While January might be a grey month for many, it offers one ray of light in the form of the annual NAMM exhibition in Anaheim, California. Musical equipment and pro-audio manufacturers from all over the world congregate to display their latest and greatest products and innovations. The show is also the perfect opportunity to present the SOS Awards, which celebrate the products that you, our readers, have deemed most worthy of these prestigious accolades.
Nominations for the awards were open to products across 16 categories that had been available for the preceding 12 months. We received an incredible number of votes and we’ll be announcing the winner of our prize draw for voters very soon. One lucky voter will receive a stunning prize bundle of high-end studio kit from Focusrite worth over £10,000$16,000, so watch this space!
In the mean time, we’re proud to announce the results of the fifth annual SOS Awards.
The winners are:
- Audio Interface: Universal Audio Apollo 16
- DAW Software: Avid Pro Tools 11
- Effects & Processing Hardware: Universal Audio 1176LN
- Plug-in Effect: Waves Reel ADT
- Plug-in Processor: iZotope RX3
- Hardware Controller: Native Instruments Maschine
- Keyboard/Synth: Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 12
- Microphone: Neumann U87 Ai
- Mixer: Solid State Logic Duality
- Monitors: Genelec M-Series
- Hardware Recorder: Zoom H5
- Mic Preamp: Neve 1073
- Software Instrument: Spectrasonics Omnisphere
- Sound Library: EastWest Symphonic Orchestra
- Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT880
- Live Sound: Behringer X32
That leaves only two more awards: the Editors’ Choice award, which is selected by the editorial team at Sound On Sound, and the brand new Marketing Award, chosen by the commercial team at SOS. 2014 was an amazing year for products in the pro-audio industry, but the thing that brought the biggest smiles to our collective faces, and wins the Editors' Choice award, is the excellent TR-8 Rhythm Performer from Roland. Finally, the Marketing Award 2015 goes to Source DistributionBlue Microphones.
All of the team at Sound On Sound would like to thank you for taking the time to cast your votes in this year’s SOS Awards.
Also, our congratulations and thanks go to this year’s winners, and to all the award nominees, for their hard work in creating such excellent pro-audio tools for us to use.
