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Music Software Product Reviews
Doc's Music Blog
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Digital Performer 7 - New Mixer, Guitar Amp & Score Features
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MOTU recently released a new version of Digital Performer, and we have now added a new training course for Digital Performer 7. The most notable improvements in this upgrade involve the Mixing Board and the QuickScribe score editor as well as a set of guitar and bass amp simulation plug-ins. This blog covers the highlights of these new features. (more…)
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Sound Forge 10 - Building on Strength
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Sony recently released a new version of Sound Forge, and we have now added a new training course for Sound Forge 10. Sound Forge, like most Digital Audio Editors, is a mature product. Thus the new features and functions are relatively incremental. Nonetheless, these enhancements do add significant value to this audio workhorse. We cover the major new functions in-depth in the new tutorials, but I’ll go over the highlights here. (more…)
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FL Studio 9 - More Plugs, Fewer Bugs
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ImageLine recently released a new version of FL Studio, and we have now added a new training course for FL Studio as well as updating our DAW Shootout. This new version has a few new plug-ins and major features as well as a long list of minor enhancements and bug fixes. We cover the major new functions in-depth in the new tutorials, but I’ll go over the highlights here. (more…)
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Sonar 8.5 - Cakewalk Takes a Breather
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For the past 7 years every Fall like clockwork Cakewalk has released a new version of Sonar, more frequently than any other DAW manufacturer. So I suspect it’s either the economy or that even the Sonar faithful are becoming a little burned out on new releases (or probably a little of both) that prompted a different strategy this year — Sonar 8.5. Unlike some manufacturers normally Cakewalk only does bug fixes in “point” releases and doesn’t charge for them. The upgrade to Sonar 8.5 costs $99 and has a surprisingly generous amount of new content. In response we decided to issue a free course upgrade for our Sonar 8 customers instead of doing a new course. Here’s my take on the new features in Sonar 8.5. If you’re a first-time Sonar customer, you may also want to take a look at my blog on Sonar 8. (more…)
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Logic Pro 9 - Drums, Grooves & Guitars
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Apple recently released a new version of Logic Studio, and we have now added a new training course for Logic Pro 9 as well as updating our DAW Shootout. The new versions of most Digital Audio Workstations during the past year have focused on drums, grooves, and, to a lesser extent, guitars. So Logic is basically keeping up with the Joneses. Here are some of the more notable new features. (more…)
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Mixing & Mastering (Version 3) - Mo Betta Mastering
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We recently released Version 3 of our popular Mixing & Mastering course. What started out as a basic update of the versions of the software products used in the course, turned into a major overhaul - especially for mastering. Somewhat to my surprise we wound up adding about 40 minutes of new content on mastering. I thought it would be worth discussing the rationale for some of the subjects that we added. Here is a summary of the big hitters: (more…)
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Ableton Live 8 - Modest but Balanced
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Ableton recently released Live 8, and we have now added a new training course for Live 8 as well as updating our DAW Shootout. This upgrade is fairly modest in terms of the number and scope of new features, but it does provide updates for both the basic Digital Audio Workstation functions as well as new functionality for performers and the Electronica music crowd. (more…)
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Cubase 5 - Loop & Remix Bonanza
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Steinberg recently released Cubase 5, and we have now added a new training course for Cubase 5 as well as updating our DAW Shootout. Although Cubase has always ranked at or near the top as a heavy-duty Digital Audio Workstation, it has never gotten much attention from the loop and remix crowd. Steinberg appears to be on a mission to change that. Cubase 4.1 added integration with Sequel, Steinberg’s recent attempt to compete with Apple GarageBand. Cubase 5 features several plug-ins aimed squarely at the loop and remix market. (more…)
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Pro Tools 8 - DigiDesign Finally Gets It
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DigiDesign recently released Pro Tools 8, and we have now added a new training course for Pro Tools 8 as well as updating our DAW Shootout. For years I’ve seen people asking the same question in forums: How can Pro Tools be the market leader when it can’t do so many things that Cubase or Sonar or Logic (or whatever their favorite DAW is) can do? In the past I too have found the relative lack of functionality in Pro Tools disappointing. However, there are a lot of encouraging signs in Pro Tools 8 that DigiDesign is finally getting it. Here are some of my comments about the new features in Pro Tools 8. (more…)
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Digital Performer 6 - A Veteran Joins the Line-Up
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Digital Performer 6 is the latest Digital Audio Workstation that we have added to the Know It All! series. Although the product has been around for many years, I have been reluctant to make the investment in producing a course in the past, because it is difficult to tell how it fares in market share. Last year we added MOTU to our list of companies tracked in the quarterly Music Software Top 10 analysis, and internet searches for the company have ranked between seventh and ninth place this year. MOTU, of course, produces other products besides Digital Performer. However, we’re betting that most of the searches for MOTU are really for the DAW. Also, I think that, like Ableton Live, Digital Performer’s mind share among professional musicians is larger than its market share. We have also added Digital Performer 6 to our DAW Shootout and included some of the FX in our Listen & Compare analysis. I wanted to share some of my observations in this blog of some of the significant features of the product relative to the other DAW’s that we teach and track. (more…)
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