Featured posts
MUSEWIRE – Music News: ONKYO recently announced a new addition to their stylish yet affordable “Icon series” lineup of consumer audio electronics, with release of their C-30 CD Player. Yes, folks, CDs (compact discs) are “not dead yet.” With this new release, Onkyo joins a large group of electronics makers who have not given up […]
ASHEVILLE, N.C. /MUSEWIRE – Music News: The Bob Moog Foundation is proud to announce the addition of five new members to its Board of Directors: Scott Callan, Kim-Ha Ho, Sandra Jordan, David Sayed, and Lindsey Wahowiak. The five new members join six veteran Board members lead by Board president David Mash.
MUSEWIRE – Music News: Highly-regarded virtual instrument company, Spectrasonics, has marked the 20th anniversary of the passing of electronic instrument pioneer Bob Moog, and reminding electronic musicians about their Bob Moog Tribute Library to benefit the Bob Moog Foundation in North Carolina. Produced by Eric Persing, the v2.0 edition of the Bob Moog Tribute library features over 1300 stunning sounds for Omnisphere – created by more than 50 of the world’s top synth artists. [UPDATED]
MUSEWIRE — MUSIC BUSINESS NEWS: ASCAP this eeek announced a new settlement agreement with the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) that secures higher rates payable by almost 10,000 of America’s commercial terrestrial radio stations to publicly perform more than 20 million musical works in the ASCAP repertory.
MUSEWIRE – Music News: UK-based The Crow Hill Company has launched their self-proclaimed “second season” with a wealth of innovative and inspiring tools for music composition, film and game scoring, and sound design. With a new hybrid instrument called Pocket Strings, Crow Hill brings the best of sampled orchestra with classic analog string synths. The free Vaults Bridge Guitar offers creative sonic explorations. Finally, the revamped flagship Glass Strings instrument further refines a “main go-
MUSEWIRE – Music News: ASCAP has announced that applications are open for The ASCAP Foundation “Music is our Foundation” Scholarship for 2025. This program is designed to provide financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing music major degrees. Application deadline for 2025 is August 31, 2025.
MUSEWIRE – Music News / Schiit Audio today announced their latest high-quality, high-value audiophile solution, their new ASGARD X, a Class A Modular Headphone Amp & Preamp. Priced from $399US (in black, silver is added $30 cost), the Class A, zero-feedback Asgard X also offers the Mesh DAC card with Unison 384 input and Forkbeard EQ.
MUSEWIRE – Music News / Seminal musician, producer, composer, Todd Rundgren, who has been influential to many since the 1970s, has announced new show dates in the U.S. and the U.K. for the latter half of 2025 for his ‘Still Me / Still We’ tour.
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News: French synth wizards, Expressive E today announced the version 2.1 update for the Osmose MPE Keyboard Synthesizer with new sounds and effects. 80 new MPE presets; 2 built-in FXs, new editor features, and bug fixes. Update is free for Osmose owners.
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News: U.S.-based Schiit Audio this week announced their newest value-audiophile creation, Mimir – an affordable balanced DAC with their own Mesh digital conversion, that’s also a full preamp and EQ via Forkbeard. And it’s made in the U.S.A. Schiit is well known for making DACs that don’t suck, when compared to other options in the same price range.
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News: Highly regard French music instrument company, ARTURIA, today announced their latest collection of virtual instruments, V COLLECTION 11, a premium suite of software instruments for unparalleled sonic exploration; from evocative emulations and hybrid synth engines, to authentically modeled keyboards and beautifully captured acoustic sounds.
REMAGEN, GERMANY / MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News: Waldorf Music this week announced the completion of the final production run of the Quantum MK2 synthesizer. No additional units will be manufactured, according to the company. The Quantum has been Waldorf’s flagship music instrument since its announcement in 2017 and debut in 2018, with the MK2 arriving in 2023 with added features like increased memory storage and poly-AT keybed.
LOS ANGELES / MUSEWIRE – Music News: The ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Fest is back at The Wallis in Beverly Hills for another year of outstanding programming for a two-night event of performances from Broadway legends, live workshops hosted by Stephen Schwartz (composer and lyricist of “Wicked,” “Pippin,” and “Godspell”), networking and more. It’s all happening May 5 and 6, 2025 at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis).
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News: This week, UK-based eurorack modular synthesis innovator, Knobula, announced its latest creation, Monumatic – a fully polyphonic 8-voice synthesizer and a monophonic synthesizer packed into a compact 12HP eurorack module. It features16 selectable oscillator modes to provide a diverse range of both classic and futuristic tone generation using exclusively virtual analog algorithms.
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News/ — Heritage Audio has introduced a new desktop 10 to 1 reversible and fully passive stereo switch, called the SYNTH BUDDY. This nifty gadget is like a portable patchbay ideal for DAWless and live setups allowing merge of up to 10 sources to one output, or one output to up to 10 sources. Seamlessly connect up to 10 stereo (or 20 mono) line level sources and toggle between them with the turn of a knob.
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News/ — Arturia has announced an update to its flagship “polychrome” virtual instrument, PIGMENTS, now at version 6, with new Modal engine, filters, modulators and more. The most significant update since Pigments 2. Pigments is an all-in-one software synthesizer for modern producers, blending 6 cutting-edge synthesis engines, a color-coded interface, effortless drag-and-drop modulation, premium effects and generative sequencing. Shape your sonic vision with boundary-pushin
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News/ — The Crow Hill Company has nnounced release of their latest virtual instrument sample library for film and media composers, Tina Guo STORM CELLO. According to the company, “This meeting of minds in collaboration with Steve Mazzaro & The Crow Hill Company combines traditional electric cello multi-samples together with articulations that will make you feel like Tina is interpreting your music live as you compose it.”
MUSEWIRE – Music Gear News/ — Eventide has announced today that their Third Man Hardware Knife Drop Guitar FX Pedal is now available. It is described as: “From the twisted minds at Third Man Hardware and the mad scientists at Eventide, comes Knife Drop—a pedal so maniacal, so drenched in sonic chaos, you’ll wonder if you’re dreaming… or already trapped in a nightmare.” SRP $299.
MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News/ — Haken Audio, the company that brought the expressive playability of the Haken Continuum Fingerboard to market, as well as many other MPE-capable electronic music devices, has announced their new EaganMatrix Micro. Packed with the power of the EaganMatrix Sound Technology in the smallest product ever. The EaganMatrix Micro is a full-featured EaganMatrix sound engine in a small self-contained form factor, and is powered and controlled via USB.
MUSEWIRE – Music News — The Moody Blues’ John Lodge announces 2025 U.S. Tour Dates. Playing ‘Days of Future Passed’ in its entirety, plus a selection of CLASSIC HITS. Lodge will be bringing his Days of Future Passed Tour back on the road starting in February 2025, with special guest Jon Davidson of YES. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster, with limited VIP packages available.
MUSEWIRE – Music News — This week, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) announced its 2024 list of top classic holiday songs as a Spotify playlist. Clever choices include “You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch” by Aimee Mann, “Silver Bells” by Stevie Wonder, and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” by Justin Bieber. 25 songs in total are designed to keep you in the holly jollies this season.
MUSEWIRE — Music News: Howard Jones recently announced that following a wildly successful run of North American tour dates earlier in 2024, Howard Jones and ABC are set to return to the U.S. for more co-headlining tour dates in February, 2025. The 2025 tour dates kick off in San Francisco at The Masonic on Thursday, February 6.
MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — The annual joyous tradition, the “Holiday Pops Spectacular,” returns with festive film music, traditional favorites, and high spirits. Celebrate the holiday season at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, by joining the Golden State Pops Orchestra, Maestro Steven Allen Fox, and the GSPO Chorale, led by Maestra Marya Basaraba, for Holiday POPS Spectacular Friday, December 20, 2024, at 8 p.m.
MUSEWIRE – Music News / — Chances are if you are a musician you would likely conjure up visions of patches, cables, dials, ladder filters when you hear the term “Moog cookbook.” In this case however, it’s an actual cookbook, “Moog’s Musical Eatery: A Cookbook for Carefree Entertaining,” by Shirleigh Moog (Author, Foreword), Karl Wolff (Illustrator), Kate Lanner (Illustrator), and Bob Moog (Photographer). Published by Bob’s daughter, Michelle Moog-Koussa (“Moogstress”).
MUSEWIRE – Music News / — Boston-area-based Lowell Chamber Orchestra’s Music Director, Orlando Cela, has been named one of the ALX100 Honorees for 2024 by Amplify Latinx. This prestigious recognition celebrates Latinx leaders across Massachusetts who are making an outstanding impact in their respective fields and communities.
MUSEWIRE – Music News / — International boutique pedal company McGregor Pedals has launched its newest pedal: “The Classic Fuzz.” Designed for both guitar and bass, the Classic Fuzz pedal captures the sound, feel, and response of the original 1960s two-transistor fuzz boxes using all modern, stable parts. It is rich, moody, interactive and in the right hands, untamed.
MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — Today, the folks at Expressive E announced formal release of their v2.0 firmware update for the ground breaking MPE music synthesizer keyboard, the OSMOSE. As an early backer, I have been awaiting this to “firm up” (pun intended) some of the features based on evolution and also user feedback over the past year. OSMOSE ia the next-gen standalone expressive synthesizer that allows a performer-player to add emotion and movement to music with a simple touch.
/MUSEWIRE/ — Today, well-regarded long-time benchmarking firm, Primate Labs, who make the venerable Geekbench testing tool, have announced the next generation solution, Geekbench AI 1.0. The new Geekbench AI is a cross-platform AI benchmark that uses real-world machine learning tasks to evaluate AI workload performance. Geekbench AI measures your CPU, GPU, and NPU to determine whether your device is ready for today’s and tomorrow’s cutting-edge machine learning applications.
MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — Film and classical music composer, Tatiana Mikova, has announced that her String Quartet, “In Modo Lidico,” will debut at Carnegie Hall’s Progressive Musicians Laureate Gala on July 1, 2024. The piece will be performed by the Lehner String Quartet in the intimate Weill Recital Hall, home to hundreds of recitals, chamber music concerts, panel discussions, and master classes. Mikova is a multi-award-winning Czech classical and film music composer based in London.
MUSEWIRE – Music News / Singer-songwriter Alison Moyet has announced this week her eagerly-awaited, tenth solo studio album, “Key,” to release on October 4, 2024. Marking Alison’s 40-year anniversary as a solo artist, “Key” is an 18-track collection, showcasing the breadth and depth of her artistic creativity and song writing over these four decades to […]
MUSEWIRE – Music News / On Tuesday, June 11, USC (University of Southern California) will host the first Music, Health, and Policy Conference, as part of Los Angeles County Arts and Health Week, at Cammilleri Hall on the University Park Campus. Research has shown music’s centrality to childhood development and addressing elderly cognitive decline.
MUSEWIRE Music News / The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has recently announced the recipients of the 2024 ASCAP Screen Music Awards, including the highly-anticipated winners of the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards; honoring the composers whose music enriches the art of visual storytelling. ASCAP is a membership association of more than 975,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers.
MUSEWIRE / Long time fans of Thomas Dolby have likely noticed over the years the ’80s recording artist losing his hair, often wearing hats on stage in modern solo and group performances. Well, this week (May 17) Dolby posted a video on social and my first thought was “It’s Dolby’s ‘evil twin brother’!” He was going to reveal something new – not a new song, tour or album, but new hair. He posted a full video showing off his new shock of grey hair yesterday, and frankly, he looks great.
/MUSEWIRE – Music Tech News/ — One of the most interesting new virtual instruments I’ve seen in awhile, UVI’s Quadra Modular synthesizer allows you to choose, modify, then combine four different highly-sampled instruments, then cross fade and modulate among them in realtime. UVI’s “Quadra series” instruments are designed to be immediately inspiring, delivering 4 customizable instrument layers with keyzone support, XY and dynamics morphing, fully-editable synthesis and numerous effects.
/MUSEWIRE – Home Audio News/ — ONKYO has announced its new TX-8470 Network Stereo Receiver for 2024. According to the company it has been “built by and for audiophiles.” The TX-8470 seamlessly combines exceptional audio fidelity for music lovers with modern connectivity options for hassle-free home entertainment. The TX-8470 offers 2-Channel, 110-watts per channel, and is designed for high-performance audio playback, packaged with all modern streaming technologies.
NEW YORK /MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — While some industrious individuals are busy looking for their second act, 90-year-old Sybil Evans, longtime resident of Manhattan’s Murray Hill section is still going strong, forging ahead into her third with the Sybil Evans Trio. The dynamic, Brooklyn-born and raised nonagenarian singer was inspired by her 90th birthday to return to her love of bringing her pop-jazz stylings before a live audience.
/MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — ARTURIA today announced a new, innovative stage and studio synthesizer keyboard, they call ASTROLAB, an “Avant-garde Stage Keyboard,” as part of their 25th anniversary in the music instrument business. Accorsing to the company, “Astrolab offers a vast spectrum of classic and modern sounds. AstroLab is a 61-key stage keyboard combining the power of synthesis, intuitive controls, and an innovative ecosystem – inviting musicians to focus on their creative expression.
NEW YORK /MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — Honoring the musical storytellers scoring the past year’s top films, television series and video games, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) announced this week the nominees for the 2024 ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards. A first-of-its-kind program among US performing rights organizations, the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards gives the ASCAP composer community a forum to recognize the artistic accomplishments of their peers.
EDINBURGH, UK /MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — Take control of an intimate string section performing an evocative collection of shifting musical passages with The Crow Hill Company’s new Small String Gestures sample library, the second release in what they are calling a “hysteresis” approach to sample collection and music instrument playing. It’s a complement to their prior release, String Murmurations.
LONDON /MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — Opening to the public Feb. 24, 2024, the new Gibson Garage London is a ground-breaking flagship store for all things Gibson, located in historic London. At the Gibson Garage London kickoff event, Gibson announced it has entered into a collaborative partnership with one of the most influential musicians in history, Jimmy Page, an icon across all genres of music, art, and culture and co-founder of one of the biggest bands of all time, Led Zeppelin.
MUSEWIRE – MUSIC NEWS / As my dad used to say in the ’60s, “hang loose.” Fuse Audio Labs has announced their latest audio plugin, the VREV-63. which is “the ripping reincarnation of the legendary tube driven spring reverb from the sixties: the godfather of surf guitar sound! Hooked up in front of an amp, the drippy and splashy sound of this mysterious box has inspired countless reggae, dub, garage, rockabilly, jazz and spaghetti western artists. Play off the hook on incredibly long and inspiring
LOWELL, Mass. /MUSEWIRE – Music News / — On Sunday, February 18, 2024, 3 p.m., The Lowell Chamber Orchestra will present the first Massachusetts performance of Julia Perry’s “Symphony for Violas and Basses,” from a new edition by LCO’s music director Orlando Cela. The new edition looks to celebrate Perry’s centenary of her birth, and provide a clear template from which other ensembles can perform this work from one of America’s most influential and underappreciated composers.
PITTSBURGH, Pa. / MUSEWIRE – Music News / — This year’s ContinuuCon 2024 Electronic Music Conference will take place in the U.S. for those who have been unable to avail themselves of some of the exotic locales around the world of prior years. The sixth international Haken Continuum Conference, is returning to the U.S. on April 26–28. This year’s event will take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Musicians, sound designers, software developers, and music enthusiasts are invited to explore the wo
/MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — Avantone Pro has announced availability of their new “Planar the II” headphones, reference-grade open-back headphones with Planar Drivers designed for both studio use and critical listening in audiophile home environments. Planar drivers offer an incredible set of advantages over traditional moving coil drivers. Amazing accuracy, high-end detail, clarity, natural bass, and response time.
/MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — The Wallis and The ASCAP Foundation Present MUSICAL THEATRE FEST 2023: Two Weeks of Musical Theatre Events. The first ever ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Fest gives emerging musical theatre composers the chance to learn from the industry’s leading lights. Happening Jul 11, 2023 – Jul 20, 2023. All sessions are FREE to attend, and they’re filling up fast – RSVP to secure your spot.
/MUSEWIRE – Music News / — The Smirnoff ICE Relaunch Tour 2023 continues this summer headlining a delicious duo of Smirnoff ICE and star-studded musical performances. As part of the concert lineup featuring both the chart-topping latest hits and nostalgic anthems, all proceeds from ticket sales for the newly announced tour dates will directly support nonprofit Women In Music: an organization committed to advancing equality, visibility and opportunities for women in the musical arts.
/MUSEWIRE/ — The folks at MP MIDI have announced that their latest iteration of the innovative MP MIDI Controller, version 2A, previewed at Superbooth23 Berlin, is now shipping. The 2A version adds glass flat top minimal design, increased viewing angle, encoders through glass, optional rack mount kit and additional power port.
MOTOWN, USA /MUSEWIRE – Music News/ — Famed Motown songwriter, recording artist and lone female member of legendary R&B sibling singing group, DeBarge, Bunny DeBarge has released her newly revised, tell all memoir, “The Kept Ones: DeBarge, The Fame Years.”
BROOKLYN, N.Y. /MUSEWIRE/ — Pianist and producer Elijah Fox welcomes musicians into his exciting new course with online music education hub Soundfly. In it Elijah explores his singular approach to writing, improvising, and producing the “Impressionist” music for which he’s become widely known; a style that has hypnotized fans around the world, been championed by collaborators like Yussef Dayes, Tom Misch, and Kiefer, and become the foundation for Drake & 21 Savage’s hit “Major Distribution.
LOWELL, Mass. /MUSEWIRE/ — The Lowell Chamber Orchestra congratulates composers Cory Brodack and Martin Max Schreiner for winning the orchestra’s 2023 Lowell Chamber Orchestra Call-for-Scores, and marimba player Wei-Hsing Nikki Huang, for winning the 2023 Lowell Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition.