Should I Buy It? – XLN Audio XO Review
Should I Buy It? – XLN Audio XO Review What’s happening, everyone! As COVID-19 (coronavirus) quarantines start to go in effect and keep you indoors, we’re here to keep you entertained. This week Yeuda takes a look at the brand-spanking-new XO from XLN Audio. XO is a drum sampler, sequencer, mixer, and sound designer in one. It’s an incredibly innovative approach to sampling and we’re super stoked to share our review with you. Watch the video below, and read our breakdown below that. Overview XO is a beautifully designed plugin, from its interface to its function it is a pure delight. Navigation has a quick learning curve to conquer, but once you do you’ll easily start using the plugin as intended. The first thing you’ll see when opening the plugin is the welcome splash which gives you a short introduction (seen below). …
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MIDI 2.0: A New Generation
MIDI is the technology standard hidden in most music technology. It’s an acronym that stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It’s a way to communicate between devices to make and control sound. Your synthesizer speaks it, your sampler for sure knows the language, your laptop definitely speaks it, even your DJ controller might. So why are we talking about it now? Well with the release of Ableton Live 10.1 we want to explore the possibilities the future holds, plus MIDI 2.0 Prototyping was just announced at NAMM. In this article, we’ll give you a history lesson about MIDI, what you’ve been able to do with it, and inform you of the newest parts coming up in MIDI 2.0. Scroll down if you only want to read about the news regarding MIDI 2.0. History Back in the 1960’s and 70’s, the world had begun experimenting with computer and electronic music. But …
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Accusonus Beat-Making: Beatformer and Regroover Pro
Accusonus Beat-Making: Beatformer and Regroover Pro Today we are going to go over two awesome plugins from Accusonus, Beatformer and Regroover Pro. Both plugins are designed to interact with your drums – Beatformer as an all-in-one drum processor and Regroover Pro as a complex sampler. Continue below as we go over the workflows with each and what makes them unique. Beatformer Beatformer is Accusonus’ all-in-one solution for your drum buss. It boasts “a dozen different processors under the hood” and allows control over them with a simple user interface and the ability to dial in a combination of tones. This can be seen as a pro or a con here, the terms are likely ones you’ve heard before but don’t accurately describe what happens when using them (except for Boom). Otherwise, Accusonus knocked it out of the park here for users by making the controls so simple yet powerful. Each knob has a finite amount of …
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Arcade – A Loop Synthesizer by Output
Arcade – A Loop Synthesizer by Output Output has established itself as one of the top companies to go to when looking for forward-thinking and high-quality tools for music production. Their array of instruments are as unique as they are beautiful sounding. Most recently they introduced a plugin called Arcade to their lineup which is a loop synthesizer connected to the cloud. What does that mean exactly? It means that the instrument is one part sampler, one part loop library, and one part effects unit that gets updated with new samples every single day. If that doesn’t immediately short-circuit your brain while considering the possibilities then let us dive deeper as we review the plugin below. There’s so much you can do with this plugin that we’ll break it down to the basics and dive into the more advanced features within, you’ll be able to follow along and then test it out for …
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Sitala – FREE Drum Sampler
Sitala – FREE Drum Sampler Decomposer just released their free drum sampler instrument for alpha/beta testing so now is the time for you to get your hands on it. Satal is designed as a straightforward instrument built for a simple workflow, the user interface certainly lends to that notion. The plugin can be downloaded as a VST or AU format. Multiple formats are supported for loading into the plugin – WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA, FLAC, and many others! A nice feature is the ability to save your kits for recall later; the instrument comes loaded with some presets already though, two drum machines called “Classic 08” and “Classic 09”. It comes with 16 sample slots which you can load your own external sounds into, Mute and Solo buttons are located below each sample pad. There are four knobs placed on the right side of the plugin that can be used to shape the …
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Beat Lab Instant Sampler (Free Download)
Beat Lab Instant Sampler We’ve got a very special gift for you today. An instant sampler!!!!! This thing is so much fun, simply set up your mic (or built-in mic) record, and start playing! it’s that simple. Check out the video for an in-depth tutorial about all the features and then scroll down to the bottom of the page to grab your free copy. Requirements Ableton Suite 10 Installation Copy to User Library/Presets/Instruments/Max Instruments Setup Input – Setup the incoming channel to your mic or built-in mic Threshold – Sets the volume threshold for the input audio start/end detection. After a recording is finished, the beginning and end points of the recorded sample will be cropped to the first recorded sample that crosses above the set input volume threshold. This threshold also applies to any dropped samples! G – When enabled, recording starts when input signal crosses a …
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Drums and FX – Roland DJ Controllers Updated
Drums and FX – Roland DJ Controllers Updated Roland just recently released firmware updates for its flagship Serato DJ Controllers – the DJ-202, DJ-505, and DJ-808. For anyone not yet familiar with the series, the Roland Serato DJ Controllers are all DJ controllers equipped with onboard sequencing abilities. The introduction of the sequencer into the DJ controllers was meant to give DJs the ability to improvise drum programming during their sets adding another layer to their performances. The controllers have been a major hit so far further narrowing the gap between producer and DJ. The DJ-202 and the DJ-505 gained the most samples from the recent updates with added drum sounds, while the DJ-505 and DJ-808 were given three new Master FX; the DJ-808 was given four new Channel FX, and Nudge and Tap Tempo features were added to the onboard TR-S step sequencer. This was one of the most desired …
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Human After All? – 3 Ways to Humanize Your Music
The beauty of electronic music is that anybody with a laptop can be a one-person band, but far too often we are stuck in the grid and our music loses its human element. The beat is not quite locking in a rhythm so you quantize but now it's too stiff and robotic so you readjust, then requantize, then throw your computer on the ground and call it a day. If you've ever found yourself following a similar routine then we have a few tips on what to do in order to add the humanity back into your music.
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