SOUND ON SOUND
The much-anticipated Hercules 1612FW Firewire interface supplies an impressive quotient of analogue I/O at a very attractive price.
Mackie 'up the ante' once again by squeezing eight channels of their class-leading preamplification and A-D conversion into a 1U rack.
Unlike most eight-channel interfaces, the Presonus Firepod includes eight mic preamps — at a very appealing price.
A pint-sized preamp with anything but a pint-sized sound, plus the bonus of presets!
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*
A premium compression sound lurks behind the no-frills cosmetics of this new Broadhurst Gardens processor.
The Joemeek product range has recently been completely overhauled, and one of the updated units is this new half-rack recording channel. Have the designers retained what made the original products successful?
Thin is clearly 'in' amongst manufacturers of keyboard controllers. Mere months after the arrival of Edirol's slender PCR1, M-Audio weigh in with the equally waif-like O2. But is it slim and trim, or just a lightweight?
Completing Behringer's B-Control family, the BCA2000 combines audio and MIDI interfacing with routing/mixing features, and preamps — and all for under £200.
Sonic Implants extend their New World Symphony with an orchestral brass sample library.
Is it an amp modeller? Is it a multitracker? Is it an audio/MIDI interface? We stomp the facts out of Digitech's new box...
Phonic's new audio analyser is certainly portable, but how well does it work?
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.