April 2011 Magazine Contents

New to the world of video production and unsure what gear to buy? Our guide to the five best options in three categories will get you started.

Best Service's Studio Box Mark II pulls together the content from a number of earlier titles (RedBox, BlueBox and...

This new ethnic percussion library features 12 themed folders, each containing loops designed to be layered together and...

Is there more than an eye-catching new livery to spark interest in Blue's latest mic?

Can Cakewalk's radical rethink of the DAW user interface tempt users of competing products into the Sonar fold — without alienating existing fans?

A viewfinder is great for framing shots without setting up your camera — so having one as an App is even more convenient.

Swedish bass‑equipment manufacturers EBS’s updated MultiComp pedal is intended to make transparent‑sounding bass compression easy to achieve. Matt Houghton investigates...

With so many mastering processors already on the market, is there room for another compressor, EQ and limiter? Fabfilter certainly think so...

For those of us who find our headphone mixes don't translate well, Focusrite have created a virtual listening environment that replicates the experience of monitoring on speakers.

Can you really achieve 24-carat Neve-style compression on a shoestring, or is this a case of fool's gold?

Matt Stedeford and his team at Imperfect Samples have created their own niche in the overcrowded and highly competitive piano...

Livid Instruments' new control surface boasts not only an unusual flexibility — courtesy of its custom editing software — but also some fine handmade wooden end-cheeks...

M-Audio's debut synth may have a pristine white exterior, but it hides a sample-based synthesis engine capable of getting down and dirty...

NI's Reflektor is a reverb that combines simplicity of operation with a very musical sound.

Matt Houghton checks out Phill Brown's autobiography.

The original VS2108 design was a real success for Quested — so when they said they'd improved it, we thought we'd better test that claim...

RME's interfaces get ever smaller — but this baby packs a powerful punch despite its miniature dimensions.

Building on the success of its predecessor, the Videomic Pro is a convenient, lightweight shotgun mic.

Cubase 6 pushes the boundaries of expressive sequencing, while adding polish and new editing functionality to keep existing users happy. Is it all too good to be true?

This 3.2GB Elastik-format library is split into two parts: part A contains 10 construction kits, while part B offers some additional instrument and drum loops.

The Austrian sample maestros go multitrack with four new brass ensembles.

PPG's Wave series were sadly beyond the budget of most of us, but, through the miracle of software, the powers of these innovative synths may now be within our grasp...

Andrew Rose has built a successful business by restoring and releasing great lost recordings of the 20th Century. He explains how he brings back the original magic...

'Teenage Kicks' was the punk-pop gem that, with a little help from John Peel, kick-started the Undertones' career.

You might be surprised at just how much you can discover about the mix of a hit record if you use a structured approach to listening, learn to interpret your meters, and try a few technical tricks...

Discover how to control your hardware synths using Max For Live.

Knowing the ins and outs of various DP MIDI features can help you work quicker and smarter.

We discover that if you need to cure problems with bass instruments in your mix, you might well have to aim a bit higher...

Audio files to accompany the article.

Take a razor blade to your vocal tracks and learn the art of comping in Reaper.

Expand your monitoring options with clever routing in Logic Pro.

Reason's flexible routing makes scintillating sampling simple...

The launch of Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors hasn't gone as smoothly as it might have done — and the saga continues...

Through his work with David Guetta, Rihanna and now Katy Perry, Sandy Vee has taken the French house sound to the top of the US charts. He tells us how it's done.

Your camera's on-board mic might be OK for home movies, but using a separate mic and audio recorder will yield much better results.

Once you've created a basic Structure instrument, there are lots of things you can do to improve the way it sounds and plays.

This month we take a trip down memory lane with VFX Host, and visit App land to round up a few of our favourite tools.

When two sounds happen very close together, we hear them as one. This surprising phenomenon is the basis of musical pitch — and there are lots of ways to exploit it in sound design.

Audio files to accompany the article

Making your own drum triggers for recording is easy and inexpensive.

I'll be doing a session with lots of mics and I'm going to be running out of gear choices without hiring, begging or stealing...

My left monitor appears to be buzzing somewhere in the high/mid-frequency range. When I pan the same material to the right...

I've made a recording of someone talking, but there's quite a lot of background noise. How can I extract the vocals, or at...

I left my recently completed self‑build PC running overnight to run a soak test. During the night it switched itself off, but...

I don't have a lot of space or money, but I'm desperate to find a keyboard that I can use for fun and, possibly, for recording...

How do you create a hit album that stands with the synthpop greats, yet at the same time sounds thoroughly modern? In Hurts' case, with a great deal of time and effort...

It's April, so what has Paul been dreaming up this year?

This month we listen to Big Big Train, We Happy Few, Gorman, Trace and John Gomm

Why would you use one? There are plenty of perfectly good recordings made in garden sheds, bedrooms and basements!

• Matt Cardle 'When We Collide' • Bruno Mars 'Grenade' • Ellie Goulding 'Your Song'

Title? Composer for the media. Job description? Squaring the circle...

This month, our US correspondent speaks to producers and engineers who have had to broaden their horizons in order to keep up with the ever-changing music industry.