Numerical Audio MIDIRackMIDIRack is a MIDI toolkit for iPad: a control surface builder combined with an optional visual MIDI processing graph. Users build a custom touch surface from keyboards, step sequencers, knobs, faders, XY pads and buttons on a snapping grid, and send MIDI to any synth, app or hardware. It runs standalone or as an AUv3 MIDI processor in hosts such as AUM, Logic Pro, GarageBand, Cubasis, Drambo and Loopy Pro. MIDIRack is the successor to the KB-1 Expressive Keyboard Suite. Performance surface (base app) Six keyboards from KB-1, each a routable node with latch and octave shift: velocity-sensitive piano, diatonic chord pads, scale-locked keyboard, MPE Seaboard-style ribbon (per-note glide and slide), MPE Strings grid in 4ths, and a 4×4 GM drum-pad grid. A suite of tap-to-edit sequencers: drum, melody, chord, analog and CC step lanes plus a Matrix note grid — per-step velocity, probability, tie, trigger conditions and microtiming; 4 pattern banks per lane with chaining; a 4-pad scene launcher that switches every lane's pattern at once. Analog Seq: a knob-per-step sequencer with slide steps and a built-in key/scale quantizer that re-roots live from played notes. Knobs, faders, XY pads, buttons and live visualizers, bindable to raw MIDI CC or graph parameters. Built-in polyphonic synth (MPE-aware) and drum kit, so the app plays out of the box. CoreMIDI in/out plus an always-on virtual port ("MIDIRack Out"); connects to desktop DAWs over USB (IDAM) or Bluetooth MIDI with no driver or helper app. Output on all 16 MIDI channels plus a dedicated MPE connector. Graph Editor (in-app unlock) A visual canvas wiring MIDI In processors MIDI Out, with 60+ node kinds: arpeggiator, scale/key quantizer, transpose, chord, echo, ratchet, humanize, swing, euclidean rhythms, LFO, envelope, sample & hold, CC tools, and more. Generative "emergence" nodes: Conway's Game of Life, Turing machine, Wolfram rules, Markov chains, bouncing balls and a Lorenz attractor. Instrument nodes: Synth, Drums, Sampler and a loop Slicer (auto-slices a loop into 16 one-shots with a sequencer lane per slice). Every surface keyboard is its own node in the graph; surface controls bind to graph parameters and move on screen as LFOs modulate them. Factory patches by category (control surfaces, generators, keyboards, utilities), including self-playing patches such as the Amen Engine breakbeat machine. Without the unlock, factory graph patches can be opened and run; editing and saving require the purchase. Pricing One-time purchases, no subscription: base app $14.99, Graph Editor unlock $14.99. Introductory pricing of $7.99 each through August 31, 2026. Requires an iPad on iPadOS 18 or later. iPhone and Mac (Apple silicon) versions are in development. Read More

Who’s behind the new ‘stealth model’ Ox Alpha?A mysterious new AI model called Ox Alpha has driven certain corners of the internet into a frenzy of speculation.

Using the Basic SNES Hardware to Play MinecraftAfter previously putting a very basic version of Minecraft on the Game Boy Color, [Tobi] decided to have some fun and port that version also to the Super Nintendo (SNES), just to see what would happen with its more powerful hardware. Even without using an add-on chip like the Super FX 3D chip that made games like Star Fox and Doom possible with its 3D-rendered geometry, the basic SNES hardware can already provide a serviceable Minecraft experience.
You can download the SFC file here, featuring a starting world in which you can do all the usual Minecraft-ing shenanigans, like world destruction and construction. Unsurprisingly the game’s resolution is much higher than on the GBC, though the brief glimpse [Tobi] shows of Minecraft on the Game Boy Advance (GBA) with its proper 3D-rendering hardware are leaps ahead of what the basic SNES can do.
This of course raises the question of what Minecraft on the SNES could look like once you add the Super FX or similar 3D accelerator chips for the SNES into the mix. Rather than just being limited to sprite-based graphics and transformations, suddenly you can use real polygons.

Fed study finds crypto investors driven by beliefs, easily swayed by returnsA Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland study finds crypto investors hold sharply different views on returns and risk, while information about Bitcoin’s past gains can increase both desired allocations and actual crypto purchases.

Kontakt’s future is uncertain — these samplers might be your backup planNative Instruments is having a rocky 2026. After entering preliminary insolvency in January, the company was acquired by InMusic — which has since laid off swathes of its staff and reportedly shut down the UK office. Producers and sound designers are wary about the future of Kontakt, since it remains the industry leader for sample library playback. It may well be in jeopardy, making many creators and brands nervous about their software.
Do you need to switch from Kontakt?
Even if Native Instruments were closed down entirely, that doesn’t mean that Kontakt will suddenly cease functioning. But as operating systems advance, that old code will soon become obsolete. Better, then, to have a backup sampler waiting in the wings to step out and take over playback duties should Kontakt go awry.
Note, however, that nothing other than Kontakt will play Kontakt files. Still, having a solid sampler in your arsenal – especially if you’re the kind to make your own sample instruments – is always a strong backup plan.
Below are five of the best free Kontakt alternatives you can download right now.
8Dio – Soundpaint

8dio is a software company that creates instruments for Kontakt (as well as for Sequential’s discontinued Prophet X), but also offers its own sample player, Soundpaint. This sampler was designed to be better than Kontakt, with many of its Kontakt instruments also available in the Soundpaint format – plus some exclusive to the software. And the whole thing is free.
Soundpaint uses a proprietary 8Dio audio format called Real-Time Samples, which reportedly renders instruments in real time. Each instrument can have a staggering 127 discrete dynamic velocity layers with limitless polyphonic legato. The latest version, 4.5, levels up tempo syncing with your DAW, with an Ultra High-Res Tempo Sync engine and a new Pitch Stretch module.
The download equips you with a ton of free 8Dio content, which is pretty amazing on its own, but Soundpaint is also an editor, so you can make your own instruments with 127 velocities per key and velocity morphing. One instance of Soundpaint can hold eight instrument parts with advanced keyswitching and high-quality time-stretching. Take advantage of the effects suite, which boasts dozens of different analogue models of filters and distortion, plus algorithmic reverb and BBD delays. It’s pretty spectacular.
8Dio designed Soundpaint to be the Kontakt they always wanted. It may just become your new sampler of choice. It’s incredible that this is free.
Learn more at soundpaint.com
Decent Sampler

You’ve probably heard of Decent Sampler. The free sample player from sample store Decent Samples has become the go-to software for YouTubers such as Venus Theory and David Hilowitz to deliver sampled instruments. In fact, Decent Samples is run by David Hilowitz himself, so if you’re a fan of his quirky videos, you’ll also dig his quirky sampler.
Producers used to more full-featured samplers like Kontakt may find Decent Sampler a little too limited. But that’s also part of its charm. There’s no issue with the sound quality, as that’s certainly on par with anything else available, and there are plenty of excellent instruments in the store, and many of them free.
If, however, you’re interested in making your own instruments, Decent Sampler may present something of a hurdle as there’s no actual editor page. Any instrument development happens entirely in a text-based script, sort of like if the Kontakt editor was all coding, not just the GUI. David has a thorough video on how to set up Decent Sampler instruments, but for the non-nerdy this may be too much of an ask. It’s still a great way to play unusual samples though.
Learn more at decentsamples.com
Audiomodern – Soundbox

Audiomodern launched Soundbox for macOS, Windows and iOS as a Kontakt killer. The big selling point (or is that giving away point?) is that it’s free… almost (more on this later). Soundbox is also an open environment, meaning that anyone can make instruments for it. You don’t need to have a degree in computer science either, as it’s laid out more like a traditional soft synth, with customisation handled in an easy-to-understand (read: non-scripting) way.
With Soundbox, you get four identical sampler players arranged in layers. Each has its own slot for a sample along with synthesis controls like envelopes, modulations, effects (including filters), a chord engine, arpeggiator, and a vector section for crossfading between the four engines, plus a master effect. There’s also MPE, which is always welcome.
Soundbox is easy enough to work with, and making your own packs is incredibly simple. You can map samples to keys and get in and work with the audio at the wave editor level, with loops and pitch shifting also available. The GUI is slick and professional-looking, as you would expect from Audiomodern.
With four possible layers, the results tend towards the cinematic and sound designy, but there’s no reason you couldn’t whip up a pack of, say, trance arps or industrial percussion. It’s flexible enough for whatever you want to throw at it.
Now, as to that caveat alluded to earlier: Soundbox is free to download, and free to use, but you’ll have to buy a Soundbox instrument for €29 or €39 from Audiomodern to unlock the editor (note that third-party instruments won’t do it). The good news is that all of the official packs sound great, and there are free ones too if you just want to enjoy the sounds without making your own.
Learn more at audiomodern.com
CWITEC – TX16Wx Software Sampler

If the offerings so far seem too simplistic for you, then you’re going to love TX16Wx Software Sampler. Inspired by Yamaha’s 1988 TX16W hardware sampler running the aftermarket Typhoon operating system, TX16Wx is a very fully-featured software sampler that lets you create deep and complex instruments – that is, once you get your head around the operating system. Don’t worry, it’s not as cryptic as an ‘80s hardware sampler, though it does do things in its own way.
TX16Wx offers extensive sound-shaping possibilities. You get two resonant 6/12/24dB multimode filters, two LFOs, two envelopes, and three step sequencers per voice, a modulation matrix, tempo and voice synchronisation of LFO and step sequencers, and multi-mode polyphonic glide. There’s also a deep mapping editor plus a wave editor with a beat slicer, the latter great for chopping breaks for hip-hop and drum and bass. The sampler can read WAV, AIFF, Ogg, FLAC and Yamaha waves, and will load SoundFonts, SFZ, Logic EXS, and Akai formats, great if you have old sample disks lying around that you want to work with again.
And, if you find yourself getting along with the UI and want to take things further, €99 will unlock the professional version and grant you access to extra playback engines, effects, an arpeggiator, and more.
TX16Wx is fairly utilitarian in look, but it will certainly get the job done.
Learn more at tx16wx.com
Surge Synth Team – Shortcircuit XT

You may be familiar with Surge Synth Team. This group of absolute legends took over the soft synth Surge from Vember Audio and turned it into Surge XT, one of the best freeware synthesizers available. Now it’s done the same with the Vember Audio sampler Shortcircuit, and the result is Shortcircuit XT, an update that combines sampling with synthesis into a very exciting new instrument.
Shortcircuit XT is more than just a sample player, with a focus on creative sample manipulation on top of the kinds of bread-and-butter sample features that you expect. Samples are loaded into zones and played back in round robin, random or layered modes. There are 16 parts total, each with zones and groups, which send audio to a mixer channel with separate plugin outputs. Each zone has a per-voice modulation system, with a full modulation matrix with four LFOs, five envelope generators, and more. Zones can also load up to four per-voice processors, which can be oscillators, filters, or modulation effects, with different routing options available.
The sampler can load WAV, MP3, FLAC, and AIFF files as well as SF2, SFZ and multisample libraries, plus individual instruments from SoundFonts. It’s also MPE compatible and even supports micro-tuning.
Shortcircuit XT is currently in beta so it’s best to think of it as still under construction. The team is adding new features all the time, and is currently building up a factory sound bank as well. You’re free to download now, but be aware that there may be bugs.
Learn more at surge-synth-team.org
The post Kontakt’s future is uncertain — these samplers might be your backup plan appeared first on MusicTech.

Parish Audio introduce Parametric Compressor Parametric Compressor allows each of its bands to be placed freely with their own frequency and width settings, but unlike conventional multiband processors, it’s possible for bands to overlap. 

Harvard’s $699 startup bootcamp offers AI avatars of its instructorsIn the HBS Foundry program, AI avatars provide feedback during practice pitches and board meetings.

The Shutter Makes This 3D Printed Camera SpecialMaking a film camera is a project within the reach of almost anyone, from the experimenter with cardboard and sticky tape, to the machinist with an aluminium billet. But 3D printing has opened up the world of cameras to whole new set of experimenters, and we’ve seen some very impressive builds here as a result. For all that, there’s always been a particularly tricky aspect to a home made camera: the shutter. In particular, making one with variable speed has proved almost impossible. Now [Camera Things] has given it a very good shot, with a sliding 3D printed design.
To cock it, both the strips are pulled across, before the blind strip is pushed back, and the shutter operates by sliding back under the influence of a rubber band. The clever part in this case is that the blind strip can be partially pushed back to affect the size of the shutter opening. The effect is then of a variable width strip of light passing over the film, which is equivalent to varying the speed of a conventional shutter.
Due to space constraints he’s only able to make it a half frame shutter, so he’s abandoning this design in favour of a more complicated set of vertical leaves. Sadly he’s not made the files available, but we thing proficient CAD users should be able to make their own version. The video is below the break.
It’s not the first printable shutter we’ve seen, but it remains the first variable one.

MFKNE PULSEMELTPULSEMELT is not one box doing one thing. It is a VST3 delay-reverb hybrid in which four engines share a single signal path: a tempo-synced dual-tap delay, a reverb blended in behind it, a continuous morph from clean through tape saturation into bitcrush, and asynchronous pitch drift on the whole wet path. What ties them together is that the space gets out of its own way. The tail ducks under the signal that feeds the plugin, so transients stay in front while the modulated texture fills the rhythmic gaps behind them. No sidechain wiring, no bus routing, no companion plugin: put it on the track as an insert and turn MELT up. The detector runs 3 ms ahead of the audio path and reports that lookahead to the host for delay compensation, so the tail is already out of the way before the transient lands. The dry path gets no filter, no saturation and no compression, only the compensated 3 ms and a level factor, so the attack shape of every hit passes through exactly as it came in. All the character is added behind it. Four controls, no submenus, no tabs, nothing hidden: SPACE sets room size and delay feedback. The delay locks to the host tempo, 1/8 note on the left and dotted 1/8 on the right with a little cross-feed between the taps, and higher settings move the balance from separate echoes towards one continuous tail. GRIT is one continuous morph, effect signal only. Clean at zero, then tape up to 55 % (asymmetric soft saturation, head and gap loss down to 3.2 kHz, gentle squash), then bit and sample rate reduction up to the top (16-bit down to 6 bit, sample and hold up to 24 times). Between 45 and 55 % both stages run together, so tape and bitcrush blend into each other instead of switching. DRIFT adds asynchronous pitch modulation. Three LFOs per channel at unrelated rates, detuned between left and right, so the instability stays organic and never settles into an audible pattern. MELT is the macro. It scales the wet/dry ratio and the depth of the internal ducking at the same time, reaching 85 % wet and 28 dB of gain reduction at the top. The dry signal holds its full level up to 60 % and eases down by only 3 dB at full travel, so the punch of the source survives even the extreme settings. Hard-coded and deliberately not adjustable: a 150 Hz high-pass in the wet path right before the output mix, so pitch modulation and saturation cannot pile up low end where the bass and kick live. Peak-normalised drive and a makeup taper keep GRIT from moving the level, and all four parameters ramp over 50 ms, so automation stays quiet. Read More

Phil Robinson at The Laurie Beechman Theater, New York, NYContact: phil.robinson@roomfulofsky.comWeb: instagram.com/philrobinsonmusicPlayers: Phil Robinson, vocals, guitar, harmonica; Anthony Surace, electric guitar; Jason Vitelli, keyboards, vocals, sax, guitar; John Carlos Feliciano, bass; Ryan McBride, drums; Swagata Biswas, vocals; Lisa Trenary, vocals; Samantha Echo, vocals; Heather Conrad, vocals; Maxie Poe, vocals, percussion.

One way to ring in your birthday is to book a performance and invite your music colleagues and friends to share the stage. That’s just how Phil Robinson chose to celebrate his big day. Treating us to 90 minutes of his mix of pop, rock, and blues, Robinson covered the gamut with originals and covers. Kicking off the set with Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer,” followed by George Michael’s “Careless Whisper,” the show ramped up the mood and enthusiasm of both performers and audience. In “25 Miles,” one of his originals, Robinson recalls the drive home from college after an exhausting semester. The long anticipatory lead up, almost spoken, breaks into a quasi-frenzied rant conveying the urgency to reach his destination. One can’t help being all in with “Through the Middle,” with its infectious hook that repeats numerous times, making it hard to forget. 

Widely known for his harmonica playing, lending his talents to many other artists, a highpoint in the show was “Transcendental Cowboy.” The playing was smooth and polished adding further sonic dimension to the set. 

Not knowing what a typical Robinson show looks like and strictly from a staging perspective, less might be more. The crowded space and numerous female backup singers in a rainbow of colored dresses, made it hard to take in everything simultaneously. Because Robinson shares the stage with so many performers the focus on him is sometimes deflected. Moving the singers to the back or sides and featuring each when the spotlight is on them would keep Robinson front and center. But he easily grabs it back with his gift of gab and does not leave any empty moments. There’s always an anecdote to share or an endearing quip, “I’m New Jersey’s third favorite singer,” he proclaims. Or a shout out to his mom who couldn’t attend the show. 

He closed with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” always a poignant note to end on.

Overall, it was an entertaining and celebratory evening from a performer who knows how to give his audience exactly what they came for. The post Phil Robinson at The Laurie Beechman Theater, New York, NY first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Trama is a FREE offline AI stem separator for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Ohlhorst Digital’s Trama is a free standalone AI stem separator for Windows, macOS, and Linux. We recently featured StemDeck, a free and open-source local stem splitter that separates a track into up to six parts. Trama has a similar offline approach but focuses on four stems and packages everything into a convenient desktop app. All [...]
View post: Trama is a FREE offline AI stem separator for Windows, macOS, and Linux

MiCA is coming for DeFi vaults, but regulation will be difficultBrussels is reviewing whether crypto lending should fall under MiCA, but DeFi lending vaults are making it harder to determine who, exactly, should be regulated.

OpenDAW: A FREE browser-based DAW hoping to democratize music production
OpenDAW isn’t the first DAW to claim free, open-source, and browser-based status, but it might be the most ambitious. OpenDAW aims to bring professional music production tools to the masses at no cost and will not even ask for your email address. What is OpenDAW? OpenDAW is a free browser-based digital audio workstation. Developer André [...]
View post: OpenDAW: A FREE browser-based DAW hoping to democratize music production

New Music Critique of RohmeelaContact: rohmeela.sound@gmail.comWeb: SpotifySeeking: Label, Booking, AirplayStyle: Afro-Fusion, Afro-Hip

Rohmeela, born Chukwumela Ohia, blends hip-hop with afro-beat, and the results are startlingly effective. Rohmeela creates sounds that make dancing practically compulsory. “Give Me Love” and “Crazy Love” have a “slow dance in the dancehall” vibe, while “3 Minutes” is where the artist shows off his rap skills. It all makes for a heady brew, as Rohmeela combines his ability to sing and spit rhymes, while telling his authentic tales. He can switch from romantic to aggressive at the shake of a dog’s tail, which is fascinating when working your way through his Grace of God (G.O.D.) album.The post New Music Critique of Rohmeela first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Apple is reportedly cutting hundreds of jobs from Siri, Vision Pro teamsApple has admitted that some roles are being impacted as it shifts its focus away from certain initiatives.