“I’m curious how copying a product and selling it at the exact same price is a ‘not for profit’”: Loopop slams Behringer’s “not-for-profit” claimsLoopop has fired back at music tech brand Behringer after the brand once again took aim at the product reviewer recently, claiming “‘influencers’ have decided not to support us anymore because we don’t provide free products for reviews”.

READ MORE: “We don’t pay to play”: Behringer further outlines policies on supplying free gear to reviewers

In a post to X made yesterday, Loopop questions Behringer’s ethical stance following claims made by the company in August that they’re a “not-for-profit” organisation. The post features a screenshot of Behringer’s Arturia Keystep clone, the Swing, alongside the original and set at the same price on the online gear store, Sweetwater.
It reads: “I’m curious how copying a successful, in-production product and selling it at the exact same price is a ‘not for profit’ or ‘empowering the ones who have not’, as opposed to, say, simply making a profit off someone else’s investment in product design (source: Sweetwater Oct 2)”

I’m curious how copying a successful, in-production product and selling it at the exact same price is a “not for profit” or “empowering the ones who have not”, as opposed to, say, simply making a profit off someone else’s investment in product design (source: Sweetwater Oct 2) pic.twitter.com/0sAo44qbNA
— Loopop Music (@loopopmusic) October 2, 2023

“I’m no FTC lawyer,” he responds to one X user, “but it sounds deceptive to me to tell your customers you’re a non-profit that empowers the have-nots, but then go and sell the same product at the same price “have-nots” buy from for-profit companies (and yes, a cheaper copy sucks too)”
The claim Loopop’s referring to was made in a Facebook post by Behringer in August. The post reads: “Purpose before Profit. At Behringer [sic] we pay zero dividends to shareholders and we reinvest all our earnings. This is the reason why we’re selling our products at such low prices and at times even below cost.”
In the comments, Behringer goes on to say, “If profit was out [sic] focus, we wouldn’t sell our products at such low prices. At times we’re even selling them below cost. We are a ‘not for profit’ org as all our earnings are reinvested.”
Despite all this drama, Behringer is continuing to tease and launch loads of new products. Stick around on musictech.com to discover every synth, drum machine and controller Behringer is working on.
The post “I’m curious how copying a product and selling it at the exact same price is a ‘not for profit’”: Loopop slams Behringer’s “not-for-profit” claims appeared first on MusicTech.

Michael Bibi surprises Ibiza partygoers with DJ set amid cancer treatmentDJ Michael Bibi surprised Ibiza partygoers last week with a set at the DC-10 nightclub, just days after leaving hospital amid cancer treatment.
Bibi’s set was part of the closing party for a string of Thursday night events hosted at the club by his label Solid Grooves throughout the summer. It marked his first show since June, and the first time he played onstage since revealing that he had cancer earlier this year.

READ MORE: “I know artists with more than 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify who are not getting anywhere because no one cares”: Afrojack says “hype” is key to success

Watch footage of Bibi playing an unreleased track, Sungazing, at the event below:

Michael Bibi playing his unreleased track “Sungazing” during his epic comeback tonight at DC-10. Breaks down into tears at the end. Emotional moment. All love to him
(via luca_dea_official/IG) pic.twitter.com/9XCiUpbbZl
— That’s Fyre (@ThatsFyre) September 28, 2023

Before appearing at the club last Thursday (28 September), Bibi teased fans with the possibility of an appearance, writing on X: “One life, live it.”

one life, live it.
— Michael Bibi (@MichaelBibi1) September 28, 2023

The cryptic message came just two days after he revealed he’d left hospital having completed his “main treatment”.
“When I first came into hospital I was barely able to walk,” he said. “Today I walk out with a smile having completed my main treatment. tired but happy… My fight against cancer is not over… But for now a break & some extra time to enjoy life.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MichaelBibiOFC (@michael_bibi_)

Michael Bibi’s management agency revealed to fans back in June that he was undergoing treatment for CNS lymphoma, a rare form of cancer which forms in the lymph tissue of the brain or spinal cord. It was also confirmed that Bibi would not be performing for the “foreseeable future”.
The update came while Bibi was underway with his residency at the DC-10 nightclub, and was set to perform at other events in Europe during the summer.
The post Michael Bibi surprises Ibiza partygoers with DJ set amid cancer treatment appeared first on MusicTech.

“I know artists with more than 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify who are not getting anywhere because no one cares”: Afrojack says “hype” is key to successNick van de Wall AKA Afrojack has spoken about the importance of “hype” for young producers looking to catch their big break in the music industry.

READ MORE: “Many media outlets and ‘influencers’ have decided not to support us anymore”, Behringer claims

The DJ/producer recently launched a new programme called WALL Academy, which aims to provide support and education for budding talents in the music scene.
Speaking to MusicTech, Afrojack says that oftentimes, a lack of success in an artist’s music career is not due to a lack of talent, but rather “a lack of knowledge about how the music industry works, how to network, [and] how to get your records played.”
“I know artists with more than 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify who are not getting anywhere because no one cares. At the same time, there are artists with almost no monthly listeners and they’re playing fucking everywhere – because they have hype.”
Of the ever elusive “hype”, Afrojack says that one of the major goals of his programme is to teach young music makers how to go about self-promoting as well as how to build hype systematically.
“There are so many tutorials on YouTube about how to make music, and there are so many tutorials about how to be a successful entrepreneur. Even though you’re going to need both if you want to make it in a creative industry, for some reason, no one thought to bring these two things together. So that’s a really big part of what we’re trying to teach.”
At the end of the day, Afrojack believes that “It is possible to achieve a level of success in the music industry if you abide by a certain discipline and certain rules.”
“A lot of people will say ‘it’s all luck.’ Well, sure, luck is part of it; playing the Tomorrowland mainstage as a headliner requires some luck. But a base level of success, like playing local clubs or having enough records out that people will buy tickets to see you on tour, this is completely possible to do.”
You can read the full interview with Afrojack on MusicTech.com.
The post “I know artists with more than 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify who are not getting anywhere because no one cares”: Afrojack says “hype” is key to success appeared first on MusicTech.

How to recreate Fred again..’s “Jungle” bass soundFew dance music artists this year have made an impact like Fred again.. The 30-year-old producer has gone from strength to strength, with a series of acclaimed records (including one with his mentor, Brian Eno), sell-out arena shows with Four Tet and Skrillex, and enough positivity to power a small country for a week.
Fred again.. is also creatively resourceful, as a recent TikTok video proves. In it, he shows how he made the bass sound in his track, Jungle. It turns out it was a faulty cable recorded through his iPhone. Talk about grabbing hold of that creative spirit. It makes sense though, since the sound he captured was that of mains noise, which usually has a frequency of 50Hz in the UK and Europe and 60Hz in America and Asia. That’s bass right there.
While Fred again.. doesn’t reveal his entire creative process, here’s how you can make a banging bassline starting with the same general principle of recording mains hum.
Here’s the finished bassline in the context of a speed garage track.

Record the source sound
Fred used a wonky audio cable to create his mains hum but if you don’t have a broken cable to hand, use a regular one and touch the other end with a finger. Fred ran his directly into an audio interface – if you can’t get enough gain that way, a guitar amplifier will work nicely.
Next, you’ll need a microphone to capture the audio. In the TikTok clip, Fred says that he used his iPhone and its Voice Memos app to record but any similar app will do the trick. The key is to keep it lo-fi. You can always capture it directly to your DAW from the audio interface – but then you’d lose out on the reamping qualities you get from using a microphone. As the saying goes, the best microphone is the one that’s with you.
Use a regular audio cable and touch the other end with a finger to create hums, running it directly into an audio interface or a guitar amp for more gain

Edit loop points in the sampler
After importing the raw audio into your computer, create a MIDI track in your DAW and open a sampler. TAL-Sampler from TAL Software works well but any sampler will do just fine. Record some notes into your DAW to trigger the sample. Next, go into the waveform editing section in your sampler and set your start and end points, as well as loop points. It can be helpful to audition this against a beat so you get a sense of how things sound rhythmically.

Dial in filter and other settings in the sampler
There’s a lot of creative fine-tuning to do to turn this mains hum snippet into a usable bassline. Don’t be afraid to experiment and use a lot of plugins – it’s all about the process.
First, start by lowering the cutoff in the filter section of the sampler to reduce some of those nasty highs. Next, if your sampler can emulate old hardware samplers, like TAL Sampler can, try changing the settings and increasing saturation. Whatever works for you is what’s important here.

Shape the sound with EQ
The mains hum bass is still fairly bright and is also lacking in bass weight. Use an EQ like FabFilter’s Pro-Q to gently shelve off the highs to around 500Hz and then boost a few decibels in the lower bass region of 50-200Hz. Feel free to clean up some of the ultra-low end too. It doesn’t have to be perfect yet; there’s a lot more tone-shaping to come.

Add grit with distortion
The EQ has helped focus the sound and cut out unnecessary frequencies but it’s also taken away some of the excitement. You can bring that back with distortion. A plugin like Arturia’s Filter MS-20 is just the ticket. Dial in a little drive but make sure to focus the distortion on the upper frequencies using the Low Cut knob. You can add some additional low-cut filtering to the sound as well, if you like.

Volume modulation
One of the distinct characteristics of Fred again..’s Jungle bassline is the volume modulation. It pumps in time with the rhythm, adding motion and interest. This also helps the bass get out of the way of the kick, which is programmed in a four-on-the-floor pattern. Flux Pro from Caelum Audio is ideal for quickly setting up volume modulation. Start with the Simple – Sidechain preset and then modify the volume curve to match the rhythm of your bassline. You can, of course, also use sidechain compression to create the same effect.

Two stages of compression
From here on out, it’s all a matter of sound shaping. Try adding various compressors, saturators, and whatever else works to add power to the bass sound. One example is Arturia’s Comp Diode-609 compressor into Aberrant DSP’s ShapeShifter multiband pulverizer. The compressor holds everything down while ShapeShifter uses a combination of downwards and upwards compression to add rhythmic push and pull to the bassline.

Final equalization
This bass is sounding pretty slick but, after all of the effects processing, some of the bass weight has disappeared. Using the Pultec trick will help bring that back. The original Pultec hardware EQs unusually had both boost and attenuation knobs. By paradoxically boosting and cutting the same low-frequency band, you could get a tight bass bump.
Arturia’s EQ Sitral-295 is not a Pultec emulation but it can pull off the famous bass boost. Cut eight dB at 300Hz and then boost the low shelf liberally until the bass is full and weighty.

Final touches
For the final touch, add a splash of send effects. For reverb, Valhalla Vintage Verb is primed for adding reverbs of any size. As this is a bass sound, keep the reverb short and remove the bass from the reverb tail to avoid cluttering the mix.
Chorus effects can add width and movement, and Arturia’s Delay Eternity works well in this capacity. Finally, a short delay, such as from SoundToys’ Primal Tap, can add the final touch plus some stereo width. As with the reverb, be sure to use the low cut to remove bass from the effect.

The post How to recreate Fred again..’s “Jungle” bass sound appeared first on MusicTech.

Neyrinck V-Control Pro 3.0 announced The latest version of V-Control provides PreSonus FaderPort users with enhanced Pro Tools integration.

Recent Classical Highlights for September 2023There are a few recordings among this past month's reviews showing the range of the art song genre. A notable one is tenor Piotr Beczala (pictured) singing Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky romances. Check out the recent classical and opera reviews from our writers.

Republicans still don’t know how to talk to young voters onlineIn an appeal to younger voters, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy — who proposed raising the voting age to 25 — launched his TikTok presence with an endorsement from Jake Paul, the YouTuber turned boxer who built a content empire by marketing to children.  Ramaswamy is one of the only Republican politicians making an effort […]

Investors drop class-action lawsuit against Terraform Labs and Do KwonThe dropping of the suit came amid Terra facing a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Do Kwon possibly nearing the end of his sentence in Montenegro.

Moog Music Moogerfooger Software You Pick 4 Custom Bundle Designed by Bob Moog and his engineering team in the late '90s and '00s, Moogerfooger effects pedals were direct descendants of the original Moog modular synthesizers, adapted to process,... Read More

Moog Music Moogerfooger Software You Pick 2 Custom Bundle Designed by Bob Moog and his engineering team in the late '90s and '00s, Moogerfooger effects pedals were direct descendants of the original Moog modular synthesizers, adapted to process,... Read More

Chord Switch Is A FREE MIDI Chord Generator Plugin For macOS
Noizplay has released its first plugin called Chord Switch, a free MIDI chord generator for macOS users. According to the info on the developer’s website, a Windows version is planned, but a release date has not yet been confirmed. Chord Switch is a MIDI plugin that generates chord sequences from simple note combinations. This means [...]
View post: Chord Switch Is A FREE MIDI Chord Generator Plugin For macOS

8 Tips To Prevent Your DJ Gear From Getting Stolen
When it comes down to it, traveling with your DJ gear for gigs is unavoidable when it’s your bread-and-butter, and pulling in cash for gear rentals is always nice – so protecting your setup from thieves and damage is crucial to keep your line of work running smoothly. Because let’s face it: no one wants to […]
The post 8 Tips To Prevent Your DJ Gear From Getting Stolen appeared first on DJ TechTools.

10 Tips To Prevent Your DJ Gear From Getting Stolen
When it comes down to it, traveling with your DJ gear for gigs is unavoidable when it’s your bread-and-butter, and pulling in cash for gear rentals is always nice – so protecting your setup from thieves and damage is crucial to keep your line of work running smoothly. Because let’s face it: no one wants to […]
The post 10 Tips To Prevent Your DJ Gear From Getting Stolen appeared first on DJ TechTools.

22 Ways AI Can Elevate Your Music Career

In an era where technology continues to reshape the creative landscape, the fusion of artificial intelligence and creativity is yielding transformative possibilities for musicians worldwide. From marketing, to composing, to revolutionizing production, to audience engagement, AI is emerging as an indispensable “personal assistant” for artists seeking to update their toolkit, while they upgrade their mindset. This is important because a smart conversation about AI being your enemy cannot be complete without including AI as your partner!

That said, here’s a list of 21 suggestions, that literally scratches the surface of what is possible when you mix human talent and creativity with artificial intelligence:

1. Songwriting, Composition and Arrangement:

— Unlimited AI-generated ideas for original music compositions and melodies. — Assistance in creating complex musical arrangements.— Assistance in exploring new harmonies and chord progressions.— AI-generated ideas and suggestions for rhymes, lyrics, phrases, and song titles.

2. Real-time Collaboration

— Real-time AI-powered collaboration tools for remote songwriting.— Live, AI-powered collaborative sessions with fellow musicians.— AI generated musical ideas and suggestions to inspire collaborators.

3. Instrument Recommendation:

— AI Suggestions for adding new or different instruments to your music based on your style and preferences.

4. Sheet Music Generation:

— AI transcription of music to scores, and songs to sheet music.

5. Audio Fingerprinting, and Copyright Infringement

— AI-powered tools can identify unauthorized use of your music across all platforms.

6. Royalty Tracking:— Automating royalty calculations and distribution.

7. Music Production:

— AI-automated mixing and mastering processes. — Intelligent audio enhancement.— Real-time audio processing for live performances.

8. Remixing and Mashups:

— AI-assisted remixing of existing tracks.— Creative mashup suggestions using AI analysis.

9. Music Video Creation:

— AI-assisted video editing and effects.— Automatic scene detection and synchronization.

10. Performance Improvement:

— AI Real-time performance feedback and coaching. — Virtual rehearsal accompaniment.

11. Virtual Concerts and Events:— AI-generated visual effects for live performances. — Virtual reality experiences for remote fans.

12. Audio Sampling and Remixing:

— AI-generated audio samples and loops.— Automating the process of sample clearance.

13. Adaptive Set lists:

— AI-assisted creation of dynamic set lists that suit your audience's preferences, gender, age, and energy levels.

14. Music Marketing:

— AI-generated ad copy and marketing content. — Social media post scheduling and optimization. — AI lists of venues and contacts.

15. Market Analysis:— Predicting trends and popular genres using AI analytics.— Identifying target audience preferences.— Analyzing streaming and download data to optimize marketing strategies.

16. Fan Engagement:

— AI-driven chatbots for personalized interactions with fans. — Analyzing social media data to understand fan sentiment. — Identifying fan demographics for targeted promotions.

17. Tour Planning:

— AI-compiled lists of where to play (whether it’s in town or cross country), route optimization, scheduling gigs and planning tours.

18. A&R (Artists and Repertoire):

— Identifying promising emerging artists through AI analysis.— Predicting potential hits based on trends, patterns, seasons, and timing.

19. Contacts, Companies & Services

— AI generated lists of artists, companies, venues, studios, services, etc. in any city, town, village, or country in the world.

20. Vocal Coaching:

— AI-driven vocal analysis and feedback to improve singing technique.

21. Music Education:

— AI-driven adaptive learning platforms catering to individual skill levels.Once again, this list only scratches the surface of what is possible when you mixhuman talent & creativity with artificial intelligence.

J. Michael Dolan is the founder and former CEO of Music Connection magazine. He is also a best selling author, beloved blogger, and private consultant to artists and entrepreneurs. He can be reached at: jmichaeldolan.com

5 observations on… Epic Games’ sale of Bandcamp to SongtradrHere are five observations about what the deal means for Songtradr, Bandcamp, and other players in the music industry
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