SOUND ON SOUND
These new condenser and dynamic microphones from the EVBlue range boast classy retro styling but how do they sound?
• Digitech EX7 Expression Factory • Electro-Harmonix 2880 Super Multitrack Looper • Technique: 'Re-amping' electric guitars
Boasting a serious sound at a very affordable price point, these new monitors should win many friends.
Creamware's Minimax ASB (the company's hardware recreation of the Minimoog) won over the critics — can they repeat the winning ASB formula with Sequential Circuits' Prophet 5 synth? Synth wizard Dave Stewart is your guide...
Some mic preamps are renowned for their flattery of the recorded signal, but this high-spec single-channel unit proudly aspires to cleanliness and neutrality, translating the character of your performances and microphones with the utmost fidelity.
A robust and unusually flexible mixer with lots of stereo inputs.
Cakewalk have taken the workhorse soft synth that was bundled with their Project 5 loop sequencer, put the sound library on steroids and made it available as a separate product on both Mac and PC.
Most computer audio interfaces don't offer the RIAA equalisation required to attach a turntable directly, but ART's neat problem-solver is designed to do just that.
In these days of fast, flexible computers and powerful virtual instruments, has the hardware workstation synth had its day? Alesis's Fusion mounts the case for the defence, offering four synthesis types, sampling, sequencing and hard disk recording — for under £1000.
Manufacturers have sought to provide expressive computer-based simulations of real instruments by releasing ever larger and more detailed sample libraries. But whatever happened to the idea of modelling instruments using synthesis techniques? Arturia haven't forgotten...
This new stand-alone recorder from Tascam records a variety of high-resolution audio formats directly to DVD discs.
While the sampling world has warmly embraced the drive towards superb sonics, Dagenham-based Worsesounds have made their mark with cheap-but-cheerless sound libraries aimed at the undiscerning...
Sometimes, a small interface board can make all the difference! We check out the card that allows you to send up to 16 channels of audio from your Motif ES synth (and all your MIDI data) via one Firewire cable...
Soundscape have always been renowned for the stability of their DSP-based PC recording systems. Their latest development is a unique new way of integrating native CPU power into the Soundscape environment.
Like a number of pop shields on the market today, the Stedman Proscreen 101 uses metal grille, as opposed to nylon mesh, to remove those annoying plosive sounds...
• Big Fish Audio Hip-Hop High: Multi-format • Garritan Jazz & Big Band: Kontakt Instrument • Sample Lab Broken Beats: WAV+REX+Apple Loops • Sonic Implants Symphonic Harp: Gigastudio
The addition of woodwind and percussion libraries rounds out Sonic Implants' Complete Symphonic Collection, bringing their three-year symphonic project to a close.
Exceptional A-D and D-A conversion, digital audio interfacing in multiple formats, plus Firewire connectivity make this high-end workhorse something for any studio owner to aspire to.
M-Audio have applied the same economies of scale to this digital piano that they have to their controller keyboards, with the result that the Prokeys 88 retails for well under £500, with the cut-down Prokeys 88SX costing far less.
The Radias is described by Korg as a synth and vocoder, but that's somewhat modest — it manages to cram analogue modelling, S&S, FM and formant synthesis into its stylish frame, plus a host of sound-shaping and triggering facilities. Plus that vocoder...