Abbey Road 70s Drums by Native Instruments - Review!

Native Instruments has just released Abbey Road -70s Drums. For those who like NI’s music recording software it will be easy to guess that it is the second part of NI’s collaboration with Abbey Road Studios as Abbey Road – 60s Drums was released some months ago. Abbey Road – 70s Drums is completely made of high quality samples recorded by the most famous drum kits from 1970s in the legendary Abbey Road’s Studio. This music recording software seems great from the very first view: NO EMULATIONS OR MODELING – ONLY SAMPLES! - sounds great.

Sound engineers of Native Instruments and Abbey Roads studio chose two drum kits from 1970s to provide the fascinating quality this music recording software offers. The Open Kit is Ludwig! This kit gives you possibility of recording roomy sound and is really perfect if you’d like to record classic rock. The Tight Kit is 1970s Premier model. This kit provides tight, dry and punchy sound, that definitely recalls the memories of 1970s.

It seems like Native Instruments has reached its peak of improvement the techniques of recording samples. This music recording software gives you possibility of controling the very details of the overall drum sound as the mic signals are all possible to be adjusted separately.

This music recording software also contains an alternative mic setup with the Ludwig. This kind of mic setup was invented by Glyn Johns – who is one of the most famous sound engineers having worked with Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Rolling Stones and many other – and is named after his name. So the Glyn Johns method, which means using just two overhead, a snare and a bass drum mics gives you possibility of getting high quality live sound, which is incredibly realistic.

Below you can listen to a demo track recorded by this music recording software, which has really exceeded my expectations.

IK MULTIMEDIA Releases AMPLITUBE 3 - Read The Review Of This Wonderful Music Recording Software

IK multimedia announced about AmpliTube 3 being available for downloading now. From the first look it seems like a worthful successor of its predecessor AmpliTube 2, which in fact was the best guitar tone gear-modeling software.

The new features offered by the upgrade of this great music recording software give you even more possibilities for optimizing your tone. AmpliTube now has 160 models of modern gear and vintage. There are 30 brand new gear models and wonderful effects and 70 re-mastered ones from AmpliTube Metan and Jimi Jendrix included as well. IK Multimedia has used their latest technologies of DSM and VRM to remaster all the models. The number of stopmbox effects has risen to 51, the number of amps – to 31, the number of cabinets to – 15. There are also 17 rack effects included. In fact AmpliTube 3 gives you twice as much gear as were given from AmpliTube 2. The new cabinet has the support of double freely movable microphones. The brand new reverb and ambience effects are now based on impulse. Now you can record tracks as well using this music recording software as AmpliTube 3 has the built-in 4-track recorder and player. AmpliTube 3 also provides the support of new MIDI-LEARN feature, which gives you possibility to learn whatever you want connected with using this music recording software.

Fact is that AmpliTube 3 has gone even further than its predecessor and all of its software and even hardware counterparts. It includes 31 Amps wheareas Guitar Rig 4 includes only 15. People who use Guitar Rig often complain that they are not able to have the rich, expressive sound they need. It is not going to happen when you are using AmpliTube 3. The power brought by this music recording software, the new creative effects, which give you possibility to create completely unique sound really make you think that AmpliTube 3 is the King Of Tone. Using AmpliTube has also become easier. The new drag and drop feature gives you possibility to make experiments for optimizing your tone quickly and easily. In fact you can create with AmpliTube 3 every sound you can imagine and even those you can not right now. Below you can listen to the samples recorded using AmpliTube 3. You can hear by your own ears one of the new peaks music recording software has reached!

SO, MEET THE NEW KING OF TONE – You can download the absolutely free trial of AmpliTube 3 from the IK Multimedia official website and check all of the upgrades this music recording software offers during ten days.

NOW YOU CAN GET IT FOR INCREDIBLY LOW $279.95

Native Instruments Releases Evolve Mutations 2 - Read The Review!

If you wish to make some movie or game sound effects than this new music recording software by Native Instruments is definitely for you! Evolve Mutations 2 gives you possibility to set the audio effects to a higher level. Its sound library is 2 GB ! It is just incredible. This gives so much opportunities for the composers of movies and games to find the unique sound effects and textures they need. Also Evolve Mutations 2 offers full comfort. The effort of many sound effect pros, who work in the industry of movies and games, made it possible for Native Instruments to deliver the abilities this music recording software gives, to their consumers in the quite convenient package. Also Evolve Mutations 2 features the new Trigger FX! This feature distinguishes Evolve Mutations 2 from all the other music recording software of the same genre. Using Trigger FX you have the possibility to make inspiring transformations of the sound effects without applying much effort.

The library of Evolve Mutations 2 is divided into 4 parts.

Rhythmic Suites – Vast amount of percussion and other elements used for making rhythms make up 222 beat loops! Distinguished key-mapping offered by this music recording software makes it easy to mix these loops. So you can make “dense” rhytms consisting of many layers without applying much effort.

Percussive Kits – A diverse range of intense percussive hits and cinematic sound effects are offered by this part of Evolve Mutations 2. This category consists of 11 menu-style kits. You have the possibility to make your own beats from the very beginning and feel the completely unique quality of your production.

Stings and Transitions – This category gives you the possibility to put the emotional impact of your sound effects to a new level. You would definitely remember the terrifying or bizzare textures during the movies. You can do it all! Using this section of Evolve Mutations 2.

Tonality and FX – This section offers the possibility of making some incredible soundscapes, to use unique melodic instruments, radio static mixing. To say in a word you will have full possibility to produce completely uniqe sound that will underline your signature on your music production. Also this music recording software offers a brand new Trigger FX feature. You can add highly creative unexpected edge to your audio     effects!

Play On Alicia's Keys - Native Instruments Releases Brand New Music Recording Software Alicia Keys' Virtual Grand Piano

Native Instruments has released a brand new music recording software – Alicia’s Keys. The colaboration of Thomas Skarbye who is sample specialist and Ernest Cholakis – an impulse response master gave possibility to Alicia Keys of creating a virtual piano that is the perfect reflection of her own musical standards and her beautiful sound that made her famous, multiple Grammy-winning artist.

The samples of this new music recording software was recorded by Alicia Keys herself. Grammy winning sound engineer Ann Mincieli supervised the process of recording. The samples are recorded from Alicia Key’s personal Yamaha C3 Grand Piano, which is absolutely unique and was created specially for celebrating the 100th anniversary of Yamaha’s foundation. With the help of Thomas Skarbye and Nils Liberg, who is Native Instruments’ script wizard, this unique Grand Piano has become avialable for everyone. The team by using vintage mics and preamps and analyzing the very details of Alicia’s playing produced totally 3000 samples in 12 layers of velocity, that is approximately 17 GB WAV. That makes this music recording software realistic. Its users are able to feel all the warmth of the soulful and inspiring sound of Alicia Keys Grand Piano.

This music recording software provides the possibility to enjoy the very details of playing on unique Yamaha C3. The details such as mechanical release noises, unique resonanse and release system, even the sound of fingers hitting keys are all incorporated in this virtual piano. This music recording software is admired by Alicia Keys herself. She said that she felt like she has taken part in creating the best virtual piano and thanked all the team that made it possible for everyone to play on Yamaha C3. Alicia demonstrated her attitude towards this music recording software by using it exclusively in the process of recording her latest album – The Element of Freedom.

Now You Can Play On Alicia's Keys For As Low As 99$

Addictive Drums' New Update - FUNK ADPAK - Reviewed

XLNaudio released Funk ADPAK for addictive drums. This update of the great music recording software - Addictive Drums is focused on modern funk sounds and offers to its consumers to create beautiful funky tracks in no time, just using its 400 funky MIDI Grooves. This update includes completely new Pearl Drumkit, Sabian and Paiste Cymbals and 30 Presets. XLNaudio provided the possibility to regulate sound between a dry sound and big and loud sound by recording both with close mics and with room mics.

Pearl made the individual design for each drum, that made Pearl Reference Series Drumkit probably the best drumkit avialable. In fact each drum is unique. This provides really rich sound that fits almost all the styles. Famous drummers such as Dennis Chambers and Chad Smith play on Pearl Reference Series Drumkit. In my opinion this is quite enough to guarantee the highest quality of this DrumKit and therefore the highest quality of the update of Addictive Drums. The kit of this music recording software update is composed by 22 bass drum, 14 snare drum with really thick body, 4 toms varying from 10” to 16.” Also, as declared above, kit includes Sabian and Paiste cymbals.

Sampling is done with really great care. XLNaudio really managed to get the highest quality they could get. The recordings were held in Stockholm, Sweden. AEA,AKG,Neumann and Telefunken mics and Universal Audio amps were used to get the best quality recordings. All the samples are distinguished with realistic reverb, that finally turns this music recording software update to one of the most realistic drum vsts.

More than 30 Presets that are the part of this update gives you possibility to completely control the sound. You can set the sound from tight to large, from high to low, from thin to fat quite easily. There are several preset categories: Clean, Tight, Natural, Effected and Roomy. You can either use these built in preset categories or change them according to your desire.

All these make the FUNK ADPAK really wonderful drum vst for those who want to record funk tracks. 400 MIDI grooves that come along with this Addictive Drums update gives great possibilities to its users.

Below you can hear some of the demo tracks recorded using this music recording software update:

Get This Music Recording Software For Just 57.95$

Music Recording Software - Mastering - iZotope Ozone 4 - Review (Part Two)

Harmonic Exciter 

  

If you need to add analog character to your master you would be happy to discover that Ozone 4 includes Multiband Harmonic Exciter. With this tool this music recording software gives you possibility of adding tube or tape saturation. You can add sparkle or punch to your recording and accentuate even harmonics. Unique saturation characteristics are being offered by the retro, tape, tube or warm exciter modes all of which you can choose when using Harmonic Exciter. Multiband operation gives you possibility of adding the amount of excitation you need to different ranges of frequency.

Multiband Dynamics

This is probably the most powerful tool offered by this music recording software. This tool is for compressing, limiting, making expansion and gating. You are given the possibility of tuning the dynamics of your mixes independently for up to four different frequency range. This tool definitely gives you unprenendented control over dynamics by its hybrid crossover filters which come with controllable bandwidth and its analog modeled, linear phase.

Mastering Reverb

This music recording software also offers 64-bit reverb module. You have the possibility of adding incredible sense of depth and space to your recordings. The final gloss or sheen is put on the entire mix by this tool, which also preserves the sense of space, which is so difficult to achieve. I personally had been using reverbs on individual tracks before I started using Ozone 4, which gave me possibility to master the entire mix.

Macro Pesets

Ozone 4 offers about 140 presets for mastering recordings. This is great not only for amateur musicians, but for advanced users as well. These pressets are not fixed. They can be adjusted according to your desire by simply using the controls without leaving the preset manager. You simply have to adjust “EQ Boost” “Dynamics Gain” and “Stereo Width” to fit your mix. You are also let to group your favourite Ozone controls to your own MacroFaders.

Ozone Exclusives

Ozone 4 includes 3 exclusives that really distinguishes this music recording software from all the other plug-ins.

User-Definable Routing

This feature lets you create your own custom signal path, in case you need to change the default logical processing order offered by Ozone 4.This can be done simply by opening up Ozone’s Filter Graph and “drag and dropping” modules for re-ordering. There is no need of patch cables!

Undo History 

It is embarassing to discover that you are not able to undo the EQ changes that you have recently made, because your mastering plug-in does not allow you to do this. This certainly is not to happen when you use Ozone 4 as this music recording software solves this problem by including built-in Undo History. All you have to do is simply step back through the list of actions made by you.

Mastering and Visual Feedback

Nowadays when you use mastering plug-ins you often see really huge array of knobs that can make anyone confused. The creators of Ozone 4 tried to solve this problem by adding visual feedback at every step of the mastering process. In fact these visual information is vital for creating the overall sense of what you are doing with your recordings. Besides it makes the process of mastering much easier. Amateur musicians can get the professional sound simply by using this wonderful music recording software.

Get This Amazing Software For Just 224.95$

64-Bit Cross Platform For Spectrasonics - New Update For Trilian and Omnisphere - New iPhone And iPod App By Spectrasonics

Specrasonics announced that the new v1.2 updates are to be released for its famous music recording software – Omnisphere and Trilian – which have been used while recording the sound effects for Avatar, Terminator Salvation and many other famous movies. This update lets you use these software as full Mac and Windows 64-bit plug-ins. Several new features are introduced as well by these updates. The first and the most important is an improved browser, then comes new algorithms for synthesizer filter and brand new Sample File Server that gives this music recording software the possibility of going beyond 32-bit memory limits on Mac. Arpeggiator is also having the Triplet support now. The new free iPhone application has also been demonstrated by Spectrasonics at 2010 Namm. This app gives you possibility to use your iPhone or iPod Touch as remote control for Omnisphere’s and Trillian’s Live Mode pages. This update finally enables to use Omnisphere and Trillian with 64-bit Mac DAWs like Logic 9.1.

More convenient browser now is supported by “Favourites” feature that gives you possibility to organize thousands of sounds in the way you like. You can rate the sounds with the stars as well and then sort sounds according to the rating made by you. The updated engine brought by this update makes your music recording software produce sound of higher quality espcially when used with extreme resonance and sweeping sounds.

This update is really great, but the most important thing declared at 2010 NAMM by Spectrasonics was that iPhone or iPod can now be used as the wireless remote control. You can just use the touch screen of your iPod Touch or iPhone to select sound and use all the features offered by the Midi controllers. This is especially useful when performing live – at stage or at rehearsals. It is extremely convenient. It is really worth trying!

Music Recording Software - Mastering - iZotope Ozone 4 - Review (Part One)

Mastering is one of the most difficult part of the music recording proccess as it makes difference between a normal recording and a professional sound. After you have recorded all, you need to master your tracks and definitely, I’d say that Izotope Ozone 4 is the best music recording software to use for it.

Ozone 4 offers 10 main features. I’ll try to make a full review of them:

Paragraphic EQ

6 bands of adjustable notch filters and low/high shelf filters as well are combined in Ozone’s paragraphic equalizer. This equalizer has a special EQ mode, that gives you possibility of capturing the snapshots of reference mixes and then use the spectral curve for adjusting the EQ of your project. You are also given the possibility of equalizing the center and the side of the stereo image separately.

IRC Loudness Maximizer

Your music recording software host can provide the level of loudness that may seem quite enough, but when you compare the fullness of your sound to the fullness of the sound of a professional recording it becomes clear that you need Loudness Maximizer. Izotope Ozone provides the possibility to lift the overall audio level and keep the master from clipping at the same time. Ozone’s exclusive intelligent release control technology gives you possibility to set the loudness you need without using any unwanted side effects.

Multiband Stereo Imaging

You can use this feature for adjusting stereo width and imaging. Multiband Stereo Imaging provides possibility of working with up to four frequency bands. This lets you gain control independently according to the stereo width and frequency. Correlation Meter and Vectosrscope, which are integrated in Ozone give you possibility to see the mastering process visually.

Dither

Ozone also gives you possibility of converting and dithering to 8, 12, 16, 20 or 24 bits. To give an example, this feature can be used to master a recording for CD from a 24bit source.

Mid/Side Processing

For many years sound engineers kept Mid/Side Processing as the secret. But now Ozone gives you possibility to use this feature as well. When using this feature you have stereo information, that comes into the plug-in, converted into mid and side signals. You can easily guess what the result is! You can use all the mastering modules offered by Ozone to master separately the sound that is in the center of your mix and the sound that is on the edges of the stereo image.


Get This Wonderful Software For Just 224 $  

 

Native Instruments - Paranormal Spectrums - Review

Finally Native Instruments has released the first music recording software which is optimized on tension-filled and dark sound aesthetics. Paranormal Spectrums gives you possibility to create horror-genre style atmospheres for video games and movies instantly. It is a powerful weapon in the hands of the modern composer, who now has the possibility of using wide range of horror genre sounds, which are truly terrifying. Most of the sound come from the field recordings of forlorn places. Much of the sounds are combined with the synthesized effects of Absynth and Massive resulting in wonderful horror sound effects. The unique approach by which this music recording software was created lets you enjoy a true playability leading you to the darkest and the strangest corners of this flexible collection.

In fact it is one of the KORE Instruments by Native instruments. It consists of 100 sounds, each of which has 8 variations. So totally this music recording software offers 800 instantly usable permutations. What is more you are let to transform the preset just using the direct control of Kore 2 Player interface, so you can fit each preset to the mood of your desire. This music recording software gives you possibility to use the sounds of fear, panic and horror in your recordings.

WARNING: Sounds provided by this music recording software are not for the faint hearted!

Free Music Recording Software - Quartz Audio Master and Anvil Studio

                                                         Qartz Audio Master

Quartz Audio Master provides the possibility of recording, editing and mixing music. This free music recording software has integrated 4 tarcks digital mixer and 16 tracks MIDI sequencer. Quartz Audio Master has 1 (2 channels) audio input and 1 audio output (2 channels). Also you can use some of the basic effects like chorus, phaser, reverb, stereo delay.. – all of which are offered by this free music recording software and make your music more touching, more alive. You can easily import and export musical tracks using this software. Quartz Audio Master also includes juke box, mpeg 3 decoder, lyrics viewer - in case you want to sing karaoke. To say in a word this free music recording software can fulfill all the basic needs for starting recording music. It also gives you possibility too choose either 16 bits/32 Khz sample rate, or 24bits/44.1 Khz sample rate.

Anvil Studio

Anvil Studio is another free music recording software working on Windows platform. Using it you can compose and record music with Midi and audio equipment. Also it gives you possibility to use Midi equipment for sequencing music or just to enjoy playing live music just using your pc. Anvil studio supports standard.Mid and .Wav formats. It includes numerous integrated supports like: rhythm editor or On/Off, Mute, Solo, channel, device, instrument, pan and fader - per track. Anvil Studio also allows you to use some audio effects like reverb, delay. Its EQ and third party direcX effects give you possibility to make your music more effective. This free music recording software also provides possibility to sequence as Midi Master or Slave. Also you are not limited in the number of Midi tracks. So you can easily record audio tracks directly from your sound card’s Mono, Left, Right or Stereo channels. So you have the possibility to start recording your music by just downloading this free music recording software

Toontrack Announces That 1.0.5 Version of EZplayer is Released!

Toontrack advises to all its consumers to download this update for EZplayer directly from their account’s download section.


EZplayer 1.0.5 offers some of the features which have never been provided by any of the previous versions of this music recording software. This update offers the support of Electronic EZX . You also will have possibility to access Your MIDI Folder directly from the help menu, that really “makes life much easier.” Also among the new features are map wraps for the latest versions of Addictive Drums, Slate Drums, Ocean Way Drums and Platinum Samples Evil Drums.

Toontrack has also fixed almost all the notable bugs that were in the previous version of EZplayer: You can now “Drag and Drop” in Logic 9, also when you load a file accents will be played back. The arranger tracks are not silent any more. When you dragged files that were not MIDI EZplayer crashed, but after updating this music recording software will not crash in such cases. The velocity can be set to -127 now, without “silencing” the plugin. When you click the “MIDI stepping through in the browser” arrows headers are skipped. When you drag from the Arranger EZplayer automaticly generates shorthands. Also if you have metronome turned on the tempo will automaticly be adjusted to the dragged groove’s tempo. Number of “crash situations” do not lead to crashing any more, thanks to this update of this music recording software. These “crashing situations” of EZplayer were really annoying and that is why Toontrack has tried its best to improve this music recording software so, that there will be much lesser crashes.

As you see, this great new features and fixed bugs make this update worth downloading. So just enter your account at Toontrack’s website, download and install this update, which really offers much to enjoy.

Classic Piano Collection From Native Instruments

After releasing Komplete 6, many customers of Native Instruments were dissapointed. Many people thought that Native Instruments had stopped releasing its great Grand Piano VSTs, but I want to inform you that this information is completely wrong. In fact Native Instruments has released “New York Concert Grand,” “Vienna Concert Grand,” “Berlin Concert Grand” and “Upright Piano” independently from the brand new “Komplete.”

This great collection of Acoustic Pianos is based on the well-known NI engine. I think that is quite enough to guarantee that these famous Acoustic Pianos are amazingly realiscticly reproduced in these music recording software. Native Instruments used special recording technique, with which they managed to record samples of the keys at ten different velocities. Besides that style of recording made it possible to remain different levels of velocity homogeneous.

New York Concert Grand is more like “easy playing” one. You can get impressive sound with even a very slight touch of the keys . This VST provides really highly flexible dynamics. In my opinion this Piano is really great for Solo-Jazz style.

Vienna Concert Grand provides superior power. It’s resonance really seems never to be going to quit. These great characteristics of this music recording software are all provided thaks to the unique design of the original Vienna Concert Grand.

Berlin Concert Grand is really full of life. All the characteristics of this great Grand Piano, which managed to establish new standards for Grand Pianos worldwide, are gathered in this woderful VST. The strenght and freshness of this Grand Pianoreally makes me to qualify it as a MAGICAL INSTRUMENT.

And finally if you just need the traditional sweet sound of piano you should definitely try The Upright Piano. All the characteristics of this piano, which time by time is acknowledged as the BEST CONCERT PIANO by the critics and artists from around the world, are exposed in this music recording software.

Free Music Recording Software - AUDACITY and KRISTAL AUDIO ENGINE

Audacity

When I think about the free music recording software one of the first thoughts that sparkle in my mind definitely is Audacity. This audio editor is really easy to use. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux.

With Audacity you can easily record live audio. This software also gives you possibility to edit different kinds of audio files (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Aiff, Wav). You can also edit sound files in anyway, like you would do if you were using advanced audio editor having high price. This music recording software also gives you possibility to change the speed or pitch of an audio file. Audacity is very convenient for its easiness and “for its being FREE.” So I consider Audacity as highly recommended audio editor for those who want to get simple, “easy-to-use” software as you have only to enter Audacity’s official website and download this great audio editor.

Kristal Audio Engine

Kristal Audio Engine possibly is the next FREE music recording software that comes to my mind. It is quite powerful multi-track recorder. It also can be used as a mixer and audio sequencer. Kristal Audio looks like a modular system as the main application gives us a mixing console. The software loads live audio input, and audio sequencer as separate Plug-Ins.

Kristal Audio Engine gives you possibility to use 16 audio tracks. Using 32 Bit audio engine of this software you have the possibility to “downmix” to 16, 24 or 32 Bit sound files. On Kristal Audio Engine you also can use ASIO low latency audio driver. This music recording software also has 2 VST insert slots per channel, while there are 3 VST master effect slots. Kristal Audio Engine supports WAV, Aiff, OGG Vorbis and Flac. I would say that Kristal Audio is really great for those who want to start recording mastering and mixing digital audio.

Native Instruments releases FREE KONTAKT 4 PLAYER and FREE KONTAKT LIBRARY!

As you may already know Native Instruments has released Komplete 6, which includes “all new” Kontakt 4, Absynth 5, Guitar Rig 4. But you may not know that Native Instruments has also released the FREE KONTAKT 4 PLAYER And FREE SOUND LIBRARY for Kontak's factory selection. YES! You have the possibility to get this wonderful music recording software absolutely FREELY on Native Instruments' official web-site.

Kontakt 4 is the deserving successor of its great “predcessor” Kontakt 3. Kontakt 4 really annuls all the limitations that has modern music recording software, by its innovative and absolutely wonderfully highly playable instruments. The flexibility of this music recording softwar’s script processing is really unlimited – this gives you possibility to use instruments with the funcionality and musicality never achieved before. As stated in the beginning of this article along with Kontakt 4 free player you also have the possibility to download the FREE KONTAKT FACTORY SELECTION. This release contains 50 premium instruments which gives you great abilities to get the sound you need using brand new version of the well-known music recording software- KONTAKT. The sound library contains famous instruments from KONTAK’s great libraries. You can use all the old Kontakt libraries with Kontakt 4 player. This music recording software also has the support of the Library Browser, which gives you possibility to have gathered all the Kontakt libraries and library-relevant information found on your computer in one folder. You also are given the ability of activating your library, loading the instruments and even launching movies by this wonderful Library Browser. Kontakt 4 Player is also equiped with Performance View. It’s a panel of controls, which gives you ability to change the charachteristics of any KONTAKT Instruments. The Demo version of KONTAKT4 is also included in this release.

So, do not miss this great chance and get it all. IT’S FREE! You Just have to enter Native Instrument’s Official web page and download it.