SOUND ON SOUND
Sample and loop libraries have come a long way from being delivered on a humble audio CD — the most recent trend is to include a specific playback front-end for easy integration with your sequencer.
This new front end offers a clean, warm sound and is surprisingly easy to use.
This cross-platform package from BIAS offers high-quality denoising at an affordable price.
Featuring the performances of some of the world's best drummers, Drumcore is a software-based cross between a drum library and a custom loop-auditioning interface, allowing you to assemble rhythm tracks fast.
If you are keen to move to an all-software setup, but still depend on sounds from your hardware synths, Redmatica's utility might smooth the path...
Appraisals of Sample Lab Drum Fundamentals 4* • Tekniks Blue Shock 3* • Smart Loops Pro Drum Works (Volume One) 4* • Cycles Volume Two: Unnatural Rhythm 4*
Phonic's new audio analyser is certainly portable, but how well does it work?
Roland's affordable new guitar synth incorporates improved pitch-tracking, and comes bundled with the latest GK-series pickup as standard.
Rather than using modelling technology to emulate classic synths, Ultimate Sound Bank have created an eight-Gigabyte sample library and packaged it with an accessible virtual instrument front end.
Intel's Prescott Pentium 4 chips have proved too hot for many music PC builders to handle, but Philip Rees have used them to build machines that are both powerful and impressively quiet.
Computer noise can be a major problem in the computer-based studio, especially where instruments or vocals have to be recorded in the same room. This soundproof cabinet with in-built cooling system is designed to tackle such noise.
The latest version of Cakewalk's flagship sequencer brings it into the world of surround sound, makes it easy to work with folder tracks and multiple takes, and adds one of the most comprehensive Freeze functions available on any DAW.
It may share the same name, but Spectrasonics' new Stylus RMX is a very different software instrument from the original Stylus, with a completely reconstructed underlying sound engine and a ton of new features.
Reviews/appraisals of the latest sample CDs: VSL Chamber Strings 6* • VSL French Oboe 6* • Zero-G Akoustik Bass Hitz 6* • PMI Consolidated! 3*
It's a great concept — a keyboard synth that can run computer plug-ins. Open Labs have created one by putting an entire PC inside a keyboard. But is it a recording revolution, or an overpriced processor in a fancy case?
This unusual unit provides an exceptionally revealing means of metering stereo signals.
Concrete FX's plug-ins incline towards the less well-trodden areas of sound generation, and their latest is a wavetable synthesizer that recalls the Waldorf Microwave.
The latest multitracker from Zoom is their most sophisticated yet, but can it see off its rivals in what is an extremely competitive marketplace?
This DVD disc is intended to demonstrate 5.1 surround-sound techniques, with four world-class drummers providing the source material.
This book is not just an academic exercise detailing the Mac and PC software/hardware you'll need to make music, its text is liberally sprinkled with mini-interviews and quotes from other practising laptop musicians, including details of gear and techniques, which really bring it to life...