Industry Talk

If you've heard of Paris's IRCAM, you probably imagine it's government-funded research bunker devoted to a kind of avant-garde sonic and musical experimentation that has little relevance to the average hi-tech musician. Over the last few years, though, as Paul Tingen discovers, IRCAM has been coming down to earth, and a new spirit of openness and commercial awareness now shapes its work.

Designers of the SoundBlaster range, Creative Labs recently unveiled their next generation soundcard, the AWE64 Gold. Paul White discusses the future of PC soundcards with Creative lads Franco De Bonis and Mike Chandler.

Singer/Songwriter Patcee Francis argues that music should transcend technology, not be circumscribed by it.

Within just a few years, the Mackie brand has come from almost nowhere to a prominent position in the project studio mixer market. Now the company are looking to the future and deciding where they can next apply the Mackie philosophy. Paul White takes a busman's holiday to Seattle and looks behind the scenes in R&D.

Debbie Poyser and Derek Johnson fold up the cybermap, put the virtual surfboards back into storage, and conclude their musician's guide to the internet.

'Manager' speaks with forked tongue, says Rehearsal Studio co-owner Nicholee Smith.

Equipment manufacturers frequently boast that with their gear, your creativity will be limited only by your imagination. Electronic musician Ian Boddy explains how his increasing his limitations actually enhanced his work.

The Internet contains far more information than you could hope to assimilate in one lifetime — the problem is finding things you actually want to know about! In the first of a two-part series, Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser don their Tour Guide badges and present a musician's guide to interesting World Wide Web sites...

These days, you can pick up an Atari ST computer for under £100, and its once-guaranteed studio ascendancy is seriously threatened by the Mac and PC. Paul Ward checked out all the alternatives when upgrading his computer, and decided to stick with the faithful ST. Here he explains why.

The School Of Audio Engineering celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Debbie Poyser and Derek Johnson talk to SAE founder Tom Misner and European General Manager Rudi Grieme about the school's development into a worldwide concern, the courses SAE offer today, and the changing business of teaching music engineering and production.

This month's Sounding Off lives dangerously, re-opening the dreaded 'Mac vs PC' debate. With tongue planted firmly in cheek Stephen Bennett prepares himself for next month's onslaught of hate mail from PC evangelists...

In this second article on digital music production, Clive Williamson looks at how musicians can use computer technology to get their work from a DAT tape to the final product — the CD.

The pitch-shifting and harmonisation facilities available in the Digitech Vocalist series have been widely acclaimed as the most natural-sounding on the market. Paul White talks to Fred Speckeen of Canadian company IVL Technologies, who are behind the Vocalist and other pitch-shifting technology.

The latest crop of dance-specific sound modules are a bad thing, both for pop in general and dance music in particular, says SOS Contributor and self-confessed 'cynical old hippy' Norman Fay.

Despite promises that the Internet will soon alter the way we make, promote, and sell our music forever, it would seem the revolution is yet to happen. Or is it? Simon Price explains how the technology required to broadcast your demo anywhere in the world is almost within reach.

If you want to make a living as a producer, masterminding great recordings is not the end of your obligations. You'll have to deal with lawyers, managers, and the business end of record companies — all in the interests of finding work, and ensuring you're paid for it! David Mellor invites you into his parlour...

Computers helped former BBC engineer Clive Williamson and his band Symbiosis through all the stages of CD production, right through to finished discs and artwork. In the first of a two-part series, he explains how he brought digital technology and traditional musicians together to create atmospheric ambient music.

There are now more recording media and data storage formats than ever before. Paul White catches up with Pro Tape's Richard Symons, to discuss the role of tape in a multi-platform future.

SOS reader, songwriter and freelance producer Steven Robinson has some strong opinions on the state of pop music today. In this month's stream of invective, he gets some of it off his chest.

As the final mix looms, the end of the producer's job draws near. But which approach to mixing is best? David Mellor fires up the Moulinex.

Tech 21's founder and inventor of the SansAmp range of solid state, vacuum tube-emulating amplifiers talks to Paul White about the intricacies of reproducing tube circuits without the tubes.