I was given a copy of Dubturbo to try out. Here’s what I think…
Hi! My name is Mike P and I’m a DJ out of Atlanta Georgia…
My friend Ty Martin runs this website and it didn’t really make sense for him to review Dubturbo since he has years of production experience under his belt and already loves the software…
So about 6 months ago when I was first getting interested in making my own beats, Ty recommended that I check out this program and maybe even write a dubturbo review for his website.
He recommended it so highly and said it would really simplify the process of learning music production. He also said it was about 10x as easy to use as the other software I had been struggling with, but still just as powerful…
… How could I say no to that?!
Contents
- My First Impression
- Sound & Production Quality
- Two Things I Didn’t Like
- Conclusion
My First Impression
So up until this point I had been trying to learn Logic Audio (ha ha – ok don’t laugh please). Logic is probably the most complex audio production software out there and I had been trying to figure it out for about a week and was getting absolutely nowhere!
This was about the time that Ty said I should download Dubturbo… So I did…
“WHAT A RELIEF!”
That was my first impression… yes: “What A Relief” is quite literally what I said inside my head, LOL.
With Logic I couldn’t even figure out how to load the drum sounds into the sampler, and once I finally did I couldn’t work out how to get the sampler to play on the main sequencer… but Dubturbo was a completely different story!
In Dubturbo everything is laid out so nicely and intuitively and within about 5 minutes I was working on a sick sounding beat without even needing to look at any instructions or trying to “figure it out”.
I opened the software, dropped a bar onto the drum machine using my mouse, double clicked the drum machine and started mapping out my first pattern. It was THAT easy and soon enough I had a nice crispy (kinda snappy actually) beat rocking out!
So if you’re like I was and you have absolutely no experience with studios, music, or production, then you should know that Dubturbo makes it incredibly easy to jump right in and start creating beats and tracks within minutes of installing it.
In fact, if there’s one thing I want to get across to you with this Dubturbo review, it’s exactly that… It really is such a user friendly program, I can’t understand why ANYONE would spend weeks struggling with other software when there is no need to!
Dubturbo’s Production & Sound Output – Is It PRO Quality?
The other thing that immediately caught my attention was just how good the sound quality is…
To be honest the beat pattern I laid out was kinda WEAK. It wasn’t the most creative thing I could’ve come up with, but the drum kit I loaded up was so sweet that it really made my (weak!) beat come to life…
After using the software for many months now, this is still one of my favorite features, it is absolutely PACKED with professionally engineered samples, kits, sounds, fx, and vocals. I never seem to run out of sounds!
In fact this seems to be the secret to why Dubturbo makes brand new producers beats sound so good. While other programs provide ease of use, they don’t provide high quality sounds and samples. Dubturbo seems to be the only program out there that nails both of these issues in 1 single go.
A Couple Of Things I Didn’t Like…
No software is perfect, and it’s no surprise that there were a couple of things about Dubturbo that irked me a bit.
One
The first thing is that I noticed a bug that affected my ability to tap in my beats using my computer keyboard, but only at certain tempos. And sometimes if I would change the tempo and then rechange it back it would work perfectly!
I guess all software has strange little things like this, but it bothered me enough that I e-mailed the compay and told them about it.
I have to give them props because they actually got back to me the same day and were very kind and attentive. They told me that this was a known bug and would be fixed in their next version. They also told me that if you put it at 120bpm, it always records perfectly, so you can record in your pattern and then switch the tempo back. As soon as I figured this out the problem really didn’t bother me anymore…
Two
The second thing I didn’t like was that I couldn’t record in any vocals or rapping on the fly…
This software does not have the ability to record audio into it like some of the bigger programs. You can’t rap into it and record your voice, which was something I kinda wanted to do.
There is a bit of a work around, what you do is record your voice using a differnet program (like Audacity which is free), and then you have to import your vocal sample into the sampling keyboard.
This is totally doable for short raps or phrases, but not really for a full track of rapping.
Honestly though… I probably shouldn’t be recording my raps anyways, and this program is marketed as a beat making program so can’t really fault it there …
Dubturbo Review Conclusion
All in all, I really REALLY like Dubturbo.
After personally struggling with other music production programs, I can’t see why anyone would start their beat making career with anything else.
You can jump right in and start making pro quality tracks right away, there’s nothing to “figure out”, you don’t need to set anything up, and the software is laid out so perfectly that you know exactly what to do!
Truth be told Dubturbo isn’t the only tool I use now…
I’ve learned a lot in the last 6 months and this has allowed me to finally start using some of the more complex software & hardware, but amazingly Dubturbo is still my “goto” beat maker!!
I still make almost all of my beats in Dubturbo and can’t really see this changing any time soon. It really allows me to just relax and be creative, to let my ideas flow and to get my beats down as soon as I think them up.
So if you’re a new producer who values creativity and imagination, and you want to get your musical ideas down quickly and easily. Trust me, there’s no other beat making software I would recommend higher.
Definitely check out Dubturbo!
Sincerely,
Mike P.