Category Archives: DAW

Bitwig Finally gets a Release Date!

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March 26! Mark the date as this is when the german outfit will release their much anticipated new DAW.

According to a press statement sent out today the date and pricing will be announced at NAMM 2014, which kicks off tomorrow in California. The boxed version will retail for USD 449.99 / 399.99 (MSRP/MAP), 329 EUR  and 41.000 YEN. The download only version will be available for a reduced price of USD 399 / 299 EUR. Also, a free demo will be made available for download on the Bitwig website from the day of release.

It’s great to see another actor enter the market and this can only lead to more innovation and competition, which ultimately will benefit the consumers. Very exciting times ahead!

Are you getting Bitwig? What’s your take?

Mavericks and the Mackie 1640i

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I’ve been holding off updating the OS of my main studio computer (Mid 2011 27″ iMac) for the last 2.5 years. It came with Lion installed and I saw nothing in Mountain Lion that would motivate the hassle of an update. Also, I’ve been burned several times by incompatible or untimely updates to firmware, hardware and OSs so I know better than to jump on the new shiny thing. The golden rule applies in any digital creative environment, ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!’

Photo-2But! I’ve been an Ableton Live person for the past few years but the release of Logic X really got me thinking about a switch. The notorious MIDI timing problems of Ableton, and the fact that it’s not optimized for the type of linear, timeline based workflow that I prefer made Logic seem like a nice alternative.

After much consideration I decided to shell out the cash and buy the software from the app store, only to find out that you need at least OS X 10.8.

No luck for an old timer like me still stuck on 10.7.5…

Still I decided to go forward and see if my gear would be compatible with an upgrade to Mavericks or not. The only two things that set off an alarm was the Mackie 1640i Mixer (see below) and the Access Virus TI2 Virus Control software.

The mixer board was my biggest fear since loss of its Firewire capabilities would negate its most appealing feature. (I could have passed it via a couple of Fireface 800 or similar but still…). To test it out I connected it via a Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter to my MacBook Pro running Mavericks, and lo and behold it worked perfectly! (Yes, the mixer board is from the 003 serial number series, see below).

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Encouraged by this I decided to upgrade my main machine as well and it is now happily chugging along on Mavericks.

So far I see no strange or broken behavior. I have tested Maschine 1.8 with the Komplete plug-ins, Arturia’s Analog Factory and Live 9.1. The Mackie 1640i seems to be 100% functional. I noticed some severe lag and dropped notes when I started out, but that was due to the System Drive being re-indexed for the first hour or so.

This is not to say that all is well in Mavericks land, beware that there can be any number of combinations of Firewire controller cards, serial number series, firmware versions, thunderbolt adapters and so on that could break compatibility, but at least for me it was all a very smooth and seamless upgrade.

Did you upgrade to Mavericks yet? Did you run into any problems? Share your experience or let me know if you have any questions.

My setup:
Mid 2011 iMac 27″ (3.4gHz, 12gb), Mackie 1640i (003xx) connected via a FW 400 to 800 adapter to Firewire port on Mac, also tested via Apple’s Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter.

A note on the Mackie 1640i Serial numbers:
There are series of the Mackei 1640i on the market. You can tell them apart from the start of their serial numbers. The older series starts with 003 and the newer with 204. The older series relied on the CoreAudio drivers on the Mac and the newer has its own fancy driver and control panel. According to the Mackie website the 003 series is not compatible with any OS X version above 10.7 which has caused a lot of confusion amongst users considering an upgrade. In my experience the 003 series works just fine in 10.9, both via a firewire port and via Apple’s thunderbolt to firewire adapter.

GAS and Reflections on the new Maschine Studio

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Maschine, the all-in-one but sadly not stand-alone beat production groove box from Native Instruments has just been updated to its third generation. For me Maschine has always held a very dear and special place. It was the first DAW (though some hesitate to call it that) I learned and it’s intuitive workflow continues to be one of the fastest and most inspiring ways of quickly sketching out ideas for new tracks.

When Maschine MK2 came out I didn’t hesitate for a second before buying it. Granted the number of new features were limited and the controller looked mostly the same in terms of layout. But the new color coded pads and the upgraded tactic feel of the buttons made a world of difference to me, especially when jamming live.

This time around though I’m a little bit more hesitant to jump the gun on the new Maschine Studio. Not for lack of new features or upgrades, the new Studio package looks amazing, but because I feel a little betrayed by NI’s launch tactics. I may be cynical and perhaps I’m wining, but to me it looks like the MK2 controller was released simply because NI wanted to keep the platform’s mindshare while the actual next gen (Studio) was being developed.

I say cynical because from a holistic perspective NI manages a complex ecosystem of controllers and software including the Traktor line of DJ interfaces and it’s very possible that NI wanted keep the Maschine family up to par with advances on other fronts. It could also be that they simply wanted to try out some of the new interface concept of the next gen on real users while developing the Studio controller.

I say wining because the MK2 did de facto deliver a lot of value for me and now I simply wish I had held out and waited another year for the even shinier new toy… On top of this NI has already announced that the new Maschine 2.0 software suit will be 100% compatible with all previous generations of Maschine.

Regardless, I don’t really see what I would do with 3 Maschine controllers so I can’t motivate buying the latest one just yet. And on that note I really wish NI would offer some kind of upgrade discount price for those of us who own the previous generations.

The steep increase in price compared to previous versions is most likely due to higher production costs and more expensive components, and those who complain seem to miss the fact that the old, full controller is also getting an upgrade but now represents the middle tear. Still, to take advantage of the benefits of the new HW based workflow the top line Studio controller is really the only way to go.

On a slightly tangential but related note I was also considering buying a Traktor Kontrol S4 and I was holding out for the MK2 versions released last week. Now the sudden jump in features for the new Maschine has got me wondering if NI is about to pull a similar trick with Traktor, dropping a new version that really pushes the envelope in about a year or so. Going the Serato / Pioneer way is an option. The DDJ-SX is a beautiful piece of gear, but staying in the NI family is tempting due to familiarity.

Anyways, random thoughts on a Friday evening.

What are your thoughts on the third generation Maschine controllers and the new Maschine 2.0 software?

New Song (Orbit)

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I haven’t posted any new tracks in a while due to traveling and other circumstances, but tonight I had some spare time so I sat down with a borrowed laptop and this little thing came out :).

I did not have any other means of input besides the laptop keyboard so forgive some of the rough edges please. Also, all I had for monitoring was my very cheap ear buds. Thus, levels and EQ is probably all over the place. There has been no mastering (yet). If any one feels up to it let me know and I’ll send you the original file.

I have to return this laptop tomorrow so there is no time left to work on this track, but it was fun working with only a (licensed of course) copy of Ableton Live and a laptop. Hope you like it!

BTW, the samples are from a public repo of NASA transmissions. My interpretation of the terms is that this use should be OK but if that’s not the case let me know and I’ll remove them.

Novation Launchkey Mini vs Arturia MiniLab

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Disclaimer:
I have not used the Launchkey Mini yet, the below is based on specs and photos.

launchkeymini_angle-640x412So Novation has announced the Launchkey Mini (sp ~$99). With 25 mini keys, 16 pads, 8 rotary knobs and 2 performance buttons, all assignable of course, it makes for a sweet little MIDI keyboard, not at all unlike the Arturia MiniLab that also launched recently.

I got a chance to play around with the Arturia board for a couple of days and it certainly has the upper hand when it comes to design in my opinion. Of course the two are not entirely comparable given that you get a bloody awesome collection of 5000 analog synth emulation presets with the Arturia board..

My biggest gripe with the Arturia MiniLab was the touch strips. Very poor quality and performance which in the end rendered it almost unusable for me. The keys and the pads though were very nice and responsive. The Launchkey Mini has gone a step further and done away with the traditional modulation / pitch controls entirely. My suspicion is that you can use the two ‘performance buttons’ for this by assigning them your self?

MiniLab_275In terms of connectivity the only difference is that you get a foot switch input on the MiniLab. This could be important to you depending on your playing style. Both are USB powered and class compliant. I for one really wish they had a MIDI out port for connecting straight to some of my older analog gear, but that dear old round connection seems to be an endangered species these days…

Looking at the bundles software (Launchkey Mini: Bassstation, V-Station, Live Lite, Samples, Launchkey app for iPad vs. MiniLab: AnalogLab with 5000 classic synth presets) it really depends on your style of music and workflow. I love the Arturia emulations since they fit very well with the kind of music I make, but the flexibility of the Novation soft synths where you are not limited to presets is also very attractive. In the end it’s up to you.

Check out the rivals at their respective websites below: