Getting Started In Music
The answers to some of the more basic questions we receive at SOS might seem obvious, but they are, in fact, more complex that they appear. Mike Senior sets about answering the unanswerable...
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The answers to some of the more basic questions we receive at SOS might seem obvious, but they are, in fact, more complex that they appear. Mike Senior sets about answering the unanswerable...
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...
I have been doing some research on the Yamaha QY700 sequencer and it seems like a great product which would meet most of...
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.
Derek Johnson tries out a new multi-port USB MIDI interface that's also designed to allow connection of serial-port gear.
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...
There was quite a buzz about mLAN at the recent American AES audio trade show. Paul Wiffen reports on the latest developments.
After looking at the development of and theory behind mLAN, Paul Wiffen continues his series on the new FireWire-based music and audio protocol with a practical look at the effect it will have on the gear in our studios and how we connect it together.
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...
Paul White tests Yamaha's new high-end CD recorder, featuring Apogee's acclaimed UV22 noise-shaped dithering technology.
Last month, we examined the frankly scary maths allowing you to predict the audible effects of Frequency Modulation. This time, although the maths gets even tougher, Gordon Reid relates the theory to the practical implementation of FM synthesis on Yamaha's digital synths, as well as modular and non-modular analogues.
The eight-track digital recorder has become a standard building block at virtually every level of the recording industry, and a wide range of tape and hard disk-based devices is available. Now Yamaha have extended the choice with a machine built around a 640Mb magneto-optical drive. Hugh Robjohns takes it for a spin...
When is the professional signal level no longer standard? When you want to connect to digital equipment! Hugh Robjohns explains the mysteries of exchanging signals between analogue and digital domains.
As explained last month, audio-frequency modulation of the amplitude of a signal can be a powerful synthesis tool. The possibilities expand still further when we consider what happens when you use one audio-frequency signal to modulate the frequency of another...
Christina Aguilera's debut single was a worldwide smash hit last year, thanks in no small measure to the distinctive work of producer and co‑writer David Frank. Mike Senior finds out how he did it.
Yamaha's former sampling flagship, the A3000, represented a novel but very powerful approach to sampler design. The new A4000 and A5000, as Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser report, maintain the distinctive design ethos, but should provide even stronger competition to the established names.
The market for good but affordable 'reference' monitor speakers seems almost boundless and Yamaha have recently joined the fray with their active MSP10s and associated subwoofer, the SW10. Hugh Robjohns digs out his test discs again...
Last time, we examined the concept of modulation at low frequencies. This month, we speed things up a bit. The result is not just faster versions of the same modulation effects, but a new type of synthesis...
In Part 1, author Gordon Reid told us how he found one of the world's rarest synthesizers in Australia, and of the trouble he went to to get it home. In Part 2, he explains what it is about the Yamaha GX1 that made it all worthwhile...
In Part 1 of a special two-part feature, Gordon Reid tells the amazing story of Yamaha's ultra-rare GX1 analogue megasynth — and how it ended up in his living room!