Flavor of the Week: Indaba Music Session Console 2.0 Online Recording Software
It’s been a bit of a languid summer for the world of music gear, as the modest showing at Summer NAMM 2009 will attest. While promises of a resurgence for new audio production goodies (and for the overall economic recovery) linger on the edges our consciousnesses, those hopes generally stay reserved for later in the fall or winter of this year.
Apple Logic Studio
Perhaps New York’s own 127th AES Convention, Oct. 9-12 at the Javits Center will be the bellwether for more exciting times for gear geeks. For now, however, the last month has been pretty thin. Looking back at it, Apple’s new Logic Studio, featuring Logic Pro 9, Soundtrack Pro 3 and Mainstage 2 seems like the obvious choice as the highlight. Each of those major updates includes an impressive array of new features, and the package still includes a giant collection of plug-ins, utilities and audio material at the same price of $499.
Extending the parallel between the music technology market and the larger economy, Logic Studio comes from a rare company whose profits and stock price are up this year, so what better flagship to lead the smooth sailing back to music gear Shangri-La? Well, for me, this economic trough presents a unique opportunity to transform business-as-usual in every way. After all, we’re nearly into the second decade of the 21st century, and lusting after gargantuan software packages that force us to eat pasta for two months and come in manual-filled boxes weighing twice as much as your laptop feels just a little old-fashioned.
In many other areas of our lives, innovative net apps are already affecting how we do everyday tasks, and for once, I’d like to see the music production community get in on the ground floor (or at least the mezzanine). That’s why I owe this past month’s best buzz to Indaba Music Session Console 2.0, a different kind of DAW that you never have to pay for or even download.
Indaba Session Console 2.0
For those who aren’t familiar with Indaba Music, it’s a music-collaboration/remixing site where users can meet to work on and/or remix other users’ music with Indaba’s online tools or any offline third-party tools and then share that music with the community. Creative Commons licenses are encouraged to promote sharing and collaboration, and Indaba frequently holds remixing/mixing/production contest featuring signed artists, such as the current contest with Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo.
While Indaba Music is not the first start-up of it’s kind, it’s JavaFX-powered Session Console 2.0 takes some big steps forward for music production net apps and feels the most approachable both for experienced computer musicians and noobs.
With Session Console 2.0, you can record 16-bit audio files straight into the online session, use real-time effects, perform non-destructive edits, mix tracks and use Indaba’s royalty-free loops library. Of course none of that in itself is remarkable, but the fact that you do it all online without having to download, install or save any files on your own machine changes the game. Somewhat ironically, the Session Console interface looks inspired by Apple Garageband and Logic, which worries me a bit in the “sue-first, ask questions later” climate that still persists. But that means that it’s instantly familiar to use for millions of Mac and DAW users, as well as being user-friendly for beginners.
Besides taking advantage of Web 2.0’s social networking and Web 3.0’s net apps, Indaba Music has also latched onto the proven “freemium” business model (check out Chris Anderson’s free ebook “Free”), which means that you don’t pay a dime for Session Console 2.0 or to use Indaba’s site on a casual basis. Indaba’s free basic account gives you five online sessions and 100MB of storage, with two higher tiers of paid membership available for a monthly or discounted yearly fee.
So, call me a hypocrite — or at least old fashioned — but if I enter one of Indaba’s contests, I’m still going to download the files and load them up in Logic Pro, Ableton Live or Pro Tools; I’m personally just too stubborn not to have every feature I’m used to at my fingertips, and Session Console 2.0 leaves a lot of functionality to be desired for experienced DAW users… at least for now. In a couple of years, however, we may think of buying and installing huge DAW packages as something that’s sooooo 2000’s.