Welcome Music Think Tank readers!Welcome Music Think Tank readers! Longtime Hypebot readers will remember a sister blog Music Think Tank.
The post Welcome Music Think Tank readers! appeared first on Hypebot.

Audiocube’s 3D audio software lets you design sound in a fully immersive environmentAudiocube has launched an app for Windows and Mac that lets users experiment with a suite of 3D audio tools, all designed to transform how sound designers and musicians create immersive audio experiences.
The app’s features allow you to create compositions in a fully flexible, virtual space, incorporating real-time acoustic simulation and binaural HRTF processing, alongside a range of familiar audio tools too.

READ MORE: Producers can now create custom AI voice models in their DAW with Voice-Swap’s plugin

Created with musicians, sound designers, engineers, and audio enthusiasts in mind, Audiocube lets users drop, move and edit their sounds in a vast and environment so your creativity can run wild. Audiocube says that both beginners and experts can “easily navigate the app to produce high-quality, immersive audio projects using the intuitive interface and robust feature set”.
Within the 3D audio workstation, you can import, spatialise, sequence, process, mix, master, and export sounds. Its spatial automation enables you to conduct the position of sounds over time, adding dynamic movement to your audio projects, and you can additionally get creative with custom acoustic environments by adjusting variables like reflections, distance attenuation, and flexible acoustic walls.
There’s also multiple audio device types on board – so you can utilise samplers, emitters, and tickers – plus an array of effects, mixing, and mastering tools. Your final creations are then exported as high-fidelity WAV files for “seamless integration with other software and hardware”.
For a clearer idea on how it works, you can check out the five-minute demo video below:

There’s currently a 40 per cent discount on Audiocube Perpetual for a limited time only with the code SAVE40, bringing the price down from £100 to £60. You can also trial a free version of the app before committing to a final purchase.
Find out more and download over at Audiocube.
The post Audiocube’s 3D audio software lets you design sound in a fully immersive environment appeared first on MusicTech.

FL Studio 2024 review: Image-Line gives free cloud plugins to everyoneFruity Edition £89
Producer Edition £199
Signature Edition £279
All Plugins Edition £469
image-line.com
FL Studio 2024 replaces version 21.2, with Image-Line now choosing to name its flagship DAW after the year of its release. Presumably, point updates (e.g, version 21.3) will no longer have new headline names but all updates will remain free for life, continuing the brand’s generous policy.
FL Studio has had cool stuff added recently, notably stem separation for unpicking mixed tracks into their constituent parts and, while there’s nothing in this update that’s quite as eye catching as that, the no-cost update policy means all the new stuff is free for whatever version you own anyway. So what does it offer the curious DAW newbie or prospective switcher?

READ MORE: How will AI impact the next generation of DAWs? These developers have their say

FL Studio is a well-established and popular DAW that runs on Mac or PC and also works as a plugin inside other DAWs, bringing all its instruments, sequencing and mixing tools into your Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton or other projects. Its design and workflow are a bit of a departure for anyone coming from one of those other DAWs – a modular and highly configurable system based around sequencers and plugins. It’s not really like anything else around so there is something of a learning curve for new users though once you get used to the concepts of extensive right-clicking and submenus, things speed up a lot.
There’s heavy emphasis on MIDI programming and sequencing, with many tools for creating and editing beats and melodies. And full digital audio tracking and editing too of course, with a more conventional linear sequencer as well as playlist feature for arrangement. In addition to supporting VST plugins, FL Studio comes with a ton of its own unique instruments, effects and generators and these are the main differentiator of the various versions. Fruity has the fewest, Producer is most popular, and the All Plugins Edition being fairly self explanatory.
Audio editor in FL Studio 2024
In late 2023, Image Line added the FL Cloud service as an expansion option for users and in this update it brings a core of 10 free Cloud plugins and extra sounds to all customers, while subscribers get access to more. A subscription of £5.59 a month gets you all the sounds, 18 plugins and 16 presets and controls for the DAW’s cloud mastering tool, while the Pro service (currently on sale at £7 per month) has all 65 plugins, plus more as they’re added over time. Paid tiers also include distribution of your music to popular social platforms and online stores like iTunes and Spotify. A 30-day free trial is available in which you can decide if the Cloud extras are for you.
New plugins introduced in the 2024 update include Kepler Exo, a lush and retro-sounding soft synth based on the Roland Juno 6 and Jupiter 8, a Low Lifter effect that adds harmonics to bass frequencies, perfect for electronic music, and Spreader which enhances the stereo effect. In the Edison audio module you’ll now find an improved AI-powered de-clipper and a vocal denoiser.
Elsewhere there’s a whole bunch of tweaks and additions, notably new support for CLAP plugins, a non-proprietary format created by Bitwig and u-he, an AI-powered chord progression tool in the Piano Roll, improvements to sample previewing in the Browser and many smaller changes.
Kepler Exo in FL Studio 2024
As noted, all of this new stuff is free when you update the edition you currently own. Bringing some free cloud content to all users seems like a good way to encourage people to at least explore expanding their sonic library that way and potentially to subscribe. Since Image Line offers lifetime free app updates it’s fair enough that they need to make money via alternative avenues, and ones that are entirely optional for users. There’s an impressively varied selection of plugins available and this will grow over time.
FL Studio’s reliance on plugins and modules to do things that most other DAWs integrate more naturally – audio editing, step sequencing – can take some getting used to. It’s mostly there, but you need to add a thing to be able to do it rather than having this already at the core of the app. There are also some gaps if you’re thinking about more heavyweight composition and production tasks. There’s no native support for musical scoring for example. Surround sound is achievable but it’s a bit of a workaround. Video is via an add-on floating module, though in fairness that’s true of most of the competition too.
The extent to which these factors bother you depends on what you’re trying to do. FL Studio started life as Fruity Loops, a fun and accessible tool for making beats and loops. It’s matured hugely since then of course but its core direction hasn’t changed as dramatically as its feature set. It’s still geared up for making beats, patterns, loops and processing everything through cool effects. It has one of the most comprehensive and wide-ranging collections of native plugins of any DAW, especially if you opt for one of the larger versions.
FL Cloud
Could you record an orchestra on it? Technically yes, but really there are better options. On the other hand, does it let you put together beats, songs and patterns quickly in a way that is more performer-oriented than a more conventional DAW? Arguably it does.
That’s not to sell FL Studio short. It’s much more than a way to make beats. Indeed, for programming and MIDI editing its features run very deep. The developers have stuffed a huge number of tools in and for the most part kept it pretty approachable. There’s also the selection of plugins with the bigger versions, which outguns most other DAWs save perhaps for the Ableton Live Suite. Logic Pro’s selection is also excellent though Windows users need not apply, so it’s not quite a direct comparison.
For many users, FL Studio offers a fun and sensibly-priced package for everything from cooking up loops and simpler tracks all the way to more fully fledged recording and arrangement of songs. Expandable via the FL Cloud, it also integrates mastering and distribution services as well as creative new features like stem separation. It will probably always have its own way of doing things but that’s just one of the things that makes it one of the most-used DAWs around. Clearly, Image Line is doing something right.
MIDI editing in FL Studio 2024
Key features

Audio and MIDI recording, editing and mixing
Mac and Windows
Works as a VSTi plugin in other hosts
Bundled effects, instruments and generators
FL Cloud expansion for more plugins
Mastering and distribution features baked in
Piano roll and sequencer-based programming
Playlist and linear arrangement
Drag and drop of plugins and samples
CLAP open-source plugin support

The post FL Studio 2024 review: Image-Line gives free cloud plugins to everyone appeared first on MusicTech.

Eternal Research launch Demon Box Kickstarter campaign Eternal Research's new instrument detects electromagnetic interference, and can be played with anything from a mobile phone to a power tool!

DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ: Meet the enigmatic producer that’s just having fun making dance musicMistaken for Aphex Twin and Taylor Swift, the excitement around critic and cult favourite DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ has remained at boiling point since the pandemic. While the enigmatic producer’s identity remains a mystery — according to her bio, “a cat named Salem is uploading music from an old colonial Dutch house somewhere in 1996” — there is no denying her tireless work rate of releasing a dozen albums since 2017. Like the rest of the dance world, we’re certainly under her spell.

READ MORE: For John Summit, the only real challenge is knowing when to slow down

Now, fresh from the release of her brilliant new album Hex, she talks to MusicTech about anonymity, nostalgia, genre, hours-long releases, sample culture and the resurgence of physical formats.
Tell us about yourself: who are you, where are you from and how old are you? How did you land on the name DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ?
Sabrina Spellman (and my familiar, Salem Thee Cat), from The Other Realm and I’m younger than 20, older than 12. The name was because I needed something that looked dumber on a club flyer than DJ Boring or DJ Seinfeld… I think it’s a winner.
Have you always wanted to remain elusive as an artist?
Being elusive means the music comes first. Anonymous DJs always show their faces when they have their moment of fame, but it ain’t gonna be me. I have no desire to be known for anything other than the music and keeping elusive is probably the best way of doing that.

You’ve said that your music is inspired by “how the comfortable familiarity of nostalgia can tap into the imagination” — can you tell us more?
I’m always nostalgic, it’s my coping mechanism. Without it, what are we? Just people moving around a world with no solid ground beneath. We need some warm, cosy, positive connection between the present/future and the past to have any hope of moving forward with some level of comfort and familiarity. That’s what allows us to be human.
Your music weaves between disco, synth funk, and Y2K pop – are you striving for any genres in particular?
I don’t think of my music as being any one particular genre. Maybe pop is the most reliable label but there are obviously other elements of my songs that aren’t really associated with pop either. I might call it intelligent dance music(IDM)/braindance if I were being pretentious, but that would have the unintended effect of highlighting IDM for the hack genre name it is. My songs don’t sound like IDM, so they can’t be IDM) and, much like progressive rock, it’s just a genre name to make the listener feel better about themselves. I am hugely influenced and inspired by AFX, SquareP, Aute, Plug, VSnares, Heorge/Stein and the gang. It’s often called house because it has a four-to-the-floor beat, but is it really house? I just like lots of music that happens to travel over lots of genres and I kinda roll everything I like about music into my songs.
You’ve released about a dozen albums since 2017, including last year’s Destiny which was 41 songs long. That’s an incredible work rate — what’s the secret?
I work every day on something. Either new songs, mixing old songs, making mixes… it’s just a seven-day-a-week thing for me. Plus, I don’t have anyone else to rely on (just Salem and I, as always) so if I need something done, I just do it. No waiting, no fuss.

A lot of artists in other genres get criticised for releasing albums that are too long…
I originally had a two-hour album because the record label that played with my emotions kept me waiting while I just cranked out more songs over the year. By the end, I had two albums’ worth, decided to forget about the label and release it myself. I was too tired to split them up into two albums and, when you’re releasing on streaming and cassette tape, it’s not a big deal to have a two-hour album. The three-hour album (Charmed) was to compete with Makin’ Magick 1 and the four hour album (Destiny) was to compete with Charmed. People seem to prefer my longer albums so I would say it was a net win for me. I just need albums to be long enough to jog to and I’m happy.
With many of your songs being over 10 minutes long, it feels like a response to the neatly-packaged two-and-a-half-minute songs that mainstream listeners are accustomed to because. Do you feel that music has therefore become too restricted? 
A lot of my favourite songs from the 90s are long and that always stuck with me: Fatboy Slim’s Santa Cruz is 7:30, Lemon Jelly’s Come is 8:29 and Chemical Brothers’ Where Do I Begin/Private Psychedelic Reel Suite is a combined 16 minutes and 19 seconds, so it’s just normal for me. It’s whatever suits the song, I guess.
I spend a lot of time getting the lengths right so the tracks feel perfectly paced for myself as I am always listening to them for fun. Comparatively, my album segues are usually longer than 2:30.
You’ve recently remixed Days of the Week by Australian duo Flight Facilities – what is your process when it comes to remixes and edits? Are you treating tracks like samples, or trying to dissect and rebuild?
I’m trying to create a space in my world for someone else’s idea. Trying to stay respectful to the original intention while making something new with some of the elements. I think remixes are a lot of fun to do. You can connect with a new audience by bridging the two styles of the remixer and remixee.

Your songs obviously feature a lot of samples: how do you choose which things to sample? Have you had any clearance trouble?
Anything and everything – if it sounds good, I’ll use it. If I was making 200% organic music, nobody would be interested as they could just make their own music themselves and it wouldn’t have that huge, universal feeling that sampling has. Estates of the late greats, along with washed up Gen X/boomers, seem to have fun suing young songwriters that have never even heard their songs (the nouveau ambulance chasers?). Looking at how popstar writers keep adding credits of other popstars to their writing credits just in case, I think it’s more risky to write original music right now.
Are there any particular samplers or software you gravitate towards using?
I just use PreSonus’ Studio One 4 (the last version). It went awful and buggy with version 5 upwards, so I just stick to what I know and update my computer around it.
You’ve just released Hex. What is the best setting for people to experience it and how do you want people to feel when they hear the record?
Most of the songs were made this year. Some are leftovers from the last few albums and one is from 2021, but it’s mostly new. I jog to listen to the albums, but driving/riding while listening would also work. I guess you can’t do that with vinyl, though. Jai Paul was always recommended as headphone listening so probably that would work best (I’m not comparing myself to him, I just always liked that idea).
Hex was originally meant to be part of a three-album simultaneous release, along with Bewitched and half of what Destiny ended up being. The heatwave of 2022 made it unbearable to mix anymore and I was exhausted so I just finished Bewitched up. Destiny ended up being a mega-release so Hex had to wait a while (that’s also why the early version of the song Hex is on the vinyl EP from 2022). It puts a hex on you, ya know?
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ’s Hex album cover
You’re releasing it on CD, audio tape and vinyl – why the physical formats?
I love glass-mastered CDs, so it’s awesome for me. Tape and vinyl are cool, and I’m also doing a few more fun formats in a few weeks when they’re ready. They’re slightly more work for me and my big albums, but that just makes it mean more for anyone buying something they can put in a player or on a deck. I think people are just tired of not feeling like their money is buying them something tangible; they want to have something physical to own that they can probably pass down or bury in a time capsule. Streaming is really just convenient – it doesn’t make you feel particularly connected with something you love.
Did you ever expect to grow such a cult fanbase?
Absolutely no expectations whatsoever. I never thought anyone would like my music and I still just make it for myself and imagine no one else is even listening. It’s hard to remember that, even after this many years, it just feels like no one else would like what I’m doing. It’s truly humbling every day and I can only hope that in trying to please myself with music, I can make at least one other person happy with it. That’s all I’m looking to do.
What are you expecting Anthony Fantano to rate your album?
Hmm… well he gave Charmed a six and has never gone higher on any of my other albums, so I would hope he’d give it a Hex!
The post DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ: Meet the enigmatic producer that’s just having fun making dance music appeared first on MusicTech.

A Human Classical Pianist Composing With AIThis week, Ari is joined by AyseDeniz, a classical pianist who’s using AI music generation tools to compose new music.

Moog update Muse firmware With the latest firmware installed, Muse benefits from significant enhancements to its Chord Mode, which now allows users to save up to eight different key maps.

Starlink confirms it will block access to X in BrazilThe SpaceX subsidiary claimed the Brazil Supreme Court decision was “illegal,” but it would comply by suspending access to the social media platform.

Bitcoin ATMs are a hotbed for scams, FTC saysThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report about increasing fraud at Bitcoin ATMs. These ATMs allow people to turn their cash into crypto, but they’ve become a tool for scammers to perpetrate fraud. Since 2020, the FTC says, fraud at Bitcoin ATMs has ballooned nearly tenfold, and just in the first half of 2024, […]
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A Clean Linux Installation For an Android TV BoxAlthough Android technically runs on top of Linux, generally most Android devices abstract away the underlying Linux-ness of these machines. In theory this is a good thing; we wouldn’t necessarily want to live in a world where we have to log in to a command-line interface just to make a phone call. But too much abstraction often needlessly restricts the capabilities of the underlying hardware. [Murray] a.k.a [Green Bug-Eyed Monster] has an Android TV box with just such a problem, as the Android OS included with it allows for watching TV just fine, but with a few tweaks it can run a full Linux installation instead, turning it into a much more versatile machine.
This specific Android TV box is based on the Rockchip 3566, a popular single-board computer used in a wide array of products. As such it is one of the easier targets for transforming a limited TV machine into a fully capable desktop computer. The first step is to compile an Armbian image for the machine, in this case using an x86 installation of Ubuntu to cross-compile for the ARM-based machine. With a viable image in hand, there’s an option to either solder on a microSD slot to the included pins on the computer’s PCB or to flash the image directly to the on-board eMMC storage by tricking the machine into thinking that the eMMC is missing. Either option will bring you into a full-fledged Linux environment, with just a few configuration steps to take to get it running like any other computer.
[Murray] began this process as an alternative to paying the inflated prices of Raspberry Pis over the past few years, and for anyone in a similar predicament any computer with the Rockchip 3566 processor in it could be a potential target for a project like this. You might need to make a few tweaks to the compile options and hardware, but overall the process should be similar. And if you don’t have an RK3566, don’t fret too much. We’ve seen plenty of other Android TV boxes turned into similar devices like this one which runs RetroPie instead.

Mowing the Lawn With Lasers, For ScienceCutting grass with lasers works great in a test setup. (Credit: Allen Pan, YouTube)
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could cut the grass with lasers? Everyone knows that lasers are basically magic, and if you strap a diode laser or two to a lawn mower, it should slice through those pesky blades of grass with zero effort. Cue [Allen Pan]’s video on doing exactly this, demonstrating in the process that we do in fact live in a physics-based universe, and lasers are not magical light sabers that will just slice and dice without effort.
The first attempt to attach two diode lasers in a spinning configuration like the cutting blades on a traditional lawn mower led to the obvious focusing issues (fixed by removing the focusing lenses) and short contact time. Effectively, while these diode lasers can cut blades of grass, you need to give them some time to do the work. Naturally, this meant adding more lasers in a stationary grid, like creating a Resident Evil-style cutting grid, only for grass instead of intruders.
Does this work? Sort of. Especially thick grass has a lot of moisture in it, which the lasers have to boil off before they can do the cutting. As [Allen] and co-conspirator found out, this also risks igniting a lawn fire in especially thick grass. The best attempt to cut the lawn with lasers appears to have been made two years ago by [rctestflight], who used a stationary, 40 watt diode laser sweeping across an area. When placed on a (slowly) moving platform this could cut the lawn in a matter of days, whereas low-tech rapidly spinning blades would need at least a couple of minutes.
Obviously the answer is to toss out those weak diode lasers and get started with kW-level chemical lasers. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing those attempts, and the safety methods required to not turn it into a laser safety PSA.

Stone Temple Pilots and Live at the Youtube TheaterStone Temple Pilots and Live stopped at the YouTube Theater for one of the hottest Summer co-headline tours with Our Lady Peace (8/18) Our Lady Peace opened the show. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Live’s Throwing Copper and the 10th anniversary of their last album The Turn. As of 2022 frontman/rhythm guitarist Ed Kowalczyk is the sole original member. Half of Live’s 14 song set came from Throwing Copper including the two song encore of “I Alone” and “Lightning Crashes.” 

Stone Temple Pilots closed the show. STP is celebrating 30 years of Purple. Of their 14 song set, all 11 of songs of Purple were performed which includes three of their biggest hits “Vasoline,” “Interstate Love Song,” and “Big Empty.” Average White Band and The Heartbreaker’s Steve Ferrone joined in on  drums for “Interstate Love Song.” Milk Carton Kids’ Kenneth Pattengale guested for “Plush.” STP ended with “Sex Type Thing.” From 1989 to 2003 and 2008-2013 STP was vocalist Scott Weiland, bassist Robert and guitarist Dean DeLeo, and drummer Eric Kretz.

Weiland and the band parted ways again in 2013 and Weiland would form a new band the Wildabouts. In 2015 Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington joined for three years before returning to Linkin Park. Tragically Weiland passed away in 2015 and Bennington in 2017. November 24th, 2017 STP performed their first show at the historic Troubadour with their new frontman Jeff Gutt and the following year would have their first tour together. This lineup has released two albums together. Gutt is certainly the closest thing to Weiland as he has the looks, style,voice and persona Weiland had.

The post Stone Temple Pilots and Live at the Youtube Theater first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

David Driessen promoted to Chief Commercial Officer at Downtown MusicHe will continue to report to CEO of Downtown Music, Pieter van Rijn
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.MUSIC Domain Registration FREE Here: Just 1 Week Left!Musicians, labels and music related companies only have until September 10th to register a .MUSIC domain name.
The post .MUSIC Domain Registration FREE Here: Just 1 Week Left! appeared first on Hypebot.

How Charli XCX is pushing boundaries and shaping future Pop trendsCharli XCX's Brat is pushing boundaries as a daring leap into uncharted pop territory, blending bold experimentation with her signature sound. Learn why Brat is a must-listen for the future of pop music.
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