Ins & outs

MEGA IMPRESSIVE There are plenty of ways to give your computer-based music a c chiptune flavour, but Remute has upped the ante by releasing an entire album, Technoptimistic, as a Sega Mega Drive Cartridge. All sounds are generated in real-time via the console’s FM soundchip.

GET INTO THE GROOVE Want to get your music on vinyl but don’t have a clue how? Bandcamp can help you out with its new crowdfunding pressing service. Set up a campaign and, once your funding target is reached, everyone who wants your album on a platter will get it. Job done.

FOOLS’ GOLD As ever, music tech companies got into the April Fool’s Day spirit. Top bantz this year came from Korg, with their 4-track Volcassette, and Ableton, who went to surprisingly great lengths to tell us about their ReChorder, a polyphonic recorder plugin.

UNCLEAN STREAM You’d have thought that, as no physical product is made, streamed music would have less environmental impact. However, it turns out that this isn’t the case, with the huge amounts of energy required to store everything in the cloud adding to the problems.

JUMP SHIP We love collaborations but didn’t wholly enjoy David Lee Roth and Armin Van Buuren’s EDM-infused rework of Van Halen’s Jump at the Ultra Music Festival. There may be more, too; dance fan Roth says that all of his tracks are “eminently remixable”.

MUSK DO BETTER Elon Musk is a man with a lot of ideas, but his decision to record an Auto-Tuned tribute to sadly departed gorilla Harambe wasn’t, perhaps, one of the better ones. Check it out on the Tesla tycoon’s Emo G Records Soundcloud page: bit.ly/rip_har.