I was driving to a LAN party the other day with a friend and for some reason (no pun intended) we got on the subject of music and why we don’t make it anymore. I felt compelled to express a frustration that I’ve had with music software that essentially prevents me from creating anything these days. Every time I get the desire to open one of these programs I hesitate because of all the bullshit hoops you have to leap through in order to set your canvas and get something accomplished.
One has the power, through software, to accomplish insanely complex tasks that were impossible with prior technologies, but with this power comes an immensity of technical hang-ups that don’t exist when you have a 4-track and a guitar, for instance.
In my mind, workflow is largest barrier between me and my creating. Some people (including me, when I was a student and had time to burn) have no problem with a few set backs or technical glitches. They accept this as par for the course, or use these limitations to their benefit by finding creative workarounds. I really have no time for this kind of “dicking around” anymore. Through the years I’ve come to expect a certain amount of functionality to the applications that I use, and I’ve distilled these findings to the following list.
1. Drum Synthesis
2. Audio Recording
3. Self-reliance (doesn’t require additional software to be used to fullest extent)
4. Plug-in Support
5. Flexible audio routing
6. Backwards compatibility
7. Standardized file formats
I’ve learned that no program is perfect in respect to its workflow/features because not every program is created with the same musician in mind. That brings me to Reason 4 (or 3).
Reason 4 is built from the mindset of someone with an affinity for hardware. All software instruments and virtual “devices” within Reason are modeled from existing or imagined hardware devices. Inputs, outputs, signal flow, patch cables, bypasses, and even drawn-on power cables are featured, and perform as imagined. While this is “cute” and certainly helps those not familiar with abstract computer-based music software get their heads around the concept, it’s impossibly limiting! Wiring up a patch is just as arduous a task in Reason as in real life, but with the added “bonus” (see, handicap) of having to use a mouse to patch everything together. Everything about Reason screams “waste of time”!
For example, I’m a musician who, on occasion, likes to add vocals or a live bass/guitar part to a song. I also tend not to record my parts perfectly on the first try, nor do I set “live” parts in stone for a whole project. I tend to revert back to these recordings and either re-record them or cut them up. Ok fine, now, Reason costs about $400 for the latest version. It’s a bit more if you want all of the bonus content. You’d think that this amount of money will allow you to accomplish the above tasks without spending additional money. You would, of course, be wrong.
If you want to record vocal or other live instrument parts for use in Reason your only “real” choice (see my comments on Rewire below) is to record those tracks in an external audio editor and import them into one of Reason’s two sampler “devices” (three, if you count ReDrum, four if you count Dr. Rex and have deep pockets). Of course, by doing this you’ve “locked-in” that recording, so that if you had to re-record or make changes you’d have to go back into that external application and re-record, edit, export, then import all over again.
Like the Vocoder in Reason? Me too. Too bad you can’t reach the damn thing with a live input. What’s the point of a vocoder without a live input, you ask? Nothing, it’s just a stupid audio effect. Maybe there are tons of people out there that can imagine what their tracks will sound like with a vocoder without having to preview it ahead of time, but I don’t have time to record, export, import, map, then playback while playing another patched instrument as a carrier just to hear if I like a fucking vocoder added to my track!
Ok ok, let’s fucking forget the “live” features of Reason, as there are very few, and honestly it’s not meant to be a multi-track recorder or full-out DAW. Let’s move onto Reason’s bread and butter, namely electronic music production.
Synth drums?! Don’t get me wrong, people can do amazing things with samplers, amazing, but the days where you had to mixdown a software synth track to a sampler bank because you had seriously limited CPU power are quickly coming to an end. I mean, am I the only person that thinks sample-based drums are extremely limiting? What if you want to “create” your own drum sounds? Well, open an instance of Thor, Subtractor, Maelstrom, or what have you and start twisting, right? Well, none of these instruments are intended for drum sounds. Yeah, there are envelope options for it, but a whole device set aside for a single drum sound is pretty wasteful. Plus, if you wanted to add this drum sound from a Reason synth into one of the many sample devices (like ReDrum) there isn’t an easy way of bringing over your creations to these devices (despite the fact that you’re “locked” into a sample instead of being able to tweak a knob and pull a totally different sound into your mix). All I can think of is setting the sequencer to playback only a single note, mute the rest of the tracks, render to disk, then open in an external audio editor, clean up/trim the recording if necessary, then save this to disk and import it into Reason. What a fucking joke! Can it be done, yes. Will I do it, fuck no.
So you like to cut-up drum loops, eh? Well bend over, douche-neck. Reason 4 (as in Reason 3) features a phrase-sampler, Dr. Rex, that sounds great on paper. It allows you to playback cut up loops and re-sequence them at any tempo. Too bad the format that the “Rex Player” accepts (the .rex format) is only able to be exported from one particular application. If you guessed that this program is called Reason, then you owe me $200 bucks. Actually, you have to purchase ReCycle from propellerheads for $200 bucks to attain the capability of exporting Rex files from your own loop content. Kinda defeats the utility of such a “device” when you need to buy more software to use it properly, IMHO. And what is so special about ReCycle? Well not so goddamn much, at least not anymore, or not special to the degree that they couldn’t include the app’s functionality into Reason. The program is practically unchanged from when it was originally released in 1994. (we’re only on version 2.1, 15 years later, guys? …guys?) I’ve never wanted to buy the software because it seems so rarely supported or updated, that I figured that it would eventually be dropped due to lack of interest. I’d then have a dead-app that I couldn’t guarantee would function on any later OS X or Windows versions, so what’s the point?
I thought I could work around these plainly noted limitations but as I’ve tried to use the software I always, and I mean “always”, hit these walls one time or another in a project. Yes, I can add a lot of this functionality by tying Reason to a full DAW via Rewire, but if you’ve tried this out yourself you’d understand why this isn’t even a fucking option in my book. Using Rewire to connect Reason to Logic or another app is no different in my book than going back to using hardware instruments.
Using Rewire, you now have to make sure that your apps are opened and initialized in the right order (just like using a hardware synth where you have to load the correct bank before playback). You also have to worry about having two project files to save, manage, and backup, just like when you have to worry about saving a bank from a hardware synth to make sure you have a copy for future use, or for when you run out of internal memory. When I was using Reason in Rewire mode in Logic 7 there was a limitation where Reason would only play through as a single stereo track, not individual outputs. Which, even if this was a setup issue on my part, or a limitation that was resolved by the release of version 4 (I was using version 3 at the time) it’s still a pain in the ass to setup.
If they want to encourage the use of Rewire then they should build in a series of presets for outputting multi-channel to outside DAW’s, otherwise fuck off.
Would it be too much to ask to add your existing virtual instruments into Reason, like the modules from Rebirth? Why even have a software connection to Rebirth from Reason on OS X if ReBirth isn’t a OS X native application? That’s like a casket with a satellite dish. Foist your abortion-ware on someone else.
Like I said, I thought I could ignore these limitations, but in following the virtualization of hardware model they virtualized almost all of the limitations of hardware as well (minus the most important, instantiation). There is so much promise to an app like Reason, but I fear this promise will never be realized unless they dump some of the “hardware baggage” and think about the totality of service that’s expected by their customers. Make it easy for musicians to create music with this technology not in spite of it.
With 12 apps being offered for $39.99, you can’t beat the deal and with 25% of all orders going to charity you can even rationalize your purchase as being a gift to those less fortunate. Win-Win
I’ll talk about one of the major apps in the list that caught my eye.
Kinemac, the 3D motion graphics application, tops the app list as far as retail value ($299). If you’re a Mac user with at least a marginal amount of interest in media production, I would say based on its inclusion you would be hard pressed to find a reason not to buy this bundle. While it doesn’t quite measure up to apps like Apple’s Motion or Adobe’s AfterEffects in the realm of features, it’s certainly intuitive and easy on the eyes.
Some of the more powerful features in Kinemac include being able able to drag damn-near any image type to any surface for mapping. You can map not only 2d raster images but text, 2d vector (svg), and video files as well! If you don’t fancy building your own models using the limited primitives (sphere, cube, cone, cylinder, ring, star, 3D text, etc) provided in-app, you can drag over 3D obj and 3ds files made using other 3D modeling software. All of these features are implemented in realtime so you get a machine-specific representation (I’ll touch on this in a moment) of your animation immediately without rendering. Key framing is full featured with full bezier editing via a timeline. You can add backgrounds with alpha to export Final Cut compatible exports for video overlays.
Now the hiccup:
Some things I noticed about Kinemac that concern me are the fact that your export options are limited by your graphics hardware (another reason to pony up for Pro’s verses standard macbooks), shadows as a result of lighting are seemingly unsupported (unless you’re talking about text effect shadows), and 3d modeling (as far as creating, forming, and exporting your own meshes) is not supported.
Using an Intel graphics chipset means that you don’t have support for anti-aliased exports of your projects (kinda weak), it also limits (possibly removing) your motion blur options. Even on my Dual G5 with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro motion blur export controls are disabled, though I can add anti-aliasing (yay). The lack of shadows made me pause, because it seems like such a no-brainer to include, but technically since this software does everything in real-time it is limited in what it can represent without a proper ray tracing engine. We all know that real-time shadows as seen in video games are generally of poor quality (see cheating) so perhaps this is why they didn’t bother to include this as a feature. Finally the copy of Kinemac that you purchase is tied (via hardware signature/online activation) to a single workstation. A pretty inflexible arrangement in this day and age of extreme workstation mobility to be sure, but hell, why not buy to bundles? You will still be saving tons of money.
Running at a fraction of your $39 investment you will certainly get tons of use out of Kinemac despite any technical hang-ups you may notice. If you’re a mac user, I suggest taking the plunge.
Here’s a list of the other apps being offered (and some that will be unlocked as more buyers commit).
Not to belabor the topic, but what is this? Fucked in the skull game month?
If you though kids were jittery and lack focus during their studies, wait until you see this onslaught of attention span collapsing japanese hand/eye torture.
The idea is that you have to kill and level up like a standard RPG but in 30 second increments. You must meet the level goals in 30 seconds to move to the next event and refill your timer. Totally insane. Holy Shit
It looks like a new game will be coming out for the iPhone, and judging from the video it looks like it still needs a bit of work, and hopefully won’t be too terrible. Obviously this is a different breed from the console versions, and meant to focus on taking advantage of the iPhone’s touch, and motion interface (for lack of anything else). Hopefully there will be some actual lightsaber swordplay at some point. Due for a September ‘08 release.
Those with iPhones or iPod Touch devices might be wondering, “if I buy a program on the App Store, what happens if a new version comes out?”
Well luckily that’s all been worked out. Anyone who has downloaded the free New York Times app and been immediately disappointed by the performance and quality of it have probably noticed the App Store icon on the home screen showing a little number badge on top of it.
If you go to the App Store and follow that notification a similar badge appears in the updates section, allowing you to download the new version of whatever application needs updating. If you are away from your sync computer, it will install and prompt you to copy the new version over to your sync computer when the phone is connected. Very slick.
Nothing like a little som’n som’m to look forward too every now and again.
By running Apple Software Update you should see iTunes version 7.7 now available for download. Even though the App Store doesn’t seem to have a direct link on the iTunes storefront. A simple search for Super Monkey Ball will let you get to the App Store tab.
With this single move you can download and purchase a shit tonne of goddamn applications. Free apps include (finally) AIM, Facebook App, MySpace Mobile App, eBay App, IGN Game reviews, NetNewsWire, Evernote, and all sorts of little games and productivity applications.
Pay software includes, Bejeweled, Super Monkey Ball, OmniFocus, Band, and christ there’s too much to name. Seriously, tomorrow is going to kick all forms of ass when the 2.0 software is avaiable.
Or you could just download the 2.0 iPhone update yourself, right now.
Of couse, I can’t guarantee that that update will work properly, and it is known that updating your iPhone or iPod touch with 2.0 software will wipe the phone and attempt to restore from a backup created just before the wipe. The backup checks what is available and authorized in your iTunes library for the restore so make sure (if you do this) to update using your main iTunes library.
This program is an example of why the App store and iPhone combo is going to be awesome.
I Just downloaded this browser called Flock. Remember how Jobe from Lawnmower Man looked after he OD’ed on data. That was me looking at this browser. So much information at once…too…intense…
Anyways, you can load it up with all of your social networking info, so that you have access to all of these sites at once. It’s very “aware” of all of these sites and the normal tasks people take while on the web. Taking links and adding them to a blog, or sending them to facebook, or even media is a snap. As long as you can handle a little clutter (we are all used to it), you may find that this browser is exactly the end-all-be-all Internet tool it’s advertised as.
1.2 is available for download now, for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
I’d heard of CodeWeavers‘ “CrossOver Mac” before. I understood that it was an attempt to run Windows applications without installing windows. It was basically an actively supported OS X build of WINE that was tailor-made for running business applications like Office and Photoshop. It seemed promising, especially when word of games support was advertised. I installed the demo copy about a year ago and was mildly impressed. It installed Office 2003 fairly well and ran quickly, compared to emulators that were publicly available. I had already bought Parallels and since I was using my original copy of Windows XP with it, I didn’t feel that I needed a program like CrossOver Mac since my needs were being fulfilled.
On the games front, I believe I had tried to install a game or two using CrossOver mac, but I didn’t have much luck. The program gives you a list of supported applications to choose from, but you can also launch an unsupported installer if your app of choice isn’t on the list. Since it had just coalesced as a product, their supported applications were mainly productivity packages and fairly limited. Since this was the case, I forgot about it for a while.
I was searching the net yesterday and noticed that CodeWeavers had split their flagship program into two halves. CrossOver Mac would now be dedicated purely to productivity and CrossOver Games would cover the entertainment sides of things. Each program is to be separately updated and expanded based on customer demand. There’s even an application voting section where you can show your interest in particular applications and games. Should you have deep interest in having a program be supported (and deeper pockets) you can pledge funds toward its support. Not a bad idea.
What does a year of development get you in regards to CrossOver? Steam support. That’s right! CodeWeavers has added specific support for the Steam gaming platform! You can install it from a game disc, or pull the installer directly from the web. After I finally remembered my login information for steam, I had, within minutes, over ten games available (yes 90% of those games are variants of Half-Life, but still) for play. I only have a measly MacBook (pre Core2 Duo) with a built-in Intel 950 graphics chip, but I was able to play Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, Half-Life Source, and Ragdoll Kung-Fu without a problem. The framerate on Ragdoll Kung-fu was very playable. HL2 was ok, not great, still playable. I’ll have tweak my settings a bit. I’d assume that even if Half-Life 2 was natively built for OS X it wouldn’t play much faster with my little video card. This software is amazing!
Yes, WINE is free and UNIX based, but CodeWeavers are putting a badly needed support framework around the app that makes it much more accessible and functional. The built-in net-install of steam is a great touch. So many PC games are up on steam now, that it only makes sense to get that program under your developmental belt.
So far, I’m really impressed with this offering as it means that all the money I’ve spent on PC games might very well not be wasted. I’d be able play these games in the future on my platform of choice (even if my old PC dies on me through severe neglect). CodeWeavers even has a Linux version with the same perks as the Mac app.
CrossOver Games is $39.99 at the CodeWeavers’ website and is downloadable immediately upon purchase (as God intended).
I’ve installed the update and had no issues booting up so far. I did notice that a few Calendar synchronization windows came up, but I believe this is because they revamped the iCal synch procedure. All the iCal appointments are correct after the sync. VMWare Fusion 2.0 Beta is running fine right now. It’s even allowing me to do odd stuff that I haven’t tested yet, like interact with the Sony Reader.
The update is a 400MB+ download that affects iCal, Time Machine, AirPort, Spaces and General OS X features. A full list of changes is available from Apple.
I’ll keep you posted. Obviously this blog post is masturbatory since I’m the only Mac user. Sue me.
WARNING – Though it sounds at the beginning of the video that the amplitude of the recording will surely blow your fucking ears in, it’s, in reality, just a poor compression on the video. It will play at a reasonable level when it does get started. NO NOT FEAR!
I am totally fucking excited to see this come out. First the DS-10 virtual synth from Korg, then this home brew sample scratcher. Awesome! Definitely check out that video.
The interface reminds me of a mini-version of the JazzMutant Lemur or Dexter. So as long as you can overcome the smaller screen realestate, you can have a similar touch-based music interface box, though it’s not multi-touch, and probably not very customizable. So scratch that (pun intended), I guess the only real comparison between this and the JazzMutant offerings is they both deal with music controls and both sport similar-looking interfaces. Still very exciting.
After doing a bit more research on this project, it seems that there’s more here than meets the eye! Along with the scratching and loop triggering, there’s MIDI output via the Nintendo DS’s wifi radio, as well as the ability to utilize the DS’s built-in microphone to live-record audio clips for use in the software! Shit, if I had this little thing on the train, I’d probably miss my stops, for fuck’s sake!
