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Propellar

Quick Hacks

1. Use the snack incentive while studying.

2. Save time studying by listening to recorded lectures at twice the speed.

3. Take notes using different colored pens.

4. Build up your GPA in the beginning semesters when classes are easier.

5. Learn how to make coffee without a coffee maker.

You’ll need disposable cups, a coffee mug, a coffee filter, coffee, rubber bands, and hot water to create this magical alchemy.

6. For an easy breakfast, make scrambled eggs in the microwave using a coffee mug.

Spray the mug with nonstick cooking spray, crack two eggs into the mug, and add some shredded cheese and a splash of milk. Place in microwave for 45 seconds. Stir. Heat for another 45 seconds. Stir again to make sure it’s cooked thoroughly.

7. A binder clip keeps beverages neatly stacked in a tiny mini-fridge

8. When you’re too lazy to do dishes, use a tortilla as a plate or bowl.

Tortillas are also cheaper than bread.

9. Living off campus with a few friends? Get a better Wi-Fi signal from your router with this beer can trick.

10. Invest in a laptop lock.

College = basically a den of thieves.

11. Save space in your tiny closet by hanging multiple garments with soda pop tabs.

Novation Launchkey 49 mk2

Novation’s Launchkey keyboard MIDI controller is the is the quickest and easiest way to produce and perform electronic music in Ableton Live, and it has just been given an exciting upgrade. It now features RGB velocity-sensitive pads that match users’ clip colours, making workflow in session view far more intuitive.

The Launchkey is an easy-to-use MIDI keyboard controller. It’s pretty much the quickest and easiest way to produce and perform electronic music, especially in Ableton Live. You just plug in via USB and the keys, faders, knobs and pads immediately spring into life, giving you hands-on control of your grid, instruments, effects and mixer. If you don’t use Ableton, it’ll automatically map to other major music software too.

Take Control of Ableton Live

With enhanced RGB feedback and immediate, automatic integration with Ableton Live, Launchkey gives you instant hands-on control of your session view, instruments, effects and mixer, to let you concentrate on making music. Full colour RGB LEDs mean the pads match the colour of your clips, while velocity-sensitivity lets you really put some feeling into your beats.

Tweak and Mix Your Tracks

Launchkey is designed to let you shape your sound however you like. The eight rotary knobs are rock solid, to give you confidence when tweaking your instruments and effects. The 49 and 61-note versions give you hands-on control of your mixer too, with nine dedicated faders. Whichever Launchkey you choose, all the controls integrate seamlessly and immediately with Ableton Live, and can be reassigned to anything.

Control All Major Music Software

Although we designed Launchkey for Ableton Live, its pads, buttons, faders and knobs control all other major music software too. We call this InControl technology, because it puts you in control.

Everything You Need

Lauchkey comes with absolutely everything you need to start making music: Ableton Live Lite, Novation Bass Station and V-Station virtual instruments, plus a comprehensive 1GB collection of production-ready samples from world-leading sample store Loopmasters. It’s also fully bus-powered via USB and class compliant, so you can get straight into hassle-free music making

Lenovo VIbe K4 Note

Lenovo continues to impress with the Vibe K4 Note. Firstly, the price point of Rs 11,999 and the specs that it features absolutely blow your mind, at least when it was launched in early January. It has a good display, fingerprint scanner and delivers excellent performance overall.

While there is a lot to love, there are also a few hiccups when it comes to the device. The camera and build quality could have been better. The software appears more gimmicky, but as we’ve seen it finally depends upon what the user prefers handy and it is nice to see Lenovo include an almost-stock-like UI option.

Focusrite Studio Bundle

Scarlett Studio is a bundle based around a 2i2 Scarlett audio interface, CM25 large-diaphragm condenser microphone and a pair of HP60 headphones. A three-metre mic lead is included, so asides from the necessary mic stand and pop shield for the most optimum use of the setup you do have pretty much all the hardware that you need right out of the box.

A lighter version of Cubase called Cubase LE 6 is included to take care of your recording and MIDI sequencing needs. If you’re looking to hook up any older five-pin MIDI gear you’ll be disappointed, though – the 2i2 interface doesn’t have any MIDI connectivity.

Cubase LE 6 is reasonably well featured with up to 16 audio tracks, 24 MIDI tracks and other limited but still useful tracks for FX, groups and insert slots on channels for further processing. Cubase is potentially one of the most difficult audio programs to get to grips with for newcomers, so a little limitation is good in this respect. Upgrades are available to more feature-heavy versions, but LE is perfectly fine for a beginner’s setup.

More software is included in the form of the Scarlett plug-ins suite. This covers compression, gating, EQ and reverb. So on top of the Cubase processing plug-ins, you’ve got quite a nice range to choose from. Novation’s Bass Station is also included, which although quite old is a good source for classic dance/electronic bass sounds. Loopmasters finishes of the package with a touch over 800MB of free sample material. This includes loops and single samples of instruments, drums and various other sounds such as SFX to help your production work. They cover jazz, dubstep, rock, techno and so on, so there’s a good amount of diversity, catering for the needs of many. Throughout our browsing the quality level of the sounds is also high so this isn’t just a throwaway element of the bundle, it’s genuinely going to be quite useful to you.