$50 Dollar daw, check out REAPER

I was looking around online last night and ran across some people talking about a program called Reaper. They were discussing this really cheap digital audio workstation that packed a lot of cool stuff for the money. I also thought it was cool that they were saying the inventor of Winamp created it, which I think rocks.
I went and downloaded it and played with it for about an hour and I must say, NOT BAD. The software is uncrippled, unexpiring shareware for windows. Reaper is available for download without technological limitations for evaluation purposes. Once you have evaluated REAPER, you can purchase a license. Its is 50 dollars for a personal license or 225 dollars for a commercial use license. If you use it past the trial it will still work with full functionality but will make you wait 6 seconds or so every time you open it and remind you to buy it. (cmon now, its 50 bucks)
Some of its features are: 64 bit audio engine, Direct multi-track recording to many formats including WAV/BWF/W64, AIFF, WavPack, FLAC, OGG, and MIDI, Support for VST, VSTi, DX, DXi effects, and it supports running from USB keys or other removable media so its portable too. Like I said, that's a lot for 50 bucks.
It looks pretty easy to use. I only played with it for a little while but I had no trouble finding my way around it. If you are comfortable with recording software you should be alright, if not its a cheap way to get started and who knows, it might be all you will need.
Here are some screenshots.
Here's where ya download it.
Give it a shot.
Tell us what you think.

Ableton Live 7 is almost here !

Ableton Live 7 is in beta testing for select Ableton 6 users right now. As soon as I heard this I went to the Ableton site to see what was going on.

I was happy to see a lot of changes that should make the program better. Some of the changes include new and improved devices with side-chaining capability, 64-bit mix summing, better midi timing, hardware integration, and video export.

They also granted some of the wishes of the public in this release. Some of these additions include time signature changes and multiple automation lanes.

The 2 things I read that really excite me are the addition of the new "Drum Rack" which streamlines beat production via an easy drag-and-drop interface and most of all the support of native sliced audio and REX files! Now it will be easy to chop up samples using programs like Recycle and save them as REX files which will be importable to Ableton. This was one of the only things I wished Ableton would do and now it seems my wished are coming true.

So keep checking the Ableton Live website to see when the official release is and give it a try when it's available, I know I am going to.

Nine Inch Nails offers Master tracks on new album

Trent Reznor is offering pre-formatted GarageBand and Ableton Live files for each track contained on the band's recently released album "Y33RZ3R0R3MIX3D", which he's distributing on dvd.
The dvd includes every track from the album in the correct format for GarageBand and Ableton Live. The dvd will also have a demo of Ableton Live on it.
Years ago Trent started releasing master tracks on NIN.com to see what kind of user-generated remixes would materialize from his fans. This spawned a host of remixes with websites and online communities getting involved. The band liked the results and are now releasing a remix album that includes some of this fan-created material as well as the actual multitrack master files for every song from their latest album, Year Zero.
The bands next move is (or was) setting up a site through which fans can share their remixes of their music. That is up in the air at the moment because his former record label feels that if they host a remix site they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing other sites for.
Universal is still allowing them to release the masters which I think is pretty cool since most everyone these days seem to spend more time suing than producing. It nice to see a company chill a little.
Anyway, I'm sure whether its NIN's website or "Joe Anyone's" website we will still start seeing some really cool remixes of the songs off the new album start to surface online in the near future. I think its a great idea. We will get to hear remixes from all different kinds of musicians all with different ideas which will result in a wide variety of remixes all sounding different since it wont be one person doing them all. Who knows, we might get a whole new sound that creates a whole new genre of music.
In the meantime if you like NIN and like remixing music go get the new album and start making your own remixes, I'm sure the masses will find a way to get the remixes out there whether its on an official NIN remix site or not. I think it's a great idea myself and hope they go ahead with it.

Sneak Peak at Denon's DNHS5500

This is for all of you Denon tabletop cd turntable lovers out there. In the next few weeks Denon will announce it newest cd turntable, the DN-HS5500. It is a tabletop (hard drive) MP3 player/midi controller with the layout and controls of the Denon S3500.

You can view it here:http://www.decks.co.uk/productviewer?productpath=/decks/products/digital_dj/denon/dnhs5500&selectedview=0

Here is the only video I can find anywhere on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udG8phxRtho

It seems they are keeping everything hush hush for now until its debut in December. Ive read that you can start cueing mp3's from the internal drive or external usb devices without interruption which should be pretty cool. Adding a midi controller so you can control you software should make this a pretty popular piece of hardware among live DJ's.

Free Mac digital audio workstation

First off I want to be upfront about the fact that I have not tried this software out for myself. This is not because I didn't want to but because it's only for Mac and Linux (go ahead mackies,rub it in my face). I ran across this on night while doing research for the blog. I read about it and saw that it was getting a lot of buzz online so I went to get it and that's when I found it was Mac only.
The software is called Ardour. It is digital audio workstation like Protools or Cubase. It is all open source so it is free.
The software's feature are: multichannel recording, non-destructive editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a powerful mixer, unlimited tracks/busses/plugins, timecode synchronization, and hardware control from surfaces like the Mackie Control Universal. This is a direct quote from their website. "If you've been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Pyramix, or Sequoia, you might have found it"
So there ya go. If anybody tries it out or has used it before please leave a comment so our readers can get your opinion on it.
Here is a link to the download page for it. http://ardour.org/download. Let us know what you think

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Old MiniDisc recorder = Affordable Portable Sampler

If you are like a lot of us we all want that latest and greatest in technology. Somewhere around the year 1998 Sony had the next big thing so I ran out and bought a MiniDisc recorder. I bought a home unit AND a portable because this thing was going to be the wave of the future. I think I used it every bit of ten times before it got set on a shelf and started collecting dust with my cassette players.
I was going to put mine on eBay a while back so I did what anyone usually does when trying to find info on a product,I Googled it. Wouldn't you know on the first page I ran across an article talking about the return of the minidisc. I had to read it because I knew they were not making a comeback with mp3 players so cheap.
I read on and it was an article talking about how people who make their own music should buy a minidisc recorder to capture samples instead of an expensive portable sampler. As I read on I forgot all about my plans for eBay and was happy I had never sold them before.
MiniDiscs don’t get scratched like Cd's, and the discs never go bad so they can be written to again and again. Because it’s digital there’s no quality loss with time or playback. There are 60, 74, and 80 minute discs available for a couple bucks a piece. Sony makes a electret condenser stereo microphone for around 50 dollars or there are cheaper ones as low as 20 dollars. They are usually require a battery since condenser mics need power and you will most likely not be near a mixer with phantom power.
The players offer 1/8" stereo inputs and outputs and some have S/PDIF or TOSlink optical inputs. Most recorder models also support the "plug in power" feature which is simply a built-in 1/8" mic preamp for use with passive mics. I will probably get a self powered mic for mine because I've read this really eats the battery life up.
So, if you are one of the unlucky souls who thought you wasted your hard earned money on a dead technology then today's your lucky day. Don't go out and buy that 300 dollar portable sampler, go downstairs and blow the dust off of your Sony MD and start collecting your samples. I know I'm headed out to get me a little condenser mic today and start getting mine.

HUGE glossary of audio terms and acronyms

I stumbled across this in a forum on http://www.audioforums.com/. It is a HUGE glossary of audio terms and acronyms, and I mean HUGE. This has just about every audio related word in the world plus some more in it. There are lots of words you already know and use and a whole lot more you probably have never heard of.

I spent a long time here and bookmarked it for future use. It's very educational ....plus you can walk around for the next couple of days talking over your friend's heads like you da man :)

check it out here http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/word.php

Flickr's Audio Recording Studio Group

I found a group on Flickr where people just post pictures from their home studios.
All kinds of recording studio's photos are welcome. I spent quite a while looking through them and even joined Flickr myself and added some.
There are pictures of gear, instruments, musicians, sessions, studios... Just about every kind of picture you can think of that has to do with making music.
Anyway, It was a great find. Check it out http://www.flickr.com/groups/audio/pool/
Maybe you will want to join yourself and add to the collection. Not only will you help it grow but it is also a good place to network with other musicians.

Digidesign's New Mbox 2 Micro

Have you ever been waiting at an airport or sitting on the couch and wish you could work with Pro Tools? Well now you can, and without a big m-box sitting on your lap and covering yourself with wires.
Digidesign recently introduced the new Mbox 2 Micro. This little bad boy packs an audio interface into an anodized aluminum USB key.You get one audio output: an 1/8″ stereo output jack, upgrading your laptop’s headphone out jack to 24-bit, 48KHz monitoring. This means the Micro is all you need to carry to run Pro Tools. It's basically a dongle with a headphone jack
You get Pro Tools LE, 45 plug-ins (Bomb Factory + DigiRack), and Xpand playback and synthesis, for 279 dollars.
The only downside I see in this is that if you already have Pro Tools LE Is like you are paying 279 dollars for an extra dongle. Maybe they could offer the micro for a lower price to people who already have LE but I doubt it with all of the piracy issues at hand.
So all in all I would say this would be a great little item for those who don’t yet own Pro Tools LE already.
check it out here" http://www.digidesign.com/