The Retro Recorder iPhone app (review forthcoming) is also on sale in the iTunes Store for only 99 cents.

Links:

McDSP Store / Buy Retro Recorder

PAYware Mobile’s card reader attaches right to your iPhone 3G/3GS and allows fans to instantly swipe there card for a t-shirt, CD, etc, and have a receipt instantly emailed to them. There’s a built-in stylus for them to sign with and end-to-end encryption to reduce any type of fraud.

The iPhone app also allows you to view real-time reports as well as a transaction history.

PAYware Mobile is free with a 2 year contract, $49 to activate, and, as with any other credit card reader, merchant fees do apply. That being said, this seems to be the best way to deal with merch and credit cards.

Check out www.paywaremobile.com for more.

The seminar will focus on the SSL Matrix and its ability to work with different types of workflows inside Logic Studio. SSL will also be demonstrating their Pro Convert software. The focus of the Pro Convert demos will be translating different sessions from Logic Pro and other DAWs into working with popular video editing software like Final Cut Pro.

If you’re in the area and want to check this out, RSVP at www.rspe.com/Events

Image-Line is doing something fairly progressive by offering Drumaxx on a “pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth” model. There’s a minimum of 9 euros, but after that it’s all up to you. Image-Line is also donating $1 USD to Haiti earthquake victims.

Check out the feature set:

• 16 Physically modeled drum pad
• Multi-output for individual effects processing on each pad
• Huge range of modeling possibilities covering sounds from cymbals to kettle-drums
• Velocity modulation matrix for detailed expressiveness
• Integrated Stepsequencer with trigger-key playback
• Integrated effects
• Single-pad version ‘Drumpad’ available for tight integration with FL Studio

Check out Image-Line’s website for more info: http://www.image-line.com/documents/drumaxx.html

The 60GB Tonium Pacemaker effectively replaces a very large DJ rig and scales it down to fit into your palm. It contains two decks, a mixer, FX, and everything else that you need to get rolling.

Box up your CDJs and DJM and get ready to get wild with the Pacemaker.

Out of the Box

Immediately, my favorite thing about the Pacemaker is what comes with it out of the box. A lot of manufacturers will stiff you and make you buy a separate power supply or audio cable. The Pacemaker does not.

Here’s a full list of what you get:

1. Pacemaker
2. Strap
3. Quick Start Guide (a little poster explaining how to do just about everything with the Pacemaker)
4. Audio Cable (for the line-out of the Pacemaker)
5. A/C Adapter
6. Power Cord
7. USB Cable
8. Printed Manual

Tonium also distributes the Pacemaker Editor software which does a few things. Most importantly, it allows you to add and delete tracks off your Pacemaker. Secondly, it gives you the option to sequence complete DJ mixes from start to finish. You can fade in/out, add FX, and even publish your mix to Tonium’s Pacemaker online community.

You really get some bang for your buck with this thing.

Looks

The Pacemaker is, visually, a stunning device to look at. The circular touchpad and equal-sized display are very easy on the eyes. When in operation, everything is lit up and easy to see.

Even the packaging is slick.

Feel

It’s no denying that, at first attempt, the Pacemaker is a little tough to actually mix on. It fit right on the palm of my hand (for the most part) and all the buttons were nice and easy to reach. All the buttons and the side toggle slider are responsive and are exactly what they should be.

The entire device feels sturdy, too. Which, in my humble opinion, is very important for something that’s so small and handheld. It feels like you could drop it a couple of times before anything inside of it went haywire. I didn’t drop it, of course, as I can’t exactly afford to pay for one of these guys right now. Do that test at your own risk!

The touchpad, which is how you do EVERYTHING on the Pacemaker, was hard to use at first. It was finicky, and it wasn’t until I read through the manual that I really discovered how to do everything with the touchpad. That being said, after spending a couple of days with the Pacemaker, I didn’t have any problems navigating or mixing with it. It’s just one of those things that takes some time, practice, and patience.

I was expecting the crossfader (which is also touch sensitive) to be a pain in the ass, but I was wrong. It is nice and responsive and offers nothing but clear information as to where your crossfader is.

Sound

The Pacemaker sounds as good as you could ever expect it to.

My overall view on sound quality with DJ devices like this (and the previously reviewed OTUS) is that most of the time you’ll be DJing with 320kbps mp3s; not exactly the pinnacle of high fidelity. It sounds good enough and I highly doubt the crowd you’re playing for would care. The line out sounds good, the fact that the Pacemaker has a headphone jack makes it a viable device for acutally DJing, and there’s not much more you could want from the Pacemaker.

It’s also important to know that while most DJs will in fact be spinning mp3s, the Pacemaker supports just about every audio file you can throw at it: mp3, m4a, Ogg Vorbis, wav, FLAC, aiff, and snd.

Conclusion

Don’t dismiss the Pacemaker as just another “gadget.” At the same time, don’t expect this to replace 1200s, CDJs, and DJMs at your favorite nightclub. The Pacemaker is fun, easy to use (if you already know how to DJ), a great conversation piece, and a viable addition to your DJ setup. If you’re growing bored with what you’ve got already, maybe its time to check out the Pacemaker.

Pros: Handheld; plenty bright for dark clubs/bedrooms; the software is icing on the cake
Cons: Circular touchpad has a learning curve
Recommended for: Newbies looking for an in to DJing; DJs who are bored of their setup and looking for something extra to “spice it up,”; anyone looking for an awesome toy to play around with

The Tonium Pacemaker is available for $499.99 from most major retailers.

We weren’t sure of what this site would become, and we definitely didn’t know if the site would actually LAST  a whole year. We’ve seen blogs come and go, and I know Sanjay and I are very happy that AASG is still around.

If you would’ve asked me a year ago what my aspirations and hopes were for the site, I would’ve said that I wanted to attend a trade-show or two (we did), post some tutorials that people find useful (I think we did that), and start reviewing awesome hardware and software (we’re doing that, too).

Thanks to everyone who’s read, is reading, and continues to read the site! We wouldn’t do this if it weren’t for all of you!

With the Eks OTUS Raw being debuted at NAMM this year, I had to finally get my hands on one of these units to see where the OTUS started.

Out of the Box

The OTUS comes with everything you’d need to make it work: the unit itself, a manual that explains all the different knobs/buttons and also gives you layouts of what a typical setup might look like, two stereo RCA cables, a USB cord (the OTUS is USB powered), and a download voucher for a free version of Image-Line’s Deckadance software which I used for this review.

Looks

Do a Google Image search of the Eks OTUS and take a look at some of the photos. There’s no denying that the design of this thing is unique and, well, a little different. There’s not much text on the OTUS. In fact, the only buttons you’ll be able to read out of the box is the “CUE” button and the “Play/Pause” button. Everything else is marked with somewhat cryptic graphics. That being said, it didn’t take me long to read the documentation and figure out what everything did.

The knobs and pots are pretty nice. I have to say that, aesthetically, my favorite part of this unit is the green and red lights that are visible depending on what deck you’re using. Everything’s nice and illuminated, so using this thing in a dark club/warehouse party setting would be easy.

The platter is 7.5,” which is nice enough for me.

Feel

The build quality of the OTUS is really solid. The platter is nice and sturdy; nothing feels cheap like on some of OTUS’ competitors. It feels really sturdy when sat on top of a typical Stanton/Technics mixer, so I wouldn’t feel weird placing it on top of someone’s turntables (or my own).

All the buttons and knobs are responsive, which is nice. The button to switch decks takes a couple of consecutive clicks in order to hop over to the unused deck which took me a second to figure out, but after five minutes of experimentation with the OTUS I was pretty comfortable.

The platter is nice and smooth. It doesn’t move at all, which isn’t a big deal for me. If it did move, it’d be much bigger, heavier, and have more buttons. Seeing as this thing is crammed with stuff as it is, it just wouldn’t be worth it to add a motor.

I have a couple of gripes with this thing in terms of feel. The first being the pitch slider. There’s no actually fader like on most other controllers or turntables, instead its touch sensitive. It looks really nice, but is a little confusing unless you’re checking up on your software to make sure the pitch is correct. Fortunately, Eks is fixing this with the upcoming OTUS Raw. Those units will have SL-1200 style pitch faders.

The only other gripe I have is with the onboard mouse. This is a great feature, but it was a little buggy on my system. That being said, I’d prefer they keep this feature in on future iterations of the OTUS as it really does help you keep your eyes and hands busy with mixing instead of tweaking stuff on your laptop.

Sound

The onboard soundcard is nice and sounds good. 44.1/16bit or 48/24bit are your options, and I had no complaints when it came to the sound. Considering I’m DJing 320kbps mp3s, there’s not a whole lot you can bitch about when it comes to sound quality.

The fact that you can pair up the OTUS with your favorite DJ/club mixer means you can have some pretty nice sounding mixes if you have some decent gear.

Conclusion

Minor gripes aside, I really had a lot of fun with this unit. It’s build quality is very nice, it was a cinch to setup, and it ran extremely well. It comes with templates for Deckadance as well as Native Instrument’s Traktor and VirtualDJ, so you should be set no matter what you’re using. The fact that the OTUS is also a MIDI controller means you can use it for more than just DJing, too.

I’m very excited to see the OTUS Raw when it comes out and I’m really sad I have to send this thing back.

Pros: Great build quality; sounds great; is an all-inclusive deal thanks to its onboard soundcard; easily fits on top of standard turntables
Cons: Pitch control is touch sensative; onboard mousepad is a little wonky; very little text on the OTUS to tell you what most of the controls do
Recommended for: Anyone who’s looking for an all-in-one DJ solution

The Eks OTUS is available now for $799 from most major retailers.

Will this iPad-thing be useful for musicians and engineers?

Do we really need to talk about the iPad? There’s so much tablet fodder out there that I doubt anyone will ever come across this, but just in case someone is interested, I’d like to offer my sound-guy perspective on the device.

First Thoughts:

My first impression of the device as images and tweets were pouring out of the closed-door press conference, was that this gadget looks a lot more square than I expected.  But my first music-related thought was that this device could be AWESOME at wireless, multi-touch-enabled MIDI controlling.  It’s not hard to imagine the iPad running a touchscreen version of Ableton’s Launchpad hardware unit.  There’s really enough space there to see mixing control surfaces like the Jazzmutant Lemur and Dexter app.  So, yeah, first thoughts were “this is kind of square” and “big multi-touch screen with wifi and bluetooth = totally rad control surface apps!”

Nitty Gritty:

Sadly, in tune with the general disappointment of the day, the features (or lack thereof) started to get in the way of the potential of this device to make an exceptional addition to a music-nerd’s arsenal.

As terrible as Apple’s 35mm line input jacks are on laptops and desktops, I wish there was one on the iPad.  An internal mic means you can interface with most apps that need audio input.  Except that you can’t plug any other mics or input into this device for use with the various stereo or multitrack recording apps already out for the iPhone.  I’m not thinking I’d use this to track important vocals, but the ability to record from a line input would have been incredibly useful given the supposed portability of the device.

Some might point out that there are peripherals that plug into the docking port of an iPhone or iPod and enable stereo recording with better line and mic inputs.  But this just brings up a new sore point – no USB connectivity.  I’m sorry, but just out of principal, a device this big which in some ways was designed to replace carrying around a laptop NEEDS USB ports.  Even one of those ridiculous mini USB ports would have been an improvement.  Sure I can add peripherals like card readers and improved sound cards at the docking port – but only ONE AT A TIME.  And even then, that’s contingent on what hardware features Apple has decided to prevent us from using through software (e.g. why can’t I transfer files over bluetooth with my iPhone?)

Next, and not really as vital is the lack of expandable memory.  The ability to add more flash cards to this device would have been useful if I could see the iPad being used as a regular portable audio recorder.  However, because of all the dang port-limitations mentioned above, you can either add a better sound card to the device or a card reader – but not both at the same time.  There goes my idea of using the iPad as fancy microtrack.

Final Thoughts:

If I had more money, I would buy this thing.  Yes, I just complained about it all over this post (and for about an hour at dinner last night – sorry to my girlfriend).  But it’s a giant touch screen that will run Automap, and touch-based synths and drum machines, etc. Like I said above, it won’t be an exceptional tool for audio-nerds, but it will definitely work for some people, and its undeniably cool to control your DAW with a little touchscreen.

I know Apple treats their pro-sumer customers (i.e. Logic Pro or Final Cut users) like children – locking us out from obviously useful features and forcing us to upgrade every year or so.  Maybe the next round of iPads will fare better with the blogosphere elites, but despite being slap a hundred time by it, Apple is the hand that feeds me gadget-treats.

Unless google comes out with an awesome tablet and figures out how to run pro-tools in Android.  Then I’m google all-the-way.

The Launchpad comes with a couple of “User Modes” which are modes made to be assigned to just about anything you can think of. This adds a lot of flexibility to the Launchpad as the video above demonstrates.

Major changes from v1 to v2 include the improved M/S matrix and stereo enhancer with mono maker. Add to that list indiviual M/S panning, dynamic range metering, and a solo-in-place feature for all solo modes.

I’m serious when I saw Brainworx makes my favorite plug-ins right now. Not only are they designed well, but they sound amazing. They may be little intimidating upon first run, but stick with it, learn how to use it, and you won’t regret it for a second. These guys at Brainworx are like mad scientists in the best way possible.

bx_control v2 will be 99 euros (native) or 149 euros (TDM with VENUE support). People upgrading from v1 will pay 49 euros for both Native and TDM versions.There’s also a 25% introductory sale that starts in February (and applies to upgrades!), so try the plug-in and grab it on the cheap when it becomes available.

Hit the jump for links to everything!

PS: Stay tuned for my review of a very lovely Brainworx plug-in as well as a review of Elysia’s mpressor plug-in.

14-day free trial: http://www.brainworx-music.de/index.php?nav=33&um=0&lang=en
Installer: http://www.brainworx-music.de/index.php?nav=13&um=0&lang=en
PDF Manual: http://www.brainworx-music.de/download/bx_control_V2_manual_en.pdf