August 2016 Magazine Contents

This Kindle e-book is designed to help the reader develop unique custom digital filters that correct the frequency and timing responses of the reader’s loudspeakers within their specific listening environment.

Once available only to Pro Tools users, AIR’s comprehensive plug-in bundle is now open to all — and has been augmented by some intriguing additions.

This handy little mixer exhibits all the qualities you’d expect from Allen & Heath, in a highly affordable and portable format.

This compact module will serve as four linear VCAs or as a four-input mixer — for audio or control signals.

API invented the 500-series modular format and we check out their latest addition, the 535-LA line amplifier.

UK company Aston made waves with their British-made Origin mic, and now they’re back with a classy multi-pattern model.

The MicroGranny 2 is a miniature granular sampler, and you won’t have to sell any of your elderly relations to get one.

Marble is a seamless blend of synthetic and acoustic sources. Its 63 instruments are split into Harmonic, Percussive and Textures, and each patch consists of two components taken from them.

Crudebyte’s iSymphonic Orchestra is an ambitious attempt to pack a full orchestral sample library into an iOS device.

The OB6 is the product of a collaboration between two of the most respected names in synthesizer design, and it doesn’t disappoint...

If you’re looking for a no-frills, all-in-one speaker processor, this digital device ticks all the boxes at a very agreeable price.

Drips is a complete analogue drum voice that can be tweaked to produce kicks, snares, hi-hats and so on as well as Kraftwerk-style zaps and thwaps.

Fluid Audio’s decision to use a ribbon tweeter in a dual-concentric speaker is an unusual one. We find out how it works in practice.

The curious Gizmo polyphonic guitar sustainer is reborn. Can this new version succeed where the original failed?

The Swedish manufacturers resurrect a long-gone studio classic.

This inexpensive and conceptually simple plug-in, compatible with all iZotope’s usual Mac/PC formats, applies the principles of the Shepard Tone to filtering.

With almost 30 separate processing modules available, McDSP’s 6050 promises to be the “ultimate channel strip”. Is it?

Modstep is an ambitious iOS sequencer for MIDI synths, whether they’re physical hardware or other apps on your iPad...

Moodscape’s Autoplay button is a wonderful introduction to its charms. With a single touch, it generates a musical artwork that’s different every time...

Soon, for the first time in 35 years, you will be a able to walk into a shop and buy a brand-new Minimoog. But will it be as good as the original? Find out in our exclusive review.

The 1248 offers a lot of interface for the money, not to mention MOTU’s take on networked audio.

Designed by PandaMIDI in Hungary and inspired by the long-discontinued Akai Deep Impact, this unit adds a useful range of extra features.

The pop filter is one of those humble yet essential devices that you normally don’t pay too much attention to — which seems strange, really, when you consider that it’s the first thing in your vocal recording chain.

Operating rather like a subwoofer in reverse, this crafty device controls low frequencies but takes up far less space than conventional bass traps.

Designed to produce a wide range of mono or stereo delay-based effects, StompDelay's inbuilt multi-waveform modulation allows it to double as a flanger, chorus, tape echo or extreme effects generator.

Rebel Technology’s Phoreo [Rendering its name in Greek will break the SOS publishing software — Ed] is a clock,...

This mic offers an elegant means of getting that ‘reverse speaker’ kick drum sound without you having to butcher your NS10s!

A reinvention of Wavelab’s user interface aims to make its powerful feature set easier to use.

It’s an audio interface. It’s a digital mixer. It’s an eight-way microphone preamp... but how well does the US20x20 perform in use?

TC’s HyperGravity compressor pedal is unapologetically digital and is based on the algorithms developed for TC’s high-end System 6000 platform.

Combining characteristics from various classic equalisers, including the designer’s originals, the Swift isn’t quite like anything else.

Based upon a sampled Steinway B-211, the addition of an impressive library of MIDI performances makes creating that perfect piano track as easy as possible.

Early last year the Viennese company supplemented their Choir with a much-requested library of solo voices, which we examine here along with other VSL releases.

In the quest for ever more elegant ways to integrate analogue gear with DAW software, Polish manufacturers Wes Audio are leading the pack...

Zähl Audio’s consoles have long been cherished by professionals, and this unit should bring their sound to a wider audience.

Cubase’s Groove Agent SE4 isn’t the most intuitive drum machine, but it’s well worth getting to grips with.

Give your musicians the right cue mixes in Studio One, and you’ll make a huge difference to their performances.

What you don’t like about Reaper, you can probably change!

Samplitude’s Elastic Audio editor can be used for pitch correction, harmony generation, and more besides!

Reinvented by a little-known Norwegian production team, a song about not being famous any more made Mike Posner more famous than ever...

We look at the different ways in which you can animate parameters in Ableton Live.

Easily play and write in any key with Logic Pro’s MIDI tools.

Audio files to accompany a selection of this issue's articles.

The Silent Majority: sometimes the best way to improve a mix is to take a break from it.

Even at high sample rates, standard PCM audio ‘smears’ important timing information. A new digital format, MQA, promises vastly improved time-domain accuracy — without the huge file sizes.

We clear up some of the issues surrounding cloud collaboration in Pro Tools 12.5.

The Don Camillo Chor: Our engineer records a choir singing in their practice room, and tries to make it sound like it was captured in a church!

We look at what’s new in Reason 9 — including the power to change the background colour.

My outboard equalisers have no level or peak indicator, what would be the correct way to output the signal from my DAW (Logic) via an RME Fireface 800 audio interface?

I increasingly hear people extolling the virtues of a multi-bus system for mix processing, where you mix everything to a handful of parallel submasters, each with its own master-bus-style processing, before passing a mix of all those to the overall master bus. What’s the rationale behind this technique?

I’m struggling to understand what’s really happening when you use different compression ratios. Can you explain please?

Can you explain what is meant by ‘panning law’ in the context of a DAW’s setup?

Is it time to burn a few musical bridges, experiment with a more Eno-esque approach, and turn off the click track?

PJ Harvey’s long-term co-producer John Parish is uncompromising in his willingness to experiment — even with the world watching!

Peter Zinovieff has been described as Britain’s Bob Moog. A renowned composer from the mid ‘60s to the present day, he was also one of the founders of EMS who produced seminal synthesizers such as the VCS3 and the Synthi AKS, as used by Brian Eno, Pink Floyd and the Chemical Brothers.

There are two commodities that, if we don’t get in check, will massively affect the quality of recorded music: space and skills.

More analysis of tracks from: Drake • The Steeldrivers • Fifth Harmony • Classic Mix: Prince & The New Power Generation ‘Sexy MF’ (1992)

Perhaps the only classic Hollywood recording studio of this type that is still open today, Boulevard began as Continental Recorders around 1966. It changed name to Producer’s Workshop, before going on to create musical history in the 1970s.

Persistence is a virtue every composer needs, but you can take it too far.

As recording live shows gets cheaper and easier, the line between live-sound engineer and producer blurs.