Stacktune, the all-in-one audio collaboration platform, has been updated to version 5.2.

Stacktune is the tool musicians and audio engineers use to get feedback on their work. Users upload a track, send a link, and collaborators comment directly on the waveform at the exact second they mean. Each new version stacks up against the last, so a song and every note about it stay in one place.

Built around a completely rebuilt playback engine, Stacktune says the new version features "the first sample-accurate streaming audio player on the web":

Comparing two mixes in a browser has always come with a familiar glitch. Switching between versions either leaves an audible gap where the sound drops out, or replays a moment that was just heard. Stacktune's new engine removes it. Switching is instant and seamless with full sample accuracy, and even long files start playing right away.

Version 5.2 also adds

• Project notes, a running note on each project for session notes, to-dos, and shared context.
• Custom comment colors, so it is easy to see who said what in a busy thread.
• A redesigned activity digest, giving a clean roundup of new versions and comments across a user's projects.
• New infrastructure, with the app moved to new hosting and modernized throughout, making it smaller, faster, and more reliable.

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Steinberg has has announced a major celebration marking 30 years of Virtual Studio Technology (VST) and 25 years of the HALion synthesizer and sampler platform — two milestones that have helped shape modern music production.

To commemorate this special occasion, Steinberg is releasing HALion 7.5, a free update for existing users that introduces a wealth of new features and enhancements, such as MPE support, real-time Decompose, and Spectral Snapshot.

Alongside the update, several iconic legacy VST instruments are making their return with full VST 3 compatibility.

Next to the HALion 7.5 update, the newly available VST SDK update supports more MIDI 2.0 functionality plus further enhancements.

Introduced by Steinberg in 1996, VST was designed to create a professional studio environment for PC and Mac computers, allowing the seamless integration of virtual instruments, effects, and audio processing tools into any VST host application.

This groundbreaking format gave developers a standardized, open way to create plug-ins that could run inside compatible DAWs, as well as enabling audio creators and producers to radically expand their production capabilities, revolutionizing digital music production and quickly becoming an industry standard.

Debuting in the year 2001, HALion has evolved into a state-of-the-art professional synth and sampler platform. The latest version features six different types of synthesis, a high-performance sample engine, a wide range of effects, scripting and much more, offering almost unlimited potential to musicians and sound designers, as well as allowing developers to build complex instruments and sample libraries with unique user interfaces.

From August 4 to August 24, an anniversary sale is offering discounts of between 50% and 60% on HALion and a wide range of VST instruments for Mac and Windows-based DAWs. These include the Backbone drum re-synthesizer, Etude grand piano library, and Iconica Ensembles orchestral collection, along with a wide range of instrument and vocal libraries from HALion partner developers.

Steinberg's engineers have also gone back to the future by creating the free Steinberg Classics Collection. Now updated to the latest VST 3 standard, this comprises several of the first Steinberg VST plug-ins, including the LM7 retro drum sample unit, the CS-40 and Neon synthesizers, the VB-1 bass instrument, and Karlette vintage tape delay.

There is also a 25% discount on several key iOS and Android mobile apps, available via the Apple App Store and Google Play.

YouTube.com/watch?v=myV2dbqmCxg

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M Media Audio has announced the release of Reference Player, a new standalone desktop app, and Third Rail, a new plugin.

Reference Player

Reference Player is a desktop audio player for Windows, available now for $29 on the Microsoft Store and on Linux at M Media Audio - macOS will be out very soon.

Reference Player is a mastering-grade desktop audio player built by working audio engineers for the rest of us - a real signal chain underneath the playback, not exactly a file list with a play button.

VCA-style bus compression tuned to respond musically, a full 31-band graphic EQ with real ISO center frequencies, and a brickwall limiter sit underneath every track. None of it is required to use it well - press play and it already sounds better than a stock player. When you want to shape what's coming out of your speakers, the same tools an engineer would reach for are right there, along with real-time spectrum, phase, and BS.1770 LUFS metering, and two large RMS-based VU meters that are the actual centerpiece of every view. A live theming engine changes the colors, artwork, and character instantly, no restart, so it doesn't look like a spreadsheet, it looks magnificent, like something worth leaving open. File, CD, and Line In from one transport, CD ripping straight to MP3, and a watched-folder library round it out.

Third Rail

Third Rail is a tube-driven stereo 31-band 1/3-octave graphic EQ - real ISO center frequencies, one fader per band, ±24 dB of range, nothing hidden behind a frequency knob. It's not based on anything.

Tube EQs and graphic EQs went two completely separate directions in real hardware. Tube program EQs stayed to a handful of broad controls, sometimes full parametric or a variation, but mostly a couple of shelves and a peak or two. Graphic EQs with a fader per band went solid-state almost across the board, because running 31 individual tube stages in one box would have been a heat, cost, and reliability nightmare with the technology of that era. Nobody could make it practical. So the two design languages just never crossed.

So we thought, "Hey, we can still do that though. Let's build one." You will not believe how nice it sounds.

Push the INPUT knob hard and a tube saturation stage kicks in on its own, the way it works on real tube gear. Push it and the bottom end puts on real weight right when you want it, and the top end brightens up smooth the whole way, never harsh, never brittle - it's not something you can see on a frequency graph, you just have to hear it. COLOR is a continuous hue knob that recolors the fader highlights and LED meters live, with zero effect on the audio, just because the plugin is going to be open for hours at a time. Ten factory presets, A/B compare, save/import/export. $19, perpetual license.

Third Rail is available now for $19 at mmediaaudio.com/plugins/third-rail, VST3 on Windows and Linux, VST3 + AU on macOS (Universal Binary, signed and notarized), with a full demo mode.

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NOMZ Studios has updated StemMaster, the Windows app that mixes and masters a full multitrack in one pass, to v1.0.8. It now exports the individual stems as well as the finished stereo master.

Two modes, because they answer different questions:

• Processed Only — each stem with just its own processing applied: EQ, compression, sidechain ducking, reverb. Unity gain, dead centre, no levels or automation. For producers who want the technical cleanup and intend to balance the record themselves.
• Full Mix — the same stems with the entire mix baked in: levels, pans, the vocal rider, section automation. Everything except the master bus. These sum back to exactly the mix heard in the app, so they can go straight into a DAW and through the engineer's own mastering chain.

Both write one 24-bit WAV per stem, numbered to match the app's channel order so they import already aligned. The Full Mix export is verified on every build by an automated null test: the exported stems must reconstruct the pre-master mix or the build fails.

That claim can be checked without installing anything. A downloadable pack contains a mix, its exported stems and the master in 24-bit FLAC — sum the stems at unity, invert the mix, and the residual measures -142 dB: downloads.nomzstudios.com/stemmaster-null-test.zip

The release came from a customer request made in the first week after launch.

Read the changelog at nomzstudios.com/changelog

Pricing & Availability

StemMaster 1.0.8 is a free update for existing owners — it is a one-time purchase with free updates across the 1.x series. New licences are $69 USD during launch, $99 regular. Windows 10/11.

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The public beta of the free KVR Studio Manager application for macOS and Windows has been updated to v0.4.0.7.

You can download directly from www.kvraudio.com/kvr-studio-manager or if you launch KSM it'll offer the download automatically.

Changes in KSM 0.4.0.7 (Public Beta)

• Fixed unable to hide or exclude some plugins.
• Fixed search filter could be unreliable for some plugin names.
• Minor improvement to developer name matching.

Changes in KSM 0.4.0.5 (Public Beta)

• Fixed version number detection regression for some AU plugins.

Changes in KSM 0.4.0.4 (Public Beta)

• Fixed crash/exit when scanning SoundBetter AAX plugins.
• Fixed version number detection for Arturia AAX plugins.

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Jeff McClintock has announced that SynthEdit 1.6 is now in beta. It is the first version of SynthEdit to run natively on macOS, after more than three decades as a Windows application.

SynthEdit is a visual environment for building synthesizers and effects. You patch modules together on a canvas, design a front panel, and export the result as a VST3 or Audio Unit plugin.

Version 1.6 is the current beta track, running in parallel with the stable 1.5 Release.

New in version 1.6:

• Native macOS — runs on Apple Silicon, exports VST3 and Audio Unit plugins, ships as a single signed .dmg.
• New Wavetable Oscillator — built-in test waveforms (saw, sine, square, noise and others), an anti-aliasing mip at the top end.
• Resizable plugin windows — VST3 and AU plugins resize cleanly, with DPI-aware refresh when the host changes scale.
• WASAPI driver support added on Windows.
• Live hoverscopes — hover over any pin or wire to see the signal on a miniature live scope, now including GUI and IO modules.
• Project-specific skins — a sister folder beside your project (e.g. mysynth.skin/) is searched first for skins and fonts, with a _fallback skin for custom assets and a new "Browse to Project Skin" menu item.

An experimental Linux preview — an early x64 build, not feature-complete — is free to try while in preview.

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MIDI Room, an application that routes MIDI between USB devices connected to a Mac, playing a synth from a sampler, or a groovebox from a full-size keyboard, without a DAW in the chain, has been updated to v1.1.2, featuring a few bug fixes.

I built MIDI Room because I wanted to play my tiny synths from a full-size keyboard without opening a DAW. Drawing the routes and watching the notes flow along them made my desk finally make sense — so I kept going until it was an app.

MIDI Room

Draw your routes

Every connected device appears as a node. Drag a line from one device to another and the route is live, with MIDI channel conversion available in the same view. Multiple sources can feed one destination — play one synth from several controllers at once:

• Route MIDI between any class-compliant USB MIDI devices.
• MIDI channel conversion per route.
• Multiple sources into one destination.
• Built on CoreMIDI — runs quietly and reliably in the background of a session.

See what your hardware is sending

Notes and CCs are visualized in real time, traveling along the routes as you play. It works as a MIDI monitor for debugging a setup — "is the sequencer actually sending?" — and as something to put on screen during a live set, so the audience finally sees what your hands are doing.

The visual layer offers four themes ("Rooms") to match the setup or session: a clean studio look, a late-night terminal, an ambient glass environment, and a retro desktop.

Tested with real gear

MIDI Room has been tested with hardware from Teenage Engineering (OP-1 Field, EP-133 K.O. II), KORG (volca series) and Roland, and works with any class-compliant USB MIDI device.

Availability

A free version routes up to 2 devices — no account, no subscription. The Pro version unlocks unlimited devices for $19 (one-time purchase).

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Freqport has released the Dual FreqInOut FO1-2RK, a 1U rack-mount hardware integration system that houses two FreqInOut FO1 units to provide eight inputs and eight outputs. The release arrives alongside FreqSoft v1.10.0, the software installer that makes multi-unit operation possible, and both became available on July 13.

The premise is straightforward: make outboard gear behave like a plug-in inside the DAW session. FO1-2RK connects over USB-C and runs alongside whatever audio interface is already in the studio on Mac and Windows, with no aggregate device setup or external patching required. The AAX-, AU-, and VST3-formatted FreqInOut plug-in handles routing, latency compensation, and hardware control from inside the host, and audio passes through the system at 32-bit with sample-accurate timing, including while recording.

Underpinning this is AnalogHarmony, Freqport's proprietary method for streaming audio between hardware and a DAW over USB-C with sample-accurate timing. Freqport licenses the technology to third-party manufacturers, so AnalogHarmony-equipped hardware from other companies works within the same system. What that buys the user is total recall: because routing and processing live inside the session, an insert chain through external hardware reopens with the project rather than needing to be repatched by hand.

FreqSoft v1.10.0 is what turns this from a single-box proposition into a scalable one. Freqport is billing it as a 4x devices release: any number of Freqport or AnalogHarmony-equipped devices can be connected to the computer, with up to four of them usable in a single DAW project at once. Double-stacking two FO1-2RK units puts four FO1 units in the rack and takes the count to 16 inputs and outputs, which covers a fairly serious outboard collection running as recallable inserts.

On the processing side, the FreqInOut plug-in includes a Hardware Mix control for parallel processing, a Mid/Side mode for M/S work, and an ANALOG MATRIX for routing signal between connected hardware units. The last of those is the more interesting inclusion, since chaining external boxes in different orders is normally a patchbay job rather than something set from a plug-in window.

Target user is the hybrid studio owner with a rack of analog gear who has been reluctant to use it on anything that might need revisiting, which is most commercial work. The category is not empty: Universal Audio, SSL, and Antelope all offer hardware insert integration of one kind or another, and Softube's Console 1 works a related angle from the control-surface side. Freqport's distinguishing approach is that the I/O is additive rather than a replacement interface, and that AnalogHarmony is offered as a licensable standard rather than kept in-house.

The free FreqSoft v1.10.0 installer bundles analogHub, drivers, the FreqInOut plug-in, and FreqTube FT1-EMU, a software plug-in recreating the circuit of Freqport's FT1 analog tube processor.

Features

• 1U rack-mount enclosure housing two FreqInOut FO1 units.
• Eight inputs and eight outputs; up to 16 when double-stacking two FO1-2RK units.
• USB-C connection; works alongside an existing audio interface on Mac and Windows without aggregate devices.
• 32-bit audio processing with sample-accurate timing, including during recording.
• Routing, latency compensation, and hardware control handled from the FreqInOut plug-in (AAX, AU, VST3).
• Hardware Mix control for parallel processing.
• Mid/Side mode for M/S workflows.
• ANALOG MATRIX for signal routing between connected hardware units.
• AnalogHarmony support extends to licensed third-party hardware.
• FreqSoft v1.10.0 allows any number of connected devices, with up to four usable per DAW project.

Pricing and Availability

Dual FreqInOut FO1-2RK is available worldwide as of July 13 at an MSRP of €973.95 EUR (plus VAT) / $1,175.00 USD through Freqport's store locator.

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Produce-RnB in partnership with Traksorce Music Technologies has launched the Release Engine.

Release Engine is an automated beat store and marketing solution for music producers and artists that sells their music like never before. The release engine uses AI to assist with all of the dirty work that is involved with uploading and releasing music online across multiple platforms.

Producers/artist get their own beat store/music store with marketing automation to get producers going from day one. The solution was designed so that users can simply create music and upload. All you need is your music and your vision.

What is it?

• Complete store and marketing solution with built in automatic SEO, Keyword research, YouTube video creation, shorts creation.
• Automatic and built-in YouTube data, Google trends research, Streaming data, and more.
• Instant Publish to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, SoundCloud.
• Automatic music analysis — key, BPM, genre, mood, niche, LUF Volume Levels across all platforms.
• Auto Titles, tags and descriptions written from your track.
• Keyword research with real search estimates.
• Automatic YouTube thumbnails (16:9) and album covers (3000×3000) with a complete Nanno Bannana powered design studio.
• Automatic Longform video rendering.
• Automatic Three Shorts per release, rendered in one click (short publishing is optional).
• Release Albums, Mix Tapes and Multi-track compilations, up to 12 tracks.
• Your own storefront for beats, singles and albums.
• Exclusive and non-exclusive lease tiers.
• Automatic license PDFs with buyer and producer names.
• Offer subscriptions, sell memberships or beats on demand.
• Run Sales with a Percentage off or Buy X Get X.
• Offer Tagged free downloads and 45-second previews.
• Auto Tag your beats with your own tag or generated.
• Light and dark themes, five color palettes.
• Direct sales into your PayPal or Stripe (for memberships). Keep 100%.
• Fully hosted solution or Self Hosted with just a few clicks to your own server.

Pricing & Availability

Release Engine is now available at www.release-engine.pro starting at $12/mo.

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Martinic has released Eclipser 0.9.0 beta, a new standalone application for Windows and macOS that converts video and 10-channel spatial audio into YouTube Eclipsa-ready video with immersive 3D audio.

Eclipser is designed for musicians, producers, YouTubers, podcasters, and video creators who want to prepare spatial audio mixes for YouTube's Eclipsa format. The application combines an existing video file with a 10-channel audio file and exports an Eclipsa-compliant MP4 video ready for upload.

The beta supports 10-channel audio workflows including 5.1.4 and 7.1.2 layouts, with support for the Dolby Atmos bed channel order. In total, Eclipser handles nine 10-channel speaker configurations across three channel order types: SMPTE, WAV, and FILM.

Supported configurations include:

• SMPTE, WAV, and FILM 5.1.4.
• SMPTE, WAV, and FILM 7.1.2-IAMF.
• SMPTE, WAV, and FILM 7.1.2-bed, compatible with Dolby Atmos bed workflows.

Audio input is supported in WAV and OGG formats. Video input is supported in MP4, WebM, and MOV formats. Eclipser does not re-encode the source video, but makes a 1:1 copy and combines it with the converted Eclipsa audio.

Eclipser also includes an Auto-start workflow for users who regularly work with the same speaker configuration. Once enabled, users can drop in compatible audio and video files and let Eclipser begin generating the Eclipsa-ready video automatically.

Martinic Eclipser 0.9.0 beta is available now for Windows 10 or newer and macOS 13.7 Ventura or newer, including Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

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ABYZOR has released ABYZOR Keys, a DJ library management application for harmonic mixing, accurate key detection, BPM analysis and intelligent playlist preparation.

To celebrate the launch, ABYZOR Keys Professional is available for $9.99 (Reg. $14.99) for a limited time. Use coupon code LAUNCHKEYS at checkout on abyzor.space to redeem the offer.

ABYZOR Keys helps DJs organize their music collection, detect musical keys and BPM with high accuracy, build harmonically compatible playlists and prepare sets faster. The application includes a powerful Free Forever edition, while the Professional version unlocks advanced workflow tools for performance preparation.

Key Features

• Accurate Key & BPM Detection — Analyze your music library directly from audio files.
• Circle of Fifths & ABYZOR Matrix — Find harmonic matches and compatible transitions instantly.
• Music Library Management — Waveforms, playlists, Smart Collections, ratings and metadata editing.
• Smart Set Builder (Professional) — Automatically build harmonically compatible DJ sets with intelligent energy progression.
• Mix Coach & Transition Score (Professional) — Analyze transitions and receive recommendations for smoother mixes.
• DJ Software Export (Professional) — Export playlists for Rekordbox, Serato, Traktor and Engine DJ.
• USB Preparation Tools (Professional) — Prepare export-ready DJ libraries for performance.
• Lifetime License — One-time purchase. No subscription.

Watch the Official Introduction & Trailer: YouTube/Qxtq5fmBXho

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This summer, UVI is offering 40% off the entire catalog, including soundware, effects, Falcon, Rumble, and SonicBundle.

Whether you're building out your sound library or finally grabbing that one plugin you've had your eye on, now's the time.

Offers are available until August 16th, at uvi.net/all-products

Get and extra 20% off when adding 2 products or more to your cart.

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Kirin Mastering has released Kirin OS 1.0, a standalone macOS and Windows application for measuring audio, comparing versions and keeping the files and production records around a song together.

Drop an audio file and measurement begins on the computer:

• READ shows song-level loudness, True Peak, LRA, stereo width, phase and dynamics.
• INSPECT lists detected hiss, click and crackle events with timecodes.
• MASKING shows where two or more files overlap across time and 24 Bark bands.
• TRACE receives PRE / POST measurements from the free Kirin Hypha plug-in.

The measurements are only part of the job. Each Work can also hold versions, stems, credits, notes, artwork, release details, rights metadata and related files. Versions can be switched at the same playback position, so the same moment remains in view while comparing.

Kirin OS does not process or alter the source audio. Project and measurement data remain on the user's computer. No Kirin account or subscription is required; an internet connection is used for initial activation and periodic license checks.

Availability

The full application is available as a 14-day evaluation with no payment information, subscription or automatic billing. It supports macOS 12 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows 10/11 x64. The permanent license costs $297 and can be activated on up to three devices.

A 93-second walkthrough shows READ, MASKING, Versions, RECORD and Works with the actual application screens and audio.

YouTube/PBwhHmppwKI

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StemMaster is a standalone Windows application from NOMZ Studios that mixes and masters full multitrack stems in a single pass, rather than treating mixing and mastering as separate stages.

Where conventional mastering software processes a finished stereo mix or a handful of submix stems, StemMaster works from the complete multitrack: it makes mixing decisions first (levels, pans, per-track automation, riding the vocal through busy sections, ducking bass under the kick) and only then masters the result to a true-peak-limited, LUFS-targeted finish. Every decision is logged in an Engine Notes panel showing which track was adjusted, by how much, and why, and any manual fader or pan change triggers a fast re-render that holds the loudness target, with A/B comparisons kept loudness-matched throughout.

The target user is anyone who receives multitrack stems and needs a finished master without building a mix session first: producers, mix engineers wanting an automated starting point, or artists without a full mixing workflow. It sits between one-click mastering tools, which only touch a finished stereo file, and full DAW mixing, which requires manual setup.

StemMaster runs entirely locally, with no account, upload queue, telemetry, or internet connection required. An optional bring-your-own-key LLM engine (Anthropic, OpenAI, and compatible providers) is available; when enabled it sends only compact measurement summaries, never audio. It is not a plugin and requires no DAW or plugin host.

Features

• Loads full multitrack stems and performs mixing (levels, pans, per-track automation) before mastering.
• Automated vocal riding through busy sections and dynamic bass/kick ducking.
• True-peak-limited, LUFS-targeted mastering output.
• Engine Notes panel documents every automated decision and its measured evidence.
• Manual fader/pan adjustments trigger a re-render that holds the loudness target.
• Loudness-matched A/B comparison between versions.
• Optional bring-your-own-key LLM engine (Anthropic, OpenAI, and compatible providers); sends measurement summaries only, never audio.
• Runs fully offline with no account or telemetry.

Pricing and Availability

StemMaster is available now for $69 as a one-time purchase, with free updates for all 1.x versions and activation on up to three machines. A free demo (full application, exports disabled, periodic audio tag on mastered playback) is available at nomzstudios.com. Requires 64-bit Windows 10 or 11.

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