SOUND ON SOUND
Paul White evaluates the latest Logic Audio update and discovers that as well as a host of new features, Windows users also get a brand-new audio engine.
As PCs grow more powerful, native-processing systems appear to offer very impressive features. Nevertheless, as Martin Walker explains, there is still a strong case for using dedicated audio hardware, as evidenced by Soundscape's powerful R.Ed system.
Nicholas Rowland is star-struck by Roland's frankly fabulous new hand percussion controller.
Roland's new guitar synth is their most affordable yet, but could it also be the best?
We test one of the most eagerly awaited products of the year! Does the Mackie HDR24/96 really offer the best of both the traditional hardware and computer recording worlds?
Paul White checks out the new features offered by the recent software update for Alesis' unique CD mastering processor.
Drawmer's 1969 model, developed with US pro audio dealer Mercenary Audio, seeks to offer the facilities of their acclaimed 1960 valve-based processor, but with a more American sound.
You might think the Pod Pro is just a Pod in a rack, but there's a lot more to it than that.
Robert Alexander pays tribute to the short-lived yet truely revolutionary Prophet 3000 which, like Sequential themselves, vanished almost overnight...
PC users have had to wait almost two years for many of the improvements which graced version 4 of Steinberg's popular sequencing package on the Mac platform. Now, however, they've leapfrogged straight to version 5, a major upgrade which incorporates all of those improvements and more. Martin Walker finds out if the wait was worthwhile.
A new PCI soundcard and breakout box system from Ego Sys combines analogue and digital audio, MIDI, and a host of synchronisation and driver options, and all without breaking the bank. Martin Walker wonders if this might be all you ever need...
Competition in the world of 16-track recording workstations is hotting up, and Akai's new DPS16 looks to be a prime contender, with its impressive user interface and 24-bit/96kHz capabilities. Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser take it for a spin.
Paul White tries out a small, but highly effective stereo compressor with some unique features.
Legend has it that Sir Alec Guiness's character in Star Wars was named after Oberheim's original OB1 synthesizer; and, like that character, the OB-series has now overcome death to reappear in virtual form. Gordon Reid finds the new OB12 more powerful than he could possibly have imagined - at the price, at least...
Hugh Robjohns tests this fully-featured, dual path channel strip, with circuitry designed by the legendary Mr Rupert Neve.
TC have come up with a new twist on the analogue synth emulation theme by providing modular oscillator, filter and envelope blocks that can be combined with VST effects. Paul White tries a few variations.
Emagic's virtual sampler provides Logic Audio users with a practical alternative to hardware-based sampling. Paul White puts it to the test.
Millennium Music are one of several UK companies who specialise in building PC systems to musicians' individual requirements. Martin Walker test-drives their service...
Yamaha's AW4416 recording workstation, which debued at the NAMM show earlier this year, has been the subject of more reader inquiries at the SOS office than any other product in living memory. In this exclusive preview, Hugh Robjohns gets his hands on a prototype to find out what we have to look forward to...