
Mutronics Mutator
The predictability of modern digital sound sources, while convenient, may have you longing for some of the chaotic complexity of analogue. Paul Nagle looks at an analogue filter which could put the surprise back into your music.
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The predictability of modern digital sound sources, while convenient, may have you longing for some of the chaotic complexity of analogue. Paul Nagle looks at an analogue filter which could put the surprise back into your music.

This month the intrepid SOS team travel to Wigan to address Allan Murrell's recording, monitoring and mixing problems.

What does the SOS team want for Christmas this year?

As a child, Norman Fay was cruelly cheated of the thing he wanted most — a Memorymoog. Never one to bear a grudge, he reviews Moog's most unruly synth with the benefit of hindsight.

Paul White explores a few ways of taking nature's most common audio phenomenon and manipulating it to create special effects.

The mighty ARP were in existence for little more than 10 years, but introduced a sound which is as much a part of synth history as the Minimoog. Derek Johnson rehabilitates two of the ARP clan's poor relations...

There aren't many bands who produce their best work over 20 years into their career, but XTC's 1999 album Apple Venus Vol. 1 has been widely acknowledged as a masterpiece, and their latest, Wasp Star, is a joyous collection of noisy, catchy pop songs. Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding recorded it in their own Idea Studio, where they talked to Sam Inglis.

With more zones than a one-day Travelcard and an impressive array of physical real-time control options, the keyboard version of Kurzweil's K2500 represents a new frontier in digital synthesis. Paul Ward heads for the border...

Guitarist/composer Michael 'Jakko' Jakszyk has enjoyed an unpredictable musical career, comprising near-bankruptcy, fame and fortune with Level 42, and some disastrous but entertaining skirmishes with record companies. Here, he talks to Dave Stewart about the making of his unique autobiographical CD The Road To Ballina.

The array of choices which confronts anyone trying to buy a new PC can be bewildering. Fortunately, as Martin Walker explains, there are retailers out there who can eliminate the hassle and uncertainty.

Waldorf's Q keyboard workstation definitely suffered by being released to the public before its operating system was completely finished or bug-free. Gordon Reid takes advantage of the release of the new Q Rack module to revisit the operating system and see how it's come on...

We asked our regular sample CD reviewers to tell us which CD gems they'd like to be stranded with on a desert island (with mains power and a sampler, naturally). Paul White, Paul Farrer & Wilf Smarties plunder the Sample Shop archives for sampling treasure...

It's been an unreserved thumbs-up for Korg's bundle of software synths so far... but will the Legacy Polysix and Legacy Cell scale the same heights in the final instalment of our three-part definitive review?

British company Red Sound Systems are known for their innovative DJ products. Now, in the shape of the Dark Star, they've produced their first synthesizer. Wing Commander Paul Farrer warms up the engines and takes it out on its maiden flight.

For their latest album, style chameleons James retreated from commercial recording studios and found a new creativity working in the comfort of their own houses. Paul Tingen hears why they've decided there's no place like home...

If you're recording and editing MIDI + Audio on a PC, you'll want to try a piece of the latest Cakewalk. Janet Harniman-Cook reports from the kitchen.

Korg's Trinity workstation has, like their earlier instruments, become virtually an industry standard — but far from resting on their laurels, the company have upped the ante still further with the new Triton. Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser provide an exclusive hands-on review.

This quirky rack synth not only offers that genuine analogue sound, but comes with built-in MIDI interfacing and a very useful degree of patchability, for exciting sound-design potential.

Korg's longstanding OASYS synthesis project has finally come to commercial fruition. The original plan, to produce a traditional stand-alone synthesizer, has given way to a computer-based synthesis and mixing environment running on a multi-DSP PCI card. Simon Trask takes refuge with the OASYS PCI...

Martin Russ takes a look at the changing face of technology during the first decade of SOS.