Warner Music Group boss Robert Kyncl backs US Senate bill to crack down on AI deepfakesKyncl to give testimony to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Commitee on Tuesday (April 30)
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‘There are so many people who make beats but don’t know how to produce.’T-Minus talks about his work with J Cole, Drake, Lil Wayne and more, as well as what makes a great producer in 2024 and what he would change about the modern music industry
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Instagram updates algorithm to favor small creators, original contentMeta-owned Instagram is making changes in the coming weeks designed to give creators of all popularities more equal reach.....
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FKA twigs is developing an AI version of herself to outsource fan interactionsFKA twigs is developing an AI version of herself that she hopes will be able to handle her “online social media interactions”, and is to testify before a Senate committee on the subject of AI regulation.
The singer is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, explaining that she’s been working on a deepfake version of herself to help manage social media interaction with fans.

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She says, “In the past year, I have developed my own deepfake version of myself that is not only trained in my personality but also can use my exact tone of voice to speak many languages.”
It will “extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions, whilst I continue to focus on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio,” she adds.
The subcommittee is considering the NO FAKES Act, which will protect artists and actors from unauthorised AI versions of their faces, voices, and likenesses. So, twigs will be discussing her own work in creating a deepfake version of herself, explaining that AI can be helpful for artists.
However, she’ll also be saying that AI can only work when it’s under the control of an artist – like in her own situation.
She’s set to say in her statement, per MusicAlly, “I will be engaging my AI twigs later this year to extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions, whilst I continue to focus on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio.
“These and similar emerging technologies are highly valuable tools both artistically and commercially when under the control of the artist. What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and exploited falsely for their own gain without my consent due to the absence of appropriate legislative control.”
Also giving testimony will be the Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, the boss of twigs’ label.
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Swifties drive 1M streams with Sationhead listening party as more Artists take noteLast week, Taylor Nation, the official Taylor Swift fan account, hosted a listening party for her new album "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" on Sationhead, which drove over 1 million streams on Apple Music and Spotify in under 24 hours.....
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Two notes update Genome The first major update for Genome adds five new Components that offer a mixture of new amp and effects pedal models.

“That was me trying to escape something and being a bit of a dickhead honestly”: Porter Robinson regrets labelling EDM as “not really art”Porter Robinson says he regrets calling EDM “not really art” in a 2014 interview, explaining that he was “being a bit of a dickhead” at the time.

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Robinson became disillusioned with the genre, and in 2014 – in the run-up to the release of his debut album – he appeared in an NME interview dismissing and criticising it. He said at the time, “A lot of the EDM stuff stopped being appealing to me not because of the culture of it but more so because the music is quite functional.
“It exists to make people go crazy, and to me in a lot of ways it’s entertainment and it’s not really art. I know that sounds kind of pompous but, just in terms of expression I think there’s kind of a ceiling to what you can do when you’re trying to operate within this tiny little circle of stuff that can make people go crazy and jump up and down and wanna have an awesome party.”

But, as he tells The Independent in a new interview: “EDM is clearly art … that video was me trying to escape something and being a bit of a dickhead honestly.”
Around the time the NME interview happened, he made the smash hit Clarity with Zedd. But Robinson didn’t want to be associated with it, and even took his name off the credits. He explains, “Around then, I was at my peak level of angst about not wanting to make EDM… and wanting to be cool. I was trying to be a rockstar but really, I was just drinking to get through the shows.”

He describes Avicii’s 2018 suicide as a “wake-up call” for a lot of people in EDM. Robinson is now sober, along with many of his peers. He explains, “Almost every single DJ who was popular in the 2010s is now extremely sober. You start falling apart but then you procrastinate, like putting off the pain. Then it hits you all at once.”
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Berklee College of Music’s Online Class of 2024: A Testament to TenacityHere are six different 2024 Berklee College Of Music's Online graduates that have had notable and inspirational journeys leading them to commencement day.....
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DHPlugins’ New Bass-Face Multi-Effect Plugin is Free for Limited Time
DHPlugins launched the Bass-Face multi-effect plugin, and it’s free for a limited time, which is down from a list price of £15. However, please note that you’ll need to provide a physical address and your email address when signing up (we know that many BPB readers won’t like this). The developer describes the macOS and [...]
View post: DHPlugins’ New Bass-Face Multi-Effect Plugin is Free for Limited Time

Behringer’s Vintage plugin is now out and available to download for free – for real this timeWe thought we’d be able to get our hands on it earlier this month, but now Behringer really has released Vintage, its first synth plugin, for free.
Earlier this month, some people were able to download it for free, but the Behringer Vintage webpage seemed to be broken, and it turns out there was an “accidental leak”. Behringer explained in a Facebook comment addressing the confusion: “The Vintage VST has not been officially launched and the Weblink for our testers has accidentally leaked. We’re in the process of finalising the plugin and launching it soon.”

READ MORE: Save nearly $2,000 on Brainworx’s Heritage Bundle at Plugin Boutique

And now, it’s finally available for real.
The plugin, which is “based on meticulous modelling of legendary analogue vintage synthesizers,” now has a proper page on the Behringer website. While it’s free, Behringer says that it’s valued at $99, and you can make a donation to the Playing for Change Foundation, which supports music education and works with artists around the world,  if you wish.
It was created with Stefano D’Angelo of music DSP company Orastron, and offers two oscillators with hard sync and a choice of five waveforms, two 12/24 dB filters, a noise generator, as well as two amp modules and dual LFOs.
Meanwhile, Tone2 Audiosoftware clarified that it wasn’t involved in the development of Vintage after some people found similarities between Vintage and Tone2’s Saurus, saying, “The look and feel of the recently released Behringer Vintage has caused confusion among our customers. Behringer Vintage is not a new version of Tone2 Saurus. Both products have a different synthesis architecture and sound different. We are not involved in the development of Behringer Vintage.”
Vintage is available for PC and Mac, and runs in VST/AU/AAX formats.
If you want to get your hands on the plugin, head to Behringer.
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dSONIQ’s Realphones 2.0 offers a realistic and affordable one-stop solution to headphone mixingStandard £85/Professional £131/Ultimate £191
Upgrade/loyalty deals for existing users
Education discounts available
dsoniq.com
Realphones 2.0 is a suite and plugin that aims to put headphone mixing engineers at an equal footing with owners of lavish, acoustically-treated rooms adorned with expensive monitors.
The idea is that with any half-decent pair of headphones, you can get an accurate impression of how your mix will sound on a multitude of playback speakers and rooms. Version 2.0 comes with many new playback systems and rooms to choose from, a new sound engine and MIDI control.

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Frequently with this type of system, there are features missing — for example, you can do headphone EQ correction and listen virtually to a few sets of speakers, but crosstalk and room ambience are forgotten. Other plugins have all the essential parts but don’t work system-wide or their ambience simulation sounds artificial.
Realphones overcomes all these hurdles and had already gained fans prior to this new release. System-wide capability is a big deal in particular . Competing systems that only work as a plugin have to be hosted at the end of the mastering chain or a dedicated control room mix (if available), and with the former you also need to turn the processing off before bouncing. There are more elegant solutions that host plugins in the system audio stream, such as Rogue Amoeba’s SoundSource, but it’s a hassle.
Despite the plusses, there are irritations. There remains a stingy limit on the number of headphone calibration profiles available in 2.0. This seems a little rough given that competitors don’t impose such a limit and many will use a number of different pairs of cans in their everyday work. Oh, and with the changes made to pricing tiers, the cost went up too — it now starts at £85.
Realphones 2.0 Simple mode
What does Realphones 2.0 do?
There are multiple parts to Realphones, starting with EQ correction to iron-out any nasty resonances and inadequacies in the headphones’ frequency response.
Having selected your particular headphone models in the user area of the dSONIQ site, the profile (an averaged EQ correction based on measurement of multiple sets of the same headphones) is loaded in. You can vary the percentage of correction — for example, for more subtle EQ that preserves some of the particular ‘mojo’ of the headphones — plus there’s an option to customise the correction with higher-priced tiers and even load in your own custom profile.
The second stage models crosstalk — an often-overlooked major difference between mixing on headphones and speakers. On headphones, sounds reach the listener instantaneously and you only hear hard-panned signals from a single ear cup/bud in each ear. With speakers, there’s always crosstalk; i.e, your right ear still hears some of the material playing in the left speaker and vice versa.
The third stage is modelling a range of speaker playback systems, ranging from domestic settings of Bluetooth speakers and in-car listening, through to large PA systems and more lugubrious recording studio listening experiences. There are options for near- mid- and far-field placement as well as speakers that have unusual or limited voicings, such as TVs and mobile phones.
The final ingredient is how the room reacts to the playback system — this has also been modelled by dSONIQ by gathering impulse responses at various distances. On a more shallow, referencing level, you can check how your mix might translate to high quality monitors in a well-behaved, acoustically-treated room that has a very tight reverb time. Dive deeper and the software allows you to simulate more extreme situations like nightclub systems with deep bass extension.
Realphones 2.0 Simple mode snapshot grid
Can you really mix and master on headphones using Realphones 2.0?
As we’re already familiar with the software, we get going with our set of open-backed planar headphones in advanced mode, monitoring our finished mixes through different sets of speakers and rooms including expensive far-fields and near-fields in recording studios, some mid-heavy ‘grot boxes’, a car and then with a sub-bass boost to check low-end behaviour. All the simulations sound realistic, putting your ears around the monitors and into the particular space without any strange phasing or the lop-sided stereo fields sometimes experienced in other plugins that use impulse responses to simulate rooms. The live, PA settings are every bit as convincing as the studio and domestic spaces, so you can even explore how your song might come across at a gig.
MIDI control implementation is great, allowing us to toggle each main section on and off at the press of a button when the Realphones window is in background focus; especially useful as it makes most sense to have some stages always on (e.g. headphone correction) and introduce other parts (ambience) for final translation checks. We wish there was MIDI support for toggling through presets though, but this can be done with snapshots.
On a related note, saving user presets makes complete sense, but with the extra layer of nested snapshots (which also save all settings in the interface) followed by further sub-menus for speaker choice etc, it all becomes confusing in Advanced mode, even if you understand what all the controls do. Briefly we seek solace in Simple mode (implemented in the preceding version at userbase request) and it’s more of a breeze to use, with a grid of buttons to switch between different sets of speakers and rooms (it’s also quite difficult to find Simple mode as it’s accessed via a second settings menu obscured in the window).
But we very quickly learn to live with the quirks of the user interface as Realphones 2.0 proves its worth as an indispensable tool for mixing on headphones. We port the mix to our Genelec monitors for a translation check and everything sounds pretty much as expected, with no wrong moves in panning and effects depth choices and no surprises even in the bass end. Job well and truly done!
Simulating an in-car system on Realphones 2.0
Should I buy dSONIQ Realphones 2.0?
Pre version 2.0, Realphones was already among the most comprehensive and convincing headphone mixing/monitoring suite, aside from the more expensive Slate VSX. But Slate uses its own standardised yet relatively basic set of headphones that you’re stuck with instead of being able to integrate your favourite cans, which are often selected using a mixture of personal and technical attributes such as comfort in long sessions and low levels of distortion.
Realphones 2.0 really builds upon its accolades. For those wanting to mix and master on headphones, it’s a one-stop, essential tool that’s well worth the price of admission despite the price increase and limited headphone profiles, with the Professional pack hitting the sweet spot for the vast majority of users.
Selecting altertative target curves in Realphones 2.0
Key features

Headphone mixing suite
Plugin and system-wide operation (MacOS/Windows)
Headphone EQ correction
Crosstalk and HRTF modelling
Up-to 45+ virtual playback systems including near-, mid- and far-field monitors, HiFi speakers, car systems and domestic/consumer systems
Up-to 35 listening environments
Additional subwoofer options
Monitor control options (mid and side soloing, mono button etc)
Integrated music player to load in reference tracks
NEW studio and speaker emulations
NEW sound engine updates
NEW MIDI control
NEW custom calibration profiles and correction profile tuning
41-day trial available

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Save nearly $2,000 on Brainworx’s Heritage Bundle at Plugin BoutiqueWhen it comes to high-end audio software and analog modelling tech, Brainworx offers some of the best plugins on the market. The company’s software often bears a hefty price tag – but, for a limited time, Plugin Boutique is running an exclusive deal to get 10 classic Brainworx plugins for 97% off.
The Brainworx Heritage Bundle is currently available for just $49.99, a steep drop from its usual price of $1,835.

READ MORE: Has Brainworx created the perfect compressor with the AMEK Mastering Compressor plugin?

Most notably, the Heritage Bundle includes the groundbreaking bx_XL V2, an innovative M/S stereo mastering limiter worth $298 alone. Building on the technology of Brainworx’s bx_digital EQ, the software allows users to fluidly control the levels of three individual channels: side, mid-high and mid-low. The plugin allows users to amplify the volume of their tracks without sacrificing quality.
Speaking of M/S control, saturation can also be sprinkled into your mix with the bx_saturator V2. The plugin allows users to fatten and distort mid and side signals of their mix independently. The bx_control V2 plugin also offers an M/S matrix, as well as built-in mono maker and stereo width control.
Elsewhere in the bundle, the bx_panEQ is also included. The equaliser plugin is another hot-ticket plugin costing $249 outside of the Heritage Bundle. Rammed with visual control features, the plugin allows users to sculpt their desired sound with ease. There’s also another equaliser in the form of the bx_hybrid V2, offering 11 EQ bands.
The bx_opto is included too, the nifty compressor retailing for $198 on its own. Brainworx have also packed in their top rated bx_limiter to aid in smoothing out mixes, as well as the bx_refinement filter to reduce harshness and stamp out unpleasantly high frequencies.
Brainworx are also helping users clean up their mixes with the bx_cleansweep Pro filter plugin, designed with a focus on high pass and low pass filtering. Last but not least, there’s the bx_subsynth – the self-proclaimed ‘holy grail’ plugin for bass fanatics, known to produce thunderingly low-end sounds.
If you’re hunting for a new toolbox of plugins, then the Brainworx Heritage Bundle may just be what you’re after.
To grab it at a massive 97% discount, head to Plugin Boutique.
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AudioScape launch DA-3A compressor The latest piece of hardware to join the AudioScape line-up recreates one of the most sought-after compressor/limiters of all time.

Swans at the Lodge RoomThe Swans live experience is unlike most other concerts you might ever attend. Swans create something almost indescribable, but it is our job so we'll give it a go.

When Michael Gira and his band first arrive on stage, and after making a few final adjustments, Gira says "Good evening" to the Lodge Room crowd and then they launch into the set. That subtle greeting is really the only nod to a conventional performance that we get. From there, we're launched into a world of aural insanity.

Gira waves his arms around from his seated position like a madcap orchestral conductor, which is somewhat appropriate because the soundscape that Swans creates is like a hellish, teeth-gratingly experimental version of classical music. It's heavy and intense; it's clear why fans of industrial music, post-punk and yes, metal, like Swans. But the songs aren't structured in the standard "rock" manner. There are no choruses. Attempt to sing along at your peril.

It's always been that way, from the debut Filth album introduced Swans to the world in '83. The band has split and come back, members have come and gone, but Swans have never compromised.

The set at the Lodge Room on Sunday evening featured just six songs, all fairly lengthy. Opener "The Beggar" is the title track from the most recent album, while second song "The Hanging Man" is from 2019's Leaving Meaning. The rest are newly recorded and evolving pieces.

Not that it matters; when Swans perform live, it all blends together into an oddly hypnotic, exhausting, beautiful, dynamic-yet-singular experience. It's like being caught in the tornado of somebody else's nightmare. Trauma smashes you in the senses, and really never lets up.

It's relentless, and you'll feel drained at the conclusion. Like all great art, a Swans show will make you ask questions, of yourself and of the artist. But ultimately, it's fantastically rewarding.

Earlier, Swans' lap steel man Kristof Hahn played a solo opening set that was as gorgeous as it was devastating. His voice is rich, somewhere between Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, and his take on "Heartbreak Hotel," which he credits as the John Cale version, was stunning.

All told, it was a night that won't leave us for a long time.

Photos by Nicole Oike Berlin

Samourai Wallet co-founder pleads not guilty, released on $1M bondThe terms of Keonne Rodriguez’s bail prevent him from engaging in “any cryptocurrency transactions, directly or indirectly,” without prior approval from the court.