Eventide today announced the release of a trial version of Mood, a plug-in that characterizes the emotional content of music. Mood analyzes music including key, spectral content, tempo, dynamics and additional aspects to create a set of ‘descriptors’ which are then compared to a data base. The data base has been populated by people listening to and rating pop songs.
Musical instrument and effects software developer Franke Music proudly presents its debut product, Stroke Machine, a professional drum and groove synthesizer for Apple’s iPad (iOS 6.0 or higher), available as of December 20 on the App Store
Native Instruments released HALCYON SKY – a new MASCHINE Expansion delivering the downtempo rhythms, organic synths, and hazy atmospheres of contemporary ambient electronica. Designed exclusively for the MASCHINE 2.0 software, HALCYON SKY is the first MASCHINE expansion to feature exclusive presets for the PRISM synth – included in the MASCHINE 2.0 software update.
Announced at the recent BPM Show, Reloop and Algoriddim announce the availability of Beatpad, the professional iOS DJ controller, created and optimized for djay. Jointly developed, Beatpad is an all-in-one MIDI controller that offers mixer controls, ultra-responsive multicolor LED jog wheels, performance section with hot cue points, FX, Looping, Drum Pads. Beatpad features a built-in studio-grade audio interface to make the mixing experience complete.
Harmony Systems announced the worldwide availability of Delora rsTouch Pro, a major upgrade to their iPad application that provides control surface functionality for the Propellerhead Reason music application on a Mac or PC. rsTouch Pro adds support for Reason Device Rack editing and a new ‘perform’ mode for sending MIDI to Reason instrument tracks.
Blue Cat Audio have released Blue Cat’s PatchWork 1.1, a new version of their “universal plug-ins patchbay” plug-in that can host up to 64 VST plug-ins into any Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
TotalMix FX for iPad is RME’s Windows/Mac software TotalMix FX ported to iOS. It gives control over the mixer and effects of the supported audio interfaces Fireface UCX and Fireface UFX, when these devices are in Class Compliant mode. TotalMix for iPad does not work wirelessly, and is no replacement for typical remote software (like Lemur/TouchOSC).
Recently the touchAble controller app for Ableton Live has been updated to version 2. Countless artists around the globe – from bedroom producers to award winning artists – use it on stage, in their studio or while on the road. touchAble 2 has been completely redesigned from the ground up, with stability and performance in mind – as well as an array of new and improved features.
Wow! Even for ourselves this is an achievement we didn’t expect to make 10 years ago on that cold thursday morning. But, … we did. Today we are celebrating our 10th anniversary of gearjunkies.com. December 4th, 2003, our website went online. Back then the website was actuallyjust an online product database. A couple of years later we added the news section and started posting information on new gear, interviews, videos, etc.
Last week we reviewed the KICK Synth plugin by Nicky Romero and Sonic Academy. Earlier this year Nicky released his first plugin called Kickstart. This plugin will be looked at today. Kickstart by Nicky Romero & The Cableguys is a plugin that can emulate the sidechain effect that is so populair in dance music styles for years now. The key to this whole proces is called volume ducking, through different volumeshapes you get different swings in the sidechain effect.
Artists have been able to collaborate by emailing song ideas back and forth for some time now. But in this age of cloud storage and sharing, collaboration is easier than ever before. Now SONAR X3 users can share, backup, store, and save their work right from the Control Bar using Gobbler. Email projects without having to quit SONAR, or even switch on Gobbler’s auto-backup feature so that projects save in the background. Gobbler is easy to use and does not require any additional installation thanks to the deep integration that SONAR X3 brings to the table. SONAR X3, SONAR X3 Studio, and SONAR X3 Producer users all have the ability to take advantage of this incredible tool.
As 2013 comes to a close many people will find themselves taking stock of what the year held for them, and perhaps making resolutions to accomplish more of their goals. It’s safe to say, in looking back at the last several months, Grammy award winning producer/mixing engineer Andrew Scheps might be looking forward to taking it a little easy, but probably not. His time is in high demand.
Below are some of the new releases we have encountered this week on the Loops and Samples front. Just like the quality of the audio software we use these days the quality of the content we use (loops and samples) equally matches the high standards of this software. Below is this weeks selection.
Here it is, the KICK Drum Synthesiser Nicky Romero artist edition plugin by Sonic Academy and Nicky Romero. The name says it all, this plugin is intended for making kicks. And that’s what you get, big fat kickdrums for a wide variety of genres.
Well, maybe you have seen this video somwhere in your timeline or somewhere else but it still is worth a post here. Wikidrummer is actually an online French website … for drummers! Drummer Julien Audigier plays his drums at a factory, on a wind farm, and in many other unusual locations, resulting in widely varying acoustics throughout the video.