A Whole Slew Of Mini Reviews...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Just some quick off-the-cuff remarks about shit I’ve picked up recently. (Today, in fact.)
Novation Launchpad: I’ve only had this for a half an hour, so I can’t really say “OMGWTF?” or anything like that. I will say that setup was easy as can be, and it Just Works. Having buttons to record and fire clips and scenes in Live makes a world of difference in the writing process. I imagine it’d be handy live, too, but obviously I haven’t played any shows in the last hour, so I couldn’t say.
Native Instruments Massive Threat: Picked this up this morning and went through all the patches. Despite the name, there are some surprisingly delicate sounds in this 200+ patch collection. I don’t get why he put BPMs in the names of some of them; they’re all host synced, so it’s kind of silly. The wobble basses are quite wobbly. The first audio demo on the NI site is fucking hilarious, too. It’s almost a parody of dubstep, it’s so wobbly. I recommend a listen even if you’re not in to that sort of thing. (I’m not.) Silly sounds that can instantly date your music aside, this is a very good sound set. The ones straight from NI are usually no joke, and this is definitely up to par. Strong “buy” recommendation at this point.
Native Instruments The Finger: This is a Reaktor patch they’ve made to work with Kore and Kore Player. If you don’t have Reaktor (I don’t) you can’t actually edit the patches, which is kind of silly. If you never paid attention when it came out, it’s essentially a set of FX patches for Kore/Kore Player that enable MIDI keyboard control of certain tempo effects. Kind of a slick idea, but I think it would benefit from being an actual VST/AU rather than a Kore patch. I’m not complaining, though. It’s cool, and has given me some ideas for an AD product, which in and of itself is worth the price of admission.
The Usual Official “Caveat Emptor”: I got The Finger and Massive Threat in an NFR trade. I’m the only blogger that seems to tell you guys this information, despite the fact that it is a law now, at least here in the US, but you always know where I stand, and I guess that’s worth something.
And finally… Eos won an Editor’s Pick award from AudioNewsRoom. Thanks to ANR for the props!
10 comments
Im hoping someone will make a 8x16 launchpad....wth smaller buttons.
and If i can send Akai a box of shit I would! MPD 26 is a spit in the face to mpd24 owners who got win7. Congrats on the award.
Eos beat Lexicon! I am usually more polite on other blogs, but anyway...FUCK YEAH!!!
for the record, that's not parody of dubstep... there is PLENTY of dubstep that sounds exactly like that. :D
I really like the "Finger", and I use it a lot. It was built in Reaktor, so naturally they would release it this way, but it's one of those NI products that, to me at least, is clearly meant to show you the limits of your experience if you don't own the mainstay NI products. Using it with the free Kore Player, you can't help but feel left a little stiffed, because the options are so limited (it's almost like a crippled demo version). Then again, it's about half the price of Artillery, so people can't complain that much. Just leaves a small bad taste.
"I'm the only blogger that seems to tell you guys this information, despite the fact that it is a law now, at least here in the US, but you always know where I stand, and I guess that's worth something."
Damn good call. I'll follow your example.
/C
Agree re: Launchpad. I'm not shouting about it from the rooftops, because it just fits into my writing workflow so completely I barely notice I'm using it. That's a good thing, is what I'm trying to say. It just feels like a natural extension of Live. Anyway I find that it's really worth its price, and I wouldn't want to not use it anymore.
I haven't and won't use it on stage, becaue it just doesn't fit with how I operate there, but I could see how that would be nice.
I'd be curious to hear how folks use the Ableton Session View for composing (obviously it is great for live work). I think I understand how it works technically (e.g. recording your clip launching, etc. into the Arrangement View or whatever it is called), but I'm more interested from a workflow perspective. Do you just drag a bunch of clips in and jam until you get something interesting? Do you record clips as you go? What's the magic?
I tend to be very linear about how I work, but I'm open to new ways of working. Normally I start w/ a beat or an interesting noise or sound I turn into a motif of some sort, and build up from there (normally working up the main build / main drop / followup, and then fleshing out the intro and outro, etc.).
I don't actually use anyone else's loops, so any loop I put in clip view I make myself right then. It's kind of handy with the Launch Pad as I can put a synth on a channel, or bring in a guitar or whatever, and just go through and record clips on down the line mashing buttons until something goes together.
If I was going to record in a linear fashion (and when I'm doing remixes like right now) I do it in Cubase, as it's a far better environment. For linear work, Live is still kind of failsauce, if you want my candid opinion on the matter.
-CR
I find Massive Threat actually surprisingly unthreatening. I don't have Kore2 or Kore2 player installed so I am playing the patches in Massive. As a library they're a good start, and I'll throw them through a Sherman and Rough Rider to make 'em nasty.
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