A nightclub stampede in Italy kills six. Festival drugs testing has been proven to save lives. FL Studio gets an update. Arturia announces Pigments.
Stampede in Italy. A stampede in Italian nightclub Blue Lantern killed six people and injured more than 50. The stampede was brought on after “someone unleashed an irritant spray” inside the venue—located in Corinaldo, near the Adriatic coast—causing a panic. Witnesses commented on overcrowding, and authorities said organizers sold around 1,400 tickets, though the club was only able to hold about 870 people. The incident occurred around 1 A.M., less than 30 minutes before Italian rapper Sfera Ebbasta was scheduled to perform. Read more here.
Drugs testing works. A new study has found that drugs testing at festivals helps save lives. The study was the first of its kind, and showed that festival dealers were twice as likely to sell bad drugs as those selling offsite, making festival consumption more risky. But users who were allowed to test drugs on site are far more likely to turn over to the police any substances found with dangerous adulterants, as shown at Secret Garden Party in 2016, when The Loop was allowed to test there. The findings have led to calls for drugs testing services to be available at all major events. Read more here.
What’s new in FL Studio? Image-Line’s FL Studio 20.1 is here, and the popular DAW has plenty of new updates that fans are already excited about. In an official 12-minute tutorial video, Image-Line runs through the latest features, including playlist track mode, independent channel looping (new), advanced looping, mono audio export, new audio recording enhancements, the return of “show entire piano roll” sequences, and more. Watch below.
Tree-hugging loudspeaker. Teenage Engineering has teamed up with RISE research institutes of Sweden on a new loudspeaker made of an easily-recyclable material called holocellulose, a newly-researched property that contains no paint or dye, though is white in color. This means it’s easier to repurpose into “apparel, transparent film or even a moisturiser” because there aren’t additives to separate. It also doesn’t lose its colour when exposed to the elements. While the new loudspeaker was made with sustainability in mind, right now it’s only a research project, and isn’t yet for sale. Are sustainable products the gear of the future? We certainly hope so. Check out a photo here.
This will be Fyre. A new documentary on the ill-fated Fyre Festival is coming to Netflix early next year. The film will give viewers a “first-hand look into the disastrous crash of Fyre as told by the organizers themselves,” with footage detailing the lead up to “the most exclusive festival the world has ever seen,” and eventual let down—a fall so incredible it captured the world’s attention. The festival’s founder, Billy McFarland, was recently sentenced to six years in a federal penitentiary for multiple counts of fraud. And while first-hand accounts have previously been given into the Fyre disaster, this will be a detailed glimpse into exactly what went so very wrong. Watch a trailer below.
Arturia announces Pigments. The latest software synthesizer from Arturia, Pigments, combines wavetable synthesis with the brand’s “award-winning” virtual analog technology, and it has plenty of key features. Those include dozens of filters, animated waveforms for easy visual representation, the ability to “modulate anything with anything” including envelopes, LFOs, function generators, and random sources; and hundreds of factory presets from artists and sound designers like Jeremy Savage, Starcadian, Cubic Spline, Mord Fustang, and Jörg Hüttner. Try it free until January 10th, 2019. More info here.
Surround sound answers. Magnetic Mag have put together a how-to guide for Incorporating surround sound into your speaker system. Dispelling the notion that surround sound is only for film, the guide details why surround sound is “essential” for perfect sound, where to place your monitors, and discusses how surround sound recreates the live environment. Read it here.
The gift of Aphex. Just in time for the holidays, Aphex Twin has released three tracks on the Drukqs section of his online store. Drukqs is the fifth studio album from Richard D. James, and two of the tracks are unreleased versions of “Avril 14th” from that 2001 LP. The third track, which is the only tune labeled as “new,” is the 193 BPM “Mangle 11,” the “[Circuit Bent V.I.P. Mix]” version of which originally came out on a Rephlexions! compilation in 2003. Make sense? It’s as mysterious and convoluted as anything else RDJ does. Check them out here.
SoundCloud integrates with Serato. DJ’s will now have ‘immediate access’ to SoundCloud streaming the catalog directly via Serato. Users will be required to have SoundCloud GO+ premium subscription with Serato DJ Pro 2.1 or DJ Lite 1.1. It’s another important step for SoundCloud who have had their own troubles in recent years but look to be taking steps to plan for the future with these new opportunities. More here.