Quite simply – it’s brilliant. Brilliant price at just £2.99, brilliant interface (waveforms instead of the Virtual Decks favoured by Algoriddim,) Brilliant EQ and brilliant effects – so yeah, brilliant all rounder.

This release is following on from the iPad version and to quite honest the iPhone counterpart is almost identical to it’s older brother apart from the fact it’s obviously slightly more fiddly to use (especially if you’re a scratch DJ!) My favourite features include the ultra sensitive and smoot touch pad filter and the rotary BPM fader which comes out of a handy slide out toggle so it can be accessed quite neatly. The detailed beat recognition is, as per usual with NI, second to none and you can even have a better look for yourself and readjust accordingly if you don’t trust the judgement of the automatic system.

The major merit to the app is the fact that you more or less access every major function in the one screen – i.e. crossfader, deck A and B, both waveforms, BPM and Sync so having a full blown mix-up whilst on the commute is quite a good way to fix an hour long train journey.

The one thing I will say is that it’s brilliant for a bit of fun and even practice for when using the actual software or (dare I say it) real mixers and effects, I can however, envisage a rather sorry scene of a 18 year old DJ hopeful fiddling away in the corner of a nightclub trying to achieve a double drop by whilst receiving text messages and phone calls, I’ve only just got over the MacBook invasion…

The post Native Instruments – Traktor DJ for iPhone appeared first on Love Recording.com.

The post 5 Minutes To A Better Mix: Mix Bus Compression. Part 2 of 31 appeared first on Love Recording.com.

Not only is it one of the most beautiful iPad/Tablet stands on the market, it also features a built in desk lamp, when you’re not using it as a desk stand.

The stand takes it’s styling from a cross between a classic desk lamp and an iMac G4 (the nicest designed iMac in my opinion.)

Once fully charged the stand can offer over 7 hours of continuous lighting too, and doesn’t need to be plugged into the mains.

For more information or to buy yours, check out the link below:

http://www.editorskeys.com/products/recording-equipment/ipad-desk-stand-imac-style/

The post Studio Series Launch new iMac Style iPad Desk Stand with Built in Light! appeared first on Love Recording.com.

We’ll be looking at 31 mixing tips in the next 31 days, so hold on tight people! This free tutorial is brought to you by The Recording Revolution.

The Crucial First Step

In today’s video we cover a crucial and often overlooked step in the mixing process: gain staging. It’s not flashy and it’s not glamourous, but I promise you this one step is critical to getting clear and focused mixes. Spend 5 minutes, watch the video and apply it to your mixes. I’m sure it will help!

The post 5 Minutes To A Better Mix: Proper Gain Staging – Part 1 of 31 appeared first on Love Recording.com.

In a world striving to cut down on emissions, it’s great to see the genius loudspeaker manufacturers at Genelec taking some bold steps with their latest range of eco-friendly monitors going by the name of ‘M Series.’

The initial designs are made with a composite blend of Finnish sustainable wood and recyclable plastic – apparently a super eco friendly and easy-to-mould substance which gives them the same look we have all grown to love!

They are available in two different sizes – the M030 (with a 5″ driver) and the M040 (6.5″ driver). Both speakers use newly designed components with a similar Eco-concious spec – Class D amplifiers which run at a comparatively low temperature, Signal Sensing – an intelligent power management system which effectively puts the speakers to sleep when they are not being continuously used – clever!

Genelec have claimed to achieved ‘going green’ without compromising on their world famous sound quality – the M series feature the same tilt EQ technology as their previous designs, as well as an all new directional bass port which will reduce those pesky vibrations in the studio – something which appears to be somewhat of a first for monitor manufacturers – I resorted to monitor guards a long while back. They are hitting the market in June at around €500 (So, what about £420?) – seems like an all round eco-bargain!

The post Genelec Unveil Eco-Speakers appeared first on Love Recording.com.

In the wake of this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, Nevada I find myself still recovering from a rather dizzying combination of jet lag and hangover mixed in with the sheer mind blowing array of technological spectacle that was on offer at NAB. So to try and come to terms with all that I have just experienced, here’s my ‘NAB Show Top Five’ round-up. The idea of there being just 5 great things at the show is a ultimate understatement; I could get carried away with a full blown detailed write up which I fear that wouldn’t make for very entertaining blogging. So here goes…

5. Freefly Systems

As a first timer at the NAB Show, I wasn’t sure if there are certain products that tend to stand out at the show each year and follow you around to every corner of the convention center. For helicopter camera mounts this was quite literally the case. I could barely move from one booth to another without the looming of one of these little devils milling around precariously, yet expertly above the heads of often large gatherings of awe-struck techys (I’m of course including myself in that category.)

The guys at Freefly Systems appear to be the flag bearers of the technology as their gear has that chunky, indestructible yet ultimately slick feel to it. Pictured is the Cinestar HL, their more high end chopper-mount, along with what I can only assume is an unreleased land version from Freefly which just looks pretty cool!

The Cinestar can hold an impressive range of cameras from Go Pro’s to Red, EPIC and Canon C500′s. I’d probably just whack my iPhone on it and see what happens.

There were plenty more where these came from, not to mention from about 10 other competitors around the NAB Show. It’s just the kind of product that pretty much anyone would love to own – just for the sake of it.

4. Grass Valley 

I find that just from the name Grass Valley, you can already get a sense of the type of products company brings to the table (obviously in the context of a broadcast convention, otherwise I guess they could just be lawn specialists.) Clean, fresh and er…green, are words that come to mind on approach to booth SL206 (Right at the front of the Southern Hall of the NAB Show.)

The guys at GV were showcasing a few little treats on this occasion, the GV Director was proudly unveiled and showcased throughout the show and appeared to be the show-wide big hitter from the spectrum of integrated production hardware. Despite not really knowing its full potential, I had a little play around with one and I suddenly felt the profound urge to embark on a new career path as a hot headed producer type on some sort of high octane sports programme… (I assume that’s the type of person who uses it anyway.)

Also – Edius Pro 6.5 is treating us well, good to talk to others who use it a bit more professionally – it truly has some mind bending capabilities.

3. SONY

I was trying to refrain from putting one of the big boys in the top 5 NAB Show Stars in favour of unearthing some of the hidden gems…however – the array of treats that SONY had in-store for NAB Show was simply overwhelming. Another show-wide favourite were the mesmerizing 4K TVs dotted around, but none amounted to the show that SONY had put on. You could enjoy 4 consecutive camera views at an LA Lakers game on their 84 inchers or have some down time with the slightly more consumer level 55″ and 65″ where colourful scenes of fields, fruit baskets and pretty girls sitting behind a rather outrageously colourful newsagent counter were displayed in full 4k glory with the accompaniment of soothing ambient sounds delivered in a similar standard of hi-def from a pair of the brand new SS-NA2ES (Speakers.) These hand crafted beauties feature 6 drivers per side, a max input power of 100 watts and 45 to 45 frequency response – all pretty standard.  I’m not sure how they calculate the $10,000 price tag, but some how they just sound like they should cost that sort of money. The bass ‘reflex’ is unreal – it made Sting’s ‘Englishman in New York’ sound like an euphoric Ibiza classic.

This was all presented as a neat package for home cinema, straight away I decided to keep my wallet in my pocket, close call.

2. Post Production World – NAB Show

Though I just had the opportunity to attend the one of these sessions (Final Cut Pro X Workshop – surprisingly well attended considering the bad rap X has achieved!) I found the experience very rewarding, a great insight into some of the cool features of FCPX and to be honest when the speaker was using it, I certainly started to see its merit! The range of classes offered by PPW were organised by Future Media Concepts and covered every area of post imaginable. I’m not sure if it counted as the Post Production World, but over at the AVID stand I also got a glimpse of a talk with the Oscar winner William Goldenberg (Editor of Argo) to get the inspirational juices flowing.

A few of the talks have been uploaded to the NAB Show website – well worth checking out!

1. GoPro

As far as broadcast shows go, the rock ‘n’ roll scale tends to stay at a relative low – approximately the Rod Stewart of the convention world (The Sports Car Convention – The Rolling Stones,The World of Concrete - Simon & Garfunkel). But if got the chance to hit up the young bucks over at GoPro you might just be fooled into thinking you’d just been transported into the middle of a Limp Bizkit concert (albeit, when they were still popular.) Loud music, screaming girls, t-shirts being flung into to the crowd, a young guy with a baseball cap ‘hyping’ up the crowd and some of the most hardcore looking bits of camera equipment you’ll ever see.

Admittedly, the crowds would almost instantly diminish as soon as the hourly giveaways were done and dusted, but in terms of the presentation of the company – they were simply unmissable. Some really cool new gadgets came to light as well, including the 360Heroes – 6 GoPros connected together complete with an app to stitch the footage seamlessly together. Gradually GoPros were everywhere you looked, I even came across someone filming the entire event with two GPs mounted for 3D – and why not, they are seriously cool!

GoPro NAB 2013 Giveaway from David Newman on Vimeo.

The post My NAB Show Top 5 appeared first on Love Recording.com.

As of May 1st 2013, Behringer will be bundling Tracktion 4 with their range of mixer, interfaces and controllers. The licence for Tracktion 4 usually costs around $59.99, so it’s a great deal.

“We’re very pleased to partner with Tracktion Software Group,” says Uli Behringer, founder and CEO of MUSIC Group. “Everybody wins, as customers can now buy a recording bundle featuring world class DAW software in Tracktion 4, paired with any number of great Behringer products that meet their professional recording needs.”

The following Behringer products will qualify for free Tracktion 4 software:

— X32 Series
—XENYX USB Series
—UFX Series
— XENYX QX Series
— Q USB Series
—NOX Series
—DX Series
—U Series Interfaces
—FCA Series
—U-PHORIA Series
—PODCASTUDIO Series
—C-1U Microphone

Behringer

The post Behringer Now Bundling Tracktion 4 Software appeared first on Love Recording.com.

The new version of Pro Tools Tools 11 claims to be a major upgrade. This latest version enables audio professionals to take on the most demanding productions with new, high-powered audio and video engines, 64-bit architecture, expanded metering, and direct HD video workflows.

“Pro Tools 11 represents a quantum leap in creative power,” said Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of Products and Services at Avid. “The newly designed architecture turbo-charges production with more plug-in processing, the ability to run more virtual instruments—and a host of new features—letting users create ambitiously, without holding anything back.”

Pro Tools 11 delivers the features, performance, and workflows professionals need to take on today’s increasingly complex sessions and tighter timelines. Key benefits and features include:

• Fully redesigned audio engine and 64-bit architecture
  • New Avid Audio Engine — Delivers multiple times the processing power of Pro Tools 10 on the same hardware configurations.
  • 64-bit architecture — Exponentially increases the number of simultaneous virtual instruments and the performance to handle the most sophisticated sessions.
  • Offline bounce — Delivers mixes up to 150 times faster than real time.
  • Low-latency input buffer — Ensures ultra-low latency record monitoring without sacrificing plug-in performance.
  • Dynamic host processing — Maximizes plug-in count by reallocating processing resources as needed.

• Expanded metering
  • Extended standards support — Features a broad range of built-in metering standards, from peak and average to VU and PPM, to maintain adherence to regional broadcast requirements.
  • Gain reduction — Shows gain reduction for all dynamics plug-ins on each channel.

• Direct HD video workflows
  • Built-in Avid Video Engine — Enables audio post professionals to play and edit a wide range of HD video formats including Avid DNxHD®, directly in the Pro Tools timeline without transcoding, using the same core engine as in Media Composer®.
  • Video interface support — Enables monitoring of DNxHD and QuickTime media through Avid Nitris® DX, Avid Mojo® DX, and other video interfaces.

“In the world of professional mixing, I constantly need more processing power, and the extra power in Pro Tools 11 is exactly what I need,” said Tim Palmer, mixer and engineer for U2, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, The Cure, and INXS. “I love the new metering and the new sends view is excellent.  It is really impressive. Pro Tools 11 is a big leap forward.”

Availability & Pricing

Pro Tools 11 and Pro Tools HD 11 will be available in the online Avid Store and at Avid resellers worldwide later in Q2 2013.

The post Avid announce Pro Tools 11 at NAB appeared first on Love Recording.com.

The NAB Show is one of the worlds largest trade shows for everything TV, Broadcast, Media and music. Run by the National Association of Broadcasters. It takes place during at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

If you can’t make it to the show and would like us to hunt out a booth or product for you, please let us know and we’ll do our very best to report on it for you.

The post We’ll be at NAB Show 2013 tomorrow in Las Vegas appeared first on Love Recording.com.

Many people are saying Hip-Hop has lost its way. Over the last few years Hip-Hop has seen a never ending list of tracks about money, girls, guns and living it up… It’s getting dull. 

On almost every album, rappers talk about keeping it real, yet I can’t help feeling most of them are more fairy tale than Disney! I mean you get rappers who have just been signed, talking about flying around the world in private jets (doesn’t happen!), or being in the club almost every night of the week. I’m sure if this was true most of the Hip-Hop stars out there would be alcoholics by now. I’ve personally worked in the television and music industry, and I can tell you first hand, most of the worlds biggest artists are very quiet in real life.

One listen of  Promise’s latest album – ‘Awakening’ makes you realise what you’ve been missing.

Let me just put it out there, this album is incredible, and I don’t mean that lightly. Every song is really well written and each song contains a message and/or subject that makes you think, and think deep. It’s easy to see why artists such as Drake and Montell Jordan are singing Promises praises.

The album reflects real life situations that we all go through (and most of us think about), such as relationships, the meaning of real success, life choices, money, religion, morals and even touches on things as deep as mental health.

Promise is an incredible writer and truly paints a picture with each track. You can genuinely switch off from life and get lost in this album. Whilst listening to each track, I could clearly see the story in the song being played out in front of me. You can watch it unfold in your mind like a good film. This is an album you feel like you need to listen to all the way through, like a good book or film you can’t put down or turn off. Listen to ‘Somebody Else’ and you will instantly be able to think of a few people who fit the bill

It’s both a fun feel good album and a serious album at the same time. Some tracks will make you want to party, whilst other tracks will make you think about your own choices or situations you may have gone through or going through right now. There is a truly positive vibe and moral throughout this whole album and reminds me of when I first discovered Hip-Hop and listened to artists like Common or The Roots. Promise talks about things that other people wouldn’t dare mention on an album.

My Stand out tracks:

Somebody Else – Everyone Knows -Skin Deep-  Back When – Against the odds – Down – Heartstrings

To find out more about Promise, visit:
http://ipromisemusic.com/

To purchase the album or to preview on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/awakening/id446472185

Follow Promise on Twitter:
@ipromisemusic

The post Album Review – ‘Promise – Awakening’ appeared first on Love Recording.com.