​July 2026 Blog Post: A.I. companies stole my music... KORG effects & synth videos, project updates (including a Jabun mix for $10 patrons) + new BTTB music coming VERY soon & more!

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