SOUND ON SOUND
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.
Roland's affordable new guitar synth incorporates improved pitch-tracking, and comes bundled with the latest GK-series pickup as standard.
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.
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.
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...
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 new baby of the Blue Sky range brings their design philosophy to the small computer studio. But will the 'satellite plus subwoofer' configuration and closed-box speaker loading work as well on a small scale as it does in the company's larger systems?
With its clever reversible analogue I/O section plus comprehensive, multi-client driver support, ESI's Julia is not your average stereo soundcard.
Less really is more — the 'smaller' name suggests a cut-down follow-up to 2003's Ion synth, but in fact the Micron includes most of the spec of its predecessor, and has added effects and a built-in sequencer too.
Three new mics from CAD offer impressive mounting hardware and audio specifications specially tailored to recording drums.
Version 3 of Gigastudio has taken a long time to arrive, and plenty of other software samplers have come along during the wait. Does it still have what it takes to see off the competition?
It sounds like an amazing deal — endless-rotary and (even more incredibly) moving-fader controllers for well under 200 GBP each. But have Behringer gone a price-cut too far this time?
Yamaha's list of mLAN products continues to grow, and their rackmounting i88X offers high-quality mic preamps, analogue, digital and MIDI I/O in a 1U rack unit.
This new mic preamp and equaliser unit uses 1960s EMI designs to recreate some of the classic sounds.