New Spotify subscription tiers unintentionally confirm Music’s ValueAfter raising the price of Premium US subscriptions twice in the last year, Spotify has added new plans with and without audiobooks.....
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Record labels sue AI music generators Suno and Udio alleging “unimaginable scales” of copyright infringementUniversal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Records Inc have filed lawsuits today (24 June) against AI music platforms, Suno and Udio. The record labels have alleged copyright infringement of recorded music at “an almost unimaginable scale.”
Suno and Udio have become infamous in recent months for their music-generation capabilities. You can create entire songs using a single-word prompt if you so choose. However, suspicions have arisen about how these models can reproduce sounds and styles so accurately.
READ MORE: What does Suno AI mean for music producers and the music industry?
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is now leading lawsuits, reports Billboard, with Sony, Universal and Warner among the plaintiffs. The lawsuits, filed in the US courts, allege that Suno and Udio have unlawfully trained their generative AI models on the label’s recordings. The RIAA claims that this is “mass infringement of copyrighted sound recordings copied and exploited without permission by two multi-million-dollar music generation services.”
The plaintiffs are seeking damages of up to $150,00 for each piece of infringed work, according to Wired. The lawsuit is also seeking to stop the two AI companies from training on the label’s copyrighted songs.
RIAA adds that Suno and Udio’s generative music could “saturate the market with machine-generated content that will directly compete with, cheapen and ultimately drown out the genuine sound recordings on which [the services were] built.
“AI companies, like all other enterprises, must abide by the laws that protect human creativity and ingenuity,” continues the RIAA per MBW. “There is nothing that exempts AI technology from copyright law or that excuses AI companies from playing by the rules.”
Neither Suno or Udio have publicly stated how they trained their music platforms. However, the lawsuit alleges that the two companies are “attempting to hide the full scope of their infringement.”
As reported by Billboard, RIAA CEO and chairman Mitch Glazier says of the lawsuits, “The music community has embraced AI and we are already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers to build sustainable AI tools centred on human creativity that put artists and songwriters in charge. But we can only succeed if developers are willing to work together with us. Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”
RIAA Chief Legal Officer Ken Doroshow adds, “These are straightforward cases of copyright infringement involving unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a massive scale. Suno and Udio are attempting to hide the full scope of their infringement rather than putting their services on a sound and lawful footing. These lawsuits are necessary to reinforce the most basic rules of the road for the responsible, ethical, and lawful development of generative AI systems and to bring Suno’s and Udio’s blatant infringement to an end.”
This is a developing story. 
The post Record labels sue AI music generators Suno and Udio alleging “unimaginable scales” of copyright infringement appeared first on MusicTech.

Grants are available for Musicians and Artists: How to ApplyFunds are limited, but some grants are available for indie artists and musicians. Keep reading to see how you can get your share.....
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Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ Dolby Atmos mix released for 40th anniversaryPrince’s seminal album Purple Rain has been given the Dolby Atmos treatment for its 40th anniversary.

READ MORE: Denon announces DHT-S218 full-range Dolby Atmos Sound Bar 

The new immersive audio mix has been made available by NPG Records and Paisley Park Enterprises, and is available for streaming now ahead of the anniversary tomorrow (25th June).
The Atmos version has been mixed from the original master tapes by longtime Prince collaborator Chris James, with a Blu-ray version set to be released later in the year.
The 1984 album, recorded by Prince with his live band The Revolution, arrived weeks ahead of the hit film of the same name. The record sat at the top of the US charts for 24 weeks, sold over 25 million copies worldwide and picked up awards at the Grammys, BRITS and Oscars. As well as spawning the iconic title track, it also features the legendary singles When Doves Cry and I Would Die 4 U. 
In addition, a newly restored 4K version of the Purple Rain film is also receiving a release, with a limited cinema run set to start on July 3.

In further celebration of the record’s landmark anniversary at the iconic Paisley Park Studios in Minnesota, Prince fans congregated for Celebration 2024 to catch live performances by The Revolution, The New Power Generation, Morris Day and others.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that Prince‘s music is set to be used in a new jukebox musical film. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the film has supposedly been in the works for Universal Pictures since 2018 and has some big names on board – Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is set to produce, whilst Bryan Edward Hill, who has worked on Titans and Ash vs. Evil Dead, will be penning the script.
There has not yet been any mention of casting, the plot or any potential release date.
Prince died in 2016 at the age of 57 after accidentally overdosing on fentanyl in Paisley Park, his 65,000-square-foot estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Read more music technology news.
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Google’s AI can now create an “unlimited number” of soundtracks for videoGoogle’s AI research lab, DeepMind, has shared an update on the development of its video-to-audio (V2A) technology, a process that makes synchronised audiovisual generation possible.
According to Google’s AI page, V2A “combines video pixels with natural language text prompts to generate rich soundscapes for the on-screen action.” DeepMind says the technology can “understand raw pixels”, allowing for the real-time generation of video soundtracks.
READ MORE: EU AI Act explained: What does it mean for music producers and artists?
Additionally, the feature uses text prompts to generate rich audio soundtracks. Together, Google’s V2A technology supports the creation of dramatic scores, “realistic sound effects or dialogue that matches the characters and tone of a video.”
Google’s new AI feature means “enhanced creative control” meaning V2A technology can create an “unlimited number” of soundtracks.
While the tech company’s update on AI sounds creatively promising, there is still some progress to be made until the tool is rolled out to the general public.
The development of V2A is “improving”, however, it will be some time before the update will be widely available: “Still, there are a number of other limitations we’re trying to address and further research is underway,” the blog post reads.
The statement continues: “Since the quality of the audio output is dependent on the quality of the video input, artefacts or distortions in the video, which are outside the model’s training distribution, can lead to a noticeable drop in audio quality.”
Watch example clips of Google’s new V2A tool in action below.

In related news, Google recently came under fire from Sony Music, after the label raised suspicions that Google — along with OpenAI, Microsoft and over 700 other tech firms — have made “unauthorised uses” of Sony’s music catalogue to train AI. The public letter was titled ‘Declaration of AI Training Opt-Out’, and reads:
“We support artists and songwriters taking the lead in embracing new technologies in support of their art. Evolutions in technology have frequently shifted the course of creative industries. AI will likely continue that long-standing trend.
“However, that innovation must ensure that songwriters’ and recording artists’ rights, including copyrights, are respected. For that reason, SMG’s affiliates, Sony Music Publishing (SMP) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME), on behalf of themselves and their wholly owned or controlled affiliates, are making this affirmative, public declaration confirming that, except as specifically and explicitly authorized by either SME or SMP, as the case may be, each of them expressly prohibits and opts out of any text or data mining, web scraping or similar reproductions, extractions or uses.”
Learn more music technology news.
The post Google’s AI can now create an “unlimited number” of soundtracks for video appeared first on MusicTech.

Charli XCX: ‘Auto-Tune makes you lazy — but I drink, I smoke and I use Auto-Tune, those are my three things’Electro pop singer-songwriter Charli XCX has spoken about her love for Auto-Tune, noting how it’s become indispensable to her recording process over the years.

READ MORE: Shaq reveals why Ice Cube stopped him from releasing a Dr. Dre-produced track named That’s Gangsta

The use of Auto-Tune has long been stigmatised in music, ever since Cher, T-Pain and Kanye brought it into the limelight, with claims that it’s used to disguise bad vocal performances. But, even for many talented singers like Charli XCX, it’s useful for creating intriguing vocal parts. Still, she says, it can come with a price.
“[Like in my] early work, I can—I could sing in tune, but now I think I’ve gotten so lazy because I sing with Auto-Tune all the time,” says Charli XCX on the Tape Notes Podcast, joined by producers A.G Cook and George Daniel. “Like I never [go], ‘I’m not singing with autotune.’ Unless I’m doing karaoke, which I actively don’t do, for this reason. I’m pretty out [of pitch] because my ear is so used to leaning in.”
“That’s why I only do rap at karaoke,” she adds. “Because people are like, ‘oh, isn’t she a singer?’ And I’m like, ‘Well yeah, but have you heard of Auto-Tune?’”
The musician, who earlier this month released her sixth studio album BRAT, also admits that her reliance on autotune for writing music, “cutting vocals” and “singing live” has made her “lazy” when it comes to hitting the right pitch.
“You really, really get lazy because you can relax into a note rather than being super on,” she says. “And I mean, there are some amazingly technical singers who do sing with Auto-Tune who are still pitch-perfect, but that’s not me. Like, I drink and I smoke and I use autotune, those three things.”

That said, Charli also acknowledges that there are times when raw, imperfect vocals are needed, citing some of the ‘gang vocals’ on BRAT as an example.
“I immediately knew that I wanted it to feel pitchy — I think that was the charm.” In the same way the kick was hard because it’s “kind of crappy”, she says, “it’s the same way with the vocals.”
“Sometimes actually, it can be really hard when it’s a little bit janky and out of tune. It’s like some of those great gang vocal moments in hip-hop, like Gucci Mane’s Lemonade. That sounds so good because of the way that gang vocal sounds. And I think this is similar.”
“For BRAT, I think that’s really important… to have this human mistake element happening in the tracks. Because that very much goes with the ethos of the record as well.”
Charli XCX’s BRAT was released earlier this month and has received positive praise from critics. NME rated it four stars and said that Charli is “pushing the limits of her own sonic world.” YouTube reviewer Anthony Fantano awarded it a rare 10/10, saying that “it proves Charli is a generational pop artist.”
Read more music technology news. 
The post Charli XCX: ‘Auto-Tune makes you lazy — but I drink, I smoke and I use Auto-Tune, those are my three things’ appeared first on MusicTech.

Soundtheory announce Kraftur Soundtheory's second release is a multi-band saturation plug-in capable of avoiding the artifacts that come with more traditional approaches to soft clipping.

12 best stem separation software for vocals, rankedStem separation has long been a fascination in the audio world, the end goal being able to split a mixed track into separate parts without any noticeable glitches or audio artefacts. A few years ago, it felt like the stuff of science fiction, but more powerful computers and access to machine learning datasets have turned it into a reality that’s only getting better.

READ MORE: The best DAWs for music producers in all genres, styles and workflows

Which is the best stem separation software?
To find out which stem separation software is best on vocals, we’re using the track Restless Mind by Steven Beddall.
In all cases, the highest-quality configurations were chosen on the software. These examples should give you a rough idea of the stemming quality, but the results can vary from track to track. It’s possible that one algorithm may perform slightly better than another when fed a certain audio, but the results could be reversed with a different track.
Here’s what to listen for when comparing the results:

Do any other instruments leak into the vocal stem at any point?
Are there any timbral changes? Does the algorithm get confused with other instruments and take some information away?
Are natural reverb tails included?
How does it handle backing vocals?
Are there any additional artefacts like metallic whistles, glitches, hiss or phasing issues?

After carefully analysing the acapellas, and cross-referencing with a few other examples, we found the results from Gaudio Studio to be the cleanest overall — a surprise, given that it’s one of the cheapest.
Gaudio Studio provided an effective reduction of noise and instrument spill, a clean capture of backing vocals and reverbs, and the most consistent high-end frequency content.
If you’re willing to put the time into experimenting with the various models, then you can probably get similar results with the free Ultimate Vocal Remover 5. After that, Moises, Lalal.ai, AudioStrip and Logic Pro were all very impressive, with each offering variations on the amount of reverb and backing vocals captured.

Best stem separation software, ranked

Gaudio Studio
Ultimate Vocal Remover 5
Moises
AudioStrip
Logic Pro
Lalal.ai
Hit’n’Mix RipX
Akai MPC Stems
FL Studio
Serato Sample
iZotope RX11
Acon Digital REMIX

What do you think? Have a listen to the files and see which you think sounds best. Each option has different pros and cons including processing speed, price and workflow, so the final decision isn’t necessarily black and white. Different tracks could result in a different leaderboard. Whichever one you go for, we can all agree at least that the technology is mind-blowing — and it’s only going to get better.
Note that you should always respect the copyright of any original material you use these tools on. Also, some of these tools will process the audio using their own servers, so an internet connection is required and the waiting times can vary.
Stem separation software available in 2024
iZotope – RX11
iZotope RX11. Image: MusicTech
Music Rebalance is a feature inside of RX11 that uses a tweaked version of Spleeter to split stereo audio into Vocals, Percussion, Bass and Other stems. You can then change the volume of each to rebalance a track, or solo an element and bounce it to a new audio file. You also get controls for each stem to edit the strength of the separation and three different quality settings.
It comes as part of RX11 Advanced, but you can get it cheaper inside of RX11 Standard, and both go on sale regularly. Music Rebalance has had an update for RX11 and features upgraded machine learning based on modern neural networks.
Price: £389 RX10 Standard, £1,149 RX10 Advanced
VST3, AU, AAX, AAX Audiosuite Plug-in
Separation options: Vocals, Percussion, Bass, Other
Library/Algorithm: Spleeter algorithms implemented in iZotope’s own code
[products ids=”4PfP5kzaOHCiAHGOnI5IKf”]
Acon Digital – Remix
Acon Digital REMIX. Image: MusicTech
Remix is the only option here that processes audio in real-time in your DAW. It runs as a plug-in (or inside of Acon Digital’s Acoustica Suite) and features a low-latency algorithm from HANCE.
You can split your audio into Vocals, Piano, Bass, Drums, and Other stems and then balance the volume or solo each. You also get sensitivity controls to fine-tune each stem, plus the ability to route the output of each channel to its own track.
It may not have the competitive quality as some of the offline options, but it might prove useful for quickly rebalancing stem volumes within your DAW.
Price: £39.90 (also comes bundled with Acoustica Standard Edition for £49.90)
VST, VST3, AU, AAX plug-in
Separation options: Vocals, Piano, Bass, Drums, Other
Library/Algorithm: HANCE Realtime Stem Separation
[products ids=”35L1YdV0zj4SNhR7iQYvjT”]
Hit’n’ Mix – RipX DAW
Hit’n’Mix RipX DAW. Image: MusicTech
RipX DAW and RipX DAW Pro are based on the unique Rip Audio format, which deconstructs audio down to its individual elements and treats audio and MIDI as one. You can split audio into stems for voice, drums + percussion, bass, other sounds + instruments, and guitar + piano. The beauty of RipX is that you can further refine the detection to get the best results, and even edit the harmonic and unpitched elements separately.
Other features include Melodyne-style note editing, the ability to change and randomise the key or generate new harmonies, adding effects to individual notes, replacing any note with a different sampled instrument, advanced repair and cleanup, and more.
Price: £99 RipX DAW, £198 RipX DAW Pro
Standalone
Separation options: Voice, drums & percussion, bass, other sounds & instruments, and guitar and piano
Library/Algorithm: Ripper Engine + Modified Demucs
[products ids=”5rZcis5Lt4B0USFvT3xhDY”]
Omnisale – Lalal.ai
Lalal.ai. Image: MusicTech
Lalal comes as both a web-based and desktop/mobile app stem separator. You can try several files for free, or choose from a range of one-off fees that get you a set number of processing minutes. This is a great alternative to monthly payment plans if you think you’ll only occasionally want to use the service.
The latest version is based on a state-of-the-art, in-house developed neural network called Orion, which uses direct synthesis to recreate stems with exceptional quality. Currently, you can extract Vocals, Backing Tracks, Drums, Piano, Synthesizer, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Strings, and Wind, making Lalal one of the most versatile options in the list.
Price: £18 for 90 minutes, £70 for 500 minutes (other options also available)
Web-based, plus desktop iOS and Android apps
Stems: Vocal and instrumental, Voice and Noise, Drums, Bass, Piano, Synthesizer, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Strings, Wind
Library/Algorithm: Orion/Phoenix
www.lalal.ai
Serato – Serato Sample
Serato Sample. Image: MusicTech
Serato Sample is a refined sampler with a lightning-fast workflow. It features Serato’s renowned Pitch ’n Time algorithm for stretching audio, and the recent V2 update added built-in stem separation.
You simply load an audio file, and Serato Sample will automatically work out the bpm and key, and will then sync it to your host tempo. You then get access to four buttons for vocal, bass, drums, and music/other parts. These can then be switched on and off at will whilst you trigger samples in the normal manner.
The separation isn’t the best, but being able to import audio into a plug-in, and then instantly get to work chopping and composing is a bonus for workflow.
Price: $149 (or $9.99 pm subscription
VST, VST3, AU plug-in
Stems: Vocal, Drums, Bass, Other
Library/Algorithm: Serato’s proprietary machine-learning algorithm
[products ids=”7IRpldrXCwCZhZBVO8kj9b”]
Image-Line – FL Studio 21.2
Image-Line FL Studio 21.2. Image: MusicTech
Image-Line added built-in stem separation in a recent update to FL Studio. Alongside the extensive production features of the program, you can now right-click on a piece of audio and select Extract Stems from Sample. You then get a dialogue box where you can select from Vocals, Drums, Bass and Other Instruments, and it gives an estimate of how long the processing will take.
FL Studio was the first DAW to include this feature and the fact it’s all built-in is a massive workflow boon. Logic Pro has recently followed suit, and hopefully, it won’t be long until Ableton Live and other DAWs jump onboard with their versions.
Price: £164 Producer Edition, £245 Signature Bundle, £409 All Plugins Edition
Standalone DAW
Stems: Vocals, Drums, Bass, Instruments
Library/Algorithm: Customised Demucs
[products ids=”2wQk1OAYJfqgpMuc5G5BXR”]
Gaudio Studio
Gaudio Studio. Image: MusicTech
Up until recently, Gaudio Studio was a completely free online splitter that used the Gaudio Source SEParation (GSEP) model to separate audio into Vocal, Drums, Bass, Electric Guitar, Piano, and Other Instruments. The website and services have recently refreshed, so you can now purchase bundles of minutes for a very reasonable price.
You can also try out 20 minutes of audio for free with an MP3 format output, or if you upgrade then you get the option of a fast-track service and WAV files.
As mentioned above, this is the most convincing option for separating vocal stems.
Price: $7 for 50 minutes, $16 for 200 Minutes, $50 for 1000 minutes
Online
Stems: Vocal, Drums, Bass, Electric Guitar, Piano, and Other Instruments
Library/Algorithm: GSEP (Gaudio source SEParation)
https://studio.gaudiolab.io
Moises.AI
Moises. Image: MusicTech
Moises comes as a slick web application, plus a desktop and mobile app. The pro version lets you separate audio into vocals (with separate backing vocals), drums (including individual elements), bass, guitar, background vocals, piano, and strings, making this a versatile option. It also has the ability to separate multimedia tracks into dialogue, soundtrack and effects.
If you want to enhance your workflow, then there’s also a Stems plug-in available as part of the Pro Plan, with Voice Studio and Mastering plug-ins coming soon.
The free Starter plan will get you 5 audio separations per month, with the other plans offering unlimited separations, higher quality and a host of bonus features. Moises also updates its algorithms fairly regularly.
Price: Free, £4.99pm Musician Plan, £24.99pm Producer plan (discounts for paying annually)
Online, Desktop app, mobile app
Stems: Vocals, backing vocals, drums (with separates), bass, guitar, background vocals, piano, and strings
Library/Algorithm: Moises AI Proprietary Stem Separation Model
www.moises.ai
AudioStrip
AudioStrip. Image: MusicTech
AudioStrip is a high-quality online option that uses the results of both the MDX-Net and Demucs libraries. The company also notes on its website that the algorithms will be updated as and when new methods come out.
When you upload a file, you can choose from three different algorithms, and then separate out to vocals, instrumental, bass, drums, other, piano and guitar.
You can choose from a basic free option that includes 3 isolations, 3 masters, and 3 transcripts per month, with a slower isolation speed, limited file size and MP3 output format. Or alternatively, the Premium option gives you unlimited uploads, faster isolation, larger files, WAV, FLAC and MP3 formats and batch uploads.
Price: Free / £7.99pm Premium
Online
Stems: Vocals, Instrumental, Bass, Drums, Other, Piano and Guitar
Library/Algorithm: DemucsV4, VB-Splitz V3, VB-Splitz V4
https://audiostrip.co.uk
Apple Logic Pro 11
Apple Logic Pro 11. Image: MusicTech
One of the front-running new features in Logic’s latest update is its built-in stem separation. You can right-click on any audio region and then choose whether to separate it into Vocals, Drums, Bass and Other instruments. It’s a feature that uses the grunt of the Apple Silicon chips, so it’s only available for more recent computers. However, the offshoot is that it’s incredibly fast to process.
As Apple is always incredibly tight-lipped about what goes on behind the scenes, it’s unlikely we’ll ever find out exactly what models and libraries they’ve been using. Suffice to say that the quality isn’t the best in show, but it is still impressive.
Price: $199 (Stem separation requires Apple Silicon chips)
Standalone DAW
Stems: Vocals, Drums, Bass, Instruments
Library/Algorithm: Unknown
[products ids=”4cOxjY9hweLJpjNiHjUXjk”]
Akai MPC Stems
Akai MPC Stems. Image: MusicTech
Akai MPC Stems can be purchased for £9.99 as an add on for the MPC 2 software. This is a feature-packed DAW that runs on your desktop, but it can also be used in Controller Mode to seamlessly sync to the full MPC hardware lineup. The ability to use MPC Stems without the need for a computer will be coming to certain hardware units at some point in the future.
Whether you’re using the interface on the software or the screen on the hardware, you simply select the audio, hit the Stems button and then select which of the vocals, bass, drums and other stems you’d like to create.
Price: £9.99 for MPC Stems, plus £199.99 for MPC2 software (comes free with hardware)
Standalone
Stems: Vocals, Bass, Drums, Other
Library/Algorithm: zplane STEMS PRO
www.akaipro.com
Ultimate Vocal Remover 5
Ultimate Vocal Remover 5. Image: MusicTech
If you want to delve deep into using a range of different models, then you might want to check out the free Ultimate Vocal Remover 5. With this standalone program, you can choose from a wide range of free algorithms, with more downloadable as they become available. You can even use an Ensemble mode to run your audio through two models to get improved results.
The only downside, is that it’s not very user friendly, and the processing can take quite a long time with certain settings. It’s also a little overwhelming as it’s not obvious which settings will yield the best results, although you can check mvsep.com for separation quality leaderboards of results from other users.
Price: Free
Standalone
Stems: Vocals, Bass, Drums, Other
Library/Algorithm: Multiple Demucs, MDX-Net and VR Architecture models
www.ultimatevocalremover.com
The post 12 best stem separation software for vocals, ranked appeared first on MusicTech.

First million hacked Ticketmaster user records released for freeHacker Sp1d3r has made the first 1 million records stolen as part of more than 560 million Ticketmaster user records taken earlier this month by infamous hackers ShinyHunters, available free. Continue reading
The post First million hacked Ticketmaster user records released for free appeared first on Hypebot.

Bitcoin offers ‘economic immortality,’ will reach $10M per coin— Michael SaylorSaylor’s comments came during a wide-reaching discussion with Bitcoin podcast host Robin Seyr.

The Best DIY PCB Method?Now before you start asking yourself “best for what purpose?”, just have a look at the quality of the DIY PCB in the image above. [ForOurGood] is getting higher resolution on the silkscreen than we’ve seen in production boards. Heck, he’s got silkscreen and soldermask at all on a DIY board, so it’s definitely better than what we’re producing at home.
The cost here is mostly time and complexity. This video demonstrating the method is almost three hours long, so you’re absolutely going to want to skip around, and we’ve got some relevant timestamps for you. The main tools required are a cheap 3018-style CNC mill with both a drill and a diode laser head, and a number of UV curing resins, a heat plate, and some etchant.
[ForOurGood] first cleans and covers the entire board with soldermask. A clever recurring theme here is the use of silkscreens and a squeegee to spread the layer uniformly. After that, a laser removes the mask and he etches the board. He then applies another layer of UV soldermask and a UV-curing silkscreen ink. This is baked, selectively exposed with the laser head again, and then he cleans the unexposed bits off.
In the last steps, the laser clears out the copper of the second soldermask layer, and the holes are drilled. An alignment jig makes sure that the drill holes go in exactly the right place when swapping between laser and drill toolheads – it’s been all laser up to now. He does a final swap back to the laser to etch additional informational layers on the back of the board, and creates a solder stencil to boot.
This is hands-down the most complete DIY PCB manufacturing process we’ve seen, and the results speak for themselves. We would cut about half of the corners here ourselves. Heck, if you do single-sided SMT boards, you could probably get away with just the first soldermask, laser clearing, and etching step, which would remove most of the heavy registration requirements and about 2/3 of the time. But if it really needs to look more professional than the professionals, this video demonstrates how you can get there in your own home, on a surprisingly reasonable budget.
This puts even our best toner transfer attempts to shame. We’re ordering UV cure soldermask right now.

Streaming execs think TV’s future looks a lot like its pastWe’re at a transitional moment in streaming — user growth is slowing and major players are looking to consolidate, but the long-promised dream of profitability finally seems within reach (especially if you’re Netflix). The perfect time, then, for The New York Times to interview many of the industry’s big names — including Netflix co-CEO Ted […]
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Rescued iMac G4 Restored and Upgraded With Mac Mini M1 GutsThree abandoned iMac G4s, looking for a loving home… (Credit: Hugh Jeffreys)
The Apple iMac G4 was also lovingly referred to as the ‘Apple iLamp’ due to its rather unique design with the jointed arm on which the display perches. Released in 2002 and produced until 2004, it was the first iMac to feature an LCD. With only a single-core G4 PowerPC CPU clocked at around 1 GHz, they’re considered e-waste by the average person.
That’s how [Hugh Jeffreys] recently found a triplet of these iMacs abandoned at an industrial site. Despite their rough state, he decided to adopt them on the spot, and gave one of them a complete make-over, with a good scrub-down and a brand-new LCD and Mac Mini M1 guts to replace the broken G4 logic board.
The chosen iMac had a busted up screen and heavily corroded logic board that looked like someone had tried to ‘fix’ it before. A new (used) 17″ LCD was installed from a MacBook Pro, which required the use of a Realtek RTD2660-based display controller to provide HDMI to LVDS support. The new logic board and power supply were sourced from a Mac Mini featuring the M1 SoC, which required a 3D printed adapter plate to position everything inside the iMac’s base. Wiring everything up took some creative solutions, with routing the wires through the flexible monitor arm the biggest struggle. The WiFi antenna on the Mac Mini turned out to be riveted and broke off, but the iMac’s original WiFi antenna could be used instead.
Although some clean-up is still needed, including better internal connector extensions, the result is a fully functional 2024 iMac M1 that totally wouldn’t look out of place in an office today. Plus it’s significantly easier to adjust the monitor’s angle and height compared to Apple’s official iMac offerings, making it the obviously superior system.

SEC drops Ether probe but still seeks billions in penalties from Ripple: Hodler’s Digest, June 16-22The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its case against Ether. However, in another crypto case, the regulator still demands billions in penalties from Ripple.

Beetlecrab Tempera: ‘As soon as we placed our hand on the grid and played a chord, we knew immediately, ‘Okay, this is it’”Beetlecrab’s Tempera isn’t your typical musical instrument. It’s not even your typical synthesizer.
It started life as a university project: an A4 piece of paper with a dozen reels of cassette tape stuck to it, which could be ‘played’ with two hacked-up tape heads. Scrubbing across the tape with the tape head would play back tiny samples of the audio, like a tactile, analogue version of a granular synthesizer. Getting any coherent musical ideas out of it was near-impossible, though, admits its creator and Beetlecrab co-founder, Andre Sklenar. It was essentially only useful for “artsy stuff” and as an ambient soundscape machine (which is still pretty cool, honestly).
Sklenar and his business partner, Adam Heinrich, revisited this academic adventure shortly after releasing their first synth, Vector, in 2021. With its hybrid synth engine and workflow centred around an ‘Orbiter’, Beetlecrab’s debut product was intentionally experimental. Tempera builds on Vector’s idiosyncracy; this granular synth won’t let you play notes or chop samples in the way you’re accustomed to — it forces you to get hands-on and explore sound in unfamiliar ways.
The Tempera by Beetlecrab. Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
“The interface and the capabilities of a synthesizer largely determine the musical result,” says Sklenar. ”So we tried to make the interface substantially different, to break this comfort zone; just blow it away so it’s just not there anymore and you’re forced to get out of your automatic thinking.”
From the moment I first switched on the Tempera, I was hooked. Not because it was helping me create masterpieces (it wasn’t), but because every time one of its 64 touch-sensitive pads was hit or one of its knobs were turned, it would make a fresh and unique eerie, erratic sound. For the first hour, I had no idea what I was doing, but I was having fun letting the Tempera and its stock samples guide me on a weird sonic journey.
“Yeah, it happens to me as well,” jokes Sklenar from the Beetlecrab HQ in Prague, Czech Republic. “When developing, someone might report some kind of bug; I start looking for it, then I get completely distracted and realise later I need to actually find and fix the bug. But I love that very hands-on nature of the Tempera.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Beetlecrab’s Prague office isn’t exactly bustling. Sklenar is talking to me via video call from the workshop, with a backdrop of cardboard boxes and materials. Alongside he and Heinrich, the two co-founders are joined by an assembly engineer and a QA engineer, making each Tempera and Vector to order. The brand’s first
Sklenar enjoys having a small operation; he and the team are able to keep in direct contact with their customers and address issues, gather feedback for future firmware and, nicest of all, receive praise directly.
There is plenty to praise about the Tempera, in fairness. The granular synthesizer packs a pool of 4,096 stereo grains, played by four concurrent ‘Emitters’ with 16-voice polyphony. You’ll mostly be using the 64 backlit pads, which are divided vertically into eight tracks, each one containing a sample of up to 11 seconds long that’s split across the eight strips. You can play the samples by touching one of the pads and, depending on the mode you’re in, selecting a pitch with the keyboard overlay.
…I know, it’s a lot, but stay with me.
The four dials at the top of the Tempera can be used to tweak parameters, shape envelopes, edit sample lengths and alter the Emitters. An effects engine lets you apply chorus, delay, reverb and more, while an onboard mic lets you record sounds to manipulate immediately. You can save and load your sounds to the 8GB internal storage and a microSD card.
Oh, and also, there’s a fun feature that will trigger other samples around your finger position, so you can get some fascinating, diverse soundscapes in an instant.
Ok, got it? No? That’s alright. Tempera isn’t an easy beast to tame at first, but experienced users have found incredible ways to get creative with it.

Producer and content creator Jeremy Blake at Red Means Recording was a close collaborator in the making of the Tempera. In a recent video, he showcases it as a manipulator of jungle drum breaks, while others have found it incredibly useful as a cinematic scoring instrument.
But Beetlecrab’s problem, Sklenar says, is conveying to potential customers what the Tempera actually does.
“As it turns out, one still needs to read the manual, maybe get a walkthrough,” he says. “But I think that as soon as one grasps the basic concept that it’s grain emitters on top of a sound bed of samples, it kind of clicks. There are no hidden shortcuts or weird shift workflows. Once you get the concept, the rest is okay. We tried to make it more approachable [than Vector], which I’m not sure we succeeded 100 per cent, but we gave it a go.”
Sklenar, who confesses he’s not a natural marketer or promoter (“nor I would find marketing very interesting”), sayshe and Heinrich were nervous about releasing the Tempera. How would they get the concept across? Even when making preset patches, known as Canvases, for the Tempera, the two realised they had still had to do more to demonstrate how each feature works.
Really, the best way to get to know the synth is to get your hands on it. Heinrich and Sklenar knew this from the moment they had the prototype underway. “We had a prototype spread out on the table,” says Sklenar, “with code running through it to trigger the grains. ‘As soon as we placed our hand on the grid and played a chord, we knew immediately, ‘Okay, this is it.’”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
When Sklenar and Heinrich took the Tempera to Superbooth 2024 in Berlin, they were met with immense positivity and intrigue. Most Superbooth attendees are on the hunt for the quirkiest musical machines, so Beetlecrab’s two products were bound to be a hit. Even there, though, synth lovers were approaching the Tempera expecting it to be a Launchpad or grid synthesizer. They’d trigger the 4,096 grains and 64 emitters, instantly hearing a rich, complex and convoluted sound.
“The thing is, the machine can handle it,” laughs Sklenar. “It won’t break a sweat. It’ll just explode with grains. It’s a huge arsenal of stuff and it’s important to learn to control it, to be sparse, not to go super crazy. So those are the challenges, but the response has been amazing. People can’t put it down.”
The Beetlecrab team has heard inspiring stories from its Discord channel and email inbox, with Sklenar recalling one user who set it up for their child to experiment with. Once you see the Tempera’s brightly coloured pads of blue, pink, yellow and green, you can see how a kid would gravitate toward it — well, adults too, actually. That appeal was always part of the plan.
“We definitely wanted to design something that is beautiful and functional. That was actually the condition for us doing anything at all,” Sklenar explains. “ I think that function is more important than form but that doesn’t mean that form is not important.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Lights might flash and dance around the Tempera, but each has a purpose. The four colours represent the emitters, and they communicate when sound is being played, how it’s being played, and what sound is being played around them. It’s a stunning display that invites you to keep tinkering and seeing what’s next. And it’s a smart move by Beetlecrab. A social media presence is vital, and we’ve all seen videos of homemade Novation Launchpad shows, so the Tempera’s aesthetic appeal is likely to entice creators to film themselves playing mind boggling sounds. From that perspective, Sklenar and Heinrich’s marketing proficiency isn’t so bad after all.
Some content creators are already having a field day with it. The aforementioned Jeremy Blake at Red Means Recording has expressed his love for it, as has high-profile music technologists Andrew Huang and Loopop. Blake’s involvement was actually key in bringing the Tempera up to scratch. Although his sound design videos with the synth are impressive and educational, Sklenar tells us that Blake’s experience with the Tempera was a rollercoaster.
“He’s a man of patience, because I would send him a firmware that fixes three bugs but creates two new bugs, and that was basically the mode of operation for all of the period between May to November [when the first public batch was released]. Of course, he’s an artist, I’m an engineer, so I’m prepared for maybe higher levels of frustration with machinery. But for him to try to be creative with a machine that would sometimes do random stuff must have been frustrating. Jeremy has been great, though — he created amazing samples for the Tempera tailored specifically for it.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Unlike Blake, I still haven’t figured out exactly how to make the most of the Tempera. But Sklenar is right; being able to practically touch the sound as it’s being played is hypnotic and makes you want to learn more. But at $720, can you really afford to pick something up and not know how to use it?
“With a machine that does something different,” explains Sklenar, “it always takes a little bit of time to find its own audience, because everything is so saturated these days. But Tempera works for ambient music, it can record instruments, can be played very organically and expressively, and there’s all these little granular noises…There’s an amazing person on our Discord who’s using Csound — a programming language that lets you programmatically create audio samples — to generate samples that fit specifically on the touch grid in very creative ways, like making pixel art on those samples with the LEDs. You can really paint with it.”
The Tempera’s users have kept happily busy, but Beetlecrab has kept even busier. Everyday, the team is gathering feedback from its customers to create new updates, iron out bugs, create new tutorial content, all while balancing another three or four synthesizer projects. But, as we gather from our call, Sklenar and Heinrich are thrilled to be able to bring their wacky imaginations to life.
“I mean, there’s nothing better than this. We have, like, three to four synthesizers in the pipeline from blueprints through to prototypes. And it’s so rewarding, because I can actually see the machine assembled; I can see it travelling to the testing station, then I see it being rotated into the packer, and then it’s in the box, and then I can see it on the shelf, then it leaves, and three days later, I get an email saying ‘I just received my Tempera, I’m loving it.‘ It’s such a great thing. It’s perfect, really.”
Learn more about Beetlecrab’s Tempera, which is available now. 
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