News Round-Up: 3/6/16

Help fund a Kickstarter for an ultra-convenient power cable, Kraftwerk lose hip-hop copyright case, and Björk speaks out about music industry sexism.

Help fund Ripcord, the “plug ‘n play anywhere USB power cable” for using instruments and effects on the go. Ripcord is one of the cleverest crowd funding projects we’ve seen in a while. A universal power supply for synths, drum machines and a lot more, the Ripcord draws power from any USB port or charger, and delivers voltage via tip adaptors that fit most common power sockets. It’s durable, neat and compatible with devices such as the Korg Volcas, Ableton Push 2 and most small synths and effects. With two days to go, the project is close to reaching its funding target. Help push it into production here.

The Global Synthesiser Project. Sound-art designer Yuri Suzuki and Moog Music have teamed up to create an interactive installation where users synthesise new sonic environments using environmental sounds collected by Suzuki. The Global Synthesizer Project is asking sound collectors from around the world to contribute local sounds. Watch above, and find out more here.

Kraftwerk Loses Hip-hop Copyright Case. A high court in Germany has ruled in favour of hip-hop artist Moses Pelham, who was sued by Kraftwerk‘s Ralf Hutter, alleging that Pelham’s use of a two-second sample, taken from the 1977 song ‘Metal On Metal’, infringed intellectual property rights. The court decided that the impact on Kraftwerk did not outweigh “artistic freedom”. Find out more here.

Ecstacy Makes a Comeback. The 2016 European Drug Report reveals that ecstasy is returning to mainstream popularity as the party drug of choice for both established drug users and a new generation, in the UK and across Europe, due to “creative and aggressive marketing”. Powders and tablets are now likely to contain much higher doses than in previous years. Read more here.

Focusrite Launches 2nd-Gen Scarlett Interfaces. Focusrite has announced the second generation of their popular Scarlett USB audio interfaces, which feature many improvements including new metal gain controls, new pre-amps, sample rates up to 192 kHz, and ultra-fast round-trip latency measurements as low as 2.74 ms. More information here.

How Air Made Moon Safari. The latest piece in the Guardian‘s weekly series How We Made speaks to Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin of French electronic pop act Air about their seminal album Moon Safari. Read that here.

A Virtual Berghain Doorman Simulator. Train to get into Berlin’s world famous Berghain using a virtual reality simulator, which uses facial recognition software to analyse your body language. Seen through the eyes of a punter walking through the club’s queue and coming face-to-face with the doorman, he asks three questions to decide whether or not you’re let in. Check it out here.

Björk Speaks Out About Film and Music Industry Sexism. “I’ve been really lucky. But I have been hitting walls. What’s really macho, for example, is music journalism. It’s really like a boys’ club. They like music that is… well, a lot of it is for boys.” Icelandic experimental pop icon Björk speaks out about the perception and treatment of women who work in the film and music industries. Read more here.