Gear Reviews

New at the 500-series lunchbox cafe this week is the PT2-500. TRUE Systems' Tim Spencer has managed to take the clean, full sound of his P2analog (Tape Op #44), create an even more full-bodied, high-resolution mic preamp/DI with his new "Type-2" circuit design, and shrink it down to fit...

Whether to work with a control surface or not is a personal decision. If you do prefer to have faders, knobs and buttons under hand, the one thing we will all agree on is that the integration between the surface and the software is the key ingredient. Tight integration is why we still have dedicated...

Shure just launched its first line of headphones aimed specifically at music-making applications -the SRH series. The idea's been to fill a growing demand for pro-level gear by an audience that's breaking from the norm. Improvements in the performance of software and the chaos of the music...

I've been hesitant to write this review, as I'd prefer that no one else know about iZotope's Alloy but me. Being a long time iZotope fan, I was excited to work with their new do-it-all plug-in, and it didn't disappoint. Alloy, like its name suggests, is a conglomerate of several...

With ubiquitous products like Digidesign's converters (now Avid) having adopted the balanced 8-channel DB25 connector as standard, these jacks have found their way onto all kinds of pro gear. There are two standard pin-outs for DB25 wiring: Yamaha, which is typical for digital connections; and...

When I recently wiped the system disk of my primary music computer to replace Windows XP Pro with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, I installed only the applications that I knew I'd be using regularly. Similarly, I didn't bother adding any plug-ins or accessories that I didn't find essential...

I would imagine most of our readers are familiar with the Mellotron, a tape-playing keyboard that became popular in the late '60s on songs like The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever." Ms. Dilworth took on the task of creating a video documentary of this curious device, from its...

In my composition work, I have spent countless hours assembling a virtual orchestra using a variety of libraries and numerous MIDI channels for each of the individual instruments that make up each orchestra section. Even after assembling a working template, there is always the struggle to get the instruments...

feature offers huge flexibility for tailoring dynamic rhythms or accents to really fit the mood of the composition; and using the grooves as a MIDI template, it's easy to substitute the triggered DrumCore sounds with your own samples! This brings us to the DrumCore Toolkit standalone application,...

Before you read F. Reid Shippen's review below, let me first explain to you why I chose a Monitor ST/SR system for the client theatre at The Station, a NYC-based video production facility that I co-own. One of my initial experiences with Dangerous Music was during my first year as Gear Reviews...

Steinberg Nuendo has been my main DAW for a couple years now, and during that time, both Nuendo and its sibling application Cubase took two minor steps in version number, but with each update, I was impressed with what I felt were significant new capabilities (Tape Op #68). Two years after the release...

For me, "perfect rooms" are boring. I like to hear the walls bounce and the floor shake. Spaces with character change the way we perceive both the music we love and the music we make. Unfortunately, if the rooms we mix in are less than perfect, elements in the vibe and nuances of our mixes...

Stylus RMX has been on the music scene since 2004 and has been and continues to be a "go to" tool for good reason. There simply hadn't been anything before it that could manipulate real audio files on Windows and Mac systems with the speed and complexity that Stylus RMX could, and it's...

The last chapter in the "Jitter Saga" has yet to be written. But the penultimate chapter has just been written by Grimm Audio, who have challenged the most sacred concept -the commonly-held notion that internal clock always performs better than external. Digital clocking has been a hot topic...

Strings are notorious for being the least life-like patch in any sample library, and as of a couple years ago, I believed that I would never work with a realistic string sample without taking out a loan. However, after demoing Dan Dean Solo Strings Advanced, I gleefully announce that my search is over....

ART's Pro VLA (Tape Op #37) is one of the best compressors ever made at its price point. You can pick one up new for under $400. It's an electro-optical compressor with a 12AX7 tube gain stage. You could call it the poor man's stereo LA-2A, but the funny thing is, lots of engineers who...

A good pop filter for cutting vocals is one of those easily overlooked tools in the studio. Often an afterthought, a good one makes a great mic even better -and an average mic sound okay. A crappy pop filter makes an amazing mic sound crappy. Why screw up your several-thousand-dollar microphone investment...

Dana Gumbiner and I both took on Logic Studio for this issue. Dana's opinion follows mine. -AH When Apple unveiled Logic Pro 8 (Tape Op #63), the high-performance audio engine that was the highlight of the previous version was still there, but the application bore the evidence of a major facelift,...

Akai Professional and Ableton have co-developed a new comprehensive MIDI performance controller for use with Live versions 7 or 8 (Tape Op #72). The APC40 introduces a new breed of USB-MIDI devices (joined now by the just-announced Novation Launchpad) specifically designed with a proprietary hardware/software...