Click above image for up to 75% off 4th of July sale
THE DEAL OF ALL CLOUD STORAGE DEALS HAS ARRIVED.
pCloud is a relative newcomer in the cloud storage market that has apps for every major platform, including Linux. It offers up to 10GB of free storage, and is also the only provider on this list that offers a lifetime subscription for a one-time purchase!
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.
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.
Integrated Media Previewing
All of your media – from music, videos, documents and photos are within reach as if they were on your devices internal storage, with advanced previewing and playback.
Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps for Android and iPhone ensure that your content is available to your from anywhere, anytime!
Branded Links
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.
Backups from other popular services
One-click backups from third-party services like Google Photos, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Facebook!
pCloud’s new 10TB Custom Plan is
Click Image above for access to pCloud 10TB Lifetime plan
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.
World Music Day is a celebration of all things related to music. It originated in France, where there is an event called La Fête de la Musique (Music Festival). La Fête de la Musique takes place mostly in public outdoor spaces and it’s free to everyone. Due to its popularity, other countries started celebrating music day. Over 120 countries celebrated it in 2021.
(Left to Right) Bun-B, myself, and Cory Mo (next pic)
Today, we’re celebrating World Music Day by giving away cool music related goodies all week – starting with pCloud!
That’s right, we’re partnering with pCloud to offer our readers 500GB of cloud storage FREE for three months!
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.
CLICK THE BANNER ABOVE FOR 500GB FREE FOR 3 MONTHS!!!!
Check out 500GB of pCloud risk-free for 3 MONTHS. If you discover you like it after the 3 month trial, come back and get a discounted lifetime license by clicking the banner below:
Get pCloud Lifetime for One Payment, no more subscriptions!
We’re celebrating World Music Day all week so subscribe and get notified when we offer more goodies and giveaways!
Musical ideas can happen at any time. Rhythms and melodies tend to come at you while your during the most mundane tasks, like mowing the yard or cleaning your space. While memory has stood the test of time as our internal scratchpad, technology has gotten more capable, more compact, more accessible each generation.
Many people don’t know the smartphones and tablets they carry on their person everyday is several times more powerful than the most iconic 4-track recorders, drum machines and groove boxes. When an iPhone or Galaxy device is running GarageBand, Cubasis or FL Studio Mobile, paired with a modest MIDI controller like the ATOM SQ by PreSonus or the Akai MPK Mini – the creative abilities are on par with a recording studio that would have cost tens of thousands 15 years ago.
To celebrate the times and plethora of tools available for creatives and musicians alike, we’re sharing a hip-hop/trap beat made in Steinberg’s Cubasis 3 on an iPhone 13 Pro and opened in the same app on Android to confirm compatibility. Check it out in the video:
Demonstrating the power and potential we all have within our reach at any given time with the capabilities of our smartphones alone, Tre’mendous shares his Cubasis session with aspiring creatives and allows us to follow along in the session, remix, or record your own vocals to one of his beats titled “Out Your Feelings”.
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.
One of the more low-key studio secrets, REAPER is a bare-bones DAW with so many hidden abilities it’s considered a swiss-army-knife of audio production software. It’s unassuming, bland UI may appear off-putting – but don’t judge a DAW by its color.
For those not familiar, REAPER is an acronym for Rapid Environment for Audio Production, Engineering, and Recording. And it’s one of those no-frills programs where Cuckos the company behind it doesn’t try to spellbind you with sound libraries and plug-ins hidden behind souped-up marketing talk.
REAPER splash screen on launch
Nonetheless, Reaper is a complete digital audio workstation – offering audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing, and mastering. It’s used in commercial and home studios, broadcast, location recording, education, science and research, sound design, game development, etc.
While the company behind REAPER may not be prone to partnerships with other brands to bundle instruments, effects, or sound content – the DAW is compatible with all third-party plug-ins and formats.
Internally, REAPER only has three instruments available. The first and most extensive is SamplOmatic 5000, which handles samples. The second is ReaSynth – which can handle sound fonts. That’s it. If you want to use REAPER for music production/sound design – you’d want to invest in a third-party instrument and effects collection.
On the plus side, REAPER is budget-friendly – offering a simple licensing structure where you can purchase the program for $60 discounted license or $225 commercial license for companies. The only requirements there are to qualify for the discounted license is being an educational or non-profit organization, or an individual using REAPER only for your personal use. The $225 commercial license is for individuals and businesses using REAPER commercially and earning more than $20,000 annually.
SamplOmatic5000
ReaSynth
ReaSynthDr
Another plus is that REAPER is one of the few DAWs that are not only available for macOS and Windows – but Linux as well. We tested REAPER on a System76 laptop running PopOS, and it runs as smoothly as it does on Macs and Windows devices. The thing about companies like Cuckos building their DAW to be compatible with Linux, it truly opens the possibilities for recording studios to embrace open source – as DAW and music production programs is underdeveloped on Linux.
REAPER running on Linux
REAPER’s Extra Features
One thing that I consider an advantage of REAPER is the way it handles audio files. It has an Acid-engine like algorithm where audio files becomes elastic under the tempo of a project. You can set a project to the tempo of an imported audio file, if the BPM is embedded into the metadata of the file.
There is also an extensive Project Rendering Window where Metadata can be added to an export of a project and embedded into the file – including Album Art.
A few other features are the ability to use audio and MIDI within the same track. Also the ability to route audio and MIDI to any other track, allowing for some truly creative results. It also comes with a nice theme engine, and users can even customize REAPER to their own satisfaction.
Conclusion
To some things up, the closest thing that comes to mind when using REAPER – is Sony’s ACID Pro DAW. The ability to handle audio files and create loops. But the way REAPER does things is a lot more agile, flexible and powerful than the latter. It’s very stable as well, having not crashed once during our review process. While REAPER might not be the best out-of-the-box solution for an EDM or Hip-Hop producer who needs a plethora of tools in their arsenal. But for bands who want multitrack recording multiple real world instruments simultaneously, harmonizing choirs or vocal groups – you may find yourself at home.
Techsmith, the company behind SnagIt – has a video editor known as Camtasia. And some of our staff members just so happen to think it’s the next best thing since sliced garlic bread.
Camtasia is a Video Editor that caters to replays, demonstrations, how-to’s, and showcasing screen recordings. It’s a full-on NLE, but its built in assets lean more towards those use case scenarios. Sure, you could import just about any video and make any type of content you wanted – but Camtasia fills a certain market void that makes it more valuable that it may appear during a glance-over.
Camtasia’s User Interface
Camtasia has a UI that resembles most other desktop video editors, it’s only when you start to fiddle with the built-in Asset Library that you start to see the benefits of using Techsmith’s flagship program. Next to the usual tools you see like Animations and Transitions, there are a collection of new ones like Annotation and Behaviors. This allows for unique editing abities like showcasing correct form in an athlete’s practice reels, or even demonstrating software.
Camtasia’s Asset Library
There’s also a smart collection of visual assets and effects that work for those who need to make a demonstration out of anything going on in a computer desktop environment. It also has a screen recording software tool, to make those sorts of videos convenient to make in one program.
Editing one of our very own software showcases in Camtasia.
Conclusion
Techsmith equipped Camtasia with clever, innovative editing and video enhancing toolbox; along with an intuitive, easy-to-learn User experience. For anyone looking to record their on-screen activity and make detailed, advanced edits – it’s a must-buy.
PreSonus’ flagship product, Studio One has reached its fifth version. And as an avid Studio One user (since version 1.5 to be exact) I felt the need to write, produce, and record a rap jingle – within Studio One – to commemorate this moment; To celebrate this fine achievement in music production convergence:
-Verse- Never lacking options, when it comes to software my collection known to give a newbie a run/ But when I really want to handle business, I record and mix with Studio One/ It’s a new yet established DAW by a company known as PreSonus/ It’s fully featured yet simple to use, tips and tools I’ll give you a bonus/ When you’re recording in session view, instruments and effects are drag and drop/ Project Mode you can make master add cover art and metadata tags on top. Of each track, peep the facts – Show Mode even works live/ Studio One - it's no jive/ PreSonus Sphere get version 5! And-
-Hook & Chorus- Get Right, on site, (STUDIO) Levels Right, (ONE), Mix Tight, (Oh) Don’t fight, (Yeah) see the light, (STUDIO) Dynamite, (ONE) Ignite, (Oh) Don’t fight. (Yeah) Get Right, (STUDIO) See the light, (ONE) get right, (Oh) Level lights, (Yeah) get right, (STUDIO) mix tight, (ONE) get right
If that doesn’t show my passion for this piece of software, I don’t know what will.
Studio One 5.4, is the latest version of the well-rounded Digital Audio Workstation by PreSonus – a company you may know for their Interfaces, Mixing Boards, and Studio Monitors. It’s one of the newer DAWs on the scene, but one that has been around long enough to establish its relevance in a crowded market – and it keeps getting better with each release. It comes in three tiers: Studio One Artist ($99), Professional ($399), or with PreSonus Sphere ($14.99/Monthly – $164.95/Annual) With a completely redesigned Native Effects plugin suite, Score View for traditional notation editing, the ability to perform live with Studio One’s new Shop Page and more – we will explore what’s all-new in our Studio One 5 review.
Studio One’s Home Page
When Studio One finishes loading on the Splash Screen, you’re greeted with what I’d like to call “the Launch Hub” – this is where you’re greeted with the many pathways to audial autonomy. You could Record and Mix andNew songs, Master and Release a New Project, or Rehearse and Perform for a new Show set. While you could technically accomplish most of these tasks in a few other DAWs, no other software offers these features in such a streamlined manner – each with its UI and workflows. This is where Studio One has a leg and arm up on the market.
Session View
Session View of the Studio One Theme Song 🙂
The Session View is where most of the magic happens, where producing, mixing, and recording, and even notation scoring takes place. Many of the most used tools in music production and audio editing is available within one of the visible windows on the main view: the main Transport is available on the bottom dock; Essential Track Controls occupy the left of the Interface; Quick Edit tools flank the top of the screen, along with Quantize and File Quick Buttons that present a drop-down list of options; while on the right is a navigation window that allows you to browse files on your computer by Instrument, Effect, Loop, and SDD directory.
At the bottom right of the screen, three buttons are controlling your access to the Track and Mixer views, as well as a browse button that hides or shows the Navigation Window. It’s a feature-packed UI that allows for easy access to every tool while keeping the pop-up windows down to virtual Instruments and Effects.
While Studio One has a deep selection of Instruments, Effects, and Loops – we won’t go into detail here, as we’ve covered them extensively in our review of Version 4.
Studio One Mixer View
Project View
The Project Page isn’t a feature that’s new to Studio One 5, (having been around since 2.5) – but it’s an essential and valuable feature to the program, nevertheless.
This mode allows you to import mixdowns into the desired Track Order of an Album, EP, or a single – add Cover Art and credits into each song as metadata and export your project to the desired format.
Show View
The Show Page is one of the new additions to the Music Production Suite – showing its presence in version 5. It allows for you to create and edit show sets, and more impressively- utilize virtual instruments and effects in your performances and much more. Ever dreamed of adding your favorite studio effect to your live vocals in real-time, or stacking a classic Mellotron patch over the lush sounds of your Yamaha Motif workstation as one of Beyoncé’s Tour Band members? Studio One’s new Show Page is what you need.
Conclusion
While there are many more features to explore – namely Real-time Chord Display, which works with the Piano Roll, or Multi-Format Mixdown Exporting – both of which are self-explanatory with the names alone; These features were newly added in the 5.4 incremental update – which speaks as a testament to the companies’ long-term dedication to the development of the DAW.
PreSonus has managed to keep adding thoughtful, innovative features that bridge the gap between Studio One’s many broad strong points – while managing to stay running lean and agile.
Audio and MIDI Comping, MPE support, and Max for Live included from Live Intro and up. Has Ableton become the go all-in-one DAW?
Shame it has taken the Labfreq review team this long to publish a review on Ableton’s music production masterpiece. Created by a team of DJ, Musicians, and developers out of Berlin, Live is a software sequencer and digital audio workstation (DAW). It’s designed for live performance and remixing of songs, but it can also be used to record music, control stage lighting, visual effects, and much more.
Ableton Live has the tools and quality of any other professional level DAWs, but the unique feature of Ableton is the ability to run sequences in non-linear mode, allowing you to make live changes on a prepared material. Having been around for a decade or so, it’s reached the 11th iteration of the program – so let’s dive straight in and see what Live’s all about.
We will update this article with a complete review shortly…
For the majority of 2020, we have been doing a lot of research at Labfreq – in regards to Big Data, user data flow, and the overall mass surveillance and monetization of our activities, interests, and browsing habits. As you know, there has been quite a bit of hoopla in the press about how Big Tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google earn their money off of horded user data to some degree or another.
While this is a deep rabbit hole that will take some time to cover, most likely over the span of several articles – and we most certainly will address the elephant in the room – User Privacy and Security is at stake. But for now I want to start off on a topic a bit more digestible to our reader base: Content Creation on Linux using Open Source software.
I have been doing a bit of grassroots R&D with a company called Purism, and their CEO Todd Weaver and CTO Kyle Rankin. While discussing how their devices – the Librem line of products – can deliver a quality experience with Top-Notch hardware running Linux without compromising user rights; The question most important to me that rose to mind was,” What type of compromise would someone who usually depends on proprietary software have to make in the name of User Rights, privacy and security?
So I set out on a mission to discover the answer, could I make the transition to Linux on Hardware endorsed by the FSF (Free Software Foundation) and give up the Pro Tools, FL Studios, and Abletons’ for good?
The Open Source LMMS (Linux MultiMedia Studio) has 75% of the features of commerical software – for free
While I don’t quite have the answer yet – I will have at least an idea shortly – as I am currently testing out laptops from two PC manufacturers who ship laptops and desktops with their own Linux distros: System 76 and Purism – to see if that task could be achieved.
I recently published an article on Purism’s site, the 1st video in a three-part series – PureOS for Creatives. I spent a week wrapping my head around LMMS – Linux Multi Media Studio, which is music production software that is open source and available for free (on all OSes by the way), before I attempted to make a track from start to finish. If you’d like to check out the article, you can find it here. Or if you’ve had enough words for now, you can check out the video below. Stay Tuned.
Magix is on a roll recently, upgrading it’s suite of creative apps ever since acquiring Sony’s portfolio of media software. Acid, Vegas, and Sound Forge – the latter we’re reviewing in this article, strives to make your audio/visual production output as seamless and effortless as ever. How does this trio of apps fit into Magix already large collection of content creation tools? Read on to find out.
What does Sound Forge do?
Sound Forge is a professional audio recording, audio editing, and mastering suite. It differs from Digital Audio Workstations like Cubase, Pro Tools, and Studio One in the way that focuses on a single audio file at-a-time – there’s no MIDI production and editing here. Instead, Sound Forge’s strengths lie in mastering stereo mixes, cleaning up artifacts from field recordings, or applying creative edits to individual tracks from larger DAW sessions – utilizing Sound Forge as an external audio editor.
Sound Forge also has the ability to clean up “older” audio recordings, digitally remastering analog mixes with indispensable restoration features.
Features
Aside from the ability to record up to 32 channels of audio recording, Sound Forge includes a new Instant Action window to accomplish mutli-window workflows with the press of a button. This improves the speed it takes to complete tasks, making light work out of what used to be tedious processes in earlier versions. Frequently used functions are seconds away with Instant Action, which puts all of your essential tools and functions a click away. Apply delay, compression, noise gates, and even external effects like Ozone 9 Elements – which comes bundled with the Pro Suite version of Sound Forge.
Instant Action buttons (to the left) make mutli-window processes much simpler.
To compliment features like Instant Action, there is also a new Windows context menu to help make task assignments easier. It’s a simpler version of Macros for Microsoft Excel – but for audio. Another strong feature is the Windows context menu, which allows you to get basic tasks done by right-clicking the context menu without even opening Sound Forge Pro.
Another strong feature new to SF version 14 is WaveColor. The detailed waveform coloring algorithm allows you to identify pitch and volume characteristics according to their color and saturation. Magix rounds out the apps arsonal by including the essentialFX Suite, Analogue Modelling Suite (4 mastering plug-ins), Vintage Effects Suite (3 vintage effects), VariVerb II, and Vandal (guitar amp effects).
Magix essentialFX Suite offers 11 quality effect plug-ins like the Compressor above
If you ever get stuck trying to complete certain tasks in the program, Magix has carried over the rather thoughtful ‘Interactive Tutorials’ from earlier versions. The tutorials walk you through all of the most popular audio engineering tasks, like how to extract audio from a CD or even create ACID loops.
Interactive Tutorials go a long way to get newcomers up to speed.
Conclusion
While most audio work can be done in your primary DAW, making SF 14 Pro soft of redundant – there’s alot works out in the favor of Sound Forge’s streamlined,focused workflow. Plus, there’s a lot of additions that come with the Suite version of Sound Forge Pro 14, like Steinberg SpectraLayers Pro 6, iZotope Ozone 9 Elements, iZotope RX Elements, and MAGIX’s own plug-in bundles – making it truly a package of Suite proportions; You can also get the entry level of Sound Forge Audio Studio 14 for just $59.99 or Sound Forge Pro 14 standard for $299. They all have pretty much the same functionally as Pro Suite, you just have to shell out a bit more if you want the big daddy package that comes with all of the extras. If you don’t have SpectralLayers or iZotope software, it’s quite a bargain.
