Category Archives: Software

Ignite Your Music

Ignte_AxiomAIRMini32I’m always looking for something to help me manage my music creative workflow better. Today I found a new product called Ignite that suggests that they are in tune with the music creative process as opposed to the music capture process i.e a recording based one which is what every other DAW is about i.e. that I know of.

Here’s a feature run down which can be found on their site:

    • Creative Workflow
      • Capture your ideas quickly and make music – without getting bogged down with technical jargon and complicated steps.
      • Individual musical ideas are captured as phrases and are placed in the Arranger. The Arranger is an organic “stage” where you can organize your music ideas and phrases in whatever way make sense to you.
      • Clips can be any length, and don’t have to be aligned into a pre-determined structure (such as tracks and lanes). Multiple clips can be played back together, or even grouped to create more complex phrases and song sections.
    • Instant M-Audio Keyboard Integration
      • Ignite will instantly recognize any current generation M-Audio keyboard controller once it is connected to your computer.
      • Key parameters will be automatically assigned, or mapped, to the front panel controllers. The on-screen image labels the controllers with their current parameters, providing visual reminders.
    • Superior AIR Instrument Sounds
      • Included with Ignite are over 275 remarkable instrument sounds developed by AIR Music Technology. This international team also created the acclaimed Hybrid, Strike, Transfer, Structure, and Velvet instruments for Pro Tools – the industry-standard professional music and audio workstation.
      • Instruments include keyboards, drums, percussion, basses, guitars, synths, strings, brass, and woodwinds.
    • Creative Kick-starters
      • Smart MIDI technology provides both a Chord Player and a Phrase Player.
      • The Chord Player plays a chord pattern using either simple or advanced voicings.
      • The Phrase Player can be used to deliver a single-voice melodic phrase, or even a drum pattern depending on the instrument selected.
      • The arpeggiator plays notes individually, either as a musical flourish or in a rhythmic pattern.
    • Collaborate, Send, and Share
      • Share your musical ideas and songs with other musicians through SoundCloud.
      • Export WAV, MP3 and MIDI files, and import them into any DAW recording software – including Pro Tools.

Reaper

Reaper is an incredibly powerful Windows DAW, which is as increidibly affordable at a price of $39.00 and which has a very active if not passionate community behind it. I bumped into Reaper because my usual DAW Adobe Audition does not have VSTi support. VSTi support means being able to load virtual instruments not to be confused with virtual effects which it can indeed do. There are many more reasons than just VSTi support to contemplate using Reaper. It is really a powerful multitrack recorder with very flexible signal routing capabilities. It also comes with a ton of free effects which seem to be very well liked within the community. Reaper does not have in my estimation the editing tools that Audition has. My guess is that I will be using both tools with Reaper being used for the intial multitrack recording to initial mixes and Audition in the final mixing and mastering process.

Some of Reaper’s features:

  • Portable – supports running from USB keys or other removable media
  • 64 bit audio engine
  • Excellent low-latency performance
  • Multiprocessor capable
  • Direct multi-track recording to many formats including WAV/BWF/W64, AIFF, WavPack, FLAC, OGG, and MIDI.
  • Extremely flexible routing
  • Fast, tool-less editing
  • Supports a wide range of hardware (nearly any audio interface, outboard hardware, many control surfaces)
  • Support for VST, VSTi, DX, DXi effects
  • ReaPlugs: high quality 64 bit effect suite
  • Tightly coded – installer is just over 2MB

  • ool-less mouse interface — spend less time clicking
  • Drag and drop files to instantly import them into a project
  • Support for mixing any combination of file type/samplerate/bit depth on each track
  • Easily split, move, and resize items
  • Each item has easily manipulated fades and volume
  • Tab to transient support
  • Configurable and editable automatic crossfading of overlapping items
  • Per-item pitch shift and time stretch
  • Arbitrary item grouping
  • Markers and envelopes can be moved in logical sync with editing operations
  • Ripple editing – moving/deletion of items can optionally affect later items
  • Multiple tempos and time signatures per project
  • Ability to define and edit project via regions
  • Automation envelopes


    • and more well worth checking it out. Don’t let the prize fool you Reaper in many ways is just as powerful as any of the other well known DAWs such as Cubase and ProTools. It may well be exactly what you need.