November 3rd, 2010 – I’m sure you’ve all heard that Protools, along with going native, now has an SE version that ships with either a USB microphone, an interface similar to the Mbox mini, or a MIDI keyboard. You may also have heard that you don’t have to go to your local Guitar Center to buy one either; you can get them at Best Buy.

Power users may scoff at the baby Protools (after all it has a maximum of 16 tracks) however I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss it. At prices starting at $99 for the Avid Vocal Studio, $119 for the Avid Recording Studio, and $129 for the KeyStudio, the value is strong.

For the consumer that’s going to be picking up one of these bundles, 16 tracks will probably be more than adequate. Of course, maybe my perspective is a little skewed; when I first started recording, it was on four track tape reels (cassette and ADAT were way out of my budget). I quickly learned how to bounce down tracks to be able to record more.

Even when I tried the first versions of Cakewalk (one of the first consumer DAWs), I was limited in tracks because the computers weren’t fast enough back then. To me, 16 tracks would have been a huge luxury. But even today, I think that it would be adequate. Most of the people who are going to be buying the pack, are likely going to be recording themselves and won’t need tonnes of tracks.

I think Avid is being pretty smart with these low-cost offerings. They are including everything a person needs to get started at a super low pricepoint. When the user is ready to move on, there are plenty of higher priced offerings. I’m sure this is a direct effort against Apple’s DAW strategy: bundle Garageband for free, get users hooked and interested in Logic Express which is also very inexpensive, and then finally up to Logic Studio. Avid is one-upping this strategy by bundling hardware; what used to be a detriment in their professional offerings is now an asset in their lower ones.

When I worked in someone else’s studio, I used a combination of Protools and Logic. Logic to write songs, Protools to record vocals, and back into Logic for mixing. Even with all the improvements Logic has made with their audio editing workflow, I still find Protools faster, and more intuitive.

I am not currently running Protools (although I could get the M-Audio editions since I have FW410), so these low cost versions are enticing. As I would be using it to cut vocals only (16 tracks should be adequate for recording quick and dirty demos), the Vocal Studio is the most interesting to me. A hundred bucks for an M-Audio (on a side note, I’m sad that M-Audio as a separate brand from Avid no longer exists) USB microphone and Protools editing workflow? That seems like a very compact mobile recording solution.

I’m actually curious to hear what the bundled gear sounds like. Obviously the microphone isn’t going to compete with any Neumann, but will the interface included with the Avid Recording Studio hold up to my old FW410, or even an Mbox Mini? Have any of you had a chance to try them out?

Avid Vocal Studio

July 14th, 2010 – Was your mom suitably impressed enough by Kid Beyond to send you a Youtube video? Ever wish you could get your family in on the fun you have with looping? MIT has released MmmTsss Playful Looper, for free download.

With a super simple and fun interface, everyone will be able to immediately get into looping antics. You definitely won’t be at Beyond’s level, but you’ll still have fun nonetheless. Check out the embedded video below to get a feel for how it works before you download it.

MmmTsss

June 12th, 2010 – Roger Linn Design has released the AdrenaLinn Sync, a software plugin that emulates the AdrenaLinn guitar pedal. You may remember Roger Linn from a little device he created: the freaking MPC.

The AdrenaLinn uses time-based effects, and includes some beat accompaniment. I can’t say that I really enjoy the added beats, but the time-based effects and more traditional effects (filters, tremolo, phase, etc) sound fantastic. In the video below, I’m not sure if he’s using other processing for the audio output, but if he isn’t it sounds pretty much production-ready. I really need to try it out!

Roger Linn AdrenaLinn Sync

June 10th, 2010 – Aviary, developer of online audio editor Myna and a host of graphic design applications, has released Roc, an online music creation tool. Unlike Myna (which I assume will be integrated into Roc later down the road according to their feature list), Roc is a grid based sequencer. While Myna allows you to drag in waveforms and loop them, Roc is similar to piano rolls and matrix sequencers.

The beta below allows you to sequence single note instruments (eg. a high hat hit, or an Eflat from a piano), on a grid. In the beta, about all you can change is the BPM. As far as I can tell, you cannot create patterns longer than 4 beats and you are stuck with a 4/4 time signature. Of course this is just a teaser of what Roc will be, so you will undoubtedly be able to perform most sequencing tasks once it’s released. As it stands, you can unlock some additional features by inviting friends to try out the beta.

To be honest, I’m not comfortable sequencing melodies in the Roc layout. Having to choose one specific note sample, load it in an available slot, and then be only able to trigger that pitch is not my idea of a fun songwriting session. For percussion samples I can understand the appeal, but for traditional instruments, it’s a pain. Nifty concept though. I’m interested in seeing where they take Roc on its release.

Roc via Lifehacker

June 2nd, 2010 – In case you’re one of the three people left out there that hasn’t heard the news, Propellerhead has posted teaser videos for the forthcoming Reason 5. I didn’t post about it last week because they were releasing a feature each day and I figured it’d be best to just post about it when all the info was out.

Reason 5 adds many features that users have been asking for. The Dr. Rex player has been upgraded to the Dr. OctoRex that, as the name implies, allows you to load 8 loops at once. Neptune is a new pitch correction and modification plugin that allows effects from subtle to T-Pain. Before Record, this would have been a useless feature, but as you can now record long vocal sections with Record, it’s a welcome feature that almost all other DAWs include out of the box.

Reason 5 also adds Kong, a drum designer that merges all the features you’d expect from hardware like the MPC with the tweakability that software allows. Reason and Record have some organizational changes as well, with the added ability to create song chunks and move around the whole arrangement easily. This feature is also found in most other DAWs. Perhaps the most talked about feature of the new Reason is its sampling abilities. To many Propellerhead fans, this feature should have been implemented from version one, so they are understandably elated.

To be honest, I only use Reason as a ReWire slave to Logic. In my set up, Reason’s fantastic sounding synths become a rack in Logic’s more fully-featured environment. I tried the Record beta but I wasn’t able to use its full functionality so I didn’t explore it beyond some light tinkering. Now that Record is coming up to version 1.5, it’s adding “DAW” capabilities to Reason’s awesome instruments, making the pair more enticing as a standalone solution. I dig the direction Propellerhead is going with Reason and Record with all the features coming in Reason 5 and Record 1.5, I’ll have to give the pair a closer look.

Propellerhead

April 21st, 2010 – Who doesn’t love free high-quality audio plugins? Togu Audio Line, the brainchild of Patrick Kunz, is a large set of free audio plugins that are available for both Windows and Mac platforms. The plugins run the gamut from plate reverbs to vocoders.

Patrick has thoroughly designed the plugins, down to the very professional looking graphic interfaces. Try out some of the plugins, and if you like what you hear, donate to support future development. Kudos to you Patrick, kudos!

Togu Audio Line

April 12th, 2010 – These days, almost everyone uses at least some sample kits for their productions. While some may use samples because it’s easier, I think most people would agree that cost is the biggest argument for using samples over recording the real thing. Hiring a great acoustic space, with great microphones, preamps, and outboard gear, is very expensive compared to buying a DVD full of samples recorded under those same conditions.

Of course, there is a trade off when using affordable sample kits; when instruments are played by themselves, it’s easier to tell that they aren’t recorded from a live acoustic performance. I’m not talking about insane libraries like the Vienna Symphonic library which cost several thousand dollars, but ones that the typical home studio owner/composer buys.

Recently, I was working on a song for an artist that called for a solo grand piano for most of the song. Of course, my tiny apartment doesn’t have room (nor do I have the money for) a grand piano, so I had to turn to my software instruments. The problem is that in the intimate setting of a solo piano and vocals, you really hear the difference between the inexpensive samples I was using and recording a live instrument.

When these software instruments are used in concert with each other to form a full production, the difference isn’t noticeable; but they don’t sound very good on their own. The thing I missed in the piano samples, was the sound of the pedal and hammers. In a full production, they’re considered noise that is usually filtered out, and so the software instrument was created with that in mind. These sample instruments are too sterile and clean.

Even if a listener doesn’t know that the hammer and pedals noises are part of a piano’s sound, they’ll know something is off when they hear a software instrument that doesn’t include them. Of course, it’s not always the developers fault. They know that most people will use their product in a full production and don’t necessarily have the engineering knowledge to take out “noise”. So to make sure that most of their users get a sampled instrument that will sit well in the mix with minimal engineering fuss, they clean up the samples to a ridiculous degree.

Being a classically trained pianist, I start with a piano when writing songs. Because I haven’t been happy with my piano sounds so far, I’m thinking about upgrading to something nicer. Native Instruments has released Alicia’s Keys, which is a piano kit sampled from Alicia Keys’ piano, in her studio, with her engineers. It uses the free Kontakt player, and retails for about $120. I haven’t bought it yet, but the samples on Native Instruments’ website sound pretty damn good; especially for the money. I can hear the mechanical noise of the piano pretty well, and it sounds like a versatile instrument.

Have any of you tried it out yet? I haven’t bought any Kontakt instruments except for the Steve Slate Drums (which are fantastic) that were on sale a month ago, so I’m interested to hear your personal experience with it.

April 8th, 2010 – Please note that this review is a supplement to the embedded video.

Some of you may have heard that Algoriddim has released an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch called Remote. The $5 app uses wifi to connect to your Mac and control djay. You must already own djay for your computer to use Remote as the app is not a standalone DJ solution; it’s a wireless way to control the software.

Using Remote on an iPhone’s tiny screen means a fair bit of menu navigation. Also, the app only shows one deck at a time, and not the full options available to it. For example, to access EQ in Remote, you must press a button on that specific deck to see it, unlike when using your mouse on the computer or on the Spin where everything is available to you from one screen.

This is not a knock on the software specifically, but is a limitation of iPhone applications in general with their minimal screen real estate. While this may work for some applications, I feel it clunky to use as your only DJ controller solution. Where Remote excels is as a supplement to your current hardware controller (or if you use djay without any hardware controllers). Maybe Algoriddim will release an iPad app that can take advantage of the much greater screen.

One of the big issues I came across when using the Spin to control djay was the lack of buttons available for me to use to trigger cuepoints. I could re-purpose other buttons, but there are none that are really free in my set up. What I ended up doing is also mapping a Korg NanoPad to use in concert with the Spin, and using that to trigger the cuepoints. I’d imagine that most people will use Remote in the same way that I use the NanoPad: to control parameters that are usually accessed by navigating through menus in djay.

While playing around with Remote, I found it especially good at controlling effects, loops, and cuepoints. While you can use it to cue up songs, I don’t really suggest it because it’s only a controller for the software on your computer; it does not have the ability to cue through the headphone on the iPhone. This means that to get a proper headphone cue, you’ll have to be at your computer anyway, and it’s much easier to use the full size interface than the scaled down iPhone version. I suppose that if you’re using automix to transition songs it wouldn’t matter, but if you’re doing that, then you’re only using djay as a fancy version of iTunes anyways.

There are a couple features I’d like to see implemented in future editions. Key-lock, for one, is a button that I sorely miss on the Spin. I don’t like having to use my mouse to click the button in the software, so I’ve mapped a button on my Korg Nanopad to do this. If Remote is to take the place of my NanoPad, it’s going to have to have that feature available to me. Second, not having one tap EQ killing or resetting is a big mistake. If you don’t have a physical knob to tweak, then there needs to be a quick way to do it in the software. I’m not sure why it was left out of Remote (or perhaps my fat fingers couldn’t be read properly by the iPhone), as it’s a feature already found in djay. In djay, I can kill frequencies quickly and then reset them by double clicking.

A couple more criticisms I have relate mostly to using an iPhone to dj, and not to Remote itself. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a vinyl elitist, if people want to dj on the iPhone, more power to them. I, however, don’t think the platform is great for it. For one, you can tap the screen all you want, but there’s no haptic feedback to know that you’ve actually done what you wanted to do. Second, because the screen is so small, you have to navigate through different menus and screens to find things that are available to you immediately in djay or on the Spin. I’m sure Algoriddim will release an iPad version that should take care of that though.

One thing I mentioned in the video, but that I think bears repeating, is that Remote requires that both the iPhone/iPod Touch and djay on your Mac have access to a wifi connection. This is the only way they will be able to find and communicate with each other. Fair enough, you say, what’s the issue? Well, there’s no issue of you’re going to use it at home, but if you’re going to go out and DJ, the venue you’re at will need to have a wifi connection you can connect to. Perhaps Algoriddim could add Bluetooth support in the future so Remote could connect directly to your laptop which would mitigate this problem.

[UPDATE: Reader Jan writes in the comments that you can create a network without a router (blame my lack of knowledge in that department) "You can simply create a wireless network yourself on your Mac if there is no Wi-Fi router available: click the AirPort icon in the menu bar and select “Create Network”. You can then select the network on your iPhone."]

Taking into account these issues, I still think Remote is a solid app. With a couple tweaks, it could be a very useful tool in many djay users’ toolboxes. Will dj’ing on an iPhone or any other small mobile device take off? I couldn’t tell you, but I definitely think it’s a possibility. My friends who are getting into dj’ing think it’s a pretty nifty application. I, however, still prefer using knobs, faders, pads, and platters, over touch sensitive screens. Remote reminds me in many ways of Jazz Mutant’s Lemur, a touchscreen controller for Ableton Live. Touchscreen controllers seem to be on the rise, and Remote is near the top of the stack.

Pros
- An extra controller for the software that doesn’t take up any physical ports
- You can run around the crowd and control your tracks
- Runs with little to no latency
- Impress your friends and anger traditionalists at the same time

Cons
- Small screen real estate of the iPhone
- Tactile feedback from the iPhone is non-existent
- No key lock
- No auto EQ killing or resetting

Algoriddim djay Remote

Youtube version of the video

March 25th, 2010 – I’ve written about Hobnox’s AudioTool before, a browser-based app that allows you to play around with emulations of drum machines, synths, and the ToneMatrix (a Monome-esque grid sequencer). At the time, it was fun toy to play around with, but I found it hard to create anything meaningful.

The new Firestarter has changed up the formula a fair bit. Now, along with a much improved interface and snappier performance, Audiotool Firestarter has added multiple tracks which is a big step up. The community is also interactive now, allowing you to hear and remix the tracks of other members. I should say, that even though that Audiotool runs quite a bit smoother now, it’s still a hungry beast, so add those effects sparingly.

AudioTool Firestarter

March 8th, 2010 – These days if you aren’t promoting yourself on sites like Facebook or Twitter, you’re losing out on a huge amount of potential fans that could stumble on you and promote your music to their friends. Facebook in particular seems quite powerful at connecting your music with new listeners. The problem is that the fan pages on Facebook leave much to be desired.

Root Music is a site that connects to your Facebook fan page, and it allows you to create a much more effective landing page. Not only does it look better than the default fan page, it allows you to upload music (through Root Music’s site) which fans can stream straight from Facebook. On top of that, you can easily update information about your band and add gig dates.

I heard about the Root Music beta and wanted to see what the fuss was about, so today I set about creating a fan page to check it out. Creating an account is very easy. You go to Root Music site (linked below), log in using your Facebook account, allow Root Music to install its app on your Facebook page, and you’re good to go.

You don’t make any changes to your band page on through Facebook, you make them from the Root Music site. Changes you make are automatically reflected on your Facebook page; there’s no need to export new information to Facebook. You’ll need to enter information about your band into Root Music, it doesn’t automatically pull the bio information. However, it will pull the photo albums already associated with your fan page.

Right now the information you can enter is pretty focused, and that’s a good thing. Too much clutter is what has caused many a Myspace site to become unwieldy. You can list band members, a location, influences and a bio. There’s another tab which allows your fans to contact you via Facebook email, phone (don’t be an idiot and put your number on there unless you like stalkers), email, and your website.

Root Music is in beta so there were a few issues I came across, none of which really bothered me that much. For one, when I first set up my account using Firefox, it didn’t get to the stage where I let Root Music access my Facebook page. However, when I used Safari, I had no problem. This may be due to some of the aggressive plugins I have installed on Firefox, and I’d be interested in seeing if any of you have the same issue.

As well, when I wanted to enter two websites into the bio page, it connected both into one address. This meant that the destination address was garbled. I tried separating the websites with a coma, and it still didn’t work. In the end, I entered only one website and it was fine.

I also had an issue uploading a DJ set on Root Music’s site. Regular-sized mp3′s uploaded fine, but the 40 minute set, despite appearing to upload to completion, did not appear in my playlist. I’m not sure if this was a limitation of the Soundcloud account Root Music has (I have the same set uploaded on my Soundcloud page), or a limit set by Root Music. If there is a limit to the song length, it would be nice to have that warning (or perhaps I missed it?).

When you edit your page, there’s a tab with a question mark allowing you to tell the developers what you’d like to see there. Brainstorming off the top of my head, it would be useful to have a place to embed videos, or even a tab for blog entries (I don’t like Facebook notes). Maybe integration with a merch store would be cool in the future too.

I could see other ways that Roots Music might make their app even more useful by adding metrics. Could you imagine being able to see the who, what, and wheres of people accessing your fan page? Your personal Soundcloud page allows you to do this, but using Root Music’s account means you don’t get access to this valuable data. Since Root Music has app access, could it not mine this data in a future iteration? I’m sure serious bands would gladly pay for this information. Root Music could even become an affordable alternative to TopSpin.

After trying out Root Music, I have to say that it’s a very useful tool. I’m not sure how they’ll monetize it in the future, but for now I suggest giving it a go and start leveraging the Facebook community. I like the simple aesthetics, and I love that I can upload music using the Soundcloud player but not have to hit on the limits of my personal Soundcloud account; I get to use theirs. It has a lot of room to grow and could become huge if it added metrics. I gots great ideas I tell you whot!

Root Music