A Larry Levan street name petition, new synth announcements from Musikmesse 2014, a hi-res ecosystem for music lovers, and 2 killed after a car plows through SXSW crowd.
An end-to-end ecosystem for music lovers. Pono, conceived by Neil Young, aims to provide the best possible listening experience for digital music. Listeners get to enjoy their favourite music exactly as it was created by the artist, at the recording resolution chosen in the studio. Find out more in their promo video above, and check out the incredible start the Kickstarter project’s made.
Name a street after Larry Levan. A petition to change the name of a section of King Street in NYC to Larry Levan Way in honour of the pioneering DJ and Paradise Garage legend. Find out more and sign the petition here.
Two killed, 23 hurt after car plows through SXSW crowd. “South By Southwest festival will continue with events with some rescheduling after a suspected drunken driver killed two and injured 23 when he drove his car down a one-way street as people spilled out of concert venue just after midnight Thursday.” More information here.
Ableton interviews Glasgow’s Petrichor. The Producer-DJ aka Simon Stokes discusses his favourite tracks growing up, producing in the studio, performing on stage, and the advice he’d like to impart to aspiring musicians. Give it a read here. Petrichor will be appearing at London Electronic Music Event next month.
Stop thieves! Help identify the men in the video above, who robbed the recording studios of Ben Sims and Radioactive Man in Hackney, East London, in January. “They were driving a Vauxhall Astra, dark coloured car, possibly black. Reward for any info which leads to the arrest / recovery of equipment. Any info, email radioactiveman23@gmail.com in strict confidence.”
Waldorf announces Streichfett string synth. From Musikmesse, German instrument-makers Waldorf announce a new analogue string synthesiser with a similar form to their Rocket instrument – the Streichfett. Check it out in action in the video below.
Ask Skrillex anything. The noisy dubstep superstar does an Ask Me Anything session for his fans on Reddit, which can be found here.
Stop harassment in clubs. A London-wide campaign to end sexual harassment on nights out, backed by some of London’s most high profile venues including Ministry of Sound and Fabric launches, informing patrons of zero-tolerance approach now displayed in bars, clubs and venues across the city with staff resources provided by anti-harassment group Hollaback London. Read more here.
Ghostly’s humble beginnings. In the fourth edition of RA‘s series of films entitled ‘ORIGINS‘, Matthew Dear, co-founder of the mighty independent label Ghostly International,”takes us back to the ranch town where it all started”. Watch the film below.
Deep analogue-computer integration. Swedish company Elektron announces Overbridge implementation for their highly regarded series of analogue synths and drum machines which includes the Analog FOUR, Analog KEYS and Analog RYTM. The implementation provides “seamless DAW integration” by “merging the functionality of software plug-ins with the unmatched sound of analog hardware.” Find out more here.
Inspirational deep house samples. Following on from the success of their debut sample pack, ‘EDM Festival Kicks+Drops‘, Cr2 Records return with Deep Analogue House. Inspired by artists such as Tale of Us, Guy Gerber and Âme, the emphasis is on brooding melodies, modulating arps and deep synth flavours. The 630MB pack comes features loops, one-shots, MIDI and 25 minutes of video. More here.
Eight NI Synths – 50% off. Audio production hardware and software manufacturers Native Instruments offer, for one week only, half off on the price of eight of their top-selling synths including Massive, Monark, Razor, FM8, Reaktor Spark, Reaktor Prism, Skanner XT and Abysnth.
AMP calls for 50/50 split on streaming royalties. The recently formed alliance between the Musicians’ Union, the Music Managers’ Forum and the Featured Artists’ Coalition, is calling for streaming royalties to be split equally between the artist and the label in a submission to the EU consultation on copyright. Find out more here.
Promoting women in music technology. Wombeatz is a Leeds-based organisation dedicated to training and promoting women in music technology, whose blog documents the accomplishments of pioneering female broadcasters, DJs and artists.
Rob Papen‘s latest creation. Blue II expands on Blue’s ‘cross-fusion’ approach to synthesis, delivering FM, subtractive, phase distortion and wave shaping techniques, and combining these into one cutting-edge synthesiser.