January 2010 Magazine Contents

As well as a distinctive design, these huge nearfield monitors offer a frequency and time-domain performance that compares with the best.

No prizes for guessing that Acid Jazz City 2 is a follow‑up to Big Fish Audio's original 'part 1' of the same name, and for...

Be careful you don't misread the title: BollyHood Beats has an 'H' in the middle, which is actually key to the content. And...

Its not touted as version 9, but the list of improvements certainly makes this years upgrade to Cakewalks Sonar DAW a big deal.

A brief guide to what factors should be considered when choosing replacement speakers for your guitar amps.

The latest product of Doepfers modular know-how is the Dark Energy: a compact, powerful and hands-on desktop analogue synthesizer.

FXpansions first foray into the soft-synth world yields some unexpected but welcome results...

Anyone who bought a hardware synth in the '80s already knows that even a few megabytes of sample memory can nevertheless result in incredible sounds in the hands of skilled sound designers. 

Recording in a live environment demands simplicity and stability, and this intriguing new product from SADiE co-founder Joe Bull is designed to offer both.

The fifth version of Absynth introduces even more sound-mangling features and aims to be far more user-friendly than its predecessors. Has it succeeded? Read on...

The new TLM102 embodies everything weve come to expect from a large-diaphragm Neumann studio mic — except the price!

After an extensive programme of selective breeding, Novation have created the Nocturn 25 — an affordable, touch-sensitive controller keyboard.

Despite the title, this isn't the debut CD of a Cumbrian '60s tribute band. It is, in fact, another of Soniccouture's...

Spectrasonics new STEAM-driven bass module bundles 34GB of electric, acoustic and synth basses into one package. We delve deep and give you the lowdown.

Whether recording or mixing, which set of headphones will work for you? We compare a selection of the best models.

Compact and bijou it may be, but the Impact Twin offers 14 channels of simultaneous analogue and digital I/O and is chock-full of TCs clever DSP technology.

Summing might not sound very rock & roll, but Thermionic Culture have added a little attitude of their own to this impressive and unique design.

There are countless reverbs, EQs and delay-based effects out there, but U-hes new Uhbik collection brings some fresh thinking to familiar sounds.

Each of Vox's Amplug range of guitar headphone amps is designed to emulate a single amplifier type, and to provide basic...

No matter how many compressors we own, when it comes to getting vocal levels right, theres no substitute for faders and hard work. Until now...

Noisy, muffled, incoherent recordings are an audio engineers worst nightmare, but all too often they contain vital evidence in criminal trials. Its the job of the forensic audio specialist to extract that evidence.

Hank Shocklees 1988 collaboration with Public Enemy brought a new aggression to hip-hop — both sonically and politically...

This contains the three separate files to accompany the SOS January 2010 Cubase Technique workshop (...

Many long-term Pro Tools users still rely on Beat Detective, but the newer Elastic Audio often produces better results in half the time.

Live 8s Looper is ideal for quick, fun composition.

For every destination you might have for your mix, theres a correct audio output format. We explain the options.

This month we look at ways to manipulate transients and make use of those all-important send effects, as we take on Jay Menon's ballad, 'Through My Eyes'.

Here is a selection of audio files to accompany this month's Mix Rescue of Jay Menon's ballad 'Through My Eyes'. You can...

If youre upgrading to Windows 7, you might be considering buying a 64-bit version to access more RAM. But will you still be able to use all your 32-bit plug-ins?

Boost your Reason productivity with indispensable keyboard shortcuts that make everyday jobs quicker and easier.

When French DJ David Guetta and American singer Kelly Rowland combined to produce one of the biggest crossover hits of 2009, the hands on the faders belonged to Veronica Ferraro.

Apple provide great entry-level music software in the shape of Garageband, so why is Mac hardware shedding features that help entry-level musicians?

What do you get when you cross a recording musician with a photographer? A nice-looking studio that serves a dual purpose, thats what...

VST Expression, introduced in Cubase 5, enables you to extract the best from multi-articulation sample libraries.

If your plug-in synths sound a bit cold and clinical, there are plenty of ways to inject some life...

I've carefully wired up my gear using all balanced inputs and outputs, and proper balanced cables, but I'm still getting...

I record and mix in my 'studio', which isn't too great acoustically. I can manage somehow when mixing, by working on...

I'm looking for some in‑depth education on the subject of parallel compression, with respect to its application in the...

I'm trying to figure out how I would create a really old‑style, warm‑sounding distortion/crackle on a string motif for an...

More of your submitted recordings undergo the SOS 'Juke Box Jury' treatment.

With musical instruments, its the interface that counts...

If the postal system hasn't completely melted down by the time you read this, you should still be looking forward to Christmas...

It took rapper Speech Debelle years to find a producer who could bring to life the sounds in her head. The answer, as Wayne Bennett discovered, was to record her music as if it were a folk album.

No-one likes having their work criticised, especially when the criticism is baffling, surreal and second-hand. But thats the lot of todays composer for the media.