Music Production
Music Tech Startup Songfinch Raises $17 Million to “Create a Middle Class of Musicians”
Music tech startup Songfinch has secured $17 million, closing a Series A funding round that amplifies its efforts to create a “middle class of musicians,” Built In Chicago reports. Songfinch is one of a handful of music startups aiming to change how independent musicians are compensated for their work. “The industry tends to be a star-driven league and the top two percent get a chance to participate and eat most of the dollars in the industry while the other 98 percent struggle and fight for scraps,” John Williamson, CEO of Songfinch told Built In Chicago. The goal of Songfinch’s online marketplace is to provide artists with a hub where consumers can commission them to create custom songs. The platform allows users to choose a style, mood and other custom elements f...
Aphex Twin Launches Free “Sample Mashing” App, an Idea Decades In the Making
Aphex Twin‘s secret sauce is certainly difficult to decode, but the fabled electronic music producer is shedding a light on his creative process with the development of a new creative production app, Samplebrain. The free, open source software effectively turns any given sample into a neural network of possibilities. Aphex Twin teamed up with Dave Griffiths on the app’s engineering. A statement by Aphex Twin via Warp Records outlays Samplebrain’s possibilities. “What if you could reconstruct source audio from a selection of other mp3’s / audio on your computer?” he said. “What if you could build a 303 riff from only acapellas or bubbling mud sounds? What if you could sing a silly tune and rebuild it from classical music files? You ca...
StemsDAO Teams Up With Elohim for Innovative NFT Remix Contest
In a boundary-pushing proposition, Elohim has teamed up with StemsDAO to offer her fans and a global community of music producers the chance to officially remix her music. StemsDAO is fostering a strong community, fueled by conversations around music production and the world of Web3. The platform has set out to help musicians bypass the bottlenecks of copyright issues that often happen when remixing the music of major artists, while driving community-led ownership over these newly created works. Following collaborations with the likes of Poolside, Harris Cole, White Cliffs, Sound of Fractures and more, StemsDAO has now teamed up with the celebrated singer, songwriter and producer to offer artists the chance to reimagine the stems of her acclaimed 2019 EP, BRAINDEAD as N...
3LAU and Steve Aoki Invest In Groundbreaking Blockchain Music Production Company
The future of music production could very well live on the blockchain. One Web3 startup with promising potential has developed the first on-chain digital audio workstation (DAW), and in doing so, has attracted the attention of a number of major electronic dance music artists. Arpeggi Labs’ use case differs fundamentally from the vast majority of successful developments at the intersection of music tech and blockchain technologies, which may prove to be a key competitive edge. While many new platforms in the space are leading with a focus on facilitating the tokenized ownership of music, Arpeggi is focusing on revolutionizing the way the music itself is made and published. The platform accomplishes this while maintaining a proprietary crediting system that ensures samples ...
This Photography Series Transforms the Interiors of Instruments Into Stunning Architecture
A grand piano transformed into a cavernous grand hall; a clarinet reimagined as a majestically bottomless tunnel—with individual names like “The Cello Once Hit By a Train” and “The Exquisite Architecture of Steinway,” a new series of photographs by Charles Brooks turns the oft-overlooked interiors of instruments into majestic works of art. And it’s not just classic instruments that the New Zealand photographer highlights in “Architecture in Music.” Others include an Australian didgeridoo hollowed out by termites, a 1780-era cello (which, yes, was once hit by a train) and a wooden flute crafted out of local New Zealand timber. Charles Brooks. Charles Brooks/Facebook To create each image, Brooks uses specialized lenses to capture hundreds of photogra...
Designers Craft Braille-Based Instrument for Visually Impaired Musicians
A trio of Korean designers have crafted an innovative new instrument that’s likely to appeal to a new generation of visually impaired musicians. The Vitar, short for “visual guitar,” was developed by Eojin Roh, Seonjin Baek, and Yujeong Shin. While few instruments exist today that are specifically catered to the visually impaired, the Vitar is servicing a populace of musicians who respond especially well to auditory stimulation. The Vitar, a new musical instrument for visually impaired artists. Eojin Roh, Seonjin Baek, Yujeong Shin As neurological studies have concluded, the auditory cortex of musicians with impaired sightedness often becomes enhanced, leading individuals to be able to better discern more precise differences in sonic frequencies compared ...
Swedish House Mafia and IKEA Launch New Collection to “Democratize Music Production at Home”
Swedish House Mafia and IKEA are aiming to empower a new generation of producers with at-home fixtures to inspire creativity. The iconic trio recently revealed their remix of one of the furniture giant’s signature products, the IKEA FRAKTA bag. Now, the two are slated to debut an expanded offering of 20 new items this coming October. Dubbed the OBEGRÄNSAD collection, the line features a myriad of at-home products essential to modern music production, from consumer electronics to shelves, lamps, carrying cases, an armchair and even a record player. OBEGRÄNSAD translates to “unlimited” in Swedish, which is certainly fitting for a collection that aims to remove creative hurdles and inhibitions for the bedroom creator. “We wanted to simplify the process...
You Can Now Paint With Music Thanks to This Artist’s Brilliant Invention
What if, instead of just putting paint on a canvas, you could hear its colors? Thanks to musician Camry Ivory, you can now generate music by painting with her invention, the Coloratura, which she calls a “system of musical paintbrushes.” Ivory started designing the Coloratura in 2015 as a one-time performance piece for downtown Kansas City’s Art in the Loop Series, reports KCUR-FM. Since then, she’s been improving the instrument as a way to literally create sound with paint. Featuring an easel with a metal canvas, 12 brushes for each note and pots of paint, the Coloratura connects each brush using wires to a circuit board, which sends a signal to her computer and music production software to create different notes. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles Having been inspired by...
Watch Eliminate Produce a Track With Samples Recorded From Australian Wildlife
For his latest music production masterclass, Eliminate turned to Australia’s vast nature and wildlife for inspiration. While out on tour, the EDM.com Class of 2021 star visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Australia to record sounds from a number of their animals. He then got to work in his Airbnb, sampling them to create an electro and breakbeat banger. The animal sounds Eliminate sampled include the calls of kookaburras, snoring of koalas, drinking of kangaroos and warbles of various birds. The track builds with some Virtual Riot drum loop samples before unleashing a ferocious drop that stomps harder than the kangaroos it samples. Eliminate then introduces a half-time trap section to bring the arrangement home. Give Eliminate&#...
Watch a 6-Year-Old Music Prodigy Recreate Kaytranada and The Internet’s “Girl”
Miles Bonham, known as Miles Music Kid online, is not your everyday six-year-old. Bonham is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and music producer who seems to go viral with each video he uploads. Now, the pint-sized prodigy has shared his recreation of Kaytranada and The Internet’s track “Girl,” wherein he crafts the track’s intricate bass, drum programming and smooth trumpet melody. Before deciding how to recreate the instrument’s melody, he’s heard humming it. “Copy automation data,” Miles says as he shows the project’s volume automation. But he doesn’t stop there. He goes deeper and starts placing various effects, like Logic Pro’s Chromaverb reverb plugin, before going as far as sampling his own voice. He...
There’s No Calming This Creepy, Light-Sensitive Baby Synthesizer
If you’re a music producer looking to give your sound some edge, perhaps the frenetic “wails” of this baby-shaped synth will do just the trick. The crimson Baby Bot Light Theremin: Powland Edition is the brainchild of Moon Armada and Powland. And consistent with its unique appearance, this synthesizer is certain to produce some sounds that will turn heads. As one might expect, there’s certainly no hope of calming this vocal child. “The best way to play it is to just start turning knobs until you find combinations you like,” Moon Armada says of operating the synth. “Generally, having the knobs turned higher will result in more abrasive, noisy sounds, while having them turned down will yield more beep-boop type sounds.” In addition to the Frank...
Design Studio Unveils Concept to Turn the Nintendo Switch Into a Music Production Instrument
From DJ Hero to Beat Saber, console games have played a pivotal role in gamifying music creation and performance. And the Nintendo Switch may just be capable of introducing the next level of utility. Capitalizing on the Nintendo Switch’s modular qualities, Alquemy, a boutique design studio based out of Sydney, has devised a well-considered concept as to how they foresee the console aiding a new generation of music producers. The concept is based on the Akai Pro MPC and it features two snap-on modules with all the bells and whistles of an industry-standard controller. The module incorporates nine pads, control knobs and hotkeys for agile editing and playback. Plus, the team thoughtfully utilized the sides of the modules to outfit the device with speakers, ensuring an enhanced pla...
