
PC Soundcard Buyer's Guide: Part 1
If you're thinking of buying a PC soundcard specifically for HD recording, you'll find the market awash with models old and new. Martin Walker provides an overview of what's currently available.
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If you're thinking of buying a PC soundcard specifically for HD recording, you'll find the market awash with models old and new. Martin Walker provides an overview of what's currently available.
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?
Not every old analogue synth can be a classic. Gordon Reid reflects on one that is not desirable, probably won't appreciate and, in many analogue enthusiasts' opinions, does not deserve to be hunted down - except, perhaps, to be put out of its misery!
808 State have seen the future — and it's called the Internet. You can now contact the group via the net thanks to their new information service, State to State. 808 mainman Graham Massey explains the idea to Matt Bell.
'90s glamsters Suede wanted a more electronic, produced feel for their latest album, Head Music, so they linked up with production supremo Steve Osborne. Tom Flint talks to Steve about the complex production of the group's latest Top 20 single.
For the synth afictionado, the ARP Odyssey is up there with the Minimoog in terms of its power and sonic quality. Gordon Reid explains why he loves his Ody...
Many people love the idea of laptop recording, but few have put it into practice like 1 Giant Leap. Their acclaimed album and DVD project was recorded on an Apple Powerbook during a six-month journey round the world — with a little help from some friends...
Wedding Present frontman David Gedge and engineer/producer Steve Albini are both brutally loud guitar-based alternative music — so what would happen when they collaborated on an album influenced more by Serge Gainsbourg than the Stooges? Tom Flint investigates...
Imagine a synth which is a cross between the best of Emu's Proteus and Proformance modules, and also includes the Z-plane filters of the Morpheus. No further need to imagine; it's here, in the form of the new UltraProteus. Julian Colbeck checks out this impressive multitimbral module.
The TLM103 is, of course, a complete impossibility — it has supposedly been designed to a project studio price whilst retaining the qualities of Neumann's top-flight, large diaphragm U87.
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.
London Records have just given Scottish band Finitribe £75,000 to record their next album. By the terms of their mould-breaking new record deal, even if London don't like the next album, the Finis keep the money. Wilf Smarties finds out how they wangled it.
Having learned last month how to synthesize tuned bells, we turn this time, in the last of this series on the subject of percussion, to untuned bells — in the form of the humble cowbell — and claves.
Chris Rea and engineer Stuart Epps talk to Mark Cunningham about the making of Espresso Logic, life at The Mill studios and their approach to recording Rea's work.
Spectral Audio's internet homepage includes a large graphic, stating, rather menacingly, 'Rave or Die'. Christopher Holder meets the new Syntrack monosynth and decides death can wait.
Commercial physical modelling synths first appeared in 1994, but until now, nobody has produced one that offers truly multitimbral operation together with decent polyphonic performance. Korg's new Z1 does — and for well under £2,000. In this, the first UK review of the finished instrument, Goron Reid laughs wildly and plays lots fo chords — because he can.
Mark Isham resides at the top of Hollywood's film-music hierarchy, equally comfortable composing for orchestra as for a rack of samplers in his home studio. He marks time as an innovative genre-hopping artist and sought-after trumpeter too. Jonathan Miller finds out how he fits it all in...
Not all analogue classics have keys. The Xpander was an early module that packed in more features than its moderate size would lead you to expect, and left a legacy still discernible in modern synth design.
Paul White talks to one of the seminal figures of the electronic music era, pioneering synthesizer designer Bob Moog.