February 16th, 2008 Brian
There is a great new audio editing product on the market right now. It is called Reaper and it is a competitor to Cubase, Sonar, Logic, etc. One of the reasons it is a great product is because it is being constantly updated in response to user needs, not to mention instead of a piece of bloatware like many of the editing suites out there it is relatively compact. You can run it off a USB drive if you want.
Reaper is a cross between donation-ware and shareware. There are no iLok keys or fancy anti-piracy controls, instead you can download the fully functional suite for a month after which time it will ask you to pay for it, as you should if you’re still using it. However it will still function normally minus a delayed startup screen. I think this is great because I know I may download software and play with it for a day get distracted and return to it a month later to make the purchasing decision. You’re screwed if you happen to be trying out many of the “commercial” products out there. Not to mention to register for non-commercial use it is only $50 and for a commercial license only $225.
There is a great user community and the developer(s) are easily accessible compared to those at Digidesign/Steinberg who won’t answer a phone without a credit card. Often feature requests by customers will be integrated into the next release which is always right around the corner. It isn’t a perfect production suite, as few are, but it is definitely worth checking out, especially for those home studio folk (like myself). Reaper.fm
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Posted in Music, Tech | No Comments »
February 15th, 2008 Brian
This thing is big pimpin’, at least for me that is. This is a Alesis Ion Virtual Analogue Synthesizer. They are now discontinued, but you can still find them on Ebay rather easily. Seeing as this is my first hardware synthesizer, the multitude of sounds you can make are just unbelievable. There is something about being able to touch the knobs on the keyboard while playing rather than simply tweaking a parameter in anSoftware Synth that makes this more rewarding. I chose this one because of its flexibility and because it allows you easy access to many of the parameters right at your finger tips rather than going through an endless number of menus. Look for some new BaseWest tracks in the near future, I’m just starting to see just the basics of what I can do with this.
You can check out some of my current music at my Myspace page.
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January 26th, 2008 Brian
Recently the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), a sports car racing series, unveiled an initiative to integrate environmentally friendly policies and regulations into the series. In 2007/early 2008 Formula 1 and the FIA announced it would be opening up regulations starting in 2009 to technologies such as regenerative breaking, with further steps planned in the the future. I’m wondering, does any of this matter? Is there really such a thing as the greening of auto racing, and can auto racing play any role in a world besieged by global warming and a diminished supply of oil?
To answer this question we must examine the proposed programs, the current state of green automotive technologies, and the opportunities that reside that haven’t been addressed in some form as of yet.
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Posted in Autoracing, Tech | 3 Comments »
