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n-Track Studio review

10/31/2013

4 Comments

 
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Have used N-Track studio now for the last two days and must say that it has been a pleasant experience. Was sceptic at first as it looked weird at first but in the end it is not so strange.

You have the tracks at the left side and then you can open up different windows for the different functions. Have been using it on a 4.8 inch screen and were afraid that it was going to be too small but it works out good.even the smallest switch is reacting good and is not hard to use. Then for some functions like volume, pan, mute etc can easily be switched up to a bigger side screen. There is also small switches for effects, the equalizer and a spectrum analyzer. / sonogram. The layout is very nice indeed as everything is accessible from one screen and you do not have to switch screens. Just like said you have small switches to click on or off smaller screens on top off the main screen. One thing that is good is that it seems to have a fair amount of undos did not try how many but it is one more thing that makes for a nice workflow.

To be editing your wav files / recordings you can make the tracks bigger for easier viewing and also move away the side panel for more space. There is volume automation and that works really nice like on a standard DAW. There is effects that you have to buy as in-app purchase or by the Pro version directly with effects and you can load up as many as possible or at least as many as your device would allow. This on each track and master track.
The Equalizer is included...

The effects are- Reverb, echo, chorus/flanger, tremolo, pitch shift, phaser, tube-amp and compression.

They do seem decent even though I have not had time to test them out properly. They also comes with a good set of presets like for example making the compressor work as a noise gate. The effects do seem decent but it would be interesting to have some time and start to test them out a little bit more. 
(Also read at the end of this review for some problems encountered).

About the recording this just like any other multi track recorder on Android it is not possible to get any professional results... So it is good for some sketches or maybe for some simpler work for sampling. 
There is also the Latency problem but in the case of N-Track you have a built in latency measurer and all you have to do is to is to click the command 
"Estimate Latency"in the menu in a quiet ambience and that is it... So far for me it has worked good. This is if you record without being able to hear what you are recording meaning that you will hear what is recorded but what you are recording will have to come through the headphones. 
If you are recording and want to hear your voice for example directly in your headphone there is a lot of latency unless you have a Google Nexus device running 4.2 or over.
There is one way to get a little bit cleaner sound and that is to use the iRIG microphone but you are not going to get professional sound with that either, better but not really good.

The only way you can good sound with a multi track application is to use the solution that Audio Evolution Mobile have figured out by being able to use a OTG USB cable with a USB Soundcard. Here is what it gets interesting as the developer is developing it for their application to. It seems that it is going to take many a months before it happens.
(You would need a device that can use a OTG-USB cable).

So for me would not really use it for recording until that happens as I have better options. 
But as it is it is good for mixing. For example to have recorded sequences from different synthesizers to use on a track, edit samples etc. as it is easy to work on many differents parts of audio on the multi track area. One thing that is helpful is that you can move parts around across different tracks. When I use my DAW of choice Reaper a lot of times I record a couple of of tracks of whatever and cut out the parts that are good and keep moving things in and out of place.
Yes of course that is easier to do on a bigger screen than the screen I am testing n-Track studio on but it is pretty impressive anyway and definitely more useful than editing on one of the “one track” editors and it comes with more effects.

The n-Track studio is the mobile version of a bigger software that is available for PC /  MAC / iOS and is interchangeable with each other. Meaning that whatever you import of your  mobile projects into the bigger DAW will be the same. This would not really work the other way around, but it is still something to consider. The Daw is not to expensive and can be worth taking a closer look at.

Okay now for some critique...
First would like to say that the developers seems pretty keen on making this work good 
and they have already done some update and bugfixes. 
Also I got my version for testing the application around ten days ago and it has been updated so it is possible that what I am talking about is fixed already...and that this has been tested on a Samsung Galaxy S3. 
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When moving parts you have to be careful because if you move parts downwards it is easy that the tracks turns very small and at the same time creates a lot of extra tracks by itself...
Which is annoying as you have to drag the part of audio  all the way back up again and if this happens a couple of times more you will be frustrated. 
Also if you do not want all those extra tracks there it takes an annoying amount of time to go to the menu click on the delete track and think this was a bug that got encountered because in addition I had to click on the track itself afterwards to delete the track...
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The effects section was very buggy for me. Say I created three four effects. What happens is that a lot of time they turn themselves off or if the parameters got changed they changed back to the default of the preset that was chosen. Think that this must be the first thing to fix...
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The only way that I figured out to reach the master track was by creating an extra track go to the side panel that you can open up (and have access to bigger volume, pan controls window to access FX etc) go up on the top left corner and erase the track. In this way the master track channel showed up...
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So there is four things that would be nice if they were implemented:
To be able to reach the master channel directly.
To have the Undo button accessible directly on the main screen instead of in the pop up menu.
Low and High pass filters.
To have a glue function of different audio parts. 
Also this is probably because of brain damage but could not find a way to choose more than one audio clip at the same time..?
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The application is very intuitive so if you have any experience with a DAW or multi track before you will figure out the functions by yourself in ten minutes or so but if you have never used one, guess it could be confusing and right now there is not much of a manual but the developers have told me that there should be a complete manual soon.
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Lastly did record one acoustic song with voice...
As there was problems with the effects not working as they should the recording is only 
with some compression on the guitar  and a little bit of distortion on the voice...
The recording was made just with the microphone on the telephone  and as you can hear it is noisy... having said that it could be less noisy choosing a very quiet ambience it could also have helped if there was a control of the input volume as I could have had the guitar closer to the microphone without the signal clipping . Having said that, 
I wanted to do a recording as what would be in my mind how people would like to use the application, just to have your device handy, record and try things out.

One last thing is the boominess that I could not get rid off and blame it on the equalizer as I could not make its curve more radical meaning that either I quit too much bass or it peaks at frequencies I do not want to highlight... or maybe this is just excuses and I do not feel like spending more time on this. 
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It is possible that it would sound as good as in the promotional video that the company made.If you use electric guitar and amplifiers etc... but I am sceptic.
Like said before to record and get better sound you need to connect directly to the device but even then you have the built in compression of the device to deal with so depending on what you record it could mess with your recording... I am talking about longer tracks like in the example I posted.
One thing that works okay for recording with the microphone on the device can be short sounds for sampling or cut up recordings. 
Playstore link:
n-Track Studio
Homepage if you want to check out the fully fledged DAW:
http://ntrack.com/
4 Comments

D Vibe - Caustic 2, FL Studio with Stickdraw animation video

10/31/2013

1 Comment

 
Hey. 
Nice song that will put a smile on your face and even better, 
made with two different applications (except the vocals). 
Yes I am all for mixing the applications together, stretch the limits! 
It is also nice that the video is made with a Android application called StickDraw. 
Just looked it up and it looks like a nice and easy way to do animations and since the last update you can; import png / gif files plus create and reuse backgrounds. 
And best of all for free with ads and there is a version that 
for a small sum of money is ad-free.
Playstore links:
Caustic 2
FL Studio Mobile
StickDraw
1 Comment

Morphwiz- The application that never gets mentioned by me

10/30/2013

0 Comments

 
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Designed by the keyboard player of Dream Theatre and developer Kevin Chartier,
 I am sure that it is good for something.
But it just puts me off that there is only preloaded sounds and all of them seems so cheezyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! 
So will post these videos if you did not hear or see the app before...
Playstore link:
MorphWiz-play
0 Comments

Josie eight year old shares three tracks done on Caustic 3

10/29/2013

0 Comments

 
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So some time ago I made a short interview with Josie and she had become very proficient in her use of Caustic 2. So thought it would be nice to share with you some of what she has been doing on Caustic 3 ( Still not released officially).
Link to interview:
http://www.musicalandroid.com/1/post/2013/08/josie-eight-year-old-maverick-mastering-caustic-2-and-3.html
Playstore link to Caustic 2 not 3:
Caustic 2
0 Comments

Primavista - A notation reader with a small twist

10/29/2013

1 Comment

 
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It came out some weeks ago and could be interesting if you want a Sheet reader.
It allows you to download after registering ( without a fee) and you can download scores form the Musescore archive of sheet music that is free of charge and includes around ten thousand scores and downloads fast and once downloaded they are in your device.
So it is one interesting thing to this reader is that you can buy a cheap USB pedal and if your phone can support a USB-OTG cable you can switch pages with your foot. If this existed for guitar scores I would be all on it! As that would be very convenient.

It has similarities with the Musescore player application but with less function but on the other hand this one is for free and the developer is promising more functions. The first one being  that you will be able to photograph score sheets.
Playstore links:
PrimaVista
1 Comment

LIVKONTROL -  The Ableton controller reviewed at crossfadr

10/29/2013

0 Comments

 
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To read this positive review of this Ableton Live dedicated controller go here:
http://www.crossfadr.com/2013/10/28/update-livkontrol-ableton-live-controller-for-ios-and-android-review/

Playstore link:
LIVKONTROL
0 Comments

G-Stomper - Halloween Special, two packs of Freaky vocals

10/28/2013

0 Comments

 
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To get your halloween music in shape you should add something extra like some scary vocals for example...
For your G-Stomper there is these two packs that you can hear sound samples of here: 
http://www.planet-h.com/gstomperbb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=181&p=411

Playstore links:
Freaky Vocals 1
Freaky Vocals 2
0 Comments

RD4 Groovebox Demo and Tutorial by thesoundtestroom

10/28/2013

0 Comments

 
Playstore link:
RD4
0 Comments

While waiting for Yellofier - Miniatures Volume 1 by Twink

10/27/2013

0 Comments

 
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So as was reported before the fascinating application called Yellofier that now exists on iOS devices will also be available for Android.
http://www.musicalandroid.com/1/post/2013/09/yellofier-to-android-before-the-end-of-this-year.html
 So here is an interesting showcase of what can be done with Yellofier as these tracks are made using it exclusively.
Looking forward to feed Yellofier all kinds of loops and sounds. Fantasizing what it will do with my acoustic guitar riffs and what weirdness will leak out. 
Also posting this as Lou Reed died and feel that I need this playful music now!

What Twink says about the music:
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Nine miniature songs made entirely with the Yellofier iPhone app using samples from Twink's own toy box. 

What started as a way to pass time on a short train trip grew into a full mini album of audio experiments. The Yellofier app (developed by the band Yello, most famous for "Oh Yeah" from the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off) is a perfect tool for the Twink workflow. It helps create complex tunes out of simple sounds and structures, mixing hi-fi technology with a certain wonky charm.
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0 Comments

October 27th, 2013

10/27/2013

0 Comments

 
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October 27th, 2013

10/27/2013

0 Comments

 
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Sunday sadness - Lou Reed is dead 

10/27/2013

0 Comments

 
Love the all the albums that Lou Reed did from the seventies much more so than Velvet Underground. I grew up with his albums even when everything I listened to was Hardcore punk and Death metal always listened to his albums. Every Time I give up my hope about honesty in music I go back to his seventies albums and feel that there is some hope.
There are just something to the music that is real. Even though the lyrics can be really bad and the songs really banal they just have a spark of the divine to them.
SO FUCK IT NOW HE IS DEAD AND A SPARK OF REALNESS DIED!!!!
This is just a crappy fucking documentary and it does not convey anything of what his music did for me at least it is something...
Love you man...
crying now...
0 Comments

Sunday movie

10/27/2013

0 Comments

 
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Sunday documentary

10/27/2013

0 Comments

 
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Silly Sunday

10/27/2013

0 Comments

 
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Musical Interlude - Zoolander by Train tracks

10/26/2013

2 Comments

 
2 Comments

RD4 Update with a whole lot of midi goodness

10/26/2013

0 Comments

 
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Mikrosonic is on a roll!
They have stepped up their game and as a result they are one of the only two ones 
to have an Android device that are fully midi integrated!
The two coolest things you can now do with RD4 is that you can control RD4 with a midi keyboard which is not new but now you can control all the parameters of RD4 with the controllers you have on your midi keyboard! 
The second great thing is that this also goes for your DAW. So now you can use RD4 as an external synthesizer controlling, automating and sequencing it directly from you computer!
This makes it very attractive for people that uses a DAW and like RD4.
(There is one other application that is also recently have midi integrated in this way that I will soon write about... just want to try it out first.)
It is very nice and hopefully this will be a standard as it is a good thing to be able to compose and control your favorite Android synthesizers directly from an external sequencer / controller.
To do this you are going to need a device that can use a OTG-USB cable for your keyboard/midi controller. 
One more extra goodie is that it is even possible to use a midi to USB cable if your keyboard do not have USB connection... 
To read more about this go here:
http://www.mikrosonic.com/rd4-midi-android

Playstore link:
RD4

And here you have the Update list ripped directly from Playstore:
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- USB MIDI support, connects external MIDI keyboards and controllers
- External MIDI clock sync support
- Automatic MIDI input focus when switching instruments
- Detailed MIDI Implementation Chart here: http://www.mikrosonic.com/rd4-midi-android
- Improved low latency support for devices with a 48 kHz sample rate such as the Nexus 4, htc One, Samsung Galaxy Tab 3
- Support for x86 CPUs
- Improved Delay and Filter effect
- Analog synthesizer: Performance improvement
- 8 bar loop export fixed
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0 Comments

Mysterious Saturday

10/26/2013

0 Comments

 
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spoz_1KyZiAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX6JcybgDFo&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCB4XRRn0WU#t=17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdISYLhn0Mw
http://animbar.mnim.org/
http://vimeo.com/75534042
0 Comments

TouchDAW Review by user on KVR Audio

10/25/2013

0 Comments

 
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To read the review of this DAW controller please go here:
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/touchdaw-by-humatic/reviews/3915

Playstore link:
TouchDAW
0 Comments

Reactable 50 % off until the 27:th of October

10/25/2013

0 Comments

 
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This could be the moment to take a closer look at one of the better applications for Android as normally it is kind of pricey for being a Android application. There is no Demo version so if you are curious suggest that you look at some videos. It could be just the application to get your creative juices going... if you are into live mixing. 
Playstore link:
Reactable
0 Comments
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