June 2020 Magazine Contents

ADAM's new sub is an affordable way to add serious bass to your monitoring system.

With battery power and built-in speakers, the MPC Live II is ready to rock some blocks.

What more can this plug‑in offer than the hardware that inspired it?

Audio-Technica's popular ATM350a mic is now available with a dedicated acoustic guitar mount. We put it to the test!

Retro‑Flyer adds an impedance-matched preamplifier and a mid-range EQ, plus stereo tremolo, to 73-note and 88-note Mk1 and Mk2 Rhodes pianos.

This Voltage Controlled MIDI Controller takes all your Eurorack–based manipulations and maps them to the parameters of any MIDI device.

BFA's Momentum combines samples and loop manipulation with an irresistible price tag.

Black Lion's Bluey recreates an 1176 that has made more hits than most!

These audio examples accompany the review of Black Lion Audio’s Bluey FET compressor in SOS June 2020

USB mics provide a convenient one-stop shop for podcast recording — but there are a few things to look out for when deciding which one to buy.

These audio examples accompany our main USB Microphones round-up article in SOS June 2020 issue.

If you like looking to effects for musical ideas, this plug‑in's worth checking out.

It's not every day you find a channel-strip plug‑in that offers out-there features such as pitch and formant shifting!

Dynaudio's premium Core series grows apace with the launch of a new three-way model and a powerful subwoofer.

Fame's homage to a German classic gives you vintage vibe on a budget.

Immersive audio is increasingly important, and requires large multi-channel monitoring systems. Grace Design's m908 is intended to provide complete control over such a system.

HK's PAs don't normally come cheap, but their newest rig is surprisingly affordable, and maintains the high quality for which they're known.

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. Deeply sampled percussion nestles in a fiendishly clever Kontakt engine that allows the user to design their own percussion ensembles down to the finest detail.

Cirrus combines delay, reverb, dynamic modulation, dynamic filtering, sample & hold modulation and octave shimmer in a single digital pedal.

Manley's well-liked optical compressor gets a makeover in time for its 30th birthday!

Modal's Argon 8X offers a lot of synthesizer for a very compelling price.

Moog love to push boundaries, and the Subharmonicon may be their most unusual synth yet.

The Preset offers a tantalising promise: presets in your modular, allowing you to save and recall up to nine control voltages in up to 1024 'presets'.

The latest entry in Project SAM's Symphobia series promises heart-stopping thrills, terrifying sci-fi action and nerve-jangling horror.

Want to combine the freedom to choose EQs and compressors with the convenience of a single plug‑in? PSP may have the answer...

The original Chord module, reviewed in SOS February 2017 by Jyoti Mishra, offered an excellent way to get polyphony and, more...

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. From a damaged, poorly-maintained Soviet-era monosynth that suffers from crackles, frequency drift and other problems, RR saw an opportunity to create an unusual polysynth...

Rode's one-stop podcasting shop continues to evolve.

Although described as the world's most intelligent metronome, Drummer ITP is primarily an accuracy training app for drummers...

The newest mic from UK makers Sontronics offers smooth, radio-ready sound at a competitive price.

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. Stratus centres around a collection of phrases, polyrhythmic patterns and textures performed by a pair of Yamaha Disklavier felt-dampened, self-playing upright pianos.

Pen-based input devices have been sadly neglected in music software. The StaffPad notation app reminds us why they're cool!

Steinberg's UR range is a proven studio stalwart. We take a look at the newest addition to the family.

Read on to find out why we're writing about this device in a music-recording magazine...

Toontrack's Superior Drummer 3 set the bar for acoustic drum samples. Their Rooms Of Hansa expansion has raised it.

Need a single amp to cover all your home–recording and gigging duties? Vox have got you covered!

Kyra's FPGA-based synth engine is technologically innovative, but what's it like as an instrument?

Used right, amp modelling plug‑ins can sound almost like the real thing. But it's much more fun to use them wrong!

Drum recording is his specialism. Adrian talks us through his mic choices, placement and console setup for a tracking session with Superglu — and you can download the multitracks to hear the results for yourself!

With self-isolation likely to continue for some time, we talk you through using the world's leading conference‑call service for remote music performance.

In just seven years at hip-hop label Quality Control, Thomas 'Tillie' Mann has helped shape the sound of Atlanta rap.

Reduce the time you spend on podcasting post-production, with these Cubase voice-editing tips.

If you're a musician, podcasting is the perfect application for the studio skills and equipment you already have.

We explore the new Podcast Production template in Studio One.

Apple's GarageBand recording software comes free with every Mac/iPad and has everything you need to make pro-sounding podcasts. We show you how...

We explore the 2020.3 update and specifically Pro Tools' new Folder Tracks.

Reason version 11.2 now lets you drag MIDI clips into Live from three of Reason's MIDI-based devices: the Redrum drum machine, the Matrix step sequencer and the Dr Octo Rex Rex-file player.

Getting good results in a small space isn't easy — but it is possible. And if you're the Technical Editor of Sound On Sound, it's also essential!

More photos and information of SOS Technical Editor Hugh Robjohns' home studio workspace that we were unable to publish in the print magazine. Enjoy!

Compression can do radically different things to the sound of a snare drum, depending on how it's set up. In this episode, Mike Senior explores three ways in which a compressor can help bring your snare tracks to life.

Cardioid mics are tremendously popular amongst recording musicians, but can also work against you. In this episode, Mike Senior explains some of the reasons why, and illustrates how omni and figure‑eight patterns can often give more useful results.

I've got a Zoom MS-70CDR [multi-effects] pedal, and a few people are saying not to use it via an aux send and return, owing to a comb-filtering issue. Have you noticed this issue with digital pedals on aux returns?

I've always advised my students to set their high-pass filter slope at a steep setting of 48dB per octave to reduce boominess. Is this the best advice to give my students, who are very much at the beginner stage?

Plug‑in models of classic hardware can sound great if you feed them the right level. But what level is right?

In this video, SOS Editor In Chief Sam Inglis counts down his unsung heroes, the Top 10 items that won't make your heart beat faster — but will prove vital in the heat of a session.

Editor In Chief Sam Inglis unveils three SOS Podcast channels, a Podcast-themed June issue, and a new SOS Digital Magazine reader to help during the pandemic lockdown.

David Vorhaus of White Noise chats with Rob Puricelli about his early involvement with the Fairlight CMI and his Kaleidophon ribbon controller and Maniac sequencer inventions.

Like many SOS readers, Paul Baggott's studio centred around the original 'cheesegrater' Mac Pro tower but in 2020 he could hold off no longer and needed to upgrade. In our 'web-only' feature, we thought you'd enjoy reading the trials-and-tribulations tale of Paul's journey and his real-world experiences as this producer bites the bullet and buys a new 2019 Mac Pro.

How did a teenager from Kazakhstan, armed only with an ageing laptop and a copy of Fruity Loops, conquer the charts?

Join composer and electronic musician Caro C in conversation with Suzanne Ciani, a synthesizer and electronic music legend who has pushed the envelope since the 1960s.

In a rare interview, legendary composer Vangelis shares his thoughts on the role of synthesizers in music — including his beloved Yamaha CS80.

When you use chance operations correctly, you end up challenging yourself constantly...

Mark Crabtree of AMS Neve chats with Sam Inglis about how two of the biggest names in UK audio technology came together, and how they are using their unique expertise in analogue and digital audio to develop their next wave of studio products.

Martin Seidl, Founder and CEO of Microphone & Headphone manufacturer Austrian Audio, chats about current products and future technological developments, plus why their core range of products will remain analogue at heart.