
Studio SOS: Improving Multi-miked Drums
This month SOS helps Alan Pittaway improve his drum kit recordings, and also helps him get his two Roland multitrackers working together.
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This month SOS helps Alan Pittaway improve his drum kit recordings, and also helps him get his two Roland multitrackers working together.

The Fostex DMT8 was the first affordable 8-track digital recorder with a simple cassette multitracker-style user interface. Now, there's the new DMT8VL, which costs less and has fewer features than its forerunner, but also boasts a couple of improvements to the original design. Paul White is determined to remain unconfused.

Tascam, the originators of the Portastudio concept, which is now almost 25 years old, have taken a fresh look at the format for the 90's, substituting the digital MiniDisc medium for the analogue tape which has served home recordists so well, and adding a clutch of brand-new features. Hugh Robjohns indulges in a little 4-play.

In the second part of our investigation into the real-world delays caused by PC hardware and software, we consider the differences between different MIDI applications and versions of Windows. Are some sequencers really 'tighter' than others?

The latest in Akai's line of standalone hard disk recorders, which also includes 8- and 16-track models, sticks with the 4-track format of its predecessor, the DR4d, but adds 250 'virtual' tracks to increase the flexibility it can offer. David Mellor checks out this low-cost entry into the world of disk recording.

Though it costs no more than last year's TSR24S, Digitech's latest top-line studio processor offers twice the power, an improved user interface, and a digital connections option. Derek Johnson leaps into action.

Akai's MPC sampling workstations have been a studio fixture for nearly 15 years, and the MPC4000 is the most powerful one yet. But the world of sampling has changed dramatically since the MPC2000XL was released. Can an MPC still cut it in the 21st century?

What if you could access the sound and controllability of a range of the best-known classic analogue compressors and EQs, from a single rackmount box, in the digital domain? Two advanced processors from Sintefex aim to offer just this ability.

Though hard disk recording offers possibilities far beyond those achievable with magnetic tape, it often sports a vastly more complex user interface, which can alienate the tape-based faithful. But Akai's new 16-track hard disk recorder seeks to meet the tape heads halfway, David Mellor plays ambassador...

Descending Mosses-like from the mount, Lexicon's new dedicated reverb processor brings intelligence from the company's top-end reverbs. Paul White gets a debriefing...

During a fleeting visit to SOS headquarters, Paul White managed to soften up DOD/Digitech's Product Development Manager, Randy Thorderson, with a tasty curry before pumping him for info about products and future developments.

Can a digital console at such a low price really deliver on features and audio quality?

Emu's synths may have broken no new ground since the 1999 launch of the Proteus 2000, but the new 2500 plays to their strengths, offering the best of their sound library, plus excellent sequencing and real-time control capabilities, at a very attractive price.

The SampleCell II PC card can turn your humble PC into a fully-featured, 32-voice sample replay unit with eight individual outputs. Brian Heywood investigates.

Software samplers are revolutionising studio recording, but can they replace their hardware counterparts in live performance? Jazz keyboardist Django Bates is in the process of finding out...

Emu's eye-catching new Command Stations repackage the sounds of their MP1 and XL1 sound modules, adding hands-on sequencing and real-time controls. Can the company win fans with these late entries to the groovebox market?

Yamaha's RS7000 is a groovebox with a difference. Incorporating a sequencer, sampler and a synth, it claims to offer everything you might need for modern music production.

Two and a half years after the launch of Yamaha's impressive Motif workstation synth, the range has been further enhanced and upgraded. How much better can it get? We find out...

The MPC3000's dedicated sequencing and drum sampling control surface aims to tempt high-level musicians away from their computers with its luxurious hardware approach. David Mellor puts in a hard day's night and gives it the thumbs up.

Roland's latest offering in the 16-bit sampler stakes is more compact, more expandable, and less expensive (by a fair margin) than its predecessors. But have they had to make significant omissions to achieve this? Paul Wiffen investigates.