December 2023 Magazine Contents

The SOS team pick their highlights from the past year of hardware and software launches.

Akai’s APC64 is much more than just a successor to the APC40 — in fact, it’s much more than just an Ableton controller...

The green front panel of Antelope’s first monitor speaker conceals an unusual design approach.

Arturia have designed the AudioFuse 16Rig specifically to cater for electronic musicians. What does it offer that other interfaces don’t?

Thanks to its built‑in microphones, this unique IEM system lets you bring the outside world into your monitor mix.

Pro Tools users can now join the clip‑launching party without leaving the comfort of their favourite DAW.

Gliss is the new Eurorack offering from innovative company Bela. A capacitive touch sensor with alleged sub‑millimetre accuracy(!) that promises a whole lot...

There’s something for everyone in beyerdynamic’s classic M Series microphone range.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 Stars. This new Kontakt instrument started life as a viola da gamba; a string instrument from the Baroque era, which is generally regarded as the precursor to the cello.

Music production has changed a good deal since Harrison’s most famous in‑line console enjoyed its heyday — so they decided to bring it up to date.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. It makes sense that Heavyocity, devotees of dangerous, destructive, distorted brain‑crushing timbres, turn their attention to heavy guitar.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The latest sample library from Kirk Hunter Studios is designed to cater to all your strings section needs.

LANDR’s automated mastering service just got better... and it no longer requires a connection to the cloud.

Modartt revisit the richly complex world of the pipe organ, reducing one of the world’s largest instruments to a mere 30MB.

Modbap Modular’s Meridian is a dual digital filter that can switch between an array of modes and signal path...

There’s a lot of competition in the 500‑series preamp market, but this one offers something a little different.

These remarkably affordable speakers raise the bar for ultra‑compact monitoring.

The latest update to PreSonus’ top of the line DAW introduces comprehensive Dolby Atmos integration and more besides.

Building on Prism's high‑end converter range, the ADA‑128 caters for those working with high channel counts and multiple signal types.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars. Quiet Music may not be the biggest name in software instruments, but for those producing ambient, chillout or lo‑fi music, the company’s products are a real find.

Night Rider from RYK is a Quad Sequential Resonator, offering four resonant filters that can be sequenced.

Sonible’s AI‑based EQ processing just got easier to use and more affordable.

Drift is a plug‑in that embraces all those things that old‑school engineers used to hate about analogue tape!

Cubase Pro 13 may be light on headline features, but its raft of small improvements makes it a worthwhile upgrade.

Strymon’s Brig is a digital pedal that runs analogue ‘bucket brigade’ delay emulations, and offers three switchable delay voicings.

Tonemission, founded by John Petrucci, guitarist and founding member of prog metal band Dream Theater, recently released a...

Toontrack and Frank Filipetti span a vast array of musical genres with the latest Superior Drummer expansion.

The cab‑modelling pioneers take on the rest of the chain, right from the preamp input to the mics.

Ufx Reverb might sound like a conventional effect but, fear not: Reverb can do conventional things, but there’s a good dollop of UJAM creativity here too!

The ever‑growing UAFX stompbox line‑up now includes a range of more affordable single‑function digital pedals: 1176 Studio Compressor, Orion Tape Echo, Heavenly Plate Reverb and Evermore Studio Reverb.

The war of the clones shows little sign of ending — and Warm Audio have now trained their sights on a very classy optical compressor.

Yamaha’s new compact 'mixerface' console packs a lot of powerful features and functionality into a portable package.

Can Zoom’s new 32‑bit floating‑point interface banish clipping forever?

Our exclusive four-part video documentary series goes behind the scenes of one of the most detailed orchestral sample libraries ever made. In Chapter One, we meet the team from Spitfire Audio and Abbey Road Studios as they develop the epic concept for Abbey Road Orchestra…

‘Set Fire To The Rain’ was Adele’s third consecutive US number one, confirming her status as a superstar. In our exclusive...

Canadian Davey Badiuk is a composer, producer, mixing engineer and remixer, known for his unique ability to modernise organic music.

Ricky Damian is that rarest of things: a young engineer trained in all‑analogue recording. His experience stood him in good stead with Jorja Smith.

Using only the tools built into your DAW, you can turn your arpeggiations into complex, engaging sequences.

These audio files accompany the Power Up Your MIDI Arpeggiators article in SOS December 2023 edition.

We explain why aliasing in plug‑ins isn’t always a problem — and why oversampling isn’t always the solution.

In the final part of this series, Rob Toulson focuses on mic techniques for recording drums and talks us through the issue of frequency cancellation in a multiple mic setup, details how to choose the recording sweet spot in a room and explains the various stereo mic options that are available including the famous Glyn Johns technique.

What are the typical tolerances (say, in milliseconds) for acceptable differences between a pair of drum overheads?

There were some strange pin assignments on Eventides in the old days — could that be the problem?

Today’s pop music has Cirkut’s hands all over it.

Kevin Paul chats to producer engineer Gareth Jones about his impressive career at Mute Records and Hansa Studios in Berlin, working with bands such as Depeche Mode, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Erasure and Goldfrapp.

Mexican‑Canadian songwriter and producer Andrea Rocha was classically trained and has worked with some of pop’s brightest stars, including Ellie Goulding, Gabrielle Aplin and Becky Hill.

You can get superb results from a free soft synth or a £100 mic, but confident mixing decisions still require a high‑quality monitoring system in a decent acoustic environment.

Our ears are so used to hearing music made in recording studios that it can sound quite different to hear something that was recorded with an ambience...

In May 1983, the world of synthesizers and electronic music as we knew it would change forever with the launch of the Yamaha DX7.