Yearly Archives: 2015

Usually when I write about Yamaha at NAMM, I’ll talk about new guitars or keyboards, but today the company introduced a new mixer it said was designed specifically for webcasting, podcasting, gaming and music production. […]

I’ve made no secret about my love of Universal Audio products. For years, they have been my go to company when recording and mixing audio. Today things got even better. […]

Contrary to legend, it didn’t play just once. It is still considered by many as “the greatest television commercial ever” and is the genesis of all the “Super Bowl Event Advertising” we see today.

There are a ton of new features and licensing options available in the new version. Good day for Pro Tools users.

Avid today unveiled Pro Tools | First, a free version of the industry-standard Pro Tools that offers many of the same music creation capabilities used by top artists and recording studios worldwide. Delivering on Avid Everywhere and built upon the Avid MediaCentral Platform, Pro Tools | First is simple enough for beginners to learn, yet sophisticated enough for the experienced musician. Pro Tools | First enables anyone to experience the industry’s most trusted digital audio workstation at no cost, so they can turn their musical ideas into fully realized, professional productions that stand out from the crowd.

What a smart move from Avid.

The Firehawk FX multi-effect processor combines world-class tone with intuitive app-based editing, so you can get the perfect sound faster than ever before. The Firehawk Remote app for iOS and Android gives you the power to sculpt great tone, right in the palm of your hand. Choose from over 200 legendary amps and effects—including 50 HD models—and wirelessly control every detail of your sound. You get access to 128 internal presets plus a massive online tone library, making it easy to find the right sound for any recording session, rehearsal or gig. With 1/4” and Variax Digital (VDI) inputs, two outputs, FX loop, USB connectivity and ultra-low latency, Firehawk FX is also an ideal guitar recording interface for PC, Mac and iOS.

I love that Line 6 is going after the entire market here—mobile and desktop. I haven’t tried the Firehawk, but it’s reminiscent of an HD500, but with more color and options.

Addictively playable with classic looks, Variax Standard gives you exceptional handcrafted quality—plus incredible Variax HD technology that puts it in a class of its own. Inspire your playing with a collection of the world’s most coveted vintage electrics, classic acoustics and exotic instruments. Switch up your tunings on the fly.

I had a chance to play one of these yesterday and it is truly a step above the Variax guitars of old. The problem I had with the older models was the digital artifacts that you heard in the models and when changing tunings. These guitars have regular magnetic pickups, so first and foremost, it is an electric guitar. All of the electronics can be turned off completely if you want to play it like that. When turned on, the electronics give the guitar something really special that you won’t find anywhere else, all with no artifacts.

BlackBerry:

neutrality must be mandated at the application and content layer if we truly want a free, open and non-discriminatory internet. All wireless broadband customers must have the ability to access any lawful applications and content they choose, and applications/content providers must be prohibited from discriminating based on the customer’s mobile operating system.

What BlackBerry’s CEO is talking about is forcing companies like Apple to make their software available on BlackBerry’s devices and OS.

The CEO of BlackBerry has lost his mind.

The new service is expected run on Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks, two people familiar with the product say. Google is expected to reach deals to buy wholesale access to those carriers’ mobile voice and data networks, making it a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, they say.

I’m kind of ambivalent about this, to be honest. Google has never done a very good job selling phones, so I don’t know how they will make this work. I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

Apple on Wednesday released a major update to Logic Pro X, the company’s professional digital audio workstation software. As part of the update, Apple also released a new version of Logic Remote, giving the software access to Logic or Audio Unit plug-in parameters and multi-touch gestures, as well as other changes. […]

In addition to VST plug-in format support, v6 includes a complete upgrade to the entire McDSP product line. New user interface features, faster loading times, and algorithm optimizations across all formats are just some of the improvements in the v6 release. Pro Tools users will appreciate v6 additions such as enhanced support for the Avid S6 and S3 control surfaces. Artist presets from the likes of Dave Pensado, Kevin Churko, Joe Barresi, and many others are also included.

This looks like a solid release from a great company.

Apple has acquired British startup Semetric, which runs the Musicmetric analytics tool, as part of its plans to relaunch its Beats Music streaming music service later in the year.

It will be fascinating to see what type of plan Apple has for Beats. Will it be integrated into iTunes as a technology, or will Beats get some Apple touch-ups and continue on as it is.

“It’s a fantastic product, an incredible achievement,” he said. “I’m not just living in the tradition and culture and the past, I also want to be connected to the future. The Apple Watch connects me to the future. My watch connects me to history, to eternity.”

Oh boy, this is going to be an interesting year.

iMore:

NBC will stream 11 continuous hours of live content on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1 to desktops and iPads. The “Super Stream Sunday” event will run from noon EST and to around 10 p.m. and include NBC’s pre-game coverage, Super Bowl XLIX itself, the halftime show, and the post-game show, and the episode of The Blacklist that will air following the game. The stream will take place through the NBC Sports Live Extra app.

That’s a lot of talking about football.

Apple captured a record 33 percent market share in South Korea in November, the highest ever for a foreign brand, according to a monthly report released by Hong Kong-based market research company Counterpoint on Wednesday. In contrast, Samsung’s share slipped to 46 percent after hovering around 60 percent for five months.

The quarterly iPhone numbers are going to be incredible.

It really does. You can’t buy advertising like that.

Jim and Shawn talk about quoting Steve Jobs, Google Glass, Mac magazines and NAMM!

Sponsored by Squarespace (use code GUITARS for a free trial and 10% off) and lynda.com (Visit the link and do something good for yourself in 2015, sign up for a FREE 10-day trial to lynda.com).

The Verge:

While Khan Academy has had an iOS app since 2012, it has typically not offered the full experience found on its website. All of its videos were available, but none of its thousands of training exercises were offered to iOS users.

That all changes today with the introduction of a completely redesigned app for the iPad — now, everything that lives on the site is also available to iPad users. That includes some 150,000 learning exercises.

I’ve checked out a few of the Khan Academy classes and am fairly impressed with them. A great tool for learning.

Vox:

Consumer Reports’ testing processes, scientific rigor, and commitment to independence are commendable. But it’s difficult to take them all in without asking an important question: does Consumer Reports have a future?

Even though I don’t completely trust Consumer Reports because of some of their tech and Apple coverage, their testing process makes for an interesting read.

Seth Clifford:

When Steve Jobs famously made that comment— the “if you see a stylus, they blew it” one—it’s pretty clear that he was talking about the general use cases involving touch screens and human interaction.

Latching on to the core of an single statement in its most literal sense prevents us from growing bigger and better ideas. To come back to the comment specifically, even if Apple decided “hey, you know what… maybe we were wrong about the stylus thing” it would likely be because it took the idea, observed how the world applied it and made a judgment call.

Requiring a stylus in order to use a device would be wrong. That’s what Jobs meant. But using a stylus for specific uses but not be required for that use is not a bad idea. It’s simply offering additional flexibility.

iMore:

Literally every time I work in the computer store, we’ll get a customer whose Mac is plagued with problems they don’t understand: Their Mac is acting slow. It crashes. And more. And in more cases than not, we find that they’ve installed a program called MacKeeper. Removing MacKeeper fixes the problem. So what is MacKeeper and why should you avoid it? Read on for details

It’s definitely “crapware” and the company’s tactics are sleazy. As Peter says, avoid and warn others.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back with another report outlining his belief that Apple will launch a stylus as an optional accessory for the company’s rumored 12.9-inch “iPad Pro”. With the new iPad’s larger screen, it will likely prove popular with enterprise and creative users who tend to have more need for a stylus and Kuo believes Apple will fill that need with an in-house solution.

A stylus may work for creatives, but I think the using a finger will still be the preferred method for the majority of people.

SplashData has announced its annual list of the 25 most common passwords found on the Internet – thus making them the “Worst Passwords” that will expose anybody to being hacked or having their identities stolen. In its fourth annual report, compiled from more than 3.3 million leaked passwords during the year, “123456”and “password” continue to hold the top two spots that they have held each year since the first list in 2011. Other passwords in the top 10 include “qwerty,” “dragon,” and “football.”

Sweet Jesus, you deserve to be hacked.

Úll is a conference for people who build and love great products. We focus on great product businesses, presented through an Apple-shaped lens. We treat the conference itself as a product: with a deep emphasis on the attendee experience.

This is the best conference that I’ve ever attended and I’ll be speaking again this year. See you there!

“Samsung has been delaying the launch of this Tizen phone for a long time and when they finally did it, it turned out to be an under-powered phone,” said Mumbai-based filmmaker Samir Ahmed Sheikh as he shopped for a new phone for his wife.

The 3.15 megapixel primary camera and 300,000 pixel front camera are “like a phone from 2010”, he said.

Oh dear.

It’s designed for both novice and professional scrapbookers. iScrapbook manages the entire scrapbooking process from page design to album organization.

This looks like a fun app and the new update adds a ton of new features.

Profiler Remote is the quintessential foot controller for your Profiler. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time to create a versatile and yet easy to operate floor board. The tight integration in between Profiler and Remote allows you to control, administer and program without any knowledge about MIDI or delving through cryptic data sheets.

This is fantastic. I need to get me hands on the Kemper system and try it out.

Was this company started by ex-Samsung people?

Shares of Netflix shot up 12% in after-hours trade Monday, after the video streaming service reported a fourth-quarter profit that was well above expectations, and provided an upbeat outlook for net subscriber additions.

Great news, I really like Netflix.

The XDJ-RX, is a DJ console that incorporates two separate digital players, a mixer, and a built-in monitor. The uniquely designed DJ system is intended for users of the popular Pioneer rekordbox music management software, which enables DJs to quickly play prepared music stored on a USB device, eliminating the need to connect or carry a separate computer for use as a music source.