Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope this past year has been a good one for you and yours... Since this is the time of year where people reflect, I thought I'd make a list of tops for me this year:

1. Reason 6 - The Props bring it all together in one straight forward package of music making software.

2. Reaktor Razor Ensemble - Finally someone creates an additive synthesizer that's easy to navigate. While Razor can certainly do the Wob Wob sounds used in it's ad, I really love it for leads and sub basses. Nice one Native Instruments and Errorsmith!

3. Robot Koch's The Other Side - This album has been the soundtrack to my Fall and Winter. Buy it now!

4. Nucleus SoundLab Pantheon III - Yes I worked on this refill, and while I'm proud of my own sound design on P3 what keeps me coming back to it is the quality of work by everyone involved in the project. And if you haven't picked this up yet, you have until January 7th, 2012 to qualify for the 30% discount ;-).

5. Moog Slim Phatty - While the Slim Phatty was released at the end of 2010 I didn't get my paws on one until the local big box store had a model on display this year. Lovely analog oscillators and a smooth Moog Low Pass Filter - what's not to love? Seeing as I have $800 set aside for one, expect this on my 2012 list as well ;-).

6. Novation Impulse 49 Key Model - Leave it to Novation to create a 49 key midi controller that finally breaks the $399 (USD) barrier while still retaining quality keys. Don't get me wrong, I won't be trading my SL MKii in for one any time soon (the faders on the SL are much much better), but for those in need of a new controller on the cheap it's a no brainer!

7. Tom Pritchard Sound Design - Mr. Tom Pritchard has long been one of my sound design heroes. His patches have a playability that I think a lot of other designers miss and his 2011 foray into commercial sound design with the Tom Pritchard Sound Design moniker couldn't please me more. Read my review of FatBank for more information.

8. Apparat's Devil's Walk - Two years in the making, Apparat's Devil's Walk album melds electronica with rock and pop into a polished lp perfect for long winter strolls in the snow. With the help of Joshua Eustis (of Telafon Tel Aviv) and friend Fredo Noguerira, it's no wonder this album is so fantastic.

9. Sonic Couture's Broken Wurli - The Wurlizter 200a has long been my favorite electric piano and Sonic Couture's Broken Wurli for Kontakt (and Kontakt Player) captures the magic of that sound for those of us without the space for one. This library was recorded with a 200a borrowed from Neil Davidge, producer for Massive Attack, who describes the piano as having "a dodgy distorting speaker that sounds great.”


10. Miles Davis Live In Europe 1967 - The first in a series of bootleg releases from Sony, Live in Europe 1967 captures the second legendary Miles Davis Quartet in fine form on 2 CDs and a DVD. A sort of missing link between Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew, Live in Europe is a must have for jazz afficionados!

Special Mentions: 2011 has been a great year to be a Reason user, with a slew of new refills at Rackflip.com (I'm currently eyeing Floe and Missing Pieces OctoPulse Thor) as well as a new refill from legendary Reason user Ed Bauman with EditEd's 88mph Vol.1, plus a number of great new refills from Harald Karla at Soundcells, the only tough part has been deciding where and what to spend your hard earned money on!

Have a wonderful 2012!