New entry at studios, Ddrum DRT triggers and Alesis I/O.

Review incoming very soon!

;-) stay tuned

Dark Label Studio - Guitar Rig 5 - Amon Amarth cover ''The War Of Gods''

Guitar Rig 5 PRO

Who said only the analog equipment can give good results? For sure it has a singular warmness and definition, but we are in the digital era, where the emulations are becoming always more and more similar to the original sources. We are introducing the new guitar\bass plugin: Guitar Rig 5.

Native Instruments have been pretty quite when it comes to Guitar Rig since the release of version 4 2 years ago with only a minor update along the way but just as I thought NI had forgotten about us amp modelling loving guitarists they announce Guitar Rig 5 Pro which comes loaded with a couple of stunning new amps and cabinets and a huge update to the Control Room.

The Amps

The two amp additions to an already versatile collection are the VAN 51 (based on the Peavey 5150) and the Hot Solo+ (based on the Soldano Hot Rod 50 Plus). Both of these as you probably know are high gain amps which Guitar Rig 4 was lacking a little with the majority of amp models based on Plexi’s and classic Fender amps so this comes as a welcome addition to the Gratifier (Mesa Dual Rectifier style amp) and the Ultrasonic (Bogner Uberschall).

With amp emulation getting better and better with every release Native Instruments are helping guitarists all around the world get exactly the tones they want without having to spend thousands on amps, effects, speakers and mics and make recording a simple and speedy process.

Review

Sound: 8\10  -  Compatibility: 9\10  -  CPU usage: 8\10  -  Price: 8\10 

This is a demo song to show what we were able to took out from those two plugins; It's from Amon Amarth and it's called ''War of the Gods'', from their last album.

We tried to reach a good digital emulation of this awesome full analog release, to check the Guitar Rig 5 quality. Drums are from Addictive Drums Metal (a very close review of it in the next posts).

The gear used:

- Guitar: Musicman JP6 (baritone tuning)

- Guitar Rig: Dark Label Studio custom preset (available to download, contact us for a free copy of it)

- Addictive Drums + Metal expansion

- Bass: direct

- Voice: MXL V69 Mogami edition [recorded in a shitty room :) ]

Enjoy.

Working with LaVentunesimaFobia in studio: Mastering session

Currently we are working with some bands and this took us some time in the 24 daylight hours and sometimes at night too.

The works are now finalized and in the next posts we will upload some preview tracks from the new upcoming EP\Albums recorded.

We have also some new hardware\software reviews .. so stay tuned with our site and the spicy news won't be late to come!

Eleven Rack Presets

Due to the HUGE amount of requests here are the images of the presets used in our Eleven Rack Metal TEST available on our YouTube channel.

Please note that in this pack there are the main settings for each type of amps used in the video and the EQ, COMP and Cabinet settings are the same for all.

The Cab used is the 4x12 Classic 30 and a Ribbon 121 on axis microphone.

IMPORTANT:
It is VERY important to have the device updated with the latest firmware version (Expansion Pack, can be bought in the Avid official site).

Just ask if you need help.
Enjoy

darklabelstudio@gmail.com

Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?b1tj24qb8qmcecu

Dark Label Studio - Avid Eleven Rack - Review

Avid’s Eleven Rack is a 24bit, 96k USB Pro Tools interface that is as comfortable on the concert stage as it is in the studio. The user-friendly interface makes accessing and modifying the healthy sampling of amp, effect, speaker and mic models refreshingly intuitive. 


Eleven Rack also functions as a mic pre-amp with phantom power for tracking vocals or re-amping. As much as we loved the lush effects, Eleven Rack really shines when you hear a model like a channel-jumped ’59 Fender Bassman completely dry o a Mesa Rectifier in Vintage or Modern mode.


There are a lot of amps and cabinets in this rack, but to reach the best quality it's better to update the unit with its latest firmware version because it comes out with a lot of news that makes the 11r more and more affordable and professional-sounding.


To update your Eleven Rack go to the Avid Official page and use the search bar.


So, at the end we can give a BIG 10\10 to this Avid\Digidesign product, because of its great features and the sound quality.
The Avid customer support is wonderful, so if a problem occurs with the 11r it can be solved easily and fast.

Eleven Rack is:

FOR: Racking up a killer guitar tone. 

NOT FOR: The modeling-phobic.


Great unit, good looking case, great tone, billion of functions, good effects, guitar and bass amps\cabs\mics, a mic in preamp for the voice recording, DSP accelerated card inside, Pro Tools compatible, the Eleven Rack is an awesome product with professional features.

Dark Label Studio - Sonic Edge Tumbleweed TEST

Renowned for his amp work for the likes of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, Sonic Edge’s Ben Fargen also makes one mean pedal. Built with the modern rocking country player in mind, Tumbleweed blew us away with the massive range of dynamics and tones. The independent compressor and boost circuits sound impressive alone and even better together. The compressor’s sensitivity and gain controls offer solid sustain without being floppy, while the boost circuit features a gain control and three-way toggle for selecting Brit, Cali or Jazz voicings. While the Tumbleweed has a sound all its own, it excels at crafting a unique range of tones with each amp.


FOR: Twang with a bang. 
NOT FOR: Death metallers, city slickers.


We made, as always, a little demo, but this time you can only hear the raw guitars in the audio file. No EQ, No Post Processing. 
Sidechain: Music Man JP6 - Sonic Edge Tumbleweed - Dark Label Studio Custom Mesa Rectifier Cab impulse  - out. 


Enjoy.



Dark Label Studio - Sonic Edge Tumbleweed TEST by Azrael's Progeny

Dark Label Studio - Ampkit for iPad

Here we are. For those who have any Apple device such as iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, Agile Partners has made a software for guitarists that reproduces many kind of amps and effects.

Ampkit comes with an easy-approaching interface that allows to save thousands of user's presets and you can also add gear by buying it directly from the web store integrated in the app. You have the possibility to record sessions and change the sound in every moment by the re-amp feature. Sessions can be easily exported in the PC\Mac using a host connection or sending\sharing it in other places in the network.

Let's talk about the main part of this app: the TONE.

We bought many amps like the Mesa Boogie Rectifier, The Bogner Uber, Marshall JCM900, Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Budda SD30, Peavey 6505+, Valveking etc from the Ampkit store, and each of those amps has its gain texture and an awesome dual-stage level of preamplification.

There is a great microphone simulation that emulates the best main microphones available on the market: Shure SM57, Shure SM58, Sennheiser MD421, Neumann U87, AKG414, Royer 121 and much more.

The tecnique used in the speaker simulation is the convultion-based one, which is used by the other major PC\Mac'softwares like Amplitube, Guitar Rig and others and it reproduces wery well real cabinets and guitar speakers.

The reproduction of the real amps' characters is really impressive, even considering we're talking about an app that is even available for a mobile phone (iPhone 3GS\4); An example this, to say that 5 years ago no one could said he could have been playing guitar with its phone!

This extraordinary app has the official license from many of the main manufacturers in the music contest and more and more amps and gear are coming soon. So.. we can only wait what's behind the door and, for now, have a big taste of it.

Dark Label Studio Review:

Interface:      4,5 \ 5

Ease of use:    5  \ 5

Gear\Store:   4,5  \ 5

Sound:          4,8 \ 5

Support:          5 \ 5

+

Sounds awesome, it's possible to create 1000+ configuration for any kind of music, GUI, stability, support (we contacted them asking some things about new releases and other, and they answered fast and very gently).

-

Sometimes there is too many feedback and Larsen' effect. When positioning the microphone off axis the volume decreases too many and the sound becomes too fat.

CONCLUSIONS:

This app is totally awesome. We think Ampkit beats off any other software in the market and this app will become a point of reference for all musicians and it will grow with next releases and updates, which surely can't wait to arrive. Great work guys!

We made a short clip to demonstrate how it sounds in a full mix.

The track isn't mixed or mastered and no post processing effects on it.
Feel free to contact us.

Enjoy.

Dark Label Studio - Ampkit app review (iPhone-iPad) by Azrael's Progeny