Recording - June 2016 - 63

This also works when drawing MIDI CC events or automation vector
points with mouse, stylus, or finger.
More features
Lumit has a great beat detection
algorithm. When you display an
audio file in the Edit Window (Figure
4) you get a visual of how well the
algorithm is at identifying transients.
Displayed horizontally above the
waveform, transients are marked by
red diamonds. You can use these to
create "stretch markers" for editing
and looping purposes. There are
four algorithms, of varying CPU load, for beat detection and
pitch change, selectable by track.
Another nod to being CPU aware is the extensive Freeze Tracks
dialogue (Figure 5). Opening the Freeze Tracks dialog brings up a
list of all the tracks in your project. You can select them individually or
in groups, and there are several options for how the tracks will be
rendered with effects and virtual instrument sounds, freeing up CPU
power. In Place is a neat option, as the unprocessed track remains in
the background. At any time you can re-open the Freeze Tracks dialog and un-Freeze the track by deselecting it.
Setting the Bounce Target in Freeze to "File" is how you render
your final mix. All you have to do is enable the Master Track. You'll
get a dialogue asking for the format, sample rate and bit depth of
the rendered file, as well as a browse function to select the destination folder. Enabling a group of tracks and selecting File is a great
way to create stems useful for remixing.
Plug-ins
Lumit comes with a healthy suite of native plug-ins. Along with
essentials like EQ, Reverb, Delay, Compessor, and Limiter, the program offers up a couple of nice filter plug-ins, a Bit Crusher, a
Chorus/Flanger, and a Noise Gate, all solid performers.
The Reverb is quite nice, with a lot of variable parameters. It also
has a variable algorithm that allows you to lower the quality to free
up CPU cycles. Of course, you can always use the highest setting
and then freeze the track it's applied to.
My only complaint about the native plug-ins is that there is a
curious lack of presets for any of them. The Reverb particularly
would be much better if a few presets had been included; it
takes a fair bit of tweaking to get an effective ambience.
Fortunately the plug-in gives you access to a wide range of
parameters to tweak, but it can be daunting to start setting up a
nice room sound from scratch.

In use
All in all, Lumit is a very simple program to learn and to use. The
website claims it should take no more than a weekend, but I was
up and running after watching one short "Get Started" video on
Lumit's YouTube channel.
After playing around for a bit, I hunkered down and spent a few
hours watching the full suite of tutorial videos on the channel. They
are excellent. There is no manual, so these videos and the embedded text and visual Tutorials that you can find in the Options menu
are your primary sources of information about the program, along
with the Lumit Audio website. Finally, whenever you hover the cursor over a button or display, the Help dialogue in the Transport Bar
displays the function as well as its associated keyboard shortcut,
and parameter values where appropriate.
I started my review using Lumit on a Windows laptop. I really
got into it, though, when I moved over to my Surface Pro 3 (an i5
with 4 GB RAM, adequate for Lumit even if more RAM would be
better). I really enjoyed using the program on the tablet, as I got to
take advantage of all the touchscreen capabilities. I started with a
few third-party plug-ins and VST instruments plus the built-in effects,
and to date I've recorded dozens of sequences featuring MIDI and
audio tracks. I've used my extensive library of loops and sounds to
easily construct the building blocks of songs.
I also spent a very pleasant morning
4 setting up Lumit up on my Surface Pro
3 on the kitchen table, where I recorded a guitar- and keyboard-based song
in a more traditionally linear manner. I
captured complete performances of
two guitar tracks, a bass guitar, and a
VSTi electric piano, with sampled drum
sequences played on my M-Audio
Axiom 25 controller.
Editing to clean up the guitar tracks,
processing every channel with compression, creating a Return bus for
Reverb, recording and tweaking automation... every operation
was remarkably easy on the Surface Pro 3. I ran into no issues
with CPU performance, but Lumit
5
does offer a CPU meter in the
Transport Bar so you always know
where you stand.
The only performance issue I
had was some driver weirdness
with my Zoom R16 in audio interface mode; Lumit kept telling me
that it was locked by another
application. An uninstall/reinstall
of Lumit fixed the problem, never
to return.
Final thoughts
I think Lumit is fine new addition to the DAW world. It doesn't
have all the functionality of some programs-for instance, there's
no ReWire support-but it has all of the essentials to record, edit
and mix your music. It also offers a more robust touchscreenenabled DAW than any I've experienced on an IOS device,
although to be fair I haven't tried Auria Pro (reviewed elsewhere in
this issue).
Combined with a portable audio interface/controller keyboard,
Lumit and a tablet like the Surface Pro 3 makes a killer "on the go"
music production system. That's how I'm going to use it.
Price: $149.99; 30-day trial version, free
More from: Lumit Audio, www.lumit-audio.com
Bill Stunt (stunt@recordingmag.com) is a recording musician and
engineer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
RECORDING JUNE 2016

http://www.lumit-audio.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2016