Computer / Software

Rating: 4.5 Stars. Fledgling company Vegas Audio’s new drum plug-in tempts you to take a chance on a roll of the fruit machine...

Rating **** 4/5 Stars. If you need something to help you cook up dynamic drones, creepy cues or surreal synths, Timedrops has a lot to offer.

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. Sampleson describe their latest release, Alienize, as a cinematic sci‑fi instrument with mouse gesture‑based modulation.

Does the latest iteration of NI’s Komplete music production suite provide all the tools you need?

Sonuscore transform the sounds of the orchestra into cinematic soundscapes.

Vir2’s Phoenix is a one‑stop shop for rises, hits and whooshes.

I gather Windows 10 doesn’t support FireWire after a certain update, and I have some legacy devices that I’d like to be able to use. Are there any risks in updating?

Arturia’s mighty V Collection continues to grow and improve.

Rating: 5/5 Stars. If you are looking for an ‘easy’ virtual acoustic drum instrument, GoranGrooves’ Handy Drums provide an interesting alternative.

Steinberg continue to develop SpectraLayers at a remarkable pace.

Modo Bass 2 builds on the success of the original, adding more and better basses.

Softube take on Roland’s classic SH-101.

It’s useful to be able to work on headphones even when mixing immersive audio. Does Genelec’s Aural ID system make this easier?

This powerful ROMpler aims to be all things to all synthesists.

Steinberg’s scoring suite just keeps getting better!

Toontrack’s EZdrummer just gets better and better.

The idea of paying to ‘own’ software has always been problematic. What exactly is it that you possess?

Lunacy Audio take a different approach to in‑the‑box sound design.

PlayScore 2 is an iOS and Android app that performs OMR (optical music recognition) via a device’s camera or graphics‑type file import.

Embody’s Immerse Virtual Studio aims to replicate loudspeaker listening on headphones — and the newest variant does so in up to 7.1.6 surround.

Is Apple’s Mac Studio the perfect computer for the studio?