Technology

$99 ($79 introductory price until 30th May) scalermusic.com Scaler 3 is the most advanced chord progression generator on the market, but it’s far more than just that. It’s a complete platform for creating and editing MIDI parts. READ MORE: Best free plugins: free drum machines that’ll help you make beats faster Scaler can now be used as a standalone creative app with support for your plugin instruments and effects. The newly redesigned interface is divided into three main sections. First,

Last weekend, American producer and DJ Mustard showcased his limited-edition Native Instruments Maschine MK3 and Kontrol S49 on the Coachella stage. Native Instruments created the gear exclusively for Mustard – but one other set exists, and it’s up for grabs. An exclusive giveaway could see you winning your very own NI x Mustard limited-edition gear. All you have to do is enter on Native Instruments’ website, and the ultra-rare Maschine MK3 and Kontrol S49 instruments could be yours. READ MOR

With The Guardian calling 2024 the year of the “precipitous decline of UK nightclubs”, it’s evident that the clubbing industry has been struggling. A Capital On Tap report even suggests 57% of London’s clubs will close by 2030 – but 2025 could change that. According to the report, London lost nearly 18% of its clubs and pubs between 2022 and 2025. Based on these figures alone, the UK capital is on chart for a steep decline. However, a string of new London clubs have already opened this month al

NAMM president and CEO John Mlynczak has once again urged the Trump administration to “exempt musical instruments and accessories, along with materials used to manufacture musical products” from the tariffs announced in President Trump’s recent executive orders. Earlier this month, Donald Trump rolled out a fresh wave of tariffs aimed at reducing the US trade deficit – a move that sent shockwaves across global industries, including the music products sector. Given how many American brands rely

The sequel nobody asked for – but somehow still sold tickets – has officially been postponed. That’s right, Fyre Festival 2 is off. For now, at least. Less than two months out from its proposed 30 May to 2 June run, the notorious festival’s second chapter has been shelved. The news first trickled out in emails sent to ticket holders and newsletter subscribers, before being confirmed by ABC News. READ MORE: “I need to build the room I want to play in”: Floating Points has created his very own

V-Stage 88: £3,459/$3,999/€3,999 V-Stage 76: £3,027/$3,499/€3,499 roland.com Ask any serious live player what they want from a keyboard and they’ll likely describe a combination of sound, feel and performance controls you can access fast. Roland’s new V-Stage models are aimed at people who prize all three and are willing to pay for an instrument that crams a studio’s worth of keyboard instruments into a single unit and then puts the myriad different controls for those instruments at your fin

We’d all love to be vinyl aficionados and Walkman fanatics but, for better or for worse, the most popular way people consume music is on streaming platforms. But which ones are the best? The leading streaming platform in 2024, with over 350 million users and 150 million subscribers and counting, is Spotify. And while Spotify does, of course, have brilliant features — a vast, evolving library of music and podcasts, accurate music suggestion tools, Spotify Wrapped and even an AI DJ — its average

When it comes to choosing your beat-making hardware, is it best to pick something tried and tested like the Roland TR-808 or 909, or opt for something a little more obscure in pursuit of new drum sounds? British DJ, producer and podcast host Will Clarke thinks it’s wiser to choose the latter, as he explains in the first episode of MusicTech’s My Forever Studio Season 7. READ MORE: 19,000 sq ft music education campus opens in Shoreditch, with 13 studios, Dolby Atmos mixing facilities and a ded

In recent years, cuts to arts funding have taken their toll on music education, but it’s not all bad news. London’s pointblank Music School has just opened a new 19,000 square-foot Shoreditch campus, hosting 13 studios catering to DJing, production and engineering. Studios include two immersive Dolby Atmos facilities fitted with Solid State Logic Duality Delta and Origin consoles, Adam Audio S Series monitors, and Avid Pro Tools HD, offering students the “most advanced spatial audio experience

As a producer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and co-founder of Brooklyn’s revered Razor-N-Tape label, JKriv has helped shape the sound of underground house and disco for over two decades. A trained jazz musician addicted to crate-digging and a deep admiration for texture, the artist is constantly chasing and creating sounds for dancefloors full of fellow groove obsessives — and can count Disclosure and Gilles Peterson among his fans. But his latest project, Intuition, hits a little deeper. Complet

Ad feature with Splice Tobi Lou has me hanging onto his every word during our interview. It’s 10 am in Los Angeles, where the vocalist and producer lives, and he’s passionate but calm as he reveals the universe’s deepest artistic secrets as vivid metaphors, casually sipping coffee between bursts of wisdom. The Lagos-born, Chicago-raised artist, athlete and anime lover has been producing music in his bedroom for over two decades. Sure, he’s found himself working in lavish studios with revered l

After a century as the life and soul of the party, the inventor of karaoke, Shigeichi Negishi, has died at the age of 100. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal‘s Matt Alt, Negishi’s daughter, Atsumi Takano, reveals that her father suffered a fall on 26 January. He died of natural causes shortly after. Negishi invented the first-ever karaoke machine in 1967. According to the Wall Street Journal, his original invention started as somewhat of a joke; Negishi loved to sing, so when a colleague joke

Black Salt Audio's simple de-esser promises to offer enough power to tackle sibilance without negatively affecting the overall frequency balance of the vocal. View the full article

I know what you were thinking when you read the title. “I have plenty of EQ plugins already. Why do I need another one?” I think all of us feel the same way, but if a plugin does something faster (especially) or better than what you have already, then it’s worth checking out. And that’s […] The post New Music Gear Monday: United Plugins FireEQ Plugin appeared first on Bobby Owsinski's Music Production Blog. View the full article

March is a month of growth and transformation. If you’re looking to refresh your sound and perhaps transform your production setup, our pick of March’s best freeware could spice things up. READ MORE: All the best free loops, music sample packs, breaks, one-shots and synth sounds This month’s roundup includes a fiery ‘bass enhancer’, a channel strip, an analogue colouration plugin, a cool-looking instrument called Sur, and a compression plugin created by Phil Speiser. We’ve picked these plugi

The latest ALM/Busy Circuits module delivers a pair of oscillators that aim to bring the sound of Casio’s CZ-series synthesizers into the modular world. View the full article

The library features 400 expressive MPE presets for Kilohearts' Phase Plant plugin.… Read More Phase Plant Expressive Suite Features 400 MPE Presets For Osmose & Other MPE ControllersView the full article

While the arrangement gives a nod to Tangerine Dream's Steve Reich-inspired soundtrack for the film Risky Business, listeners may also hear echoes of the '70s Philip Glass piece, North Star.… Read More Live Synth Jam, ‘Cloud9’, Inspired By ’80s Tangerine DreamView the full article

This was the home of the company during its modern creative peak, where it introduced instruments like the Mother-32, Subharmonicon, DFAM, Grandmother, Matriarch, Animoog, the Claravox Centennial Theremin, their modular reissues and more.… Read More Moog Music Moving Out Of Its Iconic Asheville BuildingView the full article

FAC Punchlab is an all-in-one processing solution that comes loaded with nine modules and boasts a user-friendly GUI with comprehensive metering and feedback. View the full article

The new synth builds on PM’s Taiga synth module, adding full-sized keys, additional modulation, a unique modular expansion bay, and more.… Read More Pittsburgh Modular TAIGA Keyboard ReviewView the full article

ALM/Busy Circuits has introduced the CIZZLE, a dual digital 'phase distortion' VCO, inspired by classic Casio CZ series synthesizers.… Read More New CIZZLE VCO Brings Classic Casio CZ Sound To EurorackView the full article

AlphaTheta and Rupert Neve Designs both seem certain that the Euphonia rotary mixer is the nicest-sounding DJ mixer on the market right now. It does sound incredible — you’d hope as much for $3,800 — thanks to a combination of analogue and digital circuitry, custom-made transformers from Rupert Neve Designs and high-end components by AlphaTheta. The Euphonia’s striking design is immediately inviting, flaunts some seriously intriguing features and is the brand’s move into a “new generation” of r

An 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

In 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-b