Archives
June 2012
It's the Summer of Soundware at RECORDING -- our June issue is packed full of great reviews on virtual instruments, sample libraries, and notation software for your studio and stage needs.
Notation software has come a long way from the bad old days of cutting and pasting notes on a staff. Modern packages make arranging charts and scores a breeze, and come with powerful, great-sounding sample libraries that let you hear what you've notated in fantastic quality. Lorenz Rychner begins an ongoing survey of the current offerings with in-depth look at Finale and its associated Garritan libraries.
Virtual instruments make huge strides every year, and you can't turn around without running into a new sample library to suit any genre or application. Whether you work with straight samples, or prefer to work with libraries in Kontakt, ENGINE, Ableton Live, Alchemy, M-Tron Pro, or other sample playback engines, we have something for you in June. Check out reviews of the latest and greatest from MOTU, Steven Slate Drums, Toontrack, Applied Acoustics Systems, Camel Audio, Best Service, and more!
And that's not all. Stepping outside the realm of soundware, we bring you fantastic reviews of Sennheiser's new MK4 condenser mic, portable audio (and video!) recorders from Olympus, intriguing mics from Swedish maker Milab, and an in-depth look at new features in PreSonus Studio One version 2.
Add in fascinating interviews, technique articles on everything from choosing mics to jumping between analog and digital recording, Readers' Tapes with Marty Peters, and our regular monthly features, and you have an issue that's guaranteed to knock your socks off. In the virtual world or miking instruments in the studio, the June RECORDING has just what you need!
Pick it up now on the newsstand... and so you get your next issue early (and save on cost), why not hit the big red Subscribe Now button on this page and have RECORDING delivered to your door each month?
Applied Acoustics Systems Chromaphone
|
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Applied Acoustics Systems Chromaphone |
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
This new physical modeling plug-in takes percussion design to a new level. Also: The KitNetix sound expansion set.
Physical modeling synthesis is a technique that uses scientific equations to create playable computer models of both ......Expand
This new physical modeling plug-in takes percussion design to a new level. Also: The KitNetix sound expansion set.
Physical modeling synthesis is a technique that uses scientific equations to create playable computer models of both acoustic and electronic instruments down to their component level. While not always as "fool the ear" accurate as a good multi-layer sample library, physical modeling has three major benefits: it excels at recreating the anomalies and acoustical resonances found in the real world, it typically only takes up a few Megs of hard drive space (as opposed to the multiple Gigabytes of most sample collections), and it can be easily manipulated to create virtual instruments that don't and often can't exist in reality, and yet still retain said acoustic principles.
One company that has long been at the forefront of this technology is Canada-based Applied Acoustic Systems (AAS) with their modular softsynth Tassman and products like String Studio VS-1, Ultra Analog VA-1, and the virtual electric piano Lounge Lizard EP-3. In this issue we look at its latest offering, Chromaphone...
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.0
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
Reviewed and Revisited: PreSonus Studio One 2.0 |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
What a difference an update makes -- from exciting newcomer to serious DAW contender.
We introduced our readers to Studio One in our August 2010 issue. In that review, I noted that while the computer-music world was full of DAWs, th......Expand
What a difference an update makes -- from exciting newcomer to serious DAW contender.
We introduced our readers to Studio One in our August 2010 issue. In that review, I noted that while the computer-music world was full of DAWs, there was still a place for new ideas and innovations. I felt that Studio One, while a young and unfinished application in some ways, had an appealingly clean layout and worked reliably and well. It was already doing some things no other DAW could do, and did a number of other things more smoothly than the existing DAWs did.
Fast forward to early 2012, and Studio One has been updated to version 2; this review was completed just as the significant 2.0.5 update shipped. What was once an upstart newcomer to an established hierarchy has grown into a solid, mature DAW that leaves very little to be desired from a feature-richness standpoint, while offering workflows that are cleaner and faster than what you'll find in much of the competition.
Just creating a grocery list of all the new things Studio One version 2 can do would fill the space we have for this article, so I'm going to focus on some of the new features that I regard as standouts....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Toontrack EZkeys Grand Piano
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
Toontrack EZkeys Grand Piano |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
Songwriters in need of a good piano, and a good player to turn chord charts into music, take note.
Toontrack established a reputation for plug-ins that provide tremendous flexibility and power, like the Superior Drummer virtual drum......Expand
Songwriters in need of a good piano, and a good player to turn chord charts into music, take note.
Toontrack established a reputation for plug-ins that provide tremendous flexibility and power, like the Superior Drummer virtual drum instrument we reviewed in our July 2010 issue. But Toontrack is now also known for musical and easy-to-use solutions to problems beginners and home studio users might run into. Need convincing and good-sounding drum parts for your compositions but don't have a clue how to program a drum machine? Toontrack's EZdrummer gives you a release-worthy head start. Want to tweak a recorded track but don't know much about effects processing? EZmix (reviewed December 2011) offers a great way to quickly and effectively process tracks with excellent-sounding results.
The latest EZ product from Toontrack, EZkeys, offers similarly simple and easy-to-use tools for the songwriter at the keyboard. It's a MIDI player, keyboard-based virtual instrument, music theory teacher, and more, all in one simple-to-use interface....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
RECORDING's Showcase of Sounds
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay with Gary Eskow
RECORDING's Showcase of Sounds |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay with Gary Eskow
A cornucopia of content! Check out these great sound expansion libraries by Best Service, Detunized, Camel Audio, Ilya Efimov, and GForce.
Just one example of what's in this article:
Detunized is a German soundware fi......Expand
A cornucopia of content! Check out these great sound expansion libraries by Best Service, Detunized, Camel Audio, Ilya Efimov, and GForce.
Just one example of what's in this article:
Detunized is a German soundware firm that specializes in Live Packs, collections of sounds and presets for Ableton Live that use Live's built-in instruments and effects. These Live Packs can be purchased individually or bundled into groups of similar products. Each Live Pack costs between 7 and 9 Euro (roughly $9-12); that price point makes them a tiny risk for a quick purchase and very rewarding in comparison to what you pay for them.
Most of the Detunized offerings start with rare instruments or other unusual sound sources, lovingly recorded and brought into Live's Simpler sample player in Multisample mode to be keymapped and turned into playable instruments. The sample player and added effects are combined into an Instrument Rack, with a set of Macro knobs for quick tweaking of selected parameters. The presets for each source range from honest representations of the original sounds to whacked-out soundscapes that bear little resemblance to the raw recordings. Detunized's Stephan Marche was kind enough to provide me with three Live Packs to try: Harmona Forte, Phase Facets, and Day Time Traffic Piano....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Steven Slate Drums 4.0
|
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Steven Slate Drums 4.0 |
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
The acclaimed drum sample library is back with an all-new playback/mix engine.
We have looked at quite a variety of Steven Slate products over the past few years, both in the areas of hardware (the Dragon dynamics processor, reviewe......Expand
The acclaimed drum sample library is back with an all-new playback/mix engine.
We have looked at quite a variety of Steven Slate products over the past few years, both in the areas of hardware (the Dragon dynamics processor, reviewed August 2011, and the Fox preamp, reviewed March 2012) and software (Trigger drum replacement software, reviewed April 2011, and Virtual Console Collection, reviewed December 2011). But today we're going back to the product that started it all: Steven Slate Drums!
Back in the day, Steven got his start producing drum sample collections for some of the industry's biggest artists and studios. Eventually this led to the birth of the Steven Slate Drums lineup ("SSD"). Originally, SSD was a sample collection for use in third-party samplers and eventually a Kontakt hosted instrument. Now, with version 4, SSD becomes a full VSTi groove instrument with its own newly designed, custom playback engine....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Sample Magic Electro and Hed Kandi: Disco House Samples
|
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
Sample Magic Electro and Hed Kandi: Disco House Samples |
Reviewed by
Mike Metlay
A well-established soundware maker says goodbye to DVD releases... and hello to polyester bellbottoms?
Having established itself in the market as far back as 2006, UK-based Sample Magic has distinguished itself as a one-stop shop fo......Expand
A well-established soundware maker says goodbye to DVD releases... and hello to polyester bellbottoms?
Having established itself in the market as far back as 2006, UK-based Sample Magic has distinguished itself as a one-stop shop for all types of dance-related material. The company creates not only loop libraries but patches and presets for popular samplers and virtual instrument plug-ins, as well as instructional materials like books, tutorial apps, and even a two-day House Music Production Course at Alchemea Music College in London. (If you're reading this on the newsstand, there's still time to register for the second round of the course, which takes place on June 16-17 of this year.)
I had a chance to meet Sample Magic cofounder Sharooz Raoofi at the NAMM Show last January, and was impressed not only with his enthusiasm for the genre but also with his savvy as a recording musician. Sample Magic records its own guitars, bass, drums, and vocals, and has a small but well-thought-out recording room whose quality is reflected in the products under the SM label. In this review, we'll discuss the very last physical release in the Sample Magic DVD catalog (the company has shifted to download-only for future releases), and listen to some sounds from a Sample Magic download made available to us by the good folks at the UK online sample catalog Sounds To Sample (soundstosample.com)....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
MOTU MachFive 3
|
Reviewed by
Darwin Grosse
MOTU MachFive 3 |
Reviewed by
Darwin Grosse
This powerful sample player's new version adds so much content and workflow improvement to an already great platform, it's practically a new program.
Samplers have come a long way in a relatively short time. It wasn't long ago that ......Expand
This powerful sample player's new version adds so much content and workflow improvement to an already great platform, it's practically a new program.
Samplers have come a long way in a relatively short time. It wasn't long ago that samplers were hardware devices, with storage measured in Megabytes and sounds loaded from diskettes. Now, software-based sampling systems are almost limitless in terms of storage, memory use and complexity. There are several very strong players, and MOTU's latest incarnation of the MachFive sampler system is that company's attempt to jump to the head of the class. As such, they've attempted to create a system that surpasses the plug-in moniker, becoming an instrument that can fulfill a majority of your music-making needs. Were they successful? Let's find out....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Reviewed and Revisited: audiobro LA Scoring Strings 2.0
|
Reviewed by
Gary Eskow
Reviewed and Revisited: audiobro LA Scoring Strings 2.0 |
Reviewed by
Gary Eskow
This marvelous string library has come a long way, with very cool new features.
We reviewed LA Scoring Strings in our September 2010 issue, and found much to like about this plug-in. Clearly aimed at composers looking for the dramat......Expand
This marvelous string library has come a long way, with very cool new features.
We reviewed LA Scoring Strings in our September 2010 issue, and found much to like about this plug-in. Clearly aimed at composers looking for the dramatic string sound that film score heavyweights from Max Steiner on have relied upon, LASS 1.0 distinguished itself in several areas, including the expressive way it let the user add portamento while a note is sustained.
LASS 2.0 is a major upgrade to the product, thanks to the introduction of the A.R.C. (Audiobro Remote Control). No new recordings were made, but I did notice that some cleanup work has been done to a few of the samples that had extraneous noise on them. Audiobro has posted videos that explain all of the A.R.C. features onto its website, but be prepared to scratch your head for awhile -- the application is very powerful, and if you want to use it fully you'll need to put in some work....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Milab DC-96B and DC-96C Condenser Microphones
|
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Milab DC-96B and DC-96C Condenser Microphones |
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Classic sound or new transformerless clarity -- take your choice, they're both winners.
Swedish microphone manufacturer Milab's roots lie in the designs of Rune Rosander and his original company Pearl Microphone Laboratories, founde......Expand
Classic sound or new transformerless clarity -- take your choice, they're both winners.
Swedish microphone manufacturer Milab's roots lie in the designs of Rune Rosander and his original company Pearl Microphone Laboratories, founded in 1941. In 1978 PML was split into two companies, the second one dubbed simply Microphone Laboratories, or Milab for short, and helmed by his son Hans.
Milab retained many of Rune's classic designs, and the microphones we are looking at here are direct descendants of the Pearl DC-96 that was introduced in 1967.
The first of the pair, the DC-96B, is the current production model of the older DC-96, making it a vintage mic still in production 45 years later! The second mic is the new DC-96C, a transformerless design with an updated capsule and improved specs....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Sennheiser MK 4 Condenser Microphone
|
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
Sennheiser MK 4 Condenser Microphone |
Reviewed by
Paul Vnuk Jr.
An all-German-made condenser combines solid performance with a sweet price tag.
Sennheiser has been famous for its dynamic mics and high-end small-diaphragm condensers for a very long time -- think of the omnipresent MD421 and the w......Expand
An all-German-made condenser combines solid performance with a sweet price tag.
Sennheiser has been famous for its dynamic mics and high-end small-diaphragm condensers for a very long time -- think of the omnipresent MD421 and the world-beating MKH 8000 series, for example. It's exciting, then, to see Sennheiser do something entirely new, namely its very first side-address large-diaphragm condenser mic. Let's take a look at the affordable, all-German-made MK 4 and see how it performs....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Olympus LS-20M and LS-100 Portable Recorders
|
Reviewed by
Olympus LS-20M and LS-100 Portable Recorders |
Reviewed by
Audio plus hi-def video or multitrack audio recording, these pocket-sized wonders have it covered.
Olympus's LS lineup of Linear PCM recorders is aimed at capturing quality audio for recording musicians-we first reviewed the LS-10 i......Expand
Audio plus hi-def video or multitrack audio recording, these pocket-sized wonders have it covered.
Olympus's LS lineup of Linear PCM recorders is aimed at capturing quality audio for recording musicians-we first reviewed the LS-10 in March 2009. Now we are looking at the LS-20M, that does both audio and video-with-audio, and at the LS-100 that can be an 8-track recorder and then some....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Mark de Clive-Lowe
|
Interviewed by
Beto Hale
Mark de Clive-Lowe |
Interviewed by
Beto Hale
This hitmaking producer shares his studio secrets, from mixing real drums with loops to banging out the perfect bassline.
Mark de Clive-Lowe is an artist, producer, composer, pianist, performer, and DJ based in Los Angeles. Original......Expand
This hitmaking producer shares his studio secrets, from mixing real drums with loops to banging out the perfect bassline.
Mark de Clive-Lowe is an artist, producer, composer, pianist, performer, and DJ based in Los Angeles. Originally from New Zealand, he began pursuing a straight-ahead jazz career, before taking his music to other horizons. He has collaborated with artists such as Jill Scott, Jody Watley, Leon Ware (Marvin Gaye/Michael Jackson/Maxwell), Dame Shirley Bassey, Sy Smith, Sandra St. Victor (The Family Stand/Chaka Khan), and many others.
In this in-depth conversation -- which took place at his studio, just a few blocks from RECORDING's satellite office in L.A. -- Mark talks about his process, his influences, his new album Renegades, and his collaborative spirit, which he has carried with him around the world....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Finale 2012 As A Tool For Sample Playback
|
Written by
Lorenz Rychner
Finale 2012 As A Tool For Sample Playback |
Written by
Lorenz Rychner
Modern notation programs do way more than just put dots and lines on staff paper. In the first of a series of articles, we demystify the connection between notation and your favorite sound libraries, starting with MakeMusic's Finale 2012 and the G......Expand
Modern notation programs do way more than just put dots and lines on staff paper. In the first of a series of articles, we demystify the connection between notation and your favorite sound libraries, starting with MakeMusic's Finale 2012 and the Garritan instrument collections.
This is the first in a series of articles designed to explore sound libraries as they are made available from within music notation programs. At RECORDING we realize that not every songwriter or everybody who "writes music" actually "writes" music -- dots and dashes on five staff lines etc. But if you do have a working knowledge of notation, you might want to consider this medium as a valid audio production method.
Notation programs have long ago replaced the pen-and-ink working methods of professional music copyists, but it is the composers and educators who have pushed the makers of notation programs to include substantial sound libraries. Recording musicians of all stripes are the beneficiaries. Gone are the days of wimpy sounds when a user of computer notation was glad to hear playback -- any playback -- of the notes, parts, and entire scores s/he had input, just to help check for accuracy.
Nowadays, the major notation programs come with sound libraries that rival some of the best freestanding sample collections, rendering the notation programs competitive in an area where combinations of sequencers and sound libraries are the rule. And, as we'll see, third-party sounds that you might have considered as useful when addressed from within a sequencer can be integrated and used for playback of scored parts, right from within, with considerable control over the mix.
So does that mean a notation program could take the place of a DAW on a given project? Quite possibly, or the audio produced by the notation program could at least be a huge component of a more complex project! It's no longer just about notes on paper, it's now about music production....
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
Fade Out
|
Written by
Mike Metlay
Fade Out |
Written by
Mike Metlay
Solutions Are Easy -- Finding The Right Problem Can Be Tricky!
In this issue, we've talked about a wide variety of soundware and software, the latest wave in a deluge that will likely never slow down, much less stop. It's often frus......Expand
Solutions Are Easy -- Finding The Right Problem Can Be Tricky!
In this issue, we've talked about a wide variety of soundware and software, the latest wave in a deluge that will likely never slow down, much less stop. It's often frustrating that just when we think we've got it all sorted out, something new comes along and we're thrown into a tizzy trying to figure out where this new stuff fits into our music-recording lives. The world won't wait for us to catch our breath... or will it?...
Read more in the June 2012 issue of RECORDING!
Collapse
