There are many Battle Royale games on the market, to such an extent that it’s pretty much become a niche genre in and of itself. This is mostly due to the Fortnite craze that has become so big, that it’s become a social media platform within itself. But it didn’t achieve the feat of making Battle Royale’s alone, it also had the help of Player Unknown Battlegrounds and PUBG Mobile.
PUBG Mobile is a slimmed down version of PUBG for PC,PS4, and Xbox. The premise of the game is straightforward: 100 Players parachute from an airplane unto various locations and scavenge for weapons, ammo and various useful goods to survive. And boy, it can get interesting.
There are a few game modes, the traditional 100 men battle royale, 4 on 4 Evoground mode, and two zombie modes. Check out some game highlights of the Evoground mode below:
Affinity Photo, is available for iOS, Windows, and MacOS, at a one-off price that matches a one month subscription to Adobe’s Photoshop. Will Affinity’s photo editing tools and features make you question Adobe’s sanity, or is Affinity Photo just another knockoff? Keep reading to find out my take in our official review.
Serif is pairing off it’s Graphic Illustration software Affinity Designer, with it’s photo perfecting, image tweaking counterpart Affinity Photo. It does just what its name implies, and it’s a program that I anticipate amateur and pro Photographers alike having alot of Affinity for.
There is just about every type of creative and technical tool for photo editing that you could think of, and some innovative ones that Serif came up with that no one has until now. Extensive Bitmap editing? Check. Negative Image Healing and Restoration? Check. Built-in Histogram with comprehensive level adjusting tools? Check and Check. Just when I thought Designer had all the tools a visual designer would ever need, I’m proven wrong. And I tip my hat to the Affinity Team, in Photo they take the Persona Workflow even further.
Multiple Persona -lity
The Persona tools, is Serif’s way of categorizing common tasks into workflows that simplify the creative process by eliminating the need for excessive right-clicks and menu digging. It’s also about making macro buttons for tasks that are usually a five step process in alternative programs. The first in the toolkit is more aimed at creative uses, the Liquify Persona. It offers the ability to add warping and deforming to your images, a term known as Liquify in Design ciphers
Liquify Persona View
The next tool in the process is the Develop Persona, which gives you more traditional editing tools, such as bitmap doctoring and restoration features. This is the view where most of the “Photoshopping” would take place.
Develop Persona View
The last in the creative processis the Tone Mapping View, where you can adjust the RGB output and correct any blemishes in your image negatives to get the perfect look for your images.
Tone Mapping Persona View
The Export Persona helps you prepare your design for real-wrold presentation, tweaking your creations for web,print,or animated file formats.
Export Persona Workflow
iPad Version
Affinity Photo has an iPad version, which in some ways presents itself as a mobile,complementary app to the desktop version. With features like 2048 pressure- sensitivity, palm rejection and a touch first UI – in no way does it come off as a stripped down tablet version.
Affinity Photo
An Extensive Photo Editor
After spending 6 months working with the Affinity programs Designer and Photo – I conclude that Adobe has an uphill battle on their hands. These two programs (Designer and Photo) cover 77% of the case uses that one would use the Adobe Creative Suite for, but you could purchase either for the cost of a 1 Month subscription to Adobe CS. For 2 month subscription, you could buy both – and I am certain that Affinity Publisher, Serif’s new addition to the family makes question of which pay model offers more value for your money a no-brainer.
For complete Photography Mastery, you might want to look into getting the Affinity Photo Workbook
If you already have your Video editing and Web Design tools covered and need a program that allows you to go all out and cover your post photography needs, you might want to take a look at Affinity Photo. It just may be all the Photoshop you’ll ever need.
Eternal Spring of the MInd by Elena ParaskevaArtwork: Val d’Orcia Elena Paraskeva
One of the few Digital Audio Workstations that doesn’t need an introduction, FL Studio has reached it’s 13th version with 20 years of development under it’s hood. Due to that important detail and the fact that 13 isn’t a very popular number (13th floor, Friday the 13th, etc.) Image Line named the latest iteration of one of the most popular DAWs in the world FL Studio 20.
For those not in the know, FL Studio 20 is a music production program from Image Line that enables you to piece together patterns and loops into full on compositions as complex or simple as you desire. One of the first programs to buck the traditional linear tracking workflow, FL Studio (FLS for the rest of this article) is as flexible as they come -which could confuse the beginner and the experienced moving from a new program alike. Also, there is finally an official Mac version, so it just might start popping up on the main computer of professional recording studios soon.
The User Interface is a palette of windows to your own sonic universe
While FL Studio is a complex program, once you get up to grip with the three main window views- The Channel Rack, The Playlist, and the Mixer – is not as daunting as it appears off first impressions. I realized that the best practice is to work with your musical ideas in these windows in that order; perfecting your patterns in the Channel Rack, arranging the patterns in a song sequence within the Playlist. and finally assigning your channels from the Channel Rack to tracks on the Mixer for the final tweaks.
Channel RackPlaylistMixer
The Mixer has 128 track virtual MixBoard., with each track possessing 10 insert slots that you can drop effects into for the perfect sound. There is also a built in EQ, send, sidechain and bus routing capabilities for each track as well.
What’s it do, and what’s new
FL Studio categorizes it’s plug-in bundle into two categories: Generators (Instruments) and Effects (EQs, Echo Delays, Compressors and the like). In version 20, they’ve added the FLEX Synthesizer to it’s hearty collection. FLEX has an advanced synthesis engine, with its own delay, reverb, and limiter. In place of oscillators, there’s a Macro section with sliders for Vibrato, Unison, and Character amongst others that can be added up to eight in total. Another newcomer is the FL Studio Mobile Plug In, which allows you to transfer your compositions from the FL Studio Mobile app to the desktop for the final master.
Flex Synth – Advanced Simplicity
FL Studio Mobile, inside FL Studio.
The Usual suspects and community favorites like FL Studio’s flagship synth-Sytrus, Slicex – a Sample Slicing instrument that lets you chop up wave files and automatically assigns the MIDI of each marker to your keys/pads, and Directwave, the residential ROMpler that adds real world instruments to the FLS sound library.
Sytrus
Slicex
Directwave Player
In reality, there are too many Generators, Tools and effects to cover in this review – and quite a few of them are deep enough to command their own review articles. Some notable mentions are the FPC (an MPC for FL), the Fruity Video Player for score synchronization, and the FL Studio Mobile 3 app as a plug in.
The PlugIn Picker. Yes, every image is a built-in generator, or an effect.
Linear, straightforward Audio Tracks
Fruity Loopers, Rejoice!! After years of feature requests, no more fiddling with the record prompt when you want to record (for audio tracks at least). You can now make tracks in the playlist dedicated audio inserts, no more recording audio into Edison or into the playlists as audio clips – which were downright frustrating processes if you ask me. Now, Image-Line has remedied the issue and FLS functions more like a traditional linear DAW- at least when it comes to recording audio from the real world.
Price vs Value:
FL Studio offers three tiers of entry: Fruity ($99) Producer ($199) and Signature ($299). The version I’m reviewing is the Producer Edition, which comes with full song creation and mic recording. While there is a higher Tier of FL Studio available called the All Plugins Bundle for $899, it’s essentially FL Studio Signature + every Plug-In created by Image Line bundled together.
Another unique perk of purchasing the most colorful program on the market, is that it comes with lifetime updates to the version you purchased. That means if you decided to buy the All Plug Ins Bundle, you would never have to shell out another dollar for future versions of FL Studio again.
The Beatmaking Standard
While it can surely be debated if FL Studio has become the industry standard for electronic music production or not, especially with options on the market like Apple’s Logic Studio X, Ableton Live, Studio One, Reason and many, many more; It certainly is one of the most popular if not the #1 preference for producers in urban music genres like Hip-Hop, EDM, and Dubstep. Which is to say a lot considering it was loathed and mocked as a toy for amateurs and beginners amongst professional producers and beatmakers as recent as 10 years ago.
With an instrument and effect collection that could stand it’s own against any other DAW, and a price to entry that ensures you’re never left behind the curve with software updates – FL Studio just may be all the music production software you’ll ever need.
Audio Evolution Mobile is one of the newer DAWs on the rise, with versions for Android and iOS. Developed by ExtremeSD, it’s a linear multitrack audio and MIDI recording program.
Audio Evolution Mobile iPad Pro Screenshot
The Android version doesn’t stray far from the iOS version, with the only real difference is the ability to use other apps like VSTs/VSTis using (AUs) Audio Unit and (IIA) Inter App Audio technology on iOS.
On an iPad/iPad Pro, Audio Evolution could be used to replace a laptop in a home studio setup, provided you had an interface with the right inputs and outs. And you’re willing to invest in third party plug-in apps. You can listen to how Audio Evolution Mobile sounds for yourself in our Video below:
Conclusion
Audio Evolution Mobile is a very useful DAW, it comes in handy when you’re away from a traditional studio set-up and mixtape artists will find it indispensable. But seek more out of it other than it’s superb audio recording features, like MIDI music production and it disappoints. This is even more obvious on Android than iOS, at least you can expand your options with other compatible apps and plug-ins on the latter. AE Mobile can get you by as you primary DAW, as long as you prepare to take up it’s slack with additional software.
The Legion Y-740 is one of Lenovo’s latest gaming laptops, equipped with the one NVIDIA’s Geforce RTX 2080 dedicated Graphics Cards. It’s a Gaming Rig in the body of an Ultrabook, with enough ports to be a Workstation Tower replacement. Does it gave the goods to be your next do-it-all laptop? I have taken the Lenovo Legion Y-740 through paces as a creative workhorse and game console replacement for the last few months and I would like to share my experiences with the sleek, mobile gaming rig.
Build Quality/Specs
Made of thin,sleek anodized aluminium, the Legion Y740 has the footprint of an Ultrabook, with workstation internals. Pretty much anything short of server-side operation is within reach of this beast.
Processor
9th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-9750H Processor (2.60GHz, up to 4.50GHz with Turbo Boost, 6 Cores, 12MB Cache)
Graphics
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 2080 with Max-Q with 8GB RAM
Dolby Atmos® Speaker System with Soundbar and integrated subwoofer with Smart AMP technology for gaming
Dimensions
14.2” x 10.5” x 0.88” / 361.42 x 267 x 22.45 (mm)
Weight
Starting at 4.85 lbs (2.2 kg)
Color
Iron Grey
Connectivity
Killer™ Wireless 802.11 AC (2 x 2) + Bluetooth® 4.1RJ45 Ethernet
Ports / Slots
USB 3.1 Gen 2**2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1**Mini DisplayPort ™ 1.4HDMI™ 2.0RJ45 EthernetKensington® Wedge Lock slot1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2** Type-C / Intel Thunderbolt 3 (DisplayPort, Data transfer)3.5mm microphone/headphone comboNOVO hole
Keyboard
Backlit with Corsair® iCUE RGB lighting
The 15.6 inch,Full-HD IPS display isnt a 4K touchscreen with a 10-point digitizer, but then if it was it would be a glossy, sun-glaring mess and a battery hog. The Legion Y740 already has enough on it’s hands keeping battery drain from the dedicated GeForce RTX graphics card and the gamers deLight show provided by the Corsair iCUE RGB lighting to a minimum.
The display’s anti-glare film does wonders deflecting light due to it being a matte screen.The Keyboard is signature Lenovo, meaning it’s as good as laptop keyboards come – only lacking the Thinkpad’s signature red cursor snub – which would have perfected its utilitarian usage.
Benchmarks
With all of the advances in the processing power of today’s smartphones and tablets many people question the necessity of desktops and laptops. The iPad Pro for example,while being faster than most laptops today- but this aint one of them. There are alot of powerful gaming laptops on the market today, and the Lenovo Legion 740 is right up there with the best of them.
Gaming
For those who have had a sip of PC Gamer’s Tea, know firsthand that the graphic capabilities of current generation consoles aren’t quite up to snuff compared to their PC counterparts. The question you’re probably asking yourself if your reading this article is if the Legion Y740 is one of those machines that will make your Xbox and PlayStation playpals give you the envy eye. I uploaded a video of PUBG Mobile running on the Bluestacks game emulator, along with a few screenshots of Gears of War 4 to give a glipse of the Legion Y740 Laptops capabilites below:
Gears of War 4
The Legion Y740 is fully prepared for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality should you decide to invest in VR equipment in the future. The dedicated graphics card and 16GB RAM serves the system well, marking off all required checkboxes for the Windows Mixed Reality experience on Windows 10.
The all Aluminum chasis is booted up for gameplay, with an otherworld vent chamber engulfing the back half of the bottom of the laptop to ensure the inner circuitry stays cool,calm and collected.
Conclusion
Everytime I begin to step away from this laptop I take the first few steps backwards, glancing at it’s vibrant screen and backlit keyboard admirably- there’s something about this laptop that leaves me in awe – it’s that impressive. I dont think there has been this much innovation on a particular laptop model since the Yoga brand, and just like the Legion, it’s also made by Lenovo. And when you remember that they also make the ThinkPad, it becomes pretty obvious why Lenovo has been the #1 PC manufacturer for at least the last 5 years. Here’s to the notion they keep the run going for just as long, surely if the masses catch on to the Legion gaming laptop series.
Musicians,Engineers,Producers and Arrangers who take the leap to iOSland – ditching their desktop studio setups in favor of their iPads only to feel short handed afterwards. Not because of a lack of quality in the apps on offer, often due iOS’s weak file management system (whole other topic) to the lack of Apps that use similar workflows (UI,Macros,Shortcuts,etc.) from software like Avid Pro Tools, Cuckos Reaper, and Apple Logic Pro X. WaveMachine Labs strive to remedy us a solution with their iPad exclusive – Auria Pro.
Auria Pro is a Digital Audio Workstation for iOS (iPad),with MIDI Sequencing, real-time audio Warping and the ability to record up to 24-input recording (with compatible audio interfaces.) The SSL-styled mixer has flexible routing capabilities, and each track is armed with a Channel Strip that has four plug-in slots for Audio Units and Inter-App Audio enabled effects and instruments.
Wavemachine Labs built Auria Pro a few exclusive instruments, with the Lyra Sampler handling the majority of the sound library for the DAW. They also partnered with plug-in mainstay Fabfilter, who lended their Twin 2 and One synths;throwing a few effects like Pro-Q2 EQ, Timeless 2 and Volcano into the mix.
Auria Pro is one of the DAW on the iOS platform that plays it safe, keeping tradition by sharing a similar workflow with it’s desktop counterparts and shying away from the more cutting-edge or unique apps on the platform. Which is not really a bad thing at all if you’re accustomed to working in a big studio environment and want something more suited for traditional tracking of real world instruments, mixing and mastering. Just don’t expect the world if your intent is to produce electronic music like Dubstep or Hip-Hop, as the weak point of Auria Pro is in it’s MIDI and composing tools. If you’re in a band or a music director of a church choir and want to record with your iPad, Auria Pro may become your best friend.
The iPad is a device that Apple has been marketing to the masses as a computer. A device that you can play, work, and create on. While the iPad is a device that you can do pretty much anything (except code) on, thanks to an awesome set of apps made available by the talented iOS’s developer community, along with great contributions by Apple as well.
The iPad Pro on the other hand, is the top-tier device in the lineup that Apple has been trying to push to the masses as THE laptop replacement. The laptop-benchmark-beating specs are present, and for the first time Apple has added the industry standard, future -proof USB-C in place of it’s proprietary lightning port as well. Is that enough to place the iPad Pro at the top, the apex of computing? Read on to find out.
The iPad Pro has an 11-inch LED Liquid Retina display with IPS (in-plane switching) has a pixel resolution that comes out to 2388-by-1668 at 264 pixels per inch, with ProMotion technology that boosts the frame rate to 120 from the standard 60 frames per second. Touch ID is absent, so the front is nearly all screen with just enough bezel to allow the iPad to be manageable for it’s size. It’s also (P3) Wide color display compliant.
The display is crisp and color accurate, definitely one of the best on the market. Photographers, Professionals working in industries where color accuracy is paramount, will have a blast working on the go on the latest iPad Pros.
The Bencharks
Geekbench 4 Compute ScoresGeekbench 4 CPU Scores
The Antutu scores are off the charts as well with the latter iPad Pro scoring nearly twice as much as the 2017 iPad Pro 5th generation. Apple’s A12X processor is a beast and a benchmark achievement (no pun intended) far as mobile processing is concerned, but the Intel Core i7 (8th gen) inside the Lenovo Legion Y740 gaming laptop scored 819612 (with 13 tabs open in the Edge Browser while Forza Street downloading in the background), so I wouldn’t say it’s time to take desktop level workloads mobile just yet.
Antutu Benchmark ScoreAntutu Benchmark Ranking
This is in large due to limitations in iOS more than anything else, so let’s hope Apple has more iPad focused features come this fall when iOS 13 is released.
Conclusion
So who’s the newest model of the iPad Pro for? The mobile businessman (or woman) who wants the best Apple has to offer, the photographer, visual designer or CAD modeler who wants to make sure the device they use on the go has all the power that they would need. The videographer or musician, who would like to converge the best touchscreen tools into their traditional workflow and setup are the exact demographic that Apple made the iPad Pro for. Creative professionals who want access to the same power on the go as they have in their work environments. In fact, the iPad Pro is such a luxury tier model of the iPad family that it’s hard to justify its price without it being used for work in some capacity. The other, cheaper iPads serve as great media consumption device just fine.
LG has reached the 8th generation of their G Series flagship in the LG G8 ThinQ. An Android flagship known for “being a jack of all trades”, we take a brief look at the device to see if it has improved enough to be the best flagship of 2019 or just incremental upgrades to a smartphone series that has struggled since the innovative LG
This is the LG G8 ThinQ.
LG G8 build and performance
Category
Specs
Build Materials & Quality
Metal (Aluminum) Glass (Gorilla Glass 5 on , Gorilla Glass 6 on ), IP68 Dust and Water Resistant, -810G Shock Resistance
Display
6.1″ QHD+ OLED FullVision Display (3120 x 1440, including notch); 564 ppi 19.5:9 Aspect Ratio; 83.1% screen-to-body ratio
RAM
6GB DDR4X
Processor & Battery
Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 855 Octa-core (up to 2.84 GHz x 1 + 2.42 GHz x 3 + 1.79 GHz x 4) 3,500 mAh Non-Removable
Cameras
Rear: Standard Angle Camera -12 MP Super Wide-Angle Camera -16 MP Front: 8 MP Standard
Connectivity
Network/UMTS/GSM/CDMA 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 5.0
Storage
Internal Memory – 128 GB Micro-SD card slot
The Glass front and back meet the aluminum side railing seamlessly to create a slick unibody build that comes off ultra-premium. There’s no camera hump, as dual lenses sitting under the glass back and the flush fingerprint sensor gives the G8 the slickest backside of 2019. So slick in fact, that you CANNOT lay this device on any flat surface without it slowly sliding off. Make sure you get a case and screen protector ASAP, like the slim-profile Premium Case and *** pictured below*
The 6.1 QHD+OLED display has a resolution of 3120×1440 which comes out to 564 pixels per inch. The P-OLED display is a first for LG’s G series which usually used LCD displays prior to the G8. The deep blacks and bright contrasts on display (pun intended), broad color gamut and bright whites certainly are an improvement over the LCD display. The quality even runs a pretty close race to Samsung, but it not quite there yet on LG’s smartphones. Why the company can’t fully utilize the talent in LG’s Flat-screen TV display division in the mobile devices they produce is beyond me.
The Galaxy S10 (left) and the G8 ThinQ (right) displays on display.
Air Motion and Hand ID: Z Camera innovations or flashy gimmicks?
The Z Camera brings a lot of functionality to the LG G8, and it’s a commendable introduction to 1st generation tech.
…
LG has equipped it’s front camera array with 3D sensors that enable touchless control, security features,and enhaned selfies. The Z Camera, as LG calls it,also has a TOF sensor that sends and receives depth info for more realistic bokeh portraits. But what LG wants you be most excited about, is Air Motion and Hand ID.
Hand ID, allows adds palm reading to your biometric security options by reading the vein patterns in your hand to unlock your phone. Infra-red beams confirm the subject is alive and well hy the hemoglobin in your blood. Cool stuff indeed. Of course, all of this tech coupled with the depth sensor makes for 3D face recognition that could rival Apple’s Face ID.
Hand ID in Action
Face Recognition on the Z Camera is the closest implementation to iPhone’s Face ID on Android.
Air Motion, the ability to control launch apps like the Music App and YouTube, control volume,or start and stop videos as well as answer/decline calls,snooze/dismiss alarms,etc. While it’s cool in theory and even innovative, it’s mildly executed and half-baked. IF you get the hang of it- it’s difficult to reason the scenario the feature would ever come in handy besides showing off what your smartphone can do to friends and family.
Launching YouTube with the Air Motion feature.
Adjusting the volume with Air Motion can be finicky at times.
Overall, Hand ID is awesome and a great addition to the G series and the Z-Camera’s face recognition is something that actually performs like similar to Apple’s Face ID. But Air Motion feels more like a prototype that’s a work in progress than a feature ready for prime time. Maybe software updates can add to the functionality of Air Motion down the line, hopefully.
Performance and Benchmarks
One thing that the G8 has going for itself is class-leading performance. Although the Snapdragon 855 in the G8 scored around 500 points below the iPhone XR’s A12 in Geekbench’s Single-Core Score, it was within 100 points in the Multi-Core score – while besting it’s Android counterparts across the board. The Antutu Benchmark screenshots demonstrate LG engineer’s gift for optimization on its current flagship device.
As you can see, the G8 is at the top of the food chain in Antutu Benchmark, scoring 349383- 17000 points higher than the Galaxy S10+.
…
Conclusion
The LG G8 is a 2019 flagship in every sense of the word. It comes with wireless charging, durability, it’s water-resistant while retaining still it’s SD Card slot, and it has a 3.5mm headphone jack with a 32-bit HiFi quad-DAC. It has all the makings of your next device, it ticks all the premium feature boxes, and adds a few more innovations along the way. But the original retail price…it’s just too high. Not that the G8 isn’t worth it, but for LG to price their devices in the same range as Samsung and Apple flagships at a time when most are critical of their prices, it’s beyond reason. On one hand, I get that they do so to insinuate the quality and value is comparable and LG is a “name-brand” brand. But I feel LG would do so much better if they priced their devices to undercut the market leaders. Right now you can get the LG G8 from Sprint for $8 a month on an 18-month lease plan, or $840 outright. The best long-term deal is with T-Mobile, which offers the G8 for 50% off with qualifying trade-in or by adding a new line, or you can buy it outright for $619.99 (+ tax).
Alternatives
There are lots of worthy alternatives to the LG G8, but we’ll just focus on the ones you will most likely come across at your average U.S. carrier.
Samsung Galaxy S10 or LG G8 ThinQ – The G8 has a battle on hands with theS10. It’s an even match as far as flagship specs go, and some could even argue LG’s Hand ID is more innovative than Samsung’s Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner beneath display. But the way Samsung likes to ‘throw everything but the kitchen sink’ into their flagships, trumps LG’s ‘throw everything at the wall to see what sticks’ approach this time around. What to pick…Infinity-O display with a punch hole front camera that results in 93% fullscreen or P-OLED with a tiny notch that conceals a TOF camera? HDR10+ certified flagship with 8GB RAM for base or the smartphone with the Hi-Fi Quad DAC and 6GB RAM? Decisions, decisions.
Apple iPhone XR orLG G8 ThinQ – The best selling iPhone of this generation is a logical option to the LG G8, if for no other reason that they are priced similarly at retail. Setting the differences between iOS and Android, the G8 has tons more features than the XR.It has twice the amount of RAM, an extra rear and front camera lens, a 3.5mm headphone jack with a Quad DAC and expandable storage. But Apple’s optimization between hardware and software results in a smartphone that’s a member of the most powerful family of device’s (XR Max).
Google Pixel 3a XLorLG G8 ThinQ – Now that Google has entered a horse in the race that shows they are taking their market share serious and not just releasing reference devices, every manufacturer should be concerned. For $479, the Pixel 3a XL offers a Snapdragon 670, 4GB Ram, 64GB of storage, Android system and security updates straight from Google, and what’s widely considered as the best smartphone camera available today. Luckily, with everyone from T-Mobile to Verizon offering specials on the G8 for as low as $620 – LG has crammed enough features into their latest flagship to entice some new customers.
The LG G8 ThinQ is definitely one of the best phones of 2019 so far.
Veterans of Digital Illustration software – Nottingham’s Serif , releases visual design software for a new era of computing. The Affinity Suite, which consists of Affinity Photo, Affinity Publisher (now in beta) and Affinity Designer – the latter of which we’ll be focusing on in this review. Affinity Designer represents a new start for Serif, originally known for programs such as DrawPlus, PagePlus, WebPlus,etc – users of those legacy programs will not find anything familiar from those apps. Everything from the UI, toolkits and workflow is different – instead of a incremental updates hidden behind a redesign – Designer is built atop a new foundation from the ground up.
Illustration Rules the Nation
Affinity Designer is one of the edgier, future proof graphic design software programs available. This is largely do to the developers working closely with some of the world’s leading designers. It’s strength appears to lie in vector illustration at first glance, but a UI look around reveals powerful bitmap tools that revolve around innovative ‘Persona’ workflows – which I will go more in-depth about in the next section.
There is an iPad version of Affinity Designer, and while it doesn’t quite have the same layout as the desktop version – the tools and features are nearly identical.
The Persona Workflow
Unique to the Affinity Designer is the Persona workflow, enabling you switch between Pixel (Photo) and Vector tools with the click of a button.
The Vector Persona
The Pixel Persona
The Vector and Pixel Persona switches the features in your toolbox, and puts those exclusive to the two workflows front and center. Pen and Node Tools ,as well as Transparency and Fill buttons occupy the Vector Persona – while Freehand Lassos and Smudge Brushes for the Pixel Persona make light work of your bitmap tasks.
My Simpsons Character Draft
Conclusion
In the few months (for desktop,few weeks for iPad) that I have been testing the Affinity Suite and Designer in particular, I have come to the conclusion that there is a new group of contenders for the toolkit of choice by design professionals. Though a few standout imperfections like Apple Pencil/Stylus sensitivity being a bit numb and larger projects taking a bit too long to load,even on an iPad Pro (2018). Affinity Designer is one program with a toolkit that allows for it’s users to jot down results as quick (if not quicker) as the fastest alternatives in the market, while simultaneously offering as many pro trimmings as programs that set the industry standards. The secret sauce Serif discreetly applies lies in the clever tucking away of rarely used and pro features alike, only allowing the essentials to remain visible by default. The end result is a graphic design program that’s easy and fun to use while being just as powerful as more popular illustration tools. One to keep an eye out for.
Illustrator is probably the industry standard when it comes to Graphic Design, if for nothing else but seniority in the market. An overall great design package with many industry-leading features and innovative workflows that have been overshadowed recently by instability issues and unpopular subscription-based pricing.
One of the most complete Design software packages on the market, Designer Pro X offers graphic design, photo editing, desktop publishing, web authoring and animation into one complete package. It excels at graphic and photo design, but the web authoring and animation features leave a bit more to be desired and convolutes an otherwise sleek software experience. Great at what it does, but it cost twice as much as Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher combined.
The once multi-platform /now MacOS-only DAW reaches version 10.4.2, which brings a ton of useful features to what has been known as ‘One of the most complete DAWs available’ for music and post-audio production.
What Is It?
Logic Pro X is a step up from the ever-popular GarageBand for Mac/iOS, offering more tools and features for professional musicians, producers and engineers who work with pro audio. It is developed by Apple, and may very well represent the best value for money in the entire world of digital audio workstations.
Instruments & Effects
ES2 (pictured above), and Alchemy (below) are just two of the virtual instruments available in Logic Pro X. While the former is a “versatile synthesizer” with a synthesis engine that has wavetable and analog-modeled oscillators, the latter (Alchemy) is presented as Logic’s flagship sample-manipulation synthesizer.
This is the same Alchemy that was originally developed by Camel Audio (Apple also acquired CamelSpace and CamelPhat, more on that later) and is also available within GarageBand for mac/iOS and its a beast of an instrument. Other noteworthy instruments are Sculpture – a “unique physical modeling instrument that produces tones no other synthesizer can”, the EXS24 Sampler,Studio Strings and Studio Brass, and the Vintage Keyboards collection. Drum Machine/Drum Kit Designer handles your custom percussion ambitions.
Drum Kits Designer let’s you – er’ ….design drum kits
Effects are just as ingenious and innovative, such as the new ChromaVerb – which is a high-end reverb plug-in that use “unique modeling to reproduce both natural and otherworldly acoustic spaces”. Other interesting fx include Pedalboard, an amp modeling plug-in, Bass Amp Designer, StepFX, and PhatFX.
Additional Features
Logic Pro X also allows for you to import GarageBand sessions from iCloud, AirPlay, or however you can transfer your sessions from your iOS device. There are other useful features that you can’t really find in other DAWs, like Smart Tempo – which manages tempo across all the content in your project. Without a metronome/click track, you can sync, combine and edit audio regardless of it’s original tempo or variations in speed. Then there’s Drummer, which adds a virtual session drummer , or a beat programmer to your production session;Or the useful Logic Remote ,which turns your iPhone/iPad into a midi controller, control pad, or mixing board.
Logic imports sessions from Garageband for iOS as well,so you can bring you ideas from your iPhone or iPad to the studio for adding the finishing touch.
Logic Remote for iPhone and iPad frees you from the confines of the studio mixing desk.
Conclusion
Logic Pro X is one of the most advanced, complete Digital Audio Workstations available. It’s not available for Windows, but if you have a Mac that you intend to make music with – you’d be pressed to find a program to compete with its $199 price tag. It has the best virtual instrument collection included with the program, and the complete set of editing, production, and mixing tools as you would expect. For developers with ambitions of making the most complete music production software, Logic Pro X is the program to beat.
