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January 2017 Magazine Contents

SOS (US Edition) January 2017

Reviews: Arturia MatrixBrute (Cover), iZotope Neutron, Korg Monologue, Steinberg Cubasis 2, Kii Audio Three, Analog Outfitters Scanner, Universal Audio UAD 8.7 & 9.
Features: Classic Tracks: Fatboy Slim ‘Praise You’, Dolby Atmos At The Ministry Of Sound, Inside Track: Bon Iver.
Techniques: Session Notes, Recreating The BBC Echo Mixture Control, Revoice Pro Masterclass.

Reviews

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    A-Designs Mix Factory

    Analogue Summing Mixer

    Can this California company’s first summing mixer reach the high standards set by their outboard processors?

    Reviews
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    Analog Outfitters Scanner

    'Upcycled' Hammond Organ Effect

    Built from reclaimed Hammond organ parts, the Scanner is an unusual electro-mechanical effects unit that sounds as classy as it looks!

    Reviews
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    Arturia MatrixBrute

    Analogue Synthesizer

    Arturia’s MatrixBrute combines everything the company know about synthesis into one hugely ambitious machine.

    Reviews
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    AudioRealism Bassline 3

    Software Synthesizer

    The humble TB303 has proved notoriously difficult to recreate in software, but ABL3 comes far closer than most.

    Reviews
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    Blue Essential SL

    Capacitor Microphones

    Blue’s newly updated range of studio mics offers stylish looks and great sound for a very reasonable price.

    Reviews
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    Boss ES-5

    Guitar Pedal Switching System

    Boss’s well-conceived switching system brings the convenience of a multi-effects unit to your collection of individual pedals.

    Reviews
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    Catalinbread Echorec

    Binson Echorec Emulation

    Named after Binson’s Echorec magnetic-drum echo machine, the Echorec aims to squeeze all that unit’s essential character into a standard-sized pedal.

    Reviews
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    Gothic Instruments Dronar Guitarscapes

    Kontakt Instrument

    Guitarscapes is built on a foundation of electric and acoustic guitars, plus mandolins and pedal steels. Sometimes the sources are obvious, but more often they’re not.

    Reviews
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    Grace Design m108

    Remote-controlled Mic Preamp & A-D Converter

    With remote control, USB audio interfacing and the sublime sonic performance for which Grace are known, the m108 doesn’t disappoint!

    Reviews
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    iZotope Neutron

    Multiband Dynamics & EQ Plug-in

    iZotope say that Neutron not only has the processing power to address all sorts of mixing issues, but the intelligence to help you identify them.

    Reviews
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    Kii Audio Three

    Active Monitors

    Yes, Kii Audio’s flagship monitors are expensive — but then they might just be the best loudspeakers in the world...

    Reviews
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    Korg Monologue

    Analogue Synthesizer

    The Monologue may be a cut-down version of the Minilogue, but it offers a few features its polyphonic big brother can’t match.

    Reviews
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    KRK V6 Series 4

    Active Monitors

    KRK’s established V-series monitors have long been popular in the project studio, and now they’ve been given a major overhaul.

    Reviews
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    Lunastone Wise Guy

    True Overdrive Pedal

    The name Lunastone may not sound so familiar, but this Danish company have an excellent provenance...

    Reviews
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    Magix Samplitude Pro X3

    Digital Audio Workstation [Windows]

    With clever new tempo-mapping features and low-level Melodyne integration, time and pitch are now putty in the hands of Samplitude users!

    Reviews
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    Peavey Dark Matter 112/115

    Active PA Speakers

    Peavey’s smart new range of PA speakers is punchy, robust, and easy on the pocket!

    Reviews
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    Penn Elcomm LED Rack Lighting

    Many companies have offered rack-lighting products over the years, but this elegant British-made light employs super-bright LED strips rather than conventional bulbs.

    Reviews
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    Rigid Audio Synferno

    Kontakt Instrument

    Rigid Audio’s Synferno is a Kontakt-based construction kit library, offering 1200 24-bit loops organised into 300 preset ‘kits’ with a bass, synth, ambient and groove loop within each kit.

    Reviews
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    Samar VL37

    Passive Ribbon Microphone

    Ribbon mics have long been associated with a subdued high-frequency response — but this classy example bucks the trend.

    Reviews
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    Sonokinetic Woodwinds Ensembles

    Sample Library

    Sonokinetic bring their idiosyncratic approach to sampling to the woodwinds section.

    Reviews
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    Spitfire Audio Ricotti Mallets

    Kontakt Instrument

    All-round percussionist and jazz vibraphonist Frank Ricotti has enjoyed a stellar career as a composer, arranger, band-leader and session player, appearing on countless records and film scores. Spitfire Audio’s Ricotti Mallets features our man playing straight hits, rolls and glisses on marimba, glockenspiel, crotales and xylophone.

    Reviews
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    Steinberg Cubasis 2

    DAW App For iOS

    Steinberg update Cubasis 2 with real-time time-stretching and a “carefully redesigned user interface”, which amounts to a flatter, cleaner design that’s a little crisper and more pleasing to the eye than previous versions.

    Reviews
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    Ueberschall Elastik Cinematic Guitar Loops

    Elastik Instrument

    Ueberschall have built up an impressive series of titles based around their Elastik Player front-end. The bulk of these follow a construction-kit format offering collections of genre-specific music composition broken down into their constituent loops...

    Reviews
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    Universal Audio UAD 8.7 & 9.0 Software

    Plug-ins For UAD2 & Apollo

    UA’s latest updates add new compressors, delays, voice channels and virtual bass amps, as well as refreshing a few familiar faces.

    Reviews
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    VirSyn Addictive Pro

    Synthesizer App For iOS

    Addictive Pro adds more complex oscillator configurations, a better effects implementation and a hot-rodded arpeggiator, but has surprisingly dropped the very useful four-track looper of the original Addictive Synth.

    Reviews
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    Waves Nx

    Virtual Mix Room Software & Head Tracker

    Room simulation on headphones usually stops being convincing as soon as you move your head. Not so with Waves’ new Nx...

    Reviews

Techniques

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    Ableton: MIDI Files DAW To DAW

    Ableton Live Tips & Techniques

    We show you how to share MIDI files with Live.

    Techniques
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    Classic Tracks: Fatboy Slim ‘Praise You’

    Producer: Norman Cook

    Armed with nothing but an Atari, a pair of S950 samplers and his faithful TB303, Fatboy Slim took the charts of the late 1990s by storm.

    Techniques
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    Conforming & Re-conforming In Pro Tools

    Pro Tools Tips & Techniques

    Automated conforming and re-conforming tools for Pro Tools HD help keep audio and video together. Find out how...

    Techniques
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    Cubase's MIDI Drum Editor

    Cubase Tips & Techniques

    Don’t take Cubase’s dedicated MIDI Drum Editor for granted — it’s a gem!

    Techniques
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    Dolby Atmos At The Ministry Of Sound

    Air Play

    Dolby Laboratories have been leading the development of surround-sound systems for four decades, but over the last year or so they have been piloting an intriguing surround system in a famous UK night-club...

    Techniques
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    Eric Valentine Video Thumbnail

    Eric Valentine's Electric Guitars — Queens Of The Stone Age

    Video Feature

    LA-based producer Eric Valentine (Queens Of The Stone Age, Slash) recreates the guitar sound from QOTSA's unique 2002 album, Songs for the Deaf. We look at every link in the chain from tuning and guitar choice through to amp settings, pedals, mic selection and post-processing.

    Techniques
  • Techniques
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    Inside Track: Bon Iver '22, A Million'

    Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Chris Messina & Zach Hanson

    Electronic, heavily processed and sample-based, 22, A Million was a radical departure for Bon Iver — and from normal recording and mixing practice...

    Techniques
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    Mastering In Sonar

    Sonar Tips & Techniques

    Get your tracks ready for the world with Sonar’s mastering-friendly options.

    Techniques
  • Techniques
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    Reaper: VCAs, Grouping and Linking

    Reaper Tips & Techniques

    How do Reaper 5’s new VCA Faders complement the existing group and linking facilities?

    Techniques
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    Recreating The BBC Echo Mixture Control

    Send & Blend

    Turn your DAW’s aux sends into wet/dry blend controls that won’t raise the overall level of your signal.

    Techniques
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    Revoice Pro 3.2 Masterclass (Part 2)

    In-depth Tutorial

    We dive deeper into Synchro Arts’ powerful pitch-processing and audio-alignment software.

    Techniques
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    Session Notes: A Live Band In The Studio

    Claudia & The Braidy Bunch

    Our engineer battles the clock while keeping the artists at ease, to capture seven tracks in a single weekend.

    Techniques
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    Studio One: Mai Tai Timbral Variation

    Studio One Tips & Techniques

    Learn to subtly vary the tone of Studio One’s headline soft synth, and you’ll add interest to your sounds.

    Techniques
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    Templates in Logic Pro

    Logic Tips & Techniques

    Set yourself up for success with custom templates in Logic Pro X.

    Techniques

Sound Advice

People

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    Paul White with mics.

    Lite Fantastic

    Leader

    I’ve often run into musicians who seemingly have a terror of recording with computers — some of whom seem to have become convinced that a hardware option will make life easier for them...

    People
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    Sounding Off: Threat To Your Livelihood

    Robin Bigwood

    What’s the biggest threat to your studio livelihood?

    People
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    The Mix Review

    Commercial Releases Analysed

    This month's releases: Bruno Mars • Clean Bandit featuring Louisa Johnson • Cheat Codes & Kris Kross • Amsterdam • James Arthur • Classic Mix: Celine Dion ‘My Heart Will Go On’ (1997)

    People

Music Business

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    Fairfax Recording, California

    Studio File

    When Sound City Studios closed its doors in 2011, it had been a legendary rock & roll recording venue for over 40 years. Now the premises have been taken over by a producer and sound engineer whose aesthetic is even more retro and analogue-based than Sound City’s.

    Music Business
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    Notes From The Deadline

    TV Music From The Inside

    Working ‘in the box’ is all very well, but what happens when the box breaks?

    Music Business
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    Off The Record

    Off The Record: Analogue Technology

    Music & Recording Industry News

    At both the production and consumption ends of music, analogue is making a comeback.

    Music Business
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