with more modern approaches. The Chemical Brothers have been among the better-known proponents of this multi-layered approach to hit-making.
So instead of tracking down and recording all these vintage synths, amps and outboard, why not get straight to the results with samples that have done much of the work for you? These sample and loop collections cover everything from classic guitars, drums and basses through analogue synths, pianos and even strings and contain everything you need to bring the spirit of the classic psychedelic era to your productions. Turn on, tune in and freak out.
Jagged Tones Studio: Psychedelia
Image: BandLab Sounds
The sound of late 1960s psychedelic rock is perfectly captured in this 112-sample collection that covers groovy basslines, warm, blissed-out drums and sun-kissed guitar tones. Recorded through a selection of authentic effects like tremolo, fuzz and spring reverb, the loops give you an excellent selection of retro beats, melodies and textures to bring a whole bunch of character to your tracks.
Download Jagged Tones Studio: Psychedelia
Analogue Synth Chords
Add depth and beautiful warmth to any production with this collection of 100 samples recorded from a set of vintage analogue synthesizers. There’s pulses, massive, warm swells, atmospheric rhythmic patterns and much more to be found. Many are also pre-processed through sympathetic effects like reverb and delay for even greater depth.
Download Analogue Synth Chords
Alternative Pop
Image: BandLab Sounds
With over 100 samples and loops this collection provides an unexpected take on pop production, taking sequenced electronic textures and tones split across bass, beats, leads and much more and giving you the building blocks of something truly special. Think College, with their synth-heavy electro-pop and you won’t be far off; a collection that’ll certainly inspire new ideas.
Download Alternative Pop
Dream Pop
Image: BandLab Sounds
A more upbeat relation of shoegaze, dream pop emphasises lush, slick production values and often real instruments like guitars, electric pianos and shimmering vocals. This collection of 52 loops and samples gives you the building blocks to make gorgeous melodic music with mellow drums, strings, individual drum elements and bass guitars among many more.
Download Dream Pop
Patch & Play Lab: Ambient Taped Piano Melodies V3
Image: BandLab Sounds
Even if you’re not an experienced keyboard player you can add deep emotional textures to your tracks with this third volume of essential piano and keys loops. Over the course of 100 loops, you’ll find lush cinematic sounds, rich with effects and inspiring melodies. A wealth of musical options in terms of keys and patterns provides the perfect set of building blocks for modern cinematic music.
Download Ambient Taped Piano Melodies V3
Soulful Chords
Never be lost for inspiration again with this set of 95 sounds themed around minimal, chilled soul chords. Played on a variety of mellow keyboard instruments and in various keys and styles, they provide a blissed-out toolset to bolster and reinforce your tracks with ready-made soulful vibes.
Download Soulful Chords

Jagged Tones Studio: EBow
Image: BandLab Sounds
Something of a trade secret among guitarists, the e-bow is a magnet used to induce vibration in the strings without actually touching them, producing an unmistakeable sound and style that’s as good for psychedelia as it is for country. These 100 samples range from melodic basslines to swirling, crunchy textures that will liven up any track with their unique character.
Download Jagged Tones Studio: EBow
The Wildcardz Presents Pop Strings
Image: BandLab Sounds
Let’s face it, not many people have the option to record skilled string players. But fret not – this collection provides you with a plethora of sonic possibilities. Over its 100 samples you’ll find classical sequences, swelling harmonies, cinematic plucks and much more, all beautifully captured. Classical strings certainly add panache and class to any production, and this is the perfect way to do it.
Download The Wildcardz’ Pop Strings
Nickolas Wheeler: Tambourines
Image: BandLab Sounds
The often-forgotten hero that glues together many productions, the humble tambourine can be an essential addition to your tracks. Rather than spending ages painstakingly recording your own parts, get there quicker with this 108-sample set produced by Nashville producer Nicklolas Wheeler. All kinds of patterns and sequences are provided and any can be easily stretched in your DAW to fit any desired tempo.
Download Nickolas Wheeler’s Tambourines 
Jagged Tones Studio: Play It Backwards
Image: BandLab Sounds
Reversing melodies and sequences was a popular production trick in the 60s and 70s, achieved by playing tape backwards. Now, get that same effect with this collection of hazy, woozy experimental sounds covering guitars and basses run backwards. With a bunch of retro effects like fuzz and distortion baked into the samples, it’s the perfect way to capture that classic vibe.
Download Jagged Tones Studio: Play It Backwards
 
Find more free software and free sample packs.
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