SOUND ON SOUND
As we saw last month, there's much to synthesizing a convincing flute sound — and yet basic analogue monosynths have offered reasonable flute patches for 30 years. Surely the process can be simplified?
A new generation of vocal processors, and a new generation of engineers, confront the possibilities and ethics of digital vocal manipulation.
The jungle drums are beating once again this month, as Apple begin shipping G5 Power Macs, and we take a closer look at Soundtrack, Apple's Acid-like loop-based music production tool, which is now available as a stand-alone product.
Logic has a number of simple synths built in, and they're surprisingly useful if you know what you're doing, so here's some advice on getting the best out of each one. Plus there's a bumper crop of sequencing tips to make your sessions faster and more productive.
The SOS team visit the West Midlands, where Gordon Giltrap's home studio needs help, nestling as it does in the shadow of one of the UK's most powerful TV and radio transmitters.
The Drum Editor has been a part of Cubase for over 10 years now, and here we investigate its latest incarnation within Cubase SX, as well as bringing you news of a major update to Steinberg's popular sequencing software.
Pro Tools 6.1 adds ReWire support for both TDM and LE users. Here's a look at what it is, how it works, and how to get the best out of it.
Thinking of taking your carefully-crafted studio creations to the masses? Here are some pointers to make sure your sound survives the transition to the live arena.
Filters are at the heart of many of the weirder sequencer plug-ins, so here we check out what each one has to offer, and how you can obtain weird and wonderful sounds for your mixes.
The news that Waves' range of quality plug-ins is now available for DP adds to the activity in an already interesting month for Digital Performer users — despite a delay in the release of 4.1.
In these days of multi-GHz CPUs, the silent music PC is but a memory, drowned out by cooling-fan noise. But we can have the speed without all that racket, according to a German PC manufacturer...
This month, using markers for navigation, getting the most from the piano roll view, and undertaking pseudo-mastering in Cakewalk's Sonar.
Could your undesirably high MIDI latency in Cubase SX be the result of unwittingly using an 'emulated' driver? Read on to find out.
SOS reviewers often mention their test or reference CDs — compilations of what they feel to be well-mixed, well-recorded audio, which they use to evaluate converters, monitors, and so on. But how do you go about making one yourself? We reveal all...
Once your record is mixed, edited and mastered, you may want to get it pressed professionally with proper artwork. But what's the best way to go about it?
Last month we looked at using Pro Tools' Beat Detective tool for chopping up and quantising drum recordings. Now it's time to explore the other side of the coin: extracting and using the tempo and timing of a recording.
This month we offer help for those getting to grips with Logic's much misunderstood Hyper Editor, and tell you how to reduce sibilance without using a de-esser plug-in.
The SOS rescue team set off for Bristol to help out readers Alistair Vickery and Jon Midwinter, who wanted help with their mixes — not only getting the bass sounding right, but also stopping it getting out of the house and annoying the neighbours!
DP v4.1 is available, and it looks like MOTU can provide a viable alternative to DP3 under OS 9 at last. Plus a look at VST plug-in support in DP under OS X...
Your computer screen really doesn't need to be cluttered when you're working with Cubase's many windows, because Steinberg have provided handy window-management features.