Quincy Jones, a music production icon, dies aged 91Quincy Jones, the legendary producer and music biz titan whose collaborators include Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra has died aged 91.
Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he passed away on Sunday night (3 November) at his home in Bel Air, surrounded by his family, reports Sky News.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’s passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
Jones was a towering figure in American music, revered for his work with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and Celine Dion. His career spanned over seven decades, during which he produced an extraordinary catalogue of music, from chart-topping hits to critically acclaimed albums.
A 28-time Grammy winner, Jones was best known as the producer of Jackson’s Off the Wall, Bad, and Thriller albums, the latter of which remains the best-selling record of all time. He also composed the soundtrack to more than 50 films and TV programmes, had numerous chart hits under his own name, and was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time magazine.
“My philosophy as a businessman has always come from the same roots as my personal credo: take talented people on their own terms and treat them fairly and with respect, no matter who they are or where they come from,” Jones said in his autobiography.
Jones’ groundbreaking work not only reshaped modern music but also broke barriers for Black Americans in the entertainment industry. He was promoted as vice president of Mercury Records in 1961, becoming the first Black American to hold the position at a major label. In 1968, Jones became the first Black American to receive two Oscar nominations in the same year.

There was little Quincy did not do in his years. Beyond his musical achievements, Jones was deeply committed to philanthropy, having co-produced the historic charity single We Are the World in 1985, which featured an all-star lineup of artists and raised millions for famine victims in Ethiopia. He also co-founded Vibe magazine with producer David Salzman, which placed a deep focus on hip-hop and R&B culture.
Jones is survived by his seven children, including actress Rashida Jones.
Tributes have poured in from around the world following news of Jones’ passing.
Playwright Jeremy O’Harris said on X that Jones’ “contributions to American culture were limitless”, while artist Otto Von Biz Markie remembered the late legend as “the greatest producer & soundtrack composer of all-time.”

RIP Quincy Jones, who defined the highest level of musical genius for 5 generations. Perhaps the greatest producer & soundtrack composer of all-time. The most quotable, the coolest, who made everything from Thriller to Vibe to the Fresh Prince. Who did it all, better than anyone. pic.twitter.com/gU8PD1gsCN
— Otto Von Biz Markie (@Passionweiss) November 4, 2024

What couldn’t he do?
Quincy Jones, literally born when the limits on how big a black boy could dream were unfathomably high, taught us that the limit does not exist.
His contributions to American culture were limitless. First black person nominated for pic.twitter.com/d71OQAY0Yl
— Jeremy O. Harris (@jeremyoharris) November 4, 2024

The post Quincy Jones, a music production icon, dies aged 91 appeared first on MusicTech.

Classical Highlights for October 2024The highlights of October's new reviews seem to be mainly vocal releases, with a diversity of styles. Of particular note: the women of the Corvus Consort (pictured) are joined by Louise Thomson for a variety of works specifically for female voices and harp. Please explore our classical highlights for October.

Bitcoin looks ripe for a rebound, and so do ETH, DOGE, LTC, and XMRBitcoin’s volatility is expected to pick up after the US elections, and charts suggest that ETH, DOGE, LTC and XMR could be the first to follow.

All You Need for Artificial Intelligence is a Commodore 64Artificial intelligence has always been around us, with [Timothy J. O’Malley]’s 1985 book on AI projects for the Commodore 64 being one example of this. With AI defined as being the theory and development of systems that can perform tasks that normally requiring human intelligence (e.g. visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making), this book is a good introduction to the many ways that computer systems for decades now have been able to learn, make decisions and in general become more human-like. Even if there’s no electronic personality behind the actions.
In the book’s first chapter, [Timothy] isn’t afraid to toss in some opinions about the true nature of intelligence and thinking. Starting with the concept that intelligence is based around storing information and being able to derive meaning from connections between stored pieces of information, the idea of a basic AI as one would use in a game for the computer opponent arises. A number of ways of implementing such an AI is explored in the first and subsequent chapters, using Towers of Hanoi, chess, Nim and other games.
After this we look at natural language processing – referencing ELIZA as an example – followed by heuristics, pattern recognition and AI for robotics. Although much of this may seem outdated in this modern age of LLMs and neural networks, it’s important to realize that much of what we consider ‘bleeding edge’ today has its roots in AI research performed in the 1950s and 1960s. As [Timothy] rightfully states in the final chapter, there is no real limit to how far you can push this type of AI as long as you have more hardware and storage to throw at the problem. This is where we now got datacenters full of GPU-equipped systems churning through vector space calculations for the sake of today’s LLM & diffusion model take on ‘AI’.
Using a Commodore 64 to demonstrate the (lack of) validity of claims is not a new one, with recently a group of researchers using one of these breadbin marvels to run an Ising model with a tensor network and outperforming IBM’s quantum processor. As they say, just because it’s new and shiny doesn’t necessarily mean that it is actually better.

From Lime to Uber to Hertz: Free and discounted Election Day ridesElection Day is nearly here, and if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or gone in for early voting, you might need a ride come November 5.  Here’s a roundup of all the freebies, discounts, and information on getting to the polls that transportation companies are offering. Micromobility Lime is offering free rides to […]
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Polygons On a LatheMost professionals would put a polygon on the end of a turned part using a milling machine. But many a hobbyist doesn’t have a mill. And if the polygon needs to be accurately centered, remounting the stock costs accuracy.
[Mehamozg] demonstrates you can turn a polygon on a lathe.
Polygons on shaft ends are surprisingly common, whether you are replacing a lost chuck key, need an angular index, or need a dismountable drive. As the video shows, you can definitely make them on the lathe.
But how the heck does this work? It seems like magic.
Lets start by imagining we disengage and lock the rotating cutter in [Mehamozg]’s setup and run the lathe. If the tool is pointed directly at the center we are just turning normally.  If we angle the tool either side of center we still get a cylinder, but the radius increases by the sin of the angle.
Now, if we take a piece of stock with a flat on it and plot radius versus angle we get a flat line with a sin curve dip in it. So if we use [Mehamozg]s setup and run the cutter and chuck at the same speed, the cutter angle and the stock angle increase at the same time, and we end up with a flat on the part.  If the cutter is rotating an even multiple of the chuck speed, we get a polygon.
The rub in all this is the cutter angle.. At first we were convinced it was varying enormously. But the surface at the contact point is not perpendicular to  the radius from center to contact. So it cancels out, we think.  But our brains are a bit fried by this one. Opinions in the comments welcomed.
We like this hack. It’s for a commonly needed operation, and versatile enough  to be worth fiddling with the inevitable pain of doing it the first time.  For a much more specialized machining hack, check out  this tool that works much the same in the other axis.

Independent and DIY Musician News Last WeekLast week, our tips and advice for independent and DIY musicians news last week covered how to book more gigs, promote internationally, and more...
The post Independent and DIY Musician News Last Week appeared first on Hypebot.

Music Business News Last Week: Growth, Controversies, LayoffsMusic business news last week was a busy week by any definition, the music industry was no exception, with strong Threads growth, the potential fall of TikTok, DistroKid and TIDAL. Continue reading
The post Music Business News Last Week: Growth, Controversies, Layoffs appeared first on Hypebot.

The Crow Hill Company launches FREE Vaults Orchestral FX Halloween Strings Plugin
On Friday, The Crow Hill Company launched its new free Vaults Orchestral FX strings virtual instrument. The new Halloween-themed plugin is a macOS and Windows release available in AU, VST3, VST, and AAX formats. In the introductory YouTube video for the release, The Crow Hill Company founder Christian Henson described the instrument as “30 string [...]
View post: The Crow Hill Company launches FREE Vaults Orchestral FX Halloween Strings Plugin

Release details
Release title:
Ain't no secret
Main artist name:
Plexine
Release date:
31st Oct, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/Aintnosecret
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #experimental #hiphop

Stablecoin supply alone won't pump Bitcoin markets — Ki Young JuStablecoins are now primarily used to store value in countries with rapidly depreciating fiat currencies or prohibitive capital controls. 

Why Wiz really turned down Google’s $23B offerWelcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re coming at you right off the heels of TechCrunch Disrupt! If you missed it, we’re highlighting conversations from Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, and Disney star turned space CEO Bridgit Mendler. Of course, we’ve got news from the rest of the tech world […]
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3D Printed Hardware Sorter Keeps It SimpleIf you’re like us, you’ve got at least one bin dedicated to keeping the random hardware you just can’t bear to part with. In our case it’s mostly populated with the nuts and bolts left over after finishing up a car repair, but however it gets filled, it’s a mess. The degree to which you can tolerate this mess will vary, but for [EmGi], even a moderately untidy pile of bolts was enough to spur this entirely 3D-printed mechanical bolt sorter.
The elements of this machine bear a strong resemblance to a lot of the sorting mechanisms we’ve seen used on automated manufacturing and assembly lines. The process starts with a hopper full of M3 cap head bolts of varying lengths, which are collated by a pair of elevating platforms. These line up the bolts and lift them onto a slotted feed ramp, which lets them dangle by their heads and pushes them into a fixture that moves them through a 90° arc and presents them to a long sorting ramp. The ramp has a series of increasingly longer slots; bolts roll right over the slots until they find the right slot, where they fall into a bin below. Nuts can also feed through the process and get sorted into their own bin.
What we like about [EmGi]’s design is its simplicity. There are no motors, bearings, springs, or other hardware — except for the hardware you’re sorting, of course. The entire machine is manually powered, so you can just grab a handful of hardware and start sorting. True, it can only sort M3 cap head bolts, but we suspect the design could be modified easily for other sizes and styles of fasteners. Check it out in action in the video below.
Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean we don’t like more complicated hardware sorters, like the ones [Christopher Helmke] builds.

Thanks to [john] for the tip.

Supercon 2024: Streaming LiveThe 2024 Hackaday Supercon is on in Pasadena, but if you couldn’t make it to sunny California this year, don’t worry. We’ve got a live streams of the main stage talks, and all of the second track talks are being recorded and will be put up on the YouTube channel after the con.

If you’re watching from home and want to join the conversation, today might be a good time to join the official Hackaday Discord server.

Kingfish to Launch Red Zero Records Imprint Via Exceleration MusicGrammy-winning guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has teamed with Exceleration Music to launch a new label, Red Zero Records. The label’s inaugural release slated for 2025 will be the third studio album by Ingram and will follow up his 2023 chart-topping, critically-lauded Live in London, which was Grammy nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

In addition to releasing his own recordings under the Red Zero banner, Ingram will serve as the label’s CEO. His longtime manager and label co-founder Ric Whitney will assume the role of president, and both will be directly involved in signing and developing artists on the label’s roster.

Under the terms of their partnership agreement, Exceleration Music and Redeye Distribution will exclusively provide label services and global distribution for Red Zero. This new imprint provides Ingram and Red Zero artists with the ability to tap into expertise that exists across the Exceleration labels and central teams, including Alligator Records, who released his first three albums, including the Grammy-winning 662.

“The name Red Zero Records is a nod to my early days in both Clarksdale, Mississippi and in music,” said Ingram. “As a kid, I played my first few live performance gigs in my hometown at Red’s Lounge and Ground Zero Blues Club. These places and the people there were instrumental in my development as a musician, so we wanted to pay homage in a unique way.”

Learn more at www.excelerationmusic.com.The post Kingfish to Launch Red Zero Records Imprint Via Exceleration Music first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.