December 2020 Magazine Contents

The SOS team pick their highlights from 2020's hardware and software launches.

The revised Klasik from Polish company APS offers exceptional performance at a remarkably low price.

Arturia add some helpful extras to their plug-in models of three classic analogue modulation effects.

Are Audient’s minimalist EVOs smarter than the average audio interface?

Though there’s only one main user control, VocalMint's audio path comprises a serial chain of three different types of compressor, and multiple behind‑the‑scenes parameters have been optimised specifically for vocal processing.

AA’s latest cans employ their successful high‑excursion driver in a new on‑ear design.

Avantone’s take on the classic NS‑10 is now available in powered form. We fire them up...

Avid’s innovative ‘hybrid’ audio interface promises to banish latency for good.

Rating: ***** 5/5 Stars. This library features a rich close‑miked viola with the same depth of colour, wealth of articulations, and seamless ornamental transitions found in previous Emotional releases.

This characterful compressor offers a little more control than most ‘vibe machines’.

Eventide’s Spring is a meticulous emulation of the kind of spring reverb you might find in a guitar combo, but with an extended parameter range for more creative uses.

GIK Acoustics' portable vocal screen is sensibly-priced and reduces room coloration, but without adding any obvious boxiness from the screen itself.

Heavyocity’s commando percussion team return to the sound stage tooled up and looking for something to break.

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. Guitar Swell won’t replace your guitar player, but will help you produce a wide range of evocative sounds that might inspire you to take your compositions in a new direction.

Given its excellent price tag, this Eurorack mixer has more features than it has any right to, and it doesn’t skimp on the sound quality.

Once again, iZotope have raised the benchmark for affordable audio restoration.

Mojave’s most affordable mic yields great results on a wide range of sources.

The MP3 audio files on this page accompany the review of the Mojave MA-50 in SOS December 2020.

This stereo analogue filter allows different filter modes for the left and right channels, and then messes with the dimensions of space by applying mid‑side processing afterwards.

Rating: ***** 4.5/5 Stars. Oceania II is not an upgrade, but a newly recorded library with additional features. Its remit is exactly the same: full‑on Mens’ and Womens’ choir performances.

Pro Tools | Carbon might be the biggest news from the world of music technology this year. But how does Avid's "hybrid audio interface" work?

If you’ve not used this style of sequencer before, then it can be totally revolutionary in terms of what it does to your modular music-making.

Rating: **** 4/5 Stars. This cool virtual instrument will appeal to those looking for something a little different to spice up their virtual percussion arsenal.

SoundMorph’s Dust takes an interplanetary approach to granular resynthesis.

The EQ2 offers quality graphic and parametric EQ, with full MIDI capabilities, all delivered in a robust pedal. What's not to like?

Spitfire’s latest project marks a new partnership with an iconic London studio.

Tascam have done far more than shrink the Model 24.

The processor that revolutionised home mastering is at last available in software form.

Toontrack recapture the drums of rock’s golden age with help from legendary producer Eddie Kramer.

UDO Audio’s highly anticipated debut instrument is a synthesizer with a sound all of its own.

Much more than a crossfade tool, Transmutator offers multiple blending modes that allow you to combine or transition between two signals in creative ways.

Waves breathe a little freshness into the familiar.

The hugely successful teleconferencing platform Zoom has had some small but significant updates, making it even more useful to musicians in lockdown.

Mat Gendreau shares his 5 top tips for using parallel processing techniques on voice, bass and drums.

Darude’s 1999 dance hit has taken on an extensive and often surprising life of its own.

Last month we ‘faked’ some string‑arrangements. Now it’s time to add a human touch.

The following Audio examples accompany our Cubase: String Theory Part 2 workshop article.

One of the most significant features introduced in DP 10 was the Clips window, and in the 10.1 release, MOTU made it even more powerful.

When rapper Machine Gun Kelly enlisted the help of producer and Blink‑182 drummer Travis Barker on his latest album, a shift to pop‑punk seemed inevitable. Who better to mix it than punk/hip‑hop crossover engineer Adam Hawkins...

Live’s Session view abandons the timeline and allows you to simply trigger individual looping or one‑shot clips of any length.

Finally, Logic Pro X catches up with, and in many ways improves upon, the step sequencers in other DAWs.

Compression in mastering is different — both the goals and the methods. Mastering engineer Ian Shepherd describes three different mastering compression techniques — how and when to use them, and why the goal is to be invisible.

Even in today’s computer‑based studios, a patchbay can change your life. We help you choose the right one.

Analog Delay has been a stock Studio One plug‑in since the beginning, pumping out cool vintage echoes with its previously vanilla GUI, but with v5 it received a bit of an interface upgrade.

Apple recently announced a transition in the Mac’s hardware architecture that promises to be the most significant in the product’s history. But how will this affect musicians and audio engineers?

I recently started capturing my vinyl collection to DSD and hi‑res PCM. The result sounds great but when I examine the audio file in iZotope RX 8 Elements I see a band of ultrasonic noise. Should I be worried about this?

Could you recommend a platform that allows me to share musical ideas with my friends, so we can eventually form songs/compositions?

Can you offer any guidance on what’s essentially an A‑B stereo array, but with the mics angled slightly outwards?

The biggest investment most studios make is in bricks and mortar... and plasterboard... and Rockwool. 
But is there another way?

Perhaps best known for his television work, Matt Berry’s true love has always been music and the analogue instruments he uses to make it.

Dean James Barratt is a sought-after Mix Engineer based out of The Dairy Studios in London. Dean talks to Sam Inglis about his personal road to becoming a freelance Mix Engineer, what defines that role, tips on making it, and what keeps clients coming back for more.

In our new monthly feature, we track down the new producers who are making waves and find out what makes them tick.

For anyone who supplies or works in live sound, or the wider events industry, it’s been a disaster...

There’s an element of art in the design of passive speakers that’s somehow diluted, lost even, once you put the crossover upstream of multiple power amplifiers...

Adam Shepard of ADAM chats to Sam Inglis about the distinctive technology at the heart of ADAM's loudspeakers and explains how they've achieved so much in a mere five years!