Competition
Deadline: 2010-09-28 Enter and you might just WIN this tasty Onyx 1640i mixer worth over £1600 in this month's competition. HURRY - you only have until the 28 September 2010 deadline! (And don't leave it till the last hour... Prize kindly donated by Loud Technologies +44 (0)1494 557398 www.loudtechinc.com
Reviews
Levelling Amplifier Like Wile E. Coyote’s spectacular mail-order Acme contraptions, the Opticom has few controls and plenty of attitude — but it’s rather more successful!
Digital Audio Workstation For Windows Acoustica’s affordable DAW has acquired some significant new features, including video support, score editing and a fully fledged mixer. But has it retained its trademark ease of use?
Mixer & Audio Interface Just how much does this compact mixer with a built-in audio interface and effects offer the home recordist?
Noise-reduction Software For Mac & PC The latest version of BIAS’s popular restoration software aims to remove even more hassle along with your unwanted noise...
Stereo Equaliser There’s a risk of over-hyping anything that has a link to the heyday of Abbey Road, and there’s plenty of buzz about this EMI-inspired EQ — but it seems that in this case it isn’t hype.
Sample Library Take your front-row seat, sit back and enjoy the show — Hollywood Strings is here.
Keyboard Workstation Korg’s latest keyboard blurs the boundaries between their affordable ‘Micro’ range and their pro workstations.
Compact Multitrack Recorder In SOS mag's 25th anniversary year, it's nice to see a manufacturer naming their product in our honour. Seriously, though... Korg aim to break the mould with this pocket-sized stereo recorder, which offers overdubbing with no specified track-count limitation.
Multi-pattern Valve Microphone Hot on the heels of the impressive Genesis cardioid valve mic, MXL have unveiled their flagship multi-pattern model, the Revelation. Does it live up to its name?
Multi-pattern Valve Microphone These audio files accompany the SOS September 2010 review of the MXL Revelation microphone.
Three-way Active Monitors Sometimes, a dose of old-fashioned good engineering delivers something well worth listening to...
USB 2 Audio Interface It may be small, but the RME Fireface UC is very powerful and boasts astonishingly low latency.
Percussion Pad Roland’s Octapad range has been with us in one form or another for an amazing 25 years. What does the latest addition to the family have to offer?
Stereo Compressor Shadow Hills pack a lot of punch into a tiny space, as they combine a hi-tech interior with classic styling in this new API Lunchbox-compatible compressor.
Analogue Synthesizer Tom Oberheim has returned to the analogue synth fold with a revised and updated version of his classic ’70s monosynth, the celebrated Synthesizer Expander Module.
Expansion pack for Superior Drummer 2
Liquid Soundbank for PC & Mac
Virtual Guitar Instrument Don’t let Vir2’s inexplicable ‘6’ put you off: their new virtual guitar instrument is quite special...
Electronic Drum Kit Yamaha’s DTX950K kit combines cutting-edge drum-pad technology, heavy-duty hardware and an advanced brain — but what does it sound like and how does it play?
| People + Opinion
Matthew Slater Session players add enormously to music of all kinds. But are we paying them enough to make it worth their while?
Technique
Snow Leopard Problems & How To Fix Them Although Snow Leopard is growing in popularity, it’s not without its problems. Let’s look at the solution to one of them...
Hear For Yourself These audio files accompany Rory Dow’s SOS September 2010 about programming natural-sounding drum parts using modern drum library software.
Improve Your Drum Tracks Today’s multi-gigabyte drum libraries include some fantastic sounds and groove presets — but they haven’t taken all of the work out of creating a great drum part.
Reaper Notes & Techniques Use Reaper to create an always-on recorder that captures all the inspiration, but none of the chit-chat.
New Sounds From Impulse Responses When is a reverb not a reverb? When it’s a filter, of course! There’s more to convolution than meets the ear, and creative processing of impulse responses can yield extraordinary results.
New Sounds From Impulse Responses Check out the audio examples for our superb Convolution Reverb special workshop — understand how convolution really works, and how you can benefit from using it — info that will spark your imagination and boost your studio creativity (if you let it)!
Synthesizing Impulse Responses Using MATLAB In SOUND ON SOUND September 2010’s printed magazine (and digital editions), we introduced some innovative methods of recording and processing impulse responses. But if you know how to use a program like MATLAB, you can even generate them from scratch.
Cubase Notes & Techniques In Cubase 5, Steinberg introduced some powerful batch-export options, which have removed many project archiving and transfer frustrations.
Workshop | Extracting MIDI data Learning how to extract MIDI data from Kontakt will allow our scripts to respond to different user actions in different ways, and even to control entire Kontakt Multis at once.
Ableton Live Notes & Techniques We look at how Live handles control surfaces, and offer some tips for configuring and using them.
Logic Notes & Techniques If you ever intend to make music to complement visuals, you’ll need to know the basics of working with video content in Logic Pro.
Singer-songwriter Joe Murphy Singer-songwriter Joe Murphy has been crafting tunes for a few years, but had hit a wall when it came to fine-tuning the arrangement and mix of ‘Casting Shadows’. This month, we embellish some repetitive drums by adding percussion, and get busy with the send effects.
Singer-songwriter Joe Murphy These audio files accompany the Mix Rescue workshop in SOS September 2010 and provide a useful audio guide to how the original track, and the improvements made in component musicial parts.
PC Notes With official support for USB 3 sorely lacking, we’ll just have to make the most of its predecessor.
Pro Tools Notes & Techniques When you need to really open up your mix, it’s time to employ some classic stereo widening tricks. We show you how to implement them in Pro Tools.
Reason Notes & Techniques If you’ve never used your own samples in Reason, here’s how...
Inside Track | Ozzy Osbourne: Scream Legendary Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne is still rocking in his sixties. The musical powerhouse behind his latest hit album Scream is producer, engineer, songwriter and instrumentalist Kevin Churko.
Sonar Notes & Techniques Sonar can help you produce great ‘normal’ vocals — but it can also do all kinds of crazy things to your voice...
Build Your Own Vocal Booth Vocal booths aren’t always the right solution to problems with live-room acoustics, but if you do need to build one, it can be done with some DIY skills and a lot of elbow-grease...
Producer: Bill Szymczyk 1977's Hotel California saw The Eagles abandon their country origins in favour of full-blown rock & roll, and made them one of the biggest-selling groups in the world. Producer Bill Szymczyk tells SOS how it happened.
Music Business
The Importance Of Metadata For Media Composers No matter how brilliant your music is, TV and film producers will never license it if they can’t find it...
TV Music From The Inside Some broadcasters will stop at nothing to save money, even if that means blatantly ripping off composers. So always look at the small print before you leap.
Video Media
The Gear To Get You Filming Fast New to the world of video production and unsure what gear to buy? Our guide to the five best options in three categories will get you started.
Non-linear Video Editor Avid are looking to stay on top of the NLE game as they add a whole host of new features and brand-new editing tools to the latest version of their flagship editing software.
An introduction to digital colour correction & grading Though often overlooked by beginners, colour adjustments can do a lot for footage, from fixing incorrect camera settings to adding some Hollywood sheen.
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