Computer / Software

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.

Akai introduced AKsys some months ago, providing a USB-driven, computer-based control interface for recent S-series samplers. Now at v1.7, it is becoming indispensible for anyone fed up with managing their samplers via an LCD...

Few recent software products have stirred as much interest as Melodyne - a program offering unique pitch, time and formant-processing features, which was created not by one of the major music developers but by a maverick Bavarian musician and his software-designer friend.

The latest and greatest incarnation of MOTU's flagship Mac sequencer adds full surround mixing support among many other new features.

Can Steinberg's professional recording package make an impact in the Pro Tools-dominated Macintosh market? Sam Inglis finds out.

If you constantly find yourself playing the same old chord shapes, then the rather nifty Australian Chordwizard...

Software instruments are now becoming commonplace, but it's still an ambitious software developer who attempts to model an entire studio.

All sorts of weird and wonderful instruments have been recreated in software, but IK Multimedia's Sampletank is the first serious attempt to make a high-quality workhorse sound module available in virtual form.

Version 2 of TC Works' Spark XL stereo audio editing software offers several unique new features and a very fast new Virtual File Engine that should speed up the operation of the program with large files. Paul White fires it up...

More and more vintage hardware instruments are now being modelled as virtual instrument plug-ins. With EVP88, Emagic have turned their attention to electric pianos, producing a Logic-only plug-in which models several different piano types. Paul White discovers that the tines they are a-changin'...

Cakewalk's Pro Audio range is one of the most widely used sequencers in the PC world, but their latest package has a new name and a new image, as well as lots of new features. Martin Walker tries out Sonar.