By Barry Rudolph
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Merry Christmas All!
It's that time again everybody and I've been on the lookout all year long for excellent gift ideas that'll show your musical love for your friends and family and won't break the bank. Mail A Link To This Page To A Friend! |
Miles Davis Trumpet Headphones |
Sooner or later you'll realize that those puny ear buds that came with your iPod, iPhone or iWhatever are junk. Why not treat yourself to a pair of great sounding Miles Davis Trumpet headphones from Monster Cables? Just as Miles Davis took jazz lovers to new musical plateaus, using Monster's exclusive technology these striking gold/chrome ear buds will take you to a whole new level of sound quality--you'll hear all the ambience and every nuance just as engineers, producers, musicians and artists hear in the recording studio. These ear buds are shaped to look like trumpet mouthpieces and are connected by flat, tangle-free "Kind of Blue" cables to the ControlTalk controller.
Miles Davis Trumpets |
The ControlTalk Controller is a miniature trumpet valve body that has an inline mic, iPod/iPhone controls, volume, and music track up/down buttons. Yes--you can talk on your iPhone with these jewels but trust me; you'll soon be back listening to music. The Miles Davis Trumpets are less than $300 and come with Monster's SuperTips™ sound isolating ear tips and a re-mastered, three-dimensional sounding Sketches of Spain CD.
More at: www.monstercable.com/headphones/trumpet/
ControlTalk Controller |
Buy The Monster Power Miles Davis Tribute Jazz In-Ear Headphones
Propellhead Reason 6 and Reason Essentials |
Propellerhead Software just release Reason 6 and it now includes audio recording editing--a full audio recording and editing platform built-in. Reason 6 combines all the features from Record along with a mixing console equipped with modeled EQ and dynamics on every channel, multiple parallel racks, and Line 6 guitar/bass amp models. Some of new effects are: Pulveriser for "crushing" the sound in just the right way; The Echo is a delay with both modern and analog tape stereo delays; and Alligator is a three-band pattern gate for rhythmic texturing. www.propellerheads.se/reason/
Also out at the same time is Reason Essentials, the successor to the standalone Record. It has the recording, editing, effects, and instruments, mixing and mastering tools needed to produce a pro recording. Looking like Reason 6, Reason Essentials has a great selection of instruments and effects in a virtual rack. There are drum machine, loop player, sampler, synths, reverb, delay, distortion, mastering effects and more. Prices for these new products range from $169 (upgrade) to $449. www.propellerheads.se/reason-essentials/
Buy Reason 6
Buy Reason Essentials
Buy Balance with Reason Essentials
SampleTank iOS |
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IK Multimedia has SampleTank® for iPhone/iPod touch and it's now available in the iTunes App store. I've use SampleTank since its inception in my Pro Tools HD studio and now its amazing pro-quality, sample-based sound and groove modules are available for the iOS mobile platform. There are literally hundreds of realistic acoustic, electric and electronic instruments, plus professionally programmed patterns now coming out of my iPhone.
If you add the iRig™ MIDI interface adapter, you can start playing anywhere in the world! You are only limited by the life of your iPhone/iPod Touch's battery. SampleTank for iPhone/iPod Touch sells for $9.95--(iPad version coming) More at: itunes.apple.com/app/sampletank/id464783893?mt=8. The iRig MIDI interface adapter is $69.99. www.ikmultimedia.com/irigmidi/features/.
Going Pro With Cubase 6
Buy It At Amazon! |
You may want to spend the short days of winter inside and "woodshed"--study hard to learn something new to further your musical or technical knowledge. I now own Cubase 6 and I'm getting started doing this very process using Going Pro With Cubase 6 from Course Technology. Author Steve Pacey and this book extend the manual's flat representation with regimented and detailed guidance through advanced editing, recording, and production techniques possible with Cubase 6. All tutorials are organized by exactly what you want to do and how best to quickly and efficiently do it--the key to working fast and professionally. If you're looking to make money composing music for records, film and television, this book should be one of your first reads. Going Pro With Cubase 6 sells for $29.95 and is available from Course Technology. Check: www.courseptr.com.
HingeStix® |
For all the 'little drummers' this Christmas HingeStix makes a fine stocking stuffer. HingeStix are practice drumsticks that enable drummers to feel the rebound, develop finger technique and understand the 'fulcrum'. The two plastic pads unscrew so that you can change the fulcrum position if you desire. Cleverly, this causes you to only hold the stick properly. HingeStix simulates a loose grip, so they are also useful in countering the effects of sore muscles which is a result of holding drum sticks too tightly over long periods of time. HingeStix have already garnered recommendations from many drum greats and they can be yours too. HingeStix sell for $24.95, come in either light 5A or heavier 5B sizes and are available from: www.hingestix.com/.
Alesis TwoTrack
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Secrets Of the Pros |
Secrets Of The Pros at www.secretsofthepros.com offers a whole series of training videos you can simply download. Of special interest to me in this ongoing and growing series are the over 15 hours of world class recording engineering and music mixing training videos for under $25 each. The collection called From The Studio To Your Stereo Vol. 1&2 are videos for beginners to pros and runs 4 1/2 hours. The Recording & Mixing Series runs 3 hours and 20-minutes and has a long list of endorsements including engineer/producer Mike Clink. You may also buy individual sections starting at $2.95 for 20-minute clinics. Go to: www.secretsofthepros.com/RMSfull.html.
Alesis' TwoTrack cannot be topped for ease of operation. For recording studio-quality, stereo sound anywhere, this super small unit has dedicated function controls, an easy-to-read backlit LCD, and it'll run on one AA battery for hours--perfect! Recordings are saved to its internal 128MB memory or to micro SD or SDHC cards up to 8GB. TwoTrack is lighter than a cell phone and should be standard equipment carried by all songwriters, and journalists (me!). It is perfect for recording live rehearsal/performances, interviews, business meetings, speeches, nature sounds, lectures, and incriminating conversations. Sound files are recorded in standard 16-bit, 44.1 stereo .wav files or MP3s at up to 192kBps using dual cardioid condenser microphones set in an X/Y stereo configuration. The USB 2.0 output means you can off load all files to your computer and the unit mounts on a standard camera tripod. The
Alesis TwoTrack sells for $129, and for more information visit: www.alesis.com/twotrack.
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