Hobnox
Germany-based Hobnox is a niche-market social network site that includes some incrediby unique features that I’ve never seen before, and honestly, I’m glad I hadn’t until I saw them here. Hobnox is a music, film & culture centric site, it’s members should at least be interested in, or want to take part in any one of those things.
One of the cornerstone features of the site is the Audiotool. If you’ve ever worked with an 808 or digital sequencer, you NEED TO TRY THIS. It’s absolutely remarkable. In fact, it’s like having the instruments right on your desk, only on a screen instead of sitting around collecting dust.
Audiotool
Hobnox even went as far as to allow you to customize your set up with modular effects boxes, plugging in and reorganizing your cabling setup, and every single effect, switch, knob, leveler, control lever… works. It’s insanely well done. They need an award for just that portion of their site alone, seriously.
Livetool
Another completely “blow your socks off” rad part of the site is the Livetool. It’s a web-based video editor, with capabilities for capturing from web cam, and editing video on the fly. I wouldn’t pit this against Premier, or something of that nature, but it offers a heck of a lot more flexibility than most lower-end video editing apps, and this one’s freely available.
Then you get into the network part; remix contests, video and audio uploads and sharing, and the slew of standard social networking features: messaging, friending, etc. They also have HobnoxTV, for those of you fluent in German. The entire site experience is music-centric, cleanly done, fast and responsive.
If you’re into creating music, keeping up on European electronic music scene go to Hobnox… do it, do it now. It’ll kill the rest of your day. Seriously.
