Fiver Friday #541 - D Mask, Suspense + MORE!

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Happy Fiver Friday! Middle of July, the year is half over. Wild. Let’s get into it.

1. Plugin

RTM Audio released D Mask, a dynamic EQ built around 24 critical bands that follow how the human ear actually hears. The idea is simple: when two signals fight for the same frequencies, D Mask carves a pocket in one so the other cuts through. That is our daily battle in imaging. VO against a huge bed. This solves it in one move, and it costs 35 euros. No brainer.

https://rtmaudio.com/d-mask/

2. Inspiration

Barrett Media ran a piece called “Radio Once Owned Suspense. It’s Time to Reclaim It.” The argument: radio built its golden age on making people wait for a payoff, and somewhere along the way we traded that for playing it safe. Anticipation takes effort and showmanship. The stations that win make listeners feel something is about to happen. Read it and then listen to your own station for an hour.

https://barrettmedia.com/2026/05/19/radio-once-owned-suspense-its-time-to-reclaim-it/

3. Music

This is a summer record. Put it on and try not to move.

4. Web/Social/Whatever

PS LOVERS. Sony is killing the disc. Starting 2028 there will be no more physical PlayStation games, everything goes digital. The petition against it passed 200,000 signatures in days. We went through the exact same thing in audio. People said they would never give up CDs either. They did.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/01/sony-to-end-physical-playstation-game-discs-in-2028/