The Akiatech Solutions Blog - We review Technology especially Music, Photography centric tech and electronics

IK Multimedia iRig Keys I/O 25 Review

IK Multimedia iRig Keys I/O 25 Review Intro IK Multimedia is a company that has been making musician focused software and hardware since 1996. They are best known for their T-RrackS on the market and have a very loyal following on social media. I’ve followed this company’s products for a while, but I’ve never found a reason to acquire one until now. Why? well If you’ve ever considered or attempted to make music on the road using either a laptop or mobile device you’ve probably come across this problem…audio. One of the major downsides to making music on the road is [...]

February 6, 2018 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

How to crop a layer in Serif Affinity Photo

This guide will show you how to crop an image in Affinity Photo. This is a workaround until an “official” method exists: 1. Select the Marquee Tool 2. Marquee Select the area that you want to crop 3. Go to the “Edit” menu and click on “Copy Flattened” 4. Go to the “Edit” menu and select “Paste” 5. Select the “Move Tool” (Black Arrow) 6. Position the cropped image 7. Right-click on the original layer and delete it. 8. Final Cropped Image Hotkeys if you’re into that stuff 😊: M > Ctrl-Shift-C > V > Ctrl-V > Right-Click original layer > Delete Layer Tell your Friends:Click to print (Opens in [...]

January 29, 2018 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

LG 43UJ6200 Cheapest 4K “Monitor” for its Size!

LG 43UJ6200/43UJ6300 The Monitor, maybe one of the most overlooked parts of the computing experience. It’s a little like the tires on your car, or your Network Router…. Things that are so important yet tend to be ignored. The times are changing though. With CPU and GPU performance increases slowly stabilizing. People are looking for more things to upgrade. First, it was Hard Drives and now it’s monitors. Like the tires on your car, the monitor is your primary interface for gauging the video performance of your machine, no matter how fast your GPU, how high the DPI is on [...]

November 22, 2017 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

Sennheiser HD7 DJ Headphone Review and Comparison

If you are a regular visitor to the blog then you already know that I’m a notorious Cheapskate and not in the sense that I like cheap things. I always seek out the best products at the most affordable prices. This typically means that anything you see me reviewing is probably selling at a significant discount under retail. Case in point, these great Headphones from Sennheiser. The HD7 DJ Headphones came out a couple of years ago as part of a trio of DJ/Producer-centric gear. The HD7 falls right between the HD8 and HD6 Mix headphones from Sennheiser and [...]

May 26, 2017 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

Zotac GTX 1070 Mini | Size Means Nothing!

Zotac GTX 1070 Mini I’ve always been a Nvidia Fanatic, my first card was the Vanta then I got a hold of a Geforce 3 and after that a 440MX. I’ve had laptops with Nvidia graphics even my current Model has a Quadro chip under the hood. I’ve been rolling with Nvidia since PCI was cool and N00B5 were getting “Godliked” via Railgun in UT99. That being said you can imagine how much it hurt me to step over to the Red Team when I purchased my Radeon HD6950, exactly 6 years ago. I cannot lie though, that was the best [...]

April 21, 2017 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

The Solution to Capturing that Unforgettable Moment Every Time

Hey there, so as most of you know by now, I’m an avid fan of Photography. I consider it an art and it takes time, patience and a lot of skill to capture the “Right Moment”. I have been learning the ins and outs of this process for a few years now and although I’m by no means a “Professional” especially since I don’t get paid directly for the photos I take, I do understand the tremendous amount of skill necessary to get those photons to line up just right on that sensor when capturing those unforgettable moments or [...]

April 17, 2017 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

The Roland A-01K Better Late Than Never Review

The Roland A-01 and A-01K variant were released a little over a year ago. The A-01 is listed as a Controller+Generator by Roland and rightfully so. It has a plethora of connectivity options in addition to a neat little 8Bit synth that can produce some hardcore, gritty basslines in addition to the beeps and pops that 8Bit music is known for. I’ve been following the progress of this unit for a while now and one thing that I see trending across almost all the sites and forums I’ve visited is that people really don’t know what to make of [...]

March 13, 2017 By AKiATECH Tech Tidbits 0 Comments

Arturia Minilab MKII vs Minilab Comparison

The reason I’m doing this review is because like you I was considering purchasing the newly released Minilab MK2. The problem for me and potentially anyone else reading this post is that I already have the previous Minilab model and I love it! When the updated controller was released I was ready to throw all my money at Arturia, but as an owner of almost all the sub $200 Arturia controllers, I had to stop and think about whether it was wise to add yet another MIDI keyboard to my already overcrowded “Studio”. After meditating on it for a [...]

January 26, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 2 Comments

The Samson Conspiracy is Shockingly…Okay

The Samson Conspiracy! Its name conjures up images of secret hideouts, sinister plots, and dastardly deeds. Its design is a cross between a Novation Launchpad and a Rii Mini, and its support framework is practically nonexistent. The conspiracy also features a design that unfortunately only a mother could love. I can’t knock it too much, though, this device is definitely the definition of “Function over Form”. I think Samson set out to design a competitive product that would appeal to a variety of individuals, and for the most part, they succeeded in this goal. There are compromises though and also [...]

January 13, 2017 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments

Serif Affinity Photo for Windows Review

It seems like only yesterday that I was bitten by the creative bug. I promised myself that I would do whatever it would take to become a master of the dark art of “Digital Image Manipulation”. Back then I was an up and coming player in the Hospitality industry, no-one could bus a table like I could, and I was the reigning champion of silverware wrapping! But exceptional work ethic only gets you so far. The reality was that I could not afford the software that the Major Players were using. I went on a limb and installed Linux [...]

December 12, 2016 By AKiATECH Product Reviews 0 Comments