SampleScience has announced the release of Toy Keyboard v2, a new revamped version of the Toy Keyboard rompler based on the sound of a ’90s Yamaha PSR-78 home keyboard. Version 2 of Toy Keyboard features 72 sounds and 1 drum kit. The plugin has multiple modulation routing possibilities and only weights 39 MB. Toy Keyboard […]

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Monster Sounds has released its new sample pack Hip Hop Acapellas Vol. 2, a new collection of royalty free Hip Hop acapellas by Scor-zay-zee. Following on from the amazing response from the first volume, Monster Sounds put the call in and linked up for a second time with one of the UK Hip Hop Scenes […]

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Plugin Boutique has launched a sale on Inphonik, offering discounts of up to 50% off on its plugins for a limited time only. The RX950 Classic AD/DA Converter effect plugin is designed to perfectly mimic the whole AD/DA conversion process of the Akai S950 in order to give your music this vintage, warm and crunchy […]

The post Save up to 50% on Inphonik’s RX950 Classic AD/DA Converter and RYM2612 Iconic FM Synthesizer appeared first on rekkerd.org.

Loopmasters has released the Guitar Bundle by Image Sounds, a collection of 4 guitar sample packs at a 60% discount. The bundle comprises Funky Guitar Vol. 1 and 2, Acoustic Guitar Vol. 1, and 60s Guitar Vol. 1, for a total of 1,883 guitar loops. Always loved songs like “Le Freak” and “Kiss”? Then Funky […]

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DDMF has announced the release of MagicDeathEyeStereo, a tube compressor with an integrated EQ circuit designed especially for mastering. A faithful emulation of their stereo master buss compressor and equalizer, MagicDeathEyeStereo is the second product of the ongoing collaboration with MagicDeathEye. We have taken everything we’ve learned from the first version and created a true […]

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Plugin Boutique has launched a sale on the Pumped: Serum Psytrance Essentials soundset by W.A. Production, offering a 50% discount on the collection of 90 presets for the Serum wavetable synthesizer by Xfer Records. Do you draw inspiration from such artists as Astrix, Astral Projection and Juno Reactor? Ever want the most cutting edge and […]

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Plugin Boutique has announced an exclusive sale on the Mosaic Voices instrument library by Heavyocity, offering a 50% discount for few days only. The Mosaic Series was conceived to keep composers creative: Each instrument features a unique set of foundational elements, designed to be combined and layered into lush, cinematic textures. Mosaic Voices is a […]

The post Heavyocity Mosaic Voices for Kontakt Player on sale for $59 USD appeared first on rekkerd.org.

Prime Loops has launched a collection of over 340 analog Trap drums, samples and loops with its new sample pack titled Bally: Beastmode Trap Beats. With this analog Trap release, we’re giving you some heavy-weight Trap ammunition to load up your arsenal with and create some earth-shattering riddims! Sinister synth melodies, huge music ensembles, tech […]

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Issue #62 Winter 2018 ISSN: 2037-108X

The new Neural issue (co-edited with Rachel O’Dwyer) is hot from the press.

Subscribe now! Because only subscribers will get a free extra 25th anniversary cover sticker.

You can also subscribe to the magazine Digital Edition accessing →

The global spread of COVID-19 since January 2020 is resulting in a slowdown in economic activity across the world. The impact on India has been limited so far, however, increasing spread of the pandemic in the country over the last few days and the preventive measures being taken by the central and various state governments have severely restricted business activities.

Sources across cinema chains have confirmed to ET that they had individually written to the landlords and mall owners seeking waiver of rent under the ‘force majeure’ clause of their contracts. The clause excuses companies from meeting some obligations in case of certain unusual circumstances.

In India, under traditional business interruption insurance policies, physical damage to property is the only criteria to trigger business interruption loss, while pandemics and epidemics are specifically excluded. Insurance companies, therefore, are refusing to accept any claims arising out of shutdown.

All malls have been shut since the lockdown began, and retailers in those malls are not in a position to pay rents because their outlets are shut. This in turn makes it difficult for the malls to pay the banks. About 85% of a mall’s revenue is dependent on rentals.

Emkay Global expects PVR and Inox Leisure to post steep year-on-year drop in revenues at 19 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively.

It can be noted that shopping centres and malls, which tend to attract a lot of crowds, have been shut since mid-March, much before the lockdown was announced and if the social distancing strategies continue post lockdown as well, such facilities are unlikely to open.

The post pandemic society will witness a change in consumer behavior and overall lifestyle. It is estimated that consumers will be extremely cautious with their spending. The spending on luxury, travel, hospitality, and movies, fine dine, white goods, expensive gadgets, among others and see a drop.

SCAI, which counts Nexus Malls, Prestige, Infiniti, DLF and Lulu among its members, has also proposed using only 50% of the parking areas and not allowing any events and promotions to take place in the common areas to prevent large gatherings.

The government feels this will allow shopping and leisure activities to start up while maintaining physical distancing as traffic will be less than usual and easy to control. On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh notified retail stores to open from 6am until midnight.

Disney Springs vice president Matt Simon posted Thursday on the official Disney Parks Blog that the area will reopen May 20 with enhanced safety measures to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

"We have seen strong consumer demand, particularly in March and April but the split between defensive buying and higher levels of underlying consumption is unclear," Chief Executive Laxman Narasimhan said in a statement.

It is the first time since the nation’s favourite chocolate bar hit the shelves in India over 70 years ago, that Cadbury Dairy Milk has replaced its logo with the words ‘Thank You’.

The FMCG sector includes non-durable household goods such as packaged food, beverages, toiletries and other consumables that are sold at a relatively low cost. The slowdown was steeper in the urban markets compared to the rural markets, across the four zones, the report said.

Mondelez, owner of Cadbury’s, said its sales in the first phase of the lockdown was reduced to nil due to closure of plants, lack of have people from the distribution centers and non-availability of trucks.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever on Thursday reported a decline of 3.93 per cent in consolidated profit to Rs 1,512 crore for the fourth quarter, impacted by the coronavirus crisis from mid-March.

It had posted a net profit of Rs 403 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

LG, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi are also rolling out hyperlocal sales platforms that will connect their offline stores to consumers searching products online so that the outlet nearest to the consumer can deliver the order, industry executives said.

The maker of Dettol and Lizol disinfectant reported best ever global sales growth for the March 2020 quarter as customers stocked up on hygiene products amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with like for like growth up 13%, higher market share and strong growth in e-commerce.

Total income during the latest quarter stood at Rs 1,724.51 crore, up 24.78 per cent from Rs 1,382 crore in the year-ago period , Varun Beverages said in a regulatory filing.

PepsiCo India had volunteered to support the scale up of India's COVID-19 testing capacity through support provided to FIND.

In view of the fresh guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 and after evaluating the ground situation, the company has resumed production at all manufacturing locations, Dabur India said in a regulatory filing.

These channel partnerships have been done in a phased manner, with Flipkart being the first e-commerce platform to enable the availability of its essential products in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi.

GlaxoSmithKline and Horlicks have sold 5.7 per cent equity of HUL worth Rs 26,000 crore on Thursday to domestic and foreign investors.

I believe in thank you notes. I believe in sending them and in receiving them. Absolutely for gifts – every gift REQUIRES written acknowledgement – but also for random acts of kindness or thoughtful behavior and for hospitality. Ask anyone, “Hey, how are you doing?” and they will most likely respond, “Busy. I am SOOO busy. There is just too much going on.” People are busy. Everyone is busy. Work. Play. Shopping. Recreation. Family. Cooking. Errands. Laundry. School. Housework. Social commitments. Yard work. Commuting. Volunteering. It’s hard to make time for yourself, much less for others. That’s why it is so darned special when someone takes the time to do something nice. It may be something small, such as checking to see if you have books that need to be returned to the library since they are going. Or something bigger, like inviting you over for dinner because they know you’ve spent the day carting around mulch in the yard and will be too tired to cook. I believe people who make the

I believe in party dresses. My mother and I both use clothes to make a statement. For 26 years, my mother, Margaret Simmons, worked as a high school home ec teacher. She can sew anything: business suits, wedding dresses. She must have altered a hundred prom dresses over the years for her students who were not conventionally sized. My mother loves fabric in bright colors, purples and reds. But she went to work every day in rather conservative business suits. That was her cry for some modicum of respect from school administrators who thought nothing of interrupting her class to get a cup of coffee from the home ec room kitchen. My mother started college in the 1950s. Teaching and nursing were pretty much the only fields that were open to her. Like most of her female classmates, she dropped out to get married. Three kids later, she finished her degree at the age of 40, staring down the difficult reality of single parenthood. She needed respect and a living wage. She didn’t get either.

I believe in mental health awareness. I believe that one cannot be physically healthy without being mentally healthy. Mental health has always been something I take very seriously. One’s emotions and mental stability can change their whole life, for better or for worse. And in doing that, it can change the lives of individuals around them. After being diagnosed with anxiety in the summer of 2017, I was immediately put on medication and placed into therapeutic and psychiatric help. Once I started talking things through and getting used to my medication, I realized that this thing called “anxiety” had been living in me for longer than I thought. I always assumed it was normal to have trouble breathing before major events, while meeting new people, or in a situation of sadness or stress. It was what my mind and body were used to. Once I found myself not being able to leave my dorm room, excessively sweating through the night and losing my appetite, I knew that this had gone way beyond a

Secretary of the Senate Julie Adams has turned down presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s request to search for records of any complaint filed by his former staffer Tara Reade, citing legal advice that she has “no discretion” to release such materials, because they are confidential under current law.

Billed as a roundtable of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Wednesday's hearing included some of the nation’s most prominent dissenters on mainstream measures like business closures, stay-at-home orders and calls for widespread testing.

President Trump excoriated the administration of President Barack Obama as “human scum” who attempted to undermine him by “targeting” former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

Tara Reade, a former Senate aide to Joe Biden who has accused him sexual assault, told Megyn Kelly in a new interview that she wishes the former vice president would end his bid for presidency.

Outpatient dialysis facilities have also reported challenges, including separating COVID-19 positive and negative patients and protecting their own workers.

This report comes as a pair of cases among White House staffers close to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have put the West Wing’s coronavirus security procedures in the spotlight.

Restaurants in the city are looking to slash in-house dining capacities by 40 per cent to ensure social distancing norms are followed and also ramp up their tech infrastructure to handle more orders online.

KFC India managing director Samir Menon said: “Subdued growth in March and softness is on account of the lockdown. We continue to operate around the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic with our delivery business only amidst the lockdown situation in the country as we comply with all regulatory directives.”

40% Restaurants Face a Permanent Lockout; some entrepreneurs tweaking business models, selling DIY meal kits, attempting delivery.

“While during the early days of lockdown basic essentials got sold, with time some discretionary sales are coming back,” said Devendra Chawla, MD at Nature’s Basket and Spencer’s Retail that saw 30-60% growth in sales for cold cuts, exotic vegetables, assorted breads and cakes, cookies, international sauces, organic range of staples in last ten days.

“There is absolutely no income coming our way due to the Covid-induced lockdown for over a month. As a result, most companies are facing the problem of paying the employee salaries in full for the month of April,” said National Restaurant Association of India president Anurag Katriar.

The staff delivering the meals wear protective gear like masks and gloves to ensure safety. Since Covid – 19 outbreak, Burger King says that it has further strengthened its restaurant procedures around food safety, cleanliness and hygiene and increased its sanitization frequency in all restaurants across the country.

Under the banner Rise4Restaurants, consumers can buy vouchers from any member of the National Restaurant Association of India and redeem them for a 25% discount on bills once restaurants open.

How to keep customers’ cravings alive has become a challenge for restaurants.

The association has stated that allowing liquidation of the unsold stock will minimize the losses and introduce working capital by encashment of the existing liquor stock.