audio software

There’s been a lot of confusion surrounding Propellerhead’s introduction of Record.

It’s a new application for recording and mixing audio, but its creators want to make clear that Propellerhead Record is not a DAW. That’s left a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering what Record is, then.

Propellerhead CEO Ernst Nathorst-Böös has shared his thoughts on the reasoning behind the creation of Record at the new Propellerhead development blog:

When we designed Record we went back to our original roots, the drive that made us create Reason a long time ago. In 1998, when the Reason design came to life, there were already incredible synthesizers. You could already make music with your computer. There was immense power in the solutions that existed.

The problem was on another level, in that you spent far too much of your time with left brain stuff, just making things work, even getting any sound out of your equipment at all! With Reason we really tried to solve that, put everything you needed in one powerful solution that made people create more and better music.

We have long felt that music recording and production have been plagued by problems similar to those we experienced with instruments ten years ago. Music recording on computers lacks the flow that musicians deserve. It’s unfortunate but has natural causes. Recording has classically been the engineer’s domain and most of the solutions we have today were designed from that standpoint and are more then ten years old. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to start anew, with another perspective.

It has to be admitted that some great initiatives have been taken lately in getting new users to start recording, but these then fall short in terms of power. To make a really nice professional sounding production you need powerful editing, a great mixer, great effects, great amps – great sound and lots of it!

So Record is an attempt to take the musician’s perspective. Your perspective. But at the same time we wanted to create a really serious recording application. We just want to provide the tools you need and then get out of your way, letting you do what you do best: play, record, produce and mix. And we want you to sound fabulous.

Nathorst-Böös makes clear what Propellerhead is trying to create: a computer audio workstation designed to minimize the need for analytical thinking, one that gets out of the way and just lets you Record.

There’s a lot of merit in that. Today’s full-featured DAW’s have tons of power, but steep learning curves. And, based on what we’ve seen so far of Propellerhead Record, it looks like Propellehead has succeeded in creating a recording app that will appeal to fans of Reason-style music production.

Where Does Propellerhead Record Fit In?

It’s less clear, though, what role Nathorst-Böös and Propellerhead see Record playing in music production.

They’ve made it clear that they don’t want Record to be viewed as a digital audio workstation. They know that a lot of musicians are put off by the complexity of DAWs.

Record avoids this complexity by presenting you with a limited set of options.

What about all those other things that DAW’s do that Record can’t do, though? What happens when you run into those walls?

That may be the key question raised by the introduction of Propellerhead Record, and it’s one that a lot of people don’t know the answer to yet.

Propellerhead Record is one of the most interesting introductions of 2009, a year that’s turning out to be a very interesting year for electronic music production.

Do you see Propellerhead Record becoming part of your future music production?

Here’s another Propellerhead Record demo to check out. This one was taped at the Producers’ Conference Los Angeles.

via PeffTV:

Gerry Basserman and I present the feature set, Q&A, Push Me Down demo by J.Mobley feat. Jodie Evans. Video shot by Alan Strahsburg at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood.

Sorry, readers.

We have a correction to make. A mea culpa to fess up to. A blogging confession.

Earlier today, we reported on Propellerhead Record, calling it “a new digital audio workstation application” (DAW).

We use the term digital audio workstation, like pretty much the whole world, to refer to “an electronic system designed to record, edit and play back digital audio.”

Propellerheads Software contacted us, though, to ask us to not to refer to Propellerhead Record as a DAW:

It is NOT a DAW and we’d appreciate it if you didn’t refer to Record as a DAW.

Yep, we told you wrong. So we want to be the first to set the record straight.

Propellerhead Record Is Not A DAW

When Propellerhead explains that Record is an application for recording, arranging and mixing audio, that little lightbulb went off in our minds and we thought “Propellerhead Record = DAW”.

Our bad!

We corrected our previous article on Propellerhead Record to help eliminate any confusion over whether Record is a DAW:

Propellerhead Software has officially unveiled Record, not a digital audio workstation application, but ” a whole new take on music recording” that “combines effortless recording and a stunning software mixer console with a limitless rack of audio processing gear that builds itself or can be infinitely customized.”

We’re not sure why Propellerhead is sensitive about the “DAW” term, but we figure that the company’s trying to carve out its own space in the marketplace, and not trying to compete feature to feature against DAW’s like Apple’s Logic Pro.

Propellerhead Record will retail for $299. Add in the cost of Propellerhead Reason, and you’re looking at some fairly serious dough to put together a complete Propellerhead-based recording solution – that’s not a DAW – compared to a full-fledged DAW like Apple Logic ($500).

Time will tell if Propellerhead Record can carve out a new place in the market – a place for audio recording and mixing applications that don’t try to compete against full-fledged digital audio workstations.

What do you think of Propellerhead Record and the idea that it’s not a DAW? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Propellerhead Software, the makers of Reason, are introducing a new audio app that offers a new approach to recording music, according to Peter Kirn at CDM:

Record is an audio recording program, Propellerhead co-founder Ernst Nathorst-Böös, but “This program has nothing to do with audio. It’s all about music… We wanted this to be about music making.”

Record is a piece of software designed around the musical possibilities of recording audio, he explains, emphasizing the actual act of recording and working with sound in ways that are always connected to musical time, beats and bars, and a fluid approach to tempo and tempo changes. It focuses on a single task rather than bundling together lots of tasks.

We’ll have a number of months to begin to see what Record’s contribution might be. But whether it’s successful or not, the good news today was that, after all this time, Propellerhead isn’t using anyone else’s mold.

Here’s Propellerhead’s Something New teaser video.

Note that Propellerhead has not released an official announcement as of this posting. If you’ve got additional information, leave a comment!

Do you think that Propellerhead Record will live up to the hype?

AudioMulch has announced that AudioMulch 2.0 interactive music studio is now in the final stages of development. The release will take place on May 1, 2009. Apologies to existing users for the delay, and thank you for your patience.

AudioMulch 2.0 is not just a new version, but “a foundation for a new cycle of feature development and improvements that will be rolled out in regular updates after the 2.0 release.”

AudioMulch 2.0 will run on Windows (XP, Vista) and natively on Macintosh OSX (Intel only).

Features:

AudioMulch 2.0 will be backward-compatible with AudioMulch 1.0. It will provide all AudioMulch 1.0 functionality. The Macintosh version of AudioMulch will be able to load AudioMulch 1.0 patches.

Improvements to the AudioMulch core will include:

• Significant performance increases for audio processing (up to twice the efficiency in some cases)
• Patchable MIDI routing
• MIDI and Automation control of Metasurface, tempo and transport
• Support for complex time signatures including automated time signature changes and additive meters
• Improved support for consumer multichannel audio
• Settings for enabling audio, MIDI and network functions at start-up

The AudioMulch 2.0 user interface has been re-coded from the ground up. This has lead to numerous work-flow improvements, including:

• A new Patcher with advanced drag-and-drop patching
• Dockable windows improving multi-monitor operation
• Faster access to MIDI control and parameter values
• Floating Parameter Control (formerly Parameter Modulation) window
• Nameable contraption presets

Licensing and Pricing

AudioMulch 2.0 licences will be portable across Windows and Macintosh. If you switch from Macintosh to Windows or vice versa you will be able to continue to use the same 2.0 license. Upgrades from AudioMulch 1.0 to AudioMulch 2.0 will also be portable across Windows and Macintosh.

As previously announced, a full version 2.0 licence will be priced at $189 (USD). All AudioMulch 2.0 licences will be valid on both Windows and Mac OSX.

The upgrade fee for licenced users of version 1.0 will be $89. New users may find better value by buying AudioMulch 1.0 now and upgrading upon release of version 2.0. A pre-purchase upgrade to version 2.0 is available to volume education customers contact sales@audiomulch.com for more information.