August 2021 Magazine Contents

Maestro is a six‑channel clockable and programmable LFO with an unusual button‑based front panel.

This solid state homage to the line output section of The Big Trees is an amplifier‑style preamp pedal that can be set anywhere from a nicely rounded clean tone to convincing valve‑amp‑style break up.

This box aims to provide all you need to use your pedals with a mixer or audio interface.

It’s not often that we review guitars in SOS, but the Aum guitar, brainchild of Gareth Whittock, is such a radical departure...

Baby Audio offer an intriguing take on frequency‑conscious dynamics processing.

The Filtamp 1006 is a combined 24dB ladder VCF and VCA module with two mixable audio inputs, three modulation inputs, filter resonance and amplifier gain with linear or exponential control.

Sometimes the most familiar sounds are the hardest to get right...

With software control, silent switching and a choice of input cards, this clever box is way more than a patchbay substitute.

Struggling to drive multiple set of cans? DACS have an amp for that...

Recreating a studio monitoring experience on headphones just got simpler, courtesy of dSONIQ’s improved Realphones.

While UltraTap can go some way towards replicating a multi‑head tape echo machine, it also excels at artificial double-tracking, dreamy ambient delays, vocal thickening and gentle tremolo...

At its core, the Recombination Engine is a triple analogue VCO module based around reissue Curtis CEM 3340 VCO chips. How it combines the three, however, is quite unique...

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. Scoring Acoustic Guitars is most likely to appeal to media composers or more experimental musicians. The quality of the sounds is most certainly big budget, but the price of access is not.

Hotone believe you shouldn’t have to tweak a million virtual components to find a great guitar tone...

We undertake the most comprehensive look at Apple’s M1‑based Macs from a musician and audio engineer’s perspective.

With their impressive sound quality and adjustable attenuation, these off‑the‑peg earplugs give even custom‑moulded designs a run for their money.

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. Electric Vintage has been created around samples and performances from a vintage ’50s Fender Telecaster.

Let Neuratron take the misery out of copying musical notation.

Orange Tree Sample’s Famous E may be the best virtual Rhodes you can buy.

Sounds of voices and strings rise from the chilly shores of the Baltic.

Overloud’s plug‑in suite has everything you need to equip a virtual vintage studio.

Want the classic Lexicon sound without having to dive deep into the parameter pages? You’re in luck...

If you prefer delays that are a little more ‘out there’, this one is aimed at you.

Despite its decades‑old design, the Rogers LS5/9 can still compete with some of the best monitors around today. We put this faithful recreation to the test.

With selectable analogue drive paths and a fast limiter, this box is designed to add controllable vibe and colour as you capture your analogue mix.

Sennheiser’s latest stage mic puts one of the company’s premium wireless capsules into a conventional wired mic format. We put it to the test.

Rating: **** 4.5/5 Stars. A mouthwatering library of samples from reputedly the largest modular setup in Europe, owned by media composer Lester Barnes.

With applications in stereo mixing and immersive surround, this plug‑in is not your typical auto‑panner!

Toontrack go fretless with a new EZbass expansion.

UJAM add some vintage vibes to their range of user‑friendly effects plug‑ins.

SILO combines granular processing with reverb and pitch change, the aim being to produce complex, musically involving effects...

If you use software synthesizers, the name U‑he will be familiar to you. Their virtual synths —...

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. A new strings library from Vienna Symphonic Library comes as no great surprise, but this one’s a bit special.

Hyperion is a hugely capable synthesizer with a complex modular heart.

HOFA‑College’s tutors have analysed more than 21,000 student mixes. We draw on this practical experience to identify the five most common mistakes made by beginners.

Live 11’s new Take Lanes make creating a composite from alternative takes (comping) much easier for both MIDI and audio tracks.

Japan keyboard player Richard Barbieri tells the story of their most haunting hit.

SpectraLayers One allows you to tweak vocals that are ‘baked into’ a stereo mix!

by John Walden

These audio examples accompany my Cubase workshop in SOS August 2021, in which i...

Paul White explains the basic concepts behind FX chain order and gives examples of how these guidelines can be broken in order to achieve new and unique audio outcomes.

Imogen Heap and Chagall are among the artists pioneering new ways of interacting with synths and effects, courtesy of the Glover software.

English producer and mixer Chris Sheldon, when asked to pick a favourite sound that he’s worked on, nominates the drum sound he got with rock band Oceansize.

The experimental production behind St Vincent’s album Daddy’s Home made for an unusual and challenging mix.

We explore some ways in which creative mixing can add life to a sample‑based production.

We explore some of the less common uses for Markers and Memory Locations.

In Studio One, Layers are all about the wonderful world of managing multiple takes.

In this episode, Eddie Bazil discusses using Transient Shapers in place of EQ and provides six practical examples.

Have you ever wondered what lies behind the intriguing wobbles and lush swooshes of this classic effect?

We speak to some of the leading experts in hearing loss to find out why it happens, how to prevent it, and what to do if your hearing fails.

Is high‑passing the Sides with an M‑S EQ. the same as making the bass mono, as with Boz’s Moongoose or...

Producer Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, has been prolific during lockdown, not only finding new ways to make music but also to listen to it.

Producer, DJ and remixer Dave Clarke meets the innovative producer acclaimed both for her piano‑based film soundtracks and her techno music.

Marshall Jefferson talks about his seminal 'Move Your Body’ house music track, the classic equipment he's worked with and how modern music technology allows anyone to create with ease.

Writers like Malcolm Gladwell argue that talent is a myth. What separates the successful from the also‑rans, they say, is practice...

A renowned producer straddling the worlds of hip‑hop and alternative music, Nick Hook speaks to me from thespacepit, his...

When I was but a wee lad, I loved things that were noisy. But as I got older, I started to appreciate moments of calm...

Antelope Audio founder Igor Levin chats to Sam Inglis about their distinctive approach to audio interface design. We find out how Antelope’s innovative use of FPGA technology has enabled them to deliver impressive signal processing power.