No more Born Slippy. A new app from Jean-Michel Jarre. Fold’s license suspended. Black Spring shipping just in time for winter. Make techno in Microsoft Excel. Behringer announces 303 clone is coming soon.
No more Born Slippy. Most people agree that Born Slippy is an evergreen and institutional dance music classic. Try telling that to the neighbours of 54-year-old Clyde Taylor, who lives in Eccles, Greater Manchester who have become so outraged by his constant blasting of Underworld’s seminal piece that Taylor could now face prison. What’s wrong with the world. This man should be given a medal. More here.
Not so hidden anymore. A new record shop, Hidden Sounds, has opened in London’s Bethnal Green. Owners Alex and Franceso explain that “Hidden Sounds is not related to any particular genre or style of music, but its main focus is to offer something different and unique by exploring the potential of hidden sounds”. Check them out here.
Take note…it’s Take Note. The final names for Take Note 2019 have been announced and speakers including Jamal Edwards, the Berlin Atonal directors and Capo Lee are set to join a lineup from across the wider dance music industry. Take Note, founded by Brianca Mayhew, aims to open the door for aspiring talent looking for a career in the music industry. Taking place all day tomorrow in London’s Shoreditch you can get your tickets here.
Back to the future. This ‘strange’ throwback, Super VHS, from Baby Audio is on a mission to make your synths ever so slightly out-of-tune, grainy and Lo-Fi. And why not…as a large percentage of 80s babies tend to be ok with that. The NYC based software company, who are relative newcomers to the industry, in short, make it that much easier to sound like Ross From Friends. If Lo-Fi house is your thing, this might just help. More here.
Make vicious techno in Excel. If you’re bored of your DAW then look no further than Microsoft Office. That’s right – you can now make techno straight from Excel and who wouldn’t want to try that? Download for free the techno for Excel sheet and secretly make music while you’re meant to be working on your formulas and margins.
Fold to fold. Popular East London nightclub, Fold, has been forced to close by Newham Council. Granted a 24-hour license just last year, the establishment received serious accusations of fraud earlier this week and subsequently, their license has been suspended. The team is fighting the decision. Attack has approached Fold for comment. Read the full Instagram announcement here.
Black Spring just in time for winter. Erica Synth’s widely-anticipated Black Spring reverb is now shipping. Mentioned in our interview earlier this year with Girt Ozolins, the founder, the module has a built-in vactrol based audio compressor, can operate an external tank, or a combination of both internal and external tanks and has built-in feedback effects, such as pitch shifters, delay and a ring-modulator. Feedback amount and effect parameters can be controlled manually or via CV, making the module an experimental instrument all on its own. Available on their site for €270.
Make Your Music Make Money. Right’ Up has launched Eddy.App, a royalty management solution that is set to revolutionise independent labels and artist royalties. At a glance, Eddy.App proposes three packages ranging from €29 to €189 depending on the features provided to labels. The software allows automated importing artists’ catalogues and offers an assistant to correct sales imports errors. The tool also provides artists with statistics and online royalties reports. Moreover, it’s possible to adapt reporting according to each separate contract (monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or “upon request”). There is a lot of activity in this space as royalties become more and more democratised. See if Eddy.App is right for you here.
New venue for London. Phase, a new club and arts space in London, will open its doors in December. Based in Croydon, South London, the venue will be comprised of two club floors and a studio, will have a 4 AM license and a 500 capacity. The venue is a project of Lambeth Group, the team behind The Prince Of Wales. See the promo video here.
Bitwig Studio 3.1. Bitwig has proven time and again to be one of the most progressive DAW development teams. On the back of the hugely popular “The Grid’ released in May, the German company has now released Bitwig 3.1 which takes a similar principle to but applies it to Pitch. With the software’s unique way to work with micro-pitch information, the Note FX device Micro-pitch lets you dynamically retune notes, import existing scales and define your own. More here.
Just another Friday…deals. Sadly not Black Friday, as this particular Friday is not instantly known for anything in particular. Therefore, why not inject some life into your final day of the week as top quality plugin manufacture, Sonnox, are on sale across November. Users can save up to 50% off site-wide. Grab a bargain while you can.
And on and on and on. Legendary icon Jean-Michel Jarre has launched his latest project, EōN: a music app that produces ‘infinite, ever-evolving music’, accompanied by a constant progression of organic visuals. Composed by him specifically, the aim is to create timeless, never-repeating sounds. Priced at £8.99 it’s now available as a iOS app.
It’s not too late to make your partner a mixtape. Once the only way to share a playlist with a loved one, cassettes continue to make a healthy and welcomed return into our homes, as reported by the Guardian. For now, it’s top pop stars helping turn back the clock but there has been a rise in dance music artists using the medium to engage with their fans. Time to dust off the boom boxes?
Deep Fake? This caught our attention this past week. Emvoice One is a free to download plugin that aims to reinvent vocal synthesis. The team at Emvoice had their work cut out as the results are remarkable. They have broken down sung vocals to the granular level, recording the elements that make up individual phonemes at multiple pitches. Then thousands of samples are reconstructed by a cloud-based engine that returns the complete vocal to your system over the internet and all in real-time. What you’re left with during playback isn’t artificial – it’s a real singer’s voice. Now you can never be lost for words. Check it out here or watch the video below:
Pioneer DJ announce the XDJ-XZ. Pioneer DJ has announced a new all-in-one unit the XDJ-XZ. This latest incarnation is their flagship all-in-one, with all the features you’d expect taken from the DJM900nxs2 mixer, but including a new three-band EQ on the master channel. There are also eight performance pads per channel for sample, cue, loop trigger as well as stutter FX. The XDJ-XZ also supports a new Link Export feature, so you can link together different Pioneer DJ devices like the 2000nxs2s, XDJ-XZ and the DJS-1000 for example. Serato DJ Pro support is also coming early next year. The unit is available now and costs…wait for it….£1,899.
The 10 DJ Commandments. For many he is a god and he’s now gone some way to playing up to that image with his recent Facebook post outlining ten things to live by within dance music. It’s a fascinating insight into his mind and, whilst it’s going to be hard to get everyone to abide by the rules, (let’s be fair God’s very own ten commandments are hardly well-practiced), they do cover important aspects of where the industry has arrived at. Read the 10DJ Commandments here.
Time to Viberate. Techno don UMEK has just launched Viberate – a platform that gives musicians a place to showcase and promote their music, further their knowledge of electronic music trends and track their performance across various other platforms. You’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve heard all this before but why not throw cynicism to the wind, join the likes of Imogen Heap, Peggy Gou and…erm…Linkin Park in using the platform. Get a feel for Viberate here.
The return of Pablo Hassan. Human Traffic has long held a special place in the heart of dance music fans, in particular across the UK. From the songs to Bill Hicks to Carl Cox playing Pablo Hassan the memories live through the haze. Now is your chance to re-live it but live as Printworks has announced a very special 3-week immersive experience. Running from May 22 to June 13 next summer with names such as Paul Oakenfold booked to play at the event. More here.
No more cloning around. Here’s one we’re all been waiting for. Everyone’s favourite cloning company, Behringer, after lots of teasing, have announced that it’s true: they will be cloning the iconic TB-303 as the TD-3. You can see the full specs here and rumour is it will be priced at $149. Check it out below.