OSX Maverick is out now! For... FREE!

Today on the weird and wonderful world of TECH, for the first time ever, apple released the OSX MAVERICK for.... ZERO DOLLARS!

Yes, anyone with OSX Snow Leopard and above can download OSX Maverick for FREE, as opposed to the usual $19.95 in the past.

In fact I just paid for a Mountain Lion installation a few months ago just so I can use Logic Pro X (which requires Mountain Lion as standard!). Oh well, at least I dont have to pay this time!

What's New? Visually, its not very different from either OSX Lion or OSX Mountain Lion, they feel almost the same, I was expecting a very IOS 7 ish design but in fact the new OSX stays familiar as ever (that could be a good thing or a bad thing).

So far all my usual programs such as Traktor Scratch Pro and Ableton Live Suite 9 works without any problems, which is surprising. Perhaps the jump from mountain lion to Mavericks is not that much?

If you are a Mac user, hop on the the app store to download your free copy of OSX Mavericks, if you are to that is, new Operating Systems are bound to be buggy

Me? Let's just say that I like to live on the edge!

Update

Hello... Yes how are you!

I have been really really busy the past few months with my new job (in the high end audio product industry - very interesting indeed, will blog about it soon perhaps). I have been kinda neglecting this blog, but seeing that I do still get people checking out my blog (and emailing me - thank you - no I am not dead but thanks for asking) I have decided to write this - like a quick update thing and some stuff that I always wanted to write on the blog (but never had the time - i work 6 days a week now!)

Anyways, here is a quick update on whats been happening  while I was gone

The XDJ-R1 is Real!

HOLY SHIT! See! I told you its gonna come out! This thing will sell like hotcakes, seeing that it supports both CD's and Rekordbox USB's - the built in effects are similar to that of the PRO level DJM800/850/900 and with Quantize and Hotcue features - this thing is going to be a hit as it is pretty affordable (USD $1099 RRP? yep thats a good price). Seems like Pioneer wants to defend itself against the increasingly-affordable dj controllers.

Native Instruments Announced the Traktor Z1

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!
This thing looks so portable and fun! Mind you - this will not likely be replacing your dj mixer nor it will be a pro DJ solution, but it seems like a super fun and portable Traktor controller - just one of this and an X1 or the F1 and you are good to rock a house party~

The Traktor X1 MK2 "Alleged" photos are online

In case you havent seen them in the DJTT Article, the alleged photos of the Traktor X1 MK2 controller looks AMAZING - and seems like just the right controller to compliment the Traktor Z1 controller recently announced. The touch strips seem to work like the Novation Twitch and would work for pitch bending and track seeking. Not bad NI, not bad at all.... Please release it ASAP!!

Sennheiser Announced The HD-25 Aluminium

Say Woooot? Not content with inflicting RGAS to Gear Addicts (like you and me) with the Sennheiser Amperior, Sennheiser announced the all new HD25 Aluminium - As the name suggested, it.... has aluminium parts! This 25 year anniversary model has SOLID aluminium cups which will give a super significant sound quality upgrade over the old plastic models of the HD25  (More details HERE)

Pioneer's new XDJ-R1 - Allegedly?

The XDJ-R1... finally!

Remember a few months back I speculated the XDJ-R1?

Well...

Apparently its coming out soon!

Found these pics on facebook, dunno what the deal is with all the plasticky build, looks really cheap and poorly built, if this was priced above the XDJ-Aero or the DDJ-SX then this looks plain cheap, not too impressed at all~

More pics:

XLR eh? not bad...

See the XDJ R1 logo at the top?

Soundcloud PRO : Now More Affordable Than Ever!!

Soundcloud, the premier music hosting service for DJ's and Producers just dropped the pricing on their PRO hosting plans!

Premium plans now start at 3 Euro per month (For 4 hours of storage) and.... 9 Euro per month for unlimited cloud music storage!!

If you are still using a Free account, this is the perfect time to upgrade to PRO now!


Details HERE

The Pioneer XDJ-R1 - Pioneer's new mysterious DJ gear?

The first time someone mentioned the Pioneer "XDJ-R1" was in the Pioneer forums where someone said they saw it being mentioned in the latest Rekordbox (Pioneer's Music Library Management Software) PDF manual.

I love conspiracy theories and TOP-SECRET Stuff so I decided to conduct my own investigation on the matter

The Evidences

Hmm... another Rekordbox DJ Gear? What's that - The XDJ-R1?

Did someone say Hot Cues? Woot!!

Another mention of the XDJ-R1 and the quantize features

The mysterious "Pioneer XDJ-R1" is mentioned many many times in the Rekordbox manual (found here). It seems like it is some kind of Rekordbox-ready DJ Player (like a cdj without a cd drive?), or perhaps an all-in-one unit (similar to the XDJ-AERO?).

The evidences suggest that the XDJ-R1 supports quantize mode for loops and cues (much like the CDJ900/2000/XDJ-Aero) and... check this out - HOT CUES!!! It appears that 3 of them are supported

The evidences also point that the XDJ-R1 may not have wifi or networking functions, so a possibility that it is a cheaper version of the XDJ-Aero without the networking/wifi functions?

I guess for now we can only guess as nothing else has been revealed at this point in time (March 5 2013) but I am definitely interested to see what Pioneer has in store for us very soon!

Traktor 2.6.1 is Out with FREE Key Detection!

BIG NEWS!!!

Straight from Berlin - The Traktor Pro DJ Software has recently been updated to the latest version for both Mac OSX and Windows Platform


What’s new in TRAKTOR 2.6.1?

• Key detection
• Downbeat detection
• Collection metadata synchronization with TRAKTOR DJ
• Various fixes and improvements

Traktor users get a minor yet significant update today with the release of Traktor Pro 2.6.1

Traktor adopts the 'Open Key' Notation as opposed to the Camelot wheel found in its competitor

This update includes one unexpected (oh Native Instruments you sneaky you!) FREE feature - Key detection of all your Traktor Library songs!

This means that you can (to some extend - depending on how accurate their algorithm is) find out the musical key signature pretty easily and conveniently without the use of any external program.

If you sort your playlist by Key, the column is color coded to follow the Open Key Notation!

When I installed the update Traktor automatically scans and updates my whole library and added a new ID3 column "Key Text" - this process may take some time (about 20-30 minute in my case in which case I just left it open while I made coffee). As illustrated above, Traktor uses the Open Key notation which is essentially a simplified circle of fifth, very very similar to the camelot wheel system used in its competitor software 'Mixed in Key' - BUT FREE!!

As a user of Mixed in Key (which costs USD $58) I find this extra feature to be AMAZING considering it is FREE, and it seems to be pretty much on PAR with Mixed In Key's detection according to my early test... Yes it works well!!

And the bonus is that now that the key detection is built into Traktor's system, there is no need to drag and drop songs into Mixed in key - everything is done in the system which enables a much faster work flow in song preparation!

Native Instruments - you've just made the best featured DJing software even better! (Now that I am also an owner of the Pioneer DDJ-SX with Serato I am allowed to make that statement - feature wise Traktor just knocks down Serato, hands down there is no comparison!)

And... Introducing the Traktor DJ iPad app!

There is now one portion of the settings page of Traktor 2.6.1 which links your traktor library to the new iPad Traktor APP integation!

And guess what... with a firmware upgrade now you are able to use your Native Instruments Audio 6 / Audio 10 sound cards with your iPad for multiple, super high quality outputs!!!

Yes that means you can have a full, high quality, loud stereo output while having a separate headphone cue channel in full stereo - is the iPad/Tablet the future that will one day replace laptops? Perhaps its a sign as It is definitely getting closer!


Traktor Owners can simply log into Native Instruments website or open the Service Centre to enjoy this update!

Traktor DJ iPad app is available for USD $19.99 in the iPad APP Store