Tech Reviews: New products (September 2021)
Tim Hallas
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
MT’s tech editor Tim Hallas reveals what's new this month.
BandLab 10.0
Price: Free!
BandLab is becoming one of the biggest names in music technology and has recently launched the latest version of its free music making app. Available on all major platforms and browsers, BandLab 10 includes an integrated sampler and better upload facilities to social media – and TikTok specifically.
The new sampler includes the ability to import audio and video files and lets you adjust the sample length and choose how the samples trigger (play the whole thing through each time or loop round). The other noteworthy addition is the inclusion of AI mastering. This was developed with several mastering engineers and BandLab claims it is significantly better than any competitors. However, BandLab's greatest asset is its price and the ability to allow students to make music for free.
Behringer Studio L
Price: $199
The latest product announcement from budget music technology behemoths is a monitor controller that doubles as an audio interface. The Studio L offers control over two separate sets of monitors (each with their own set of trim pots to allow for decent volume reference when swapping between sets of speakers) and two independent headphone outputs. There is a dedicated talkback mic input and useful monitoring functions such as mono sum, mute and dim.
The Studio L also doubles as an audio interface and includes two Midas designed mic preamps and 2x 1/4” jack sockets for inputs 3 and 4. The interface can support audio up to 24-bit/192KHz but isn't bus powered, so you'll need to use the power supply. This might not be useful for every computer in a classroom – but could be a useful addition for main teaching machines or school recording studios.
X-Gear Pedals
Price: 300 each
IK Multimedia is known as a manufacturer of affordable hardware aimed at portable music making and emulations of famous guitar equipment and studio gear. However, the company has now decided to move into the guitar effects pedal market. Although guitar pedals might not seem like an obvious purchase for a music educator, each pedal includes a very wide range of effects.
The X-Drive, X-Vibe, X-Time and X-Space include distortion and overdrive, modulation, delay and reverb effects respectively. The first two pedals take effects from the existing Amplitube library and put them in a pedal, but the space and time effects have been created especially for the pedals. Each pedal also doubles as an audio interface and includes a software version of itself and a lite version of Amplitube for amp emulation when recording.
Ableton Live 11 Lite
Price: Free with certain hardware
Ableton's entry level software Live Lite has just received a free upgrade for all existing users. New features include a few additional effects such as a phaser-flanger for modulation effects and a limiter for placing at the end of a project for basic mastering control. Live Lite allows users to have up to 16 scenes in session and version 11 includes a wider range of sounds, drum kits, loops and MIDI clips.
Live Lite can't be bought independently but comes bundled with a wide range of hardware often found in schools and colleges including Akai controller keyboards and Focusrite interfaces. Ableton Live is a great way for students to make music in a different way – so it might be worth going through all those old boxes and installing it onto your machines for an additional software option.
