A man of many hats, Tre has expertise in Holistic Health and Wellness, Digital Marketing, and Media Analytics. With over 10 years of experience as a recording artist and producer, he directs our Music Production workshops. and releases music as Tre'mendous - Learn More
KORG. One of the most recognizable brands in synthesis and biggest electronic instrument manufacturers, is one who’s name speaks for itself. The company has been creating keyboards and electronic organs since 1962. They created their first synthesizer, the miniKORG – in 1973. They are most known today for their music workstations like the M1 (1998) and Triton (1999-2004), which helped shape the sound of several modern music genres today.
This goes to say, when a company of this magnitude chooses to parlay decades of expertise in synthesis into music production software – musicians from all walks of life should take notice. Enter Korg Gadget.
Initially developed for the iPad and iPhone,Korg Gadget 3 is a music production DAW with a collection of gadgets that span from synthesizers and samplers, from drum machines and guitar amps, to audio recording gadgets to acoustic drum modules to ROMplers. And that’s before you get to the add-ons purchased and instrument unlocks. Their are 39 Gadgets in total. THIRTY-NINE.
Unlike traditional linear DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), Gadget 2 uses a tracker styled UI where your sequences play from top to bottom. This may or may not appeal to users at first glance, but the workflow is easy to adjust to in a session or two. The Mixer View is an icon away, which integrates with the Arrangement View a’la Ableton or Logic, giving Korg Gadget a pop-up window-free workflow. From the Mixer View you can insert up to five effects onto each track/Gadget, which are only limited by the power of your device.
There are many options on the market for cloud storage. Some are integrated into our devices Operating Systems, extending the physical storage by embedding virtual extensions of your smartphone or laptops space within its software. Many people only interact with the services that come with the devices they own – iCloud for iPhones and Macs, Google Drive for Androids/Chromebooks, and OneDrive for Windows PCs. More savvy users test out third-party cloud products that strive to offer the best Cloud Storage available, as opposed to settling for previously mentioned services which sometimes seem more like an afterthought – an add-on treated like a premium feature leveraged to gain extra revenue from existing customers. A few third-party products may instantly come to mind as suitable alternatives – Dropbox for example, but one that should be on your radar comes from a Swiss company known as pCloud.
pCloud is a Cloud Storage provider – and one that stands out due to the fact that they’re based in Switzerland, for privacy-conscious users – but the standout difference between pCloud and its competitors is they offer a perpetual license. pCloud’s claim an industry-first with their Lifetime plan, which many users say offers the best Backup experience and cost-efficiency. You only pay ONCE and get to organize your entire digital life for a LIFETIME. All premium features are available and you get to enjoy the beauty of collaboration and relieve that your most important asset- your information, is properly protected.
pCloud’s Lifetime account is an industry-first in the Cloud Storage sector.
Standout Features
pCloud has quite a few unique features that separate them from the alternatives, starting with Unlimited Capabilities. There’s no limitations to the file sizes that you can upload to your account, and the Upload and Download speeds are unlimited as well. File Management is convenient also, offering superior search and filter capabilities, and th r a even a Trash Bin that preserves files you’ve deleted from your account for 14 days for free users, Premium/Lifetime users get 30 days.
File Sharing is versatile and full-featured, with the ability to Share Folders with colleagues and team members. You can invite other Cloud users to private folders, all while controlling the levels of access by setting View, Edit, or Manage permissions to the folder. You can also stop access to any shared folder or change the permissions whenever you desire. You can also share dynamic links to people without a Cloud account, that will always give access to the latest version of your file. Lastly, using Direct Links to files in the public folder, you could even use Cloud as a hosting service to create static HTML websites or embed images!
Back up and Transfer your files from Third-Party Services easily and quickly
This is where things start to get funky, in a good way. pCloud also has third-party integration. Once you have created your pCloud account, you can back-up your files from third-party services like Google Photos, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Facebook! I found this feature to be surprisingly convenient and useful.
Premium Add-Ons
There are a few features that are kept back for the Premium and Premium Plus users. The most notable being the ability to share BRANDED LINKS. Thats’s right, links to file that you share with the public can be branded with a unique look and feel – down to the logo, and custom message to greet the recipient. It’s truly a standout feature that we even use here at Labfreq to share content with our readers.
Make any Download a White-Labed Branded Link
File Versioning is unique to Cloud at the time of writing this article, allowing for Revisions to preview your file edits and restore previous versions if necessary. While file versions are also kept for free users for up to 15 days also, the feature is extended to 30 days for Premium to Lifetime users. You can Rewind back to any previous versions of your digital collection and restore or download and of your non-encrypted files or accidentally removed content. ETH (Extended File History) allows for you to record all file changes up to 365 days back in the past – and easily recover your content within a year of deletion or edit.
Security is at the forefront of pClouds feature set, with TLS/SSL encryption which is applied the moment you transfer a file from your device to pClouds servers. But the built-in security can be hardened with the Cloud Crypto add-on.
Cloud Crypto folder
pCloud Crypto, is client-side encryption which no-one – not even pCloud – will have the keys for file-decryption. Set a password for your Crypto folder and you are the Supreme gatekeeper to what your place in it.
Pricing
Pricing for pCloud comes in three tiers- for the Individual, Family, and Business users. For the Individual, Annual pricing is $49.99 for the Premium 500GB account, and $99.99 for the Premium Plus 2TB accounts, and $175 for the Premium, $350 for the Premium Plus lifetime accounts. A Business Plan is available for $9.99 monthly and $7.99 annually, adding 1TB per user for up to three users. The Family Plan is available for $500 lifetime only.
There are a lot of power players in the Cloud Storage game, many that can afford to throw hundreds of millions – if not billions – into ad budgets to popularize their services over a start-up that might be in business solely to provide cloud storage as a service – like Dropbox or iCloud. But you would be mistaken for assuming those services are better simply because they are better marketed and are more readily assessable due to them being integrated into your devices. I’m happy to reveal that is not the case in this instance, as deep pockets, a large product lineup, and a large workforce work against Big Tech in this case. pCloud is one hell of a standout option in a sea of myriad, redundant choices.
PreSonus has released the ATOM SQ a TR-808 styled groove box/MIDI controller, to accompany their 1st gen Atom Drum Machine. Here we take a look at the former to see if it’s a worthy addition to the line up and how it compares to the latter. Let’s get it!
The ATOM SQ has a more robust, durable build than it’s predecessor – not that the original Atom was a slouch at all. The body is firm and solid with no creaks or pops when you flex anywhere on the frame, the buttons are tight and the knobs are stiff. No wobbly or flimsy parts, PreSonus has done the Atom SQ justice – when picking up the device, placing it on your set up table and powering up the device it gives the impression it means business.
There are 32 velocity and pressure sensitive pads that are laid out like Roland’s TR-808 grooveboxes, yet the ATOM SQ goes a step further by incorporating an assignable multifunction touch strip. There are also two Octave buttons to the left of the pads. Transport controls occupy the left side of the controller’s panel, below eight assignable bank buttons.
The LCD screen is a crisp, Context-sensitive display, which gives visual info on parameter information,note repeat, swing, and much more.
ATOM SQ is tailor-made for PreSonus’ stellar DAW Studio One 5, offering tight integration and no mouse navigation of all parts of the interface, – including instruments and effects.
The ATOM SQ + Revelator Mic + Studio One 5 = All you really need
PreSonus also made sure the ATOM SQ has Ableton Live integration built-in, for control that’s just as extensive as it is with Studio One.
Conclusion
PreSonus ATOM SQ and Cubasis 3 on the Pixel 6
ATOM SQ is a shockingly impressive MIDI controller, that works with Studio One the way a standalone device does. Besides typing in the name of your song or session for the first time, you can create compositions with the SQ and Studio One (Ableton Live also) without touching your computer. And it works nearly as good out the box with apps like Cubasis and FL Studio Mobile on Android and iPhone/iPad. If you’re looking for a MIDI controller/ groove box styled instrument for more expressive control over the virtual instruments in your music production software – few are as versatile and fully featured as the ATOM SQ.
On its 4th version, FL Studio Mobile 4 has finally come into it’s own from under it’s desktop sibling. The linear-timeline based mobile-first DAW is not a stripped down version of FL Studio, but an companion app that stands on its own very well.
UserInterface
Whereas the x86-based FL Studio for Mac and PC can be very overwhelming by it’s multi-windowed, complex user interface – FL Studio Mobile is 100% scalable, with flat vector-friendly graphics opposed to the desktops bitmapped GUI. This makes for a very modern, if simplistic look and feel – similar to Ableton Live.
The GUI contains control aspects that slide out from the bottom (Drum Pads or Keyboard), right (selected instrument or effect) and left (Track Controls) edges of the screen. It’s a well arranged interface, with enough depth to satisfy the most demanding audio professional.
Drum PadsKeyboardMixer ViewTimeline View
Instrumentsand Effects
Many of the desktop VSTs and effects from Image-Line’s collection is present. DirectWave – allows you to use presets saved from the desktops version; Slicer, is a stripped-down version of sample chopping Slicex; Transient Bass, along with GMS (Groove Machine) are two of the newer synths included. SuperSaw and Minisynth are the two exclusives to FL Mobile, with the legendary pattern based Drum Track – (which FL Studio is popular for) rounding out the Instruments.
The list of Effects included are more extensive, with more than 20 effects included. The options are broad, ranging from the essentials like reverb, delay, EQ and compressors – to more advanced and creative ones like Autoduck, Spacer and Auto-Pitch.
Standout features
FL Studio Mobile’s standout features include a full automation for any parameters on a track’s timeline, instrument or effect. On iOS, you can use Audio Units and IAA-compatible apps within the DAW.
Importing samples from my Sound Library from pCloud
Perhaps the most useful, is the ability to import your own sounds and samples from outside the program. This allows for more advanced beatmakers, producers and musicians the ability to create a more custom sound of their own. Connect to external storage, or even import sounds uploaded to, Google Drive or OneDrive.
Lastly , the ability to purchase the complete Preset and Sample Libraries for each of the virtual instruments is possible – from the built-in store – giving access to many exclusive sounds from desktop counterparts of the built-in instruments.
FL Studio Sound Shop
Conclusion
FL Studio is a very powerful DAW, bringing advanced desktop level music production abilities to smartphones and tablets. There are few music making apps that can match the capabilities of this program, and those who are FL Studio users on desktop platforms looking for way to make music on the go will be doing themselves a disservice to overlook this app.
ThinkPad, ThinkBook, IdeaPad… Lenovo has a product naming pattern going on here if you’ve noticed. Today we’re looking at a first here at Labfreq – the Slim 7 Carbon – our IdeaPad debut.
Specs
The Slim 7 Carbon is a 14-inch laptop rocking the signature, sleek “IdeaPad” design language with aspirations for ThinkPad X1 Carbon-level durability. Upon opening the lid of the device, the vibrant display with punchy hues and deep blacks immediately stood out from the usual cooler matte look/feel seen on most laptops. It helped that it’s Touchscreen, the glossy screen giving the colors an almost polished feel.
Specs
IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon 14
Processor
AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800U Processor (1.90 GHz, up to 4.40 GHz Max Boost, 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 16 MB Cache
4 x speakers with Dolby Atmos® Speaker System Smart amp Digital signal processing (DSP)
Camera
IR + time of flight (TOF) camera
Connectivity
802.11AX (2 x 2) Bluetooth® 5.1
Ports
USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 2 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (DisplayPort™ 1.4 + PD 3.0) Headphone / mic combo
Special Features
One of the more unique additions is the Lenovo AI Chip, making features like Smart Rapid Start for fast, hands-free login, Smart Adaptive Sensors for automatic display tuning, and Smart Presence Detection that automatically wakes up or locks the PC possible.
The 14-inch, QHD+ OLED display with 90Hz refresh rate has a 16:10 aspect ratio, offering more screen space for productivity boosts. It also features Dolby Vision™ HDR, color accuracy with 100% DCI-P3, and deep blacks from VESA®DisplayHDR 500 True Black (whew!)
There’s also Dolby Audio, which adds the ability to listen to and create Spatial Audio experiences. Preloaded software was minimal, with Alexa, Dolby Vision, Lenovo Vantage, McAfee, and Office 365 pre installed.
Conclusion
The IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon is a very capable ultrabook, packing an AMD Ryzen 6000 SoC, with a Nvidia graphics card – AAA gaming is possible with this laptop. The 16:10 display ratio leaves headroom for fitting more info on the screen. For anyone looking for an AMD-powered laptop with decent gaming specs, the Slim 7 Carbon just might me the perfect fit.
IdeaPad Duet 5i arrives to challenge the Surface and iPad head-on
Expanding on the success and popularity of their Duet line of tablets for ChromeOS, Lenovo is expanding the design to the IdeaPad series to create a classy and stylish Windows 11 tablet.
The IdeaPad 5i speaks the same design ethos as the Chromebook Duet, which we reviewed last year.
IdeaPad Duet 5i comes equipped with a 12-inch, 2.5K IPS touchscreen display in taller 16:10 format, bundled with a Bluetooth keyboard, optional Active Pen 3, with up to 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processors. Check out Lenovo to learn more.
“360 degrees of thin and stylish 2-in-1 creativity”
Hot On the heels of the release of their Galaxy S22 smartphone line-up, Samsung announced the laptop counterpart at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
The Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 is the MacBook Pro contender of 2022, being configurable with up to 16GB RAM + 1TB SSD, a Intel® Core™ i7-1160G7 Processor, and S Pen, with up to a 15.6 Super AMOLED touchscreen Display.
It also has tons of software features, like “Galaxy Continuity” and blockchain-powered Private Share. You can even pre-order to receive $50 Samsung Credit, if you do so before it’s March 18th release date. Check out Samsung for more details.
This year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) has been dominated by computer OEMs . What is usually a tech conference for mobile devices (smartphones,etc.) has become a highly anticipated showcase for upcoming laptops and tablets.
Below are all the links to our articles associated with product announcements at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Lenovo is a regarded as a highly innovative brand who’s products have received high ratings in our product review database. Keeping their upcoming products on our radar, we’ve compiled all the info of interest to our readers on their upcoming ThinkPad lineup: the ThinkPad T Series, ThinkPad P Series, and the 1st Gen ThinkPad x13s.
ThinkPad x13s
ThinkPad X13s is the world’s first laptop powered by the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform, 5G, and 28 hours of battery life.
ThinkPad X1 Xtreme
ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5, powered by up to the latest 12th Gen Intel Core i9 H-Series processors and available with the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX Laptop GPUs, up to 64GB DDR5 memory, and optional dual Solid-State Drives (SSD) supporting up to a massive 8TB.
ThinkPad T Series (T14,T14s,T16)
ThinkPad T14
ThinkPad T series updated with 16:10 aspect ratio displays with low blue light technology with FHD camera options Available with either the latest 12th Gen Intel Core or the latest AMD Ryzen PRO 6000 Series processors.
Many people regard the iPhone as the best smartphone of all time. While many smartphone (Android) users may beg to differ – there’s no denying the iPhone 13 is the best iteration yet. It also has a “mini”, which matches the regular version spec for spec except for it’s size.
Although the iPhone 13 mini is the second gen of it’s kind, there are rumors that it may be the last version of the “smaller option iPhone”. We don’t know how valid those claims are, but if so it’s a darned shame – because we have three valid reasons below why the iPhone 13 mini is the best compact smartphone of all time.
1. Sharper Display
The 13 mini has an 2340×1080 display with pixel resolution at 476 ppi compared to the normal 13’s 460 ppi. So the 5.4 inch display of the 13 mini is a bit sharper than the 6.1 inch screen of its larger sibling. It also has the same OLED Super Retina XDR display that comes in the iPhone 13, Pro, and Pro Max.
The Super Retina XDR display of the iPhone 13 mini has a higher display resolution in the iPhone 13 (regular).
2.Much-Improved, flagshiptierbattery life
The iPhone 13 mini has 1.5 more hours battery life than the iPhone 12. Yes, you read that right, which definitely amounts to around 3 hours more than the 12 mini. That’s a major year-by-year improvement – while not exactly up to the standard of longer lasting flagships like the iPhone 13 Pro Max or Galaxy S21 Ultra. Nonetheless the 13 mini has more the enough stamina to last a full day.
3. No-compromiseflagship features
The iPhone 13 mini isn’t a stripped down version of the regular 13, it matches spec for spec – so it’s essentially the same phone in a smaller package. That means you get the same A15 Bionic processor, same camera tech,etc. with the only compromises being the display and battery size.
The same Ceramic Shield screen, IP68 water resistance, wide and ultra-wide camera lenses, etc. If you’re someone with small hands, or you have big hands but already own an Android phone with a big display (like me) the 13 mini is the perfect compliment. There aren’t many current Android phones with a screen smaller than 6 inches in the same tier as the iPhone 13 mini.
Do you think the iPhone 13 mini is the best one-handed smartphone of all time? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below!
