The Beat Thang audio workstation from BKE Technology was unexpectedly one of my favorite pieces of equipment showcased at NAMM 2013, and recently I was afforded the privilege to spend some quality time with one of these incredible drum machines. To call it just a drum machine isn’t quite fair; [...]
Ableton’s slightly oddball Clip View interface is a pretty unique approach to computer based music creation, it shares more in common with a hardware sampler or Groovebox. It makes sense then, that there are several controls that mirror that same setup. There’s a lot of emphasis on making your computer [...]
With his own tracks and remixes in set rotation by major DJs, Topher Jones appears poised to turn into a major dance music producer. A Midwest native, he saw his remix of Gareth Emery’s “The Saga” drop on March 11 as part of Garuda Music’s Miami Mixes Collection. That’s not [...]
Moving even deeper into the still-exploding mobile market, Akai has recently released the iMPC mobile app for iPad. Sporting the look and layout of its popular hardware counterparts, the iMPC should feel natural to anyone who’s ever used one of these iconic beat machines. But can it hold its own [...]
With his upcoming album One Hundred Ten WKO, John 00 Fleming has a forward-thinking, more experimental vision for trance. The U.K. DJ and producer has been active in the genre since the 1990s, and with this release, Fleming’s looking to push past the genre’s club boundaries. Unlike contemporaries claiming “trance [...]
2012 was a great year for John Dahlback, and his level of success is continuing in 2013. Instrumental “Life” turned into a hit last year, named as Pete Tong’s Essential New Tune and included on Tiesto’s compilation Club Life – Vol. 2 Miami. Starting off 2013 are new tracks “Pressure” [...]
The AK-7 Core MIDI Keyboard iPad app, released by Saitara Software just under a year ago, stands strong as one of the most straightforward and uncomplicated options among wireless iPad MIDI controllers. Though not available for free, the AK-7 keyboard is certainly worth the low price of admission for those [...]
Having looked at the use of beatmatching and effects within Ableton, it’s time to check out another of its slightly esoteric editing features. The Clip Envelope editor. This quirky editor allows us to edit some deeper parameters of a sample, the way you might use an audio source editor in [...]
Innovation and ease of use resulted in the Numark iDJ Pro winning Crossfadr’s 2012 Product of the Year award, and similar qualities, albeit for the producer and recording artist, extend to the V-Control Pro iPad app. Allowing for direct control, as opposed to mouse use of recording software up until [...]
Like most DAWs, Ableton Live contains a selection of effects processors to twist and manipulate your sounds. However, as you’ve probably come to expect by now, Live does things a little differently. In addition to the usual array of compressors, distortion boxes, and phasers, there are a few DJ-friendly units [...]