Propellerhead Balance with Reason Essentials

Beat Production Gadgets we love here @ Lnmovement. Today we are reviewing Propellerhead Balance with Reason Essentials. R4.997

If you ask me which music production software do I find interesting as far as Add-on’s and features are concerned, Reason is ranked on my Top List. But today I am not focusing on the software site of things but more on its Propeller-head balance hardware. Enjoy reading the review.

2-in 2-out audio interface

Sounds as good as it looks. Works as great as it feels. You can concentrate on having fun: making music. With two channels of pristine audio recording, and with inputs for all your gear, your instruments are always connected and you are always ready to record. 

Integrated music recording environment

Balance is perfectly integrated with Reason and Reason Essentials. With Clip Safe you'll never lose a good take to distortion again. Big Meter lets you tune your guitar and set the levels from across the room. Use it with Propeller-head Balance software, other pro audio apps, or even iTunes™ — Balance works with everything. 

If you are a Dj/Musician, you can join my face-book group page dedicated to artists WORLDWIDE. www.facebook.com/groups/Lnftmovement

Reason Essentials

Reason Essentials packs all the recording, editing, effects, instruments, and mixing tools you need to sound great. With its generous sound bank and familiar creative flow, it's the software that lets you focus on the music and finish that song. Need more? Upgrade to Reason for even more instruments, sounds, and effects. 

Philosophy of Balance

Propeller-head is well known for its software, but Balance was this company’s very first hardware product. Since this was their first piece of hardware, the company made sure that they make a statement and establish themselves as a premium hardware manufacturer. To do this, they hired some of the best engineering and industrial design consultants in the world to help them realize their high expectations. Every aspect of music making was scrutinized, from user work-flows, to product’s shape, sound quality, and even the feel of the knobs and surface finish of the product. 

Here are some notable technical details:

Stepped gain knobs-When you turn Balance knobs on, there are 21 separate “steps.” This type of stepped knob is commonly found in the high-end equipment used by mastering engineers and is really handy when you need precise recall of settings. For example, if you open an old session to re-record a part, you can set your gain levels to exactly what you had in the previous session. This ensures perfect consistency in your sound. Stepped knobs are more expensive than standard (smooth) ones.    

Quality preamplifier's-One of the most important parts of an audio interface is its preamplifier's. Preamplifier's boost faint signals from microphones, instruments (guitars, basses), and line-level sources (synthesizers, drum machines, etc) so that they can be converted into digital audio and sent to your computer to be recorded.

For Balance, the company choose to use preamplifier's from highly respected manufacturer Texas Instruments (TI). TI makes many classes of preamplifier chips and they opted to use their premium “TLC” line. This high-performance, low-noise chips are used in situations where high precision is a must (for example, professional test and measurement equipment).

The signal path extremely “clean” since it is easy to add “color” to your signals (using Rack Extensions, for example) but it is not possible to remove it. This way, you can decide to leave your recordings clean and crystal clear or full of color and harmonic richness.

Balance in a Nutshell-While Balance looks very futuristic and employs the latest advancements in technology, in many ways, it’s actually a very old-school product: It sounds great because the company hired world class engineers, used high quality parts, and did not cut any corners to save costs.

Follow me here: 

https://twitter.com/Lnconcepts

www.pinterest.com/lnconcepts

https://www.facebook.com/Lnconcepts

Technical specifications

• 2-in by 2-out audio interface
• USB 2.0-bus powered
• Hi-end pre-amplifiers
• Hi-end 24-bit ADC/DACs, 44.1 to 96kHz
• Low latency design
• Clip Safe-Never again a lost take because of inadequate level settings. The “built-in recording engineer” watches over your session and automatically heals any clipped recordings.
• Works with any audio software. Mac OS class compliant (no driver on Mac OS). ASIO drivers for Windows available from the download page on the company's web-page. 
• Built-in Propeller-head Ignition Key
• Direct monitoring (for stand-alone or DAW use)
• Hardware input source selection
• Input level control
• Separate output and headphone level control
• Output muting
• Two XLR microphone inputs with 48V phantom power
• Two 1/4” guitar inputs with padding
• Four 1/4” balanced line inputs (two stereo pairs)
• One 1/4” headphone output
• Two 1/4” TRS balanced main outputs
• Dimensions:

Length: 192 mm

Width: 130 mm

Height: 70 mm

Weight: 569 grams

System Requirements

Minimum system requirements for Balance audio interface and Reason Essentials software.

Mac OS X

Intel Mac with dual core processor

4 GB RAM

DVD drive

Mac OS X 10.7 or later

3 GB free hard disk space (program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space)

A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended

Free USB 2.0 port

Internet connection for registration

Windows

Intel or AMD processor with dual cores

4 GB RAM

DVD drive

Windows 7 or later

3 GB free hard disk space (program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space)

A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended

Free USB 2.0 port
Internet connection for registration

Name: Lesego Cruzemania Mokobodi

My track list for this week:

1 Jeff.Brandshaw-N.O Groove
2 Ralf Gum ft Monique Bingham-Take me to my love(The Bingham bigga experience)
3 The Layders-Loving you
4 James Blake-Wilhems Scream(Deep journey mix)
5 60Hertz Project-Impact soul(main break-beat mix)

This track selection can be classified as down-tempo/lounge as its properly known and if you the coop typa house head who lets the music take over them then these tunes will highly contribute on that.

Name: Lebron

My track list for this week: 

Caption for this week's selection: What is house music??? This is how House MusiQ tastes like

1. Jouem-Radiance
2. The Groovers-Devotion
3. Gabbana Da Deejay-Desire
4. 6th borough project-The Callback
5. Urulu-These Days

Group name: Regger Soul

Our track list for this week:

1. No Matter by Bluesoil , Diana Waite

2. Outta Sight by Dj Christos , Monique Bingham
3. Nomperere by Dj Tea , M.S.K . DAVE
4. A Star Supreme by Dolls Combers, Kafela Bandela
5. Wake up by Regger Soul