Sifu Audio has introduced Mix Dojo, a new app for Mac and Windows that they say offers an easy way to see and hear how your mix stacks up against your favorite reference tracks.
Here’s what they have to say about it:
“Mix Dojo listens like a pro and provides real-time, visual mix feedback with instant insight into LUFS volume levels, balance, and more. Simply drag and drop a song and reference track to easily see and edit levels of crucial elements such as vocals, bass and drums to match those in the reference track.”
A hands-on demo:
“We built Mix Dojo to remove the guesswork from mixing,” explains Sifu Audio Co-Founder Jay O’Reilly, “Too many great tracks never reach their full potential because creators lack expensive gear, years of training, or a second set of ears. Mix Dojo changes that.”
Features:
Compare your mix against commercial reference tracks and see where it stands.
Stem separation of your stereo mixes and reference tracks without an internet connection.
Easily see LUFS levels for audio stems such as bass, drums, guitars, vocal and other elements.
Reference matching lets you quickly match and adjust the levels of your stems and reference stems.
Analyze your mix, with clear guidance on loudness, balance, clarity, and more.
Tips offer real-time suggestions to help fix common mix problems.
Export your new mix in standard file formats.
Mix Dojo for Mac and Windows is available now at the Sifu Audio site.
Standard pricing is $100, but it’s available now with an introductory price of $50, using discount code INTRO50. A subscription is also available for $15/month and also a free trial version.
Great news for electronic music makers of a retro persuasion, or those who are looking for something ‘new’ to try – the Commodore 64 is back.
Fans of the original’s much-loved SID chip can now get their hands on a brand new take on the classic.
Yes, no more trawling eBay and car boot sales for you. Now – courtesy of a reborn Commodore – you can purchase a perfect, new, improved 2025 incarnation of the best-selling home computer from 1982, and literally get back to the future.
The Commodore 64’s MOS Technology 6581 Sound Interface Device (better known as the SID chip) had a sound all of its own, breathing life into videogames and music programs and knocking the basic bleeps of its rival Sinclair ZX Spectrum into a cocked hat.
Musically the C64 certainly had the edge, and, armed with the new chip’s polyphonic power composers such as Chris Huelsbeck ran wild, creating genuine soundtracks for video games (do check out his legendary work on Turrican) for the first time.
By today’s standards the SID was distinctly limited with just three voices, but four waveforms, and a multi-mode filter gave the C64 a sound all of its own. So much so that in the years following the C64’s physical demise (and the death of the entire Commodore computer in 1994) countless emulators and hardware spin-offs have popped up to satiate those wishing to recreate that distinctive genre-defining ‘chiptune’ C64 sound.
And what better way to get a SID as part of your set-up than inside an entire faithful recreation of the C64, warts and all, in 2025!
The rebirth of Commodore comes courtesy of YouTuber Christian Simpson who originally only sought a licence to create an emulation but ended up buying the entire Commodore brand, its logos and the rights to all of its creations.
And his first hardware off the block (alongside a raft of T-shirts, sweatshirts and other branded retro goods) is the new C64 available in Basic, Starlight, and Ultimate Founders Edition forms.
The company now intends to begin shipping their first hardware in October of 2025.
“We’ve been sleeping for 30 years. Please excuse us,” the company says on its ‘new’ website. “Now we’re back, you know we had to start with the best-selling desktop computer of all time.”
The new computer features a modern AMD Xilinx Artix-7 processor running the show, alongside 128MB of DDR2 RAM and 16MB of flash memory – marked increase on the 64 KB of the original.
Rather than simply emulate the C64 in software, a programmable FPGA circuit replicates the full chipset meaning that original peripherals (should you still have some in a box in the attic) can plug in and work just as with the real thing.
In fact, the new Commodore promises that the new unit is compatible with “over 99%” of original soft- and hardware.
And while it sports a new, obligatory HDMI port for output, it still maintains the original cartridge slot and DIN-8 connectors. Plus – in a first for a C64 – USB ports A and C for the connection of keyboards and other modern hardware, alongside Wi-Fi and Ethernet.
It even comes with a USB stick containing 50 retro games and demos, including a whole new game in the Jupiter Lander series.
The Basic unit carefully copies the original beige of the original while the Starlight Edition features a transparent case with RGB lighting inside.
Top of the tree is the Founders Edition limited to a run of 6,400, which aims to copy the Golden Anniversary Edition, originally made by Commodore to celebrate the sale of its one millionth unit. This model features an amber-tinted case and gold-plated keys.
AURA Plugins has introduced Waldorf Blofeld Editor & Librarian, a third-party editor for the Waldorf Blofeld.
What they have to say about it:
“With our Editor, you can work with your Waldorf Blofeld the same way you use your virtual instrument plug-ins.
Our Editor will recall your patch settings when you open your project and the data will be sent to your Blofeld automatically once you open your project. Your synthesizer is always synchronized with your session!
The only thing you need to worry, is that you power-up your synthesizer. We also added the ability to load in Waldorf microQ and Q patches!”
Features:
Control Waldorf Blofeld desktop / Blofeld Keyboard synthesizer directly from your DAW.
Automate almost every parameter directly from your DAW.
No need to remember CC’s for each knobs / per synthesizer. Goodbye sticky notes!
Load, Edit and Store patches into hardware memory or in your HDD personal library.
Store any Waldorf microQ / Q / Blofeld compatible soundset in your HDD library folder and browse it from our plugin.
Send banks or individual patches from librarian to hardware.
Request banks or individual patches from hardware to librarian.
Total Recall: When you reopen your project, all of the data used in it, will be sent to the hardware, automatically.
Waldorf Blofeld Editor & Librarian is available now for $69.95.
