Adobe recently announced that all of their Creative Suite software products, which includes luminaries like Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, will be moving to a subscription-only, download-only, butt-based business model. The good news is that you can get legitimate versions of all of these programs in a bundle for a paltry $50. The bad news is that your license expires after 30 days. You can no longer pay for an Adobe CS product once, and own it indefinitely. Going forward, they won’t even be called the Creative Suite any longer. Welcome to the Creative Butt, everyone, where it’s always butty with a chance for butts.
We Miss You, MCA
I’ve been writing for a long time. In fact, I started when I was just a little boy. I wrote my name. I wrote the word “cat.” As the years passed, I wrote more and more words.
Out of all of the words I’ve committed to the page, my favorite piece, by far, was the essay I wrote the day MCA passed away, entitled Close Encounters with Adam Yauch.
It’s been a year since the we lost Mr. Yauch, so I decided to mark the occasion by posting some Beastie-related stuff. Also, if you’re near Brooklyn today, you can take part in MCA Day. But, hurry up. It starts at 11AM.
Hands-On Review of the Ableton Push
I had the opportunity over the weekend to test drive the new Ableton Push, a hardware control surface with 64 velocity-sensitive, RGB-LED illuminated trigger pads, and a host of other controls and goodies.
First Thoughts on the New Zoom H6
At long last, Zoom has announced the follow up to their popular H4n Handy Recorder, the new H6. Recently, when I shared my opinion on the new Tascam DR-60D, the first thing I looked for was more than two XLR inputs, and unfortunately, I didn’t see them. You can’t see the four inputs on the Zoom H6 either (in the press photos—at least), but they are there. So that’s a good thing.
Keep Lazy, Cupcake-Munching Weekends Alive by Participating in Record Store Day 2013!
The town or city that you live in is only as good as its record stores. Seriously. If the place where you live doesn’t have a local, independently-owned record store or two, you should immediately pack up and move to some place that does. Now.
The Freefly MōVI M10: Embrace Dependent Filmmaking
A new kind of camera gimbal called the MōVI was introduced last week by a company called Freefly, and the basic idea is that it’s a handheld version of an external camera mount for a helicopter. Like a Steadicam system, the MōVI (pronounced Moe-Vee) makes it possible to create shots that glide fluidly, as if the camera was floating through the surroundings with a dreamlike flow.
While a Steadicam system is really awkward looking in person (a nerd version of Robocop wearing a goofy vest), the Freefly MōVI is majestic, hypnotic, with an almost impossibly futuristic mechanical grace: Continue reading “The Freefly MōVI M10: Embrace Dependent Filmmaking”
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera vs. Panasonic GH3
Today at NAB 2013, Blackmagic Design shocked the production world the second year in a row with the announcement of their new Pocket Cinema Camera. It packs much of the same punch as last year’s groundbreaking Blackmagic Cinema Camera, in a more compact form factor—at one third of the price.
Continue reading “Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera vs. Panasonic GH3”
First Impressions of the Tascam DR-60D
I just found out about the new Tascam DR-60D camera-mountable audio recorder. I read the description and specs thoroughly on Tascam’s website, and I figured I’d share my initial impressions with you. First of all, let me explain exactly what this thing is
Audio Test: Zoom H4n vs. Tascam DR-40
I recently published a post where I carefully explain the differences between the Zoom H4n and the Tascam DR-40, two competitively-priced portable digital recorders that both feature dual XLR inputs.
In this post, I compare the actual performance of these two models by testing the quality of their built-in mics, how well they perform with a phantom-powered external mic (a hyper cardioid Audio-Technica 4053b), and also how they sound when connecting directly to a camera using a Sescom attenuation cable Continue reading “Audio Test: Zoom H4n vs. Tascam DR-40”
Obituary for the GH2
Panasonic recently discontinued the Lumix DMC-GH2, a tiny, unassuming interchangeable lens camera that produced such remarkable images that it directly challenged some of the finest cameras ever made, and sometimes won.
The most defining moment for the GH2 occurred during Zacuto’s annual camera performance competition, called the Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012. When the participants blindly reviewed the footage from the tests, and were tasked with choosing their favorites, acclaimed film director Francis Ford Coppola picked a hacked GH2 over several high-end cinema cameras that were, to say the least, drastically more expensive. Continue reading “Obituary for the GH2”