July 1998 In This Issue
To open articles, click title links
Reviews Nearfield Monitors The AE200S use metal-coned drivers throughout, but does this technology offer any advantages over more conventional designs? Paul White investigates. Mixer Despite their success in most other areas of music technology, mixers have never been Alesis' strong suit. With their new compact model, Paul White thinks that they may just have come up trumps. 4-channel Effects Processor ART have been championing the cause of musicians on a budget for years with their great value multi-effects units. Christopher Holder checks out their latest effort, offering true 4-in, 4-out capabilities for under £300. CV Modular Synthesizer Analogue modular synths in the late '90s are something like the old bus joke — none for ages, then loads all at once. Chirs Carter catches the latest arrival. Full-band/Split-band De-esser Paul White forgets his Ps and Qs to concentrate on his Ss and Ts while trying out Drawmer's new MX-series de-esser. Omni-directional Microphones Still looking for the best mic/preamp money can buy? Hugh Robjohns unearths some real gems from the USA. Sampler (Retro) The high quality converters and resonant filter imbue the 16-bit Emax II with a musicality and sonic character second to none, claims Janet Harniman Cook. Voicemaster It's a Focusrite, Jim, but not as we know it! Is it possible to deliver Focusrite quality at such an aggressively low price? Paul White puts their latest Platinum product to the test. Frontier Design Group Wavecenter Digital Audio Card There's plenty of choice when it comes to audio cards for Windows 95/NT PCs — Janet Harniman Cook finds out what sets the new WaveCenter from Frontier Design Group apart from the pack. MIDI Synth Controller Paul White takes a turn on a new hardware controller box which allows knobularly-challenged GS and XG synths and soundcards to join the rotary club. Interactive Music Workstation Korg's latest i-series keyboard is the new flagship of the range, updating the i3's spec and adopting the Trinity's touchscreen graphical display. Simon Trask gets in touch with the i30... Recording System Combining the famous Lexicon reverb sound with the latest hard disk recording technology, the Lexicon Studio system should win many admirers. Martin Walker falls in love. MIDI & Digital Audio File Player/Data Filer/MIDI Matrix It's a MIDI patchbay! It's a MIDI data filer and player! It's a sampler playback unit! It's... impossible to sum up in a few words. Martin Russ is delighted to make the aquaintance of the grand seigneur of all MIDI file players. Analogue Monosynth (Preview) It's true; the Minimoog's back! Manufactured in Cardiff by a new company, they're designed to resemble the original as closely as possible. Long-standing Mini owner Steve Howell attended the UK launch. Psychoacoustic Enhancer SPL's acclaimed Vitalizer design has always been a bit harder on the wallet than other maufacturers' models — until now. Derek Johnson plugs in their new enhancer for the rest of us... Time Signature WaveIt Soundfonts & Wien Editor Sound Bytes SoundBlaster cards no longer need to rely on a complete set of GM sounds crammed into 1Mb of ROM now that SoundFonts allow up to 28Mb of RAM expansion. Martin Walker feels the quality of Time Signature's new collection. Digital Mixer In 1995, Yamaha's Promix 01 smashed everyone's preconceptions of how much a digital mixer should cost. Now the new 01V is changing the rules again, offering features more akin to those of the three-grand 03D than the Promix 01 — and it cost £500 less than the Promix did when launched! Hugh Robjohns is most intrigued... | People + Opinion CLIVE LANGER & ALAN WINSTANLEY: Producing Madness, David Bowie, Mick Jagger & Elvis Costello Interview | Producer In pop music, production partnerships are pretty rare — especially ones as successful and long-standing as that between Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. Sue Sillitoe meets up with them to find out why two's company. CRAIG ARMSTRONG: Songwriting For Massive Attack, Madonna & U2 Interview | Songwriter Although Craig Armstrong has been building strong writing and arranging credits since the start of the '90s with such artists as Massive Attack, Madonna, Suede and U2, it's only in recent months that he's come to the fore as a solo artist in his own right, with his new album The Space Between Us. Paul Tingen notches up some Frequent Flyer miles to talk to him. MARK HAWLEY: Recording Tori Amos Interview | Engineer Tori Amos may not yet have attained the same status in the UK that she enjoys in the US, but that hasn't stopped her setting up her own studio in a quiet corner of Cornwall. On the eve of her forthcoming 200-date tour, Hugh Robjohns talked to Mark Hawley & Marcel Van Limbeek about recording Tori's latest album and engineering the live tour. PAUL NAGLE: The Erosion Of Musical Skill Sounding Off History is littered with people who proclaimed that the latest musical development was 'just not music' — Mozart, rock & roll, and techno have all come under fire in the past. Paul Nagle would normally be the first to decry such conservative musical attitudes, but some of the latest developments in music technology have got him worried; the end results just don't seem, well, like music anymore... Technique Tips & Tricks Some people view GM modules as the chartered accountants of their racks, but believe it or not, there are ways to make them interesting. Paul White and Martin Walker club together to make your GM synth roar. All About Digital Audio, Part 3 Exploration In the third instalment of our series on the techniques and technology of digital audio, Hugh Robjohns turns his attention to digital audio error detection and correction — and some of the problems associated with them! CD The Next Generation: Super Audio Compact Disc Exploration Sony's proposal for a next-generation CD format — the Super Audio CD — promises a great deal in terms of sound quality and compatibility. But will it be enough to succeed in a confused and fragmented market place? Hugh Robjohns examines the new format. Choosing A Recording Setup, Part 1 Tips & Techniques Confusing, isn't it? Where once the only recording option was tape, you can now put a whole studio inside a desktop PC or opt for an all-in-one recording and mixing hardware solution. Then again, you could stick to tape, or buy a separate hard disk recorder. In the first of this short series, Paul White examines the choices. Fret Calculator; Softjee Live Machine Atari Notes Derek Johnson ventures once more into the bizarre world of Atari software... Graphics Cards & Monitor Screens For The PC Musician Tips & Tricks In the past, PC-based music software was not terribly demanding on the resources used to drive the user's means of visual feedback — the PC's monitor. But as we try to display more and more MIDI and audio information, via ever more attractive graphic interfaces, your old graphics hardware may not be up to the job. Martin Walker considers your likely requirements. Metadata; Networking; SCSI; Opcode Studio Vision Pro v4.0 Apple Notes Martin Russ realises the worth of Metadata, and brings glad tidings of profitable Apples... Playback Readers' Music Reviewed John Edmonds * Shock Corridor * Amber * Glow * John James * Audley Geneus * Organica * Shastra * Nemo * X Zen Tricks * Red Feather * Steve Sproat Practical Acoustic Treatment, Part 1 Tips & Techniques Paul White examines the basic principles of acoustic treatment in order to help you improve your recording and monitoring environment. Steinberg Freefilter; Spectralab PC Notes Unexpected crashes happen to all of us — even SOS PC gurus! Martin Walker tells a tale of troubleshooting, and falls for Steinberg's new Freefilter. Synth School, Part 9: The Imitation Of Analogue Tips & Techniques Physical Modelling and Virtual Synthesis have been buzzwords for several years now, especially when it comes to imitating analogue synthesis. But what are their advantages and disadvantages, and how do they work? Paul Wiffen explains. |
All Issues
Home |
Search |
News |
Current Issue |
Digital Editions |
Articles |
Forum |
Subscribe |
Shop |
Readers Ads
Advertise |
Information |
Links |
Privacy Policy |
Support
Sound On Sound : Est. 1985