Computer / Software

Intel's Prescott Pentium 4 chips have proved too hot for many music PC builders to handle, but Philip Rees have used them to build machines that are both powerful and impressively quiet.

AMD's Opteron range of CPUs are popular with musicians and ready for 64-bit computing — so how does Inta Audio's Opteron PC compare with typical Intel machines?

Apple's original iMac marked the beginning of a turnaround for the company, and despite the consumer-oriented nature of the product, iMacs have found a place in many a home studio over the years. With the iMac range finally inheriting a G5 processor, have Apple created the perfect entry-level machine for demanding Mac musicians on a budget?

Computer specifications have changed radically in the three years since Carillon launched their first music PCs, but the company's signature metal rackmount case and attention to detail still sets them apart. Their powerful Core 4 machine offers support for three monitors, plus a huge 400GB RAID 0 hard drive array for audio data.

Most of the major Windows sequencers now support dual processing, and if you want the ultimate performance, machines like Red Submarine's dual Xeon PC could be the way to go.

Gmedia continue their quest to render the best of the world's keyboards in software form. But will it give OSCar fans a case of the grouches?

Although Centrino laptops have advantages in terms of weight and battery life, standard Pentium 4 CPUs still offer the ultimate in performance, and Nu Systems's desktop replacement machine is a processing heavyweight.

Few products have been hyped as much as Apple's new G5 range of 64-bit personal computers — but how good are they for making and recording music in the real world? We test the 2GHz Dual Processor model...

More and more musicians are turning to systems based around a laptop PC, and Intel's new Pentium-M processor — as found in this model from Maxdata and SME Solutions — seems to perform well with music applications.

INTA Audio's music workstation boasts some of the latest PC technology, including hyperthreading, dual-channel DDR400 memory and Serial ATA, making it one of the fastest systems around.

The advantages of laptop PCs used to be undermined by lower performance and higher prices. Now, however, machines like Millennium Music's notebook are claimed to offer a reasonably priced, mobile replacement for a desktop PC.

Does a standard PC take up too much space in your studio? Red Submarine's Mini-Sub system packs all the performance of a full-sized desktop PC into a diminutive Micro-ATX case.

With the largest screen ever featured on a portable computer, Apple's flagship laptop would be tempting even if it didn't offer lots of musician-friendly features such as versatile connectivity and quiet operation...

Many UK music technology retailers are now building specialist PCs to order, and Digital Village are no exception. Their Pentium 4 systems promise careful optimisation at a very competitive price.

Applied Acoustic Systems, known best for their Tassman software synth, have now used their modelling technology to create an electric piano plug-in. But of course, theirs isn't the only one around...

Apple's new iMac is as radical in appearance as its predecessor — but how well does it fit into the recording studio?

TC Works' neat Mac utility allows you to turn VST plug-ins into sophisticated multi-effects combinations.

Released last year as a web-only download from Rhizomatic, the ground-breaking Absynth is now part of Native Instruments' product line, and can be used as a VST instrument plug-in.

EXS24 and EVP88, two of Emagic's dedicated plug-ins for Logic, are now available in scaled-down form for VST-compatible sequencers. But what has been lost in order to make the instruments work as VST plug-ins?

An exclusive first look at Emagic's new Logic Control hardware control surface, and the eagerly awaited Version 5 of Logic - a powerful combination that takes the system to a new level of functionality

Sound Forge is a very popular PC audio editor, but users have waited a long time for 24-bit support. Now it's here in version 5, along with a bundle of new features and plug-ins.