Maschine has easily become one of my must have pieces of gear in the studio. The merger of hardware and software into one easy to use package, is ideal for anyone producing modern music. I’ve used Maschine for just about anything from country to dubstep and it never lets me down. Now Native Instruments have added a new package to the arsenal with Dark Pressure. This caters to the all too popular electronic element in music today, giving you all the one shots needed to make the next hit that will ultimately knock Ke$ha off the charts and back to waiting tables in Encino.

DARK PRESSURE brings the sound of tough underground dance music to your MASCHINE or MASCHINE MIKRO.

Huge sub-heavy kicks, chunky toms, sharp hi-hats, crisp percussion, warm bass tones and crystallized lead synth sounds – all processed with analog gear and MASCHINE’s internal FX – provide the building blocks for muscular techno, tech-house, and minimal tracks worthy of the world’s most respected clubs.

Created in association with globetrotting DJ/Producer Steve Lawler and leading sound designers from Loopmasters, this Expansion delivers club-ready punch for maximum dancefloor response.

DARK PRESSURE is available now in the NI Online Shop for just $59 / 49 €, and if you own iMASCHINE, you can get a smaller version of DARK PRESSURE for only $0.99 / 0.79 € directly from the in-app store.
For more info, click HERE

We all wish we could make Mashups like Girl Talk and other names I don’t remember right now. The only problem is usually, it’s extremely hard to do it right. Well until Mixed In Key released Mashup. This software does all of the work for you. No need to spend hours in Ableton trying to match everything perfectly. Simply drag two files in and get going. Also… it’s very cost effective at only $39.00. That’s a steal for software that lets you get all of the glory for awesome music. Just don’t put any Ke$ha in there… for my sake.

Mixed In Key has released Mashup for Windows and Mac OS X, a new software application that lets you quickly and easily beatmatch two or more audio files, edit them, and save your results to a new audio file. Mashup uses Mixed In Key 5’s harmonic algorithm to find compatible songs, and makes the process of mashup creation incredibly easy. “Our goal was to design software that could help you create a mashup in five minutes or less,” says Mixed In Key’s president Yakov Vorobyev. “We think that mashup creation should be easier than it is with Ableton Live.”

Mashup’s user interface is streamlined and intuitive. Import songs into Mashup, and it will analyze them for key and tempo. Next, drag a song into Mashup’s ultra-fast audio editor, and its tempo will become the master for the project. If you’d prefer, you can manually enter in a different master tempo. As soon as one song is added, the song browser will show you which other songs in your collection are 100% harmonically compatible with your original song. Then drag other songs into the editor window, and they’re automatically beat-matched to the master tempo, using Mashup’s professional time-stretching algorithm.

Now you can start editing. Mashup lets you graphically edit each song’s volume, as well as three bands of EQ, all with breakpoint-style automation. The editor also lets you select and silence portions of songs, adjust phase, slide them in time, and more. When you’re done editing, you can export the result to a 320kbps MP3 file or a 16-bit, 44.1kHz WAV file.
If you already use Mixed In Key 5, Mashup will load its database and will skip the analysis step. Mashup and Mixed In Key 5 work flawlessly with each other.

Mashup is available for $39 and comes with free updates until Version 2.99
For more information, click HERE