Hello everyone and hope you're having a good summer and managing to stay cool in this heat so far! It's a day early as I'm busy tomorrow but it's time for your monthly Patreon news update and I'm making this one a public post because there's some very important news I have to share before I get to the usual updates. Let's start off with that...

If you've been keeping up with my social media in the last few weeks you'll have seen many posts about this but I'll recap you here. In short there was a recent A.I. Watchdog released where users could search to see if any of there works had been used in datasets to train various generative A.I. models, and unfortunately sure enough, 3 Better Than The Book songs had been taken without my permission, with a potential partial training focus on vocal synthesis... While I appreciate that some people use generative A.I., I personally don't have any interest in it or want to be a part of it and have actively campaigned against its unregulated use because the way a lot of A.I. companies (such as Suno) operate goes against my values from an environmental (energy/water) and ethical (personal data / consent) point of view, on top my concerns regarding the artistic/creative side of things.

https://ai-watchdog.k8s-prod.theatlantic.com/datasets?q=Better+Than+The+Book

I'm now in a horrible situation where I have potentially helped train a multibillion dollar company (which I disagree with the fundamental concept of) to replace me and musicians I care about, with years of my work taken without my consent, knowledge (up until this month) or compensation, even potentially using MY voice to sing words that never left my actual mouth. That's really messed up.

Those of you that care, I urge you to make a stand against this, check yourself to see if your work has been included in the datasets revealed by the A.I. watchdog and share news like this around because whether you look at it from a financial, art for art sake, or environmental impact point of view, this is not ok. I've released a statement on the issue on my YouTube channel which includes many more details and links to resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORwzix-PIek

You can now also view a detailed statement on how you may use my work with A.I. on my website (spoiler alert: DON'T DO IT):

https://www.jabunaudio.com/terms-and-data-protection.html

Following the massive public outcry this week, some good news has come for those interested. A consent registry has been created for people to register the terms of how their work/image/likeness may be used in relation to A.I. generated content. It's hopefully the start to better regulations and fairer use for this technology. I've signed up (just awaiting verification). Check it out below:

https://www.euractiv.com/news/cate-blanchett-launches-ai-consent-tool-in-parliament/

https://registry.rslmedia.org/

With all that crazy news out of the way, let's get onto the fun stuff! I've been back to some synth explorations this month and finally released an effects collection for the KORG's NTS-1 digital synth kit that's been sitting on my hard drive for a year or so! The "TapeFX Collection" features 6 effects programs to simulate various slowed down audio effects (LIVE) and can be downloaded for free or donation below:

https://www.jabunaudio.com/news/introducing-the-tapefx-collection-6-live-tape-slowstop-effects-for-the-korg-nutekt-nts-1-digital-synth-kit-free-download-or-donation

The collection has already been featured on KORG's official logue-SDK Delay Effects Unit index! Apparently, I (JabunAudio) am now an effects developer apparently (that's 2 programs now including my older NOISE oscillator program)! Thanks so much for the stamp of approval KORG!

https://korginc.github.io/logue-sdk/unit-index/delfx/

Meanwhile I've been back to some KORG Volca Modular experiments too exploring the true Pitch Range of the unit + Bugs & Quirks and a gritty downsampling Patch! You can check out that as well as a demo for my new effects collection in the updated YouTube Playlist below:

​https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

Still got another video on my todo list so I'll hopefully be back to that soon!

Onto some project updates, it's been a heavy month of mixing with some great progress! An initial full mix has been finished for the upcoming Better Than The Book LIVE album (over 70 minutes?!) and I'm currently resting that to check over later before some final tweaks and sending to the rest of the band for some feedback. Meanwhile I've finished all 8 mixes for the next batch of Jabun Lost Tracks and the tracks are all sequenced now in the mastering session ready to have that final polish added! With that said, I think it's time to finally reveal the tracklist for Jabun - Lost Tracks Vol. 2 which'll hopefully be out towards the end of summer with any luck:

09 Climbing The Mountain
10 Playing With Anxiety
11 Night of the Living Deadbeat
12 A Notepad For Catharsis
13 The Journey
14 Broken
15 Waiting
16 Wish

Hope you're excited for some more Jabun, and if you're a $10 patron you have a sneak peek at the mix for Climbing The Mountain in your rewards for the month! Check that out here:

https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding/posts/july-2026-10-at-162482399/

BUT BEFORE THAT, I am SUPER excited to finally announce that Better Than The Book will be releasing a brand new single for a very special collaborative project very soon! I'm not allowed to say much about it just yet, but it has been one of my life goals to write the opening theme to an animated series and in August 2026, after over a year of this track being complete in secret on my hard drive, that dream is due to become a reality! We're just making the final preparations for the release, so keep your eyes and ears out for further announcements soon! Exciting times!

Finally for this month's news, as if I'm not busy enough already, I just signed up for NGUAC2026, that's the Newgrounds Underdogs Audio Contest 2026! I keep getting invited each year but this is the first time I've actually been able to make it! If I make it past the qualifiers I'll be required to make a new track in just 2 weeks from scratch for both of the subsequent rounds (knockouts and finals) so it should be an interesting challenge! You can read all about the competition here! Have fun and good luck everyone!

https://adr3-n.newgrounds.com/news/post/1633213

And that about wraps the news up for this month. I'll be busy mixing and mastering and preparing for new releases + hopefully composing/producing like mad for the competition so it's set to be hectic! Should be fun though! Until next time, thanks as always for supporting my music however you can and hope you enjoy what's to come. Take care!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding/posts/july-2026-news-i-160055461
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding/posts/july-2026-10-at-162482399​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding

JabunAudio presents The TapeFX Collection: 6 new LIVE Tape Slow/Stop effects based on DOTEC-AUDIO's StopFX:

Effect Type: DelayFX

Controls:
A Knob = Pitch drops / slows down as you increase the value
B Knob = No effect
B Knob Shift = No effect

Tapestop (like the original stopFX but it starts slowing down as soon as the A Knob is not minimum)
Tapeslow (maximum slowness is half-speed (-1 octave))
Tapeslower (maximum slowness is quarter-speed (-2 octaves))

+ each of those again with the label "nr". 
The originals when turned to minimum reset to the live audio feed while 
the "nr" (no reset) versions keep playing on the buffer channel so you 
don't get that jump back to live which can be more useful in studio situations. 

Notes:
There is still a limit to the amount of information which can be stored in the buffer, so the audio will skip at as the buffer limit is reached (slower setting will skip more frequently). While I've tested all these effects as thoroughly as I can on my own NTS-1, these effects are provided on a "use at your own risk" basis (I've not been able to test it on the Prologue or Minilogue XD (etc...) platforms). JabunAudio and Nick Standing are not responsible for any loss arising from the use of this download package. Have fun!

The TapeFX Collection is free to download, but if you'd like to make a donation it always helps me continue with these projects and I'd be truly grateful for the support. Any updates will be posted on this page:

TapeFX VERSION 1.0 (Any updates will be posted on this page)

​Hello everyone and hope you're having a great start to the summer! It's been a busy month of mixing (more on that later), visits and more, and I may have been overdoing it a bit again and needing to reel things in, but I have some super cool news to share with you this time on various projects and curiosities! Let's get started!

First of all let's start with some project updates! Better Than The Book's Ten Years On debut LIVE album (recorded at the debut LIVE show in February) is really coming along nicely and while I was only planning to do 3 full tracks last month then get back to some Jabun, I got on quite the rolling flow state and ended up getting MUCH more done than expected! All the instruments, guitars, bass, harmonica, drums, interludes and master mixing is all done now, with just the 3 vocal mics for 6 final tracks left to do, and 4 full tracks completed this month! I must admit though, it's been quite a listening/thinking workout and my ears are feeling a bit fatigued at the moment, so I've been taking a little break this last week to do some other things while I recover (more on that in a bit). With the above progress on BTTB, I've not had a chance to look into mixing the 2nd volume of Jabun's Lost Tracks just yet, but the current plan is finish off an initial mix for the BTTB album, then rest my ears of that and take a Jabun detour so they're both ready for mastering at similar times! Still lots to go, but it's sounding REALLY nice (IMHO) and I think you're going to love it! For those of you who are $10 patrons, I'm giving you a sneak peek demo mix for the first quarter of the full show (a whole 15 minutes) in your rewards this month! Check that out below and I hope you enjoy it:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/june-10-160026586/

While we're on the topic of BTTB, the recent Newgrounds based video game Ally's New Life (which features BTTB's Side Character In My Own Life) is now available for PC (Windows) download! Check out the download page below and a big thanks again to Some-Crappy-Edits for featuring my music in the project!

https://some-crappy-edits.itch.io/allys-new-life-lucky-day

Finally for this month and back to my own projects and explorations, after finishing reading the first of the Patch & Tweak books on semi-modular synthesis I received for my birthday last month (KORG one is finished, Moog one is about 20% through at the moment), my drive to explore my own KORG Volca Modular system (as heard on Jabun's June22 and Tides albums) was kicked into 5th gear! During my own experiments I stumbled upon some interesting curiosities as well as a MAJOR epiphany/discovery of an unintentional but crazy powerful undocumented feature which I honesty think is going to blow some peoples minds and open some massive doors on this synth! last week I made 2 detailed videos exploring those concepts and put them up on YouTube for the community to expand their knowledge and learn from. You'd think after 7 years of this synth being released that all the features would have been explored by now, but then you find something and it's like you opened the gate to a new world! Special thanks to ChrisLody for the inspiration for the first of these techniques and I hope you enjoy the explorations! I'll let the videos speak for themselves below!

On top of that, I FINALLY got around to sharing something I've been meaning to for a long time for another of my synths, the Roland J-6! This one's less revolutionary, more just helpful, but in short to compensate for a lack of detail in the user manual I created a sheet detailing the preset sounds on the synth and how best to edit them for crafting your own sounds! The sheet is available as a free download with optional donation on the JabunAudio website and has a brief accompanying video to explain it too! I hope you synth nerds out there get a kick out of these 3 new videos (+ download) and check them out below:

• KORG Volca Modular Tips and Tricks: Hidden Voltage Sources and Advanced Proxy CV Motion Sequencing!

​

• KORG Volca Modular Tips and Tricks: Exploring feedback!

 

• Roland AIRA Compact J-6 Comprehensive Preset Sounds Patch Sheet! (Free download or donation)

Playlist on YouTube:

​https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWEmqIhrNPvQTBoOjZdKLgL4ecTvLz6sm

Roland J-6 Preset Sounds Sheet:
https://www.jabunaudio.com/news/roland-aira-compact-j-6-comprehensive-preset-sounds-patch-sheet-free-download-or-donation

I do have 2 more videos I'd like to make over the next week or so as well so stay tuned and subscribe and all that jazz for more synthy stuff coming soon!

That about wraps things up for this post! Following the current flow, I'm aiming to start by getting these 2 synth videos done and out, then get back to finishing an initial first mix going all the way through the entire 70+ minute Better Than The Book gig (6 tracks left to do) before getting around to mixing the latest batch of 8 Jabun Lost Tracks (Vol. 2) There's a lot to do, so we'll see how fast and how long it takes to get done, but it's certainly exciting times to come! Until the next post, thanks as always for supporting my music on Patreon and however you can and I look forward to checking back in in July! Take care and have fun (and happy synthing if applicable)!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/157961376
$10 Rewards: ​https://www.patreon.com/posts/160026586
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding