March 2009 Magazine Contents

Auto-Tune has been the industry-standard pitch-correction tool ever since its 1997 release. Does the latest Evo version keep the competition at bay?

Whats black and white and red all over? Behringers fantastically cheap new audio interface and MIDI controller, of course!

Housed on a single DVD, US sample-house Big Fish Audio's Hip Hop Mood Swings contains 40 hip-hop (in case you hadn't guessed)...

Divinity World Percussion captures the enthusiasm of half a dozen talented world musicians playing a wide variety of...

This neat new hybrid product appears to be defining its own market niche, but can it really be all things to all people?

This highly affordable device is based on the circuitry used in Neves legendary 1073. So can you really get a classic vintage preamp sound on a budget?

Can controllers this tiny and toy-like in appearance really do a serious job in the studio?

This hardware-based room correction system includes an audio interface and monitor controller. Is it the answer to your acoustics nightmares, or just too good to be true?

As instruments go, the electric guitar is a pretty established format, but if anyone can change that, Moog can...

Interesting old keyboards are becoming ever-more expensive and difficult to find. MOTUs solution to this is Electric Keys — samples of all of the desirable retro instruments you could want, for less money than a second-hand Vox Jaguar!

Fed up with bland, me-too plug-ins and tasteful processing? Ohm Forces unique effects and synths could have exactly the spice your studio needs.

Can Overlouds guitar amp simulator tempt us to plug into our Macs/PCs instead of our Marshall stacks?

Sample Logic's Synergy is an epic 18GB collection of over 1200 instruments, tempo‑sync'ed loops, and multis, powered by NI's...

The SE3 was a popular mic, but it only came in cardioid flavour. The new SE4 gives you more options...

The first paid-for update to Cubase for two years introduces some major innovations for sequencing and composition, including integrated Melodyne-style pitch correction and editing.

Working with a mouse and keyboard neednt compromise real-time control, as Sugar Bytes clever interface design demonstrates.

Ueberschall's Score FX is a further volume in the Liquid Instruments series, where the phrase samples are accessed through a ...

This desktop DSP box runs and offers hands-on control of Creamwares ASB range of synth plug-ins — and it costs under $500. Is it too good to be true?

Getting chordal guitar parts to work together in a track can be tricky, and if two players are working the same chord sequence...

The past year saw some significant developments in the world of PC music. PC Notes looks back over 2008 to assess the changes it brought and turns an eye to what we can expect to be doing in 2009.

This is the story of how an inspired rearrangement of an old song created a track that, 50 years on, remains a genuine and enduring classic.

Apple Logic 8s mixer is endlessly configurable, and knowing how to make its flexibility work for you will result in faster and easier mixing.

We present a DP-users guide to troubleshooting audio files and formats, and pass on tips for when the unthinkable happens...

Apple unveiled new versions of iLife and iWork this month during their final MacWorld keynote, along with a new 17-inch MacBook Pro. And, despite the fact that they didnt appear at this years NAMM show for the second year running, support for Apples products has probably never been stronger.

Last month we explained how to get a sense of front-to-back depth in your mix. Now we examine the left-right axis, as we suggest ways to get the best from stereo mixing.

At the heart of Digidesign's drive to turn Pro Tools into a serious tool for music creation are the MIDI and Score editors in Pro Tools 8. We explain how to get the best from these new heavyweights.

Links to the MP3 preview and high-resolution WAV files that accompany the SOS March 2009 Mix Rescue article for our newsstand/bookstore readers who do not have eSub-access to the main web article.

Getting the macrodynamics of a song right while also nailing down the important rhythm can be a real challenge. We explore some techniques for tackling this and more on Moosmusics Big Dummy Shake.

If you want the impact of heavily compressed drums but dont want to sacrifice your dynamics, parallel compression is the way to go. This month we explore the best ways to achieve this effect in Reason.

Transatlantic number one Just Dance was not only a breakthrough for Lady Gaga, but also for her producer RedOne and mix engineer Robert Orton.

We turn a family homes garage into a usable recording studio, and take reader Danny Williams through a number of gear maintenance, recording and mixing tips.

Sonar has more facilities than the average DAW for exploiting REX files to their best advantage. We guide you through where to find those facilities and how to put them to use.

Someone suggested that I could use a USB pen drive to record audio on my laptop. Is this a good idea? How fast are they, and is it really a cheap way to separate my system and audio drives, or are there any problems inherent in this approach?

Over the last couple of years Ive mixed quite a lot of songs, but only single tracks here and there. Now Im about to mix an album, and Im wondering what would be the best way to do it. The recording has been done in a very decent studio, and they have been adding some programmed elements afterwards. I want to avoid a situation where I mix all the tracks so that they sound great on their own, only to realise later that they wont fit together as a whole. How would you approach this? Would you mix one track, and use it as a reference for the other mixes? Would you re-use some of the settings (for example, use the same plug-ins for the same tracks, with some tweaks)? Sadly, the budget doesnt allow for a separate mastering job, so I would have to do some limiting and final tweaks myself.

Parallel compression is something Im just beginning to explore. Its not something Ive used much in the past, but Im seeing its potential for beefing up groups and whole mixes. However, if I set up a compressor on a send channel, rather than processing the whole signal via an insert effect, wont I get phasing? Also, if I set up compressors on several send channels and filter out certain frequencies on each channel (for example, roll off everything but the low-mid range on one, roll off everything but the high-mid range on another), then wouldnt this just be the same thing as multi-band compression?

SOS reader Gordon Staines of Cheshire emailed us because he was having difficulty using NIs Guitar Rig 3 with his Pro Tools M-Powered setup. Using NIs Rig Kontrol USB interface and controller, with Guitar Rig 3 running in stand-alone mode, he was able to get exactly what he wanted from it, “no latency, and it sounds great live just plugged into the phono inputs on my Marshall AS100D acoustic amp, of all things, or even when I just have the headphones in the controller for practicing. My problem is getting the same sounds out when laying down tracks.”

Paul White shares his personal views.

In their quest for that elusive 'X' factor, the editorial jury don their sequined jackets and audition another batch of your submitted tracks.

Does the music download business have a future?

A fearless maverick who swears by the need to generate tension in the studio, Youth has made a name as one of the most creative producers to emerge from Britain in the last two decades.

You thought your music was just right to start with, so why are people telling you to change it? Because theyre paying you — and because they might actually have a point...