SOUND ON SOUND
Nicholas Rowland tries out the new features in MOTU's ever-evolving flagship Macintosh sequencing package.
Looking like a 23rd-century Minimoog pumped full of anabolic steroids, Yamaha's sequel to the hugely successful DJX offers more of the same sampling, sequencing and performance features. Paul Farrer doesn't want to rock, DJX — but it's making him feel so nice...
Martin Walker's looking through tinted glasses at this latest offering from Prosoniq...
Paul White looks at the latest addition to Mackie's compact mixer range.
Paul White tests TC's new multi-mode approach to dynamics, and finds that it's as easy as CCC.
The characteristic sound of vintage valve equipment is well known, but interest is now growing in early op-amp designs too. One example is the Trident Series 80 console from the 1970s, which has recently been reincarnated in the form of the Oram S80 Producer Box. Hugh Robjohns relives those heady days...
Ever imagined what a guitar with a resinator body would sound like with a humbucker-style pickup, played at the 12th fret through a Marshall stack? John Walden creates just such a virtual instrument, with the help of Roland's VG88 V-Guitar System.
Bucking the trend for elaborate 'virtual studio' graphic interfaces and bloated feature sets, Making Waves is designed to allow you to get into making music quickly and straightforwardly, on even a modestly specified PC. John Walden puts it through its paces.
Neumann have rejuvenated one of their most celebrated capsule designs, allowing Hugh Robjohns to bask in that unmistakable glow...
The Supernova modelling workstation earned a pile of accolades for its excellent 'analogue' sounds, superb multitimbral effects, and its user-friendly, knobular interface. But Novation have now withdrawn the original and replaced it with the Supernova II. Can something so good get better still?
Continuing their tradition of themed rackmount modules, Emu have unleashed a 128-voice virtual orchestra in a box. A virtuoso endeavour or virtual insanity?
Hugh Robjohns tries out the very first production unit of the AW4416 — Yamaha's eagerly awaited combination of O-series digital mixer, hard disk recorder and sampler — and finds even more than he bargained for...
The affordability and compactness of Minidisc, DCC and smaller DAT recorders makes gathering location sounds a lot easier than...
Yamaha's new budget phrase sampler is designed to allow rapid creation of phrase- and loop-based music. Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser put it to the test.
Korg follow up their top-flight Triton workstation with a sophisticated rackmount expander. The new model sacrifices some features but enhances many others and adds support for the mLAN music network standard. Simon Trask racks it up.
Nemesys' Gigasampler proved that a fast PC could compete with the latest hardware samplers, and provided some features they simply couldn't match — such as sampled instruments many gigabytes in size. Now the company has updated the range to include two new products. Martin Walker asks if rackmount samplers have finally met their Nemesys...
Despite the ever-increasing number of PC recording cards on the market, there's one particular niche that has remained unaddressed, for years. Martin Walker tries out a product that, at last, fills the gap.
Paul White might have more voice channels than he can find voices, but after using the new SPL Channel One, he gets the overwhelming urge to add another one to his armoury.