Computer / Software

The ability to make your own audio or data CDs with your PC can be enormously useful and is becoming cheaper all the time. But what exactly do you need to buy? Brian Heywood finds out.

Martin Russ brings you the latest news direct from an Apple R&D gathering, and takes a set of Allen keys to some expensive digital audio hardware.

With its flexible, professional sound design tools and moderate price, Peak fills a gap in the Mac digital sound editing arena. Paul D. Lehrman gets some peak practice...

This sophisticated new digital editor is up against such established software as Sound Forge and Samplitude Studio. Janet Harniman-Cook assesses whether Steinberg have built on their status in the sequencer field with a successful PC wave editing program.

Brian Heywood ponders some PC problems and waxes lyrical over the forthcoming Soundscape upgrade.

Martin Russ's terminal terminal finally gives up the ghost and after thinking long and hard about its replacement, he makes a surprising decision...

Ofir Gal brings news of a crop of software releases, from audio to graphics, which could enhance your Atari working environment...

This year's show-stealer at Frankfurt's Musik Messe, Steinberg's Cubase VST isn't just another 'MIDI plus Audio' sequencer — it adds the effects and processing options hitherto only available in expensive TDM systems, for the same price as the previous, non-audio version of Cubase. Is this the perfect desktop recording environment? Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser find out.

Digidesign's Session digital recording software has now made the transition from Apple Macintosh to Windows-compatible PCs, a feat made possible by the simultaneous release of the company's first PCI-format digital I/O card, the Audiomedia III. Paul White checks out both.

Faced with the unfinished album sessions on analogue tape and a studio full of PCs and digital gear, Brian Heywood gets a chance to find out how flexible modern equipment really is.

The C-Lab Falcon MkX has flown through its CE tests and finally landed in the UK. Ofir Gal checks the spec and assesses the new machine's chances of taking off.

Martin Russ surveys his dying Mac IIsi and ponders the purchase of a new model. Will he go for leading-edge Power or a last-generation bargain?

Now that Sound Designer II no longer provides sampler support, the way is clear for an improved version of the veteran Alchemy software. Mike Collins thinks it's worth its weight in gold.

Brian Eno is convinced that it's the start of a whole new ballgame... but is PC soundcard technology advanced enough for 'generative' music to work? Brian Heywood hears the new Enigma Variations.

The last years of the '90s will see a lot of changes, with the fin de siecle spirit extending to music and computers. Martin Russ sees Macs shedding their inhibitions...

Whether you see it as sleeping with the enemy or simple self-preservation, Atari users are increasingly defecting to Mac and PC emulation packages. Ofir Gal considers some of the available options: MagiC mac vs TOS.

With the addition of digital audio, version 4.0 of this popular, PC-based sequencing package isn't so much a cake as a chocolate gateau. Janet Harniman-Cook takes a walk in the Black Forest...

A major upgrade of this PC program makes it appeal to amateurs and professionals alike — but also provides some exciting pointers to the future of desktop audio. Dennis Miller takes a quantum leap in the dark...

Internet audio is going places — and nowhere faster than for the net-surfing Mac user. Martin Russ looks at the latest developments.

Hell hath no fury like a platform scorned, and Atari's neglect of the Falcon drives the mild-mannered Ofir Gal to rancorous recrimination....

It might be an unorthodox style of musicianship, but anything that adds strings to the Amiga's bow is to be welcomed. Paul Overaa gets tangled up in Loom...