SOUND ON SOUND
We are used to the idea of using fader boxes and other MIDI controllers to manipulate our music software, but now Serato want to get us using our turntables to scratch digital audio. Can it possibly work?
Formerly the East German state synth company (a great concept in itself), Vermona re-emerged last year with the MARS monophonic analogue synth. Clearly determined to win back their reputation, they've returned with the four-voice Perfourmer...
The latest in Roland's line of MC-series workstations is their best (and most expensive) yet, incorporating synthesis, sequencing, real-time control, and sampling. But in an increasingly software-driven world, can a Groovebox still cut it?
The most reliable way of preventing ground loops is to use an audio transformer to isolate the two problematic pieces of equipment from each other, and that's exactly the approach used in the Ebtech devices reviewed here.
Alesis brought us Air FX, a motion-controlled effects unit, just before they ran into financial trouble in 2001, so the planned synth version never really appeared at the time. Now that they're back, the Air Synth is with us at last...
PMI's second Grandioso library takes a thorough approach to capturing every nuance of a Bösendorfer Imperial 290 concert grand piano.
DVD-Audio offers high-resolution digital audio and surround sound, but authoring packages have been too costly for the home studio - until now.
Fostex enter the card-based multitracker market with a bang, offering eight tracks of uncompressed CD-quality audio from a single Compact Flash card.
Two surprisingly affordable units from a premium name in high-end valve processing.
Alesis continue to show us how to cram big spaces into ever smaller boxes!
5***** We check out the mighty Fender Rhodes 73 Stage Piano, brought to you in a new 3GB sampled version by the Danish company Scarbee.
Drawmer's affordable new combination of master clock and sample rate converters provides an ingenious solution for high-quality digital interfacing in the home studio.
These two small-diaphragm mics from Shure provide solid all-round performance with an extended low-end response.
Steinberg and Wizoo's latest collaboration aims to provide high-quality string sounds at an affordable price, with a software interface to make string arranging so easy that even drummers can manage it. Have they succeeded?
Swissonic's high-quality preamp and A-D converter caters for 24-bit/96kHz digital audio in AES-EBU and ADAT formats.
Behringer have redesigned their popular Composer Pro, adding tube simulation, de-essing and dynamic enhancement.
Price barriers continue to tumble in the soundcard market, as ESI Pro introduce an interface offering four analogue inputs and eight outputs, plus digital I/O, two mic preamps and 192kHz playback, for under £200.
**** Score = 4/5. Many libraries offer a French horn ensemble within their menu of brass sections, but this is the first horns-only release we've come across.
The successor to the MRS1044 has more of everything - tracks, inputs, sounds - at a very similar price. But with new fierce competition, is there still room for a Zoom?
Score = ***** 5/5 stars. Garritan has released GOS Lite, a three-CD version of GOS available in either Akai or Giga formats using samples from the full library.