Showing posts with label audio interfaces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audio interfaces. Show all posts

IK Multimedia AmpliTube 3 Amp & FX Tone Modeling Software Review

IK Multimedia AmpliTube 3 Amp and FX Tone Modeling Software
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A guitar/bass amp modeling software product with usable tones...? Seriously?
Yup.
I've used Line6, Studio Devil, and some other unmentionables over the past few years and I just could not accept them as serious tools. Useful for practicing quietly at home in the late night hours? Sure...but when it came to using them for recording, forget it. Everything seemed off, from overall tone to playing dynamics. It was always obvious that you were using software. So for a long time, I just steered clear of these tools, convinced that it would take some long-term research and development to solve the many issues.
But I'm pleased to say that products like Amplitube are giving me hope. I am very impressed with their version 3 and the newer Amplitube Fender release. Someone really has their act together at IK Multimedia and shows a great understanding of how guitar sound is produced overall. Plugging in and finding quite convincing tones ranging from the sweetness of a stereo chorus Roland JC120 to the onslaught of a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier with a distortion box out front always brings a smile. There are some less-than-inspiring presets, but these may suit some ears more than mine.
However, the real power is in Amplitube's flexibility. You can take any preset that's in the neighborhood of what you're looking for and then tweak it until you're happy. Everything from stomp boxes to the amp face dials to rack effects and microphone placement, it's all there. You can even tell it which mics (e.g., Shure SM57, etc...) to use, where to place them relative to the speaker, how far you want them from the front of the cabinet, and what type of room (e.g., small studio, hall, etc...) to use. The differences are sometimes subtle, but everything adds up to an overall sound. And once you have the whole configuration "just so", you can save the settings to your own preset folder and then call them up whenever. No need to write everything down and hope that you've accounted for each variable. The software takes care of it for you.
We're using Amplitube with our Mbox 2/Pro Tools LE 8 setup and it makes demo recording so much easier. Now the hardest part of recording is setting up the drums and vocals, as the two guitars and the bass are easy to configure and record. Not to mention that the direct in analog-to-digital recording is clean and free from ambient noise, so there's only minimal scrubbing required during mixdown.
I've read some reviewers out there speaking poorly of Amplitube and about modeling software in general. The central argument is always the same: poor tone and playing dynamics. I can understand this complaint and in the past, I'd be right there with them, chanting the Luddite opposition to digital anything. But not anymore. I'd recommend that the diehards out there demo the newest versions of these products and think again about how things are shaping up. I've been playing on and off for almost twenty years and in that time, I've owned and jammed on a lot of different amps, including a Fender Champ, Deluxe Reverb, and Twin Reverb, a Dr. Z Mazerati, Engl Powerball, two different Marshalls, and a couple Vox. I'm not a tone snob, but my ear is pretty good. To me, the new wave of modeling software is really starting to nail down the tone factor. Moreover, they're getting much better at rendering variables and dynamics such as pick placement and attack.
Is it perfect yet? Eh...maybe not. But things have come a long way and in my opinion, it's good enough for most recording efforts. Pros out there may not agree, but I'm speaking here to everyday folks like me who just enjoy writing and recording music and playing out live on occasion. Note that for live applications, you'll really want a way to access the presets more conveniently, like IK's StompIO floorboard, which is another considerable investment by itself.
Bottom line: give it a try and I really think that (unless you're a tone snob) you'll be impressed.

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Cakewalk Guitar Tracks 2.0 Review

Cakewalk Guitar Tracks 2.0
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I have to say that I am really impressed with version 2.0 of Guitar Tracks. They completely redesigned the user interface, which looks great, and made it really easy to use. It's a full 8 track recording studio with input and output meters, and audio editing. Each of the tracks can now be mono or stereo and can use any DirectX audio plugin. It comes with Stereo Reverb, Chorus, Flanger, Delay and Parametric EQ plugins. It also has the Drag and Drop Drummer Lite software with a bunch of great drum loops, that intergrates with program. I was up and running in about 5 minutes.

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Guitar Tracks 2.0 is a PC-based multitrack recording program built for guitar players. Designed to be as easy to use as a multitrack cassette recorder or tape deck, this is a great musical sketchpad for guitarists and singers/songwriters. Use it to get ideas down quickly. Controls are logical and clear so you can lay it down and mix it up fast. Features include eight recordable tracks of digital audio, easy punch-ins, looping, locating markers, stereo equalizer, delay, flange, stereo chorus, reverb, and vintage amp simulation. Mix down to stereo WAV files to burn CDs or make MP3s for the Internet. Tune up quickly with a built-in chromatic tuner. Guitar Tracks works with any guitar or microphone.

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Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 KONTROL Edition - Software/Hardware Combo Review

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 KONTROL Edition - Software/Hardware Combo
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I've been a guitar Rig user since Version 2 and have both positive and negative to say about the product. Guitar rig is a fantastic tool for creating arrangements quickly during the writing process especially if guitar isn't your first instrument. The sound quality is as good as I've heard from a plug in and the effects when chained like a real live setup would be perform with the same characteristics. Put a compressor where you normally would in a signal chain and it acts like a compressor. I cant say the same about it's competitors. I find most of the effects to be very nice especially the staples for guitarists such as overdrive and delay.
I gave this review 4 starts for two reasons. The first being the foot controller, it's not well made and Native Instruments has not had replacements available for several months. I believe this could be due to a vendor change or a full redesign. The floor controller is built very poorly and is very expensive for what you acquire upon purchase. The replacements are almost $300 US, twice the price of a Behringer FCB1010 which is made much superior. The second is the CPU usage. I think NI can do a better job in this area, the software can eat a lot of CPU and RAM.
Over All I really like Guitar Rig over other products I have tried and purchased. I do have concerns about future development of the product now that it's part of Komplete and no longer available stand alone without the hardware, but I think that could change too. Although I use a mic'd up cabinet once I have the arrangements finished I have kept many scratch guitar solos that I intended to re-record in projects that sounded great. Guitar Rig is a really good solid product and their website has fantastic customer service and software verification.
I do recommend this this product preferably without the hardware if you can find it that way. Less the Hardware I give Guitar Rig 5 stars.


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PowerTracks Pro Audio Version 11 Review

PowerTracks Pro Audio Version 11
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PowerTracks is a great program and very easy to use. As someone very familiar with PowerTracks, I fail to see why the previous reviewer is complaining about the track highlighting. Clearly, you can highlight a track as many times as you want, either with the mouse, or with the F7 and F8 keys. I've never had a problem highlighting tracks or positioning the cursor. You could even type in the exact From/Thru times if you double-click on those fields on the toolbar. Editing, for me, has always been very easy with PowerTracks.
Don't let the price fool you. This program is very powerful and is very easy to use.

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Propellerhead Record for Reason Owners Review

Propellerhead Record for Reason Owners
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Great sounds. Easy to use. If you have been using a previous version of Reason, now is the time to upgrade. The Kong is amazing. If you have used drum machines that do acoustic modeling, you will love the Kong. Other updates are exciting as well... Good stuff here and well worth the money!


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Have Reason already? Supercharge it with Record for the ultimate upgrade. Record for Reason Owners upgrades any version of Reason to Record 1.5 and Reason 5, bringing audio recording and countless other enhancements to your favorite music software. Add Record to your Reason rack and get unlimited audio tracks, a studio grade mixing console, Line 6 amps, improved sequencing and a whole lot more. As a Reason user, you will feel right at home in Record. Reason and Record will fuse together, adding just the features you always wished for, as well as flow and functionality you never knew existed.
Record for Reason Owners gives registered Reason users a direct path to add Record to their setup. Record for Reason Owners contains a complete version of Record, Propellerhead Software's new recording software, and comes with an upgrade to the latest version of Reason — Reason 5.

Highlights in Record for Reason Owners Easy recording, unlimited tracks Record gives you unlimited audio tracks, world class effects and mixing gear, and a whole new take on music recording, in a familiar environment.

Mix in studio grade quality Record's fully equipped mixing desk adds a big studio signal chain on all your sound sources. EQs, Dynamics, gain stage and advanced routing will give your music that unmistakable million-dollar console sound.

Multi processing Believe it or not, Reason running through Record is actually lighter on your computer's processor than Reason 4 standalone.

Richer racks Record's multiple, parallel racks give users an intuitive and easily navigable music environment. Smart scrolling lets you access any unit in seconds.

Line 6 in the rack Record packs guitar and bass amplifier devices from the world's greatest amp modeling people – Line 6. Add their amp and speaker modeling your recordings or run your Reason devices through them.

Mixer direct outs Record lets you plug any and every channel straight into your ReWire host, while keeping all automation data fully intact

Expert exporting In one single click, Record will export your separate mixer channels as individual audio files, with or without effects. Need just the effects? No problem.

Swift sequencer editing Record's fresh sequencer features — like audible note preview, improved clips handling, and the brand new Blocks mode — make editing and composing fast and flexible.

Reason 5 included Record for Reason owners comes with the Reason 5 upgrade included. Version 5 adds the mighty Kong Drum Designer, the versatile Dr. Octo Rex loop player, live sampling, the Blocks pattern based sequencing mode and much, much more.

About Record Recording music is all about seizing the moment. Capturing a perfect performance–or even nailing that idea before it goes away–requires tools that are ready when you are. Record is always ready. Created with musicians in mind, Record lets you create record ready channels in an instant, minimizing the steps between idea and actual recording. The result equals more music–and less dialog boxes. Simply plug in, breathe out and you're ready to go.

All the instruments, processors and effect units used in a song are housed inside Record's customizable rack. Any device created is automatically and logically patched into the rack, but if you're feeling adventurous or need to do some routing of your own, just flip your entire Record rack over and all the cables are all yours!

Your Record rack can be stacked with an infinite number of reverbs, distortion units, delays, dynamic processors, mastering EQs–everything you need to shape and color your sounds. Click and drag effects straight to the rack, or load any of the expertly crafted patches.

To help you arrange your tracks in a smooth, effortless way, Record comes with a fast and flexible sequencer. Immediate and intuitive, Record's sequencer puts you in control of your arrangements, letting you move and edit parts as you go along.

Record's sequencer also takes care of your MIDI performances, for use with the build in ID-8 instrument or for controlling Reason instrument and devices when Record is paired with Reason. Every thinkable knob, button or fader can be automated with ease, and then edited and fine-tuned in the sequencer.

Finally, all your sounds will end up in Record's main mixer. This mixing console's sound and signal processing was faithfully modeled after* the legendary SSL® 9000k analog mixing desk. Flexible routing, full dynamics, EQ, advanced effects handling, full automation and a 64-bit mix bus gives you that big studio sound right out of your computer. And yes, you do get that master-bus compression.

For guitar and bass players, Record comes installed with separate guitar and bass POD® units from amp and cab simulation experts Line 6. With bass and guitar amplifiers available for every single track in your Record project, you are never short of interesting tones and timbres. As the Line 6 amplifiers are insert effects and don't affect the original instrument signal, you are free to change your amplifier and cabinet settings at any point in time–even after laying down your track.

For vocalists, Record 1.5 comes with the super flexible high-quality Neptune Pitch Correction and Voice Synth effect. Use Neptune to correct sour notes, shift pitches, create backing harmonies, formant shift or take your vocals into outer space.

To help you complement your recorded material, Record also comes with multi instrument ID8–a songwriter's toolbox. ID8 ships with a wide palette of sounds useful for building a steady foundation for your tracks, like pianos, drums, bass, strings and more.

As a perfect performance may be less than perfect from scratch, Record features a swift and easy to use comp editor. Building the ultimate vocal track is as simple as selecting the parts that work and muting the ones that don't. Exit the comp editor and listen to the results; a perfect take containing only the good parts.

Record has a unique twist on the concept of time and tempo. Record's real-time time stretch lets you play now and pick the tempo later; change the song tempo and all your audio tracks will follow right along without any need for pre-processing of any kind. Need to slow your song down to nail a tricky passage? No problem. Just reduce the tempo, record your performance and bring the tempo back up. The audio quality? Amazing.

New in Reason 5 Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player The upgraded Dr. Octo Rex loop player loads eight REX loops into one player and lets you switch between them on the fly. This makes arranging a breeze — load the drum loops into one player, the guitars into another and use the sequencer to select what loop to play in a pattern-like fashion. With eight loops to switch between, the new loop player also comes ready for the experimental minded. Set the player to retrig the loops on the beat, on the bar or on the 16th note. Or program the loops manually like in the original rex player. For each of the eight loops, the new rex player also comes with an expanded set of per-slice settings. Set pan, pitch, filter frequency and level, reverse slices, use multiple outputs, create alternating groups of slices and much more. The Reason 5 Factory Sound Bank comes complete with guitar and acoustic drums patches for Dr. Octo Rex and a huge selection of techno, house, club, hip hop and r&b loops from signature sound designers.

Blocks Many musicians tend to think of music in terms like intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, buildup and so on. With the new Blocks mode in Reason 5 and Record 1.5, your sequencer does too. Blocks lets you sequence your songs using a more pattern-based approach, with the segments of your song as individual building blocks to be laid out in your arrangement. Start by creating the discrete parts of your song in blocks mode. When you are ready to start building your song, just switch back to song mode and draw in what blocks should play in the dedicated pattern lane. Use one block for the verse and one for the chorus — or build your song around a single 8-bar loop. Blocks provide a very fast way of creating a musical structure for your song. But the options don't end there. With the basic arrangement laid out, you can see the contents of the blocks and create variations and mute individual parts, or add further musical elements in song mode. A typical use for Blocks is to create your backing track in blocks and then use the song mode sequencer to record vocals or instrumental performances. For music based around a single looped section, one repeated block with automation and mutes of individual tracks added in song mode makes arranging a breeze. You never have to commit to using either mode — you are free to move back and forth between Blocks and Song mode, and any changes you make in your Blocks will instantly be manifested in all instances of that Block. Need some tambourine on that chorus? Add it, and there will be tambourine whenever the chorus block is playing.

Live Sampling Remember the time when samples were something you sampled and not loaded from your hard drive? When a sampler was a machine that could record samples, not just play them back. As samplers became software instead of machines, they came to rely on external sample editing software for recording and editing the samples and the art of spur-of-the-moment creative sampling was pretty much lost. Now we are bringing it back to Reason 5 with its live sampling input. All sample players in Reason are now samplers. Just hook up a sound source to the rack's sampling input and you are ready to start sampling. Use a mic, a turntable, an instrument or the entire Reason mix. Sampling in Reason is simple and straightforward. Hit the sample button and Reason starts sampling. Reason will detect the sample start automatically. You can sample when Reason is running too if you like — no need to stop the music. If needed, bring up the built-in sample editor to set start and end points, loop points and more. This is possible for all loaded samples by the way — not only the ones you have sampled. As always, Reason lets you focus on music making — and sampling in this case. All samples are neatly stored in our song file and accessible in the new samples pane in the tool window. Here you can easily see what samples are loaded into what machine and delete and export samples as you wish. Live sampling together with pitch detection of root key and automatic zone mapping makes it dead easy to sample an instrument and map the samples across the keyboard. This way you'll create your own multi-sampled instruments for NN-XT and NN-19 in an instant.

Kong Drum Designer Analog synthesis, physical modeling, sampling, REX loops, support sound generators, effects, flexible routing, multiple hit types and more. The Kong Drum Designer is not your regular drum module. It's the drum module focused on letting you get exactly that drum sound you're after.Kong has 16 pads and 16 drums. Build your drum sounds based on any of the nine different drum modules. Flavor the sound with 11 support generators and effects. Program automation, create alternating groups and let Reason's powerful sequencer control the beat. Reason 5 ships with a sound bank with a generous supply of kits for Kong across a wide variety of styles.

System Requirements Windows
Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon or better (multiple cores highly recommended)
1GB RAM
DVD drive
Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7
2 GB free hard disk space
Monitor with 1024x768 resolution or larger
A 16 bit Windows compatible audio card, preferably with an ASIO driver
A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
Requires any version of Reason or Record Reason Duo
Mac
Intel Mac (multiple cores highly recommended)
1 GB RAM or more
DVD drive
Mac OS X 10.4 or later
2 GB free hard disk space
Monitor with 1024x768 resolution or larger
CoreAudio compliant audio interface or built-in audio hardware
A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
Requires any version of Reason or Record Reason Duo


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PYLE PAD6 Audio to USB Interface & recorder to Computer & SD Card Review

PYLE PAD6 Audio to USB Interface and recorder to Computer and SD Card
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I have a huge collection of cassettes recorded over many years from LP's and CD's and finally wanted to get around to digitizing them. I found the Pyle PAD6 and really liked the feature that allowed conversion directly to SD cards. That and the $29 dollar price made me pull the trigger.
Unfortunately, the PAD6 is poorly constructed with very loose line and headphone connections. This makes for really bad conversions with the sound shifting from channel to channel and volume going up and down according to the vagaries of the line connection.
I don't know if this is inherent in the product or I just received a lemon. But it is going back.
On the plus side, operation is simple and straight forward and it was the the least expensive analog to digital conversion device I found.
But I guess you get what you pay for. Or on second thought, sometimes you don't even when it is dirt cheap.

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PreSonus Studio One Artist to Pro Upgrade Review

PreSonus Studio One Artist to Pro Upgrade
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Do the research. Cubase, Abelton, ProTools and the list goes on. I have done my homework and I know my budget. You can't get all the features this Pro version offers for less than $600. And THAT is an upgrade from their "light" (AKA "Lite" or "LE") versions or freeware that come with a product that is overpriced for the "free" software. I bought the AudioBox USB for $150 and was going to use it with the DAW I already own. After installing the "free" Studio One Artist that came with it, I realized it is 100 times better than any of the "light" versions of various DAWs I have receied and decided to go ahead and upgrade through their website. I am AMAZED. Not only does it give you 64 bit processing, it gives you the ability to digitally publish your music. Yeah, to any website you want. You can use Redbox CD, Facebook, MySpace, whatever. You can even publish to SoundCloud directly within the software. And it comes with GIGS of more instruments and loops. It has VST plug in support, too. Oh, and you just want to export to MP3's, make a CD for your friends? It has that, too. Try finding a DAW with this one's simplicity and "never-done-this-before" ease and I'll pay you back. I've been at this for 23 years. I know Cubase, Cakewalk, Ableton, ProTools and Logic and they are all great. However, all of them require a serious amount of dedication and education to be able to even mix down a single song. My 12-year-old can use Studio One (sorry, Kevin, it's true) to master a CD. You can't say that for any of the other DAWs that cost at least half as much more. Don't believe me, download the 30 day free trial from the PreSonus website and see for yourself. Just come back here to buy it since this is where you found it.

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