Fast Track USB Review

If you make music with GarageBand or other software recording programs, Fast Track USB is the easiest way to record your guitar with professional results. Just connect Fast Track USB to the USB port of your computer and you’re ready to rock. Fast Track USB has an input for instruments like guitar, bass and keyboards, plus a microphone input for recording vocals or other acoustic sounds. The included GT Player Express software gives you killer effects and virtual stomp boxes so you don’t need any other gear to sound great. Read Full...

Switch Sound Format Converter Plus Review

Switch Sound Format Converter Plus, developed by NCH Swift Sound, is an excellent example of how to create comprehensive and functional software. It has a wide range of features and some of the best format compatibility of any audio converter software.

Switch is just as useful for professionals that need to convert many songs into multiple formats as it is for the average person who knows they want to convert an AAC file to MP3. Switch is able to handle many different audio formats and has the largest selection of output formats of any program we reviewed. This makes it useful for many different situations and music players.

Overall, Switch really impressed us with its features, compatibility and price. And to top it all off, NCH Swift Sound also sells several add-on programs that can expand usability. With top marks in every category, Switch definitely gives you the most functionality for your money.



Features Set:

Switch sets the standard for audio converter features. It is able to convert audio tracks from CDs and video files in addition to doing regular audio file conversions. These capabilities make it perfect for converting your various audio files to the format you need. If you need a song or sound clip to use for a Powerpoint presentation, Switch Plus is perfect for you.

If you need to convert a bunch of files for a personal music library, Switch Plus is still a great choice because it can do batch conversions. Switch has a lot of options for changing the bit rate, sampling rate and audio channels for music files, allowing you to customize the file size and quality of your music. If you are converting music, Switch is also useful because it allows you to edit and input audio tags, the information like artist, album, song name that is attached to a file.

Switch supports command line functionality, which makes it perfect for professionals and audio enthusiasts since it can be integrated into larger systems for professional use and complex projects.

Input/Output:

While Switch doesn’t have the longest list of compatible formats, it’s no slacker either. This program can handle 32 different audio formats. It's simple to convert MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, FLAC, OGG and more.

One of the most impressive things about Switch is the number of output formats that the program supports. In addition to the common formats, such as MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC and OGG, Switch also supports less common formats, like AU, RAW, AIFF, GSM and MP2. Switch can convert to a total of 19 formats in all. This makes Switch perfect for special cases when you want more than a simple MP3 converter.

Ease of Use:

Switch is very simple to use. Conversions can be done in batches or singly by adding files to the menu and designating the destination for the new file. We also liked that the output options were close by instead of being buried in menus at the top of the screen like many programs do.
One of the best features in Switch is the ability to configure the right-click option on your mouse to perform specific functions. This hotkey function makes it quick and easy to convert files from the File Explorer window or do other tasks with a single click.

Help/Support:

Switch has some of the most comprehensive FAQs and manuals of any product we reviewed. It was really nice to be able to find answers without talking to customer service reps. But if you do have bigger problems, NCH Swift Sound provides email support and user forums.

Summary:

Switch Plus has all the functionality and compatibility you’ll ever need, and it’s one of the cheapest programs of the bunch. It’s easily the best buy in audio converters. Read Full...

Review Steinberg Nuendo 4

What shape is your business in? Has it traced the arc of the wider economy and spiraled down? Or have you taken these unsteady times as an opportunity to develop new relationships with clients who may not have considered working with you in the past? If you're an audio post pro working out of a project studio, you may feel that you have little in common with major industry players. If so, you might be surprised to find that some of the most well-known mix-to-pic engineers in the industry are taking advantage of relatively inexpensive tools (such as Steinberg Nuendo 4, which we're about to take a look at), shedding overhead, and operating out of their home studios just as you do. So for smaller shops, this economic downturn might be the perfect time to start thinking bigger.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when guys such as John Ross and Nelson Funk were setting up shop, audio post was a pay-to-play industry. Workstations that cost less than 100 grand were unheard of. Digidesign Pro Tools changed all that, of course, and then came host-based DAWs such as Nuendo. Now in its fourth release, Nuendo is a fully mature product capable of handling any assignment you're likely to throw at it.

If you've used earlier versions, Nuendo 4 will seem familiar out of the box. Installation on either a Mac or Windows machine is straightforward, and the authorization process — which uses Steinberg's properietary dongle — is painless. In the past, users complained about the blurry line seperating Nuendo from Cubase; Nuendo was often seen simply as a more expensive version of the musical workstation, and the distinctions between the two were not as clear as they might have been. Steinberg has addressed this criticism by stripping out some of the extras and offering Nuendo 4 as an audio post application that includes basic MIDI record/playback options for $200 less than the street price of Nuendo 3, with the Nuendo Expansion Kit as an add-on. The Expansion Kit fills in the gaps by providing the musician/audio post engineer just about everything Cubase 4 offers, including its highly usable set of VST instruments, drum editor, and the surprisingly high-quality score-preparation tool.

Every popular digital audio workstation has the capability to play video files. Nuendo 4 can handle QuickTime movies on both the Mac and PC, and DirectShow and DirectX Video on Windows machines only. A variety of codecs, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and WMV, are supported. But an audio post application designed to compete with high-end professional systems must also be able to synchronize external playback devices, and Nuendo 4 shines in this area.

Take a look at the Project Synchronization setup page and you'll begin to see where Nuendo 4 opens up its stride and moves away from the pack. For starters, two 9-pin devices can be incorporated into your setup, and either one of them can be your timecode source. (Note: Connections to 9-pin machines use serial ports, which the latest generation of Mac computers lack. If you plan on using Nuendo 4 on one of these computers, you'll need to adapt one of your USB ports.) You can also choose from several other source options. Your system's internal clock, MIDI timecode (not worth considering in a pro setting), or your ASIO (audio stream input/output) interface can be designated as the master. You can also choose VST (Virtual Studio Technology) System Link as the source of timecode if you have set up multiple computers and use this networking option. If you're a musician who chooses to run VST instruments on a separate computer, for example, and stream its output into your main mixing computer, you'll need to spend a little time working out the latency issues. But once you've established your setup, you're good to go. If you've simply allocated a computer to handle convolution reverb or other effects, latency shouldn't be a problem.

Nuendo 4 handles surround-sound flexibly. Hit the Input tab and you'll see the options laid out. You can also choose to record 5.1 as six discrete mono inputs, which gives you greater flexibility in terms of processing and routing. Multiple surround formats, with a maximum of 12 loudspeaker outputs, are supported. Downmixing (from 5.1 to stereo, for example) is handled by using Mix-Convert, which offers presets for the common conversions. Read Full...