SOUND ON SOUND
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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...
Emagic's virtual sampler provides Logic Audio users with a practical alternative to hardware-based sampling. Paul White puts it to the test.
Paul Wiffen continues his homage to the first 'musical' sampling keyboard, which brought sampling out of the dark ages of simple trigger playback and into the realm of filters, envelopes and performance controls which we take for granted on all modern samplers. The Emulator II was, as he explains, also responsible for other major innovations like on-board hard drives and CD-ROM libraries...
Paul White tries out a small, but highly effective stereo compressor with some unique features.
Paul White tries a new analogue mastering processor that combines expansion, compression, EQ, width control and limiting in a single device.
![Figure 1: [top] The output from an envelope follower. Figure 2: [bottom] A more sophisticated envelope follower.](https://dt7v1i9vyp3mf.cloudfront.net/styles/teaser_large/s3/imagelibrary/s/synth1_2-0800-0C0zNIUAttbB6Ff8M6IKO1uI8Z34UeVi.gif)
Gordon Reid introduces the synthesis modules that allow you to create a number of commonly used 'random' effects, and their close relatives — analogue sequencers.
Unil the EII came along, Paul Wiffen had no time for sampling as a musical tool. But when he found all the filtering and enveloping he was used to from analogue synthesis, plus a sound fidelity which he hadn't heard before, he was a convert...
Built in to the same box as Emu's flagship Proteus 2000 comes the Xtreme Lead 1, a dance-based 64-voice, 16-part multitambral sound module with 32Mb of onboard sampled ROM sounds. But is it as powerful as it is bright? Paul Farrer finds out.
The latest Joemeek processor to benefit from the company's Meequaliser technology is the new incarnation of the VC1. Paul White racks it up...
Korg's Electribe family of instruments aims to combine cutting-edge dance sounds with an easy-to-use interface. Nicholas Rowland meets the latest member, the ES1 desktop sampler.
Physical modelling has always held out the best hope for producing realistic miked-up amp tones from a DI processor, and many recording guitarists found their prayers answered when Line 6 launched the Pod. But does this new contender in the field have anything more to offer? Dave Lockwood gets physical with the J Station.
Two years after its launch, Roland's innovative SP808 sampling workstation has undergone a dramatic change in appearance, and also now benefits from new effects and improved Zip drive storeage. Chris Carter embarks on an affair with an EX...
Paul White checks out the new two-channel version of SPL's innovative dynamics processor.
Adaptec's Toast is already the most widely used CD-burning software for the Mac, thanks to licensing deals that have seen it given away with most CD writers. The latest update sees it now being sold as part of a tasty bundle, incorporating other useful applications and a CD labelling device. Mike Simmons finds out if it's too good to be true...
Roland's impressive range of 'next generation' instruments have seen the company share a number of new technologies across a wide range of products. The latest of these is the VA7, an arranger keyboard which incorporates their revolutionary Variphrase technology. Paul Farrer makes arrangements...
Paul White gives Zoom's new low-cost modelling guitar preamp the once over.
Steinberg believe that now that PCs are so powerful, the days of dedicated DSP farm for professional computer-based recording systems are over. Martin Walker enters the native processing world of Nuendo.
Tascam's MX2424 hard disk recorder aims to provide professional 24-track digital recording features at an affordable price, combining the simplicity of tape recorder-style operation with the flexibility of computer editing. Paul White finds out how well it achieves these aims.
Jon Thompson explains how online distribution can work for new music — but only if you get in at the ground floor...
A new interfacing standard is just around the corner which can carry digital audio, MIDI, timecode and hard drive communications down a single cable, in addition to the digital video and multimedia signals which the likes of Sony, Apple and others are already sending down it. Paul Wiffen, long an advocate of high-speed digital interfaces, investigates and finds that he may just have a new religion to evangelise.