News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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The Roland SonicCell is one of those pieces of gear that has instant appeal from a mobile music viewpoint. It’s a well-endowed sound module with built-in USB audio interface and comes with a software editor. What’s particularly interesting about the software editor is the ability to create playlists which you can then transfer to a stock-standard USB memory stick. Connect that to the SonicCell and you have a standalone backing machine for performance. On the other side of the coin, use the SonicCell’s audio interface to record guitars, vocals or any instrument with standard audio outputs into your Mac.
Its main punch is as a sound module, with 896 patches plus 256 General MIDI 2 sounds. Add to that two bays for Roland SRX expansion bays and you can be carrying around a couple of thousand sounds in the palm of your hand.
Cakewalk’s Sonar LE is also bundled but it’s a Windows-only application. However, the SonicCell is compatible with Logic Pro 7.2 and Cubase 4. It’s not cheap at $1595.00 but its feature set and portability may make it a more than worthwhile investment for the gigging musician or home studio user with the need to expand their sound palette. Contact Roland Australia on 02 9982 8266.
wrote on March 12, 2008 10:07 PM
Dude, for that price it would want to to 10 in / 10 out, firewire, and clean up the studio after the partying is over. The ability to add effects to enhance the performer's experience, but only record the raw performance is neat, and probably an indicator of how well thought out the device is, but ... it does seem to be an input device only, not much output (stereo??) - which is what we need hardware for. Then it seems to want do the stuff that the computer normally does - synth patches, effects, audio recording. Sure hardware is better in some cases, but if it can't do 192/24, I don't see the point. Is this a paradigm shift or a miss-hit ? i guess Roland was ever-thus. Anybody on the forum using this on a day to day basis?
wrote on March 13, 2008 4:44 AM
I don't agree with Mac Rant... It is bang for buck - and they are selling like hot cakes! You can pick them up between $1200 & $1295 and primarily as a sound module alone, that is at the lower end of the market. The audio interface is an excellent touch and stereo is fine for 95% of market users (2 ch in and 2 out). I guess where the real benefits of these devices are is in a musician based environment... Ever walked in to the local RSL club and heard two random musicians playing to a backing track which sounds like it was from the 60's?? This is the market Roland were thinking about with the power to change those 60's sounding tracks to 2008 sounding tracks instantly. The on-board sounds are spectacular and its use as a midi file player far outweighs nearly all competition with the ability to play nearly all sound file types. Roland users in the states even claim to have this device reading their ipods instead of USB sticks... which is very cool! I bought one as a sound module, with its most affordable competitor coming in at $1195 (which is incidentally what I purchased it for). I got a useful audio interface and audio file player at the same time.
Native Instruments has released five Mac products, all compatible with Logic, Pro Tools and Cubase/Nuendo or any application that supports VST/Audio Units/RTAS.
David Holloway | Dec 10, 2007
You’ve probably heard the term “social networking” thrown about in the media, probably with the words MySpace or Facebook in the same sentence.
David Holloway | Nov 30, 2007
There’s been an end-of-year deluge of new music gear.
David Holloway | Dec 11, 2007
Online retailing giant Amazon.com launched its MP3 download service last September, but as of February 2008 customers trying out the new service are not coming at the expense of Apple’s iTunes Store. According to a new report from market research firm NPD, only ten percent of AmazonMP3 customers had previously purchased digital music from iTunes. iTunes recently claimed the top spot in the music retailer market, beating out retail megalith Wal-Mart. However, in February Amazon claimed the number two spot, just behind Apple in the number of a-la-carte music tracks downloaded by consumers in the US.
Jim Dalrymple | Apr 16, 2008
As I type these words, I am waiting for Apple's Developer Connection web site to ease up sufficiently for me to download the long-awaited Software Developer Kit for the iPhone (and iPod touch, just by the by). In a way, I hate developer-oriented announcements — "here's a really cool thing we're working on, and it's available now, and hoi polloi can have it in about six months". Actually, it's the six months I hate.
