The MPC brand has been a mainstay in modern music for over 30 years….
Detailed review coming soon…
The Hardware
The Software
Insight
Conclusion
Akai MPC One Review
Music Production Workshop: FL Studio Mobile 4
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 3 or , 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 Image-Line’s FL Studio Mobile on an Android smartphone, the Xiaomi 11T. 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 one of his FL Studio Mobile sessions titled “LBFQ Theme” with aspiring creatives and allows us to follow along in the session, remix, or record your own vocals!
Download the session by following these steps:
Try pCloud for Music and Get 500GB FREE for three months!!! – https://bit.ly/3FylD3M
Once you create a pCloud account, download the session below or add it to your new pCloud Drive for later use!
FL Studio Mobile Session File and Audio Stems: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZlg8RVZOKVY5CuPnYzhnpqqSMS7056l49OV
Be sure to subscribe and be notified when we add new content to our Music Production Series!
Music Production Workshop: Mobile with Cubasis 3
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”.
Download the session by following these steps:
Try pCloud for Music and Get 500GB FREE for three months!!! – https://bit.ly/3FylD3M
Once you create a pCloud account, download the session below or add it to your new pCloud Drive for later use!
Cubasis 3 Session File and Audio Stems: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZtMbHVZJmqRg4kSuL5Vfj341iSwEhrLmjH7
Be sure to subscribe and be notified when we add new content to our Music Production Series!
Click the banner below to get pCloud FAMILY 2TB Lifetime Plan for 75% OFF! Starts 13.05.22
Ends 17.05.22
Discounted from 1400 to 350!
FL Studio Mobile 4 Review
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.
User Interface
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.
Instruments and 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.
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.
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.
REAPER Review – a lightweight DAW that’s feature-packed
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.
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’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.
Studio One 5 Review: Coming of Age
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:
Studio One Theme & Lyrics
-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.
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 and New 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
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.
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.
Bitwig Studio 4 review: Modular Musical Masterpiece
Berlin is known as the EDM capital of the world, where the rave scene, drum machines, samplers, and digital audio workstations all originated and electronic workflows are innovated. Along comes another music software company, aiming for your ears and wallet. But wait for a sec…before you write this DAW off as just another cookie-cutter app in an already convoluted market- you might want to give Bigwig Studio a look…
Check our Bitwig Studio Listening Session Above
Bitwig Studio is a professional Digital Audio Workstation for Windows, macOS, and Linux (impressively). At version 4, it’s possibly the youngest of the big-time DAWs, so while it is maturing into a complete package with 80+ instruments and effects – it’s 10GB sound library is a bit narrow in genre scope. I do have confidence that it will expand as new versions of Bitwig are released, if the excellent instruments kits and effect presets are any indication.
Workflow
The flexible, panel-based interface allows for quick access to Bigwig’s three main layout’s: Arrange, Edit, and Mix – with various display settings that will allow you to add external monitors. There is also a Touch Layout – making Bitwig Studio ‘s interface 100% compatible with touchscreen displays.
The Arrangement View
You can record and edit you takes in this section.
Mixer View
Apply audio FX, route tracks to Bus/Aux tracks
All aspects of the User Interface are accessible from within one screen, bringing the most relevant window view to the forefront – depending on the tasks you set out to accomplish. All instruments, effects, loops and one-shot sounds are available within the right panel – drag-and-drop capable. The selected track and its corresponding mixer channel are available in the left panel – with the instrument, effect, or audio details available in the bottom center panel.
Sound Devices
While we won’t cover every instrument and effect that comes with Bitwig, we will take a look at a few to give you an idea of the look, feel,
Phase 4
Bitwig’s Phase Manipulation Synthesizer. Has four-oscillators that can be manipulated by modulation and distortion.
Polysynth
A subtractive synthesizer with tons of tweaks on deck.
Drum Machine
A very flexible drum kit machine with the ability to assign and send individual pads to any track.
Sampler
Where all of your loops, slices and phrases live
Introducing the Grid
The Grid, a modular creative space that allows you to truly create your own unique sound connecting over 160 different modules to your heart’s desire. This section might invoke a familiarity with tools like Native Instrument’s Reaktor, Max for Live, which offers similar tools – but Bitwig’s grid platform feels more integrated than the former.
The Poly Grid is the area where you build your creations that generate sound. Step Arpeggiators, Sound-Warping, filtered-out Samplers, polyphonic synthesizers are all just a few modules away in the signal chain.
The FX Grid allows you to create truly unique sounding effects, taking your sound to new levels of individuality and gets you closer to crafting an original sound. This takes Bitwig to new levels other music production apps can’t quite go, shaking the pre-conceived notion to avoid a DAWs ‘stock sounds’ – you can make variations of a kick or snare from just one quite easily.
Conclusion
If you love the idea of music production software that offers a sound synthesis palette of modules that connect along a signal chain to create custom synths, samplers, and effects; A broad selection of sound designer tools, as well as compatibility with Linux, macOS, and Windows – Bitwig Studio, might be the DAW for you. The included 10GB of loops, drum kits, and instrument presets isn’t as large as the competition, or even some standalone virtual instruments – but when you factor in the expansive sound designing tools on offer it really doesn’t matter. The versatile collection of sounds (which the majority are one-shot samples and loops) gives a solid foundation to build upon. This is a music-making program to keep an eye on.
Presonus ATOM Pad Controller : Premium Affordability
Drum Machines,MIDI Keyboards and Pad Controllers are bountiful in the market today, some will say they come a dime a dozen. However, few controllers – the likes of Native Instruments, Necktar, and Akai’s MPC Live/Touch/Studio line up offer standalone features and tight, industry-wide integration with majority of DAWs due to extensive mapping capabilities; If not right out of the box. Presonus aims to add the Atom Performance Box/Pad Controller to the latter.
Atom is a velocity-sensitive,LED powered,16 Pad Controller with four customizable knobs. It’s a capable piece of kit when used with any DAW or music production software of your choice, but it shines best when used with Presonus’ own DAW Studio One. That’s because it was made first and foremost for it. That’s not to say it’s not as useful when to perform pieces in Reason or Bitwig Studio, it just comes mapped out of the box to control practically every parameter of Studio One outside of naming your song or project.
Atom’s pads are surrounded by buttons arranged into columns have them organized in groups with similar functionality. There are Transport, Instrument, Event, Song and Navigation groups. as well as a mode section that let’s you switch between Full Level and Note Repeat on the pads. Lastly, there’s a Shift Button that gives you access to the double functionality assigned to the Pads- and many of the buttons. Pad response with Studio One works seamlessly, providing instantaneous timing for live performance and an excellent Note Repeat function for rapid hi-hat and trap drum patterns.
The two bottom rows of pads work in conjunction with the Note Repeat button in the Mode section to the left of them, which also contains a Full Level button- which registers all pads at full velocity (Disabling the Full Level button activates the pad’ velocity sensitivity). As mentioned previously, these features work flawlessly with Studio One, but I noticed a hit and miss in other DAWs. For example: while Atom seams to MIDI/Tempo sync with Reason 11, it did not in Bitwig Studio 3 – rendering Note Repeat useless in the latter.
Conclusion
The Atom is an enticing proposition, particularly if you use Studio One 4 – as it integrates so tightly that you could create a full composition without touching your mouse/touchpad. Quite similar to the way the MPC or Maschine’s hardware software ecosystem does, Atom is seamless with Studio One – it’s when you step out of it’s DAW breathren that you lose the sense of oneness. If PreSonus can add custom mapping abilities to the software for tight communication to other software on the market, Atom could become an undeniable proposition.
Propellerhead relaunches as Reason Studios,announces Reason 11 available Sept. 25th
Propellerhead – the software firm behind music production programs like Reason and Recycle, announced their rebranding on August 26th. Tim Self of marketing at Reason stated, “It didn’t take much research to figure out that the world knows us for Reason. When I get introduced by industry peers at conferences they often say, “Meet Tim from Reason”, never Propellerhead. Reason is what we do and who we are now, so why not be direct and own it outright?”
The 11th version of Reason was also announced along with some of its new features. The Reason Rack Plugin – turns Reasons instruments and effects to VSTs to be used in other DAWs.
Quartet Chorus Ensemble 
Sweeper Modulation Effect
Other features for Reason 11 are new device additions like the Sweeper Modulation Effect and Quartet Chorus Ensemble, as well as a slew of new tools to speed up your workflow. In song arranger view – new features like curved automation and muting MIDI notes are on deck. There is also a new purchase tier, Reason Suite – which comes with 16 extra Rack Extensions for a total of more than 70 devices.
While it’s too early speak on Reason 11 in detail, we’ve been beta testing for a bit.We will give a hands-on preview as soon as it’s updated to the release channel, and an in-depth review shortly after the release!
Visit Reason Studios for more info on Reason 11.
Studio One 4 Professional Review: the Complete Package
Presonus – a company that produces Audio Interfaces, Mixing Systems, Preamplifiers and Control Surfaces, is looking to centralize their product offering with audio recording software that challenges industry standards. And with the newest version – my opinion is they have achieved just that. Studio One, a post-millennial DAW that entered the market more recently- is fast approaching ‘established brand’ status. As we near it’s 10th year anniversary, we take a look at version 4.5 of the digital audio workstation. This is Studio One 4.
Studio One, comes in three flavors- Prime, Artist and Professional. Prime is the free, yet generous albeit limited version compared to Artist and Professional. The Prime edition gives you access to the core features of the DAW and unlimited audio and MIDI track count, but out of the 5 built-in virtual instruments it only offers Presence XT and no 3rd party VST support. S1 Prime also allows .wav, .flac. and .mp3 export of your music.
The Artist Edition gives you access to all 5 of S1’s virtual instruments with an additional 5GB of sounds, while Professional offers more than 20GB of sounds and a Project Page where you can create final masters ready for release.
The Instruments
Impact XT- Multichannel Drum Sampler
Mai Tai- Polyphonic Virtual Analog Synthesizer
Mojito- Monophonic Subtractive Synthesizer
Presence XT – Sample Playback Instrument with Support for third-party sampler format (EXS, Giga, Kontakt)
Sample One XT– Drag and Drop Integrated Live Sampler
Presonus has given Studio One a broad and versatile collection of virtual instruments that helps it stand toe-to-toe with any music production software packages. Impact XT gives you MPC-style drum programming, Presence XT has support for third-party sample formats like Kontakt and EXS, while Sample One XT handles live sampling of any audio content you import into it. Mojito and Mai Tai handles any and all synthesis between the two.
Version 4 – New Features
Some of the standout features new to Studio One 4 include advanced export options including video scoring, the Chord Track, and the Drum Roll.
Chord Track – a new feature that uses Harmonic Editing to change, preserve, and extract chord data from your compositions with flexible transposition, key modulation, and chord substitution for note data and audio.
Drum Roll View – Takes the beloved Piano Roll view and repurposes it for drum programming, making realistic drum sequences easier than ever. Drop Hi-Hats in double time and program your snares with ease.
Project View – (Professional Only)
Exclusive to Studio One Professional is the Project Page- an integrated mastering suite which contains tools for mastering, managing the metadata of, and exporting one or more songs simultaneously, including options for creating Red Book Standard CDs or disk images. The project page puts Studio One in a different space than every other DAW on the market, offering features unavailable in traditional DAWs like Pro Tools, Cubase, and Logic – while surpassing the capabilities of mastering suites like Sound Forge and WaveLab. Melodyne essential also comes bundled with the Pro version.
Conclusion
Studio One is known for being one of the more modern, future-proof DAWs – carrying over all of the useful features of programs with traditional, linear User Interfaces (think Cubase and Pro Tools) introducing innovative features like a multi-touch interface/UI with drag-and-drop functionality to the desktop-class programs. It’s look and feature set, puts it in square competition with DAWs like Pro Tools, Cubase, Digital Performer and Logic Pro- while it’s MIDI programming abilities and instruments make it capable of replacing programs like Reason or Bitwig for music production. I find it’s workflow and look reminiscent of Apple’s Logic Pro more than any other DAW, though the Project page gives Studio One the edge over Apple’s Logic.
It’s Sound Library and Loops offer more acoustic content from real world instruments than electronic, which compliments music production software like FL Studio and Ableton Live – whose sounds lean more on the experimental “EDM” side. While there is no shortage of good DAWs on the market that many great musicians swear by, there is no doubt that there is space on the market for one with as broad of a feature set as this. If I had to pick one DAW, that I had to stick with to create an album from start to finish- it would be Studio One Professional .
