Producerino

TikTok for everyone! Sounds like it’s really about time to get better at adding those video snippets if you distribute music on Spotify since they just announced that they, after a beta test run, will roll out an updated design for the Home section in the mobile apps, allowing you to scroll through feeds via personal and curated previews of songs, podcasts and audiobooks.

Our data shows that more listeners become committed fans after previewing what they’re about to listen to, making this feature simply the latest update in our larger mission to create even deeper connections between artists and fans. 

Premium users in the US and Canada will also be seeing Spotify’s AI DJ under the Music tab – allowing the users to see audio and visual snippets and quickly preview other songs from those albums or playlists by tapping them.

Interaction-wise, users can save, download or share the content with one tap and tapping a recommendation takes you to the actual playlist, album or single.

Read more at Spotify.com

This is pretty amazing (and meta), but Porter Robinson, the Grammy nominated artist who has used Vocaloid voices in many of his exceptional tracks now actually got his OWN Yamaha Vocaloid AI bank, dubbed Po-uta (if you for some reason haven’t heard Shelter you should listen to it right away).

Listen/watch Porter Robinson’s Vocaloid bank Po-uta in action here:

Buy Vocaloid.com: Po-uta Vocaloid Bank ($108)

This is the Teenage Engineering Field Desk, the customizable desk they use themselves at the TE office to develop all those neat, minimalistic products. It’s made by double-sided formica birch plywood and rails by recycled Scandinavian aluminum. It ships flat-packed IKEA-style and is easy to assemble/disassemble and the rails used makes it easy to attach own accessories or ones they’re in the process of developing using m5 screws.

Our office is made up of people doing a variety of tasks, each with their own needs. since we love to build things, we decided to create our own modular work environment. field desk acknowledges our evolving workspaces and everything that comes with them.

Now, this might look minimalistic and all but the price tag sure isn’t. They want 15,990 Swedish krona for one of these, that’s a little more than £1200 (shipping not included). But then again, they make wonders with these desks, perhaps we could as well?

Read more at Teenage.Engineering Field Desk (£1260)

FiiO has unveiled the R7, a device they dubbed a “Desktop High Resolution Transmitter, Decoder and Headphone Amplifier All-In-One Unit”, a stylish little box that can act as an amp for either active speakers or headphones while displaying what you’re playing as well – be it local media via MicroSD or via major streaming services since it’s Android powered. Now, the FiiO R7 might be a little pricey, but I’m actually intrigued by getting a separate device for playing music (with a dedicated display) instead of just running apps on whatever other device I’m using at the moment.

Available in white or black, this device comes with a Android 10 powered display (Snapdragon 660+) to show and control your media, customizable RGB lights, 3.6W output power, exclusive DP mode and dual USB ports. Connection-wise you get a 6.35mm headphone + 4.4mm balanced headphone + four pin XLR balanced output in the front, in the rear you get support for up to 2TB MicroSD cards, 2xRCA line out, USB Host interface, optical input/output, three pin XLR balanced line out, USB-C, WiFi/Bluetooth (5.0) antenna, coaxial input/output and Ethernet for wired networks.

The FiiO R7 got the following modes by turning the knob on the front: Pure Music, USB DAC, Bluetooth receiver, Airplay receiver, Roon Ready, Coaxial/optical decoding.

The R7 can be controlled remotely using a Bluetooth remote (FiiO is planning to release a remote control in the future) or the FiiO Music app and the screen supports customizable screen savers (clocks, flying goats, what have you).

Read more at FiiO.com: R7 (£649.99)

GForce Software has released a sequel to their Minimoog Model D emulation VST instrument: The Minimonsta 2.

So what’s new under the hood?

• A new fully resizable UI (with three skins: black, light wood, dark wood)
• An improved audio engine
• A powerful new Preset Browser
• Over 300 new presets
• A new Reverb effect
• A Vintage control for adding subtle analogue imperfections
• Four programmable Macros
• Selectable 4-stage envelopes
• An alternative bass-preserving ladder filter
• PWM for OSC1 and much more

Check out the video below. The Minimonsta 2 is available for an introductory price of £49.99, otherwise priced at £99.99.

Read more at GForceSoftware.com: Minimonsta 2

Cherry Audio has released their new ”visionary flagship” synth plugin GX-80, which combines the emulation of the classic Yamaha GX-1 and Yamaha CS-80. The latter, of course, famous for being used by legends like Vangelis for the Blade Runner soundtrack, for instance.

GX-80 is not just another CS-80 emulation. GX-80 adeptly integrates the GX-1’s distinctive feature set into the CS-80 architecture; most significantly, the massive dual-layer architecture that effectively made the GX-1 the equivalent of two CS-80s and then some. The GX-1’s unique high-passed resonant pulse and bandpassed sawtooth waves, octave-up triangle wave, and filter envelope inversion are incorporated, opening up a new universe of sonic experimentation. Most notably, GX-80 includes an expert reproduction of the legendary GX-1 filter, delivering exquisite timbres that even the mighty CS-80 cannot produce.

Both the GX-1 and CS-80 cost around $50,000 back in the 70’s, this software… replicant, if you will, gonna put you back $59 at this date.

CherryAudio: GX-80 ($59)

To celebrate that Valhalla’s free Supermassive reverb and delay plugin turns 2.5 years old, they’ve released a 2.5.0 update including two new modes: scorpio and libra, making the plugin contain 18 original algorithms ranging from weird/experimental to more practical ones and.. of course, epic lushness.

These are seemingly subtle changes, but they make a HUGE sonic difference. The complex feedback path in Scorpio creates a lot of stereo width, as well as a more “open” frequency response. By incorporating the High EQ filters into the feedback paths, the Scorpio mode can create far more realistic reverb sounds, where the high frequencies decay away over time. 

[…]

The Libra mode in ValhallaSupermassive has a somewhat slower attack than Scorpio, and can sound like a delay at 4X the displayed DELAY length when WARP and DENSITY are both at zero. Turn up the WARP control, and Libra quickly transforms into a very lush reverb, with balanced modulation.

And remember, this one is a freebie, so check it out if you’re looking for a plug for massive reverbs, harmonic echoes or space sounds.

Read more at Valhalladsp.com

Download Supermassive (Valhalladsp.com, free)

Kilohearts has released a new free plugin, Dual Delay. Or as they describe it:

Dual Delay is like a regular delay that wants to be a reverb and ends up being something cool and new instead, with its double delay lines working in tandem to give you rich and complex echoing systems in seconds

As always, their plugin comes as VST/AAX/AU and can be used both stand-alone or within one of their snapin hosts (Phase Plant, Multipass and Snap Heap). Can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed using one of their earlier plugins so this’ll be an immediate download for me.

Kilohearts.com: Dual Delay ($0)

The popular tracker Renoise (and the companion sampler sequencer for other DAWs, Redux) now features native support for Apple M1 with the ability to load intel plugins via a plugin bridge and Rosetta as well as Metal based GUI rendering for MacOS. Happy times for tracking on a modern Mac!

Besides M1 Renoise now have 32 and 64 bit ARM Linux builds optimized for Raspberry Pi 3/4, which made my mind start to wander off wondering if it’d be cool to build a little tracker-specific box…

Other features with the 3.4.0 version includes WASAPI audio device support (Windows) and Ableton Link.

The tracker is free to try out (as far as I know it just limits exporting if you don’t buy a license) and I’d highly recommend anyone either having a tracker background to try it out to see where trackers are in 2022 or for the first time to have a go at something more alternative to the classic DAWs.

Read more on Renoise.com

Here’s Roland GO:MIXER PRO-X, a very portable phone and tablet-friendly mixer that works with both Android and iOS that looks pretty sweet if you’re a musician on the go, wanting to live stream from the bus or a mountain top (or just want to take your podcast interviews on the go). The mixer has 7 inputs as well as a loop-back feature if you want to play along to audio playing on your phone.

With its versatile input selection, you can plug in a guitar or bass, XLR microphone, mono/stereo instrument, and two line-level devices to mix and capture performances on the spot. […] The headphones jack even supports a second mic feed, allowing you to bring in another voice with a headset mic or smartphone earbuds.

Read more at Roland.com