Social Media Likes and Shares mean much less than we thoughtEvery creator knows the importance of engagement on their content when it comes to boosting the algorithm, but likes and shares don't mean users are actually digesting the content.....
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Spitfire Audio Spring Sale Spitfire are currently offering up to 40% discounts on individual libraries as well as a range of exclusive bundle deals.

“They say, ‘Get it done by next week’ – I’m constantly given tasks like this”: TV composer Nathan Micay on tight turnarounds in the industryTV composer Nathan Micay has been discussing what it’s like working in the industry in a new episode of Scuba’s Not A Diving Podcast, and it’s an eye-opening listen.

READ MORE: NME and Bose partner for C24 mixtape – and if you’re a BandLab user, your music could be featured

The composer, who’s also an electronic music artist, has scored TV series including Industry on HBO and BBC, and the new Paramount+ drama Sexy Beast and discusses layering real orchestral recordings with recordings from Spitfire Audio and NI string emulation plugins on the podcast.
He was asked if he could add a full orchestra into Sexy Beast, but only had a week to do so. He says, “We had a very limited amount of time … I was working with string emulation – they’re like, ‘These sounds great. But you know, it would be great if we did it with a full orchestra.’
“I was like, ‘Sure, no problem. What’s the budget? And how long do we have?’ And they’ll be like, ‘Oh, we need it by you know, next week,’ and that’s just not going to happen. You’re constantly given tasks like this, where they’re like, ‘Here’s the budget, just get it done by next week.’
“What I would do is just record myself playing stringed instruments in layers to try and emulate an orchestra and then put that on top of string libraries. And then you get this sort of hybrid sound of real, separately recorded, strings that I’m doing on top of an orchestra. I got this idea because I listened to quite a lot of interviews with composers and during the pandemic, obviously, nobody was recording full COVID-infested, disgusting orchestras. So they were doing it person by person through Zoom, which is interesting, and it seems to have worked.”
He describes it as time-consuming and says that he had around 200 channels because you’re “constantly consolidating” files. “But you do it, and then at the end, the directors are happy and everyone’s happy.”

The post “They say, ‘Get it done by next week’ – I’m constantly given tasks like this”: TV composer Nathan Micay on tight turnarounds in the industry appeared first on MusicTech.

New FrontDAW 3 Saturation Plugin Includes FREE “Second-Hand” Mode
United Plugins is running an intro sale on the new FrontDAW 3 plugin, which is currently available for €15 (69% off the usual price of €49). Additionally, a feature-limited but 100% free mode is available for engineers on a budget.  Before we check out the new FrontDAW 3 saturation tool, let’s quickly examine the so-called [...]
View post: New FrontDAW 3 Saturation Plugin Includes FREE “Second-Hand” Mode

KRK uncover Rokit Generation Five The latest versions of the Rokits have arrived, with all three models equipped a new silk-dome tweeter and enhanced room correction facilities. 

NME and Bose partner for C24 mixtape – and if you’re a BandLab user, your music could be featuredBose and NME have announced a joint project, the C24 mixtape, an NME-curated compilation that not only showcases upcoming talent but also gives new artists a chance to get involved.
The C24 project brings in the social music platform BandLab, giving the platform’s artists and bands a chance to submit their own music in the hope of it being selected to feature on the mixtape.

READ MORE: Universal Audio has slashed $250 off its UAD Essentials bundle

This next step in the C-Series follows the success of C23, which gave a step up for emerging talent such as King Princess, Genesis Owusu, and 070 Shake after it was released in March 2023. The 15-track mixtape also featured exclusive music from more established acts such as Jockstrap, Flo Milli and Danielle Ponder. Artists featured on C23 were also invited to play as part of the mixtape series’ grand launch event at SXSW in Austin, Texas, last year.

Details for this exciting next edition have now been revealed. Releasing sometime this summer, it will land on all major music streaming platforms, but there will also be a limited production run of 500 physical vinyl records and ultra-exclusive cassette tapes. A special edition print magazine dedicated to C24 will also coincide with the mixtape’s release.
How to enter C24
If you’re a member of BandLab’s 100 million-strong community of musicians, you can be in with the chance of getting yourself on C24. Your entry will be judged by the C24 panel.
The winning submission will earn a spot on the compilation and will be prominently featured throughout the entire Bose x NME C24 campaign. Submissions are currently being accepted through the link provided below, with the deadline set for midnight GMT on 8 April 2024.
Find out more and enter at Bose x NME C24.
The post NME and Bose partner for C24 mixtape – and if you’re a BandLab user, your music could be featured appeared first on MusicTech.

Over half of women in music have experienced gender discrimination – and a third have been sexually harassedOver half of all women in music have experienced gender discrimination, while one-third have been sexually harassed, according to the Women Musicians Insight Report.

READ MORE: Record labels should commit to regular publication of statistics on the diversity of their rosters to push back against “boy’s club”, says new report

The report comes from responses to the first-ever UK Musicians’ Census, operated by the Musicians’ Union and the charity Help Musicians.
It’s based on the responses of 2,526 UK musicians who identified as women, and finds that female musicians face higher levels of discrimination, sexual harassment, financial difficulties, and structural barriers when compared to men in music.
Not only that, but women in music are paid less and have less career longevity, even though they’re trained and educated to a higher level on average. Women earn almost a tenth less than men on average, and only 19% of those making £70,000 or more are women. However, more women have a music degree and postgraduate music qualification.
Meanwhile, almost three in ten women (29%) say family and caring commitments are barriers to career progression, with a lack of childcare access and an inability to work unsociable hours. Of other respondents, only 11% say this.
27% of women say they don’t earn enough money to support themselves and their families, while just 20% of men say the same. This has an impact on career longevity, too, with almost half of musicians (47%) aged 16-55 being women, but just 26% over this age being women.
Women report higher levels of age discrimination, too, with 30% of women reporting it in comparison to 21% of men.
Women are also underrepresented in certain roles, too. For example, women comprise just 29% of DJs, 24% of producers, 15% of live sound engineers, and 12% of studio/mastering engineers. In terms of genre, women outnumber men in classical and musical theatre, but nothing else. In UK rap, just 8% of women report working in the genre, compared to 16% of musicians of other genders. It’s a similar story in dance, too, where it’s 18% compared to 28%.
Sarah Woods, Chief Executive of Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter, says, “The findings of the latest Census report show there’s still so much work to be done to make sure that working as a musician is equitable for all. We hope these insights will encourage the industry to continue collaborating to reduce gender-based barriers and ensure gender equity in every part of music.”
“It’s alarming to witness the persistence of gender disparities highlighted by the UK Musicians’ Census, where discrimination, harassment, and unequal pay remain prevalent issues faced by women musicians, demanding urgent action,” adds Nadia Khan, founder of Women in CTRL. “This pivotal moment presents a unique opportunity for change ahead of the next musicians’ census. It’s vital that the industry makes genuine commitments and takes decisive actions to prevent the recurrence of the same data.”
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Mixing SZA, Engineering Bob Dylan, Collaborating with Rick RubinThis week, Ari is joined by grammy nominated engineer and producer Dana Nielsen, to discuss his career journey, collaborating with award winning artists, and making it as a mix engineer.

Elon Musk says all Premium subscribers on X will gain access to AI chatbot Grok this weekFollowing Elon Musk’s xAI’s move to open source its Grok large language model earlier in March, the X owner on Tuesday said that the company formerly known as Twitter will soon offer the Grok chatbot to more paying subscribers. In a post on X, Musk announced Grok will become available to Premium subscribers this week, […]
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Weverse boss Joon Choi: ‘The potential for growth in the superfan business is limitless.’MBW speaks in depth to the leader of HYBE's much talked about superfan platform
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2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: SMS Controlled HeatingHackaday.io user [mabe42] works during the week away from their home city and rents a small apartment locally to make this life practical. However, the heating system, a night-storage system, is not so practical. They needed a way to remotely control the unit so that the place was habitable after a long winter commute; lacking internet connectivity, they devised a sensible solution to create an SMS-controlled remote heating controller.
The controller runs atop an old Raspberry Pi B inside a 3D-printed case. Seeing such an old board given a real job to do is nice. Connectivity is via a USB UMTS stick which handles the SMS over the cellular network. The controller knob for the heater thermostat (not shown) is attached via a toothed belt to a pully and a 28BYJ-48 5V geared stepper motor. Temperature measurement is via the ubiquitous DS1820 module which hooks straight up to the I2C bus on the Pi with no fuss.
The software is built on top of Gammu, which handles the interface to the UMTS device. Daily and historical temperature ranges are sent via SMS so [mabe42] can decide how to configure the heating before their arrival. The rest of the software stack is in Python, as per this (German-language) GitHub project.
While we were thinking about storage heating systems (and how much of a pain they are), we came across this demonstration of how to build one yourself.

Green Day at the House of Blues, AnaheimIn mid-March, punk powerhouse Green Day was neck-deep into its four-day Saviors rehearsal at Anaheim’s 2,200-capacity House of Blues. But playing to a virtually vacant venue wasn’t a particularly telling measure of the band’s bearing and it lacked the all-important audience energy. So the trio elected to put up an actual show and at noon on Monday, March 18, a pop-up at Anaheim’s House of Blues was announced for the following day. Like a Taylor Swift show squared, the intimate jamboree sold out in minutes rather than hours.

In a case of tasty timing, Punk opener Ultra Q – fronted by Billie Joe Armstrong's youngest son Jakob – had released its second record Empty Eddy on March 13. Following the solid thirty-minute warm-up set, Green Day took the stage and launched into “American Idiot,” its de facto signature anthem. Throughout the hundred-minute, thirty-song performance, every track from the fifteen-song Saviors was played, virtually in order, save for the title track. “Saviors” was delivered second, which marked its live debut, as did several other first-time tunes, as below. Selections from American Idiot and Dookie – which this year celebrate their twentieth and thirtieth anniversaries, respectively – were likewise sprinkled in. Accordingly, bangers such as “Homecoming,” “She” and show-closer “Minority” electrified show-goers. Spotted in the audience was Green Day’s longtime master mix engineer and friend to Music Connection Chris Lord-Alge accompanied by his assistant Brian Judd.

After the post-show house lights had come up and the crowd had thinned, drummer Tré Cool doled out drumsticks from the stage, which had the feeling of an after-dinner mint. The remaining flock of fans couldn’t have been served a daintier dessert. Produced by longtime collaborator Rob Cavallo alongside the band, Saviors dropped on January 19. The world tour kicks off May 30 in Spain.

Setlist

American Idiot

Saviors

The American Dream Is Killing Me

Look Ma, No Brains!

Bobby Sox

One Eyed Bastard

Dilemma

1981

Goodnight Adeline

Coma City

Corvette Summer

Suzie Chapstick

Strange Days Are Here to Stay

Living in the ’20s

Father to a Son

Fancy Sauce

Burnout

Chump

Pulling Teeth

Coming Clean

She

F.O.D.

Give Me Novacaine

She’s a Rebel

Extraordinary Girl

Letterbomb

Homecoming

Whatsername

Encore:

All By Myself

Minority

2024 Hackaday Europe: Workshops Announced, Get Your TicketsThere are only a few weeks left until Hackaday Europe takes place in Berlin on April 13th and 14th. With only one full day of programming, we simply can’t run as many workshops as we do at Supercon, but what we do have should tickle your fancy. As if that weren’t enough, there will be at least a few other impromptu workshops and activities to distract you from the talks.
If you’re thinking of attending, get your tickets now for both the event and the workshops of your choice. There are only a few left, and workshops sell out like hotcakes.

Official Workshops

Jaap Meijers
Light modulation: Listening to Light, Seeing Sound
Ever wondered what light sounds like? In this workshop you will make the visible audible and the audible visible. By means of a small solar panel and loudspeaker you will discover the hidden frequencies that surround us. You will also experiment with sending music via visible light.

Paul Beech
Loud Bangs. Uncensored Robot Carnage.
You’ll be given a microcontroller, code examples and a bunch of wheels, mounts and other frills. With the support from a couple of tinkerers you have to build a robot to complete five simple tasks. Robots can be remote controlled or autonomous. Bonuses for autonomy. Prizes for innovation, hilarity and maybe even for completing the tasks.

Matt Venn
Tiny Tapeout
In this workshop you will get the opportunity to design and have manufactured your own design on an ASIC. You will learn the basics of how semiconductors are designed and made, the basics of digital logic, and how to use an online digital design tool to build and simulate a simple design. All participants will be able to get their design manufactured free of charge thanks to Efabless sponsorship. Physical chip and PCB are sold separately and are available to purchase during or after the workshop. Participants will need a laptop. Mouse strongly advised.

Unofficial Workshops

Kevin Santo Cappuccio
Building a Jumperless Probe and Poking Stuff
In this workshop, you’ll build your own personalized probe for a Jumperless breadboard and then use it to poke out some 7400-series logic circuits super quickly. You’ll also learn the ins-and-outs of using a Jumperless for other things. At the end, we’ll hold a race to see who can wire up a given circuit the fastest. Kevin will have Jumperless boards available for sale for those who want to take one home.

Bart Derudder
UV Tape Wall
Bart’s UV Tape walls have showed up at a number of European hacker conventions, and he’s volunteered to set one up for us! He’ll be running a short workshop to get the ball rolling for people to keep adding their own creations. No need to register, just bring your ideas!

Hackaday conferences are participatory, and we want you to bring whatever you’re interested in as well. If a Workshop isn’t your style, but you still have something to share, plan on giving a lightning talk Sunday morning! We’d love to hear what you’re up to.

Universal Music invests in ‘superfan’ platform Weverse, as it strikes new 10-year agreement with HYBEHYBE has struck an expanded long-term agreement with Universal Music Group
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Roland launch GO:KEYS portable keyboards The GO:KEYS instruments take a simple approach to production, but still boast some more advanced features that allow for more involved work as users develop their skills.