Reviewing the Focusrite Clarett 2 Pre

When Focusrite announced that the Clarett 2Pre would be available and that would be better, faster and easier, they really meant it!

The Clarett 2 Pre does it all. It comes with a 10×4 Thunderbolt Audio Interface that makes the connection extra fast. It features two preamps with a dynamic range and latency so low that the plug-ins run super soft, in real time when recording and monitoring.

Focusrite has a software called Focusrite Control for this audio interface, and it also stands out very fast. You’ll be able to download it from their website and set it up quickly to start recording in no time.

Mic-Pre Inputs: The Clarett 2Pre comes with ADAT inputs, so you can basically have 8 channels of audio when connecting to an external mic-pre.

The instrument inputs are similar to the more basic Scarlett, they work quite similar for either guitars or mics.

The audio latency is almost non existant! It is incredible how Thunderbolt helps, either recording or monitoring, it really stands out compared with the Scarlett.

In resume. The Focusrite Clarett 2Pre comes with 2 mic/line analogue inputs, ideal for the smaller music groups or musicians, 8 ADAT, 2 Loopback, provides also 16 channels of MIDI, 2 output monitors on rear panel with Anti-thumb circuit, 2 line analogue outputs, also on rear panel and 16 channels of MIDI output.

NOTE: This unit comes with no Thunderbolt cable, so be prepare to buy one if you want to move forward with the purchase of a Focusrite Clarett 2Pre

Retail in the future

Automation is progressing at an impressive pace. It will easily reach the point where human interaction it’s basically not needed for most of the tasks in the economy, in just a few years.

There’s a lot of worry about what’s going to happen with most of the jobs that are currently available for humans, when machines are up and running at all places.

One of the places where automation will hit the hardest is at the retail stores.

Imagine how retail will work in the future

If the machines, programmed with artificial intelligence, are capable to receive inventory, sort and classify all boxes, place them at the shelves, place tag prices on everything and maintain the place running, why would any company would think of having employees?

Even the paying experience is to be revolutionized. Customers will just grab the products from the shelf and the computer will immediately add it to their tab.

Once a customer is ready to go, he will just simply walk out the store and the computer will add the total and immediately charge the total amount to his credit card. No hassles.

It is so real that, for example, Amazon is already running a test at its retail stores, without human employees.

In the future it’s hard to imagine how this technology wouldn’t spread to any single store in the world. Why hiring humans when you could just simply automate all the store, so it runs by itself 24/7?

The retail space it’s going to profit a lot from this new era to come. Companies that now are struggling to make a living in the retail sector, are going to see their profits run up in the next decade.

With retail stores open all day and all night long, customers are going to find it so easy to drive to one of those stores at any time during the day, and pick up the products they need and then just walk out and go home right away.

Retail is not going anywhere

The conversation regarding the future of retail always ends in a dark note, along the lines of “retail is dead, it cannot compete against e-commerce”, “people will stop going to stores”, “why go to an store when Amazon can shop it to your door the very next day”, etc

But think about this: If the store is open 24 hours a day, with no humans working in it. You’ll be driving a random day to your house during the night? Let’s say at 11pm after a night out with friends, and remember that there’s nothing for breakfast for the next day.

You’ll only have to stop by, go into the store, grab a few things, exit the store ( I’ll automatically charge the amount of you ur purchase to your credit card as you exit), jump in your car and drive home.

Takes 5 minutes, and you can just enjoy selecting the products you want at that very moment. No interactions with cashiers, no credit card swipes, no waiting for the physical invoice to be printed, just quick and to the point.

Automation will basically, at the end, remove all that is wrong with retail: cashiers, lines, delays, card swipes, etc. It will allow us to just enjoy a nice and relaxing purchasing experience.



Why is YouTube Music better than Spotify

Spotify plus revolutionize the world by offering a streaming service that allows you to play any song you want without having to download anything to your cell phone or computer.

Spotify was the first to provide such service. Later came Apple with their Apple Music streaming service, YouTube with YouTube Music, Google music, and many other services.

Regardless of competition, Spotify maintain its position in the market for a few years. Even good to be listed on the stock market, and generate it not only does it but also a way for employees to sell their stock and the general public to buy a portion of the company.

Oh, when you have one of the most powerful companies in the world that’s your competition, Things are not going to be easy.

Why is YouTube music better than Spotify

Google has a wonderful technology, with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Do you know many things about their users, preferences, tasteless, and what do they like.

gSo when Google decided to enter this space, they did it with everything they have. Dave really is YouTube music as a premium service, would you don’t get service at this, but also your music taste gets to be on the first to buy the machine intelligence that they provide. Play lists and some of them self in then or someway, something that even Spotify cannot match. This is considering that the playlist artist but buddy for Spotify are awesome, but pale in comparison with the ones made that the intelligence at YouTube music.

Is it worth the money

YouTube music charges a little bit more than to Spotify. The difference accounts for about 30 to 40% more.

For most of the people, the difference it’s simply too high. But YouTube music it’s not the only thing you get when you pay Google for their subscription. You also get to have YouTube premium, or, as they called it, YouTube red, a premium service that serve you videos without ads. So your YouTube experience watching the videos also improve a lot. It seems that the whole YouTube universe becomes way better when you pay the subscription.

So when you compare this to Spotify, who only provides the music without hertz for a fee, with a limited understanding on your test, you get to see that it’s worth the difference, to pay for the subscription for the whole YouTube interface.

Of course, there’s always the possibility of not paying for the music you listen to. In this case bothYouTube in Spotify seem to provide the same value on their free plans.

A tip to get to try YouTube music

Same as with Spotify, YouTube music also releases some promotions once or twice during the year.

So I’ll just wait until you see or hear about a promotion with YouTube, so that you can get to try the services for a small fee. If you like it that much, then we can say it’s worth formalizing your subscription for the price they charge.

What’s the do you think, let us know if you already use YouTube Music on and how do you feel it compares with Spotify.



Email and SMS are totally winning over

During the past few years, the world has had incredible changes. We have new technologies that emerge every single month, new ways of communicating, better cars, and the quality of life keep increasing every year.

This rampant progress is simply awesome! But more impressive is to think that during the rise and the adoption of almost every single awesome technology that we have, there are two technologies that are still stronger than ever and that have lasted for more than 30 years now with no rival:

Email

One of them is the email, a technology that has been in use for more than three decades now and that is still used by most of the corporations and persons for their every day tasks and communication.

Everybody uses email to communicate and we use it for about 90% of our communications with the external world.

SMS messages

Other technology that is quite impressive are the SMS messages. We use them almost every single day to communicate with family and friends, to buy stuff from other people, and for many other things.

It was more than 20 years ago that humas got to create this impressive technology that allowed two cellphones to communicate by text messages.

Nowadays it is still being used widely, even though we have so many other ways to communicate communication, like Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Youtube, etc.

Is it because they are so reliable?

It resuls impressive that the whole world is still using these two technologies.

When you think how much humanity has progress in the past decade, you wouldn’t expect to see two technologies reign over all of the others like this. They are, in fact, so outdated, that we are using something that doesn’t have a modern interface, that doesn’t relate at all with what we are using in the modern days, with no graphics, no multimedia, no video. Think about it: both technologies feature a white screen with nothing at all in it, for you to start writing your messages.

And these are still being used by most of the planet? With no updates, no new features, no modern interface?

Then, you get to realize that these two technologies, they are really going to be around for a long, long time.

Will they last more than 20 years in the future?

We don’t know for sure, but it seems email and SMS messages are going to be around for a longer time than expected.

There’s no indication that some of our newer  technologies will gain priority over these two champions, that were created by our “ancestors” more than 3 decades ago.

So, let’s keep using and enjoying them!

The wonderful world of automations

iPhone is now allowing automations to happen based on actions or statuses on your device. Automations are useful to it secured actions in your home, for example, turning on the lights, turning on the coffee maker, or manipulating the status of devices in your house.

The automation is hard and really useful for the every day use in your heart
Whenever you go out of your house, for example, iPhone cannot only detect that you’re going out but also can’t detect if you aren’t connecting to your CarPlay. So when this happens, your music will start automatically, your thermostats can be sent to our lower temperature, the lights on your house can be turned off, and your map will automatically open it with the address of the next appointment that you have.

All of this can be configured depending on the time
So for example, if in the morning, your GPS will adjust the map so you can go to your work. But if in the afternoon, then the map will show your home address instead. Also the automation can run automatically when you are arriving to your house. iPhone will be able to detect your location, let’s say, 2 km away from your house.

This opens a new world