George Duke Soul Treasures Reviewed

American jazz and soul legend George Duke recorded more than 500 ready to go loops exclusively for Native Instruments. George Duke Soul Treasures is really a treasure for instant jazz/soul inspiration for the music producers looking for easy to use jazz/soul musical phrases without the need of digging for samples through crates of dusty vinyl. 

Creators of legendary music recording software, sound engineers from Native Instruments turned George Duke’s jazz/soul musical phrases into perfectly sliced and tempo-synced software that lets musicians easily re-arrange all the slices of phrases to create countless variations of jazz/soul melodies. All the phrases included in the software have harmonic basis, you can fit it to any harmony just by one touch on your keyboard. This means that George Duke Soul Treasures does not require advanced musicianship.

George Duke and his personal sound engineer Erik Zobler using highly sought-after vintage equipment recorded jazz/soul phrases on acoustic, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and Clavinet pianos. Each of the musical phrases are available in two versions – clean and “Tubes & Tapes.”  Sound engineers managed to add warm, authentic, reach flavor to the recorded musical phrases using various analog outboard gear, requisite audio tube optical limiter and Ampex analog tape during the recording process.

George Duke Soul Treasures lets musicians easily re-arrange loops they like to create countless versions of jazz and soul musical phrases. This is achieved thanks to phrases being divided into several slices that can be triggered from any point in the loop individually. Waveform Display allows you adjust tune, volume, attack and other sound parameters while playing. George Duke Soul Treasures also accepts “drag and drop” MIDI files. This gives musicians even more flexibility when working with their music recording software.

The software comes with eight different filter types and sound effects like reverb and delay. All these effects are triggerable via MIDI keyboard. So you have a huge ready to use sonic palette in front of you. 

George Duke is a legendary jazz and soul musician. His career starting from 60s, with George Duke Trio, has been rich, illustrious and successful one. George Duke has won five Grammy Awards. Recently he works on his new project together with Jill Scott. George Duke can be easily distinguished from other musicians for his unique funky style that, beside his own rich discography, can be heard on records by such legends as Billy Cobham, Jean-Luc Ponty, Frank Zappa and “Cannonball” Adderley.

NEW MASCHINE - COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Native Instruments is following its strategy of making hardware and software a single harmonized unit. The next product of this trend is MASCHINE a MPC style hardware which is fully based on the incredible flexibility of Native Instruments’ computer based software that has made Native Instruments one of the leaders of music recording software market.

MASCHINE.. I was quite excited when I at first heard about this hardware. My excitement grew even stronger when I first touched this hardware. Native Instruments used to say that “MASCHINE is the next step in beat production” and I think it is completely true. This hardware is designed to give musician all the flexibility one may need to feel comfortable while staying focused on the groove. The controllers are incredibly easy to use. In fact they are so intuitive that there is every likelihood that most of the musicians will not need any kind of extra tutorials or self-training to get used to playing with them. This makes MASCHINE a wonderful hardware whether you work within your music recording software or perform in the club. What is more, Native Instruments offers a free 1.5 update for MASCHINE users. I took advantage of this opportunity and I’d like to suggest all of MASCHINE users to do this free upgrade. It is really wonderful.

MASCHINE comes with fully integrated FX that together with incredibly user-friendly sequencer gives possibility to sample, re-sample and use slicing features intuitively. MASCHINE offers all the quality of features which were delivered by iconic MPC. MASCHINE comes with 16 velocity levels, with the intuitive pad layout. It also gives you possibility of importing MPC files. This all is from the side of the hardware but the major advantage of Native Instruments unique hard and soft blending strategy is that the software takes MASCHINE outside the bounds of hardware-only limitations. MASCHINE comes with 6 GB of synths, percussion, strings and drums loops that makes it incredibly  convenient to turn your rough musical sketches into fully professional production easily and in no time.

The conversion from rough musical sketches to fully professional production can be done thanks to MASCHINE’s ability to integrate with your DAW. If you have a good groove in MASCHINE which you want to have professionally developed you can simply drag and drop loops, sections or full tracks into your DAW directly from MASCHINE as either MIDI or audio. After you have dropped your section, loop or full track into your music recording software you can still use MASCHINE as a controller to manage professional effects distribution and processing. If we take in consideration the 6GB base of loops made by experienced beat makers, it becomes clear what power MASCHINE gives to your studio production.

Native Instruments designed MASCHINE not for only studio use, but for live performance as well. MASCHINE gives never yet given convenience when using it for live performance. Beside its incredibly user friendly design it also gives you possibility to control visual feedback as it comes with special buttons that leave no need of mouse and keyboard control.

 YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO GET MASCHINE FOR RECORD BREAKING LOW PRICE RIGHT NOW !

TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 REVIEW - Native Instruments

Almost a decade ago Native Instruments introduced its first TRAKTOR pioneering in the world of professional DJ software. That was a real revolution at that time. 10 years later the Native Instruments is going to revolutionize the DJ world for the second time with its amazing TRAKTOR KONTROL S4. This is the first fully integrated DJ performance system created by the same team that created the first TRAKTOR 10 years ago.

Well, you may think that I exaggerated a bit in the preceeding paragraph, however the rest of my review article of KONTROL S4 will ensure you that this DJ performance system is really revolutionary that has right to say: Hey, forget all you knew about DJ software and controllers, I am the one that has fused soft and hard in itself and reached perfect harmony ! … And that will be completely right. Even on my first touch with TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 I discovered that even those things that seemed a bit complicated for me could be done easily using this DJ performance system. Revolutionary convenient TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 revealed yet untouched fields of possibilities for me. I guessed how easily could I have learnt all these DJ-ing things if I had had possibility to use TRAKTOR KONTROL S4. Seems like guys at Native Instruments have put all their 10 year experience in TRAKTOR KONTROL S4, which can be used by beginners as well as by professionals.

TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 is composed of 4 channel DJ mixer, the quality of which really surprised me, although I really did not expect any 4 channel mixers to surprise me anymore (at least by quality), an intuitive controller, a soundcard which is built-in (24bit/96khz) and of course the crown of the package is TRAKTOR PRO S4 – TRAKTOR SOFT at its summit. I have been using TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 for about 2-3 weeks now and the supreme advantages I noticed are easy and instant usability, excellent pro features and yet unprecendented portability.

Well, what about the controller. Since controller is probably the most important part of the package, as it connects and harmonizes hardware and software into an integrated whole, I think its comprehensive review is essential. TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 controller has really hard task to perform. It had to guarantee the high convenience in order to provide easy usability of this integrated system of hard and soft. I think it does its job perfectly. The design of sample decks is really innovative. Most of the control over software is provided by two clearly laid-out deck control sections and two effect units which can be assigned to any of four software decks. I can not do without mentioning electomagnetic jog wheels the quality of responsivity of which is really surprising. The controller layout with its rotary knobs create all the comfort and a bit more a DJ may need. 

Well, what about 4 channel mixer. At the first look it really seems not to be different from normal 4 channel mixers with their normal features, of course if we do not take in consideration that it is part of unique DJ performance system. However what makes this 4 channel mixer surprising is its wonderful design which has been elaborated by famous DJs. This 4 channel mixer makes it easy to connect other DJ performance gear like CDJ players, turntables, microphone etc. In the 4 channel mixer you can also find inovative loop recorder. This feature works like a fifth deck, which adds an extra layer to your mix by recording and looping audio while mixing. Convenience is provided by the optional foot controller which can start loop recorder, if you are doing some advanced scratching and both your hands are busy. 

The audio interface is another wonderful feature of TRAKTOR KONTROL S4. I needed this audio card to be itegrated in the system so much for all those times when I had been using external sound cards. This audio interface has the right to be named as the successor of Native Instruments high quality audio cards. It provides all the clarity, power and dynamic range a modern DJ may need for creating wonderful mixes using external CDJ players and turntables, effects, microphones and various MIDI gear. 

TRAKTOR PRO S4 could well be the theme of another, separate article. This software is based on TRAKTOR PRO. It was developed to be fully compatible, to create synergy with TRAKTOR KONTROL S4. All the new features that are introduced by TRAKTOR PRO S4 are designed to help its user to take the full advantage of TRAKTOR KONTROL S4. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention premum ready-made loops that can be combined instantly into the mix. 

I bough TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 with its case that provides special “shelf” to place my laptop. I think that will be very useful on gigs. Its so strange and amazingly convenient - going to mix on a gig and taking just laptop and one average size flight case, where all the rest hardware is placed. 

YOU CAN GET TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 HERE FOR 899 $ WHICH IS 100$ LESS THAN THE PRICE AT OTHER PLACES

The Mouth Review - Native Instruments And Tim Exile

The Mouth is a completely unique way to express your creative musical ideas. Well, personally I was in great need of such music recording software and may be that is why I am so excited about the Mouth. This virtual instrument is the result of another colaboration of Native Instruments and Tim Exile. The result of the first colaboration was The Finger – another wonderful software I am going to write a review of soon. I wanted to review some of the basic features of The Mouth.

The first and may be the most important thing about The Mouth is that it is incredibly easy to use. It creates all the comfort I lacked so much on rehearsals or any kind of live performance. I completely agree with Tim Exile, who says that you do not have to be a KEYNIUS to be a GENIUS ! The Mouth is yet another validation of this phrase. 

So what can you exactly do with this exciting software. You can give any kind of audio to The Mouth whether you sing, give some synthesizer sounds, or even drum loops and beatbox it does not matter, and you are ready to go. When I said that you do not have to be a KEYNIUS I meant that you really do not need to know how to play keyboards. All you need is just a midi keyboard and everything is fine. By using this software the pitch of the sound, you gave earlier to The Mouth, is detected and the software auto-tunes the sound to a musical scale according to a notes received from a MIDI device. This means that you have just to press one key on your keyboard and the sound you gave to The Mouth gets automatically tuned to the corresponding musical scale. If you press another key on your MIDI device the sound will automatically get tuned to another musical scale. This means that your sound will always remain tuned. 

I personally found the interface of The Mouth quite user friendly. At first it seemed a bit confusing, but after I saw the video, which comes right below this post (I advise you to see it), I understood how to use it in a comfortable manner.

Internally there are four generators that are responsible for crafting the desired sound: Input, Synth, Bass and Vocoder. The mixer section is simple and there are 5 faders which are to manage everything. The mixer comes with a master FX section as well. That means that you can add additional characteristics yo your sound.  Each of the for generators contains numerous sounds (totally 118), which can be easily selected using the preset matrix.

 

8 performance control knobs are just another feature I liked about The Mouth. These knobs alter both the amplitude and the sound at once. It makes shaping the sound, adding additional harmonies easier.

One last thing I want to mention in my The Mouth Review is its Beats Mode. This mode enables you to generate the excitingly arppegiated sound of the drum patterns that you give to the software. 

Oh, and I almost forgot to say that The Mouth can be used in the free REAKTOR 5 PLAYER, or in the full version of REAKOT 5.5, which gives you possibility to explore all the insides of this software.

KOMPLETE 7 - NATIVE INSTRUMENTS - REVIEW

Native Instruments has released KOMPLETE 7, which, without exaggeration, is a KOMPLETE that has never been so complete yet. New Komplete 7 includes 24 groundbreaking instruments and effects and comes with 90 GB sound sample. With production-ready sounds, which are now 10 000 in KOMPLETE 7, you have endless possibilities in all the genres and styles. 

The new Komplete 7 includes all the renowned brand products like Guitar Rig, Kontakt, Reaktor, FM 8 and so on. Well let’s start with the updated REAKTOR 5.5. This new REAKTOR is completely based on the successful predecessor and has some additional features. The thing that you notice at the very first glance is its new design. In fact the design of REAKTOR has always been inconvenient in some sense. But the new REAKTOR design managed to make creating and using instruments more intuitive and easier. Beside design, two more techniques of synthesis have been added in the engine. These techniques (modal and additive) enable creating even more modification of instruments, even more sounds and effects !  The first new instrument which uses the new additive synthesis technique is contributed from the makers of MASSIVE and is called LAZERBASS. 

The new KOMPLETE 7 also includes KONTAKT 4, which is a famous software sample, which gives you possibility to tweak your samples without any limitations and offers incredibly flexible sound architecture.

Guitar Rig 4 Pro is another sofware in the Komplete 7. This wonderful music recording software is also based on its predecessor and has some additional features as well. Guitar Rig now comes with 15 bass and guitar amps. They were all modeled using NI’s award winning DTRT (Dynamic Tube Response Technology). This enables Guitar Rig 4 Pro’s virtual amps to deliver all the feel, character and charm of their real counterparts. Beside it, Guitar Rig 4 Pro gives you possibility to setup harmonizzed speakers for each amp.

Komplete 7 also includes THE FINGER, which was originally derived from the Tim Exile live setup. Although it’s an effects pack unit, you can use it like a musical instrument as it gives possibility to be played as a musical instrument.

RAMMFIRE an amazingly powerful virtual amplifier, which is the result of Rammstein’s Richard Z. Kruspe’s collaboration with NI. This wonderful music recording software delivers all the power your guitar may need !

Komplete 7 also includes 12 most popular effects from the TRAKTOR PRO effects pack under the title TRAKTOR’s 12.

Scarbee MM-Bass, also included in KOMPLETE 7, brings the feel of 1970s funk and disco right at your fingertips.

Another music recording software in KOMPLETE 7 is REFLEKTOR – a reverb effect, which was made using ZERO LATENCY CONVOLUTION technology. 

Good Old Battery 3 is also included in KOMPLETE 7, with its vast 12 GB library.

Abbey Roads 60s Drums is also included in KOMPLETE 7.

Komplete 7 can not be without ABSYNTH 5. Those who have already used any predecessors of KOMPLETE which already included ABSYNTH, can verify that this semi-modular synthesizer really gives endless possibilities.

MASSIVE is another music recording software in KOMPLETE 7. This synthesizer is quite heavyweight one. You can get anything from creamy analog sounds to brute force audio from it.

REAKTOR PRISM is another innovation introduced in KOMPLETE 7. It is an amazing polyphonic instrument which is based on groundbreaking “Modal Bank” module.

FM 8. Well if you have used any previous KOMPLETEs you would have already get known with this woderful synthesizer.

 Innovations, innovations, innovations ! REAKTOR SPARK ! This unique REAKTOR ensemble, on which REAKTOR SPARK is based, was developed by Stephan Schmitt – NI founder  - himself. 

KOMPLETE 7 also includes ACOUSTIC REFRACTIONS. It is probably the most interesting part of this new music recording software. ACOUSTIC REFRACTIONS instruments have unique sounds which have been sampled from quite unusual sources like washing machin, ice, the Golden Gate Bridge etc.

KOMPLETE 7 continues the tradition of KOMPLETEs to contain acoustic pianos. KOMPLETE 7 comes with NEW YOUR CONCERT GRAND, VIENNA CONCERT GRAND, BERLIN CONCERT GRAND and UPRIGHT PIANO.

KOMPLETE 7 also includes VINTAGE ORGANS. These virtual versions of five legendary organs manage to deliver the feel and character of their originals.

KOMPLETE 7 also includes three electric pianos SCARBEE MARKI, a legend from 70s with its wonderful sound preserved incredibly, SCARBEE CLAVINET/PIANET, a mixture of the sounds of two iconic electric pianos and SCARBEE A-200 just mm… classics !

YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL POSSIBILITY OF GETTING KOMPLETE 7 FOR RECORD-BREAKING LOW PRICE 499$

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