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Having taken a much needed break over the summer, our resident production expert James Trigo returns with a renewed purpose and an all-new edition of our popular music tech roundup.

Since its first release back in 2000, Propellerhead’s Reason has always been a bit of an outsider to the main DAWs on the market, with its ease of use and endless routing options there’s lots of reasons to get involved. In its latest release, Reason 8 attempts to improve the way you work by completely redesigning the interface, making it feel more like its rivals. There’s now a browser and search window, enabling you to drag-and-drop samples, loops and patches straight into the main window and new amp and speaker models for guitar and bass from software developers, Softube.

Available at the end of September, Reason 8 will cost ($449/€405) for the standard and ($129/€120) for the Essentials version, there are also upgrade options available so have a look over on their website for more info.

When it comes to audio repair and restoration iZotope continue to produce some of the best software products at this price point. Due out next month their RX software has been updated to version 4 with a raft of new tools including, RX connect, a new streamlined way for the software to work with your current DAW; Clip Gain, a non-destructive editing tool, and dialogue denoiser; a tool designed to reduce background noise from dialogue and vocals in real-time. The advanced version also has some unique features, such as Leveler and EQ match tools, both designed to match a tracks characteristics, be it the balance or sonic profile. Prices are yet to be confirmed so keep watch here.

Specialising in filters and EQs, Fabfilter have amassed a respectable range of high quality plug-ins to add shape and character to your sound. The latest release of their flagship EQ, the Pro-Q 2, has just undergone a major update. Retaining the high sound quality and slick looking interface of its predecessor, the Pro-Q 2 now has full screen mode, improved CPU optimization, and mid/side mode, to monitor the signals separately. Along side this is Natural Phase Processing, giving the EQ a more analogue feel and EQ matching, which in conjunction with being able to view other tracks through the analyser, gives you quite a powerful mixing tool. Another useful tool that’s finding it’s way onto other popular EQs is the addition of a piano roll display to quantize EQ frequencies to musical notes.

The Pro-Q 2 is available now for £124 in all the major plug-in formats – head here for more details.

In other news, the Hotly anticipated release of the Arp Odyssey from Korg is being pushed back to next year to make it even more awesome I’m sure. So keep your cash under the mattress for a bit longer.

“The original shipping schedule was September 2014. We are sorry for this delay especially since the extraordinary reaction to the initial Odyssey announcement. We are refining the Odyssey to make this product even better. We appreciate your understanding regarding this delay and thank you for your continued interest in the reissued Odyssey.”

http://www.korg.com/us/news/2014/0217/

James Trigo

James Trigo is an advocate for the craft of making a good tune. Whiling away the small hours with his head in a sequencer, if he's not making music he's listening to it, and then writing about it. Come say hello. Free free to contact James here: onetwotrigo@gmail.com