Biopics are all the rage lately; from Amy Winehouse to Whitney Houston and Elton John, films detailing the stories of some of the biggest music icons have been, and continue to, roll out across cinemas all over.

But as we’ve seen before in film (ahem, Back To The Future), when it comes to the musical props used throughout, sometimes mistakes can slip through the net. Musician Will Stratton appears to have spotted one in the forthcoming Bob Dylan biopic in a photograph taken on set shared via X/Twitter.

• READ MORE: Band invent bionic robot arm that lets plants play musical instruments

In the photo, actor Timothée Chalamet, who is playing the role of Bob Dylan, is captured singing into a Sony C38 microphone. This mic was introduced in 1965. “Can movies like this please hire music people who know what they’re doing?” He writes online.

Users on the platform have suggested that this photo could be taken from a scene set after this period, but Stratton replies, “Then the costuming is wrong, and he is still singing into the wrong microphone. I know these details don’t matter to a lot of people, and thats fine! I like a well-researched film, especially if it’s about a pivotal cultural figure.

“I said the Sony C38 wasn’t introduced until 1965. It wouldn’t be widely available in the USA until later. And as a phantom powered mic, it certainly wouldn’t be used in live settings until much later – the condensers you see on stage at Newport had external power supplies,” he adds.

“Beyond all that, there are hundreds (thousands?) of photographs of Bob Dylan singing into different microphones from this era. Why choose a microphone Dylan was never photographed singing into, and was never in wide use in the United States during this time?”

Check out the photo below:

That microphone wasn’t introduced until 1965. Can movies like this please hire music people who know what they’re doing?? https://t.co/vHke9qy1tj

— 𝑾𝑰𝑳𝑳 𝑺𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑻𝑻𝑶𝑵 (@columnatedrunes) April 16, 2024

The biopic doesn’t have a release date yet but it’s predicted to land in early 2025.

View all of Bob Dylan’s summer live dates.

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Plugins are kind of like cookies — you can never get enough of them, even more so when they’re available at a 50 percent discount, such as in the case of Native Instruments’ Komplete 14 Select instrument bundle.

From now till 12 May, you can pick up the Komplete 14 Select bundle over at Plugin Boutique for just $99.50, down from the original $199.

• READ MORE: Watch “Synth God” Mike Dean play Moog’s highly anticipated new synth, the Muse

Said to offer “everything you need to spark new ideas and take your tracks to the finish line, from inspiring sounds and premium synths to top-notch effects, kits, and more,” the bundle features a slew of powerful synths, high-impact drums, studio-grade effects and an array of shapeable sounds to kick start your creative juices.

Most notably, it features Massive, Native Instruments’ flagship software synth. Massive is usually priced at $149 on its own, so to get it along with tonnes of other digital instruments and sounds is, quite frankly, an absolute steal. There’s also Monark, a monophonic synthesizer “capturing every sonic nuance of the king of analogue monosynths” – the Minimoog.

The pack includes NI’s Play Series instrument Soul Sessions – which costs $49 if purchased individually – as well as the latest Expansions Backyard Jams, Neo Boogie, and Mother Board.

For the uninitiated, there are four versions of the Komplete 14, with the Select being the most affordable of the lineup. At present, the bundle will get you 19 instruments including the Player editions of Kontakt and Reaktor as well as some core sound packs totalling over 15,000 sounds and a size of 34GB.

For more information about the plugins, check out our full review of the Komplete 14.

To grab Komplete 14 Select at a massive discount right now, head to Plugin Boutique.

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British multi-instrumentalist and producer, Jacob Collier, has “critiqued” the artistic concepts of Rick Rubin, Grammy-winning producer and founder of Def Jam recordings.

READ MORE: My Forever Studio S4 Ep9: Jacob Collier steals Chris Martin’s magic mic

Specifically, Collier disagrees with Rubin’s philosophy of “the audience comes last”, saying that he finds such attitudes concerning. “There’s no one way to do anything — you can make work for people; you can make work for an audience; you can conform to the algorithm; you can make an engaging thumbnail. That’s cool.”

“You can also,” he adds, speaking on the Colin and Samir podcast, “lock yourself up in a room — like I did for many years — and just make art that you just deeply, deeply care about that has never been made before and will never be made again. That’s cool as well.”

On the episode (titled We interviewed the Mozart of Gen Z), Collier, who has won multiple Grammy Awards for his work as a producer, composer, and musician, discusses the workflow and approach to his fifth album, Djesse Vol. 4.

When podcast host Colin highlights Rick Rubin’s approach to music-making, which is “the audience comes last,” he says: “When I read that, I resonated with it at first[…]although many times in my career, the audience does not come last and is a high consideration.”

“I had the same response to you when I heard that,” responds Collier. “Then I thought about it more and did a lot of research about Rick[…] and I worry about the strong prevalence of an attitude like ‘the audience comes last.’”

“I would critique Rick in a sense that I don’t think his audience is creative people. I think his audience is people who aren’t creative, for whom creativity is novel. And they’re thinking ‘Gosh, wow! I never even thought that you could make something for yourself!’ But I feel that anybody who’s inherently creative in some way knows that there’s no one way to do anything.”

“I look at Rick and I’m like, ‘has anyone ever debated [Rubin] on this stuff?’ because there are [multiple] ways of approaching creativity…I’d love to sit with Rick at one point and just talk to him, and chew the cud and push him. And I’ll also welcome being pushed…Our opinions need to be squeezed and broken…

“Rick says things like ‘art is only pure if it’s made for only art’s sake’. Absolutely false.”

Though Collier says that Rubin’s philosophy can be seen as “flawed and unhelpful”, the artist celebrates Rubin’s effect on some people: “If anyone who is watching this and has watched a Rick Rubin video and felt inspired — fuck yeah. That’s great. Who am I to say don’t be inspired?”

To celebrate the launch of Djesse Vol. 4, Collier collaborated with Native Instruments to release the Audience Choir plugin. The instrument takes inspiration from Collier’s famous crowd-pleasing routine, which turns his audiences into harmonious choirs in an instant. Not familiar? No problem — just watch him work his magic at Glastonbury last year with Queen’s Somebody To Love. You’ll see what we mean.

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Revered British musical polymath Imogen Heap has released the first remix using her AI voice model, ai.mogen — and we think we can just about hear the AI-generated vocals in the mix.

Collaborating with Slovakian alt-pop singer Karin Ann (NME’s recent cover star) on her track false gold, Heap uses ai.mogen to generate her signature vocal sound heard in the remix. To clarify, Heap produced the remix on her own, but her vocals are made by an AI model that she developed with her team.

This remix is the first-ever recording of Heap’s AI voice companion, with a press release suggesting that we’re set to hear much more from ai.mogen. The track also marks Heap’s return to the music scene “after a decade-long hiatus from the spotlight,” continues the statement.

We’re pretty sure we can hear the AI model harmonise with Karin Ann in the choruses, but it’s most notable at the bridge of the song — you’ll hear the haunting, eerie drones that are reminiscent of Heap’s vocals. Check out the song at the 1:58 timestamp in the video below to hear for yourself.

The statement from Heap’s team adds that Heap is “embark[ing] on her new ventures into AI technologies and savvy music collaborations” and that she remains “dedicated to leaving a lasting impact on the way consumers engage with music.”

Such an attitude is not novel from Heap, who has repeatedly been at the forefront of emerging technologies in music. She’s perhaps recognised most with her performances using Mi.Mu gloves, which enable her to manipulate the music using hand gestures via MIDI/OSC. You can check out her NPR Tiny Desk performance for a taste.

More recently, however, the artist ventured into the Web3 space with an audiovisual NFT made in collaboration with Endlesss, the Web3 music-making platform.

Karin Ann’s album Through The Telescope and false gold (Imogen Heap remix) are available now. 

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Nothing has officially announced the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a), the brand’s latest flagship earbuds featuring a cool new feature: ChatGPT integration.

Users can choose between the $149 Nothing Ear, which is “built for audiophiles seeking the best sound quality” and the $99 Nothing Ear (a), that’s catered to those looking for the “ultimate daily audio companion.”

• READ MORE: Imogen Heap uses her AI voice model, ai.mogen, to create a remix for the first time

As explained by the Teenage Engineering-founded firm at launch, Nothing will “enhance its overall user experience with industry-first ChatGPT integrations in its audio and smartphone products.”

Through the new integration, users with the latest Nothing OS and ChatGPT installed on their Nothing phones will be able to pinch their Nothing earbuds to speak and ask questions to the world’s hottest AI tool. For now, the feature only works with the higher-end Nothing Phone (2); Full integration will be available for all Nothing and CMF products in June.

“By integrating ChatGPT with Nothing earbuds, including the new Nothing Ear and Ear (a), and with Nothing OS, we’ve taken our first steps towards change, and there’s more to come,” says Carl Pei, CEO and Co-Founder of Nothing.

Besides ChatGPT integrations, the Nothing Ear and Ear (a) also feature a bunch of hardware and software upgrades from their predecessors.

The Ear, for one, boasts Nothing’s “most advanced driver system to date” with a custom 11mm ceramic dynamic driver for extra richness and crispier highs. Nothing has also improved the dual chamber design from that of Ear (2) with two additional vents to improve airflow, delivering a clearer sound.

New personalisation options are offered as well — including a feature that lets you create a personal sound profile for each genre of music, as well as a bass enhancing feature. In terms of battery life, the Ear is said to last a cool 25 percent longer than Ear (2), offering up to 40.5 hours of playback (without ANC) after a full charge with the charging case or 8.5 hours of non-stop playback.

The Nothing Ear (a), meanwhile, is billed as a more compact and cheaper sibling to the Nothing Ear. Both earbuds do however share the same Active Noise Cancellation feature — Nothing’s most effective and intelligent yet, muffling up to 45dB of noise, twice that of the Ear 2. Both models are IP54 dust and water-resistant as well, though the Ear’s case edges out the Ear (a) a little with an IP55 rating compared to the latter’s IPX2 rating.

The cheaper Ear (a) also comes without the wireless charging feature found on the Nothing Ear, though fast charging is still available.

And for those looking to add a splash of colour to their Nothing setup, the Ear (a) arrives in an eye-catching yellow finish (remember a certain Playdate video game console?), in addition to the usual black and white finishes.

Learn more at Nothing.

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Michael Bibi has opened up about playing his first show at Coachella since undergoing cancer treatment and the “mixed emotions” the experience evoked.

Bibi’s set at the Indio, California event last weekend (13 April) marks his first performance of the year. The London DJ was diagnosed with CNS Lymphoma, a rare form of brain cancer last Summer, and was forced to cancel all of his gigs while receiving treatment.

• READ MORE: Michael Bibi surprises Ibiza partygoers with DJ set amid cancer treatment
  

Prior to the show, Bibi posted on X: “One year ago I was given a 30% chance of survival, today I’m packing to perform at Coachella… Never give up on your hopes or dreams.”

One year ago I was given a 30% chance of survival, today I’m packing to perform at @coachella ….never give up on your hopes or dreams

— Michael Bibi (@MichaelBibi1) April 8, 2024

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat after the event, Bibi said: “It was emotional, it was intense – there was happiness, there was some sadness. And there was just a huge range of emotions coming through.”

The musician added that the Coachella gig marked the longest distance he’s travelled since treatment, stating: “That was a big step in itself, just getting on a plane and coming to the US. And then adding on top of that, doing my first show and coming to a festival, it was a lot.”

“But it actually gives you a sense of purpose again, moving and coming back out into reality and seeing people. Because I’ve been kind of sheltering a lot, because of the treatments, I’ve had to kind of isolate myself. So getting back out into the world and connecting with human beings is a good feeling.”

Bibi also shared that while he’s currently “physically well”, he’s still dealing with what he’s been through “day by day”.

“It’s just a kind of a mental processing,” he said. “Just kind of mentally catching up on everything that I’ve been through. Because I think when you get into a really intense situation, you kind of go into fight or flight mode.

“And you just have to get through that moment and period of time and you’re not really processing everything that’s happening to you.”

Elsewhere, Bibi also commented on Grimes’ DJing fluke at Coachella, saying: “Everyone’s been in bad situations when they’re DJing. I’ve been in situations where everything stops working or the left deck doesn’t work and the right deck just doesn’t do what you want to do.”

“You just have to try and adapt and do the best you can with a bad situation, which is horrible when it does happen.”

The post Michael Bibi on playing Coachella with “mixed emotions” following cancer treatment: “It actually gives you a sense of purpose again” appeared first on MusicTech.

Grimes saw the lighter side of her less-than-successful Coachella DJ set ahead of her performance during the festival’s second weekend.

• READ MORE: Michael Bibi on playing Coachella with “mixed emotions” following cancer treatment: “It actually gives you a sense of purpose again”

For those who aren’t aware, Grimes’ set on weekend 1 of the festival was plagued by “major technical difficulties” that left her screaming in frustration. The DJ apologised to fans at the time, saying: “All my tracks are double tempo and I can’t do the math. They’re borderline un-mixable, so the rest of my set won’t be mixes but it’ll still be fun.”

Grimes later issued a statement on X explaining that the mistake occurred because she’d outsourced the bpm on her tracks, and that she’ll “personally organise all the files next week”.

Before her show on Sunday, the musician assured fans that she’ll “cap the disarray at a maximum ten seconds per song,” adding, “I don’t know if there’s ever been a more rehearsed or fine-tuned Grimes set.”

Whose ready for Coachella weekend 2?

I will cap the disarray at a maximum ten seconds per song – idk if there's ever been a more rehearsed or fine tuned grimes set

And I made another blackpink remix for good measure pic.twitter.com/SKG4dqU0Ex

— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 (@Grimezsz) April 19, 2024

True to her words, the DJ’s performance last weekend went without a hitch, and was even accompanied by some good old fashioned self-deprecation that poked fun at her Weekend 1 set.

A ‘Breaking News’ style video was played, featuring a bunch of masked characters mocking her screwup the week before with comments like “she can’t DJ.”

Watch the video below.

#Grimes makes fun of her own Weekend 1 set in her Weekend 2 set intro.

Coachella coverage: https://t.co/QsapCPtBjF pic.twitter.com/wC9uvPBlg5

— Dorothy Elder (@dorthelder) April 21, 2024

In related news, DJ Michael Bibi has spoken about playing his first show at Coachella since undergoing cancer treatment and the “mixed emotions” the experience brought on.

“It was emotional, it was intense — there was happiness, there was some sadness. And there was just a huge range of emotions coming through,” said Bibi, who was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer last Summer.

“It actually gives you a sense of purpose again, moving and coming back out into reality and seeing people,” he said. “Because I’ve been kind of sheltering a lot, because of the treatments, I’ve had to kind of isolate myself.”

“So getting back out into the world and connecting with human beings is a good feeling.”

The post “There’s never been a more rehearsed or fine-tuned Grimes set”: Grimes pokes fun at herself during Coachella Weekend 2 appeared first on MusicTech.

AudioStrip, a company specialising in source separation technology via machine learning (AI), has been announced as one of six organisations to be awarded grant funding from the government.

A total of £1 million is being awarded to companies as part of an AI in the Music Industry Innovate UK Fund. The assessors of the competition agreed that AudioStrip’s Music-AI innovation would “greatly benefit and strengthen the UK Music Industry” and that “the rewards could be significant”.

• READ MORE: Imogen Heap uses her AI voice model, ai.mogen, to create a remix for the first time

According to a press release from AudioStrip, the aim of the competition is to advance the development of Artificial Intelligence products and services within the global music supply chain which benefits the UK Music Sector. Winners must collaborate with industry stakeholders to unlock the full potential of AI while supporting and uplifting the music industry to drive long term creative and commercial success.

AudioStrip is strengthening its partnership with Queen Mary University of London, which will collaborate with the brand on its project to develop new state-of-the-art AI in music source separation. This separates the individual vocals and instruments within a music file.

Basil Woods, co-founder and CEO of AudioStrip, says: “This technology is sweeping the music industry. AudioStrip will offer more advanced tools for precise separation of individual elements in audio files.

“By partnering with Queen Mary, we aim to elevate music source separation technology beyond industry benchmarks, making it an indispensable tool for DJs, independent artists, producers, and licensors. Our goal is to automatically identify musical elements from any given song – including vocal, instrumental, drums, bass, piano, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and synthesiser – and extract them into independent tracks without losing quality.”

Simon Dixon, Director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence and Music at Queen Mary University of London, adds: “Our Centre for Digital Music has grown into a world-leading, multidisciplinary research group, responsible for numerous spinout companies and business partnerships with companies large and small.”

Find out more about AudioStrip.

The post “We aim to make this an indispensable tool for DJs, independent artists and producers”: New AI stem separation technology secures UK government funding appeared first on MusicTech.

A new documentary charting the life of late DJ and producer Avicii is set to premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

The film, titled Avicii – I’m Tim, is said (via DJ Mag) to explore the early life of the Swedish music legend, whose real name was Tim Bergling, as well as the events that led to his suicide in 2018 at the age of 28.

• READ MORE: Official Avicii subreddit to launch podcast “from fans, for fans” and they want you to be a part of it

Directed by Henrik Burman, the documentary has a runtime of a little over two hours, and features interviews with fellow DJ David Guetta, Nile Rodgers – who played on Avicii’s 2013 track Lay Me Down – and Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who sang on Heaven, the second track from his posthumous 2019 album, TIM.

“Before there was Avicii, there was just Tim,” reads the film’s synopsis on the Tribeca Film Festival website. “For the first time through his own words, witness the journey of a shy but prodigious musical talent who would soon become one of the defining artists of his generation.”

Avicii – I’m Tim was first announced in 2021, and was originally intended for release in 2023, but was pushed back.

Avicii’s sudden and tragic death in 2018 shocked the EDM community and wider music world, and his music is still hugely popular six years later. At the time of writing, his Spotify page boasts nearly 38 million monthly listeners, and his mega-hit Wake Me Up surpassed 2 billion streams on the platform in August last year.

Alongside Avicii – I’m Tim, the Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place in New York City between 5 and 16 June, will also see the premiere of a documentary telling the story of legendary Detroit techno producer Carl Craig.

For more info, head to the Tribeca Film Festival website.

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Collecting gear is fun, obviously, but sometimes simplicity prevails over all. Just take a look at Fred again.. who recorded the bass sound for his track Jungle from the crackle of a bad cable, or even Tourist who stands by the idea that your iPhone mic and Voice Memos app are “unbelievably useful” tools.

The COVID-19 pandemic threw a spanner in the works for creatives all over, and for producers and musicians, it meant finding new ways to adapt in order to make music remotely and in a simplified manner.

• READ MORE: Omnisphere is “one of the most inspiring instruments,” says Tourist

For Tourist, he stuck with his laptop and a phone. Even now, he enjoys working with his phone so much that he chooses one to accompany his dream studio space in MusicTech’s My Forever Studio podcast, delivered in partnership with Audient.

“Would you not want a really nice recorder?” Asks co-host Chris Barker.

“Of course, but I’ll lose it and break it,” Tourist replies. “That phone is going to be used a lot, and the reason is I love sampling from my phone. I love just plugging a jack into it and then into my Mac or into another device. But Voice Memos is just absolute no-brainer.

“I love recording the sounds of nature around me, I love recording ideas melodically. I love recording soundscapes, being on the tube. That stuff finds its way into my music just because it just gives context to everything that you write, and it’s just such an unbelievably useful tool,” he states.

Although Tourist finally decides on the Teenage Engineering TP-7 field recorder after being encouraged to “upsell his dreams”, he still stands by the idea that a simple iPhone mic can hold so much charisma.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by william (@tourist)

“I mean there’s even a part of me that’s really happy with that built-in iPhone mic because it has such a character. It sounds like the year that the phone was made. And the compression, whatever they do with that compression… I think people can hear an iPhone mic. I like that.”

Check out the full podcast below:

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