D
igital Nat
NEWS TRAKTOR 3
ion
◊ Tutorial DVD
Apple has upgraded their trendy Macbook range.
78 Price: £tbc
Powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors they now
reach speeds of up to 2.16GHz. They also come as
standard with 1GB of memory and an even larger hard
drive, which makes them great for running programs like
Cubase and Reason. Better still, they’re cheaper than
before, so head to
www.apple.com to see what all the fuss is
about.
Crysonic has released a wideband vintage-style com-
pressor suitable for instruments, tracking, vocals and
subtle soft-knee mastering expansion and compression.
The Spectra C1 features Crysonic’s “Physics based
Audio processing engine” that quite simply makes it
sound fucking awesome. It also has a cool-looking gain-
reduction and VU meter, sounds transparent, is mono-
compatible and keeps the original tonal quality of audio
intact. Go to
www.crysonic.com to check out this well designed
compressor and their other interesting products, where
they’re currently offering 45% off all bundles.
After recently picking up more than 21 coveted industry
awards, Native Instruments’ visually attractive and
extremely powerful Guitar Rig 2 software is now being
bundled in what’s known as a Producer Pack. This
contains the Audio Kontrol 1 audio interface and Guitar
Rig 2 Software Edition as one. So whether you want to
distort the hell out of your Reece basslines or make a
guitar line sound godly, this is your best bet, and you’ll
get a massive saving too. Punch
www.nativeinstruments.com into
your web browser for the beef.
Akai – the brand of choice for the world’s best hip hop
producers – have launched what appears to be a direct
rival to Novation’s original line of modernistic control-
ler keyboards. The MPK49 looks suspiciously like the
Novation ReMOTE and X-Station, but comes with the
Akai connoisseur’s
“favourite” – several touch-sensitive beat pads. It is – in
technical terms – a 49-key, semi-weighted keyboard,
with eight full-sized 360-degree rotation pots, 12 MPC-
style velocity and pressure sensitive pads, eight full-sized
sliders and a high resolution LCD display. Kanye West
wouldn’t use anything else – so head to
www.akaipro.com and
copy him.
For all the drum & bass producers out there who mas-
turbate over the phrase “Mackie 824”, their perverted If you’ve mixed with vinyl for the last decade or more, Native
fantasies are about to become further twisted by its Instrument’s Traktor Scratch might seem a bit overwhelming for you. If Intro
successor – the Mackie HR924mk2, as well as the less this is the case, but you’re still interested, perhaps you’ll want to buy Exploring The Decks
expensive HR624mk2. These studio monitors recently this DVD first to have a peek at what you’re missing out on. Laptop The Mixer
took the Frankfurt Musikmesse 2007 by storm and, mixing amateurs will also find this useful – made by Native Instruments Preparing Loops / Looping On The Fly
other than looking great and being fingerprint resistant, themselves – it’s everything you need to learn the ins and outs of their Integrating Effects & Tempo Synching
sound absolutely sexual. new system, and it features tutorials by some of the world’s top DJs. MIDI Implementation & Controllers
And even pros will get something out of it, if they truly want to master Working With Beat Grids
Spectrasonics has announced its new Educational the program. Advanced Mixing Techniques
Program designed to put its three award-winning virtual Performing Live With Traktor
instruments, Atmosphere, Trilogy and Stylus RMX into Everything on this DVD is very simply explained via several sets of Live Footage
music technology classrooms around the world. The new demonstration clips and it all comes loaded with top advice from Traktor
program creates an efficient and easy way for educa- specialists. There’s four hours of footage in total, where DJs like Chris Extras on this great release include a cool interactive interface with
tional institutions to apply for special software licenses Liebing and Kabuki regularly pop up to give you their tips. There’s also click-and-play functions as seen on the other Native Instruments tutorial
for their classroom computers at a significantly reduced some cool live footage of various DJs in action on the Traktor system, DVDs; a bundled package of mixable material to help you learn what’s
price. So if your music production school hasn’t yet taken just in case you thought it wasn’t possible! happening on-screen easier by using the same tools as the demonstra-
advantage of this offer, then kick your head teacher up tors; a detailed PDF guide that helps you, amongst other things, with
the ass. There are eight chapters in total, which cover all aspects of Traktor 3, tagging and organizing music on your HD for prime use with Traktor,
and are pitched to get you up and running immediately. The first things and finally, an essential guide to your playlists. It’s highly recommended
Steinberg have released new updates to its Universal you’ll learn are the decks and mixer, but then as you progress, the you check this out if you’re thinking of buying the revolutionary new
binary versions of the Virtual Guitarist 2 and Hypersonics secrets of using loops and FX are unlocked – two areas that represent Traktor system.
2 VST instruments. The update for the latter introduces essential knowledge for any self-respecting new-age DJ. Advanced
various enhancements including improved integration features are also covered in detail – for example – MIDI functions, Beat
of Hypersonic 2 phrase content, and, for the Audio Unit Grids, external controllers, pro mixing techniques and eventually the
version better integration of MIDI controllers and the process of playing live. And here are the sections in full:
onscreen ModWheel. The update to Virtual Guitarist 2
improves the accessibility to MIDI controllers when run-
ning on Intel-based Macs. And best of all – they’re free
from
www.steinberg.net.
K78-79_DigitalNation.indd 78 8/6/07 19:10:21
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