Propellerhead has just announced some of the features available in the upcoming Reason 5. There are 5 new features that they have just let out of the bag. They new features are as follows…
Dr.OctoRex:
Dr.OctoRex contains 8 REX loop players and lets you switch between them on the fly. This is great for all of us (yes my included) that have used multiple REX devices and have had to deal with routing them all. There are also new features like retriggering on beat and expanded per slice settings. A lot of nice little improvements that can really enhance you workflow.
We were lucky enough to be able to review Inspired Instruments new You Rock Guitar. This is an instrument that we almost passed over at the NAMM show. We are glad we didn’t! Don’t let the outer shell fool you. This is a real instrument that just happens have a mode use with a game system.
The You Rock Guitar allows people to use it for whatever they wish. We could definitely see people starting out using it as a game controller and then decide later to use it as a guitar. As a guitar the only real limitation we saw was that you couldn’t bend strings. We did not find the fact the you couldn’t bend strings as a limitation as you could use the whammy bar as an alternative. We actually found that the pros outweighed the cons on this new controller. We really liked the, “You Rock Mode” as it allows people to learn scales and always play in key. The tracks that came with the presets allow people to quickly jam along and the record mode allows you to quickly capture ideas. The tap mode allows you to press down on the frets in order to play a sound without having to strum.
In the studio we found the controller work straight out of the box. The guitar showed up as a standard USB MIDI controller. We found the You Rock Guitar to be very inspiring (no pun intended with Inspired Instruments) because of the fact that it let us control the virtual instruments by guitar while utilizing guitar scales and tunings. This combination led to many interesting creations and we believe it will be a pretty permanent part of our studio.
Check out the video review we made. Please ignore the horrible guitar playing and the funny looking guy in the video. Otherwise, enjoy the video and the new You Rock Guitar review.
We got a chance to take the Stanton System-3 through it’s paces and all we can say is that we were very impressed! The System-3 is Stanton’s touch based DJ controller that is highly portable and very durable. The controller comes with Native Instrument’s Traktor LE right out of the box so that you can get up and running very quick. Although the System-3 comes with prepackaged software, there is no reason you cannot use the controller with other software that is out there.
The thinking from Stanton, at this point in time, is to create a controller that has a intermediary piece of software that translates all of the values that most of the popular DJ systems are looking for. There is a pro and con to this method of integration in comparison to a controller that has direct ties to a specific application. The Pro is that you have an open ended architecture that allows you to use the controller to map to many DJ applications, while the con is that you don’t have the tight integration with a single platform. But, does that matter in this case? Find out after the jump and check out the video review.
Numerology hit version 2.3 and now has built in support for Novation’s Launchpad. This is one of our favorite apps at Noisemakers.info. It’s a very small company that is doing some innovative things in a DAW. We will be creating some full video walkthroughs soon. For now checkout some new features and a video on the launchpad functionality after the jump…
Renoise 2.5 Goes Gold. This release has been in beta for a little while now and we have been testing some of the new features that it has. Renoise has always had a place in our heart here at noisemakers. info. But, in recent times we find ourselves reaching for Renoise more frequently to work with audio. A lot of nice new features have been added in addition to the already great workflow.
One of the things we have found about Renoise is that it one of the best apps to take on the road. It requires very little screen real estate and most functions can be accessed by keys commands. We really like this app and will probably create some walkthroughs when time permits. For now check out the new features…
New Features:
Pattern Matrix: A birds eye view and editor of the song
Cross Track Routing for “Meta Devices” and new devices like the ”Signal Follower”, which allows you to sidechain other tracks parameters
