Deals On Gear and Software

[ken]

Audio-Technica ATH-M50S Pro Studio Headphones $79.95 Free Shipping

Rakuten.com (via Zeemo) has the Audio-Technica ATH-M50S Professional Closed-Back Studio Headphones for a low $79.95 Free Shipping after Coupon Code: "ATHM50" (Exp 2/8). Tax in CA, CT, IL, MA, NY, TN, WA.

http://www.rakuten.com/prod/audio-techn ... s5Ekr9eEBk&&

[ken]

Audio-Technica ATH-M45 Studio Monitor Headphones for $50 today on MF. They sure look spiffy in white.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid/

[fluffy]

That is an excellent model of headphone, or at least the black ones i have are. Insert joke about it 'coloring the sound.'

[Caravan Ray]

Does the ad say "as used by Caravan Ray"? It should. Because they are.

[ken]

Seems like a lot of people often ask about drum software. Today's deal seems like a good one if you need a fake drummer for your band:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid/

Sonivox Big Bang Universal Drums Software $40

SONiVOX Big Bang is the virtual drum Instrument that anyone can play! - Big Bang Universal Drums melds an amazing sounding and deeply sampled custom built drum kit with SONiVOX's revolutionary new Intelligent Rhythm Control (I.R.C.) technology.

[Billy's Little Trip]

if you need a fake drummer for your band

F**k YOU, STICK WHORE!


....but yeah, looks like a good deal, thank you.

[ken]

No excuses, SDOTD is a $50 USB 2.0 interface from Tascam. If you are recording yourself in any other way than by using an actual audio interface, buy this now!

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid/

TASCAM US-144MKII USB 2.0 4-channel Audio/MIDI Interface


Features

Provides four audio inputs and four audio outputs (two analog, two digital) for a Windows or Macintosh computer
Two XLR mic inputs
Switchable phantom power (48 volt)
High-quality, low-noise mic preamps
Two analog line inputs (one switchable to high impedance for use with guitars, basses, etc.)
Stereo digital audio input and output (input: SPDIF, output: selectable SPDIF or AES/EBU)
MIDI input, MIDI output
Up to 96-kHz/24-bit for high quality recordings
Zero-latency hardware monitoring with level control and mono switch
Separate controls for output level and headphones volume
USB 2.0 equipped (also supports USB 1.1)
USB-powered, no AC adapter required
Solid aluminum side panels
Cubase LE4 included

[Paco Del Stinko]

Too late. They're all gone. Now I can NEVER record on my computer! But yeah, sold out.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Too late. They're all gone. Now I can NEVER record on my computer! But yeah, sold out.

So you're going to make the jump to DAWin' it, eh? Friggin rights, buddy. If you go with Cubase, I can be of a lot of help. I think I've got that software figured out top to bottom and all the things it's not intended to do as well.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Not necessarily. That just looked like a great deal on a tool that would probably be good to have. I love my big 'ol Roland. If and when I do make the jump, fear not: I will be crying for help. Lots of it, I'm sure.

[Lunkhead]

Hey everybody recording on their iPads, this looks like a really good deal on an audio interface:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid/

$40 for TASCAM’s iUR2, a two-channel interface with two mic inputs, a line input for recording electric guitar and bass direct, phantom power in case you want to use condenser mics, zero latency direct input monitoring (meaning you hear your signal live, before it goes through the computer), and sounds like it supports MIDI too possibly by a converter cable (which I guess is included?). Combine this with an iPad and GarageBand and a cheap condenser mic and you'd be good to go. It'd be a big step up over using the mic built in to your iPad. This interface also works on Macs and PCs too so you'd be able to step up to recording on your computer instead if you wanted to. The quality that it digitizes the audio at is not so great, but plenty good enough for Song Fight!

Only $40!

[ken]

$40 for TASCAM’s iUR2

$40 is dirt cheap for an interface that works on any computer AND iProducts.

However, I have to say, that I am pretty down on Tascam interfaces right now. I feel like Tascam tends not to support their legacy products and this becomes a problem for most people. A lot of people saw this with the Tascam FireOne and are now seeing it with the US-800. I think this is particularly dangerous because Tascam tends to blow out their soon to be obsolete products and therefore it seems like such a great deal at the time. Then a year later or so you can't even use the damn thing any more.

This is just something to consider. Again, I agree that $40 for an interface you can use on so many devices is a steal, but you may only get to use it for a year or so. I think in this case, you get what you pay for.

Ken

[Lunkhead]

Good point. Apparently iOS 7 compatibility with that interface is still an open question, according to Tascam. They have not said it is or is not compatible, they're still determining that. Since it's been a while since iOS 7 came out, odds are they are not going to make a determination. So I guess you are taking a chance buying this if you have iOS 7. Doh.

My FireOne though has been working just fine for many years, although, due to lack of driver updates, the transport controls on it stopped working properly. I had to manually configure a mapping between them and the proper Cubase functions. I couldn't get the jog-wheel stuff to work the same as before though. But it's still a functional audio interface.

[fluffy]

Yep, I followed a similar trajectory with Tascam stuff. The US-224 was great while it worked, but it got harder and harder to find the crazy-weird driver to make it functional, and then at one point the DACs failed, turning it into a semi-useless brick (although the ADCs and S/PDIF output still worked).

Then later on, I got a US-800 which was great for the two weeks that it worked on my computer before I upgraded the OS. Also I never did get it to work reliably on my laptop, which was frustrating since it was primarily the laptop for which I got it...

These days I'm quite happy with my Presonus devices. FireStudio Project at home, Inspire 1394 on the go. Downside is they're Firewire-only, so you'll need to either get a FireWire card on a PC or a Thunderbolt-to-FireWire adapter on a newer Mac. But they've worked for years and Presonus still supports them with new drivers, and whenever a new OSX release comes out they work like crazy to ensure compatibility as quickly as they can.

[Lunkhead]

Aside from an outright hardware failure, driver issues shouldn't be a big deal at least on the Mac side of things, as you don't really even need a specific driver to be able to use a USB audio interface.

[fluffy]

Except for when you do.

Like with Tascam products, because they don't use class-compliant audio hardware.

[Lunkhead]

I see. Well, bollocks. It's so cheap though!

EDIT: It doesn't say it's class compliant, true. Does compatibility with CoreAudio/CoreMIDI mean anything? It looks they don't offer any kind of driver for it.

[fluffy]

As far as I can tell, "CoreAudio compatible" just means that with drivers it'll work with CoreAudio, just like everything else on OSX.

The MIDI part MIGHT be fine without a driver but I don't care about that. When I'm recording on the go I'm doing audio-only, or hooking up a portable MIDI controller that provides its own USB interface.

EDIT: Another thing to notice is that it only supports 30-pin iOS devices, and given the way the Lightning to 30-pin adapters work I seriously doubt that you could keep on using it with a newer iOS device (iPhone 5, iPad Air, etc.)

[Lunkhead]

Huh, weird. I can't find any trace of a driver, current or outdated or otherwise. If I had an iPad I'd be tempted to get it just to see. Oh well, buyer beware I suppose.

For what little it's worth, my FireOne is still just working just fine for me after many years and OS upgrades.

[fluffy]

Note that the FireOne is a FireWire device, and FireWire is generally easier to support multi-channel audio on without drivers. USB does have multi-channel audio support now but IIRC it's kind of limited, which I think is why Tascam always opts to just make their own driver instead.

[Lunkhead]

This seems to me like a pretty good deal, but correct me if I'm wrong:

http://www.hellomusic.com/items/ur44

It's the Steinberg UR-44 audio interface (aka "sound card") for $249 ($50 less than at e.g. Sweetwater). You have to create a Hello World account to buy it I think, but they occasionally have some pretty great deals so I think it's worth it to sign up.

Specs:
- up to 24-bit/192kHz D/A conversion
- 4 front combo XLR+1/14" inputs, with phantom power and supposedly nice preamps ("D Pre"?)
- inputs 1/2 can take guitar/bass direct signals, 3/4 can take line level like keyboards etc.
- two more line level 1/4" inputs on the back
- gain and phantom power controls on the front and clipping lights for each input
- two headphone outs on the front with separate level knobs, and you can route different mixes to each out
- master level knob on the front
- 3 pairs of 1/4" outputs on the back, to which you can route different mixes
- MIDI in/out
- USB 2.0
- compatible with iOS DAWs e.g. Cubasis for iOS, GarageBand, etc.
- zero-latency monitoring
- on board DSP for zero-latency monitoring WITH effects
- a small DSP powered VST plug-in sweet including a channel strip, reverb, and amp simulators
- more features accessible via the driver such as software phase reverse, low cut, level settings
- direct integration with Cubase
- comes with Cubase AI

Seems like a lot of functionality for $249, especially for folks who are using Cubase already or who are interested in using it, and especially with the DSP features.

[JonPorobil]

Looks like at least a few people agreed that it was a good deal; it sold out!