A Brief History of AlphaSmartThere are a handful of gadgets that do one thing so well that they become cult classics long after the company that made them has moved on or closed up shop. [This Does Not Compute] takes us through the history of the AlphaSmart word processor which started as an educational tool, but finds itself in many a writer’s bag today.
The original AlphaSmart bears more than a passing resemblance to its Apple contemporaries since the company was founded by two Apple engineers. The Cupertino company didn’t see the value in the concept, but didn’t lean on any non-competes to keep the pair from pursuing the idea on their own time either. What resulted was a dead simple word processor that could be had for 1/5 of what a new computer typically cost in the era, which was particularly attractive for the target market of schools.
After several successful years, the pressure of PDAs and then smartphones from one side and cheaper laptops from the other meant school districts no longer wanted single-purpose devices when they could have a fully-fledged computing experience for students. We wonder if that was the right call, with so many now wanting distraction-free devices, but it was the end of the road for the company either way.
Our own [Kristina Panos] and [Tom Nardi] have shown us the guts of the Neo and of one of its competitors, the Writer, respectively. If you have a Neo of your own in need of replacement keycaps, you can print them.

Gloria Gaynor sues music producer for alleged copyright infringement, breach of contractGaynor alleges that producer named in lawsuit is falsely claiming to own the rights to a number of her works
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Roswell Pro Audio launch Custom Shop Mic Builder Roswell's new Custom Shop Mic Builder offers not only a range of grille and body finish options, but also an array of circuitry enhancements and add-ons including pad switches, higher output levels and more. 

Need inspiration? Samplette is a browser-based YouTube samplerAs far as sampling goes, you can’t go far wrong with YouTube. Legal stipulations aside (you need to clear samples with the copyright holder before releasing a new work yourself) YouTube grants amateur and hobbyist producers the chance to use samples of just about anything.
And now, there’s a tool designed to make the process that much easier: Samplette. It’s browser-based, and enables you to shuffle YouTube videos with a single click, allowing you to find perfect sample-able content for your mixes.

READ MORE: Here’s what the “largest hard techno rave ever” in Amsterdam looked like

After compiling shuffles below the player, the tool also allows you to filter by categories including genre, key, tempo, style, and even view count.
You might remember when we recently covered WebSampler, a plugin that allows you to sample any content from the internet from right within your DAW. You could even open Samplette right within WebSampler for even faster inspiration.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you to be careful when sampling content from the internet in mixes you plan to release to the world; for such cases, you’ll need to clear the sample with the original copyright holder. Of course, if you’re just playing around with sampling in your bedroom studio, without plans to release music, you can have at it.
To learn more, visit samplette.io. Happy sampling!
The post Need inspiration? Samplette is a browser-based YouTube sampler appeared first on MusicTech.

Apple Music has added Radio Monitoring: Track Your Radio PlaysApple Music has added radio monitoring. Activity on 40,000 global radio stations can now be tracked within the free Apple Music For Artists portal.
The post Apple Music has added Radio Monitoring: Track Your Radio Plays appeared first on Hypebot.

‘Artists like Drake and Travis Scott push me to go to my limits every time I make music for them.’From a small village in Switzerland to the top of the charts alongside Drake and Jack Harlow, OZ tracks his journey and tells his story...
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Has the Music Festival bubble burst?Has the music festival bubble burst? Explore the factors that contributed to the dramatic rise in music festival cancellations.
The post Has the Music Festival bubble burst? appeared first on Hypebot.

Vinyl vs. Digital Music: A Battle for Superior QualityVinyl vs. Digital Music: find out which format reigns supreme in sound quality, durability, and overall listening pleasure and how that might change your release strategy.
The post Vinyl vs. Digital Music: A Battle for Superior Quality appeared first on Hypebot.

Parallax X from Neural DSP The latest iteration of Neural DSP’s bass-focused plug-in has arrived, and claims to provide everything that users need to design their ultimate bass tone.

Here’s what the “largest hard techno rave ever” in Amsterdam looked likeAmsterdam’s Johan Cruyff ArenA recently hosted what has been dubbed the “largest hard techno rave” in history.
On 20 July, 40,000 ravers gathered for an exhilarating 10-hour rave marathon that kicked off at 9pm and continued until 7am the next morning. The event, hosted by leading techno promoters Verknipt, featured the sets of DJs like Shlømo, DIØN and Sara Landry.

READ MORE: Four Tet’s production hack for creating “a world” within his tracks so people connect to them “without even understanding why”

Videos circulating on social media provide a stunning glimpse into the impressive scale of the Verknipt ArenA event. Throughout the night, attendees were treated to an epic visual-audio cocktail of exploding pyrotechnics, beaming lasers and the occasional view of the raver in front of them doing everything they can to capture the moment on their phone as they dance along to the thunderous beats.
Organisers Verknipt wrote on Instagram: “We just wrote history with the largest hard techno rave ever, where 40,000 ravers united in chaotic harmony, revelling in distortion, breaking the rules, and exploring sounds that push the boundaries of the rave culture.”
“Here, we are all slaves to the rave and trailblazers of the future.”

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A post shared by VERKNIPT (@verkniptevents)

Check out the full 10 minutes of the Verknipt Experience show below.

Earlier this year, Berlin’s techno culture was officially added to the UNESCO cultural heritage list. The inclusion comes after DJs, festival organisers and fans campaigned to secure the status of the city’s techno scene amidst fears that the culture wouldn’t survive without it.
Techno is one of six new entries to the list in Germany, which features mountaineering and fruit wine among others.
The post Here’s what the “largest hard techno rave ever” in Amsterdam looked like appeared first on MusicTech.

Hip-hop community mourns the passing of DJ PoloDJ Polo, American producer and one-half of the 1980s hip-hop collective Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, has passed away.
His family confirmed the news on social media, writing: “It is with a heavy heart we mourn the loss of my father, the incredible DJ Polo. He was not only a legend to the hip hop community but also to his family and we celebrate his life and legacy now and forever.”
“We would like to thank you all for your beautiful words and tributes – seeing the impact he made has been overwhelming and we are so grateful.”
“We would like to also take the time to address the following: DJ Polo has more than 2 children, whatever is printed otherwise is false and has not been confirmed. Please reach out to a family member if you need to confirm information such as this.”
“Thank you all again for your condolences and for respecting the family’s privacy at this time. We miss you Cuzmo.”
No cause of death has been revealed.
DJ Polo, real name Thomas Pough, is best known for his long-standing collaboration with Queens rapper Kool G Rap. The pair released three albums (Road To The Riches, Wanted: Dead or Alive, and Live and Let Die) together in the late 80s and early 90s before splitting in 1993. Both Polo and Rap were also part of the legendary hip-hop collective, Juice Crew.
In 1998, DJ Polo released his debut solo album, Polo’s Playhouse, featuring Ice-T, Biz Markie, Roxanne Shanté and more.

Musicians from the hip-hop community have taken to social media to honour the late DJ. Fellow New York producer and DJ Eric B was among those leading the tributes, writing on Instagram, “My brother DJ Polo we had some great times you will never be forgotten GODS speed.”
DJ Chuck Chillout also paid tribute to Polo in an Instagram post, writing: “This Hurt real Bad RIP To DJ Polo.”

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A post shared by Eric B – Hip Hop Legend (@therealdjericb)

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A post shared by DJ CHUCKCHILLOUT (@djchuckchillout)

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A post shared by DJ Polo (@officialdjpolo)

The post Hip-hop community mourns the passing of DJ Polo appeared first on MusicTech.

Baby Audio Humanoid review: Vocal tuning and robot harmonies in a fine-tuned package$129 ($79 introductory price), babyaud.io
Baby Audio started out in 2019 with a string of well-received effects plugins and turned its attention to synth releases in 2023, with tremendous success. Humanoid combines the best of both worlds, letting you transform voices into synthesised, robot-like tones, and giving you pitch manipulation and hard-tuning effects.
Humanoid is a refined plugin that excels at more extreme vocal manipulation, but an array of hidden settings mean it can also be fine-tuned for more subtle effects to give your vocal a pro-sounding edge.

READ MORE: Best plugins for music producers in all genres, styles and workflows

Like all of Baby Audio’s releases, the interface is clean and easy to read, and is divided into five sections. The first controls the pitch, quantising the notes to major, minor or chromatic scales. Alternatively, you can select a specific note (or two notes to form a harmony), or play in MIDI notes for richer harmonies or melodic lines to follow your track. MIDI input is by far the most fun method, allowing Daft Punk-esque vocoded parts to be produced with ease.
A Robotify dial helps to intensify the tuning effect, and at extreme settings you get a strong hard tune sound. There’s also a Formant dial that can dramatically alter the vocal from chipmunk rave down to deep and filtered.
The next main section is Synthesize. This is used to gradually morph the vocal into a synth waveform. At maximum settings, it almost removes the vocal completely to sound like a pitch-tracked synth.
There are massive 64 factory wavetables to choose from, and you can import your own, ideal for creative sound design. Different waveforms provide variations in the harmonics, from simple classic waveshapes through to more complex options that are perfect for crafting characterful droid voices. That said, it’s hard to know what each one will sound like; it’s a case of experimenting until you find what works best for the current task.

There’s a central Transform control that morphs from vocal to synth, plus a dry/wet for the overall output of the re-synthesis engine. Elsewhere, there’s a Shape control for adding odd or even harmonics, and a stretch control to skew the waveform, with both affecting the overall harmonic output. Finally, you can shift the pitch up or down 12 semitones, and you can blend in an additional octave up or down to thicken the sound. It’s particularly effective if you drop the main pitch down and then blend in the octave, with 12 down giving a gritty bass synth voice, and 12 up adding intelligibility and brightness. You can also use this to create a synthesised harmony alongside the pitch-corrected vocal by setting it to an interval and blending with the Mix control.
A Filter section boasts high-pass, low-pass and a single parametric band. It sits between the analysis and reconstruction parts rather than the output, so it has a direct and dramatic effect on the harmonic content generated. The high- and low-pass slopes are steep, but you can change to smoother or more emphasised responses using the Resonance controls. It’s a useful tool for shaping the sound further, especially when doing parallel processing. However, it would be useful if there was a simple bypass button to switch it in and out.
The final part of the signal chain is a basic effects section with Widen, Warble and Freeze/Buffer controls. Widen is a mono compatible chorus effect, and Warble is more of a vibrato with either a gentle LFO or a more aggressive frequency modulation mode. The Freeze button will capture a segment of incoming audio and loop it, with length defined by the Buffer dial. With careful automation, this can create cool sounding tempo-synced glitches. More interestingly, ultra-short loop times can create a pitched note that can be controlled by the MIDI note input to give a granular-style playable patch.
One of Humanoid’s strengths is its straightforward layout, which succeeds in helping you achieve quick results. But, for deeper control and fine-tuning, you can hit the gear icons next to some controls to show additional parameters. This is also where the Utility section comes in handy, as it can help you clean up your incoming signal to get better results from the Synthesize engine. Using the Range control to set the lowest and highest notes for your melody, the plugin focuses on a narrower range and achieves more accurate results. There’s also a de-esser and a gate to remove unwanted audio, plus a Smoothing control, which smears the timbre and pitch across time to give a fluid sound and smooth out quick, noisy input changes.
Humanoid main GUI
A Sharpen slider applies a custom pre EQ to increase the presence and clarity of the synthesised vocal. Here you can fine tune the signal that is fed into the rest of the plugin and achieve more effective and cleaner results. This is important as vocal intelligibility can often be the downfall of vocoder style effects. For extra control, you can tweak the Buffer size, which can increase the quality of the pitch detection, at the cost of latency. Speaking of which, even at a low buffer setting, the latency is too high for live use. However, Baby Audio has said it may develop a lower-latency Live Mode.
Humanoid comes with a large and varied collection of presets ranging from hard-tuned lead, and vocoded robot voices, to harmonic chords and more subtle thickening effects. In fact, despite it being sold as an extreme vocal effect, Humanoid is as effective at generating more subtle double-track style layers that help vocals to sit in the mix better. For this you can use the overall Dry/Wet amount, which is unfortunately hidden behind a gear icon. Hopefully it could be an easy fix to put this essential control somewhere more accessible in a future update. There also appears to be space left in the preset menu for preset expansion packs in the future.
Baby Audio says it’s developed a new approach to vocal tuning and phase vocoding that uses an FFT-based re-tuning engine. It seems to have worked, as Humanoid can sound vibrant and exciting when used in the right context. That said, singers and vocal styles can vary wildly, and some vocals we try just don’t gel with the effect.

If you’re looking for clean pitch manipulation then there are better plugins out there, as Humanoid applies a bit of a gritty digital edge even with the Synthesize section bypassed. It’s also lacking in additional effects and modulation, which are present on some competing products. iZotope’s VocalSynth 2 for example, has an array of characterful effects that can alter the sound, and Waves’ OVox has a comprehensive modulation section.
However, for pure robot voices, vocoded chords, and upfront, edgy and modern vocal layers, Humanoid is up there with the best vocal processors we’ve heard.
Key features

Vocal transformer and hard tuner plugin (VST, VST3, AU, AAX)
64 factory wavetables plus import your own
180 presets in a variety of styles
Morph vocals into synth waveforms
Quantise pitch to scales or notes, or MIDI input
Intuitive, resizable interface
Add widening, wobble or freeze/buffer effects
Fine tune your sound with additional parameter controls
Adjustable buffer/quality control

The post Baby Audio Humanoid review: Vocal tuning and robot harmonies in a fine-tuned package appeared first on MusicTech.

Free Immersive Audio Webinar with Alan Parsons Join us for an insightful webinar on immersive audio with Alan Parsons and David Reyes from ASSR.

New Music Critique: Changing TymzContact: changingtymzinfo@gmail.com

Web: changingtymz.com

Seeking: Label, Press

Style: Hard Rock, Metal

It’s not so much that they don’t make metal like this anymore, but you certainly have to dig around to find it. Joann E. Wolfe’s vocals are strong and insisting, recalling the likes of German Warlock queen Doro Pesch. Powerful and teutonic. Meanwhile, the musicians back her elegantly and expertly.

The lead guitar is present and makes itself known, without feeling the need to jump in with two feet Steve Vai-style. Prog-metal bands such as Queensrÿche, Crimson Glory and Dream Theater are obvious references, but Changing Tymz have their own thing going on. The post New Music Critique: Changing Tymz first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Compound Finance proposals elicit ‘governance attack’ allegationsCommunity risk assessors warned against the perceived centralization effort days before the proposal’s passage.