Beatscape, a plug-in introduced with Cakewalk SONAR 8 Producer Edition, gives you a way to manipulate loops and samples using a non-threatening interface. The process is simple: you map samples to its 16 onscreen pads and trigger them with MIDI notes. To get the most out of Beatscape, check out the cool tutorial from Electronic Musician, available on emusician.com. Brian Smithers has been around the block with SONAR and other DAWs, and his friendly, easygoing approach makes for a happy learning experience.

If you haven’t already noticed, most of the recording/electronic music/keyboard/etc. magazines have withered away during the economic, uh, drought. Advertisers are abandoning, or cutting back on, print media, which leaves publishers with a starvation budget that’s reflected in a noticeable dropoff in editorial content. So we see recycled articles, content that’s traded back and forth between sister publications, and attempts to steer readers to websites.
But Sound on Sound has stuck to its guns, offering loads of practical information, how-to guides, dissections of classic tracks, and more, all wrapped up in …

One notable no-show at this year’s Summer NAMM in Nashville was Roland. Normally they fill a space the size of a good-sized house with a feast of new products and a cacophony of product demos (somebody please – release Johnny Rabb from his drum cage!). But that doesn’t mean that there’s no new gear to talk about. The just-released JUNO-Di, a scaled-down, battery-powered version of the JUNO-D, is now shipping. So is the Boss FRV-1, a stompbox that mimics the sound of a Fender spring reverb. But wait, there’s more …

Many plug-in VI creators (and convolution reverb makers) still follow the annoying habit of, during the install process, loading sample content on the same drive as the application – not the best practice when performance and reliability are being tested by your DAW software. Usually you have to jump through several hoops to get the samples relocated to a dedicated audio drive. But sometimes you get a little help, as is the case with Toontrack’s EZ Drummer. It includes a utility (found in Applications > Toontrack) called “Sound Mover” …

Logic 9 has been out for a few weeks now, but some previous-generation users have been hesitant about upgrading. Does Apple’s claim that the new Logic includes “over 200 new features” pass the sniff test? And if it does, do we really need all 200?
The answer to the first question might depend on what your interpretation of “feature” is. The second answer is probably “No,” but there are some significant improvements to workflow that just about any Logic user will appreciate. But hey, don’t take my word for it! The …