Well another year has gone by. Another year with new instruments, software & pro audio being released. Of course each year presents us with lots of new gear we want to find out about & want to try.
So what did 2013 have in store for us then? To start with it had some notable synths eg. Arturia Microbrute, Nord Lead 4, Dave Smith Prophet 12, Korg King Korg, Yamaha MOXF, Moog Sub Phatty etc.
My favourite synths released were:
Novation Mininova- Great powerful little synth with vocoder. This is a synth i just had to try. I was not disappointed. If you have'nt tried it, it's a fun synth to play.
Novation Bass Station II- After 20 years Novation decided to release a new version of their original Bass Station. Was it worth it? Yes i think it was. It's been re-created for the 21st century. I got a chance to try this & have to say i enjoyed playing this mini synth.
Korg MS-20 Mini- Another recreation. The original was released in 1978 & was discontinued in 1983. This iconic synth has never really been forgotten. Korg brought out the MS-20 software as part of their legacy collection (now available as a separate synth) & a MS-20 ipad app. This new version is lighter than the original. I will admit i have not had the chance to play this synth yet.
Korg Volca Series- Mini Keys, Drums & Bass. Similar looking to the Monotron/ monotribe. Quite small & compact & look fun to play.
Obviously it's not just synths that get released. A few DAW's got upgraded too. Pro Tools 11, Reason 7, Ableton Live 9 & Cubase 7. One DAW that got quite a major update was Logic Pro X.
Logic Pro X- Finallly in 2013 Apple released a new version of there popular DAW Logic. A brand new interface, powerful mixer, new drummer feature, arppegiator, an ipad app that you can control logic with plus more other features. Logic X does look good.The downside for me was the fact that it would only work on Mac OSX 10.8.4 or later, 64 bit only (there is software so that 32 bits can work) & there was also no upgrade from Logic 9 or earlier versions.
Talking of software lots of plugins & vst instruments were also released. Too many to mention. I'm sure you have got your favourites.
In a few weeks it will NAMM 2014. More new gear will be announced. What can we expect? A new synth fromYamaha? Digital piano from Roland? Access Virus TI3? (Hmmmmm! It has been a few years since we've heard anything),Who knows? We'll just have to wait & see.
What was your favourite gear released in 2013? What would you like to see in 2014?
Until next Time
Law