Out for nearly five years now, Native Instruments’ Maschine has set a new industry standard as a hardware-software beat-production workstation. Its functionality bypasses Akia’s MPC, while serving as a high-quality studio hub (but not a full DAW) with built-in sequencing, sampling, and loop slicing. Now considered Native Instruments’ top-tier groove [...]
Announced in September 2014, the Komplete Kontrol S-Series, a line of three MIDI controllers, essentially supersedes Native Instruments’ flawed Kore line with an entirely new set of features and functionality. Three sizes – S25 for a 25-key keyboard, S49 for 49 keys, and S61 for 61 keys, all with a [...]
Native Instruments excels in two regards: One, how easy its devices are to use, and two, the extensive palette its software programs offer. For the latter point, the variety and quality don’t just benefit the producer making a dance track but further prove to be an asset to those in [...]
Room 303, originally a deep house duo from Toronto and now the moniker of TJ Train, began just three years ago. The project quickly gained success, with a release out on London’s Love Not Money Records in 2011. More tracks came out on Subtrak, On The Prowl, and Casbour, and [...]
When you think of EDM, South America isn't the first continent that comes to mind. Yet, this part of the Southern Hemisphere has its own scene, with HIIO, the duo of Ortzy and Nico Hamuy, leading the way. Together, they’ve amassed 20 Beatport Top 100 tracks between them. However, it [...]
“Melbourne Bounce” has been one of those dance music buzzwords tossed around over the past year. After what was dubbed the “Australian wave” in 2012, with performers like Feenixpawl, Tommy Trash, and Nervo getting global recognition, the subgenre also known as “Melbourne House” seems redundant at a glance – after [...]
If you've listened to trance music over the past decade, there’s no need to introduce JES. You’ve likely heard her distinctive vocals on high-charting tracks from Tiesto, BT, Paul Oakenfold, Kaskade, and Above & Beyond, among other prominent genre producers. Now re-releasing hit single “High Glow,” a Tiesto collaboration from [...]
Not everyone has an expansive amount of studio space for recording and listening to their productions afterward. As well, not everyone has a huge budget to spend on gear or an endless amount of help to take supplies to a gig. But even when these factors appear to limit what [...]
Blending house and techno elements, Belgian duo Cactus Twisters garnered a bit of attention recently with the Temporada EP. The title track seamlessly transcends subgenre boundaries, adding a bit of a deep house groove to a minimalist techno foundation. Over the course of their career, members Jey and Ka have [...]
Last year, we reported on Akai’s iMPC mobile application for iPad, an innovative beat-generation platform that combined the usability of the iconic MPC series with the portability of a tablet. The result was a superior sketchpad for musical ideas, and SoundCloud integration made rapid content generation easier than ever. The [...]