SOUND ON SOUND
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Cheap, writable optical media have revolutionised the way PC users store audio and back up their data. However, setting up your CD-R/W drives and persuading them to work at their best can be more complicated than it seems...
We transform the humble and inexpensive games joystick into a simple but effective MIDI controller, and find a word processor that will have minimum impact on the clean music partition of your PC.
We check out these integrated kit solutions to room-acoustic problems in the project studio.
Can I use my drum pads to trigger drum machine sounds? • Are red indicators in audio software significant? • What is 'zero level'? • Can you advise me on vocal recording and microphones? • Why have my faders stopped working? • Does normalising have any adverse effect on audio? • Can I obtain better orchestral sounds on a budget?
Although we don't usually cover commercial studios in Readerzone, Andy Cross's small Zoo Audio studio has found its way here because it is one of the few studios in the country to contain an Esmono recording booth.
**** 4/5. Bardstown Audio has collected together nine classic accordions in this two-CD Giga-format collection, and all are sampled from instruments made in the 1950s, when they were hand-made to high standards.
***** 5/5. Zero-G have reworked the entire contents of their extensive library into a single, three-CD Refill package for use with Reason, providing over 9000 individual samples.
**** 4/5. Da Nu Hiphop Era is a two-CD set (both audio) made up of 27 construction kits.
Samson seek a share of the budget microphone market with their highly competitive new large-diaphragm condenser.
With the addition in version 4 of surround sound mixing, ASIO and VST Instrument support and an expanding MIDI functionality, Sonic Foundry are attempting to move Acid beyond its original role in loop-based music creation.
The combined might of the record industry is currently behind the attempt to persuade us that surround is the next big thing - but many of us still remain to be convinced...
ST Audio's recording interface provides multi-channel, multi-client audio I/O, as well as MIDI In and Out and full 24-bit/96kHz capability, for a highly affordable £230.
This month SOS helps Alan Pittaway improve his drum kit recordings, and also helps him get his two Roland multitrackers working together.
When trying to copy a real piano with an analogue synth, if one patch doesn't quite do it, two just might...
The latest version of the popular VAZ software synth combines the simplicity and low cost of a preset design with some advanced options from the full-fat VAZ Modular.
If you're happy with the facilities of your Yamaha console or recorder, but you just want to upgrade the quality of the A-D/D-A conversion, these two cards from Apogee might be just what you're after.
A low-cost multi-effects unit with a huge repertoire of effects.
Another product from New Zealand's Buzz Audio gives you two channels of Class-A preamplification with switchable input impedance.
Kenton's latest take on their affordable hardware control surface concept eschews the faders of previous Control Freaks in favour of 16 knobs. And it manages to be cheaper than the fader versions...