Zero-G introduce Elements Silentium Elements Silentium comes packed with an array of source sounds and provides users with the tools to transform them into “complete sonic and musical worlds”.

That Worship Sound offers Mammoth Bass Moog one-shots FREE until October 31
That Worship Sound is offering Mammoth Bass – Moog Subsequent 37 One Shots, a collection of analog synth bass samples, for free until October 31. The pack normally costs $15. With so many new plugins appearing daily, I think it’s actually becoming more interesting to cover things that involve some real human interaction with gear. [...]
View post: That Worship Sound offers Mammoth Bass Moog one-shots FREE until October 31

NoiseWorks releases PloseAssist, a FREE plugin for removing vocal plosives
NoiseWorks has released PloseAssist, a free plugin that automatically reduces the low-frequency pops caused by hard P and B sounds in vocal recordings. Back when I was learning to record vocals for the first time, the standard bedroom studio trick was to put a thin sock or similar material in front of the mic as [...]
View post: NoiseWorks releases PloseAssist, a FREE plugin for removing vocal plosives

Audient smashes its way into the high-end interface market with HorizonHorizon 8P: £2,199 / €2,499 / $3,499
Horizon 16: £2,199 / €2,499 / $3,499
Horizon 32: £2,799 / €3,299 / $4,299
audient.com
The Audient ASP8024 large format console came a bit late to the large format console party, arriving in 1998 just as computers were starting to become a viable alternative to a room full of expensive equipment (aka an analogue studio). Nevertheless, the ASP8024 is regarded as one of the pinnacles of all-analogue console design, and remains in production to this day, yet the company’s tentative first step towards introducing its audio interface expertise into these loftier realms came only recently in the form of the ORIA Immersive Audio Interface and Monitor Controller. With Horizon, though, Audient is going all-in with a statement of intent aimed squarely at the likes of Universal Audio, Antelope and RME.

READ MORE: Audient’s ORIA is the Atmos interface that engineers have been waiting for

Can Horizon cut it alongside such well established competitors? I grab a couple of units to find out.
Image: Press
I/O a-gogo
There are three models in the Horizon range, all of which connect to the host via Thunderbolt and are Mac only. Windows support isn’t officially on the horizon for Horizon (see what I did there?), but the brand is keeping a close eye on things and continually re-evaluating this position (so if you’re a Windows user who wants Horizon, let Audient know!).
The Horizon 8P is likely to be the most popular of the bunch thanks to a versatile I/O load-out geared towards higher-end home and project studios. The eight mic/line inputs, served from jack/XLR combo sockets, feed a set of preamps taken from the ASP8024 console (and what preamps… I’ll come back to them in a moment), while a 25-pin D-SUB connector provides a means of bypassing the preamps and feeding line signals directly to the Horizon analogue-to-digital (AD) converters.
A second D-SUB handles eight of the unit’s 12 line outputs, the remaining four being TRS jacks – I use these as monitor outputs. Analogue ins and outs can be bolstered with up-to 16 channels of ADAT I/O – connected to a pair of ASP880 preamps or similar, this would give you 24 console-grade mic/line inputs via a single interface.
Horizon 16 and 32 are aimed more towards larger studios, facilities and venues. Both ditch the preamps altogether, with the Horizon 16 delivering 18 channels of pure line input and output plus, again, up-to a further 16 channels of ADAT I/O, and Horizon 32 taking things up to 34 channels of analogue I/O alongside (you guessed it) up-to 16 channels of ADAT. With a suitable ADAT bridge and/or preamp, that’s 50 channels from a single interface, perfect for handling large amounts of outboard synths and effects, sitting between a console and DAW, driving surround and immersive monitoring systems, or even as the front end for a venue sound system.
If you’re unimpressed by 50 I/O channels then get this: up-to four Horizon interfaces can be combined in a single system, for an absolute maximum of 200 inputs and outputs. That’s more-than ample for even the highest-specced facilities and most demanding of applications.
Like the 8P, the 16 and 32 units also make use of 25-pin D-SUB connectors, with only two ins and two outs served via standard jacks. Breakout cables for all of these could be a bit pricey, but I think it more likely one would connect Horizon’s D-SUBs directly to a D-SUB equipped patchbay (and likely a high-density bantam patchbay at that). Assuming you already have such patchbays, the cost of a few D-SUB cables is negligible… unlike the ludicrous cost of a bantam patchbay!
All three Horizon models come as 1U rackmount units finished in silky black and sporting a bright, high resolution colour screen and accompanying data entry wheel. The 16 and 32 have no further adornments, but the 8P’s fascia provides buttons for controlling the preamps and monitoring directly from the unit, a pair of instrument input jacks feeding the first two preamp channels, and a pair of headphone outputs.
Image: Press
How good are Horizon 8P’s ASP8024 preamps?
This all looks very pleasing when installed in a rack, but the more important question is how does Horizon sound? In a word: phenomenal! Preamps deliver exquisite clarity and definition, offering up to 75 dB of gain and featuring phantom power, a -10 dB pad, a hugely useful variable high-pass filter with a 20 Hz to 250 Hz cutoff range, and Audient’s ORBIT input impedance switching, all of which is applied in the analogue domain.
ORBIT provides three settings, Low, Mid and High, which set the preamp’s input impedance to 220, 1200 and 2800 Ohms, respectively. This is a useful way to control the tone and response of the input signal, which is the intention of the system, but a three-option switch feels a bit on the blunt side. In most circumstances you’re likely to have ORBIT set to High (the default), which delivers optimised performance with 99.9% of professional mics, yet ORBIT unquestionably expands the preamps’ tonal options so I like that it’s here.
8P’s use of combination jack/XLR sockets for the preamps is frustrating, especially when installing the unit in a rack where tricky access makes connectors difficult to change when needed. The D-SUB line inputs provide something of a workaround, and are ultra clean given they feed directly to Horizon’s analogue-to-digital converters, but this also means your line signals miss out on the opportunity to be sweetened or gain-boosted via the preamps (the latter being more important when hooking up to older hardware).
Image: Press
Audient Horizon’s quality and control
Impressive though the ASP8024 preamps are, I’m dazzled by Horizon’s audio output quality (and here we’re talking about all three models). The sonic precision is breathtaking, delivering a tonal balance and dynamic response that’s pure perfection, and pinpoint positional accuracy that’s a joy to work with.
Also, with so many outputs on-hand, Horizon can support practically any speaker configuration you like, from stereo through to 9.1.6 surround, and can effortlessly jump between them as needed. Conveniently, you can share speakers between different monitor configurations, for example allowing your stereo monitors to also act as front left and right in a surround array.
All of this is configured within the Horizon Control software. If you’ve ever used an iD interface you’ll feel right at home here, the software having a similar clean and intuitive look and feel. From here you can control the preamps, set channel levels for the main monitor mix and any of the four auxiliary/cue mixes, control and configure your monitors, and configure all the deeper details of a Horizon setup.
As well as Horizon Control, Horizon customers can also claim Audient’s ARC software bundle that includes a two-month trial of Sonarworks speaker calibration software, Cubase LE, 2GB of Loopcloud downloads, three months’ membership of Roland Cloud, and a whole bunch of plugin effects, amp modellers and instruments.
Horizon Control mixer. Image: Press
Should I consider buying an Audient Horizon interface?
Horizon clearly has the creds to shoulder its way into the higher echelons of the audio interface market. It delivers the pristine audio quality required by the most critical of applications, and can be expanded to the extremely high channel counts demanded by high-end facilities and venues.
Pleasingly, none of this puts Horizon out of the reach of regular users. In fact, Horizon 8P is significantly more affordable than equivalent UA Apollo hardware. And what Horizon lacks in onboard effects processing it makes up for with its gorgeous-sounding, all-analogue preamps and stunning sound quality.
So, if you’re in the market for a high-end, high-spec audio interface, Audient has just made your decision a lot harder. Or perhaps it’s just made it much easier.
Image: Press
Key Features
All models:

Thunderbolt 3 audio interfaces
Colour screen
Up to 16 channels of digital I/O via two pairs of optical ports
Digital I/O ports support ADAT S/MUX
Up to 192 kHz / 32-bit quality
Combine any four Horizon units in one system
Wordclock in and out

Horizon 8P:

8 combo mic/line inputs driving ASP8024 preamps
High-pass filter (80 – 250 Hz)
Variable mic impedance
2 instrument level jack inputs
8 line inputs via D-SUB direct to ADC
8 line outputs via D-SUB
4 TRS line outputs
132 dB dynamic range
2 headphone sockets (6.35mm)

Horizon 16:

16 line inputs via D-SUB direct to ADC
2 TRS line inputs
16 line outputs via D-SUB
2 TRS line outputs
133 dB dynamic range

Horizon 32:

32 line inputs via D-SUB direct to ADC
2 TRS line inputs
32 line outputs via D-SUB
2 TRS line outputs
133 dB dynamic range

The post Audient smashes its way into the high-end interface market with Horizon appeared first on MusicTech.

How Lou Reed Turned "Walk on the Wild Side" Into an Unlikely Pop HitHow did Lou Reed turn "Walk on the Wild Side" into a pop hit? Explore the song's underground roots, unforgettable bassline, and the real people behind its lyrics.

Amazon devices chief Panos Panay on the importance of failure and bouncing back from it Panay said that it's possible to recover and learn from all sorts of failures, even catastrophic ones, when building products.

ORBITAL REVISITS A HISTORIC MOMENT WITH OFFICIAL GLASTONBURY 1994 RELEASEElectronic pioneers Orbital recall one of the most influential performances in dance music history with the first official release of their legendary Glastonbury1994 set.

Restored and remastered from the original tapes, the collection captures the moment the duo helped bring electronic music from underground clubs to the festival main stage, forever changing the perception of live dance performances.

Photo credit: Steve Double

The post ORBITAL REVISITS A HISTORIC MOMENT WITH OFFICIAL GLASTONBURY 1994 RELEASE first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Mozzaik Audio Mozzaik MonitorMozzaik Monitor adds noise of a very low level to the signal that goes to the DA converter. Delta-sigma converters can produce idle tones and limit cycles when the signal is very quiet or constant. A small amount of noise at the input breaks these patterns up. How much it helps depends on the converter. The signal itself is not changed: the plugin only adds the noise. Mozzaik Monitor goes last on the monitoring path. For export it is turned Off, or left On in front of the dither if you think that the noise will help the converter of the listener. The noise can help an AD converter in the same way: send the output of Mozzaik Monitor through a DA converter and mix it with the signal in the analog domain, before the conversion. Features: - Off/On with a fade of 10 ms, without a click. In the Off position the signal passes unchanged. - Amount from -100 dB to -40 dB, -80 dB by default. - Shaping between 0 and 20 kHz: Flat (white noise), Medium (rises 6 dB per octave) or High (rises 12 dB per octave), so most of the noise is at the top of the band, where hearing is less sensitive. - Gaussian noise, not correlated between the channels. - Sample rates from 44.1 to 384 kHz, with the same level of the noise between 0 and 20 kHz at every sample rate. - From 88.2 kHz up the noise falls above 20 kHz with 12 dB per octave, so it does not fill the ultrasonic range. - Low processor load. Read More

Binance.US seeks $1B valuation in potential $100M funding round: ReportThe crypto exchange was reportedly looking to use the additional funding to regain market share following Binance’s 2023 settlement with US authorities.

Linux Kernel Drops AI Tag Requirement, Uses Meta AI For Code ReviewsSince we last covered the way that the Linux Kernel project has been dealing with the influx of code created using LLM-based coding assistants, all the way back in April, things have changed a lot, with most recently the Linux maintainers deciding to fully drop the requirement to mark LLM-assisted commits with the Assisted-by tag.
While not a fully uncontroversial decision – as also reported by Phoronix – with key maintainers already having made this decision it seems certain to proceed. This is not the only change made fairly recently, with a ‘Sashiko’ bot introduced that is supposed to handle code reviews.
In a July LKML post [Linus Torvalds] defends this decision, with a follow-up post in August by [Jakub Kicinski] it being stated that budget has been secured for using Meta’s LLMs, using said LLM-based resources for reviewing patches, as well as creating and editing commit messages. As noted by [Jakub] they’re running multiple frontier models on each patch to try and weed out confabulations.
Whether this will prove to be the right decision remains to be seen. Whereas most open source projects have firmly banished or heavily curtailed LLM-based contributions on slop, copyright as well as licensing grounds, the Linux Kernel project may be an interesting experiment in what the outcome of the exact opposite approach will be.

What is the pentatonic scale? Definition, types, and examples
Explore the pentatonic scale and learn how artists spanning genres have used it to create some timeless melodies.

Warner Chappell Music signs My Chemical Romance to exclusive worldwide publishing dealWarner Chappell will oversee the catalog's global rights administration, copyright protection, and sync licensing across film, television, and video games.
Source

RYK Modular reveal the Side FX RYK Modular's latest Eurorack module houses a set of four effects blocks that can be combined in series or parallel, and can be controlled both by external sources and a collection of built-in modulation tools.

Push and Groove releases MICRONIX, a FREE Plaits-based synth plugin
Push and Groove has released MICRONIX, a free monophonic synth plugin built around the open-source DSP code from Mutable Instruments Plaits. Plaits packs many synthesis methods into one Eurorack module, and MICRONIX brings all 24 of its models into a DAW instrument. That means we get virtual analog, FM, wavetable, granular, physical modeling, and percussion [...]
View post: Push and Groove releases MICRONIX, a FREE Plaits-based synth plugin

If you don’t ask, you don’t get – how one email led to a rookie Caesar Edmunds producing Led ZeppelinGrowing up, Caesar Edmunds was always told he had “no chance” of working in music. However, the Singapore-born producer didn’t let that stop him – instead, he applied for a Sound Technology course in the UK with no prior experience and chased his dream. At every turn, Edmunds’ unwavering self-belief has opened doors – and it even bagged him work experience with the legendary Alan Moulder.
In the latest episode of MusicTech’s My Forever Studio, producer Caesar Edmunds shared some sage advice: if you don’t ask, you don’t get. As a case in point, Edmunds shares the story of how he first crossed paths with record producer Alan Moulder; he essentially harassed his peers til he got Moulder’s email. “A few of my friends had had did work experience with [him] and then I hounded them,” he admits. “One of them broke and gave me his email.”

READ MORE: My Forever Studio: Caesar Edmunds already has a Forever Studio

Edmunds’ grand idea was essentially to send a cold email begging to assist Moulder in the studio. “I just emailed saying ‘Hey, Alan, big hero of mine… Can I come round and do work experience, please?’” he recalls. Surprisingly, Moulder agreed to let Edmunds join him in the studio.
Immediately, Edmunds was dropped into the deep end. On the first day, Edmunds was mixing Foals’ Inhaler, and, by the end of the week, he was working on music made my rock legends Led Zeppelin. “At the end of that week, Alan asked me, ‘hey, do you wanna, do you wanna stick around [for another project]?’” he says. “[The terms were that I couldn’t] tell anyone or [my] parents anything… Then when he pressed play [on the track], and it was Good Times Bad Times by Led Zeppelin.”

“It was mind blowing,” he continues. “I’m a kid from Singapore, so far removed from the music Industry, and the second week I’m working, I’m helping my sonic hero work on one of the biggest bands of all time!”
While the initial work experience period was just a month, Moulder took a shining to Edmunds. He ended up asking Edmunds to come back after finishing his university degree, and the rest is history. And it all started from a naive, hopeful email.
Now, Edmunds is firmly set up in London and has a strong back catalogue of production work to his name. He also notes that his dream Forever Studio is the one he’s made for himself in Battery Studios.
Of course, the Battery Studios complex is currently facing demolition threats. At once point, there were numerous Battery Studios artist complexes in Chicago, Nashville, New York and London, but now only New York and London remains. As Edmunds notes, plenty of history is contained within Battery Studios’ walls, with the likes of Brian Adams, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC all working there in the past.
“I’ve heard stories that like Robbie Williams’ Angels was mixed in my room,” Edmunds says. “It was made on my SSL 4000G.”
Right now, landlords are reportedly “putting a planning permission to try to turn it into flats”, the producer explains. Ultimately, the decision would be another damning loss for the music industry. “While London might need more flats, we also need more recording studios!” Edmunds sighs.
Caesar Edmunds is the latest guest on Season 8 of MusicTech’s My Forever Studio podcast, where we task some of the top producers and songwriters to put together their dream Forever Studio using whatever gear they desire.
While it’s an environment for freedom, there are some strict rules in the Forever Studio. Guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they have to choose carefully. There will be nostalgia. There will be anecdotes. There may be gags. But there will be no bundles!
You can sign a petition to save Battery Studios at Change. Subscribe to My Forever Studio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and check out all episodes so far via MusicTech.

The post If you don’t ask, you don’t get – how one email led to a rookie Caesar Edmunds producing Led Zeppelin appeared first on MusicTech.