Recording music has come a long way since the days of unfathomably expensive studio fees. Until recently, a single recording session seemed to require almost an unlimited budget. With plenty of advances in technology, however, it is much easier and much more affordable to get the same rich recordings without compromising on quality.

One of the best tools for the home recording artist and even for recording studios is Pro Tools HD, which allows for the recording, music mixing, and mastering of studio sessions for a flawless product in a fraction of the time required on older sound equipment. Pro Tools has actually been around since the late 1980s and over the years it has evolved from basic 4-voice capability into a hardware-independent software setup.

When it comes to putting music together on Pro Tools HD, the best approach is to first establish the tempo, then follow with the vocals and the song skeleton. Once the tempo is set, the raw vocals should be added in; an acoustic guitar, piano and drums can accompany the vocalist, but nothing beyond that setup. It should be the most basic recording possible, off of which all the instrumentals are built. Next comes the skeleton of the song, which allows for the musicians and recording professionals to easily edit the song rather than starting from scratch each time.

Drums and drum patterns are one of the most difficult instruments to record, but with a dedicated drums recording studio and a professional engineer, using Pro Tools vast library of drum and instrument loops makes the process a lot easier.

Another handy feature of Pro Tools is that it allows people to embed comments into tracks for anyone else that will be working with that recording session. For example, if one of the musicians decides that he or she wants to add more instruments to a specific part of the song, the notation can be inserted exactly where that audio should be placed. Finally, for those who plan on doing the first stage of recording from their own homes, it helps to know a couple of shortcuts in Pro Tools HD. There are plenty of keyboard shortcuts that cut entire processes into just a few quick strokes.

A Pro Tools HD recording studio setup is ideal for home and professional studios like recordingstudiolondon where you can get the help from an experienced engineer on a hire basis. Whether you need to add a few minor touches to polish up a previous recording, or you want an easy way to build your entire album from recording to music mixing to mastering, Pro Tools can help get the task done quickly, efficiently, and – most importantly – affordably.

The much anticipated Conectiv with Torq DJ software has finally arrived. There has been so much excitement with this new product around the internet due to the many teaser videos and the phenomenal NAMM Austin presentation.

How stable is it? Does it work as advertised? How does it compare to the competitors for this booming market?

The packaging

Packaging is really nice and appealing to the eye being color coordinated with the default skin of Torq and Conectiv hardware. The package came with an outer sleeve over an existing box with the same graphics and product info on it.

The package includes:

• 2 Control Vinyls
• 2 Control CDs
• Software/Driver installation CD
• USB Cable
• Quick Start Guide
• Conectiv Hardware

I am sure you will notice from the list above there are no RCA cables included. You will need a total of four pair for external control. The USB Cable is only three feet long.

Virtual Decks

The decks have all the similar stuff that most of the other competitors have which include the Artist Name, Song Name, Time Elapsed and Overview wave. Some nice offerings are more added control to the decks via a mouse click away or midi knob, slider, or pad.

Synchronization

This feature allows you to synchronize deck A, deck B, “Master” Tempo, or a different combination to each. One will act as a “Master” and the other/’s will be the slaves.

Unfortunately, this seems to only work in internal mode or Amputate. So if you planned to use this in external mode, ala control signal mode, for now it does not seem to work.

Cue Points and Looping

You have 5 cue points set up per deck that work on point and an Auto Loop with in and out point control. There is an option for you to set the loop in 1, 2, 4, 8 beats or bars and if you hit the same number again it will reduce the bar or beat and same as if you start with 2 and then hit 4 it will extend it respectively.

The loops are extremely fun and on point. Some really great remixing can be done with just the options mentioned so far.

Auto BPM Engine

The BPM Engine is very good for the most part. There are some songs that it did not come close to but I have not seen one that does with some of those songs. With all the Dance/EDM songs I played it was very accurate

If the BPM is off you can press the button below the counter and it adds 50% or reduce 50%. This is useful because some songs may not have a lot of measurable beats so it may only measure in half time or double time if it has a lot of beats.

Key Lock

This program does have Key Lock. This is one of the most wanted features in a program of this nature, this and Auto BPM, in my opinion. Now for us external control users you will use this feature a little different than in internal mode. Let me explain what I mean.

Waveform

I will be honest when I 1st started to use this program I really did not like the waveform. Being an SSL user I was so used to the vertical color waveform. If I did not have my headphones I could mix without them. When I 1st tried this with Torq I was all over the place.

But after I understood the wave form and what everything on it represented it was easier to mix with out the headphones again. I am still biased to more color than just one solid color; I just think it is kinder on the eyes. You can suffer from snow blindness after a while…….

Conclusion

We are very pleased with everything so far, it’s great to see such a strong contestant enter the Software DJ market.