Ableton Vs Maschine – Which One is Best?
We stumbled upon a bit of a debate while looking into how to deal with some upcoming tutorials. Apparently, a very hot topic of debate out there is being approached as “should I get Ableton or Maschine?” In other cases it manifests as just, “Ableton vs. Maschine.” I think this is an interesting approach to the topic. I’m not going to say this is the wrong way to approach these kind of decisions. I do, however, want to suggest that this mentality suffers from some critical issues that often make the discussion derail itself early on in a forum context.
Forums
Forums are a blessing and a curse. Some forums are extraordinarily helpful and even have policies in place about not having “flame wars” and generally being polite to one another. Other forums are less worried about this and the admins don’t intervene until the last… Read the rest
Musikmesse – Top 5 Product Announcements
Once a year, around this very time, all eyes in the pro audio / music world find themselves drawn to Frankfurt. You’re thinking it’s some kind of sausage thing, and why not? However, I am actually talking about the European equivalent of NAMM known as Musikmesse. In addition to having a rad Euro name that makes me think of the average synth goon’s noodle infested studio, Musikmesse is often regarded by those in certain quarters as the trade show where vapors become real and all the coolies trot out the next enviable piece of tech candy.
I always dream of attending it myself, but there seems to be some reason I can’t go every year. Last year, I believe I was in Germany not too long before, not too long after, but not at all during. This year, I was in Miami,… Read the rest
Izotope Ozone 5 Advanced – Review
Izotope’s Ozone 5 Advanced is a full featured, comprehensive system for mastering productions within any RTAS/Audiosuite, VST, MAS, Audio Unit or Direct X compatible host software. Version 5 represents the culmination of a few versions worth of tweaks to a system that started out on a good foot in the first iteration. Feature enhancements and fixes are bountiful in the latest release from a company that has consistently released compelling and useful software. However, before we dive into the software itself, we should probably talk about what mastering is, exactly.
The mastering process essentially takes its name from the mediums of the past. Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, the recordings produced for broadcast and retail had to be carted around in physical form. The final mix was bounced from whatever recording method of the day to a “master copy” that would be the basis for further duplication and archive… Read the rest
Izotope’s Stutter Edit Review
Modern EDM programming is filled with rabbit holes. You can be in the middle of inspired riffing, open a menu, discover some new widget or control function and you’re off on a tangent. Before you know it; it’s ten til midnight and the four bars you had at noon are a distant memory. The good news is, you’ve built a beat repeater matrix that ties to a delay and uses loop recording functionality to make an infinite pile of, unusable, musical garbage. So, that’s another Saturday rotting on the hard drive. In the wake of Skrillex and that Mau5 fellow, the process of creating one’s own floor filling masterpiece has been confronted with some deep expectations with regards to device building or deep automation editing. It really is the only way to get some of the chopped up, altered and mangled sounds that are so prevalent in the “dubsteppity,” electro-house-ish,… Read the rest
Winter NAMM 2012 – UniqueSquared Awards
So, as we come to a close with our NAMM coverage, we feel a strange need to complete this in the time honored tradition of so many who have gone before us: with a crocked up awards ceremony! We aren’t wasting time trying to cull some kind of authoritative top ten either. This is a quickly slapped together list of things that made surprise impressions on us or just made us scratch our heads and say “oh… um… yeah.” You might say “um, whatever happened to awards shows with high standards?” We simply point to the Academy and shrug. Let’s present some awards with practically no prestige and definitely no monetary value!
The Gadget Most Resembling a Sex Toy Award:
Given the sordid history of the music biz, one would think this field was filled with contenders. Shockingly, no, it isn’t. So you can write it off to thoughtful design… Read the rest
