February 2017 Magazine Contents

Acustica’s latest plug-in promises new heights of realism in SSL-style EQ and compression.

Active monitors may be the de facto standard in the studio, but this stylish Finnish design makes a powerful case for the alternative!

Analogue Solutions’ Megacity is a step sequencer like no other...

Arturia’s cut-price creation combines step sequencing with keyboard control.

Could you have quality time in your studio with Black Lion’s little black box?

The Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble dates back to 1976 and was the very first Boss pedal to use charge-coupled ‘bucket brigade’ delay line chips. Now, on the 40th anniversary of the original CE-1, Boss release the Waza Craft CE-2W, still in the familiar compact pedal format — and still blue...

Editors Keys made a name for themselves by providing QWERTY keyboards which displayed the usual input symbols plus default shortcut commands for a number of creative software applications. Their latest variation on the same theme uses a thin silicone overlay to convert your existing MacBook or Apple wireless keyboard into a shortcut keyboard.

Imagine that you’re using a computer-based DAW alongside a modular analogue synth and that you want them to talk to each otherhttp://Silent Way...

With eight new Air preamps and two-way ADAT connectivity, could this be the best way to expand your audio interface?

This latest incarnation of a long-running library introduces new instruments, articulations and enhancements.

Could this modern take on a classic compressor design be fab for your studio?

These classy new French-made modules are inspired by vintage designs, but they also add a few unexpected and useful features.

Combining wireless control, Bluetooth music streaming and an eight-input mixer, HK’s new compact PA system covers a lot of bases!

Haaze is a simple to use tool for manipulating stereo width in an audio signal — and it's cheap as chips.

Boost pedals are conceptually simple devices that ramp up the level of your signal to push the front end of your amp a little...

M-Audio’s CTRL49 takes the Akai Advance control keyboard concept and adds DAW control.

It’s getting harder and harder to produce an iOS sequencer with enough personality to stand out from the crowd, but it’s just possible Fluxpad is such an app.

The Qu-Bit Chord promises what can sometimes be tedious to set up within a modular: easy polyphony...

Studio stalwarts sE join the stage-mic fray with these two new designs. It’s a crowded marketplace — can they stand out?

Spectrasonics’ major keyboard collection combines classic vintage instruments with a gallery of unique rarities.

Dorico is the biggest thing to happen to notation software for years. We explore the initial release and discover the thinking behind its innovative design.

The Stepper Acid is a no-nonsense digitally controlled step sequencer dotted with red LEDs and without a shift key in sight...

With its enhanced LF response and effortless SPL delivery, Unity’s new active bass extender is seriously hot stuff. Schwing!

We check out an interesting collection of specialist mic-mounting accessories, designed to support two mics in a precise physical relationship to each other.

Keep these five commandments in mind, and avert Pro Tools disasters!

When it comes to mixing drums, few things have studio newcomers tearing their hair out more often than compression. We clarify matters by identifying a series of distinct drum-mixing tasks for which engineers commonly use compressors.

Cubase has all the tools required to add a human feel to your programmed acoustic drum parts.

Beyoncé’s right-hand man DJ Swivel has reinvented himself as a mix engineer — and his work with the Chainsmokers produced 2016’s biggest track.

Live opera can be a life-changing experience — and London’s premier opera house is using immersive sound to explore new ways of sharing it.

Propellerhead recently released a major update to their Parsec synth. Here’s the lowdown on this essential Reason Rack Extension.

We explore some more advanced techniques and less-obvious applications for Synchro Arts’ powerful audio-alignment processor.

Logic Pro X sports extensive sampling tools. Here’s how to use them effectively.

Maximising A Minimal Arrangement: Our engineer tackles the recording of some stripped-down electric-guitar and vocal arrangements.

Find out how Sonar’s new Lens feature can help you streamline the user interface for the task at hand.

The team behind a three-day event on Hastings Pier had to battle weight restrictions, noise limits and the elements to make it happen!

Studio One’s Repeater is no ordinary delay. For a start, it works on note data rather than audio!

I’ve been reading about iZotope’s Neutron, and how it is described as automating the process of attenuating some frequencies of audio track B, so that the simultaneously played audio track A, which has signal in the same frequency range, sounds more prominent...

Perhaps I do not understand the proximity effect very well! But my question is this: can you decrease the proximity effect solely by lowering the volume?

Our esteemed Editor-in-Chief sneaks off into his studio to battle against the encroaching wave of untidiness caused by plugging and unplugging all that review gear...

If good production and the means of good production often go unnoticed, then that creates a number of ‘invisibles’ that have contributed to the process and production of the music...

This month mixes from: Kent Jones • Hailee Steinfeld & Grey ft. Zedd • Rag’n’Bone Man • Little Mix • Classic Mix: Toto ‘Africa’ (1982)

A cosy, friendly atmosphere is considered so important at one German studio that it is named House Of Music and Entertainment — or HOME, for short.

The way composers are treated by some clients is just criminal...

The glory days of Abbey Road and EMI may be gone, but labels and studios are still working hand in hand.