Here at last...

Propellerheads released RECORD today. They are going to make a metric ton of money with this I think. Maybe a ton plus: It’s listed as a $149 upgrade NOT the $129 price quoted everywhere. Factor in $20 shipping to the US, and that’s $169 out of the door. On the plus side: The box set includes an upgrade to REASON4 for owners of REASON versions 1 – 3 and that’s a helluva deal for those folks. But if you have REASON4 already, it’s just an extra $20 for naught.

I’ve really got to give it to the Props: They know how to make a helluva product trailer.

I’m participating in the RECORD Betas and wanted to post a few thoughts. Note that the NDA prevents me from discussing any details or juicy stuff, but head over to Propellerheads‘ beta sign up site and get a copy for yourself.

My initial impressions were not what I would call “over the top” with enthusiasm. I actually found the interface a bit confusing at first: The screen is JAM PACKED with stuff (nothing you can’t figure out from the screenshots and micro-tutorials on the Prop’s site). On a 13″ macbook screen (my main machine was in the shop the first time I fired RECORD up), it is just too much (although the function key based focus switches help.) Anyway, I am talking about my first impressions here and my first impression was that there is a disconnect between what I was looking at on the screen (a LOT of stuff) and the product’s marketing (”stripped down recording simplicity”).

My next mental hurdle was due to my being familiar with REASON. (Note I said ‘familiar’ and not ‘expert’.) There are enough similarities in the interfaces and many methods of doing things that – as a prior user of REASON – I tend to forget that I’m not IN REASON.

Here are some videos from Keyboard Magazine. Head over to their site for more great info.

Part One

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YouTube DirektPart 1

Part Two

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YouTube DirektPart 2

Part Three

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YouTube DirektPart 3

The Props have posted a 2 minute video on the RECORD interface and making a track.

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YouTube Direkt

Well the PropHeads announced it…. http://www.propellerheads.se/products/record/

There’s a lot of information there. Watching the video is probably the quickest way to get an overview of what it is.

The blog Waveformless (http://waveformless.blogspot.com/) had an initial take:

…my initial thoughts are, this is going to be a tough sell. It looks like it will mainly appeal to people using Reason. But with how long Propellerheads left Reason crippled without audio recording capabilieis, most people using it seriously already use it with Rewire connected to another DAW such as Logic or Live. I’m not seeing anything here that would make most people want to abandon those and learn a new DAW. The Line-6 and SSL-modeled mixing channels are nice, but probably not enough for most people to switch. There’s not much info yet, though, so I freely admit I could be totally wrong. I just think to compete in a DAW market with multiple, well-established programs, they really needed to offer something revolutionary, and at first glance, this doesn’t appear to be it. That interface looks like a cluttered mess, too, in my opinion. So what do you think? …

I think he has a couple of points, but is too harsh.

Luftrum is an artist who produces ambient musics, minimalistic soundscapes, field recordings, and (thankfully) amazing Reason4 refills. He makes some of his field recordings available from his website and freesound.org under a Creative Commons license. He also has a project (”Music for Films”) underway wherein he posts tracks for listening as they are done.

Luftrum Website

In any case, his refills are fantastic. As he describes Luftrum 3 on his site “For ambient composers into deep listening and no-beat drone music in the likes of Biosphere, Klaus Schulze, The Orb, Tangerine Dream, early Brian Eno, Steve Roach and Robert Rich.” (Since you will find many of these same artists in my “Artist Quilt” to the right, I am understandably stoked.)

A description of the content is provided below.

LUFTRUM 3
95 Dr.Rex loops  (318 Mb) + 45 Ambient Pads for Thor

52 Old Movie Conversation
45 Ambient Pads for Thor
15 Soundscapes & Drones
12 Spoken Dialogue
10 Atmospheric Pad Loops
6 Field Recordings

Luftrum 1, 2 & 3 are available together for $39! By all means check it out.