July 2019 Magazine Contents

Fixed filter banks have been part of the synthesist's armoury almost since the appearance of the earliest Moog modular synths...

Does the Strike MultiPad's killer combination of features, practicality and price make it the best percussion pad on the market?

Now in its seventh incarnation and offering three new instruments, Arturia's V Collection just keeps getting bigger and better.

Austrian Audio may be a new name, but their first mics have an unrivalled pedigree. Are these the true heirs of AKG's classic C414 EB?

DMG's comprehensive multiband dynamics processor adds a whole workshop to your mastering toolkit!

Achieving a cardioid response down to low frequencies isn't easy, especially for a 'nearfield' monitor — but Dutch & Dutch have managed exactly that, and the results are impressive.

Earthworks' new stage vocal mic offers excellent specs, and sounds every bit as classy as it looks!

This all-digital pedal's polyphonic envelope technology lets you apply separate envelope shapes to overlapping notes to simulate a tape reverse effect.

Hot on the heels of the Instant Phaser MkII, Eventide have released an update to their Instant Flanger plug-in.

This stompbox combines analogue and digital processing to offer bucket-brigade warmth without the down sides.

IK's Axe I/O could be the perfect audio interface for recording guitarists.

The 306P MkII is an affordable two-way active design that aims to combine accuracy, low-frequency extension, and reasonably high SPL capability.

In GotoEQ, Klevgränd are attempting to recreate some of the magic of the Pultec EQP‑1A hardware — in AUv3 plug-in format.

This pedal aims to emulate a range of amp tones, from clean to heavily distorted, using what Neunaber describe as a 'multi–stage, dynamic gain architecture'.

Polyend's Seq offers straightforward step sequencing and buttons galore in one very attractive package.

Sugar is a one-stop audio sweetening shop that offers multiple flavours of harmonic excitement.

The idea of an in-line gain booster placed between a moving-coil or ribbon mic and a mic preamp isn't new — so what makes this one special?

This premium studio microphone is the result of a long-standing collaboration between mic-makers sE and legendary studio equipment designer Rupert Neve.

Listen to the audio examples that accompany the RNT test report.

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. This instrument comprises all of the electric and acoustic guitar libraries that Sonic Zest have made for the Kontakt platform over the last six years.

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. This large metallophone is presented as a single patch containing a collection of preset 'snapshots' divided into percussive and sound–design categories...

Sonimus, producers of some fine EQ, console and compressor emulations, have introduced a new modular channel strip plug-in...

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. Soundiron managed to get hold of a 61-key example of this 1970s Panda synthesizer and sampled its seven core voices to produce this library.

Rating: **** 5/5 Stars. Spitfire have taken a series of common instruments (such as strings, percussion and classical singers) and combined them in ethereal fashion with less commonly encountered sound sources...

Spitfire Audio get intimate with their new studio-recorded orchestral sample libraries.

Steinberg have made interfaces before — but none so ambitious as the AXR4. Can it hold its own against the competition?

Tall Dog are a US company with no fewer than four new modules to tickle our fancies...

Always unconventional, Teenage Engineering's latest instrument is a battery-powered multimedia studio that will fit in your pocket.

We all know the mantra by now: 'you can never have enough VCAs'. Tiptop's latest offering is designed to do this with as little distortion as possible, making it ideal for full–bandwidth audio signals.

Is Trinnov's powerful hardware system the last word in monitor correction?

UJAM add three flavours of bass player to their growing virtual musician catalogue.

With seven different flavours of echo on tap, this is one seriously versatile delay plug-in.

We show you how to chop and change drum kit pieces on the fly in Ableton Live.

They may be old, but the Sonitus effects bundled with Cakewalk are surprisingly powerful.

Cubase offers various options for comparing your mixes with reference tracks.

Innovative production can be made or broken by the mix — and in Rob Kinelski, Billie Eilish's team found the perfect foil.

We tackle some thorny noise problems, and add a couple of extra parts to breathe new life into this month's track.

Check out these audio files which accompany the July 2019 Mix Rescue article.

We show you how to connect audio, MIDI and CV between Reason and your virtual modular.

We look at the different options for adding and removing time at the start of a Pro Tools session.

Working with a band for the first time can be exciting, but a second session provides the opportunity to deliver even better results.

Listen to the audio examples that accompany this month's Session Notes feature.

Studio One's Chord track is much more than just an auto-arrangement device.

I keep reading that some microphones' figure-8 behaviour is not equal. Does this apply to capacitor mics like the AKG C414 or Rode NT2-A?

If the loudness sits below -14LUFS, can I rely on the streaming services to apply their normalisation process to bring up the level when the song is streamed?

I recently got some 110V rackmount synths and, being in the UK, I need a step–down transformer to power them...

Can you recommend a mid-range (in terms of price) mic with a good off-axis response, for recording acoustic instruments?

Teenage sensation Billie Eilish has taken the music world by storm — with an album recorded in her brother's bedroom.

Devin Townsend turned producer because no-one else could capture his ambitious musical ideas. It led him on a 25-year learning curve that shows no sign of ending...

As regular readers may have gathered, I'm not very good at relaxing holidays, so I always take a basic laptop-based studio setup with me...

Mark Linett is the engineer responsible for preserving and enhancing the recorded legacy of America’s greatest pop group...

To help you brush up on your listening skills, we examine the production of some recent hits from Dean Lewis, Jonas Brothers, Childish Gambino and a classic mix from Tom Jones.

"Teaching this stuff has empowered me to really learn to master the studio so that I can teach it better."