Folding Solar Panel is UnderpoweredIf you hang out on certain kinds of sites, you can find huge-capacity USB drives and high-power yet tiny solar panels, all at shockingly low prices. Of course, the USB drives just think they are huge, and the solar panels don’t deliver the kind of power they claim. That seems to be the case with [Big Clive’s] latest folding solar panel purchase. The nice thing about the Internet is you can satisfy your urge to tear things open to see what’s inside of them vicariously instead of having to buy a lot of junk yourself. Thanks [Clive]!
The picture on the website didn’t match the actual product, which was the first sign, of course. The panel’s output in full sun was around 2.5 watts instead of the claimed 10 watts. He’s also seen sellers claim they are between 20 and 80-watt panels. But the interesting bits are when [Clive] decides to rip the panel into pieces and analyze the controller board.

The tiny circuit board uses a buck regulator chip to feed 5V to the attached USB port. There are hardly any other components: a Schottky diode, an inductor, two capacitors, an LED, and the LED’s resistor.
Maybe those little panels would work for a Game Boy. We’ve seen some simple buck regulators before, but this one may be the most minimal.

Lindell Audio announces LiNTEC Vintage Program Equalizer as take on studio classic with vintage workflow for making modern soundsBoutique recording equipment maker Lindell Audio is proud to introduce its LiNTEC Vintage Program Equalizer — enabling its take on a much-lauded studio classic with vintage workflow for making modern sounds, breaking with tradition by choosing a solid-state design over a tube-driven one — as of March 7…

By bringing a much-lauded studio classic — conceivably the most renowned studio EQ ever known — home to smaller studio setups and larger recording studios alike, anyone can now get hands-on with classic Pultec-style workflow when sculpting their tracks, thanks to Lindell Audio’s timely LiNTEC introduction. Indeed, it is billed as being a Vintage Program Equalizer, as emphasised by the on point wording boldly blazoned below the VU (Volume Unit) meter dominating its beautiful blue front panel that, in turn, emphasises Lindell Audio’s Scandinavian heritage, courtesy of subtle front panel positioning of an adapted Swedish flag motif. Attractive as it is to look at, alluding — albeit applying a ‘modern’ minimalist Scandi touch — to the time-honoured aesthetics of the Sixties-vintage, prohibitively-expensive Program Equalizer from which it draws its inspiration, it is what it sounds like — making its musical mark by bringing air and space to vocals and stringed instruments, beefing up the low-end of kick drums, or adding a touch of warmth and weight to an entire bus — that clearly counts. It is fair to say, though, that anyone running their tracks through a LiNTEC will wonder how they got by with using software EQs for so long!

LiNTEC’s lean, old-school design offers a shared (five-step switched 20, 30, 60, 100, and 150 Hz) LOW FREQ (frequency) selection control for the associated BOOST and ATTEN (attenuation), alongside independent (11-step switched 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 14, and 16 kHz) HIGH FREQ and (five-step switched 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 kHz) ATTEN selections with a shared BANDWIDTH control. As a result, users can dial in the precise amount of tone-sculpting necessary to serve their track with no risk of muddying up the midrange. Moreover, LiNTEC’s stepped pots ensure easy recall and stereo matching when used in a stereo pair, while its filters are based on classic EQP-1A filters, complimented by Lindell Audio’s own new gain structure.

Speaking of choices, Lindell Audio broke with tradition by choosing a solid-state design over a tube-driven one. On record as professing its love for tubes as much as the next manufacturer, solid-state offered myriad benefits for LiNTEC that could not be had with tubes, such as a faster transient response with a smooth, creamy, and punchy character; lower noise than tube-based EQs; better unit-to-unit matching for stereo pairing — matched by hand to within 1⁄4 dB of each other; and, obviously, no tubes to wear out and replace.

Turning to the op-amp applied to the LiNTEC design, it is the same proven OPA-171 — Lindell Audio’s take on the classic vintage Melcor 1731 op-amp — used in its 7X-500VIN ‘Vintage Edition’ 500-Series compressor and 77X-500 500-Series stereo compressor. Custom-designed transformers that are also central to making the LiNTEC Vintage Program Equalizer what it is have been created specifically for Lindell Audio.

And, yes, Lindell Audio’s LiNTEC is perfectly capable of pulling off the so-called Pultec low-end trick that has been used to fatten bass lines and kick drums on innumerable recordings; simply choose the desired LOW FREQ setting — try starting at 100 Hz, then simultaneously turn up both the associated BOOST and ATTEN controls to taste. As a historical side note, it is interesting to note here that original Pultec documentation asserted — admittedly rather bullishly, “Do not attempt to boost and attenuate simultaneously on the low frequencies.” Is it any wonder, then, that eager-to-know-why engineers did just that! The result of this simultaneous boost/cut operation is a low-end boost below the selected frequency, with a cut slightly above the selected frequency; in turn, this results in a satisfying-sounding thump and body that does not risk muddying the midrange — a not-so-secret trick of engineers and producers ever since those eager-to-know-why engineers first tried ignoring what they were told! Try doing that ‘for real’ with software EQs.

Electronics evidently has a lot to answer for, and by bringing the much-lauded studio classic home to smaller studio setups and bigger studios alike, anyone can now get hands-on with classic Pultec-style workflow when sculpting their tracks for a lot less than the price of other classic hardware EQs, thanks to Lindell Audio’s LiNTEC.

Last, but by no means least, the LiNTEC Vintage Program Equalizer is also useful for adding a touch of warmth and harmonic content to program material — even with its EQ set flat! 

As a RAD Distribution company, Lindell Audio’s LiNTEC Vintage Program Equalizer is expected to ship in late-March/early-April 2024 with an MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) of $399.00 USD — RAD Distribution is also the exclusive North American distributor

For Lindell Audio products (https://raddist.com/en/brands/lindell-audio) — and an SSP (Standalone Selling Price) of €532.00 EUR — including 19% VAT (Value Added Tax) — in the EU (European Union).

From Universal’s TikTok takedowns to Deezer’s 26m deleted tracks… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…
Source

Glow Plug Turned Metal-Capable 3D Printer HotendAt this point, most readers will be familiar with fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers, and how a plastic filament is pushed through a heater and deposited as liquid through a nozzle. Most of us also know that there are a huge variety of materials that can be FDM printed, but there’s one which perhaps evades us: you can’t load a spool of metal wire into your printer and print in metal, or at least you can’t yet. It’s something [Rotoforge] is working on, with a project to make a hot end that can melt metal. Their starting point is a ceramic diesel engine glow plug, from which they expect 1300 C (2372 F).
The video below the break deals with the process of converting the glow plug, which mostly means stripping off the metal parts which make it a glow plug, and then delicately EDM drilling a hole through its ceramic tip. The video is well worth a watch for the in-depth examination of how they evolved the means to do this.
Sadly they aren’t at the point of printing metal with this thing, but we think the current progress is impressive enough to have a good chance of working. Definitely one to watch.
Previous metal 3D printers we’ve featured have often used a MIG welder.

Thanks [theFinn] for the tip!

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
David Lopez
Main artist name:
Faygoplexine
Release date:
29th Mar, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/DavidLopez
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #experimental #RnB

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
Body cold
Main artist name:
Faygoplexine
Release date:
15th Mar, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/Bodycold
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #experimental #Psychedelic

“You can’t hide behind the screen forever!”: How Pharrell Williams and Johnny Marr inspired film legend Hans Zimmer to go on tourAn unlikely duo convinced Hans Zimmer to go on tour: Johnny Marr and Pharrell Williams.
Per Associated Press, he describes the pair as “absolutely forcing” him to head out on tour in North America. He quotes them as saying, “‘You have to look your audience in the eye, you can’t hide behind the screen forever. You owe it to your audience.’”

READ MORE: Justice: “We heard Sicko Mode by Travis Scott and said, ‘Wow, we’re still thinking about music in an ancient way’”

He calls the US “incredibly welcoming and kind and exciting for us,” adding, “Of course, the advantage America has now is that we’ve taken [the tour] across Europe a couple of times so, actually, we’re pretty good at it at the moment.”
The German composer announced a North American orchestral tour yesterday (14 March), his first for seven years and his first since he composed the scores for Dune 1 and 2. It’s set to feature Zimmer and his band with a full orchestra, with suites for movies including not only Dune but The Lion King, Interstellar, The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator, and The Last Samurai.

Zimmer says of the tour: “I’m thrilled to return to perform in North America with my wonderful band and excited to share this phenomenal show. I love this feeling of uniting my family of extraordinary musicians with you, the audience. Just an unbelievable group of talents, who in my opinion, are some of the best musicians in the world.
“But nothing would have meaning without the good grace and support of you, the other part of the family – the audience. Ultimately, the music connects us all, and I promise you this: we will always play our best, straight from the heart.”
It’ll begin on 6 September in Duluth, Georgia, and finish in Vancouver exactly a month later. He’s playing New York City’s Madison Square Garden on 12 September – his 67th birthday.
Tickets for the tour go on sale on 22 March at 10 am local time on Zimmer’s website.
The post “You can’t hide behind the screen forever!”: How Pharrell Williams and Johnny Marr inspired film legend Hans Zimmer to go on tour appeared first on MusicTech.

“Dr. Dre especially would love if there was a way to have total isolation with live drums”: Trevor Lawrence Jr. on blurring the lines between acoustic kits and drum machinesIn a new video, beatmaking legend Trevor Lawrence Jr. dives into his relationship with longtime collaborator Dr. Dre as well as the latter’s “drum machine mentality” towards acoustic kits.

READ MORE: Justice: “We heard Sicko Mode by Travis Scott and said, ‘Wow, we’re still thinking about music in an ancient way’”

Speaking with Lauten Audio about his creative history with Dre, Lawrence says: [via MusicRadar]: “I met Dre in ‘93, right when he was gonna leave Death Row. He was gonna do an all-black heavy metal band, and I auditioned for it and got it. But then everything happened and it kind of just went away.”
“A couple of years later, he was doing Saturday Night Live and he remembered me, so he called me to go and do SNL. That was like, ‘96. In ‘98 we did it again because he’d released Chronic 2000.”
“Then there was a 10-year gap of just random sessions,” Lawrence recalls. “And in 2008 I’d just done my boy Everlast’s album and I was gonna MD him and go on the road. Then Dre called me for some sessions and was like, ‘Yo, what’s your availability?’”
“I was like, ‘I’m here for a few weeks before I start travelling.’, then it was sort of like the movies, I tell this story a lot. I went in the office and they literally put the cheque down, like ‘No. What’s your schedule?’.
“So from 2008 I was there as a producer, started making records with him and was in the control room. And then I never left.”
As for their approach to sound design, Lawrence explains: “There’s a drum machine mentality [towards acoustic drums]. A lot of times, Dre especially would love if there was a way to have total isolation with live drums. There’s a lot of gating and things, because he really likes everything to be isolated.”
Watch the full interview below.

The post “Dr. Dre especially would love if there was a way to have total isolation with live drums”: Trevor Lawrence Jr. on blurring the lines between acoustic kits and drum machines appeared first on MusicTech.

“In the future you’ll go to Spotify, you’ll see The Beatles, and The Beatles AI”: Rick Beato shares his worries about AIIf there’s someone who knows his stuff, it’s Rick Beato. The YouTuber often has interesting things to say, and this time he’s talking about AI.

READ MORE: “It’s like we’ve invented fire and the first thing we’ve thought to do with it is to burn down our house”: Lex Dromgoole thinks we shouldn’t jump to the worst conclusions with AI

In November 2023, Beato testified at a Senate hearing about the technology, and almost four months later is speaking on it again, this time in an interview with News 8 WROC – and he’s got mixed views on the matter. He says, “There will be things that people like, that are created by AI, and there will be people 20 years from now, [saying], ‘Oh, I much prefer AI Rolling Stones than [the original] Rolling Stones. That’s just gonna be a thing.”
He continues, “People, companies – whether it’s Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Warner Music, UMG, Sony – are gonna have all their own AI-generated music. Those are the downsides. Who’s gonna hold the copyright on it? What are the songs that the models are gonna be trained on? I believe, in the future, you’ll go to Apple Music or Spotify, you’ll see The Beatles, and The Beatles AI; Led Zeppelin, and Led Zeppelin AI.”
That said, he does have some good things to say about AI. “One of [the benefits] is on the display in the new Beatles song they did [Now and Then], where you can use AI to separate things like [the track where] John Lennon sang and played the piano,” he says. “You can separate the voice from the piano without any artefacts, which you could never do before. You can’t hear any of the piano in his voice, and you can’t hear any of his voice in the piano. That’s a really great thing.”
In the interview, Beato also looks at the current trends in music that he’s noticed. “Country and rock have taken a turn up, and hip-hop has gone down in popularity over the last four years or so, which I thought was interesting,” he says.
”I noticed on some of the Spotify countdowns that I do, that there’s a lot more country songs [among the top 10], more rock songs, more songs with organic instruments like guitar, less autotune, less programmed beats. There’s definitely a change happening in popular music, and I don’t know if it’s a trend; we’ll see what happens. Usually, it takes a couple of years to see things through. But there are some trends that are happening, [and] that I think are really positive.”
You can watch the entire interview here:

To hear more from Rick Beato, head to his official YouTube channel.
The post “In the future you’ll go to Spotify, you’ll see The Beatles, and The Beatles AI”: Rick Beato shares his worries about AI appeared first on MusicTech.

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
Moving Hollow
Main artist name:
Faygoplexine
Release date:
26th Jan, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/MovingHollow
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #experimental #hiphop

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
Banjo
Main artist name:
KingPollo
Release date:
14th Mar, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/Banjo
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #rap #hiphop

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
Palestine anthem
Main artist name:
Faygoplexine
Release date:
14th Dec, 2023
https://publme.lnk.to/Palestineanthem
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #experimental #Psychedelic

Tracks with a Spotify Canvas video are 145% more likely to be sharedData from Spotify shows just how much adding a free 3-8 second Spotify Canvas video to a track can contribute to its success. If a song has a Canvas video,. Continue reading
The post Tracks with a Spotify Canvas video are 145% more likely to be shared appeared first on Hypebot.

Why every musician and music company NEEDS merchandisingWe dive into the importance of merchandising for musicians and music companies and how it uniquely creates new connections with fans and expands outreach as an artist and music business.. Continue reading
The post Why every musician and music company NEEDS merchandising appeared first on Hypebot.

Living Wage For Musicians Act excites many but worries othersA new bill before Congress that would increase streaming royalties excites many independent musicians, but others are worried. Here is why… by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 If you took. Continue reading
The post Living Wage For Musicians Act excites many but worries others appeared first on Hypebot.