Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concernsA Meta spokesperson insisted that the updated terms did not reflect a change in the way Meta crawls the web.

Air-G Audio Air-G PedalboardAir-G Pedalboard is the unified virtual pedalboard of Air-G Audio's Guitar Collection: all ten pedals of the series, together in a single plugin. Every pedal in the collection is built on the open-source work of Airwindows, Chris Johnson's long-running project known for some of the most distinctive free DSP code in the audio world. Bringing them together on one board was the long-term goal from the very first pedal, and this is it. The board has six slots in series, just like a real pedalboard: the signal enters slot 1 and leaves through slot 6. Any slot can hold any of the ten pedals (EQ, Dist, Comp, Dual Drive, Chorus, Trem, Autopan, Vibra, Delay and Verb) or be left empty. Each pedal runs the exact same engine as its standalone version, with the same controls and the same sound. To reorder the chain, just grab a pedal by its body and drop it onto another slot: the two swap places, knobs and all. On the right sits the control strip: a main footswitch that turns the whole board on and off (linked to the host's own bypass) and a retro LCD screen with two modes. Presets: 32 locations in 8 banks (A1 to H4), stored on disk so they are available in every project and every DAW. Step through them with the arrow keys, save with SAVE, and double-click a name to rename it. A "*" tells you when something has changed since loading. Presets can also be switched from the DAW, through an automatable Preset parameter or MIDI Program Change. Nine factory presets are included to get you started, from CLEAN and CRUNCH to AMBIENT, SURF and STEREO WIDE. Tuner: press TUNE and the output mutes while you tune, like a hardware pedalboard tuner. It listens to the board's input, before any pedal, and offers GUITAR and BASS modes with alternate tunings (Drop D, Half Down, Full Down, Drop C, Open G, Open D, DADGAD, 5-string bass) plus a chromatic mode. It guides you to the note of the string you're playing, not just the nearest note. The board is stereo in, stereo out. Each pedal also remains available on its own, with its own manual. Air-G Pedalboard includes a full manual covering the board, the presets and the tuner. Air-G Audio is a collection of plugins built on the open source code of Airwindows. The project is built around adding a graphical interface that makes the experience more comfortable and visual, along with a few features that expand the possible uses without straying from the original sound. The simplicity and lightness of Chris's code are the starting point and the guide. Thanks to Chris Johnson for making his work public and accessible. Air-G Audio exists because Airwindows exists. The Airwindows code used in the pedals of this plugin is published under the MIT License. The pedalboard itself (slots, presets, screen and tuner) is Air-G Audio's own work. Air-G Pedalboard is free, no strings attached, same open spirit as Chris's own work. It also took real hours to build: designing, coding, testing, writing the manual. If it earns a spot on your setup, a donation of any size makes a real difference in keeping this collection going. And if you want to support where it all comes from, Chris Johnson's Patreon is the most direct way to back Airwindows itself: patreon.com/airwindows. Available for Windows and Linux. *There's no macOS version yet (sorry! I don't have access to a Mac at the moment), but I hope to make one someday! Read More

Building a Flying Drone With a Single PropellerTechnically all that you need in order to make a drone fly is a single motor and single propeller, but realistically it becomes basically impossible to fly it at that point. In the case of helicopters you therefore need a second rotor somewhere to provide counterbalance to the first and to be able to steer.
There are of course a number of ways to make a drone fly with a single helicopter, but the compromise usually is to use very large propellers, as well as other mechanisms that make for a very large drone. This wasn’t good enough for [Joshua Bird] who wanted to have a very small, single propeller drone.
Key to making it work is not only a very high RPM, but also a hinged propeller hub that manipulates the  angle of the blades in such a way that both pitch and roll can be controlled if you react quickly enough. This turned out to be impossible using standard motor ESCs that do not directly measure the motor’s speed and position but rely on back EMF.
In the final prototype of the drone such details had to be measured directly, with super-fast adjustments to the motor’s speed only possible with custom controller code and a lot of trial and error. Even then the drone would often lose track of its position and crash once more. The solution there was to add an infrared beacon in the room and a sensor on the drone, to give it a fixed reference point.
You can find the project files so far on the GitHub project page, with upcoming changes to the drone design involving improvements like adding a scanner to the drone so that it can autonomously use features in its environment as fixed reference points. That way it might conceivably be able to fly outside as well, which would be quite exciting to see.

Nembrini Audio’s $137 Cali Reverb guitar amp plugin is FREE again until October 31
Nembrini Audio is offering Cali Reverb, its Mesa Boogie-inspired guitar amp plugin for macOS and Windows, for free again until October 31, 2026. The regular price is $137. We covered the previous Cali Reverb giveaway in October 2024, so I guess this is another chance to pick it up if you missed it back then. [...]
View post: Nembrini Audio’s $137 Cali Reverb guitar amp plugin is FREE again until October 31

Roland update the TD-07 V-Drums line-up Roland's entry-level V-Drum series has just gained two new kit options that promise to deliver the best balance of value and playability in their class.

'90s Albums That Were Trap Music Before T.I. & Gucci ManeLong before T.I. and Gucci Mane helped define trap, these eight '90s hip-hop albums were already laying the groundwork for the genre.

Making Noise: Rage Against the RockstarsWelcome again to Making Noise, your weekly look at hot topics, buzzy tidbits and music news that’s raising the volume and going viral on social media and in music lover circles. 

As the midterm elections near, it seems everyday brings a new musicmaker to cancel or clap for depending on where you stand. The (world) stage is getting crowded, too. Artists like Jack White and Hayley Williams are using their platforms on social media and onstage to speak out, but others seem just as interested in throwing shade at them. Metallica’s James Hetfield, is the latest to join the conversation by insisting he’s not in it, after announcing at a recent Sphere show that “Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit.” 

The band’s early anti-authoritarian lyrics and themes—which they still perform—beg to differ and former fans have been calling out the disconnect. Following the backlash Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters got into the ring, stating on a podcast this week: “I’m so bored with him. He’s just showing that he’s a complete prick. He’s got an IQ of about three, and why we’re talking about him I honestly don’t know, because he’s a nobody.”

Round and Round

Of course, it’s not surprising coming from Waters who made speaking politically part of his shows, but now another rocker is joining the chat too, seemingly taking Hetfield’s side. In a new just-turned-viral clip online, Nikki Sixx is seen saying, “It does not matter to Mötley Crüe if you’re a Republican. It does not matter to Mötley Crüe if you’re a Democrat. It doesn't matter if you’re gay or if you’re straight or if you’re going right down the fucking center of the lane of life cause we’re all in this together. Can we agree?" A lot better than Hetfield’s “bullshit” statement but it still begs the question: if the stance is that politics should stay out of music, why bring them up at all?

Getting political in music or on stage is a choice, and ya gotta respect artists who do, even at the expense of maybe losing fans. They have a right not to as well, and fans who feel cheated by that can choose not to support. Artists calling each other out is the icky new part of this story, though of course, beefing over personal matters has been a thing since the beginning.

Fight the Pollsters  

Power to the People Fest, held in Maryland last week saw Foo Fighters, Jack Black (“Jack Sabbath”), Bruce Springsteen and Soundgarden with The Pretty Reckless’  Taylor Momsen and Cypress Hill to name a few, perform a livestreamed show to promote “Peace, Love, Justice and Music” bringing everyone together— well sort of. Organizer Tom Morello’s admission that he didn’t vote for Kamala Harris kinda hung over it like a sad cloud. Smugly bragging to Rolling Stone about the last election and endorsing her led many to assume he didn’t vote at all, but he clarified later that he did, just not for the Democrat. Of course, the liberal rocker didn’t vote for Trump,—well technically—but as the internet reminded him, third party voting essentially helps out the GOP by splitting the left. One day this might change but right now, it’s—as Metallica sang— “sad but true.” In any case you can watch some great clips from the festival on YouTube.

For the Birds

In more important social discourse news, lol, Kelly Clarkson is once again taking over our feeds, this time not over her love of A.I., but over a weird mechanical bird. It all started with a snarky social media post about an encounter she described as “Pretty Woman” treatment from a Brooklyn shop called Art of Play. After the shop denied her wishes to purchase a wall-mounted singing bird, stating it was not for sale, she brought receipts showing its $15,000 price tag. The back and forth on socials over what actually happened has been non-stop with the store’s latest statements seriously claiming that “Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger!” We thought the store’s initial response was funny yet fan-y as it incorporated the singer’s own lyrics in a playful way, but now it’s gone off the rails a bit, with multiple interviews and an advertised new price for the bird: 15 million! Here’s hoping the two parties stop pecking at each other because clearly there are more important things to argue about.

This Isn’t It

Could all the discourse in the world be driving some artists a bit mad? Giant Drag's Annie Hardy played a bizarre joke last week after posting an obit for herself on her Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. It read "RIP Annie Hardy" and "June 5, 1981 - Oct 3, 2026" with a photo of the singer and the statement: "It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Annie -Summer Hardy. A caring friend to many, a friend to the Animals and a follower of Jesus Christ. Please respect the families wish for privacy during this difficult time. Services to be announced in the days to come Rest in Peace, Annie. The world will never be the same." 

But it was all fake. Hardy, known to be a prankster, made the post herself and had planned to keep it going until a friend went to check on her and said it wasn’t true. Why did she do it? Hardy and Giant Drag (a band we truly loved during the "indie sleaze era" as early aughts alt music is now lamely dubbed) had a show at the Redwood Bar in DTLA this week, but promo apparently wasn’t it. Here’s some of what she shared with Stereogum about the odd ruse:

 “Pranks are insensitive, and there is nothing funny about someone passing away. A "hoax" feels like a more accurate description. A hoax shatters what was previously believed to be true, forcing a shift in perspective. In that moment, as old assumptions and emotions dissolve, you are given the opportunity to decide how to view reality moving forward. One profound aspect of loss is how the living often let go of past grievances, choosing instead to remember the deceased in a purely positive light. Their hearts open fully, knowing they won't see that person again... Also I wanted to point out how everything in these phones now is fake. The only real thing we have left in life is our love for one another but here we are letting alleged loved ones evaporate in a mist in the background.”

Making Noise: Sound Bites

Taylor Swift will be in L.A. this weekend to perform at the Academy Museum Gala, the bougie celeb event that floods our feeds with glitzy red carpet fashion akin to the Oscars each year.  If you’re in L.A., avoid the area as Swifties will surely be swifting about and traffic will be terrible, regardless. Where will Tay and Trav eat and hang out while in L.A.? The gossip rags and paps will surely let us know, mostly against our will.

Celebrating his 80th birthday, the David Bowie's estate just announced BOWIE 80, a month long celebration on 2027 featuring an array of events, merch releases and more. Sign up for info here.

Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning, a condensed film version of the live-streamed event in Birmingham, U.K. that took place just before Ozzy Osbourne's death, put together by musical director Morello, will be in theaters at the end of the month, but MC was in the house for the Osbourne family's special premiere event this week. Our full report is on the way, but snag your advance tickets now here.

The post Making Noise: Rage Against the Rockstars first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Minikod Spectravox RecallSpectravox Recall is a VST3/AU plugin for Windows and macOS that helps you write down patches for your Moog Spectravox directly in your DAW session. Load it as an insert effect, adjust parameters on your hardware, replicate them in your Minikod Recall plugin and save the exact state of your hardware with your project. Key Features: Faithful representation of the hardware interface. Save/load patches with project. Instant recall. Simple text editor to write down notes about your patch. Notes are saved with presets and DAW sessions. Workflow Example: Load the plugin. Design your sounds on your patchless hardware. Mirror the settings in your Minikod Recall plugin. Save DAW project. Reopen later Open the Minikod Recall plugin and manually copy the settings back to your hardware. Read More

Replit is no longer working with Anthropic, CEO saysMasad said the decision was made for a number of different reasons, including cost. Replit announced a partnership with OpenAI in August, but there was never any indication that it was no longer with Anthropic.

The 10€ GamepadWe aren’t sure what [Lazy_Duck] is doing with video games, but it must require a lot of controllers. Dismayed at the cost and complexity of commercial gamepads, they started soldering and 3D printing to get a cheaper basic controller.
The emphasis is on throwing things together, so there’s no dedicated PCB. Just a protoboard with an RP2040-Zero, a joystick, a few buttons, and a microswitch. A 3D-printed case rounds out the project.

On the printing side, the device uses heat-set threaded inserts, which should make for a very sturdy build. For software, the GP2040-CE firmware handles everything, acting like a controller and managing configuration via a web page.
Even if you don’t want a cheap gamepad, you could apply the principles and software used here to create any kind of gamepad you want. The firmware makes good use of the dual-core RP2040. It also offers a lot you could add to your version of the cheap controller, like OLED displays, RGB LEDs, and more.
Of course, you could also get fancy with the 3D printing side, too. For example, a resin printer makes nice button caps.

Shoreline College's Music Tech Programs Utilize Solid State Logic ORIGIN ConsolesThis is the sort of news that should give everyone the warm-and-fuzzies before the weekend, thanks to ORIGIN inline architecture helping students, "attain a practical understanding of recording, mixing, routing, and gain staging through hands-on operation within a broader environment that also includes SSL interfaces."

According to news released this week, "Shoreline College, 10 miles north of downtown Seattle, Washington, opened its recently constructed Bracken Building, the new home of its Music and Music Technology programs, in April 2026. The new facility houses two recording studios with associated live tracking rooms, three small production/mixing rooms and two MIDI/computer labs that all feature equipment from Solid State Logic, including ORIGIN 32-channel and ORIGIN 16-channel inline analogue mixing consoles and dozens of SSL’s USB audio interfaces."

“We had two goals with this new space,” said Matt Jorgensen, Music Technology Faculty, Shoreline College, in that statement. “Number one was to have two recording studios that were nearly identical, and the second was to almost take a step back from the digital world and have the consoles be purely analogue.”

"Shoreline's investment in both SSL ORIGIN consoles and SSL audio interfaces helps create a more complete educational experience, allowing students to develop and translate practical, real-world production skills from the 'classroom to the control room' that mirrors industry practice," Ashleigh Davies, Head of Education, Solid State Logic, told MC. "We are proud to have our technology being used by Shoreline in this manner."

“When I recorded in Seattle I spent a lot of time at Studio X, which famously has a big SSL console, and all the engineers in town have always raved about SSL,” Jorgensen says. “But I think having a giant SSL would have been a bit overkill for what our students are doing, so I think what drew us to the ORIGIN board was the fact that it’s simple. We are an educational institution, and those consoles help us to get the students up and running as quickly as possible so they can do the things that they want to do.”

For more info, visit solidstatelogic.com.

The post Shoreline College's Music Tech Programs Utilize Solid State Logic ORIGIN Consoles first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

From Universal Music’s fresh round of layoffs to Spotify’s catalog surge… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
Source

Forma Labs Audio release Filament 1.2 Forma Labs Audio have recently launched a significant update that brings some powerful new features to their real-time MIDI orchestration software. 

Excite Audio bundle bargains – save on these huge plugin bundles at Plugin Boutique with up to 62% offUntil the end of October, you can save on some huge bundle deals from Excite Audio at Plugin Boutique.
With discounts ranging from 49 to up to 62 percent off, you can grab a themed bundle to meet your desires or needs, or gain access to the entire Excite Audio plugin catalogue with the comprehensive Excite Bundle.

READ MORE: Plugin Boutique launches new tiered membership programme that rewards you based on how many plugins you buy

Learn more about each bundle below:
Evolve Bundle
The Evolve Bundle consists of six sample-based soft synths, each built around the sonic character of a different material. It includes Dark Matter, Nest Acoustics, Air, Elastic, Velvet, and Alloy. Now £99, you can get this bundle for half price until 31 October.

Bloom Bundle
This complete Bloom collection features all 16 Bloom series plugins, described as “inspiring and playable instruments”, that are “engineered and curated to provide a stunning sonic experience out of the box”. It includes Bloom Mura Masa, Bloom Ensemble Strings, Bloom KSHMR, and much more. With 50 percent off, it’s now £209.

Excite Audio Bundle (all plugins)
Go all out with the complete Excite Audio Bundle, with all plugins from the brand in one purchase. You can get this bundle for £379, reduced from £758. You’ll get access to its Bloom, Evolve and Motion collections, just to name a few examples.
Artists Bundle
As its name suggests, the Artists Bundle includes all of the four plugins that were made in collaboration with artists. It includes Bloom Mura Masa, Bloom KSHMR, Evolve Nest Acoustics and VISION 4X for £99. This offer ends sooner than the other bundles, finishing on 19 October.

Motion Bundle 
Get the Motion Bundle for £89 until the end of the month, including three plugins: Motion: Harmonic, Motion: Dimension and Motion: Fractal. All are “designed for producers seeking to push the boundaries of sound design”.

Check out these deals and more by visiting Plugin Boutique. 
The post Excite Audio bundle bargains – save on these huge plugin bundles at Plugin Boutique with up to 62% off appeared first on MusicTech.

Time to revamp your studio? Find huge savings on equipment across Sweetwater’s Studio & Recording deals event[Editor’s note: Sweetwater predominantly serves the US. If you’re outside the US, you’ll be shown similar deals.]
With the end of 2026 looming ahead, you might be thinking of ways to refresh your studio space for the new year.
There’s no time like the present to start shopping for new gear and studio upgrades at Sweetwater, as its huge Studio & Recording deals event is offering a wide range of discounts across gear from Ableton, KRK, PreSonus, and much more.

READ MORE: The best new music plugins this week, free and paid

Some deals are running until the end of the year, but others are only available while limited stock lasts. We’ve rounded up some of the best finds to help you out, which you can check out below.
Save over $200 on Ableton Move and Live 12

Only available why stocks last, Sweetwater is offering an exclusive deal on Ableton Move and the Live 12 Standard software. This bundle discount is now $599, a $229 saving. Move is a portable, standalone instrument for music making, which MusicTech rated 8/10 at launch. Paired with Live 12, you get a complete hardware/software production system in one deal.

Save on monitors: JBL, PreSonus, KRK and more

If you’re in need of some new monitors, there are a range of brands now discounted with price tags under $200. You can save on the JBL 308P MkII (now $149 each), the KRK Classic 8 (now $199 each), or the PreSonus Sceptre S8 (now $499.99 each). All of these deals save you $50 or more, with the PreSonus offer saving you a mighty $500.
Software savings: discounted plugins and bundles
If you’re looking to completely refresh your software set up, then check out these huge bundle deals.
Save $400 on the UJAM Music Creation Suite virtual instrument and effects plugin bundle, which includes every plugin offered by UJAM. For just under $100, you can also get your hands on IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 5 MAX v2 guitar and bass gear modelling software, now $99.99.
At the more expensive end is the Universal Audio Complete 4 Plugin Bundle, spanning over 140 separate product titles and containing more than 200 individual plugins. This whopper of a bundle is now $1,199 – a huge saving of $1,300. Or, you can opt for the Ultimate 14 Plugin Bundle instead at a reduced $499.
To view all of these deals and more, visit Sweetwater. 
The post Time to revamp your studio? Find huge savings on equipment across Sweetwater’s Studio & Recording deals event appeared first on MusicTech.