Propellerhead Reason 5 Review

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(More customer reviews)Reason is definitely a contender to become one of the best DAW's in the future although it's my belief that there is still things within the package that need work.
In it's out-of-the-box state, Reason offers a variety of tools to quickly compose beautiful sounding tracks of any genre of music you'll be into. The included virtual rack should provide enough tools to make the average musicians ideas easily come to life and the sound quality of all the included sounds and effects are beautiful. Where Reason begins to show some weakness is when it comes to integrating 3rd party tools and using sources outside of Reason to create music. I find myself frustrated at times with the products paradoxical ease and difficulty. I attempted to use some VST and VSTi plug-ins and they were unusable in Reason, although they do give you enough in the Reason package to compensate for it's difficuties in this department so I got over it quickly. I also had some issues with Recycle/Dr. Octo-Rex and how it calculates tempo and found it difficult to get accurate BPM information making any imported sequences not sync properly with the rest of the composition and with lesser products out there like VirtualDJ, which makes syncing tracks with different tempos a cinch, this seems inexcusable. Reason gives me the impression that your best bet when using it is to create what you'd like in Reason and don't attempt to import anything in the process, then export your finished portion into a DAW that handles tempo synchronization and sampling better to finish your work. The most glaring ommission of this product is that you cannot use mic inputs and record your vocals in Reason, which is again disjointed because Reason does so much yet is lacking and I find it baffling.
In the end I don't regret having Reason and believe it's an excellent almost must-have tool in a musicians arsenal, however, I couldn't call it a complete DAW because it lacks some major things but I figure Propellerhead is working on it and hopefully Reason 6 will fix these omissions and flaws and make Reason the product it deserves to be, a complete Digital Audio Workstation.

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Korg PadKontrol USB Drum Pad Studio Controller, black Review

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(More customer reviews)Bought an Akai MDP26 first and promptly returned it for the padKONTROL. I prefer the feel of the Korg over the Akai, and the LED's in the pads are super responsive (no latency compared to the Kontrol 49). The X/Y pad is a joy to play flams and rolls with - highly recommended!!! Fair warning, as of Reason 5 the Remote file does not have feedback so the LEDS's do not "play back" on the pads when you play your sequences back. Perhaps in an update by Propellerhead but this isn't Korg's fault.

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Akai MPC 5000 Music Production Center Review

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(More customer reviews)Imagine having a synthesizer added to your MPC (assuming you have used a MPC before). Same capabilities as the previous models, but my favorite addition is the arpeggio function. When a MIDI keyboard is hooked up you can play out chords and press the arpeggiator button instead of just holding down the note-repeat button. I actually ordered and installed different color pads to give my MPC that customized-look. The internal hard drive is loaded with more than enough soundsets. The ability to chop and edit samples has been simplified with a few auto options. It also has a built in multitrack recorder (which I have yet to mess with), but seems easily accessible at the click of a button. I save my sounds on the internal hard drive and back them up on computer via USB port built on the back of the unit. The option to save and/or load is available for both Compact Flash cards and internal hard drive. Optional DVD Drive can be installed, too...this made my beat CD creation a cinch. The internal ROM is loaded with basic drum sets and synth presets. Make sure you update the Operating System for I heard the original OS was "buggy" (unstable). Like I mentioned in my title...the MPC5000 is quite pricey, but the power of this machine is unrivaled.

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The Akai MPC5000 has a greatly expanded feature set and that legendary MPC feel! The MPC series set the standard for beat production. What would it take to make the ultimate MPC? Dozens of engineers, 20 years of experience and a new synth and drum sampling engine unlike any MPC ever. Introducing the MPC5000; the new standard for music production. Purchase the Akai MPC5000 today and get a FREE Download of the MC5000 OS 2.0 from www.akaipro.com! Check out the in-depth comparison chart for all the MPC's that Akai makes. Use it to find out exactly how much power you need! The MPC5000 is the first MPC ever to include 8-track streaming hard disk recording, a 20-voice, 3-oscillator analog synthesizer with arpeggiator, a new sequencing engine with 960 ppq resolution, pad and track muting and mixing, 64 continuous sample tracks. There's even a new FX engine with 4 FX buses and 2FX per bus. Akai MPC5000 Features 64-voice drum/phrase sampler with 64MB memory (Expandable to 192MB) Three-oscillator virtual analog synth engine with built-in arpeggiator Over 300 Virtual Analog synth presets included Eight tracks of Direct-to-Hard Disk recording Over 40 all new effects available within a modular 4-bus effects processor Master compressor and equalizer Built-in hard disk drive Optional CD-R/DVD drive USB 2.0 port for computer con

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Akai Pro LPD8 Laptop Pad Controller Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought the Korg nanoPAD and just recently returned it because a few of the pads would stick down. This is really annoying when you're trying to play quick notes. I bought this midi controller as a replacement, and for the most part, I'm happy with it. I'll definitely be keeping this one.
Pros:
*Back-lit keys when you hit the pad are REALLY nice to have (this comes in handy later too).
*Control knobs! You don't get those on the nanoPAD. They are handy to have, and you can assign them to anything you want in Ableton Live (which like the other reviewer, I use also).
*In Ableton Live, the drum kits are in a 4x4 grid arrangement. With the nanoPAD, since it was 6 wide, the pads didn't line up with the on-screen grid. They do to a greater degree with this pad, so it's easier to see what you're hitting.
Cons:
*This pad is NOT as sensitive as the nanoPAD, so I find myself hitting it significantly harder than I had to on the Korg model. This is made better by the fact that they light up when it registers a hit, but I still wish it was a little more sensitive.
Summary:
This is a great pad for the money, and for me, the back-lighting and control knobs really make it worth the money.


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No matter where you are when an idea pops into your head, you can turn it into a beat by simply plugging the Akai Pro LPD8 Laptop Pad Controller into your Mac or PC. A great choice for musicians, producers, DJs and other music creators on the go, this compact controller easily fits in your laptop bag or backpack so you can always have it on hand.

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