March 2014 Magazine Contents

The improved AT2020 USB+ adds a headphones output to monitor what you recorded, and its bundled accessories include a conventional stand-mounting swivel clamp, a small tripod desk stand and a 10 foot USB cable.

Need a stereo pair of high-quality omni mics for under £500$600? Look no further!

A compact USB MIDI keyboard controller for the musician on the move, but with full-size keys and polyphonic aftertouch too!

Hatsune Miku is the name of a fictional 16-year old girl, who can be made to sing using Yamaha’s Vocaloid 3 synthesizer engine.

Danish mic legends DPA take their considerable mic-designing experience to the stage — with impressive results.

The 2.1 monitor approach may have its pitfalls, but there are also some very real benefits to be had, especially in small studios.

The market for reverb plug-ins is crowded, but Exponential Audio hope there's space for two more high-quality designs...

These compact and affordable monitors, from young US company Fluid Audio, turn in a surprisingly good performance.

We check out Gem Audio's classy and charismatic interpretation of the recording channel strip.

All the stands in this range are intended to decouple a speaker from the desk or studio furniture on which it sits. Where this model differs is in its size — 17 inches wide by nine inches deep, making it suitable for speakers with a larger footprint.

Korg already have an enviable track record for making high-quality apps, but in Gadget they've made their most serious step yet towards full music production.

Can Kush maintain their reputation for fine-sounding analogue gear with this interesting EQ?

Audio files to accompany the article.

The latest additions to Mackie's established SRM range offer the same level of flexibility, but in traditional wooden‑box enclosures.

Nektar's Panorama P1 is a control surface with a lot going for it — especially if you use Cubase or Reason.

Native Instruments take their hybrid groove machine to another level with new hardware and a big software update.

Do Olympus's latest recorders maintain the high quality and intuitive control of their earlier models?

Fledgling company Output claim that Rev is the world’s first collection of reverse instruments, loops, rises, pads, pulses and swells.

The eagerly anticipated flagship in PMC's new TwoTwo range is finally here. Has the wait been worthwhile?

Apps based on existing software are far from unusual, but Wolfgang Palm has chosen to go the other way.

American company Retro Instruments offer this true variable-mu valve compressor in 500-series format.

Rhythmic Robot’s Shortwave is a Kontakt instrument crammed with ghostly voices, radio tuning sweeps, morse code bleeps and an assortment of hisses, crackles and pulses.

Guitar amps don't come much more portable than this updated model from Roland. But how does it sound?

Audio files to accompany the article.

Designed for musicians on the move, this portable PA offers a wide range of uses for almost any gigging scenario.

The cinematic supremo enlists the best of British in a grand percussive collaboration.

Synthesists have been asking manufacturers to build new analogue instruments for years — and now they’ve finally responded. But what took them so long? We round up some of the recent offerings.

Vic Keary's latest design is a compressor that's also a mic preamp and an EQ — but not, apparently, a channel strip!

Thanks to Tronical Systems, your guitar can now tune itself. Is this a valuable tool for committed guitarists, or a crutch for the lazy and tone‑deaf?

The latest of many hardware emulations from Universal Audio reproduces a complete API channel strip in your DAW.

UVI's rainbow‑hued reverb plug‑in is designed to help you instantly find the right ambience for your mix.

Cyberstorm has been produced by Frédéric Devanlay who was also responsible for Zero-G's Deep Impact and Perception Cinemascapes.

We look at what Live's built-in delays can do for you.

The new version of Audiobus is really going places. All aboard!

We look at how chord‑generating Rack Extensions in Reason could help you out of a musical rut.

Tomorrow's pioneering paean to the joys of communal public transport has proved to be a classic of the British psychedelic underground.

Learn how to Flex Pitch like a pro in Logic Pro X.

Despite recording mainly live, Arcade Fire spent more than a year recording Reflektor. It was up to Korey Richey and Mark Lawson to get the results to tape.

Create striking new sounds using Reaper's ReaSynth plug-in.

Pro Tools often turns up its nose at corrupt WAV files. Here's how to bring them into line.

One of our engineers visits a reader's studio to help him bring the best out of his dubstep track.

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Studio One offers multiple methods of synthesizing splendid stereo from mediocre mono.

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Bored of the same old chord sequences? In this short series, we explore some simple ways to spice up your piano chords.

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Once an expensive and futuristic dream, the technology for Internet‑based collaboration is now available and affordable — and more practical than you might think.

Find what you're looking for faster with Sonar X3's new Browser.

Improve your PC's performance by taking the strain off your CPU.

Perfect your vocal pitch-correction techniques with Cubase's VariAudio.

Some pieces of bad advice just won't die, no matter how unhelpful they are. Here's why you shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet...

I’ve listened to music recorded on tape and the ‘warmth’ seems to be largely due to the soft-saturation characteristics of the tape and other non-linear components in the signal chain. This being the case, won’t a simpler valve emulation or mild overdrive plug-in achieve pretty much the same result?

I keep reading in your mic reviews about the sound being more natural when hitting a mic on-axis. Does this mean that there’s a risk of coloration with the ORTF technique right in the centre of the stereo image?

I'm really interested in the vocal sound on Haim's debut album, Days Are Gone — could you tell me what sort of processing might be involved in this album?

How do I add sub-bass easily to my tracks? I have a nice core ‘bass’ tonal synth but it lacks the low-frequency weight I’m looking for.

I'm writing this column in January just before setting off for the NAMM show in California, which is perhaps the highlight of...

This month we comment on releases from Testing Tomorrow, Clemistry & Audnoyz and Emiliano Cannavò.

Prefab Sprout rose to fame in an era of indulgence and eye‑watering studio budgets. These days, things are a little different...

The NAMM exhibition in California brings together music equipment and pro audio manufacturers from all over the world; the perfect opportunity to present the SOS Awards, which celebrate the products that you, our readers, have enjoyed using most over the past year.

The creative process is about serendipity, spontaneity, accident and chance. It’s about defying convention, standards and the dreaded ‘best practice’.

This month tracks from Jason Derulo, Martin Garrix, Eminem and our Classic Mix: The Beatles' Yesterday from 1965.

Reborn out of the Cold War East German TV and radio network site, Funkhaus Studios can be found deep inside Block B!

The pace of change in music technology can be scary, so let's be thankful for the one constant.

What does the world of sports broadcasting offer the budding sound engineer?