SOUND ON SOUND
Two months ago, Korg unveiled their OASYS high-end physical modelling synth, and already, a low-cost spin-off is just around the corner. SOS staff were amongst the first to hear it.
Panicos Georghiades checks out Turtle Beach's most cost-effective PC sound card yet.
Just the thing to send Paul White for Christmas: an Omni Present!
Eventually, pretty much everyone tries to recreate that old vintage valve guitar sound by using an old vintage valve, but Zoom have teamed tube technology with a powerful digital effects DSP to combine the best of old and new. Paul White finds out if the marriage works.
A synth editor program for your computer can expand your synthesis horizons and encourage you to discard those presets in favour of original creations. But what if you have more than one synth — surely it's going to cost a fortune buy an editor for each? Not necessarily, as Paul Nagle finds out.
Once upon a time an Emulator was all eights: 8-bit, 8-voice, 8-outs, but that was a decade ago. Ten years on and the latest Emulator has more of the 128 about it: 128 voices, up to 128Mb of RAM. Paul Wiffen finds out if everything else about the EIV is 16 times as good.
Paul White is given an exclusive preview of a new technology that will revolutionise music making — and this time, it really will!
At a time when a modular synth could cost as much as an average house, Roland's System 100M was an affordable dream. Chris Carter gets patched in...
We've had the analogue synth revival; now it's the turn of the analogue sequencer! Gordon Reid checks out Analogue Systems' brand-new 16-step analogue sequencer and explains just why you might want such an apparently obsolete device.
Paul White turns up the volume, and discovers that Spirit's PowerStation delivers both quality and quantity.
Are the 16-bit capabilities of your AV Macintosh languishing unused for want of a decent (and Cheap) 16-bit sample editor? SoundEdit 16 could be your salvation. Mike Collins checks it out...
Could this be the ultimate one-box solution to your sound generation needs? Kevin Earley finds out.
Derek Johnson looks at a cost-effective way of cutting down the noise in your studio.
Soundcraft have added nearfield monitors to their product range in a continued bid for world domination. Paul White subjects them to the rigours of studio life.
The flood of quality effects units from Lexicon continues unabated. The Reflex takes the familiar Alex format, enhances its front panel editing, adds Lexicon's new Lexi II chip for improved sound quality, and tops it all off with comprehensive MIDI control facilities. Nick Magnus gets dynamic...
Paul White looks at a RAM program card from Metrasound for use in a Yamaha SY35.
Philip Rees are known for their distinctive red and black MIDI Thru and Merge boxes, which have found homes in many MIDI studios. Now they've turned their attention to tape sync, with the TS1. Derek Johnson checks it out.
Paul Ward looks back through time to 1980, and considers the hidden strengths of one of Roland's more overlooked monosynths: the SH09.
Amidst the parched sands of the NAMM show, Paul White found welcome relief at Korg's Oasys of advanced musical technology, where the latest efforts of the company's US R&D team were unveiled.