MusicTech

Ad feature with Steinberg This month, Steinberg is offering huge discounts on Cubase 15 and other music production software. Cubase 15, the company’s flagship DAW, is 40% off until 28 September; Cubasis, its mobile DAW, is also 40% off, and there’s a 60% discount on four other products when you activate Cubase 15 during the promotion.

After 25 years, Audacity has been given a bold “refresh”. With redesigned effects, refined clip editing, customisable Workspaces, and a streamlined new UI, Audacity 4 comes as the audio editor’s biggest update in years – and it’s still totally free and open-source. The fourth era of Audacity focuses on keeping the spirit of Audacity while vastly improving your workflow.

Denon DJ has released a new all-in-one DJ system, the PRIME 4 G2 with a new “industry-first” feature for performers, with new tools that have never before been found in Denon products. Namely, the PRIME 4 G2 introduces MPCe multi-zone performance pads, the first of their kind in a standalone DJ system. If that sounds familiar, you might be thinking of the MPC range from Denon DJ’s sister brand, Akai.

Ad feature with Reason Studios/LANDR Reason has always felt like something of an outlier in the production world, largely thanks to its virtual hardware Rack. Hit the flip button, and you’ll discover patch points, CV connections, and a tangled spaghetti of animated cables, all ready to be rerouted as you please. This distinctive approach to music-making has earned Reason a dedicated following since its release in 2000.

It’s 11 am on a Wednesday in Staten Island when I speak with Stoic. Tonight, he’ll publish an instrumental hip-hop beat to YouTube, just like every other Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The 29-year-old producer has followed this schedule for over seven years, with over 1,000 beats to his name—including one for Doechii’s 2024 BULLFROG that helped the song win a Grammy for Best Rap Album via  Alligator Bites Never Heal.

£199 Also included in Apple Creator Studio subscription from £12.99/month apple.com First impressions last. My first impressions of Cubase were formed way back in 1989 with its inaugural release. I’d been getting to grips with MIDI sequencing courtesy of Steinberg Pro-24, but when Cubase landed I was blown away. It was streets ahead of its predecessor, I was an instant convert, and Cubase has never been far from my desktop since.

The iconic Reason Rack has been a core component of the Reason DAW since its launch in 2000. But in 2019, it was made available as a standalone plugin for the first time, offering producers the chance to harness its power within DAWs outside of Reason. Reason Rack is highly acclaimed, and allows producers to stack virtual instruments on top of one another with total control over the routing between them.

SoundCloud has spent years being the place where you stumble across your next favourite artist. Now, it wants to be the place where you actually buy their music, too. The company is currently testing a new feature that lets artists sell and deliver music directly from their SoundCloud profiles, meaning fans can discover a track, decide they want to own it and buy the download without being sent off to another platform.

Hit command+K while in Logic to bring up the musical typing keyboard. But what if there was also a physical QWERTY keyboard that doubled as a MIDI controller? Meet Keys, the new unit from Polyend which works not only as a three-octave piano but also as a fully functional keyboard, too.

Arturia has introduced a new bass synthesiser, Pure SUB, which offers an array of new tools that maintain the “drop-defining” bass quality. The software synthesiser experts focused on weight, impact, and motion with this new design. A press release from the team ahead of the Pure SUB release reads: “In modern electronic music, from dubstep and drum & bass to the wider world of club and bass-driven production, low-end has become the defining voice.