SOUND ON SOUND
More and more music producers are turning to 'virtual drummer' software to help them realise authentic-sounding drum tracks. We caught up with some of the people behind the leading applications, to find out why this new software genre has appeared and how it might develop in the future.
Shaun Hayward & Joe Kenny of Chunc Productions reveal their gear setup and musical motivations.
I have an oldish Mac with only 128MB of RAM, and would like to know how I can squeeze the most out of it with Propellerhead's Reason.
The concept of the portable laptop-based studio is enticing, but you still need a musical input device — hence the current popularity of compact MIDI keyboards. And although it's not the cheapest, Novation's Remote 25 has much to offer...
This quirky rack synth not only offers that genuine analogue sound, but comes with built-in MIDI interfacing and a very useful degree of patchability, for exciting sound-design potential.
Fostex enter the card-based multitracker market with a bang, offering eight tracks of uncompressed CD-quality audio from a single Compact Flash card.
The latest in Roland's line of MC-series workstations is their best (and most expensive) yet, incorporating synthesis, sequencing, real-time control, and sampling. But in an increasingly software-driven world, can a Groovebox still cut it?
Propellerhead, makers of the unique Reason software studio, have come from nowhere to award-winning developer status in just eight years. We catch up with one of the key men behind this small but influential Swedish company.
In the second half of this two-part series, we pass on tips that make sequencer use easier, explain device layering, and add some hints for the new devices added to Reason in the v2 update.
Kenton's latest take on their affordable hardware control surface concept eschews the faders of previous Control Freaks in favour of 16 knobs. And it manages to be cheaper than the fader versions...