Tech reviews: New products (October 2023)
Kate Rounding
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Kate Rounding reveals what’s new this month in music technology.
Scaler 2
Price: £59.99 for computer, £19.99 for iPad
Scaler 2 is a software designed to make finding chords, melodies, basslines, and progressions easy. Scaler 2 analyses incoming MIDI or audio data and offers chord progressions that harmonise with your music, saving time and effort. It also offers modulation suggestions to help you move between tonalities and key-signatures. The software includes a sound library with over 600 chord sets and 45 internal electronic, acoustic and orchestral instruments. With 300 genre-based chord sets, including jazz, cinematic, EDM, and metal, Scaler 2 caters to a range of musical preferences. The Guitar Fretboard view and Chord Charts provide visual representations that make understanding chord structures easier. The Bind MIDI function enables one finger chord playing, making it accessible for beginners. You can export sessions to your preferred DAW. It is suitable for Mac, Windows and iPad OS.
Bigsby Pedal
Price: £282.50
Gamechanger Audio has collaborated with Fender to release the Bigsby Pedal, a polyphonic pitch-shifting pedal that reproduces the feel and sound of the classic Bigsby tremolo arm. The pedal features Rate, Blend, Tone, and Depth controls, plus an invert switch to change the pitch shift direction. The Detune parameter recreates the ‘imperfections and dissonance’ of traditional whammy bars. The Bigsby is activated by pressing the spring-loaded pedal, allowing you to easily incorporate bluesy pitch bends, slides and riffs. There is an external footswitch input to turn on Latching Mode (for holding a constant interval) and the Expression Output allows you to use the Bigsby as a controller for other audio devices. It might not be the cheapest pedal available, but it’s a convenient option for musicians who want the benefits of a Bigsby system without the difficulty of modifying their guitars.
amechangeraudio.com/bigsby-pedal
WaveLab Cast 2
Price: £60, upgrades available
WaveLab Cast 2 by Steinberg is designed for creating and editing perfect audio podcasts. New features in WaveLab Cast 2 make this process even easier with a new Startup Assistant
that offers different workspaces tailored to creating new content or editing existing projects. When you open WaveLab for the first time, the Startup Assistant will explain the different workspaces and what you can do with them. The new ‘Track Inspector’ is an easy-to-use channel strip with tools including a DeEsser, DeNoiser and a ‘maximizer’ for improving the clarity of your voice tracks. WaveLab Cast 2 connects with the leading podcast hosting platforms (e.g. SoundCloud or Castos), so that you can upload directly from within the software. It’s excellent for creating educational podcasts, for example, on music theory or music history, and you can also use it for graded podcasting exams with awarding bodies such as RSL.
Boss Dual Cube LX
Price: £219
The Boss Dual Cube LX is a portable amp that’s great for practising and rehearsing. It has eight different amp styles, ranging from clean to extreme. There is also a dedicated mic input so you can use it as a vocal PA. It delivers 10 watts of stereo power, and you connect to a larger system using the Stereo Line Out. There are seven builtin effects including reverbs and delays; these can be edited using the DUAL CUBE LX Editor app. Connect the amp to your phone or computer using USB or the i-CUBE-Link function, enabling the amp to serve as an audio interface. Using the phones/rec input and mic volume control, you can simultaneously record vocals and guitar. Other features include a three-band EQ, stereo input mode and a control jack for two external foot switches. The unit is powered by an AC adaptor or eight AA batteries.
