SOUND ON SOUND [UK] January 2025

SOUND ON SOUND THE WORLD’S BEST RECORDING TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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S T N E M U R T TIVE INS

JANUARY 2025

T N E M U R T S N I L A U T R I V Y L N O E H T S I IS TH LLECTION YOU’LL NEED? CO

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Zach Crowell Nashville super producer

Melbourne Instruments Delia VOLUME 40 • ISSUE 3

Hybrid polysynth with motorised controls

WIN

UA Apollo X Gen 2 Monitor correction, auto-gain and more

Cranborne Audio HE2 HarmonicEQ WORTH £2200

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ON TEST: STEINBERG / TASCAM / WARM AUDIO / BEYERDYNAMIC / SSL / AUDEZE / SLATE / EASTWEST / REASON / FOCUSRITE / HERITAGE

TECHNIQUE: GET GOOD TOM SOUNDS FAST / GRANULAR FX

January 2025 £6.99

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LE ADER

PRIDE & PREJUDICE A

ssuming you can string a sentence together, having a book published isn’t as difficult as people think. You identify a gap in the market, figure out who’s going to buy it, and make a case to a publisher. So why does it seem like an impossible dream for so many people?

The answer is that most people who say they want to be published authors don’t really mean it. What they mean is that they want to be a particular type of published author. They don’t dream of writing GCSE psychology textbooks, or guides to managing Type 2 diabetes, or cash-in celebrity biographies. They want to write literary fiction, or detective novels, or children’s books. For all that they profess to love the craft of writing for its own sake, when it comes down to it, they’d rather not write at all than be the wrong sort of published author.

The same sort of romanticism is equally prevalent in the world of music, where the fear of ‘selling out’ took hold in the ’60s and still retains a powerful grip. Groups who perform their own songs often seem to look down on covers bands, even though they’re the ones making a living from their music and filling venues every weekend. Writers and producers revolt against the idea of making library music, even when

ALLIA BUSINESS CENTRE KING’S HEDGES ROAD CAMBRIDGE CB4 2HY T +44 (0)1223 851658 sos@soundonsound.com www.soundonsound.com

their music already sounds like library music.

I know a singer-songwriter who literally refuses to perform his best song, because it doesn’t represent where he is as an artist (or something).

I’ve fallen for this starving-artist stuff myself in the past, and what I’ve realised far too late in life is that you should take all the opportunities you can, because they’re not mutually exclusive.

Joining a pub band won’t stop you from writing your own songs, but it will make you a better musician and give you invaluable insight into what audiences like. Making soundalikes for a music library won’t compromise the integrity of other music you make, but it’ll up your game on the production front. Engineering also-ran bands or composing hold music for phone systems isn’t lowering yourself; it’s a learning process.

To grow as an artist or producer, you need to be able to find the art that’s hiding in every corner of the musical world, no matter how ‘commercial’ or apparently valueless. Expose yourself to as many different experiences as you can. Challenge yourself in as many ways as possible. Work with people from every walk of life.

Is it a guaranteed recipe for success?

Of course not. But when you come to write your book, you’ll have some good stories to tell.

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The contents of this publication are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publisher. Great care is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the Editor can be held responsible for its contents. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the Publisher or Editor. The Publisher accepts no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, or artwork. © Copyright 2025 Sound On Sound Limited. Incorporating Music Software magazine, Recording Musician magazine, Sound On Stage magazine, SPL magazine, Sound Pro magazine and Performing Musician magazine. All rights reserved.

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TECHNOLOGY

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74 INSIDE TRACK

IN THIS ISSUE

www.soundonsound.com

January 2025 / issue 3 / volume 40

FEATURES 30 Recording Toms In A Hurry There isn’t always time to perfect all aspects of a drum recording, but get your priorities right and you’ll enjoy usable results from every session.

WIN CRANBORNE AUDIO

CARNABY HE2 WORTH £2200

42 How I Got That Sound Producer Robert Orton, aka The Hitmixer, tells us the story behind the impressive bass in Charli XCX’s ‘Boom Clap’.

PAGE 82

74 Inside Track: Zach Crowell Although he grew up aspiring to be a hip-hop producer, Zach Crowell has made it big by leaning into his Nashville roots.

90 Understanding Granular Delay Granular effects can be hugely powerful, but the chances of finding a preset that does exactly what you want are slim.

So why not learn how to tame and tweak them?

120 Modular Music Thing founder and Turing Machine inventor Tom Whitwell talks DIY and modular.

122 Talkback Producer and artist Emily Underhill, aka Tusks, explains why you shouldn’t let your equipment, or lack of equipment, hold you back.

126 Spotlight: Drum Mic Sets A dedicated set of drum mics can be a useful addition to anyone’s studio arsenal. We round up some of the best.

144 Q&A Your studio and recording questions answered.

146 Why I Love... Meters Neil Elkins tells us of his love for things that glow in the dark.

52 TASCAM STUDIO BRIDGE

ON TEST 86

100 119

Audeze Maxwell

135

Becos FX CompIQ Mini C O V E R

PRO X & DT 1770 PRO X Headphones

130

Boss CP-1X Multiband Compressor Pedal

108

Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 4th Gen USB Audio Interface

106

Heritage Audio Tubesessor Valve Optical Compressor

135 Keepforest Evolution:

Devastator Breakout Pro Sample Library

119

Knobula Echo Cinematic Eurorack Module

8

Lauten Rim Mount Drum Microphone Mount

14

124

MCAudioLab LUNA.5K Stereo Ambience Processor

12 STL Tones Tonality:

Wes Borland

MusicLab RealGMS

Guitar Rig Modelling Plug-in

Tascam Studio Bridge

52

24-track Recorder & USB Audio Interface

Native Instruments Komplete 15 132

134 The Crow Hill Company

Nocturnal Gestures

Project SAM Lineage Percussion

Sample Library

Sample Library

131 26

PSP Datamix a567

44 United Studio Technologies

EQ Plug-in

Vintage Direct & Replay Box

Reason Studios Reason 13

DI & Re‑amp Boxes

DAW Software

10

94 Universal Audio

Apollo X Gen 2

Rhodes V-Rack

Thunderbolt Audio Interfaces

Effects Plug-in

118

Sebsongs Bread & Butter

Vega-Trem

131

Guitar Vibrato System

Eurorack Module

22

Slate Digital VMS

Warm Audio WA76

84

Discrete Compressor

Microphone Modelling System

48

TC Electronic Plethora X1 Multi-effects Pedal

Polyend Tracker+ Sampler, Synthesizer & Sequencer

112

DAW Software

Eurorack Module

Software Instruments & Effects Collection

Elysia xpector Headphone Amp & Monitor Controller

70

56

EastWest Iconic Sample Library

36

Modular Plug Detroit Pink 87 Sample Library

VCA Compressor Pedal

38 beyerdynamic DT 1990

Steinberg Cubase Pro 14

62

Polyphonic Synthesizer

Planar Magnetic Headphones

18

Melbourne Instruments Delia

Solid State Logic UC1 Plug-in Controller

130

Soundevice Digital Biverb Reverb Plug-in

134 Soundpaint Disco Studio

Strings UDS

Sample Library

WORKSHOPS 136 140 142

Studio One Pro Tools Logic

ON TE ST

Lauten Rim Mount

Drum Microphone Mount

Miking drums is a notoriously fiddly affair.

Have Lauten Audio cracked it?

MARK GORDON

H

ot on the heels of Lauten’s recently released Tom Mic and Snare Mic (www. soundonsound.com/reviews/ lauten-snare-mic-tom-mic) comes the Rim Mount, a fully articulating drum-mount system designed to enable optimal positioning of a microphone on the rim of almost any drum. It aims to solve most, if not all, of the issues of stability, positioning and isolation commonly associated with rim-mounted mics. Let’s find out whether it does!

Carry On Clamping The Rim Mount comprises an aluminium clamp attached to two articulated metal arms, by way of a ball joint that enables the arms to rotate and swivel through 360 degrees.

A second ball joint connects to a standard 5/8-inch threaded mic mount, and a large lever at the ‘elbow’ joint between the arms is used to lock everything in place. The combination of ball joints and rotating collars provides an almost unlimited degree of flexibility, to the point where, with the lever loosened, the Rim Mount takes on an almost liquid quality.

The clamp element features a large, knurled thumb-screw to operate its jaws, which, when fully

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opened, stretch to around 35mm — enough to accommodate even the widest wooden drum hoop. The jaws also feature thick rubber ‘teeth’ that not only protect the drum rims but also aid grip and help to isolate the clamp from vibration.

The best way to use the Rim Mount is to attach a mic to the threaded mount while it’s in its flaccid state, and then attach the clamp to the rim while supporting the mic.

You can then manipulate the arms and move the microphone into position.

The lever magically tightens ball joints and elbow joints simultaneously, locking everything in place — and when I say it’s locked in place, I mean it.

I was even able to lift the entire drum using the Rim Mount without it moving! To further ease the fitting process, you can disengage the lever, by pulling it up a little, and rotate it to a more streamlined position before re-engaging it.

Sermon On The Mount Lauten were kind enough to loan me their Tom and Snare microphones, which, of course, were a breeze to set up with the Rim Mount, but I also tried a range of mics, including the ubiquitous SM57 and a very heavy and cumbersome MXL Cube, as well as a large-diaphragm capacitor mic. I was able to get each mic into the perfect position and firmly secured. Lauten also suggests the Rim Mount will comfortably hold larger industry classics such as the Sennheiser MD421 and AKG C414, and I have no reason to doubt that.

Drums come fitted with a range of different rims (or hoops), and I found that the Rim Mount attached securely to both triple-flange and die-cast rims without impinging on the drumhead. It will even work with S-hoops and wooden hoops, which are often a problem for rim mounts. With the Rim Mount securely tightened on the hoop, the rubber teeth

January 2025 / www.soundonsound.com

add a significant level of isolation from unwanted rumble and vibration.

With its well-engineered metal construction, the Rim Mount has a very industrial look, and the dual-arm construction and rubber teeth immediately set it apart from any system I have previously encountered. The level of flexibility and adjustment offered by its design is quite astonishing, allowing you to comfortably manoeuvre microphones into positions that not only benefit the engineer but also the drummer. Retailing at just over £100, this isn’t a cheap option but, having used many different rim mounts in the past, I have to say that this is by far the most flexible and solid solution I have seen.

summary A fantastically engineered mount that offers unrivalled flexibility, as well as astounding grip and solidity.

£ £96 including VAT. T Synthax Audio +44 (0)1727 821 870 E info@synthax.co.uk W www.synthax.co.uk W www.lautenaudio.com

ON TE ST

Rhodes V-Rack Effects Plug-in

V-Rack packs the Rhodes MK8 preamp and effects section into a plug-in.

JOHN WALDEN

A

big element of the Rhodes piano’s sonic palette is its built-in preamp and effects.

You can still buy hardware Rhodes pianos (Sam Inglis reviewed the reissued MK8 in SOS August 2023) but realistically many of us will be happier with a software version, and Rhodes’ own excellent MK8 plug-in modelled the preamp and effects and, indeed, expanded upon them in some useful ways. Now, Rhodes are offering these in a dedicated effects plug-in called Rhodes V-Rack — and that means, of course, that you can now use them to treat any sound, not just Rhodes.

All This & More V-Rack’s contents closely reflect the original hardware, with seven effects on offer: Drive, Equalizer, Vari-Pan, Comp, Chorus, Phaser and Delay. As Sam noted in his MK8 review, the software control options expand on those offered in the hardware, and many of these ‘extras’ are to be found in the Details panel (shown open in the screenshot).

For example, in the Drive module, you can switch between three alternative drive types, each of which has a distinct flavour, while in the Equalizer module, you can choose between four different

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EQ modes and three different centre frequencies for both the low and high bands, and control the Resonance and Envelope parameters for the mid band to adjust the filter/auto-wah‑style effects it can provide. All the effects sound great, but I particularly enjoyed the Delay. It’s a modelled bucket brigade delay (BBD) like the classic Electro-Harmonix Memory Man, and it recreates the character of that sound in a very satisfying way.

The ‘extras’ mean there’s plenty of additional functionality too. For example, you get twin preset systems, operating at both the global and per-effect levels. There are options to reposition both the Drive and Compressor modules to ‘pre’ or ‘post’ positions (I assume relative to the EQ) in the signal chain. You also get the option to enable DAW tempo sync for all the time-based effects. MIDI Learn is also provided — just right-click on any parameter and the pop-up menu lets you set things up in no time.

The VCA-style compressor not only sounds great but offers a full suite of controls (accessed through the Details panel), including both side-chain capabilities and a wet/dry Mix knob.

The side-chain input means V-Rack can be used for the sorts of routine ‘duck the bass when the kick hits’ processing, while the latter makes it easy to simulate parallel compression without the fuss of configuring an additional bus. Sure, these options are now found on lots of other compressor plug-ins, but it’s great to see Rhodes putting user convenience over a rigid design approach that limits itself to mimicking the original hardware.

Rack & Roll You may well have all these effects types well represented in your plug-in folder already, but if you like your effects to add genuine character — and a suitable dollop of ‘analogueness’ — then Rhodes V-Rack has obvious appeal. The design team at Rhodes obviously have inside knowledge of the original hardware circuitry but it’s another

thing to recreate in software a much-loved classic sound in a convincing way — and they’ve done a good job of it. The first thing to strike me as V-Rack started doing its thing was just how easily it brought that sense of analogue processing to the sound — almost any sound, in fact. And perhaps that’s the best way to describe what V-Rack does: think of it as a ‘character provider’.

That’s exactly the role these effects play on the Rhodes pianos, and now you can apply this to anything inside your DAW. It won’t surprise you when I say that it can do some great things with electric guitar sounds, or that it can be used to take the sterile edge off even the most digital of synth sounds.

But it can also be fabulous on vocals, where some combination of the Drive, Equalizer, Compressor and Delay make for a really impressive processing chain.

Rhodes offer a 14-day free trial and I reckon it’s well worth exploring.

summary Offering the classic effects options from a Rhodes piano in a convenient plug-in format, V-Rack can add character to any sound.

£ $99.95 W https://rhodesmusic.com

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ON TE ST

STL Tones bring the sound of Limp Bizkit’s unique guitarist to your DAW. JOHN WALDEN

N

u-metal gave us a different kind of ‘guitar hero’: monstrous down-tuned riffs, lots of creative tones, fewer guitar solos. Whether you’re a fan of Limp Bizkit or not, Wes Borland was one guitarist leading that revolution, and he was as creative in his playing and his tones as in his larger-than-life stage persona. STL Tones now offer a taste of that tonal palette in Tonality: Wes Borland, the latest in their series of artist collaboration plug-ins.

As with previous titles, it emulates the artist’s total rig, including stompboxes, amps, cabinets and effects.

Take A Look Around Tonality: Wes Borland can run as a standalone app or a DAW plug-in (VST, AU or AAX formats). The GUI is logically laid out, with the various stages of the signal flow from input to output accessed using tabs at the bottom. In the gear‑focused sections, the graphics provide a cool representation of Wes Borland’s equipment choices, complete with some of his artwork on the cabs, and there are some unique combinations.

For example, in the Stomp Boxes tab, you get modelled pedals inspired by the Electro-Harmonix Mini Q-Tron (an envelope filter that can create all sorts of auto-wah sounds) and a Big Muff Pi fuzz. The post-amp/ cab Effects selection provides two different delays (based on Boss and Dunlop units) and

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STL Tones Tonality: Guitar Rig Wes Borland Modelling Plug-in an Ibanez chorus/flanger. It’s a compact selection but one that reflects the key pedals found on Borland’s live board.

The combination of the three modelled amps and six speaker cabinets also emulate the live rig, and the modelled Diezel VH4 is based on the amp that’s been the source of most of Limp Bizkit’s heavier guitar tones since the early 2000s. For cleaner sounds, such as used for some of the cleaner parts in ‘My Way’, the modelled Roland JC-120 does the business. Sitting between these two, at least in terms of available gain, is a more unusual choice: Borland’s 1965 Selmer Zodiac amp, which provides some very cool edge-of-breakup sounds.

The cab selection features an impressive choice of mics, with the ability to mix and match between any two cabs with full control over the mic placement. If required, you can bypass the cab emulation completely and use an alternative cab sim in your DAW. The feature set also includes a gate, a tuner, MIDI support (to configure preset switching and some parameter automation options) and some mono/stereo routing choices. There’s also a neat Input Level Listener tool that can assist you in setting a suitable input signal level, to optimise gain staging into the modelled amp.

My Way Or Break Stuff?

The plug-in includes a compact selection of presets, some created by STL Tones that cover more generic styles, and others designed by Wes Borland, which are perhaps more idiosyncratic to the man. There are some very cool sounds to be

January 2025 / www.soundonsound.com

found here and, for those presets whose song inspiration is obvious from the title (for example, My Way 1 or Hot Dog Clean), if you can play the parts, the tones seem very faithful to the original.

But if you don’t want to do it exactly Wes’ way, the compact pedal selection and diverse amp/cab combinations let you break out of the Limp Bizkit mould.

The modelling really does sound very good, and I’d have no problems putting these sounds up against any of the other guitar amp sims I use.

All that said, this is very much a signature guitar rig with a signature sound. If you’re a fan of the colourful, creative, aggressive — and sometimes downright weird! — tones Wes Borland manages to weave into Limp Bizkit’s music, you’ll love it. Beyond nu-metal, though, the plug-in can also be great for a range of more modern rock/metal guitar tones. If that appeals, download the free trial... and may your nu-metal riffs keep Rollin’.

summary Tonality: Wes Borland gives you easy access to the unique signature sounds of one of nu-metal’s most influential guitar players.

£ $149 W www.stltones.com

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ON TE ST

MCAudioLab LUNA.5K

BOB THOMAS

I

was shocked to realise that it’s been 13 years since I reviewed MCAudioLab’s TP1tp single-channel valve microphone preamp (see SOS May 2011: http://sosm.ag/mcaudiolab-tp1tp).

Since those early days, founder Manuel Curcuruto’s company have relocated to Poland, and expanded their all-analogue 19-inch rackmount and 500-series product ranges, which now cover the core studio requirements such as microphone preamplifiers, equalisers and compressors.

There are also three less conventional signal processors, including MCAudioLab’s latest 500-series product, the dual-slot LUNA.5K.

LUNA Exploration

the right) is slightly unusual, in that both three-band EQs have the lowest frequency at the top and highest at the bottom.

Under the EQ section, in their respective columns, you’ll find the level controls for the BKG and FRG signals. The fifth control in the FRG column is a Width control that acts alongside the BKG signal to further expand or contract the width of the stereo soundfield. Opposite, in the FRG column, is the LUNA.5K ’s output level control. Between the two control columns is a four-LED stereo level meter that displays signal levels scaled from ‘sgn’ (signal present), through -6dB and 0dB to Over. Below that lies the bypass button and its illuminated-when-bypassed status LED. Internally, the LUNA.5K employs high-quality components, all through-hole types and elegantly laid out across two channel boards, both of which exhibit the excellent build quality you’d hope for from a small, boutique manufacturer such as MCAudioLab.

MCAudioLab describe the LUNA.5K as an “analogue ambient processor”. A derivative of the company’s 2013 (and still in production) rackmount LUNA Vari-Amb Processor, it’s a fully analogue, Class-A, To The Fore stereo device that features the same innovative approach With its maximum input and to enhancing the ‘ambience’ output levels of +20dBu in a stereo signal. Naturally, and frequency bandwidth of MCAudioLab aren’t keen to give 20Hz to 22kHz, the LUNA.5K away everything about how this integrated into my studio setup clever process works. But, in without any issues. Although essence, as well as encoding the the LUNA.5K operates in Class incoming stereo signal into M-S A, I didn’t find heat to be an it runs through the company’s issue, even in the middle of proprietary Analog Ambient a fully-populated six-slot Radial Processor (AAP), a complex Workhorse 500-series enclosure analogue audio matrix that that had been running for More than just a Mid-Sides widener, the derives two additional, parallel most of the day. As you might ‘layers’ that, in the LUNA.5K, surmise from the simplicity of its intriguing, all-analogue LUNA.5K offers are called Foreground (FRG) controls, operating the LUNA.5K you control over front-to-back depth. and Background (BKG). Both is intuitive, but if you’re as layers have individual three-band EQ and accustomed as I am to EQ layouts where balance with the Sides. Similarly, any level controls that govern the tonality and the HF rather than the LF control knob increase in the level of the BKG signal, amount of each being mixed into the M-S sits at the top, you might find yourself which is not phase coherent, won’t change matrix within the AAP, before the decoded occasionally wondering why adjusting the the level of the (unprocessed) Sides signal and processed stereo signal appears at treble is changing the bass, and vice versa! or alter its relationship with the Mid. Using the device’s outputs. the BKG layer to widen the stereo image A large part of my personal learning Since the FRG signal is phase‑coherent, cleverly negates the risk of creating the curve with the LUNA.5K simply entailed increasing its level will result in the ‘hole in the middle’ that can often be listening to its effect on a variety of stereo phantom centre of a stereo image perceived when simply boosting the stems and mixes, in order to understand sounding more detailed and more Sides signal relative to the Mid. just what the unit can and cannot do. present, without changing the level The LUNA.5K’s two-column, five-knob With the FRG layer, I always succeeded of the (unprocessed) Mid signal, or its control layout (BKG on the left, FRG on in creating a sense of ‘focus’ within the

Stereo Ambience Processor

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ON TE ST

MCAUDIOL AB LUNA.5K

stereo soundfield, bringing forward elements that I perceived to be in the ‘centre’. I found the results from the BKG layer more variable, largely because these depend on the amount of L-R phase difference in the original stereo signal.

Mixes with substantial phase differences from, for example, time-based spatial effects tend to allow you to significantly alter the width of the soundfield using the BKG layers, and vice versa.

For situations in which the lack of significant phase differences means that the BKG can’t deliver the results that you hoped for, or if you want to go further than the best that it can do, then you can turn to the Width level control. This is a more conventional Sides level control and, as you’d expect, increasing the Sides level results in the perception of greater stereo width. But, importantly, the presence of both the FRG and BKG controls can still help you avoid the ‘hole’ in the phantom centre that I discussed earlier, even if you push the Width control to its limits.

The LUNA.5K ’s EQ section employs Baxandall shelves for the high and low

bands, and a peaking response in the midrange. Even though it’s more suited to allowing you to sculpt the tonality of the layers, rather than to carry out major surgery, it’s effective. I found that using the LUNA.5K ’s EQ to accentuate the

illusion of depth in my mixes, but the LUNA.5K is a more elegant means of achieving a similar effect.

Finally, out of interest more than anything else (because it isn’t my area of expertise), I ran several recordings of classical orchestras, chamber orchestras and small ensembles (with and without soloists) through the LUNA.5K. The results of this experiment suggest that MCAudioLab’s ambience processing could well have much to offer recordists who work in this area with multiple microphones, either in arrays and/or as spot mics.

“With the FRG layer, I always succeeded in creating a sense of ‘focus’ within the stereo soundfield.” main frequency area of an instrument or vocal that I wanted to bring forward in the FRG layer, and to attenuate the same frequencies somewhat in the BKG, was often the key to coaxing out what I wanted to hear from the LUNA.5K. Another effect — and potential advantage — of using the FRG layer to bring forward and increase the central focus of a track is that this can create a sense of greater front-to-back separation. In other words, it can changing your perception of the depth of the stereo soundfield. I’ve long used very short delays, both on sources and on sends to analogue reverbs (and pre-delays on digital and plug-in reverbs) to create an

Moonstruck?

The LUNA.5K may not be particularly inexpensive for a 500-series processor.

But, whether processing stereo stems or mixes, it’s more than capable of altering your perception of the depth and width of a stereo soundfield, by bringing forward and increasing the focus on central sources using the FRG control, or by increasing the apparent overall width by utilising the BKG and Width controls. And it’s the only 500-series module I know of that can manipulate the apparent width, depth and central focus of a stereo signal so swiftly and easily. What’s more, it delivers a superb overall audio performance.

Of course, your personal view of the LUNA.5K’s worth will depend entirely on whether you need access to what it can achieve. But it could well prove priceless to some. Personally, before I began this review, I didn’t think I’d need a LUNA.5K — but having heard what it can do, I’m persuaded that I do! If you’re involved in tracking, mixing, remixing and/ or mastering, and are attracted by the prospect of an analogue stereo 500-series processor that gives you the ability to swiftly and easily remodel a stereo soundfield, you really should audition MCAudioLab’s LUNA.5K. In my experience, there’s nothing quite like it.

summary Unique in the 500-series environment, the LUNA.5K offers a superb-sounding, fully analogue means of increasing the width, depth and central focus of a stereo soundfield.

High-quality through-hole components are used throughout.

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£ €1740 including VAT. T MCAudioLab +48 660 661 481 E info@mcaudiolab.com W www.mcaudiolab.com

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I

’ve reviewed some larger pedals in Becos’ CompIQ range before — most recently the CompIQ Twain (SOS September 2021: https://sosm.ag/becoscompiq-twain) and, a year earlier, the CompIQ Stella (https://sosm.ag/becoscompiq-stella). I’ve played guitar for a few decades but have put just as much time into recording and mixing, and find that traditional guitar compressors tend to leave me feeling cold: fine for adding sustain but often rudimentary and noisy compared with tools I use in the studio.

So I was over the moon about the control and quality on offer in those Becos devices. At heart, they’re studio-quality VCA compressors in a pedal format, but they offer lots of bells and whistles — more than any rack gear I own, in fact. It all adds up to give you supreme control over your tone.

Features Becos have since relocated to Vienna, where they’ve revised and developed their CompIQ concept. Their latest release is the CompIQ Mini and, as the name implies, it’s packed into a tiny enclosure. Becos aren’t the first pedal company to make such efficient use of pedalboard space, but since they specialise in putting more all-analogue control and features into their pedals than most, this form factor presents significant challenges, and their designer told me it took five years and six version iterations to distil and compact all the features he wanted to fit into this format.

Those efforts have been very successful. First, the pedal is designed around a THAT 4320 Blackmer VCA chip, and high-quality ‘name’ components are used throughout, including Vishay-Dale resistors, and WIMA, Panasonic, and Cornell Dubilier capacitors. There are high-quality, gold-plated, contact micro-switches, jack connectors and PCB traces and pads, as well as less obvious reliability features such as protection for high voltages and voltage polarity inversion, and all is beautifully assembled in a sturdy enclosure. This pedal should give you years of service. In fact, I’m told that Becos haven’t yet experienced any product failures, and they offer a three-year warranty of the product, even where the original owner sells it on.

Perhaps more impressive to me is that, as you should be able to see from the

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Becos FX CompIQ Mini VCA Compressor Pedal Just how much analogue compressor can you fit in a mini pedal? Becos spent several years answering that question... photos, Becos have packed lots of user control into this pedal without making the top panel feel remotely cramped.

The white legend is clear and crisp, and its high contrast with the sturdy black enclosure makes it easy to read in low light, despite the small fonts used.

The CompIQ Mini can accept power from 9-12 V DC centre-negative PSUs, courtesy of a standard power inlet at the back/top (obviously there’s no internal battery option in a pedal of this size).

Audio comes in on the right side through a Neutrik quarter-inch jack, and out the other side through another. The jacks are offset to allow close placement of similar pedals on your board.

In terms of control, you have three pots: one to set the ratio from 1:1 (no compression) to infinity:1 (akin to limiting); another to set the threshold over a generous range (-40 to +10 dBu); and an output gain knob. I like the markings behind these too: white with black ‘gaps’, they’re generously deep and high contrast, making it easy to see/recall your settings; a thoughtful touch. Between those first two knobs, a miniature toggle switch selects hard- or soft-knee compression, and beneath the ratio knob is a five-LED gain reduction meter that ranges from -2 to -20

dB and uses green, yellow and red LEDs to give a visual clue as to how hard you’re hitting things. Again, a great touch given the size of this pedal.

At the bottom, beneath the logo, the single (on/bypass) footswitch is flanked by four more controls. The two red trim pots may be tiny but they’re knurled, making it easy to turn them with your fingers, even if a screwdriver gives you greater precision. Labelled Dry and SCF, these blend between the unprocessed and compressed signals and set the frequency of an unusual side-chain high-pass filter, respectively. The former means you can use this pedal for parallel compression: with fast attack times and sufficient gain reduction, that can be a great way to retain note onsets while lifting up lower-level details.

The latter is more interesting, since as well as letting you filter low frequencies out of the side-chain (like most side‑chain filters, making the compressor less sensitive to the energetic low end), you can also boost the low end. Technically this side-chain boost makes the compressor more sensitive to low frequencies. But to put it in more practical terms, you’re effectively lowering the threshold for low frequencies by 6dB, and that can help

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BECOS FX COMPIQ MINI

when processing small signals such as from single-coil bridge pickups. Neutral (no boost or cut) is at the 12 o’clock position, and turning anti‑clockwise from there gives you a boost, while a clockwise turn introduces a cut.

The toggle switch on the bottom left sets the attack/release timing of the compressor between F (fast) and S (slow), while the last external control, a toggle at the bottom right, switches what’s quite a rare feature in studio processors, never mind pedals: you can choose whether the compressor operates in feedback or feed-forward mode. Perhaps the best-known examples of feed-forward compressors are the rackmount and 500-series processors made by API and the old dbx 160, but the majority of compressors are feedback types, meaning their control signal is taken after the gain reduction. This means their parameters can be tightly controlled, but also that they can be slower to respond to high‑level transients, which can sometimes overload the gain‑controlling element. Feed-forward compression will respond quickly to such transients, but can seem a little more fussy about the settings. Most important for this pedal’s purposes is that it results in a grabbier, more aggressive character, and it’s great to have the option on board.

In Use Due to the format, I’ve discussed the CompIQ Mini as if it were only a guitar/bass pedal. But it’s whisper quiet in terms of noise, can handle line-level signals, and has a vast threshold range, and with all the other features on board this means it could be used in many other applications too, including as a vocal or synth compressor on stage or in the studio (you’ll still need a preamp for mic signals, of course). So to put this pedal through its paces I tried it on a range of sources over the course of a few weeks.

When it came to electric guitar, I tried the CompIQ Mini with a few guitars on clean and distorted parts, and, while I’m no bassist, I gave it a few outings on bass too. I was every bit as impressed as I had been with the earlier Becos

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stompboxes, if not more so, given its diminutive form. The noise floor and distortion are impressively low, and I found it quick and easy to dial in fast, high-ratio compression that caught a few stray over-heavy plucks, or to set it up to add sustain. The side-chain filter’s ability to fine-tune the response to open low strings was welcome. There was enough control for me over the knee and time constants to be useful on both guitar and bass, even with only two options to toggle between for each.

I imagine that, with this many controls to play with, it won’t be to every guitarist’s taste, if only because changing from one setup to another might mean tweaking a lot of controls: you do need to understand what’s going on with this compressor if you’re to get the most out of it. That said, many of the controls can be set-and-forget, and I never knocked any of them out of position accidentally.

Personally, I much prefer having this degree of control over a compressor!

I played a few vocal parts from my DAW into my console and patched the CompIQ Mini into the channel insert.

I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised, given previous experience of Becos pedals, but I really was blown away: this natty little pedal offered almost everything I could want from a clean, transparent vocal compressor. I could set it up as a limiter or a more gentle compressor, and the clear metering made it really easy to fine-tune the threshold for a sensible amount of gain reduction in either role. The instant parallel compression effect was a real bonus, enabling me to raise all those little details that make lyrics more intelligible, without crushing the life out of the sound. I even found it worked well for gentle dialogue compression. All I might ask for is more control over the time constants, though to be fair the two settings generally do a decent job.

I also fed a number of percussive sources, including various drum close mics, through the pedal. In this role, I loved the snappier The top panel gives the user a huge amount of control over this compressor, including switching between feedback and feed-forward topologies.

feed-forward setting and the side-chain filter again came in very handy. While it could certainly handle these transient-rich signals, there wasn’t the control over the attack and release you need to really shape a drum sound, but it worked great as a limiter and the parallel compression effect was often useful.

Hooking the CompIQ Mini up to a couple of synths, I enjoyed a similarly positive experience as with vocals and guitar. Given the form factor, I could see this device proving popular with the modular synth crowd, or performers wanting a small device to sit on top of a keyboard on stage (though some might prefer a stereo device).

I didn’t encounter any ‘problems’, as such, but being really picky I’d say that the knee toggle switch, tucked away as it is between the ratio and threshold knobs, can be fiddly to operate: pushing it up to the hard-knee position is easy, but to pull it down required my fingernail.

Verdict Becos have printed the slogan “Pro Compression” on this pedal, and it isn’t hyperbole. I’ve never before encountered such quality and attention to detail in such a small analogue compressor. Yes, it looks like a guitar pedal and guitarists and bassists who prefer studio-style compression will love it. But it would be equally at home in a studio, used on any number of sources. Really, the only thing lacking, and only in some scenarios, was more precise control over the attack and release... but Becos cater for that need with their flagship CompIQ Stella.

For me then, the CompIQ Mini really stands out in a crowded mini‑stompbox compressor marketplace, and given its performance and versatility it’s great value too — in fact, if you stuck this in a rack unit and put bigger knobs on the front, you could probably ask three times as much for it! I have absolutely zero hesitation in recommending the Becos CompIQ Mini.

summary Don’t be fooled by the guitar-friendly form factor: inside this tiny box lurks a classy studio-grade VCA compressor, dripping with features that mean it will make its home in as many studios as it does guitar rigs.

£ £189 including VAT. W https://joespedals.com W https://becosfx.com

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Slate Digital VMS

Microphone Modelling System Eight years on from its groundbreaking release, what’s new in Slate Digital’s Virtual Microphone System?

NEIL ROGERS

W

here does the time go? It’s been eight years since my original review of the Slate Digital Virtual Microphone System, or VMS, which feels like more than enough time to check in and see what this somewhat pioneering product now has to offer. It was interesting for me to reread the original review (https://sosm.ag/slate-vms) and remember how keen we were at the time to unpick and generally assess just how authentic the mic emulations were. Indeed, we decided to focus the review on directly comparing some of the emulations to the real deal — which inevitably led to some mild Internet controversy around the test conditions and how valid the comparisons were, especially considering the natural variations between mics that are over 60 years old and may have undergone multiple services and repairs. My review was positive, however, and my closing thoughts were about being intrigued to see how this new technology would be received and developed in the coming years.

It feels like a different landscape now to when the original VMS was released, with most of us entirely comfortable about combining digital tools with our analogue ones. It is also fair to say, I think, that the development of very good-sounding microphone emulations hasn’t sounded the death knell of traditional and vintage recording mics. My sense is that most engineers aren’t necessarily concerned

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with how authentic something sounds, and prefer to judge gear by the difference it makes in their day-to-day music making.

Perhaps in response to this shift, the team at Slate Digital decided to drop the hardware preamp side of the original VMS package and instead focus solely on making the microphone as affordable and simple as possible to use. So, while there are software preamp emulations included in the VMS bundle, the only hardware component now is the ML-1 mic. This behaves exactly like a normal capacitor microphone, with users supplying their own preamp, while the software is neatly contained with Slate Digital’s Virtual Mix Rack plug-in.

Overview Losing the preamp side of the system seems like a good move to me, as I think most users want simplicity and to also feel like they are not having to use, or pay for, extra equipment to get good results. The mic itself is intended to provide a good‑quality ‘blank slate’ for the modelling software to effectively do its thing, and is a neutral-looking mic that would be a fine centrepiece as the only mic in a smaller setup, whilst still looking at home in a studio like mine with multiple other mics kicking around.

One of my concerns in my original review was that users could end up getting lost in too much choice, and however you might feel about that aspect of modern production, the Slate Digital VMS now offers a total of 26 vintage microphone

emulations. These are available in a few different bundles, or as a complete collection if you subscribe to Slate Digital’s Complete Access Bundle or All Access Pass. Slate Digital were early adopters of the monthly subscription model, and whilst you can stay outside of that if you wish, the relatively high pricing of the expansion packs seems intended to strongly encourage you to go become a part of the Slate Digital ecosystem — which does include a huge number of emulations, among other production software to explore. The pricing for the VMS is now also significantly reduced compared to the $799 of the original system, to further encourage you into the Slate Digital world.

Jumping ahead a little, I can report that the ‘raw’ mic itself sounds better than many mics I have auditioned in that price range, so it’s relatively low-risk if you do want to explore what the VMS has to offer.

If you wanted to avoid the ‘choice paralysis’ of having so many models, you would ideally monitor your recording recording session through the Virtual Mix Rack plug-in, auditioning the mic models and then recording with your chosen model in place. I had some concerns about this in my original review, as you would need to be able to record with very low buffer sizes to avoid any audible latency in the performer’s monitoring.

However, the continuing development of computer processing means this is now less of a problem, and I’m happy to report that recording at 44.1kHz and with my buffer set at 64 samples (using Pro Tools on my five-year-old PC) produced no audible latency. I can imagine it being more problematic if you were returning to a track to re-record some vocals where the mix has a lot of plug-in processing going on, but this could be worked around with relative ease, and the base mic itself certainly sounds good enough to work with without the emulations engaged if needed.

Bundle Up The mic ships with the Classic Tubes 1 and 2 collections, which include emulations of the ‘big hitters’ in the vintage mic world as well as a well-known dynamic mic: the Shure SM7. Apart from the Shure, these are all aspirational, eye-wateringly expensive tube mics most of us will never own, such as the Sony C-800G, Neumann U47 and U67, AKG C12 and Telefunken 251. Also available at the time of writing are four separate expansion packs, including the Classic 87 collection, which offers new

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S L AT E DIGITA L V MS

and old versions of the ubiquitous German large‑diaphragm capacitor mic. There’s also a Classic Tubes 3 mic collection available, and, intriguingly, the opportunity to sample the mic lockers from two well-known recording studios: Nashville’s Blackbird Studios and London’s Strongroom.

I’ll mention a few of my favourites shortly, but there’s a mouthwatering selection of tube behemoths to sample in the Blackbird pack, in particular, as well as some classic solid‑state and ribbon options in the Strongroom collection.

More details about the specific mics modelled can be found on the VMS page of the Slate Digital website.

In Use I was given access to all 26 mic models for this review, though there isn’t space here to give you a comprehensive breakdown of how each one fared in my studio! Instead, I’ll take go through four studio recording applications and give you a few of my favourites on each source.

Looking at female vocals first, it was interesting to hear how the different mics ‘framed’ a singer I have recorded a number of times in my studio. Many of the high-end valve options sounded great for bringing out an airy quality to the vocal, with my favourite being the B-49 (available in the Blackbird expansion pack), as well as the

FG-37A (Classic Tubes 3). I also thought the new version of the U87 worked nicely on my singer’s voice, as did the SD 414EB found in the Strongroom pack.

For my male vocal example, I liked how the Blackbird B-67 softened the sibilance in his voice, with the 4038 ribbon mic found in the Strongroom pack taking this even further, resulting in a lovely dark vocal sound that would work well in a sparse or more vintage-sounding production.

I also liked how the older U87 sounded on his voice — which is appropriate, as I normally use a U87 with this singer! The Blackbird B-251 also worked very well for a brighter-sounding vocal that would cut through a busier mix.

Moving away from vocals, I tried the ML-1 as a mono drum overhead and it was impressive to hear how the VMS recreated the sound of a 4038 ribbon mic in this setting. Another popular choice for drum overheads is a C‑414, and the EB version included in the Strongroom pack sounded detailed but without making the cymbals too strident. I also liked how the FG-44 (Classic Tubes 3) ribbon emulation and the (included as standard) FG-12 sounded on drums, and the dramatic differences in flavour here really highlighted just how much flexibility you have with this technology.

As a last test, I tried the ML-1 on acoustic guitar, where the FG-67 model seemed to

work well at capturing detail and generally feeling nicely balanced. The Blackbird B-251 was better for a brighter sound, and I also liked how the Strongroom SD-12-VR really made the guitar ‘sparkle’.

Summing Up I was impressed with many of the options that I tried. Unlike in our original review, I haven’t tried to evaluate how accurate the emulation are to the specific mics they model, but in general I was greeted with some very familiar tones and differences in style as I auditioned the different models.

All of the packs available for the VMS have a number of great-sounding options, and I found two or three mics in each pack that seemed to fit my own tastes straight off the bat. If you are just starting out with the VMS, my advice would be to identify a few favourites early on, as it’s not advisable or practical to constantly be auditioning 20+ mics on every recording!

I would recommend trying to limit your options a little and still focus on the basics of developing good mic technique and placement, rather than expecting software to solve issues with sibilance and the like after the fact. If I was using the VMS on a regular basis I would also try and bounce the audio through the modelling plug-ins and commit to a sound as soon as possible, to avoid losing all sense of perspective when mixing!

Those workflow caveats aside, I was again impressed with how the VMS sounded, and although perhaps most people would approach this system with vocals in mind, it was in my drum recordings where the sheer breadth of choice proved most valuable. Being able to switch between a older ribbon mic and something like a 251 valve mic is not a subtle difference! This is technology that is still maturing before our eyes, and the Slate Digital VMS offers engineers new and old a chance to play with the sound of literally hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of vintage microphones for a very modest outlay.

summary Now that the ML-1 mic is the only hardware component, the current iteration of the VMS is significantly cheaper and simpler to use than the original. There are also many more mic models to choose from, though some are only available as part of subscription bundles.

Microphone models are available in a number of bundles, including packs based on the mic lockers of Blackbird Studios in Nashville and Strongroom in London.

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£ $299 W www.slatedigital.com

ON TE ST

Reason Studios Reason 13 DAW Software

Thirteen is unlucky for some, but not for Reason users, who gain a new synth, a particularly nice delay and all sorts of other improvements to boot!

SIMON SHERBOURNE

R

eason has settled into an upgrade cadence where every other year sees some kind of infrastructure update, a new premium device or two and some utilities/updates. Reason 13 continues this pattern, with an overhaul of the device and patch browsing system, a new synth, a new effect, and a rejig of the sequencer/editor workflow. This last will be encouraging to those who use Reason standalone, rather than as a modular device rack in another DAW.

Polytone Let’s start with something fun. Polytone is, you guessed it, a polyphonic synth. This is

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conceived as an accessible polysynth with all the important stuff up front — the poly equivalent to the Monotone synth found in both Reason and the Reason Compact app. Or Subtractor 2.0. This is not to say it’s basic; it has everything you need to emulate the classic big-name polys, some interesting extra sound‑generation options plus one show‑stopping trick up its sleeve.

A glance across the front panel confirms all the standard ingredients are present: two oscillators with cross-FM, a filter, dedicated amp and filter envelopes, general purpose envelope and LFO mod sources and of course some chorus and reverb to serve. A major part in keeping things simple is the choice to leave out the spreadsheet-esque mod matrix that’s

The Reason UI has had a slight re-org, with a new split sequencer view and a tidy up of view selectors and editor functions.

been bolted onto the bottom of most new Reason instruments since Thor. Instead, all mod assignments are in context and on the panel like on a Jupiter/OB-8.

Points of interest include the versatility of the oscillators, osc shape‑shifting for all types, static or key‑tracked filter FM and an Age control that makes everything progressively wonky. Alongside the usual source waveshapes you get a Digital mode (wavetable) and a choice of band and ‘chaos’ noise generators in addition to the mixer section’s noise source.

Perhaps the defining feature of Polytone is the big A/B selector at the top. The synth has two independent but equally spec’ed, layers. You can choose to blend these via a crossfader or mod source, but much more interesting is the Morph option, which glides all panel parameters between their two layer positions.

Browser For version 13, the Reason crew have had another swing at refreshing the preset/ sound/device browsing experience. The left-hand side bar, which was the previous home to all things browsey, is now

Patch and file browsing now happens in a new tag and search based browser.

a simple device and plug-in palette. A new search and tag-based sound finder which deals purely in patches and files has been created as a floating window.

My initial reaction to this was incredulity. I liked the way Reason’s browser worked, and a floating window seems far from elegant, especially when it comes to the Rack plug-in with its relatively limited (and still fixed!) real estate. It’s also a drab grey, and the window is captive within the Reason window or Rack plug-in window, so you can’t park it on another screen. While I’m piling on, the ability to set favourite instrument and effect devices has been lost down the crack between the docked device browser and the patch browser.

Rather than just dismiss all this with a ‘What were they thinking!?’, let’s try to figure out, well, what they were thinking.

First, Reason’s browser and libraries had got a bit disjointed from years of iterative additions. Second, I guess they wanted to get with the program of descriptive tag and search based browsing. And those of us who prefer to start with a specific sound source now have a clean and nicely docked device-focused browser.

The browser indexes all content that Reason is interested in (instrument patches, samples, MIDI files, etc), and everything that comes with Reason is tagged. You find things you’re interested in by filtering by type, text and tags.

You can’t filter by device type, but you can sort results by device. You can also select a specific location (eg. the Reason Library, or a Refill) and switch to filtered directory-based navigation.

The floating window does block your view of the Rack, but many instrument plug-ins have a full‑page browser view, and I guess the thinking is that you’re either browsing or using the Rack, not both at the same time. If you want to drag something from the browser to the Rack or Sequencer, the browse window temporarily rolls itself away.

So, it’s not all bad, and actually works well alongside Reason’s patch auditioning superpower.

When initiating browsing from the Add Device command or from any device’s patch loader, clicking patches live loads them into the Rack so you get an in-context preview.

New Arrangements If you use Reason as a DAW rather than a device rack, you’ll benefit from improvements to the Sequencer.

It now uses a split‑screen view, letting you see the focused MIDI or audio edit view while still having access to all the other tracks. You can revert to

Reason Studios Reason 13 £499 pros • New synth and delay are great.

• Sequencer updates are a step in the right direction.

• Sidechain Tool is excellent.

cons • Pricey if you only use the Rack plug-in.

• There are other aspects of the UI I’d have looked at reworking before the browser.

summary Reason 13 is a solid update, and I hope the browser and sequencer updates are just the start of a wider innovation push for the user experience.

a toggled‑style view by maximising the focus view section.

The three audio edit modes (Slice, Vocal, Comp) are clearly labelled like tabs in the reorganised left-hand editor column, mirroring the new top‑bar view selectors in the main toolbar for Mixer, Rack, Sequencer, etc. This zone replaces the old-fashioned (ahem) floating tools window. Making selections in the tracks area immediately updates the focus edit area, bringing Reason into line with how most DAWs operate.

Reason Rack plug‑in users get the new devices and browser, but there have been no other functionality changes.

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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R E A S O N S T U D I O S R E A S O N 13

That’s not to say being different is bad.

Reason’s multi-lane MIDI track system is inspired, for example. But there are still annoying oddities, like only being able to edit MIDI in one clip at a time, and the weird way that when moving clips the later clip is always on top.

Adding another horizontal UI strip exacerbates the issue with Reason’s layout, where the main view areas are, by default, stacked atop each other.

Sometimes using Reason feels like making music through a letterbox. This, and the new browser design, suggests that the Reason team all tend to work with large 4k/5k displays. Reason works if you master the view shortcuts, or if you detach and rearrange the views, but it may be time for a fundamental rethink of how it presents itself and sometimes overcomplicates things.

Everybody Online, Looking Good Ripley is a new spatial effect that combines delay with reverb. This is a real beaut, my favourite thing in the Reason 13 update. Just put the default patch on anything and smile. Ripley has a modular design starting with the dual delay section. The feedback freeze function provides endless fun and experimentation as parameter changes continue to mess with sound in the buffer.

The feedback filter has a unique shiftable range control. This can be swapped out for an eight-band filter bank with frequency shifting and stereo offsetting, which produces various flavours and psychedelic swirls. Noise and EQ modules can sit inside the feedback loop and you can patch in external devices via the rear panel.

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The reverb can be parallel or in line with the delay, and they work really nicely together. More modules provide distortion and bit-crushing, and mix ducking. This last is like an auto-throw that’s perfect on vocals, dropping the effect level while an input signal is present, then opening it up at the ends of lines.

Finally, a modulation section and matrix provides two LFOs and an envelope follower that can be routed and scaled in various ways, and there’s even a single button and knob that can be assigned for quick manual performance control.

Mo Tools Sidechain Tool, Gain Tool and Stereo Tool devices are seemingly straightforward utility modules that all do a bit more than you might think. Sidechain Tool is an effect that, in its default Auto Pump mode, simulates side‑chain ducking/pumping without the need for any actual side‑chain routing. You just set a rate — quarter notes will do the trick for four-on-the-floor beats — and the signal passing through is ducked accordingly.

Instead of the mental gymnastics of the traditional compressor method, where threshold, ratio and time settings determine the envelope, you just define the duck curve directly. Brilliantly, you can slide the overall response envelope in time, allowing you to swing the pump and lock in different grooves.

You can also trigger the pump from an external source, and you can even engage an actual side-chain mode, whereupon the front panel changes to a traditional compressor layout. Beyond the advertised use, Stereo Tool makes a great stutter effect, especially on a send, and the pump curve can be used as a CV mod source.

Three surprisingly useful new utilities.

Stereo Tool’s panel labels it a Mono to Stereo Tool, which it certainly is, but it will also do the inverse. It provides a pleasing spread that doesn’t feel like your brain is being sucked out, and has a crossover control for leaving the low end untouched.

Finally, Gain Tool does a ton of useful things if you like building device patches. As well as level it also does panning and width control, and has dual‑channel mixer, crossfader and router modes. As a Combinator builder, I’m stoked to finally have a simple, non-hacky way to add a stereo, equal-power crossfader for blending sound sources.

Final Thoughts Clear highlights in Reason 13 are the new devices, especially the Ripley delay and Sidechain Tool. For Reason standalone, I like the new Sequencer layout and workflow, and I’m delighted that multi MIDI Clock outputs are now possible. The new browser is puzzling but growing on me and has uncovered forgotten treasures in the library.

On the frustrating side, there are no improvements to the Rack plug-in’s functionality and we still don’t have independent Rack zoom in the main app. I for one would be happy to forgo new features and devices next time round in favour of a rethink on some of these quality of life issues. In any case, Reason continues to be a packed and inspiring musical playground. £ £499 including VAT.

Subscription options available.

W www.reasonstudios.com

Take it anywhere. Create whenever. Trust your instincts.

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TECHNIQUE

Toms To Go! Recording Toms When You’re In A Hurry

If time is tight for a full-band session, you won’t be able to perfect all aspects of a drum recording. But if you prioritise, you can still ensure you get decent results every time.

NEIL ROGERS

I

n an ideal world you’d have the time and budget available to approach a band recording session just as you’d like. We should always aspire to make great recordings, and I really don’t want to ‘dumb down’ the art of recording drums... But this article isn’t about sessions where you have time to audition different drum heads or tune the toms to the key of the song. It’s about the practical reality of recording bands with acoustic drum kits in less-than-ideal circumstances. I was inspired to write it after a recent discussion with a year-three music tech student about how best to approach record a typical indie/rock style band playing live in the studio. The catch was that their college only offered 2-3 hour studio slots to their students.

That’s a pretty big ask for any full band recording involving a drum kit! But with experience, you’ll learn how to prioritise and pace the setting up of a session, what

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fall-back options you can deploy to save time, and when and where you should be spending time fighting battles.

Below, I’ll focus on how you can get a tom sound to a good or, at worst, usable place in the space of just a few minutes, freeing up precious time to do everything else you need to do on the session. Often, when trying to get a band set up quickly to record, I’ll follow the steps that I’ve described below. I’ll then be presented with a natural break of 15 minutes or so in which I can fine-tune the toms further, with the bonus of actually having heard them in the proper context!

The Kit Comes First As I explained to this student, it’s hugely important to understand that, after the quality of the drummer and their performance, the sound of the kit will almost certainly have the biggest influence over the sound that comes from your speakers. More so than the mics, and more so than the rest of the recording chain or

your mix processing. It should be obvious, then, that when recording live drums engineers should spend enough time right at the start of a session making sure that the drum kit is fully optimised. That’s before you focus on mic choice or techniques, never mind sweating about which preamp to use for the hi-hat spot mic!

While it might not be quite so tight on a typical commercial studio session, time is nonetheless often a rare luxury, and more often than not I find myself tasked with getting a drum kit prepped and miked up as quickly as possible. I try to run my studio in a way that facilitates that. For example, I always have a good-sounding drum kit set up in my studio, with decent heads and in decent shape tuning-wise.

Sometimes that pays dividends, and if you have the chance to keep a kit in good session-ready condition, or at least to get in early and set up in advance of a session, I’d encourage that. But, understandably, drummers will often prefer to use their own drums, and even if they’re happy using the house kit they may have very different ideas about tuning and the tone, particularly with their toms.

In that scenario, there’s only so much you can do in advance, so you’ll still need to spend a good chunk of the available time assessing and treating the sound of

the drums. To keep on top of things, you’re going to need a plan, and a good starting point is to ask yourself what signals you absolutely must capture to ensure you can get a good result. On a short session like this, for example, before I could start to get the rest of the band up and running with headphone mixes, I’d definitely want to know that I had something good coming through my kick, snare, and overhead mics.

Get those choices and techniques right, and you should have a decent image of the kit, as well as a cue mix that allows all the artists to feel and respond to the groove.

Only then will you really know how much time you have to get a result from the rest of the kit mics, including the toms, as well as from the other instruments.

When it comes to the toms — which you’ll recall I said drummers can be very particular about — you’ll probably not have much time to experiment, but this doesn’t mean you have to put up with them sounding like cardboard boxes. The trick is to have a few good, reliable techniques that you can reach for quickly, that you can rely on to assess and, to some extent, manipulate these often mysterious parts of a standard acoustic drum kit when time is tight and you really need to get some recordings down.

Drummers Have Feelings Too Here’s my most important piece of advice: talk to the drummer. Drummers are normally the nicest people in the band

anyway [Neil’s a drummer, so he would say that! — Ed.] but assuming you haven’t had the luxury of any pre-production time, it’s important to figure out how ‘set’ their drum parts are. Some will play the same way every time, while others can be more spontaneous about the parts of the kit they use. Be sure that you actually need the toms; more than once, I’ve spent time working on the sound of a tom and only realised after the take that they didn’t actually use it once! Also, it’s worth pointing out that inexperienced drummers often seem to feel the need to bring ‘extra’ toms and cymbals into the studio. You need to try (diplomatically, of course!) to find out what their ‘normal’ setup looks like, and suggest that maybe it might be a good idea to work on getting the best from a simple setup on this session.

It’s then a case of trying to figure out what they’re looking for from their toms, and you’d be surprised at the number of drummers who have no opinion on this.

That’s OK, but it then falls to you to assess what’s realistic given what you have in front of you. Further enquiries might include whether they’re planning on ‘riding’ their toms in any sections, and generally getting a feel for how important they are. I’ve worked on lots of sessions where the toms are only used once or twice in a track, for single hit. Yes, every sound is important, but if we’re really in a pinch time-wise, is it really worth spending half an hour on a single tom hit that you can easily replace

later — or is it valuable session time you could spend more profitably elsewhere?

Assuming the toms are important to the piece, you need to know not only that they’re tuned, but also whether the specific drums can deliver the sound that you and the drummer envisage. In my experience of fiddling around with drums, most toms have a tuning sweet range where they really shine, and that might mean having a difficult conversation with the drummer about their equipment. Asking an eight-inch rack tom to sound like a thunderous rock tom is a tough ask, for example, and so too is making a drum head that’s been battered to within an inch of its life have a nice sense of decay, when really it needs to go in the bin. You’ll make your life far easier and their result much better if the toms in front of the mics are realistically capable of sounding how both you and the drummer want them to sound. To that end, I’d advise that when soundchecking you don’t just get the drummer to play repeated single hits of the toms while you set up — ask them to play them in the context of the track you’re going to be recording; it will tell you so much more than just whether you’ve got your levels right.

Tools & Options Even in sessions where we might be meeting a band for the first time for a quick recording project, there are things we can do in advance, including making sure we have tools to hand. In terms of

Even in a hurried session, there should be ample time for a drummer to get their toms sounding good before you record — but you might need to encourage some drummers to spend sufficient time and attention to that. It can help to have plenty of spare tuning keys to hand and, if you know what you’re doing, tools like a DrumDial, which can often help you locate a problem quickly.

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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TECHNIQUE

RECORDING TOMS

Commercial products such as Moon Gel can work well for controlling ringing and unwanted resonances, but they can also seem quite pricey for non-drummers! Thankfully, there are plenty of affordable yet effective DIY options.

getting a tom into shape, obviously it helps to have more than one drum key on you. I also like to have a selection of damping tools available, which I’ll discuss more below, and, although I use it less these days than I used to, I also find that a DrumDial type device can be useful for troubleshooting a problem tom. This can often be impractical in a really hectic session, but DrumDials can be great tools for developing your understanding of tension and how a tom can be manipulated, and with experience they can help you out of a hole.

Then there are the drums themselves, and having a few carefully chosen alternative options to hand can make a big difference. It might mess up how the kit looks on social media snaps of the session, but if the drummer brought along a poorly set-up drum, believe me, they won’t complain once they’ve heard what the nice-sounding tom you got ready beforehand brings to the table.

It’ll be easier for studio owners to keep a few drums in reserve than it is for a student, but you will still have options.

First, make sure you spend time getting to know the instruments that are available to you at the college, and then, when you book a session, try to make sure you’ll have the best options available on the day. You might also consider borrowing a couple of nice drums from a drummer friend. Even if they don’t get used, it’s good to practice learning to tune drums

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before a session, and to develop a bit of a feel for how to treat this often tricky aspect of recording a drum kit.

Tuning Troubleshooting Tuning is always going to make the biggest difference to the sound of the toms, but it’s an aspect of drumming and engineering about which I think we never really stop learning — in one session you might feel like the ‘drum doctor’, and in the next you could be completely flummoxed by how a tom is behaving! Indeed, people have written whole books on drum tuning.

Obviously, I’m not going that deep into this topic in this article, but if you want to learn more why not check out my good friend Dr Rob Toulson’s podcast series for SOS on Drum Science: https://sosm.ag/ DrumSciencePt1PODCAST. You do need to be aware that tuning can take time, but if you understand what you’re doing and can get some practice under your belt, you’ll be able to identify and rectify tuning problems pretty quickly.

Having spent many years playing drums and recording drummers, my first piece of advice would be to remove any damping that’s already on the drum. Resist the urge to start adjusting the lugs for just a moment, while you make a quick assessment. Quite often you’ll find that a single ‘rogue’ tuning lug is throwing the whole tom out of whack.

You can usually identify if this is the case by hitting the drum as evenly as possible towards the edge of the drum head in the

vicinity of each lug. If you can learn to do this by ear, it’s a good skill to develop, but a tool such as a DrumDial can also be really useful. I find that quickly getting all the lugs on the top head at a consistent tension can often make an awful-sounding drum seem respectable and, at worst, it will at least give you a better idea of how a particular drum is behaving. For example, it can make it more obvious that the resonant (bottom) head is causing the problem, in which case you can look either to follow the same process of evening out the tension for that head, or (the key to a great-sounding tom!) try to quickly improve the relationship between the two heads.

Damping Tuning aside, probably the biggest ‘quick return’ in tom tweaking is to damp a drum to within an inch of its life, and remove all resonances, good and bad, from the drum; you’ll still be left with a reliable trigger signal for drum replacement. But while you can go down this route if you’re really desperate, hopefully we’re aspiring to a bit more than that!

Following on from my earlier advice on tuning, I’ll assume you’ve removed any damping from the drum and have got it into a decent place tuning-wise in the allotted time. You can now look to build on your gains with some targeted damping of the tom’s resonances — and by ‘targeted’, I mean not only being selective but also that you need to consider the musical

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TECHNIQUE

RECORDING TOMS

Drummer’s won’t always have the right tom for the sound they want on a particular song, and where possible simply swapping it out for a more appropriate drum will be the quickest route to a good sound.

context in which the tom will be used. If you’ve done any work with drums, you’re probably aware of MoonGel-type products and DIY gaffer tape-style solutions for reducing a drum’s decay. I’ve found, however, that I get quicker and more forgiving results from using the leather damping products that clip to the rim of the drum. Not only are they less messy and easier to put in place, but they also work in a different way to gels and tape: they momentarily release the head of the drum when it’s stuck, and that makes them less prone to choking the life out it.

There are some great products available in this style, but they may seem a little pricey to a non-drummer, so here’s a tip: I’ve achieved similar results using little strips of thin leather that I attach to the drum with electrical tape (which is less sticky/messy than gaffer tape!). Another good technique, especially if you’re looking for more of a vintage sound, is to place a small folded towel, such as a tea towel, over the edge of the drum and hold it in place with the sort of spring clamp you might find in a hardware store. This allows you to vary how much towel encroaches on the drum, so it’s often pretty quick and easy to nix the undesired resonance.

Mic Choices There are some clever techniques for recording toms, for example using

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a single mic to capture a pair of rack toms, but these involve taking time to listen and refine placement – time that in this scenario you don’t have. So when it comes to miking your toms, I’d tend to keep things safe and simple, giving each tom a dedicated close mic (assuming resources allow). Cardioid dynamic mics like the Sennheiser MD 421 are a classic choice for toms for a reason and would be a safe bet. If the mic options are limited, you should at least have studio staples like the SM57 available, and they can serve perfectly well, although you might find you miss a little of the low end on larger toms. I sometimes like using beyerdynamic M201s for their more directional (hypercardioid) polar pattern.

I’d also recommend not being afraid to try a capacitor mic, particularly one with a switchable polar pattern. My AKG C414 B-ULS set to hypercardioid is one of my favourite options, in fact, and the off-axis (ie. not front-on) sound you capture with a decent capacitor mic will usually sound much smoother than with a dynamic mic.

This brings me on to an important point about miking. There’s an awful lot going on with things like cymbal spill and phase cancellation when recording a drum kit with multiple mics, so you really must pay close attention to the whole sound a mic is capturing from the kit, and not just how it captures the tom itself. Hopefully,

you’ll have practice time at college, or some more leisurely sessions in which you can listen and experiment to find what sort of sound you like. But a dynamic mic should be a safe bet, and there are a couple of things you can do to squeeze as much isolation as possible from each mic too. Some engineers favour pointing the mic more downward to a drum’s head to achieve this, but I’d generally resist the urge to get closer than, say, two inches — because while isolation might be desirable, you do want the result to sound like the tom you’re recording!

One final tip while you’re still learning, and which won’t take up much session time, is to remember to take a few photos of your final drum setup. That way, you’ll have a clear visual reference for your future self. When you come to mix your own recordings, you’ll quickly observe which mic techniques worked and which didn’t serve you so well.

After The Fact The focus of this article is on the recording session, and a great-sounding tom that has been recorded well should need very little work in the mix. Yet, I do want to leave you with just a couple of suggestions about how you can improve a more ‘average’ sounding tom when mixing — hopefully you can turn to these before you feel the need to reach for samples.

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When it comes to mics, the Sennheiser MD 421 is a classic choice, but where your options are more limited pretty much any directional dynamic mic is a safe bet — even an SM57 will help you get a good result in the bag.

First, always remember to check for the best polarity of a tom’s close‑mic signal against the overhead and room mic channels. Just hit the polarity button in your DAW channel/plug-in. The position that sounds fullest (least ‘thin’) is the one to choose. Also, in between tom hits, try muting the tom channels and listen for any change in the overall drum sound. Sometimes the spill these mics pick up can contribute something useful, but often it will sound better muted, in which case use a gate or your DAW’s strip silence feature to isolate the tom hits.

An EQ would be my next port of call. More often than not, you’ll find that there’s a large chunk of unpleasant midrange information, and removing this from a close‑miked tom channel will yield an immediate improvement. With any bell-style EQ, try sweeping a boost around 500-800 Hz to identify the offending frequency, and when you find it apply a generous cut. I normally find that there’s an ‘unsweet’ spot somewhere around 700Hz that cuts well. Sticking with the close‑mic channels, some saturation can work really well on the toms when you need help blending what are often unnatural-sounding close channels into the overall drum mix.

Lastly, because the close mics are usually fairly isolated and can, as I said, be relatively unnatural‑sounding, we can often be quite dramatic when we process them. It’s far harder to influence the overheads or rooms without compromising the sound of the rest of the kit but, obviously, your toms will be present in the overheads and room mics too. A helpful option can be to put a compressor on the overheads, and trigger it (using its external side-chain input) using the close tom mics. You’re just looking to dip the level of the overheads by a couple of dB whenever the toms are struck. It doesn’t always work and it won’t always be needed, but it’s a technique that allows the close mics (or samples if you’ve gone down that route) to feel more ‘present’ in the final mix.

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BOB THOMAS

E

lysia’s aim is “the development and production of high-quality audio equipment featuring that certain something”. In pursuit of it, they do everything in-house at their base in Nettetal, Germany — and I really do mean everything. They design, develop and prototype their products there, they make their own PCBs, have their own SMD manufacturing equipment, machine their own metalwork, and carry out final assembly and testing. It’s an integrated approach that has resulted in the creation of some wonderful products, and the latest is the xpector, a desktop, Class‑A, dual-channel headphone amplifier that’s an innovative headphone and monitor control solution for the DAW-based engineer/ producer and provides a separate, well-featured artist headphone mixing facility too.

Head Lines Despite sharing the form, styling and chunky aluminium housing of Elysia’s qube range of 500-series devices, the xpector is a desktop device and not actually compatible with the 500 series.

Its front-panel controls are laid out in three vertical rows, the outer two of which control independent engineer and artist headphone mixes. The inner row handles monitor and headphone switching duties.

Each mix has its own front- and rear-panel quarter-inch (6.35mm) stereo headphone output. The rear panel also carries balanced quarter-inch jack sockets for L-R audio inputs (L also caters for mono) and pass-throughs. Those labelled Direct will normally be connected directly to the outputs of, for example, mono mic preamps or stereo processors, and looped through to your audio interface’s inputs. The DAW

Elysia xpector £935 pros • Innovative combination of headphone amplification and monitor control.

• Includes basic M-S monitoring facilities.

• Did I mention the stunning audio performance?

cons • None.

summary This innovative product combines a two-channel headphone amplifier and monitor control, and delivers a very high level of audio performance.

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Elysia xpector Headphone Amp & Monitor Controller Need high-quality but portable headphone amplification for both engineer and artist? Elysia may have the answer. pair carries two of your interface’s outputs.

Balanced L-R XLR outputs are provided to drive active loudspeakers. Finally, there’s the power switch and a non-locking connector for the supplied 1A, 18V DC PSU. Assuming you have the necessary leads to hand, setting up the xpector is simple, as its audio inputs and outputs accept balanced or unbalanced jacks. Apart from the Swap switch that’s associated with the engineer channel’s trim function, no mystery surrounds any of the front-panel controls.

The bottom three knobs on either channel allow the setting up of individual mixes of the direct and DAW signals and headphone volume levels for both engineer and artist, each of which can be muted individually.

In addition, you’ll find ±6dB high and low shelving EQ at the top of the artist

channel, allowing artists to tailor their own sound. The knobs’ opposite numbers in the engineer channel are a Mode switch that sets the format (stereo, mono/Mid, Sides, left, or right) of the signal in the engineer’s headphones or the loudspeaker output, and a ±12dB trim control. The last of those, via the Swap switch I mentioned earlier, allows you to trim the signal levels going into your headphones or out to your monitors relative to each other, to avoid abrupt changes in volume when switching between the two with the Speaker switch.

Great xpectations?

Once you’ve got everything set up and understand that Swap switch, operating the xpector and creating engineer and artist headphone mixes is entirely

intuitive. I was very pleased to discover that the rotary pots’ very fine detents lined up precisely with the scales around them and the notch on every knob — it’s a level of attention to detail I’ve not seen before and is to be commended.

From an engineer’s perspective, the Swap function integrates headphones and monitors into a level-matched system. On the monitoring side, in addition to stereo, mono, left and right, the Mode switch also allows you to monitor the Sides component of a stereo signal; the mono mode provides the Mid component, of course, to deliver a basic M-S monitoring capability — handy, for example, for quickly checking the Sides for phase issues that might affect mono compatibility.

But what about the sound? I hear you ask. The xpector’s stunning audio performance is first rate, delivering

the high levels of clarity, nuance, detail and accuracy associated with Class‑A amplification. Put simply, the xpector is an outstanding headphone amp and one of the best-sounding monitor controllers I’ve used or heard to date. Sadly, for my own prospects of ownership, the xpector’s price tag is commensurate with these levels of performance — but it is fully justified.

If you work on projects where accurate, high-quality, mobile headphone monitoring is a prerequisite, such as recording classical music, or critical recording with vocalists and/ or acoustic instrumentalists in domestic or other non-studio environments, or you are simply looking to upgrade your personal studio’s monitoring facilities, the Elysia xpector is an investment worth your consideration.

“Elysia do everything in-house at their base in Nettetal, Germany — and I really do mean everything.”

The rear‑panel layout confirms that although the xpector shares the general form of Elysia’s qube range, it’s not actually a 500-series module. £ £935 including VAT. T Elysia +49 2157 870 440 E info@elysia.com W www.elysia.com

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www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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beyerdynamic DT 1990 PRO MkII & DT 1770 PRO MkII Headphones

The new MkII editions of beyerdynamic’s flagship headphones are outwardly identical to the previous versions. Internally, however, it’s a very different story!

SAM INGLIS

A

s befits a manufacturer celebrating their centenary, beyerdynamic products tend to stand the test of time. The company’s very first headphones, the DT 48s, were in continuous production from 1937 to 2012, while the still-current

M 160 and M 130 ribbon microphones date back to the 1950s, and the iconic, rectangular DT 100s have been a recording-studio staple since their introduction in 1965. Any new model that enters the beyerdynamic line-up has a lot to live up to — and recent headphone launches have done a pretty good job of it.

The DT 1990 PRO MkII and DT 1770 PRO MkII are essentially open- and closed-back versions of the same design.

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At the top end of the market, headphone development at beyerdynamic has focused on two proprietary driver technologies called STELLAR and TESLA. In a moving-coil loudspeaker or headphone driver, a coil of wire is attached to the back of the diaphragm, with a permanent magnet positioned inside it. When the amplified audio signal is passed through the wire, electromagnetic induction does its thing and the diaphragm is pushed and pulled at a frequency determined by the signal.

In the original version of the TESLA driver, the usual geometry was reversed, and instead of locating the magnet inside the wire coil, beyerdynamic used a ring-shaped magnet that sat outside the coil. This generated a particularly powerful magnetic flux density, with concomitant benefits in terms of sensitivity and low distortion. The TESLA driver was first used in high-end headphones for the consumer hi-fi market, but soon found its way into two studio products: the closed-back DT 1770 PRO and the open-back DT 1990 PRO. These were introduced in 2016, and have proved very popular despite — or, perhaps, because of? — the fact that they were never reviewed in this magazine.

An exploded view of one side of the DT 1990 PRO MkII, showing the new TESLA.45 driver.

To celebrate their anniversary, beyerdynamic have introduced upgraded or special edition versions of quite a few products, and their flagship studio headphones are no exception. Both the DT 1770 PRO and DT 1990 PRO are now at MkII, with an updated version of the TESLA driver that is said to improve performance still further.

The new driver, dubbed the TESLA.45, actually reverts to a more conventional structure with the magnet inside the voice coil, but still achieves a flux density in excess of 1T. It also incorporates many of the improvements made in the STELLAR.45 driver used in the DT 700 and 900 PRO X models, while one of the biggest steps forward has been the development of a new diaphragm geometry. In the new TESLA.45 driver, the voice coil is not wound directly onto the back of the diaphragm, but onto a lightweight collar that protrudes outwards. This design ensures that the voice coil remains entirely within the magnet gap even at relatively high excursion levels, delivering greater linearity and lower distortion.

Open & Shut Case The 1770 and 1990 are, respectively, closed-back and open-back versions of a design that is otherwise identical.

They are manufactured at beyerdynamic’s Heilbronn headquarters in central Germany, and their construction is pleasingly businesslike and serious-looking, with a ‘none more black’ aesthetic that seems fitting for

a professional studio tool. The two models ship in the same lightweight, zip-up, semi-rigid case, which is also entirely black and has no identifying features, so if you’re lucky enough to own both models you’ll open the wrong case approximately 50 percent of the time.

It would benefit from having a handle, but most importantly, it offers a decent level of protection whilst being much lighter than typical hard-shell cases.

Within the case, a pouch houses the detachable cables, offering the traditional choice of straight or curly. The former is 3m long and the latter will stretch to 5m. These attach to the base of the left earcup using a mini-XLR, and to your audio device through the equally time-honoured mini-jack with optional 6.5mm screw-on adaptor. As well as the headphones themselves, both models also come with a second set of earpads. The stock earpads are velour-covered: in the case of the DT 1990 PRO MkII, they are designated the Producing version, and introduce a small bass boost. The second set supplied with the 1770 have an imitation leather cover and offer greater isolation from external sound, while the alternative Mixing & Mastering earpads for the 1990 are also velour and are intended to flatten the response. (The headband cushion is also replaceable.)

However, swapping earpads isn’t something I’d want to attempt on a regular basis. On paper, or in PDF manual, the process is simple: you snag the elastic band that lines the back of the earpad

on a notch in the rim of the earcup, and twist through 360 degrees. If that works first time, it takes a few seconds. But if it doesn’t, the band becomes increasingly stretched and non-compliant, and it quickly gets frustrating. Having swapped the first one with no fuss at all, it took me nearly an hour to do my second earpad. It doesn’t help that the two sets of earpads for the 1990 are indistinguishable once attached to the earcups.

Full Strength The physical design of both models is largely conventional, which is understandable since beyerdynamic

beyerdynamic DT 1990 PRO MkII & DT 1770 PRO MkII £549 pros • Heavy-duty construction with lots of field-replaceable parts.

• Good-quality case supplied.

• Earpads can be swapped to change the tonal characteristics somewhat.

• Attractive, non-fatiguing sound.

• Comfortable even when used for long periods.

cons • Swapping the earpads can be a struggle.

summary Powered by the all-new TESLA.45 driver, beyerdynamic’s flagship open‑ and closed-back models are high-quality studio headphones.

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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B E Y E R D Y N A M I C D T 1 9 9 0 P R O M K I I & D T 17 7 0 P R O M K I I

probably created those conventions in the first place! The earcups are attached to metal yokes which allow them to pivot through a reasonably wide up/down arc and a rather smaller fore/aft angle. By modern standards, they are on the large side, though still nowhere near as big as something like the Audeze LCD-X or HEDDphone. Construction feels extremely solid, and at 377 and 376 grammes respectively, the 1770s and 1990s are a little heavier than many rivals, but I found them very comfortable. (In fact, I’ve never experienced any sort of inverse link between weight and comfort in headphones in general.)

It’s always reassuring when manufacturers go beyond what’s expected of them in terms of publishing specifications, and beyerdynamic certainly do so with these two models. In both cases, a frequency response of 5Hz to 40kHz is claimed, though with no tolerances, this isn’t the most helpful figure. But in other respects,

the specs are exemplary. Sound pressure levels are quoted both for 1mW and 1V references, and separate THD figures are given for 100Hz, 500Hz and 1kHz signals.

These are impressive figures, too: for a 1mW input, both models deliver 0.2% THD at 100Hz and 0.1% or less at the other frequencies. Even the amount of pressure exerted by the headband has been quantified (6 Newtons, if you’re interested), and a meaningful 25dBA measurement for attenuation of external noise is provided

for the closed-back 1770. Both models have a nominal impedance of 30Ω, and the 1770s are, as you’d expect, marginally more sensitive than the open-backed 1990s, delivering 95dB SPL for a 1mW input at 500Hz to the latter’s 94dB. Both are therefore easy to drive from any source.

Brighten Rock I have never heard the original version of either model, and in fact my experience of beyerdynamic’s headphones in general

Ask An Acoustician!

The refreshed MkII editions of the DT 1770 PRO and DT 1990 PRO headphones are outwardly identical to the original versions, and their physical design is unchanged.

Internally, however, both use a completely new driver dubbed the TESLA.45. This driver was the result of a lengthy development process at beyerdynamic, in which Acoustic Engineer Ante Mihalj was deeply involved. I had the opportunity to quiz Ante about exactly what is involved in creating a new pair of high-end studio headphones.

The new driver draws on ideas from both the previous TESLA driver, as used in the older 1770 and 1990, and the STELLAR.45 driver developed for the PRO X models. “The original idea was to develop a new driver where we can implement the know-how we have got during the STELLAR.45 development and from the old TESLA models. The first goal was to make a perfect driver, for the next generation of headphones. We didn´t plan making the driver for the DT 1770 PRO and DT 1990 PRO MkII. At first, we thought we would make a new hi-fi headphone, but in the end we came to the conclusion that we should do it for our high-end pro audio headphones.”

One of the distinctive features of the previous TESLA driver was the use

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A key advantage of the TESLA.45 driver design is that it can be manufactured using beyerdynamic’s advanced automation systems. of ring magnets with the voice coil located inside them. For the TESLA.45, however, beyerdynamic found a way to achieve the same high magnetic flux density using the conventional arrangement with the magnet inside the voice coil. “We used the same configuration as in the STELLAR.45, but thanks to strong neodymium magnets it was possible to achieve a flux density in the magnetic gap of over one Tesla. So even without a ring magnet we got an extremely efficient driver. It’s much more practical for us this way and it enables us to increase the consistency of the quality even more.

“We are using highly automated and extremely precise production processes with the STELLAR.45 and now with the TESLA.45. It was a big project here at beyerdynamic when we developed the STELLAR.45 and we

January 2025 / www.soundonsound.com

wanted to benefit from this production process technology with the TESLA.45.

Since it is being assembled on the same machines, we had to change the magnet configuration. But in the end, we still get a better performance acoustically and have the possibility to improve the production process and get a much higher‑quality driver at the end.

“Our main target for this project was to optimise the membrane behaviour in the low-frequency range, while considering the overall performance across the whole frequency range. We had quite a lot of iterations where we were making improvements on the THD in the low-frequency range, but sometimes we had to go a few steps back and compromise the perfect THD performance, to improve the frequency response in the upper

frequency range. We went through multiple optimisation loops until we were satisfied with all of the results!”

One desideratum for the new TESLA.45 driver was that it had to work equally well in the closed-back DT 1770 PRO MKII and the open-back DT 1990 PRO MKII. There is a certain amount of tension between these two goals, as Ante explains. “For an open-back headphone, we need a low resonance frequency, whereas a closed-back headphone would work pretty well with a higher resonance frequency, which comes with some other benefits. The foil material we are using is made from multiple layers, and one of those layers acts as dampening. If you increase the thickness of this dampening material, you get better control of resonances in the high-frequency range, which is desirable. On the other side,

is quite limited, so I came to the 1770 and 1990 without any well-formed expectations.

Would they prove ruler-flat and analytical, or would they offer a more characterful listening experience?

The DT 1990 PRO MkII competes roughly head-on with the Shure SRH1840, the Neumann NDH-30 and the Sennheiser HD490 Pro, all of which seem to me to offer plausible if slightly varied interpretations of a subjectively flat frequency response.

Out of the box, the beyerdynamic open-backed model has a gently ‘scooped’ tonality in comparison, with a broad treble boost starting around 5kHz and extending well above 10kHz complemented by a slight bump in the ‘upper bass’ region. As is often the case in open-backed headphones, genuine sub-bass is a little subdued in comparison.

However, switching from the stock

Producing earpads to the alternative Mixing & Mastering ones seemed to me to flatten this lower midrange region appreciably, and I also felt I was less aware of the treble boost with the second set of pads, although it would be impossible to do a proper A/B test without two pairs of

Sonarworks SoundID profiles for either model, and those for the original MkI variants are not a great fit, but I’m sure that inasmuch as they depart from perfect flatness, this will be easily addressed with corrective EQ. Most importantly, there’s something very likeable about the sound of both models just as they are, and although you might expect to find that treble emphasis a little fatiguing, in practice it really isn’t. Music of most types is enjoyable to listen to, with the caveat that super-deep bass is not really the forte of the 1990, and the open-back model in particular seems to me a very useful analytical tool for mixing, editing and other studio tasks.

“The physical design of both models is largely conventional, which is understandable since beyerdynamic probably created those conventions in the first place!”

you also get a higher resonance frequency in the low-frequency range, which doesn’t suit an open-back headphone. Thanks to the additional bass port, even in combination with a high resonance frequency of the driver, a closed-back headphone can still achieve a great bass response.”

Low-frequency performance is also strongly affected by the design of the earpads, which is why both models are supplied with two different sets. “Mostly we are aiming to keep the performance above 500Hz the same with the two earpad variants. The complex nature of the earpads does lead to additional differences in the rest of the frequency response, which are mostly negligible. The balance between bass and the upper frequencies is crucial for the sound signature. So if we just lower the bass a little bit with one of those earpads, we get a different‑sounding headphone.

“You can modify the sound by choosing different foam types or the geometry. Geometry plays a big role in that regard. For example, the DT 1990 PRO MkII earpad with more bass has 20 small holes in the earpad. The earpad with less bass has only four holes in the earpad.

It’s completely counterintuitive

1990s to swap between. On balance I felt that they were still a shade mid-recessed compared with my personal idea of neutral, but it was a close-run thing.

The closed-back DT 1770 PRO MkIIs, meanwhile, have a pleasingly similar overall tonality to the 1990s, but with a slightly more pronounced ‘smile curve’.

At the time of writing there are no generic

because you think the bass should be able to escape more easily thanks to more holes, which will result in less bass reproduction, but it’s quite the opposite because we use foam materials with different flow resistances.”

Historically, beyerdynamic have made headphone models with a widely varying range of impedances, to suit different use cases. Like most modern headphones, the DT 1990 PRO and DT 1770 PRO MkII are low-impedance models, presenting a nominal 30Ω to the source. “We, at least at beyerdynamic, can divide the impedance question into two parts.

The first one is the impedance: the resistance of the wire, how many turns in the winding or what kind of diameter we use for the voice coil itself. And this has an impact on the sound, in combination with the amplifier.

“On the other side we have different driver configurations.

For example, the older 32Ω, 250Ω and 600Ω drivers from the DT 880 PRO or DT 990 PRO have a three-piece configuration. The voice coil is attached to a former, and this former is then attached to the membrane. But the STELLAR.45, the 80Ω and the rare 16Ω drivers have a two‑piece configuration, where we

£ £549 including VAT T Polar Audio +44 (0)1444 258258 E sales@polar.uk.com W www.polar.uk.com W www.beyerdynamic.com

glue the voice coil directly onto the membrane. The difference between those two configurations is that with a two-piece voice coil, part of the voice coil windings are outside of the magnetic gap, while the voice coil of a three-piece configuration is mostly completely inside the magnetic gap, driving the membrane with a constant force, keeping the THD low. Thanks to less voice coil wire being needed, the moving mass is lowered, resulting in better high-frequency and transient reproduction.

“With the TESLA.45 we have also extended the magnetic gap height, which increases the maximum excursion of the voice coil, while keeping a constant magnetic field.

This way the driver doesn’t generate additional THD and intermodulation distortion, even at high SPLs. “And for the second part, the impact of headphone impedance in combination with the amplifier, the damping factor of this system is important. We have been thinking about which way to go, and in the end, we realised that a lot of new equipment has a low output impedance. Most headphone amps have an output impedance below 1Ω. And even in combination with a 30Ω driver, that gives you a high damping factor.

“For example, if you compare a tube headphone amplifier, with an output impedance of 50Ω, in combination with a 600Ω headphone, you get a damping factor of 12. But with the 30Ω headphone in combination with an output impedance of 1Ω, you get a factor of 30. And bigger is better in this case, to get less coloration of the frequency response.”

The choice of wire for the voice coil is also an important factor in the design of a headphone driver — which, in an ideal world, would have zero mass. As described above, the three-piece design of the TESLA.45 reduces the size of the voice coil; in comparison to the original TESLA driver, beyerdynamic achieved further mass reduction by using CCA or copper-clad aluminium: “The CCA wire comprises an aluminium core with a copper-clad surface, since copper is a much better conductor than aluminium. We still get a low-resistance voice coil, but the weight is reduced drastically. The wire we use in the TESLA.45 driver is slightly thicker than in the old TESLA driver, but thanks to an aluminium core, we get a lower-mass voice coil. This enabled us to decrease the moving mass of the driver even more.”

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FE ATURE

Hear The Sound W https://open.spotify.com/

track/7982sGZuvo5OXsY6REzgIn

W www.youtube.com/

watch?v=AOPMlIIg_38

Robert Orton • Charli XCX ‘Boom Clap’ J O E M AT E R A

E

nglish producer and four-time Grammy Award‑winning mixer Robert Orton, aka The Hitmixer, has worked with million-selling artists including Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias, Backstreet Boys, Sting, Lana Del Rey and Robin Thicke. Asked to pick a sonic highlight from his hugely successful catalogue, he chooses the bass in Charli XCX’s ‘Boom Clap’.

“One of the most important elements of ‘Boom Clap’ is the sub-bass sound that comes in on the chorus, and the trick was getting everything to fit around it, because it’s huge. It’s absent in the verses, but lands on one of the choruses with the word ‘boom’ when it first comes in.

“The verses have got this much smaller-sounding bass part, but when you hit the chorus, this all-consuming bass sound takes over. I had to figure out how to make that sound as big as possible without taking over everything, to allow for all the other things that are obviously really important for the chorus to work.

“The song has this sort of odd, stilted rhythm made up of all these different elements that come together to form the

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groove — there’s an acoustic guitar which is more rhythmic than melodic, the snare, and then this slightly weird hi-hat. These sounds all bounce off each other to form something that’s really quite hypnotic and interesting to listen to.

“So, you get this big boom from the sub, which has to dissipate to make space for these other elements that come in, and compression was the key to achieving that. The bass is keyed off these sounds to ensure they have space over the top. It’s actually quite a complicated processing chain going on, and is really quite different to what I would normally do. Mixing is all about balance, but in this particular case, it needed this type of finesse to get the rhythm to work properly.”

Bass Management “The bass sound itself has very little processing on it because it was such a cool sound. It was all about getting everything else to work with it. When you’ve got a great sound to begin with, you don’t really need to do much to it. The kick in the verse and the kick in the chorus are the same sound, but they’re treated differently.

When that big sub comes in the chorus, I used a transient designer to add attack

to the kick so that it pokes through at the beginning of the bass sound, but then gets out of the way. And because that makes the kick sound a bit smaller, there’s also some saturation that comes in on the kick there as well. That also changes the shape of the kick so that it fits better with the sub sound. The saturation was from the stock [Avid] Lo-Fi plug-in, but it’s added in parallel so it kind of blends and locks it all together with that sub-bass.

“Interestingly, when this song first came to me, the sub-bass element was there but wasn’t as prominent, and for me it was a standout element. The song’s called ‘Boom Clap’, so it’s got to have this huge boom that comes in on the choruses and that has to come from that bass. When I started mixing, I pushed that part right up in the balance and then finessed other parts around it.”

Word Building “It’s also important to say that the vocals are obviously such an important part of the song as well. Charli XCX sang an amazing vocal and her voice is front and centre. The way the vocals are treated also accentuates the boom and, as that sub-bass comes in, there’s a separate stack on the words ‘boom clap’. Those are treated differently and it’s an important element of the mix that that phrase is much drier than the rest of the chorus. All these things come together so that, effectively, there’s all this emphasis on those words.

By taking the reverb and the delay off them, it not only makes them more in your face but also creates more space for the boom of the sub-bass.”

ON TE ST

The Replay Box: a re‑amp device with tonal options to explore.

United Studio Technologies Vintage Direct & Replay Box DI & Re‑amp Boxes These high-quality boxes promise to add more to your rig than most DIs and re‑ampers.

BOB THOMAS

B

ased in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United Studio Technologies were founded with the aim of opening up access to “gear built like the original classics”. Having opened their account with reworkings of two popular vintage microphones, they’ve now released another product pairing: the passive, transformer-based Vintage Direct Box and Replay Box re‑amping interface.

Appearance Each of these devices sits in an identical, brushed‑aluminium enclosure, whose recessed front and rear panels carry matching control and connector layouts.

Internally, the Vintage Direct carries one transformer, whilst the Replay has two.

These and all other components in both units are of extremely high quality, right down to the three resistors in the Vintage Direct’s switched attenuator that are made by a supplier to NASA.

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The front panel of the Vintage Direct carries a centrally positioned row of three miniature switches. These activate, from left to right: 12dB of output attenuation; an output polarity reversal; and a ground lift. To their right, a three-position rotary switch selects between the three secondary windings of the unit’s transformer to deliver, in conjunction with the 12dB output attenuator, six output level options from -42 to -22 dB in 4dB steps. The Vintage Direct’s rear panel carries a balanced male XLR for the DI output, and two quarter-inch (6.35mm) jack sockets, one for the instrument input and the other for a pass-through of the input, for onward connection to an amp, effects processor or pedalboard.

The Replay Box’s leftmost front-panel switch toggles between the unit’s two transformers, to offer either Transparent or Harmonic colour options. The rest of the switches on the front panel have the same functions as those of the Vintage Direct. The output level control’s rotary

potentiometer, in this case labelled Level rather than Output, has a practical range of -75 to +4 dB, beginning at full attenuation. At the unit’s rear, you’ll find a balanced female XLR input connector that accepts +4dBu line‑level signals; a quarter-inch jack socket that can act either as a pass-through of the signal entering the XLR input or (if the XLR is not in use) an input; and a quarter-inch jack socket that carries the Replay Box’s output signal from the selected transformer.

Transformers The transformers in both the Vintage Direct and the Replay Box are the fruit of a collaboration between United Studio Technologies (UST from here on) and studio engineer Chad Kelly, whose 20 years of experience in the design, development and production of boutique, hand-built passive transformer-based DI and re‑amplification boxes lies at the heart of these new units.

United Studio Technologies Vintage Vintage Direct & Replay Box pros • Both sound utterly superb • Both have clinical and creative applications • Superb value for money, given the performance

cons • You may want two of each!

summary Two superb-sounding, minimalist, transformer-based passive units that, between them, make recording and re‑amplifying electric and pickup-equipped acoustic instruments an easy and creative process.

In the Vintage Direct brochure, the direct inspiration of the transformer in the Vintage Direct is given as a the UTC A12, a 1960s transformer that featured three separate secondary windings. Over a period of several years, Chad Kelly iterated that design, settling eventually on specifications that were as close as possible to the original, and the design utilises the separate secondary windings to deliver three different output levels.

This years-long development effort resulted in United’s US-made 5078, which is fitted to the Vintage Direct and which the company claim is one of the largest transformers being used in a current, commercially available DI box.

The Replay’s Transparent transformer comes from the SAE ReAmp that Chad Kelly produced and sold successfully for approximately 20 years under his Signal Art Electronics banner. That unit’s original transformer, designed

by Kelly, was a transparent, unity-gain transformer. Later, Kelly realised that the ReAmp required more gain to handle operation at +4dBu, which resulted in

another US-made transformer, United’s 5043 step-up transformer. This has 3dB of additional passive clean gain available above its +4dBu input from your audio interface or recorder.

The Replay Box’s second, harmonically richer transformer comes from the SAE AngReAmp (if you haven’t got the joke in the name yet, try saying it quickly...).

Chad Kelly had experimented with using an inductor to add warmth to the ReAmp’s transparent transformer, a concept that had worked but which significantly reduced the signal level.

Fortunately, Kelly discovered an obscure telecommunications transformer and used it in what he describes as “a pretty unorthodox way”, to create a version of the SAE ReAmp that was christened the AngReAmp by one of its first purchasers.

This unit’s transformer was created to deliver a gentle high-frequency roll-off, fatter low mids and increased harmonic and phase distortion in the sub-bass region, resulting in a more forward and warmer overall tone and an additional 5dB of passive gain.

On Test With a selection of active and passive acoustic and electric guitars and basses plugged directly into it, and its balanced XLR output connected to a microphone input on my RME audio interface, the Vintage Direct (which can handle a maximum input level of +10dBu)

delivered clean, clear, accurate results, whose character was subtly enhanced by the sense of weight and increased presence that characterises classic transformer-derived harmonic distortion.

There was never any shortage of output level, even with low-output magnetic pickups, and I found myself occasionally having to dial back the Vintage Direct’s output to keep the RME in its sweet spot.

If you’re not fixated on obtaining the cleanest sound possible from your instruments, you could experiment with pushing the input of the Vintage Direct and taming its output with the attenuator, or you could always connect the Vintage Direct to a valve-based mic preamp and then push that to add character to the dry sound. Those particular approaches should also work very well with keyboards, synths, bass guitars and electronic drums, as there’s no need to restrict the benefits of the Vintage Direct to any particular instrument; if it has an instrument-level output, it can be connected.

To audition the Replay Box, I set up a minimalist, all-analogue signal chain that began with a vintage active Countryman Type 85 (the cleanest DI I own) running into one channel of my Pendulum Audio SPS-1 microphone preamplifier. The balanced output of that channel then fed the Replay’s balanced input, and the result was split between a high-end headphone amplifier/monitor

The Vintage Direct, and the chunky Chad Kelly-designed transformer that lies at its heart.

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U NI T E D S T U DIO T EC H NOLO GIE S V IN TA GE DIR EC T & R E P L AY BOX

The Replay Box allows you to switch between two different transformers, one sounding cleaner, the other more characterful.

controller that I’m currently reviewing, and a hand-wired Fender Vibrolux Reverb clone.

Playing through that chain delivered a very clear, detailed, neutral and, just as advertised, ‘transparent’ sound.

Routing a pre-recorded Vintage Direct DAW track from the RME to the Replay via the SPS-1’s insert return immediately brought back the sound of the Vintage Direct. Replaying that track through the Vibrolux didn’t take much setting up, being simply a matter of setting up the interplay between the Replay’s output level control and the Vibrolux’s channel volume and tone controls to give me the edge‑of‑breakup sound that I like to hear.

Switching to the Harmonic transformer revealed the Replay’s secret power. I’ve never heard transformer-derived harmonic distortion that sounded as good as that from this transformer. While the Vintage Direct’s transformer delivers a noticeable but relatively subtle enhancement, the Replay’s Harmonic transformer pushes the source sound to the fore by giving it much more weight, presence and size.

Guitars connected to the Vibrolux through this transformer (I used the Vintage Direct connected to the SPS-1 to drive the Replay) felt subjectively larger and more open to me than when directly connected.

I also found that I could use the Replay quite successfully as an enhancer on a piezo pickup-equipped acoustic guitar, which opens up another avenue of experimentation.

passive Vintage Direct and Replay Box are superb units that deliver very high levels of performance that more than justify the asking price, and they should both be on the RADAR of any serious engineer or musician. Being the more expensive of the pair, the Vintage Direct DI perhaps appeared at first glance to offer less value for money, but once I’d worked with it that first impression disappeared quickly: although it costs approximately twice the price of my Countryman Type 85, it delivers a level of detail that I don’t hear in the Countryman. To me, that alone is worth paying extra for. The Replay just

ALTERNATIVES The closest DI to the Vintage Direct that I could find at time of writing was a clone of Bruce Swedien’s UTC-10X-based DI, as used on Thriller and which costs almost three times the price! For less money, you’ll find good-quality passive alternatives from the likes of Telefunken and Radial. I couldn’t find a direct competitor to the Replay, but companies such as Walrus Audio, Radial and Palmer offer lower-cost options. Little Labs’ Redeye 3D Phantom passive combination re-amp box and direct box would be worth considering if you’d prefer a compact, one-box alternative.

offers excellent value for money, whether you’re into re‑amping electric guitars and basses, acoustic instruments, keyboards, synths, percussion... or even vocals!

That wonderful Harmonic transformer alone more than justifies its price, in fact, while its Transparent companion ensures you also have instant access to the original dry track for comparison or use. Had the distributor not needed them back so urgently, I would definitely have snapped up both these little boxes in a heartbeat... and I still might! £ Vintage Direct Box £479,

Replay Box £369. Prices include VAT.

T Sound Service UK +44 (0) 330 122 2500 E sales@soundservice-msl.co.uk W www.soundservice-msl.co.uk W https://unitedstudiotech.com

Boxes To DI For? There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that United’s transformer-based

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January 2025 / www.soundonsound.com

The rear panels of the two boxes share broadly the same layout, though obviously the I/O support different functions.

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scan.co.uk/proaudio • 01204 47 47 47

ON TE ST

SSL UC1 & 360 Link Plug-in Controller

Solid State Logic complete their controller circle with a clever way of integrating third-party plug-ins into the 360 system.

SAM INGLIS

W

ith the launch of the UF1 in mid-2023, Solid State Logic completed the hardware dimension of their popular controller range.

The range comprises three complementary units: the UF8 fader surface, the UC1 plug-in controller, and the aforementioned UF1, which combines a single fader with comprehensive metering, transport controls, assignable buttons and more.

When the UF1 was reviewed in the July 2023 issue of SOS, the software ecosystem that is designed to support this triumvirate

SSL UC1 £659 pros • With the new 360 Link plug-ins, the UC1 becomes a highly effective universal plug-in controller.

• Control over third-party plug-ins is straightforward to set up.

• Tight integration with SSL’s own plug-ins and their 360 Plug-in Mixer.

• Genuine VU meter to monitor bus compressor gain reduction.

cons • Scanning the VST3 plug-in folder can take a long time.

• The limited integration offered by Pro Tools and Logic means the user experience suffers in those DAWs. • Not everyone will feel they need hands-on control over their bus compressor.

summary The UC1 and 360 Link represent the culmination of a hugely ambitious project from SSL’s designers, delivering a controller that is both superbly integrated with their own plug-ins and capable of handling almost any third-party EQ, compressor or channel strip.

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was already very sophisticated, but one killer feature remained to be implemented.

That feature is particularly pertinent to the UC1, and so its implementation seems a good time to review what is perhaps the most interesting of the three controllers.

U And Me If you’re new to SSL’s controller range, I’d recommend reading the Sound On Sound reviews of the UF8 (www.soundonsound. com/reviews/ssl-uf8) and especially the UF1 (www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ solid-state-logic-uf1) for background, as the entire system is pretty deep. In a nutshell, it combines old-fashioned MIDI-based DAW control using the HUI or MCU protocols with an additional proprietary technology called SSL 360. This has been developed over the years, to the point where SSL plug-ins can now be used to assemble a sort of ‘shadow’ virtual mixer that makes redundant a lot of your DAW’s mixer functionality in order to offer better hardware integration.

The broad idea behind this SSL Plug-in Mixer is not dissimilar to Softube’s Console 1, but there are also many differences.

Console 1 workflow is designed to keep you within the DAW environment: touching or turning an EQ or compressor knob causes the Console 1 control window to appear as a temporary overlay on top of

your DAW, which disappears again once you’ve finished making changes. There is only a single Console 1 plug-in, although it’s possible to load different styles of EQ and dynamics into it.

By contrast, the SSL controllers and especially UC1 are designed to work with multiple plug-ins, and there’s no equivalent of the Console 1 ‘heads-up display’ overlay.

Instead, a button labelled 360 can be used to tab from your DAW interface to the separate SSL 360 application, which displays all the relevant plug-in parameters across all channels as a virtual SSL-style mixer. Reflecting the design heritage of SSL consoles, the UC1 is actually intended to work with two types of plug-in at once.

The controls at either side are intended to handle a typical mixer channel strip with filters, multiple EQ bands, compressor and expander/gate, while the central section is tailored to work with an SSL-style bus compressor. It even features a genuine moving-coil gain-reduction meter.

At launch, both segments of the UC1 were limited to controlling SSL’s own channel strip and compressor plug-ins.

However, the major development I alluded to earlier on is apparent in the introduction of two new plug-ins called SSL 360 Link and SSL 360 Link Bus Compressor. These are both host or shell plug-ins that permit third-party VST3 plug-ins to be loaded

and manipulated from SSL’s hardware controllers. So, in principle, the UC1 can be used to work with any EQ or dynamics plug-in that has a VST3 version.

Proper Channels All of SSL’s recent hardware launches have been highly impressive in the look and feel department, and the UC1 is no exception.

Without the UF8’s moving faders and the UF1’s large metering panel, it’s perhaps the most understated of the three, but build quality feels equally good, and of course it’s designed to fit neatly alongside a UF1 and one or more UF8s, with the same optional feet to tilt it. Connection to your computer is made over USB, and the UC1 requires an external power supply.

The channel strip and bus compressor sections map perfectly onto SSL’s own plug-ins, as you’d expect. Buying a UC1 gets you a licence for both the Channel Strip 2 plug-in, which is derived from SSL’s XL 9000K mixer, and the 4K B channel strip based on the classic B-series design, giving you effectively the same feature set in ultra-clean and more characterful guises. You also get SSL’s Bus Compressor 2 plug-in, an emulation of the renowned G-series bus compressor with enhancements such as wet/dry mixing

for parallel compression and a variable side-chain high-pass filter, both of which have dedicated controls on the UC1.

As with the Console 1, the basic idea is that you build what is in effect an alternative virtual console by inserting one or more supported plug-ins on every channel in your DAW. Unlike the Console 1, though, the SSL system encourages you to view this console on screen as a virtual mixer. Pressing the 360 button brings up the SSL Plug-in Mixer, displaying all of your instantiated channel strips and bus compressors in a row, along with faders, solo and mute buttons. The controller, of course, can only address one channel strip and one bus compressor at a time, and you can choose which ones are ‘in focus’ either by selecting them on screen or by using a pair of rotary dials to scroll through.

Depending on which DAW you work in, it may also be possible to have Plug-in Mixer channel selection follow DAW mixer channel selection. And, of course, you can use the mouse to adjust controls on other channels than the ‘focus’ one.

The rotaries that are used to change focus are located in front of the bus compressor section of the UC1. Also present there is a small but clear colour display, plus a handful of buttons. Pressing

these buttons allows the rotaries to be temporarily repurposed to step through plug-in presets or channel-strip routing configurations, but it’s also possible to use these buttons as transport controls. In order to do so, you’ll need to add the UC1 as an MCU or HUI controller in your DAW.

Whan Is A DAW Not Adored?

Both Softube and SSL have attempted to create parallel mixing architectures that essentially bypass much of your DAW’s mixing functionality, but in both cases, a certain amount of DAW integration and support is necessary to deliver a rewarding user experience. For example, it’s highly desirable to have the order of channel strips in the Plug-in Mixer mirror the track order in your DAW. In Reaper, Luna, DP, Bitwig, Live, Studio One, Logic Pro and Cubase, bi-directional communication ensures that the two orders always correspond. In Pro Tools, by contrast, the channel strips in Plug-in Mixer show up in the order in which you added the plug-ins, and there’s no easy way to change this.

Likewise, in most DAWs, UC1 controls can operate the fader, pan, mute and solo buttons on the DAW mixer channel rather than the same parameters within SSL’s plug-ins. Where that’s not the case,

In this screen, I’m busily mapping the parameters of UA’s Mäag EQ4 to the EQ controls in 360 Link. As there’s an extra mid band in the Mäag plug-in, I’ve had to repurpose the SSL’s filter controls as low band gain settings, whilst the 360 Link bandwidth and frequency controls for the mid bands are unassigned.

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ON TE ST

SSL UC1 & 360 LINK

The SSL Plug-in Mixer, with a mixture of SSL channel strip plug-ins and 360 Link-hosted ones.

Note how the visible control set changes depending on which EQ parameters are mapped. Note also that although the UAD dbx 160 plug-in works perfectly well in one of the bus compressor slots via 360 Link Bus Compressor, it does not drive the VU meter.

solo and pan in particular require some clumsy workarounds. The takeaway for both the Console 1 and UC1 is that you’ll get a much smoother experience in most other DAWs than in Logic Pro or Pro Tools; these systems are usable in Apple and Avid environments, but you’ll typically need to do more setup within each DAW session, and return to the DAW more often during use.

Because the SSL channel strip plug-ins are so well featured, each channel within the Plug-in Mixer presents an enormous number of controls. These are sensibly grouped into sections labelled (top to bottom) Chan, In, Dyn, Filt, EQ, Trk and Out. These sections can be collapsed globally across the entire mixer, but even so, I struggled to fit just the dynamics and EQ simultaneously on a laptop screen without scrolling. You’d need a huge monitor to make the entire channel strip visible from top to bottom. There is an Auto Scroll option which shunts the channels left or right to automatically display the one that’s being adjusted; it would be nice to have a similar feature that auto-scrolls up or down to show whichever control is being turned.

However, one of the aims of this sort of system is that you should be able to mix without looking at the screen for most of the time. From this point of view, I missed the navigation system that the Console 1 provides, whereby you can select the focus channel using a row of buttons, but in other respects the UC1 is very well thought-out. Everything works very slickly with SSL’s own plug-ins, and if you’re happy

Liquid States

SSL have taken a radically different and more ambitious approach with the 360 Link and 360 Bus Compressor Link plug-ins.

These are designed to act as bridges that can integrate third-party plug-ins into the Plug-in Mixer and thus place them under UC1 control. Both are available in all major native formats, meaning that they can be instantiated in any DAW, but the plug-ins they integrate must be in VST3 format.

When you first open one of the Link plug-ins, you’ll be greeted by a greyed-out graphical representation of the relevant UC1 control layout, and a bold blue drop-down labelled Click To Load. Initially, however, clicking this does nothing. In order to make it all work, you’ll need to click the Configure Link button, which opens up a side panel with two tabs labelled Mapping and Plug-ins. At the bottom of the latter you’ll find a button labelled Scan Plug-ins.

Selecting this will trigger the Link plug-in to start a survey of all the plug-ins within all of the folders designated in the VST3 Folders list. Most DAWs operate a similar scanning process on start-up, but I have to say that the SSL Link one is painfully slow. If, as many of us do, you have hundreds of plug-ins in your VST3 folder, it can literally take hours. Given that you’re only likely to use the UC1 with equaliser and dynamics plug-ins, it might make sense to hive the rest off into a different VST3 folder, assuming your DAW permits this.

Where the UC1 parts company with Softube’s creation is when you want to mix on something that’s not a virtual SSL console. Softube have met this desire by extending what’s possible in the Console 1 plug-in itself. There are now quite a few extensions available, which aim to package the sound of mixers from the likes of API and Neve within the Console 1 control scheme and layout. Softube have also worked with Universal Audio to bring some of their Powered Plug-ins into the Console 1 universe. But, at the end of the day, the Console 1 remains a proprietary system, and it’s Softube themselves who decide what it can and can’t work with.

Once the scanning process is complete, you’ll see all the available plug-ins listed by manufacturer. You can then select one and switch to the Mapping tab. The plug-in GUI will appear in a separate window, and the Mapping tab will display all of the assignable parameters that the plug-in presents to hosts. You can then create a custom mapping simply by selecting each parameter in the list and clicking on the control you want to assign it to. Where a plug-in exposes metering data, you can also assign that in a similar way, although relatively few plug-ins seem to do this.

to mix on a virtual 4000 or 9000 console, the UC1 lets you do nearly everything you need without having to constantly return to your DAW or pick up the mouse. In that respect, it succeeds on similar terms to the Console 1, despite the differences in implementation. The UC1 does lack some hardware features compared with the

“What SSL’s engineers have achieved here is truly impressive, both on a conceptual level and in terms of implementation.”

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most recent Console 1 Mk3, perhaps most notably the touch-sensitive controls and the large screen — but there’s also a fairly large price differential in SSL’s favour.

(Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something even more affordable, Rocksolid’s Micro4k would be worth investigating.)

Forging Links

Needless to say, the success of this operation is dependent on the third-party plug-in that you’re working with. With many simple EQs and compressors, it’s pretty obvious what should be assigned to what, and if you run out of hardware controls or plug-in parameters to assign, that doesn’t usually impact the usefulness of it too much. However, many compressor plug-ins don’t seem to expose their gain-reduction meter data in a way that’s accessible to the UC1, so that lovely VU doesn’t always do anything. And in some cases, you may need to create or adjust a preset within the plug-in in order for the control scheme to make sense. For example, the default preset in FabFilter’s Pro-Q contains no EQ bands, so in order to get it to work with 360 Link, you’ll need to create some bands and save that setting as a new default.

You can occasionally run into unexpected issues, too; for instance, UA’s API Vision Channel Strip has on/off buttons for the various different modules, but passes the wrong labels for these to 360 Link. In such cases a right-click menu lets you re-label things. I did occasionally wish I could assign a single hardware control to more than one plug-in parameter, but this is not possible.

Conversely, there’s nothing to prevent you assigning hardware buttons to continuous plug-in parameters, and vice versa, although they understandably don’t work.

I can’t claim to have tried 360 Link with every plug-in in my folder, but a representative sample would suggest that it can nearly always be made to work effectively, and there are lots of nice touches to SSL’s implementation. For example, on a simple EQ plug-in such as UA’s Mäag EQ4 with many fewer controls than are available on the UC1, the plug-in interface will only show the controls that are actually used, and they will inherit the correct names from the Mapping list.

Better still, this is carried through into the SSL Plug-in Mixer as well, although sadly not to the parameters presented to the DAW for automation. The plug-ins ship with mappings for SSL-style plug-ins from the likes of Waves and UA, and mappings can be shared online, so I’m sure it won’t be long before you can use most of your equalisers and compressors without having to map them manually — but if you do, it really is a very painless process.

watch as the major elements click into place and the lights go on, but nothing really prepares you for that moment when the scaffolding comes down and the architect’s full vision is revealed in all its glory. That moment has arrived with the availability of 360 Link, and mighty powerful it is too.

What SSL’s engineers have achieved here is truly impressive, both on a conceptual level and in terms of implementation.

I really only have one query about SSL’s general vision, which is to wonder whether the binary division between channel strips and bus compressors is necessary. Although I love the fact that the UC1 allows me to adjust multiple channel strip parameters at once, in a way that’s not possible with the mouse, I’m less sure that I need an entirely separate set of controls dedicated to twiddling with bus compression parameters on another channel. I get that it’s not unusual to have bus compressors on subgroups as well as on the master output, and also that the bus compressor plug-ins are perfectly valid choices on individual tracks. But, for me, compression is typically a set-and-forget thing. It’s lovely to have a genuine VU meter to let you keep an eye on gain

reduction (at least in plug-ins that support it), but the bus compressor dimension of the system adds complexity and takes up controller real estate, and some might prefer a simpler solution that just focuses on the channel strip.

This is very much a matter of personal taste, though, and I assume SSL wouldn’t have designed it the way they have without being pretty confident that it chimes with other people’s preferences. Elsewhere, there are minor ways in which things could be improved further, most notably by speeding up the plug-in scanning process, but all in all, this is a highly successful implementation of a daringly ambitious vision. I have always been sceptical about whether a universal plug-in controller could ever be made to work well enough to be useful, but provided you restrict the scope of ‘universal’ to EQ and dynamics, the UC1/360 Link combination absolutely does that. £ £658.80 including VAT T Headline Audio +44 (0)1908 477142 E sales@headlineaudio.com W www.headlineaudio.com W www.solidstatelogic.com

A Picture Emerges Observing the development of the SSL 360 system over the years has been like watching a tall building go up. You can

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Tascam Studio Bridge and outputs are presented on six 24-track Recorder & USB Audio Interface inputs Tascam-format DB25 D-Sub connectors on

Tascam break their Model range’s recording facilities out into a standalone device that you can hook up to any mixer.

Tascam Studio Bridge £899 pros • Sounds great.

• Easy to use.

• Individual track record arming.

• Manual and automatic punch in.

• Record standalone or to a computer.

• Built‑in digital mixing for headphone monitoring.

• Useful tempo, click and MIDI sync facilities.

• Outstanding value for money.

cons • Doesn’t support sample rates above 48kHz (but still sounds good).

summary In an age where vintage multitrackers are getting harder to repair and maintain, the Studio Bridge has the potential to free you from the tyranny of the computer screen and breathe new life into your analogue console — but also to augment your DAW with plentiful I/O and hardware control functions.

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M AT T H O U G H TO N

A

s I was dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s of last month’s Tascam Model 2400 review, in came the news that Tascam had exploited all of its recording and DAW-control features to create a standalone device called the Studio Bridge. Primarily, it’s for those with a console who want to benefit from the Model-series technology without having to choose a Model mixer, but there are plenty of other potential applications. The ‘Studio’ in the name isn’t just for show, by the way: as a multitracker, it boasts the sort of studio-friendly features that the live-oriented products of the last decade or so haven’t, making it more a modern take on my Alesis HD24 than like a Cymatic uTrack 24 or JoeCo BlackBox Recorder.

Overview The Studio Bridge is a multitrack digital recorder whose 24 analogue line

the rear. Alongside these are quarter-inch jacks for a click output and a (not included) tap-tempo footswitch. There are also five-pin DIN MIDI in and MIDI out sockets, a USB‑B socket for USB2 audio interfacing, and a 100-240 Volt mains IEC inlet with on/off rocker switch.

The analogue I/O can be routed to/ fed from either an integrated SDXC card recorder or a USB-connected Mac, Windows, iOS or iPadOS device. As well as delivering most of the functions of my ageing HD24, the Studio Bridge also loosely resembles the Alesis BRC, a remote control unit intended for multiple sync’ed ADAT machines that could, with some setting up, perform a similar role for an HD24. I’ve included a picture of the two units so you can see what I mean: the Studio Bridge just a shade smaller, but it comes in a similar desktop format and there are physical record-arm buttons for every track, while a master section handles transport and other functions. Of course, things have moved on in the intervening years, so that’s pretty much where that comparison ends, and not least because the converters and recording are built

The Studio Bridge might remind those of a certain vintage of the Alesis BRC remote control — but this time the recording facilities are built in!

into the Studio Bridge rather than being in separate rackmount recorders.

The record arm buttons, which flash red when armed, have smoothed edges that make it really easy to swipe to (dis)arm multiple tracks quickly, though there’s also a menu option to arm all tracks at once.

Those buttons have additional functions too. First, as with the Model mixers, the Studio Bridge can be set to run as a DAW control surface (HUI for Pro Tools, MCU for other DAWs), and in that mode they record arm your DAW tracks. A third function is accessed using a Shift button: hold Shift and press a record arm button, and you solo that track in the headphone monitor mix. While we’re on that subject, there’s a built in screen-driven digital mixer

that allows you to select and set the level of each channel in that monitor mix (potentially very handy if you’re recording from the direct outs of someone else’s console!).

Above these buttons, each track has its own input source and Mon buttons.

The former decides whether the track receives its input signal from the analogue or the USB input. The latter decides whether you hear the analogue input or multitrack playback signal in the headphone monitor mix.

The single headphone output has its own level control and proved perfectly capable of driving my Audeze LCD-X and Sennheiser HD650 headphones to a decent volume.

Beneath that is a click section, with a knob to set the click level in the headphones, and a separate button to switch the click on/off, or (when in the appropriate page on screen) to tap in the project tempo.

To the right, the SD card slot accepts full-size cards up to 512GB, though you must provide your own. SDXC cards are specified but my experience suggested that some other cards may work, even if they don’t support all recording formats.

For example, one older SDHC card did the job just fine at 16-bit/44.1kHz but the Studio Bridge threw up an error when I tried to use it at any of the other settings

(24-bit/44.1kHz; 16- or 24-bit/48kHz), whereas a more recent, faster SDHC card worked flawlessly at all settings.

The remaining top-panel section should be familiar to anyone who’s familiar with the Model mixers. It comprises a compact, tilted screen, whose menus and commands are accessed using a Menu button, the Multi Jog push-turn encoder, and four function buttons. The Menu button accesses the main menu and sub‑menus.

You turn the Multi Jog to adjust on-screen parameters, and push it to make your selection, or you can hit a function button to more quickly access whatever item is displayed above it. You’re never more than a couple of clicks/scrolls from any function you might need to use on the fly, and not many more from any other options.

The same top-panel zone includes the Shift button and the transport controls, with dedicated buttons for stop, record, play/pause, fast‑forward and rewind.

Standalone Use Basic standalone operation is child’s play.

Once you’ve hooked the Studio Bridge up to the mixer’s tape sends and returns and inserted an SDXC card (and for first use formatted it, which takes a few seconds), you must create a new song project, and maybe change the word length and sample rate, which, again, is mere seconds’ work. Then just check that the tracks on which you want to record are set to receive the analogue input signal (the other option being a digital signal over USB) and record arm them. When you’re ready just hit the main record button, and whatever you play through those mixer channels will be captured to the SD card. There are no gains and other settings to fiddle with, of course, as you do all that on the mixer. Hit

The Studio Bridge isn’t just about audio: it also has MIDI I/O which can be used to provide a sync signal to external devices, or as a USB MIDI interface for your computer.

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TA S C A M S T U DIO BRIDGE

stop, and then play, and you’ll hear the recorded tracks play back through the analogue outputs.

Of course, part of the beauty of the Model-series mixers lies in the fact that everything’s so neatly integrated, whereas with the Studio Bridge the mixer is very much a variable, both in terms of the number of I/O and where those connections sit in the signal path.

Some will have direct outs but no tape returns, for example, and you’ll have to figure out another way to integrate the Studio Bridge physically. There usually is a way, though, and often more than one — I’ve discussed that more in the ‘Ins & Outs Of Mixers’ box.

There’s plenty more than basic recording and playback that you can do with the Studio Bridge if you want to, and despite there being a decent manual I generally found it easy simply to dive into the on-screen menus. Here, you’ll quickly figure out how to set up With a push-turn encoder and five buttons, the simple and name a song, and set its word on-screen menus are mercifully quick and easy to navigate. length, sample rate, time signature and tempo. You’ll soon discover how to set on whether you’re playing back (or not) or the tempo using the tap button too, and recording — helpfully, this is detailed in a create navigation markers, manually or table on the top panel, so you don’t have automatically punch in, and loop playback. to keep the manual handy!

There are equally obvious menu options to Solo a channel and a monitor panel change the sounds used for the click, how appears on screen, with track colours to route the click to the click output, and inverted to indicate which are soloed. You how to set up a count in. can use the Multi Jog to dial in anything You can even send MIDI Clock/ from full attenuation to 18dB of gain, and Timecode from the MIDI out, which might while there’s no instant way to reset it to appeal particularly to anyone sync’ing and unity, it’s quick to do that with the Multi Jog. recording lots of synths, drum machines Still, you’ll discover more details in and other such devices. There are also the manual, such as how to move one helpful touches such as the ability to pair recorded track to another for playback, adjacent channels for stereo sources, and how to load new backing tracks from you’ll see how to solo or invert the polarity a computer, and any Shift functions. of channels and set up a monitor mix, The Studio Bridge is similarly easy including options to monitor all tracks or to use as a USB interface. You must just the record-armed ones, and an auto download an ASIO driver for Windows, but monitor option that changes the monitor for other operating systems it’s a generic signal for record-enabled tracks depending interface. The same basic control/metering

Ins & Outs of Mixers A traditional, large studio console will have dedicated tape sends and returns on each channel, and that’s ideal for the Studio Bridge: you capture the tape send and play back through the tape return, the only real question being whether you want the Studio Bridge to capture only the main input channels or also some other outputs, such as any subgroups and the main mix. Many more affordable mixers will not have tape sends/returns on every channel, so if you’re contemplating adding a Studio Bridge to your

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setup it’s worth thinking through how you’d connect things up. Sometimes that will require creative thinking. A mixer may, for example, feature a direct out after the preamps but no dedicated tape return for playback, or it may have neither, in which case you’ll need to look at the viability of using channel insert points or any I/O on the subgroup channels. You’ll want to be sure these are at the desired place in the signal path too. I’ve explored all this in a little more detail in the online version of this review.

software as for the Model 2400 is available for Mac users (and included with the Windows driver installation). As with standalone use you’re limited to a maximum of 24-bit/48kHz, but that’s hardly surprising given the sheer number of channels going in either direction over USB2, and subjectively it sounded very good to my ears — I never really felt the need for higher sample rates. Your DAW can access the MIDI I/O too, which is nice. And you can set the Studio Bridge up to work as an MCU or HUI controller, in which mode its record arm buttons arm your DAW tracks, and you can use the transport controls for navigation.

Model Citizen?

The Studio Bridge is already great value, even judged purely as a USB audio interface. Yes, you’re limited to 16- or 24-bit and 44.1 or 48 kHz recording formats, and there are no niceties such as mic preamps or instruments inputs.

But it sounds good, offers a vast I/O count and acts as a MIDI interface to boot. I can’t think of any other device that offers this many channels of A-D/D-A conversion over USB2 for anything like this price. So let’s also remember that this isn’t even the Studio Bridge’s primary purpose! As a standalone multitrack recorder, it’s in a class of its own. As I’ve written before, I love the experience of recording performances without a computer and its screen dominating proceedings; it encourages a much keener focus on assessing the performance, and doesn’t distract you with with endless options to fiddle with. No current product comes close to providing the facilities on offer here for so many channels, never mind at this price. In short, if you want facilities like overdubbing and punch-ins, you need a computer, something old and obsolete, or this. I’d take the Studio Bridge in a heartbeat. Of course, it still caters for basic one-take live recording too, and could also be a great option for playback of mutitrack backing tracks.

The Studio Bridge doesn’t quite offer every feature my HD24 does, but it’s way more convenient, there are no fans or hard drives making noise, and it’s much more portable. For me, then, it is a complete replacement, and I’m seriously contemplating a purchase. £ £899 including VAT. T TEAC UK Ltd +44 (0)1923 797205 W www.tascam.eu

Pro •DS Intelligent and transparent

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fabfilter.com

ON TE ST

Native Instruments Komplete 15 Software Instruments & Effects Collection

Can NI make Komplete even more complete?

JOHN WALDEN

I

reviewed the impressive update to NI’s Kontakt in last month’s SOS but, alongside the move to Kontakt 8, Komplete has also been refreshed.

Available in multiple versions, and at different prices, each Komplete bundle includes Kontakt alongside differing selections of virtual instruments, plug-ins and expansion packs, some NI branded, and others supplied by various NI partners.

Komplete updates operate over a regular two-year cycle and SOS last reviewed it in the December 2022 issue.

Even version 14, by the time you got up into the top two tiers of the product, represented an amazing range of sounds, spanning virtually every musical genre you could imagine. For busy media composers, sat alongside your DAW of choice, Komplete 14 could easily be the ‘one‑stop shop’ for all your virtual instrument and sample needs. All of which begs the obvious question: two years on, just what can NI add to make Komplete 15, well... more complete?

The Komplete Range There are three main versions of Komplete 15; Standard, Ultimate and Collector’s Edition. The tiers go from 95+ instruments and effects/50+ expansion packs in Standard up to a whopping 165+ instruments and effects/120+ expansion packs in Collector’s Edition, and the tier pricing reflects the different level of content.

There is, of course, upgrade pricing for existing Komplete users and, similarly, upgrade paths between the various tiers.

NI also offer the introductory Komplete 15 Select and this is now available in three genre-flavoured versions — Beats, Band and Electronic — each of which provides a compact selection of instruments, expansions and plug-ins to suit productions within their respective

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Kontakt remains at the heart of Komplete 15 and NI introduced some significant improvements in Kontakt 8 including a revised UI, the new Tools functionality and Conflux, a powerful new hybrid instrument.

musical styles and can be used alongside the free-to-download Player version of Kontakt 8. Incidentally, NI also offer a three-tier subscription model with their 360 option, which also includes a free trial period. If you want to explore NI’s sonic world without a significant initial outlay, there are therefore multiple ways to do so.

First, Kontakt While last month’s dedicated Kontakt review covers the main details of what’s new in Kontakt 8, given that it is an integral part of the three main Komplete tiers, there are a number of key headlines that bear repeating here. First, Kontakt itself has undergone a UI refresh, delivering some obvious workflow enhancements.

Second, under-the-hood advances to Kontakt’s synthesis features have enabled NI to include a new instrument — Conflux — as part of the Kontakt 8 package. NI describe this as something of a first for Kontakt as it is a hybrid engine, combining both sampling and synthesis technology.

Media composers will love it.

Third, Kontakt 8 adds a new feature called Tools, two of which — Chords and Phrases — are included within this first iteration. These can be thought of as MIDI performance utilities offering easy triggering of complex chords and full melodic phrases from a single key press and are available to use with any Kontakt instrument/library. Fourth, Kontakt 8 has a further new instrument called Leap. This provides a ‘sampler within a sampler’ option, allowing the user to trigger both loops and one-shot samples in a very creative (and rather Output Arcade‑style) workflow. New Leap Expansions are offered to support the instrument but, rather wonderfully, you can also drag-and-drop your own samples into Leap and make use of samples within NI’s long-standing Expansions (those aimed primarily at Maschine), many of which are included within each of the Komplete tiers.

Finally, it’s worth noting that all the under-the-hood scripting that provides the new functionality described here is

Komplete 15 adds two new Session Bassist titles; Upright Bass (shown here) and Icon Bass.

also available to Kontakt’s third-party developer community. Expect to see this exploited in new ways and in new instruments very soon.

New To Komplete Aside from those offered by their many third-party partners, NI produce a regular flow of their own individual new instruments and expansions in between Komplete update cycles. Selections of these then make their way into the various Komplete tiers when Komplete itself is refreshed. While these may not be ‘new’ (and some users may have purchased a selection of them as individual products), they are new to Komplete.

With over 40 new instruments and expansions over the last two-year cycle, this represents a lot of potential ‘new to Komplete’ content. To avoid filling the whole issue, I’ll therefore focus on the headline instrument additions within each of the three main Komplete tiers. However, if you need to confirm the status of a specific instrument, expansion or plug-in within a particular Komplete tier, NI’s website does have a very comprehensive comparison list that is well worth consulting.

Raising The Standard In terms of those instrument addition highlights, the Standard edition gets some very good new offerings. For example, two new Session Bassist titles are now included; Icon Bass and Upright Bass. Both of these follow the usual ‘Session’ instrument format, offering a collection of style-based performance patterns that will follow your root note/ chord triggers, and a ‘melody’ option with a compact selection of performance articulations that allow you to play it like any other conventional sample-based instrument. Upright Bass is particularly

characterful, but NI’s Session instrument Native Instruments series has been around for quite some time Komplete 15 and the capabilities and sonic quality have From £539 continued to improve. For anyone needing a genuinely solid, professional‑sounding, pros bass line — pretty much in an instant — • Kontakt 8 is included. these are both great options.

• Sensible pricing tiers.

• Wherever you look, there are top-notch Also new to Standard is Karriem Riggin sounds and plenty of creative potential.

Drums, which provides some jazz-flavoured hip-hop drums and related patterns. In cons a straightforward Play Series‑style UI, you • Standard, Ultimate or Collector’s Edition do represent a significant can access a number of very cool kits, investment for the first-time buyer. trigger sets of patterns and tweak the sounds via some easy-to-use macro-style summary controls. MIDI patterns can also be dragged NI have delivered some very worthwhile new options to every Komplete 15 and dropped into your DAW for further tier. Both the Ultimate and Collector’s editing. You can also dig under the hood to Edition versions are particularly edit the properties of the underlying kit or impressive, offering a fabulous suite customise the effects options. of top-quality virtual instruments, If electric pianos appeal, Standard effects and sound expansions. adds the ‘Tines Duo’ — Phoenix and Diamond — and these deliver an excellent Whether it’s pop, Latin, funk, hip-hop, selection of retro-flavoured electric piano many electronic styles, or for cinematic sounds in a very stylish UI. I particularly applications, Session Percussionist is a truly like Diamond, which sounds wonderful versatile choice. and is capable of some beautiful ringing Scene: Saffron is the first of a new tones. If your keyboard skills are limited, ‘Scene’ series from NI. As implied by the both are a lot of fun with the new Chords Scene label, it’s aimed primarily at media and Phrases Tools. Both also offer some composers and, while it’s based around great sound‑design options thanks to the a compact set of samples and a streamlined included processing that’s derived from UI not dissimilar to many of the Play series effects built into Guitar Rig Pro. titles, it provides a really accessible way to However, if I had to pick two personal generate drones and atmospheres that can favourites from the ‘now included easily form the core of a cue. The concept in Standard’ list it would be Session is not particularly new — you can blend Percussionist and Scene: Saffron. As with two sound sources together via an X/Y pad all the NI Session series titles, Session while also modulating the sound via some Percussionist combines a very good macro-style effects — but it sounds great. underlying sample base (over 50 different The focused format is something aspiring percussion instruments) that you can play media composers will find it both very manually, with a very creative performance accessible and genuinely useful. system that allows you to trigger multiple pattern variations with simple MIDI key triggers. At one level, it is incredibly easy to use and is capable of adding some stellar percussion to almost any project. However, pop into the Editor page and you can take as much control as you wish, both in sound selection and pattern editing, while the Mixer page lets you control instrument placement The new Session Percussionist instrument is a brilliant addition to all three and ambience. tiers of Komplete 15.

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A couple of final observations on the Standard edition. First, and rather commendably, it does include all 22 of the current Play Series instruments, and this list includes relatively new titles such as Nacht, Bouquet, Duets and the excellent Glaze 2 (pop and hip-hop vocals) and Utopia (some excellent trance synths, basses, pads and arpeggios). Second, do note that Standard does not include much by way of NI’s more conventional classical instrument options. If orchestral scoring is your thing, I suspect you would need to step up to one of the more expensive Komplete tiers.

Even More Ultimate The Ultimate edition of Komplete 15 adds yet more instruments. For example, from the Spotlight series (each of which has a regional flavour), Ireland offers a range of traditional Irish instruments — including tin whistles, fiddles, Irish harp and bodhrán — in a sample-based format. With combinations of performance articulations and some useful performance phrases/patterns included, it makes a great starting point for anyone needing to add a Celtic flavour to a project. Ultimate also includes Schema: Light (to sit alongside Schema: Dark), offering a powerful melodic/ rhythmic sequencing engine based around a set of ‘lighter’ instrument options such as bells, xylophones, various metals, glass and so on. Again, it’s perhaps a niche media composer tool but it would also work in some more experimental styles.

Based around a range of different vocal sound sources, Vocal Colors also hits the ‘experimental’ nail on the head.

The organic nature of the samples comes through but, in most cases, they are heavily processed to provide some otherworldly sonic outcomes. The UI lets you dig into the sound layers, sample processing and modulation options should you wish, and you can also import your own samples into the engine. Yes, it’s also a somewhat niche instrument but the sounds would bring something pretty unique to almost any musical project.

As mentioned above, Ultimate is where a greater number of NI’s conventional orchestral instruments start to appear and these include titles such as Action Strikes, the excellent Action Strings 2 and a range of the Symphony Essentials titles covering each of the main orchestral sections. However, Ultimate also adds two more recent titles; Valves

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Small but beautifully formed, Scene: Saffron provides a very accessible source of pads and soundscapes that can instantly set a mood in a cue.

(but not Valves Pro; that’s in the Collector’s Edition) and Action Woodwinds. Valves offers some beautiful brass ensemble sounds with automatic distribution of any MIDI notes across the section in an intelligent fashion. In a similar vein, Action Woodwinds does for the woodwind section what Actions Strings 2 does for the string section in that it provides sample-based sounds and a powerful performance engine. You can create credible ensemble performances with just a few chords while, at the same time, controlling the performance dynamics via the mod wheel.

Just as with products such as Sonuscore’s The Score or EastWest’s Hollywood Orchestra, writing fully-formed orchestral

Perfect ukulele performances in an instant thanks to Session Ukulele.

cues should not be this easy... but it is, and it’s rather wonderful.

If I had to pick three personal highlights from Ultimate’s new additions, they would be Session Guitarist Acoustic Sunburst Deluxe, Session Ukulele and Alicia’s Electric Keys. Conceptually, the first two are exactly what you would expect from previous Session Guitarist titles. However, I’ll add that, in sonic terms, Acoustic Sunburst sounds absolutely fabulous. If your project needs a top-notch guitar part in double quick time, this is a heck of a way to get a result.

Session Ukulele is equally good and, if you are familiar with those ‘positive and uplifting’ lifestyle cues that are a popular staple of advertisers, then a combination of Session Ukulele and Session Percussionist provide a pretty impressive means of rolling your own.

The original Alicia’s Keys acoustic piano instrument was very popular, and I suspect Alicia’s Electric Keys — based upon samples of the Grammy-winning artist’s own CP-70 electric grand — will prove equally so. The underlying piano sound is undeniably great, but the UI opens up a whole range of processing, sound‑design and effects options, letting you craft the perfect tone for your project.

The end result is both classy and inspiring to play and I can imagine we are going to hear it on plenty of high-end commercial pop and R&B tracks.

Komprehensive Collection By the time you get into the Collector’s Edition, the bundle includes many more of the high-end versions of NI’s various ensemble and solo orchestral instruments. Indeed, many of the additional products in the Collector’s Edition are at the top end of the NI tree and aimed very much at film and media composers. In terms of new additions (and as mentioned earlier), Collector’s Edition now includes Valves Pro. The Pro version brings more detailed sampling, considerably more performance articulations, Ensemble and Solo modes with comprehensive keyswitching for articulations, more performance phrases and multiple microphone choices.

Valves is already great; Valves Pro is even better.

Also new to the top tier of Komplete is Fables, which now joins both Arkhis and Lores from NI’s cinematic/sound design range. Fables is built around a combination of orchestral and organic

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ON TE ST

N AT I V E I N S T R U M E N T S K O M P L E T E 15

The rather wonderful Alicia’s Electric Keys is now part of Komplete 15 Ultimate and above.

sounds but includes processed and synthetic elements within an engine that is designed for crafting soundscapes.

While the organic nature of the underlying sample base undoubtedly comes through (so you could easily use this instrument within the context of an orchestral score), it offers sound blends and performance options that it would be very difficult to imagine scoring with just a conventional orchestral palette. Mod wheel, expression pedal and polyphonic aftertouch provide plenty of modulation and performance dynamics.

The end results are pretty epic; these are sounds that would sit quite happily in a blockbuster film score.

All of which brings us to the highlight new addition to the Collector’s Edition; Kithara. Available as a standalone purchase, Kithara was launched alongside the new versions of Komplete 15 and Kontakt 8 and, commendably for a brand-new product, rolls straight into the top tier of Komplete 15. Created in collaboration with NI partners Audio Imperia, Kithara provides a collection of deeply sampled guitars and plucked instruments (for example, balalaika, mandolin and ronroco), played in both conventional and unconventional ways. The engine lets you blend up to four of the underlying sources into attack, two sustain, and release sound slots. The sound‑design options are almost endless, with comprehensive layer editing, effects and a ‘fragments’ engine. The latter is particularly interesting as it allows you to add flutter-like additional notes into the overall sound. Much like Valves Pro does with brass sounds, Kithara lets you generate music that’s undoubtedly guitar/

string instrument based, but in ways that it’s very difficult to imagine you could do with a conventional series of the individual instruments.

Yes, it is very much a specialised sound, but the end results are some truly beautiful sonic textures.

Plug-ins & Partners While I’ve focused here on the instrument line-ups, Komplete also includes a huge number of plug-in effects and sound/ sample expansions, as well as even more instruments, so I ought to finish with some

and reverb emulations) but, by the time you get to Ultimate, it’s a pretty comprehensive array of options. In terms of the sound/ sample expansion packs, all three tiers include the 12 new Leap Expansions and 19 Massive and Massive X synth preset Expansions, while of the original sound pack-style Expansions, you get 22, 48 and 95 respectively within the three tiers.

Going Up? Phew! That’s undoubtedly a lot of new stuff and, while Komplete was already a pretty bumper package — especially in the Ultimate and Collector’s Edition versions — NI have managed to find plenty of new additions to add to the different collections. It’s worth remembering that Komplete 15 includes Kontakt 8, which itself is priced at £269 (new) or £89 (upgrade) and, as the most widely used platform for virtual instruments on the planet, that’s not a trivial consideration.

Obviously, every purchase decision is a very personal thing, balancing how well the product meets your needs and the available budget. However, given the upgrade pricing for the three Komplete tiers, and quite how much new content is included in each, I do think NI are providing great value for money. In terms of a those considering a new purchase, I think the Ultimate version represents the sweet spot for value, but it remains a significant investment. If your music creation pays the bills, then maybe that’s simply something you have to build into your annual (or, for Komplete, bi-annual) planning. However, if such an investment represents a significant commitment, then

“With Komplete 15, NI have simply made an even stronger case for Komplete as a ‘one‑stop shop’ for all your virtual instrument, effects, creative tools and sound content needs.”

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comments on that front. First, alongside Kontakt 8 itself, it’s worth noting that all three of the main tiers also include Massive X (NI’s flagship software synth), Guitar Rig 7 Pro and iZotope’s Ozone 11 Standard. There are a range of other virtual synths across the range also, the bulk of which appear in all three tiers, with the only exceptions being Flesh, Razor, Skanner XT (found in Ultimate and above) and the powerful Knifonium (only in Collector’s Edition).

The various studio and creative effects options do miss a few of the more high-profile options in Standard (for example, the Brainworx console channel strips and a selection of very Once you go behind the slick main display, Valves Pro offers a deep editing nice compressor experience for your brass performances.

I do think giving NI’s 360 subscription a couple of months might represent a sensible first step.

Komplete 15 does have competition.

For example, products such as EastWest’s Composer Cloud or Musio by Cinesamples also offer huge arrays of virtual instrument content and are most certainly well worth considering alongside Komplete to see which might provide the best fit for your own personal creative/budget needs.

However, it is difficult to deny that Komplete 15 is very impressive. It’s full of top-notch virtual instruments, plug-ins and sound content. Depending upon where you are at in your own music production journey, any of the three main versions — Standard, Ultimate or Collector’s Edition — would provide an amazingly creative sonic palette to sit alongside your DAW. Budget aside, the main problem with the top two tiers might be finding the time to fully explore all Komplete has to offer.

However, even if you fail in this regard, I can say that the journey itself is a heck of a lot of fun. With Komplete 15, NI have simply made an even stronger case for

Full of some amazing string-based instrument combinations and plenty of sound‑design options, Kithara, NI’s brand new cinematic instrument, is included in the Collector’s Edition.

Komplete as a ‘one‑stop shop’ for all your virtual instrument, effect , creative tool and sound content needs. In its Ultimate and Collector’s Edition forms, Komplete 15 is, indeed, compellingly complete.

£ Standard £539, Ultimate £1079, Collector’s

Edition £1619. Upgrade pricing available.

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ON TE ST

Steinberg Cubase Pro 14 DAW Software

Cubase 14 introduces a wide selection of new features while refining old ones.

MARK WHERRY

L

ast year’s Cubase 13 release was, in many ways, an opportunity for Steinberg’s developers to refresh and polish the foundations. Because while there were many headline-worthy additions — such as the Channel Zone, improved editing with the Visibility Zone, Track Display, multi-part editing and the ability for the Region Selection tool to be used in certain editors — many of the giant leaps forward were perhaps less obvious.

MIDI 2.0 support was added, along with Direct2D for hardware-accelerated graphics on Windows, and a streamlined, more cohesive user interface emerged.

And who could forget the long overdue redesign of the Key Commands window?

But for all these improvements, there was something about the upgrade that left me feeling a little flat. Everything in

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Cubase 13 was better, no question. It was sleeker, smoother, and working with it felt undeniably more productive. But when demonstrating this new version to fellow musicians, I couldn’t really point to any one feature that truly ignited excitement. A year on, though, and my view of the latest Cubase release couldn’t be more different.

Drum Track Redux Cubase 14 sees the return of a Drum Track to the application, and if you’re thinking to yourself: ‘Hold on, Cubase has never had a Drum Track!’, you’d only be half right. The very first versions of Cubase — before the program’s rebirth as Cubase SX in 2002 — did in fact offer a Drum Track Class, although its purpose was rather pedestrian.

Drum Tracks functioned like MIDI tracks, but with two key differences. Drum maps could be assigned to the tracks, enabling the Drum Editor to display drum names, and MIDI parts located on a Drum Track would open in the Drum Editor by default.

Cubase 14’s Drum Track is significantly more sophisticated. Instead of triggering an external drum machine or a VST instrument like Groove Agent, Drum Tracks include a new, dedicated Drum Machine

instrument. This mirrors the way in which Sampler Tracks employ a built-in Sampler instrument. And even though both the Sampler and Drum Machine instruments are technically VST plug-ins, they’re designed to be used exclusively with the Sampler and Drum Tracks respectively.

With a Drum Track selected, Drum Machine’s interface appears in a new page in the Lower Zone; although it’s puzzling why Steinberg didn’t consolidate the Drum Machine and Sampler Control pages into a single page, given that a Track can’t contain both instruments simultaneously.

Similarly, while Drum Machine’s interface, like Sampler Control, can be opened in a separate floating window, a Drum Track’s ‘Open/Close Drum Machine’ button always opens the Drum Machine in the Lower Zone. Frustratingly, there’s no modifier or command to open it directly in a separate window, which is particularly irksome since it’s useful to have Drum Machine in a dedicated window, especially once you start editing patterns.

Machine Drumming One of the differences between Groove Agent SE and Drum Machine is that the

former is designed for sample-based parameters adjusted. Each page has Steinberg Cubase Pro 14 playback, whereas the latter offers a hybrid settings relevant to the currently selected £481 of both sample and synth-based sound pad, except for the Group page that generators known as Modules. The Sample contains a row of configuration parameters pros Module is straightforward, offering pitch, for each pad within the selected pad bank.

• The Pattern Editor brings integrated filter and amplifier components — each These parameters include the note range step sequencing to Cubase.

• Modulators are great for complex, with its own envelope. You can adjust that triggers a pad, whether it belongs to performance-oriented parameter the start and end points, fade‑in and ‑out one of up to 32 Exclusive Groups (useful manoeuvres that would be tedious times, and reverse the sample’s playback. for having a closed hi-hat ‘choke’ an open — if not impossible — to create However, the Synth Modules are where one), and the output to use for a pad’s using automation.

• Channels can be easily re‑ordered in the fun really begins. playback. Each instance has a master MixConsole — finally!

Organised into seven categories stereo output, along with 31 additional • The new, Dorico-inspired Score Editor covering the most common kit drums outputs, which should be enough for reimagines integrated notation for the and some simple percussion, there most purposes.

21st Century. are 38 sonically superb Synth Modules However, you may find you don’t need cons from which to choose. The percussion to separate the outputs of different pads • The relationship between MIDI parts category includes a single-operator FM too widely, since each pad has its own and Pattern Events can be confusing. generator, two noise oscillators, and independent effects chain that’s accessed • A few features you’d hope to find in the two indispensable cowbell Modules! via the Pad FX page. Each pad offers Pattern Editor aren’t fully realised yet.

• Modulators can’t be used with MIDI Cowbell 1 is perfect for those Whitney an effects chain with four effects — Bit tracks.

Houston-inspired ’80s tracks, while Crusher, Distortion, Filter and EQ — which Cowbell 2 is most definitely the one to can be individually toggled on or off and summary deploy when more cowbell is required. re‑ordered by simply dragging an effect to Cubase 14 adds both impressive new features and time-saving workflow A Drum Machine Kit contains 128 pads a new position within the chain. Of these enhancements to Steinberg’s Advanced organised into eight pad banks, and the effects, Bit Crusher is the most interesting Music Production System, making this pad area displays one pad bank at a time since it offers options beyond simply one of the most musically creative Cubase using the familiar 4x4 grid of 16 Pads. Each setting the resultant bit depth, with controls releases for new and existing users alike. pad consists of four Layers and each Layer to separately adjust how the upper and can host a single Module, which means lower bits are manipulated. the Pad FX chain, which is a nifty touch, each pad can trigger up to four Modules Each of the four Layers has its own and each pad has send levels to delay simultaneously. This is great when extra independent dry and wet mix controls for and reverb effects that are applied to the weight is needed to enhance a sampled kick drum, for example, since you can easily layer a Sample Module with a kick Synth Module, adjusting the volume of each Layer to taste. The only small complaint I have when assigning Synth The new Drum Machine instrument is an integrated part of Cubase’s 14’s new Drum Track.

Modules to Layers is that there’s no way to preview a default sound from a Module without first adding it to a Layer.

Drum Machine’s interface is divided into pages, including the main Instrument page where Modules are assigned and In addition to a Sample Module, Drum Machine includes an impressive array of Synth Modules covering the most common kit drums their playback and percussion.

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Drum Machine’s Pad FX page provides a four-processor effects chain, including a Bit Crusher where you can manipulate the upper eight bits individually.

overall kit. The output from these send effects is always sent to Drum Machine’s master output, although it would be useful if this routing was freely assignable.

Drum Machine is empty by default, but Steinberg include 40 kits as Track Presets that can be recalled by clicking the Load Track Preset button (in the Drum Machine’s toolbar) and navigating the Media Bay.

A Step Sequencer

By Any Other Name Complementing the new Drum Track and its integrated Drum Machine is the Pattern Editor, which presents a step-based approach to drum programming. Unlike Cubase’s other editors, the Pattern Editor can be opened for immediate use without having to first select something to edit. Therefore, with a suitable track selected, such as a new Drum Track, you can open the Pattern Editor from the MIDI menu. Provided that track is empty, the ‘Play with Project’ button will be enabled on the Pattern Editor’s toolbar, allowing the contents of the Pattern Editor to play and loop with the project.

This is particularly neat, since it’s easier to program a new drum pattern whilst hearing the project playing.

A pattern is programmed by toggling steps on different lanes in the editor area, although sadly there’s no Acoustic Feedback mode. While each lane has a preview button to audition the assigned sound, there’s no audible confirmation when you activate a step.

If the editor is opened with a Drum Track selected, a set of lanes based on the current Drum Machine kit is automatically created, although it’s easy to add and remove lanes as required.

However, unless I’m missing something unbelievably obvious, there doesn’t

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seem to be a way to resize the height of the lanes or re‑order them.

The length of the current pattern, along with its step resolution and play direction, can be set via the Pattern Editor’s toolbar or on a per‑lane basis. This makes it easy to have a one‑bar pattern of 16th notes where the hi-hat lane is playing an eighth-note triplet rhythm, as an example.

Selecting a lane in the Pattern Editor automatically selects the corresponding pad in Drum Machine, which is handy if you have both the Pattern Editor and Drum Machine interfaces open simultaneously.

Additional controls for the selected

lane, including some neat options for generating steps, are accessible in the Lane Inspector. Taking our bar of 16th notes again: if you have a bass drum lane selected and want to activate a step on every quarter-note beat, you can program this very quickly by clicking the ‘Add Every 4th Step’ button. There’s even a Euclidean mode, enabling you to set the number of pulses and rotation to determine which steps are activated according to a Euclidean distribution.

At the bottom of the Pattern Editor is a dedicated Parameter Lane where step parameters — Velocity, Repeats, Offset (±30

What’s The Score?

Cubase 14 introduces a brand-new Score Editor built with technology from Dorico, Steinberg’s publishing-grade music notation system, replacing what was previously referred to as the ‘advanced’ score editor. However, rather than attempting to Frankenstein Dorico directly into Cubase, Steinberg’s developers have decided to start with a mostly blank piece of paper.

Perhaps the biggest problem with integrated notation is that production and notation are very different approaches to music creation; and history has shown how being a really good solution for one of these approaches moves you further away from being a really good solution for the other. Therefore, Steinberg have decided to side-step this problem by refocusing the new Score Editor on the scoring tasks most Cubase users really need, rather than providing a full scoring solution within Cubase that is an unwitting and less good alternative to Dorico.

However, the down side to this change in focus, combined with the fact the Score Editor has been rewritten, means there are fewer features and capabilities than before.

It also means, perhaps obviously, that scores created with earlier versions won’t look the same, so you’ll probably want to keep your existing version of Cubase installed alongside

if you need to open such projects. But the advantages to this new approach are numerous.

Cubase 14’s Dorico-inspired Score Editor is easier to use, produces higher‑quality results more efficiently, and does a better job at interpreting the musical events of a Cubase project into readable notation. And for most users, this will be enough.

For situations where a greater level of sophistication is required than the new Score Editor can provide, you can now export a Dorico project directly from Cubase that can be opened natively in the other application.

And although Steinberg plan to extend the new Score Editor’s functionality, the seamless handing over of a project from Cubase to Dorico is by design, since the intention is for the Score Editor and Dorico to be considered as a complete workflow solution.

As you might imagine, Cubase 14’s modern approach to integrated notation is a big subject, requiring more space than this review can afford to do it justice. Even the manual covering the new Score Editor contains over 100 pages, which should convey something about the depth of its abilities! Look out for a more in-depth dive into the new Score Editor and its relationship to Dorico in a forthcoming issue.

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There’s a lot of versatility with this tool. One thing I’ve noticed about Bloom is you have to throw away everything you’ve been taught and how you would normally approach a compressor’s attack and release or an EQ’s boosts and cuts, because it’s always adapting based on the source and also based on the moves that you’re doing. So your ear becomes a priority tool on how to “drive” this plug-in in the right way.

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Bloom has been great for giving life to any track or bus that isn’t holding my attention enough or that I can’t wrangle with individual plugins.

I like to throw a couple instances in series on my instrumental bus and just sift through presets to add new dimensions to things I didn’t even realize were dull before. My go-to presets are Bye Bye Boxiness, Parallel Soft Width, Side Exciter, and Mix Bus Sheen.

ON TE ST

S T E I N B E R G C U B A S E P R O 14

The new Pattern Editor makes it easy to program drum patterns using a familiar, step-sequencer-esque interface.

ticks), Probability, Velocity Variance and Gate — can be adjusted for the currently selected lane. Additional parameters like Skip (to skip over a step) and Tie (to merge adjacent steps) would have been welcome, although you can add extra parameters for automation assignments made in Drum Machine or any MIDI controller.

The Pattern Management controls on the toolbar assist in managing the collection of patterns associated with the track that was selected when you opened the Editor. The state of a pattern being edited is automatically preserved, but you can duplicate the current pattern if you’d like to experiment with a variation, as well as starting a new pattern, removing one, or renaming. And once you have a pattern you’d like to use in a project, you can drag it onto the corresponding track via the aptly named ‘Drag Pattern to Project’ button to create a Pattern Event on that track.

However, a Pattern Event on the project window isn’t a copy of the pattern itself; it’s an Event that tells the track what pattern to play. Which is why Pattern Events contain a small number in their top-left corner that refers to the pattern number the Event will trigger. If you create another Pattern Event on the same track by using the Draw tool, you won’t be creating an empty pattern as you would an empty MIDI part. Instead, you’ll be creating an Event that triggers the pattern referenced by the number (and any custom name) shown.

This means that if you update a pattern by double-clicking the Pattern Event to open the Pattern Editor, the current state of that pattern will be reflected by all Pattern Events set to that pattern. Usefully, if you have a Pattern Event referencing a one-bar pattern, resizing that Event will fill its length by looping the pattern as needed. And if you want to change the pattern that’s

triggered by an Event, you can click the pattern identified in the top left and select a different pattern from the available list.

The down side to this somewhat idiosyncratic approach, aside from being slightly confusing at first, is that Pattern Events — unlike MIDI parts — can’t be moved freely between tracks. This is due to the fact patterns are tied to the tracks on which they were created — a pattern that exists on one track doesn’t uniquely exist on any other track. Which explains why there’s no option to convert MIDI parts into Pattern Events, despite being able to do the reverse and convert Pattern Events into MIDI parts.

Overall, the Pattern Editor is a welcome addition to Cubase, although it’s hard to avoid feeling the paint might still be wet in a few places. In addition to the quibbles mentioned, most editing actions carried out in the Pattern Editor aren’t added to the undo stack, meaning you can’t undo steps (or steps), which is rather unsettling. And you wonder if Steinberg haven’t been victims of their own conceptual cleverness to some extent, especially when even the Operation Manual appears noticeably sparse in demystifying the subject at hand.

Modulating Modulators If you’ve ever found yourself creatively stymied by the capabilities of automation, Cubase 14 likely has the answer for you with a new feature called Modulators.

And while Cubase isn’t the first music creation application to leverage modular-synth-style components to control parameters on the mixer or within plug-ins, it can be tricky to strike the right balance between flexibility and usability.

Scalable, Shimmering, Studio Plug-ins Every collection of new plug-ins added to each successive Cubase release presents a new user interface design, and the latest batch included with Cubase 14 is no different. Although, to be fair, Steinberg’s latest plug-in veneer features a pleasing aesthetic with interfaces that scale proportionately if the plug-in’s window is resized. Which is really, really useful — except for the fact it highlights how Cubase’s older plug-ins lack this functionality.

Five new effects are included, the two of which are tools. Underwater uses a low-pass filter to make audio sound as if it’s being played, well, underwater; and while it may have musical uses, it seems designed more for audio post-production, creating that muffled, indoor sound when a scene is set outdoors. Volume is — and I hope you’re sitting

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down for this — a gain adjustment tool, although it’s surprisingly versatile since it can be used with any configuration. A single fader controls the overall level, as you would expect, and individual channel faders are also available, which is handy for trimming levels in a 7.1.2 configuration and highlights the usefulness of resizeable interfaces.

Shimmer takes inspiration from Eventide’s ShimmerVerb, emulating an instantly recognisable sonorous effulgence of the early 1980s.

Traditionally, this effect was achieved by deploying Eventide’s pitch-shifting hardware in conjunction with popular digital reverbs. Steinberg describe the effect as a reverb and pitch‑shifter in a delay loop; I’d refer to it as the Mr Sheen of reverbs.

Studio Delay is a bit like a Roland Space Delay on digital steroids and is therefore

considerably more exciting than its somewhat pedestrian name suggests. A choice of eight delay patterns is available, each described by an icon representing the number of repeats, relative volumes and pan positions. Four integrated effects — modulation, distortion, reverb, and pitch — add some extra sonic character alongside a few pleasing extras, such as an Age control to simulate older, analogue tape machines. Combined with Shimmer, every sound can be instantly and effortlessly transformed into a pad.

Last but not least, Auto Filter is a playful way to modulate the cutoff frequency of a filter via either its input or side-chain signals. If you’ve ever used Soundtoys’ FilterFreak, you’ll know what to expect, although this effect is far simpler.

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ON TE ST

S T E I N B E R G C U B A S E P R O 14

Pattern Events can be used on a suitable Track in the Project window, such as a Drum Track, to trigger a pattern created in the Pattern Editor for that track. Which pattern is referenced by an Event is shown in the top-left corner, and you can click this identifier to switch between projects or convert the current Pattern Event to a MIDI part via a pop-up menu as shown. Note the MIDI part amongst the Pattern Events, which has been converted from the Hat+Kick Pattern.

The Modulators page in the Lower Zone gives access to the eight slots available for each audio-based track. Here you can see examples of each of the six Modulators, with audio from the selected instrument track feeding the Envelope Follower module in the first slot. The instance of ModScripter at the end is loaded with one of the included example scripts, which creates a single control labelled Intensity.

Audio-based tracks now feature eight modulation slots that can each be assigned to one of six Modulator types.

Three of these are the bread-and-butter modulation sources you might expect — an LFO, Shaper (or envelope generator) and a Step Modulator — which can output a modulation signal that’s either synchronised to the project start, left to run freely (ignoring the transport state), or is retriggered by a MIDI note.

The remaining three Modulator types are something of a mixed bag, starting with the humble Macro Knob that can be used to modulate multiple parameters via a single knob. Envelope Follower takes the audio output of the track on which it’s used (or a side-chain input) and translates the amplitude of the input into a modulation signal. And, finally, ModScripter, as the name implies, makes it possible to write your own Modulators using JavaScript. This does require a little coding experience, although several examples are included for study purposes or just to be used as additional Modulators. One such script

is Intensity, which features a single knob to scale an input signal.

The Modulators page is accessible in either the Lower Zone or a separate window, with both options provided as key commands — making it even more annoying similar key commands aren’t available for the Drum Machine or Sampler Control pages! Modulators can also be conveniently accessed in a new, appropriately named section in the Inspector.

Once a Modulator has been assigned to a slot, it can be connected to a destination by clicking that slot’s Add Connection button. Up to eight connections can be established per slot, although only four such connections are visible at a time because they’re split across two pages.

And despite the availability of displays with generous horizontal dimensions, there isn’t an option to extend the number of connections shown in a single page. Also, I couldn’t help thinking it might be useful if one could assign a background colour to help distinguish on slot from another.

VST2 Est Mort, Vive VST3?

The enduring popularity of VST2 has cause something of an ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’ for Steinberg; after all, it’s easy to forget the company have been trying to phase it out in favour of VST3 for 16 years! However, while Steinberg have mostly continued to support VST2 plug-ins in the company’s applications, it’s worth remembering a 2022 statement where Steinberg announced VST2 had been discontinued. For Mac-based Cubase users, this meant the Apple-Silicon-native version of Cubase 12 would be VST3-only; but Steinberg are now actively nudging Windows and Intel Mac users in the same direction.

In Cubase 14, VST2 support is disabled by default, although rather than forcing you to use Cubase 13 for those VST2 plug-ins you can’t quite let go of just yet, support can be re-enabled in the VST Plug-in Manager window. In the bottom right of the window, simply click the ‘Enable VST2 Plug-ins’ button, and you’ll notice that, in addition to your VST2 plug-ins becoming available, the ‘VST2 Plug-in Path Settings’ button also reappears. However, I would consider this change a final warning. Don’t be surprised if the next major version of Cubase jettisons VST2 altogether.

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Once a connection has been added, a destination can be chosen by either activating the Learn button and clicking a parameter or selecting the parameter manually from a pop-up directory. After the connection has been established, you can set the value of the destination parameter, the modulation depth, and whether the polarity of the signal is unipolar (0 to +1) or bipolar (-1 to +1).

For an idea of how you might get started with Modulators, consider the example shown in the screenshot.

Three Modulators have been added to an instrument track featuring two inserts, Shimmer and Studio Delay (see box). The output signal of the first Modulator — an LFO — modulates the High Frequency Cutoff parameter in Shimmer, while the output signal from the third Modulator — ModScripter (which is behaving as a Slew Rate Limiter thanks to an included preset) — is connected to the Intensity parameter of the same plug-in.

It’s important to note that a slew rate limiter doesn’t generate a signal, it merely smooths out an incoming signal; and in this example the input signal is coming from the second Modulator — Step Modulator — which is connected to ModShifter’s Modulation Input parameter.

To make things interesting, the Step Modulator has a second connection, routing its output signal directly (without passing through the slew rate limiter) to Studio Delay’s Distortion parameter.

What’s particularly neat, though, is that the Modulator Connections assigned to plug-ins can be displayed above the plug-in’s interface by enabling the Show Modulation Connections button on that

Here you can see an example of the kind of scenarios the new Modulators feature makes possible, as described in the main text.

window’s toolbar. This makes it much clearer to understand what’s going on.

There are of course some obvious limitations in this first iteration of Modulators, such as the feature being absent from MIDI tracks. It’s also impossible for a Modulator on one track

It’s The Little Things As usual, Cubase 14 includes numerous workflow improvements that will make life immeasurably better for existing Cubase users.

For example, it’s finally possible to re‑order channels in the MixConsole windows directly.

And just this one seemingly small feature has caused most die-hard Cubase users I’ve told to retort: “This is not a small feature!”

A smaller but no less welcome enhancement is the ability to create new MIDI parts (or Pattern Events) anywhere on a track by double-clicking the appropriate spot in the Event Display. Previously, the Pencil tool was required to this, or you could only double-click to create a part between the Left and Right Locators.

Moving along to Audio Events, these no longer contain a Volume Handle to adjust the gain of an event. Instead, in a manner not dissimilar to Pro Tools, the bottom left of each Audio Event now contains a small volume icon.

Clicking this displays a mini-fader to adjust the volume, which no longer changes the selection status of the Audio Event, and the static gain offset value is displayed next to the icon. Previously, Volume Handles could only indicate gain decreases, so this is definitely an improvement; and you can now Shift-drag the mini-fader to make fine adjustments or Command‑click the icon to reset the Event’s gain to 0dB.

to modulate a parameter on another track — although, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, sometimes you can find a workaround by side-chaining audio from another track to use as a modulation source. Overall, I think the Modulators feature ended up becoming my favourite new addition in Cubase 14.

A Cubase Valentine?

Cubase 14 is an incredibly ambitious release that debuts three major new areas of functionality: Drum Tracks (including the Pattern Editor and Drum

Machine), Modulators and a new Score Editor. And while you could criticise this direction as being emulous, since many of these features are similar to those found in comparable music creation software — notably Logic Pro and Bitwig — it’s not as though these applications were the first to invent, say, step sequencers or modular synths.

What’s most important, of course, is that any new features are implemented in a manner that makes sense for Cubase and its users. And, to their credit, Steinberg’s developers are often relentless when incorporating new functionality, covering practically every conceivable usage case for almost any workflow. Such dedication makes it all the more surprising when you notice what seem like obvious omissions in, say, the Pattern Editor, since it lends an unfinished quality to something that evidently has a great deal of potential.

Indeed, if there’s a criticism one could make, it’s that Steinberg’s goals for Cubase 14 were possibly too ambitious, and, as a result, there are perhaps a few more creases than usual to be gradually ironed out. Although, if being too ambitious is the most negative remark I can muster about an update that’s generally brimming with creativity and musicality, perhaps it’s not really a criticism at all. £ Cubase 14 Pro £481, Artist £273,

Elements £83. Upgrade pricing available.

Prices include VAT. W www.steinberg.net

The new Volume plug-in is particularly handy when inserted on channels with a wide Configuration, such as the 7.1.4 instance shown here. As with the other new plug-ins included with Cubase 14, Volume’s interface usefully scales to the size of the window.

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ON TE ST

Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 4th Gen

USB Audio Interface

SAM INGLIS

F

ocusrite’s Scarlett range are said to be the best-selling USB audio interfaces in the world, and their distinctive red liveries show up everywhere from bedroom studios to serious broadcast and post-production facilities. The six members of the fleet cover a huge range of possible use cases and connection scenarios, with the flagship 18i20 offering everything you need to handle complex multi-channel recording jobs. The two smallest members of the Scarlett family all feature built-in direct monitoring that is handled from the front panel, meaning that you don’t need additional software to use them. By contrast, the 4i4, 16i16, 18i16 and 18i20 all incorporate digital routing and mixing features that have to be set up from a software control panel.

It’s this distinction, I suspect, that led Focusrite to stagger the introduction of the 4th Generation Scarletts. The 4th Gen Solo, 2i2 and 4i4 were launched together towards the back end of 2023, and were reviewed in the October 2023

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Focusrite have completed the overhaul of their ubiquitous Scarlett range, extending the 4th Gen improvements to the three largest models. edition of SOS (www.soundonsound.com/ reviews/focusrite-scarlett-4th-gen). Now, more than a year later, Focusrite have introduced the ‘refreshed’ versions of the larger models. In this review I’ll focus mainly on the top-of-the-range 18i20, but will describe the other two models where they differ.

Getting On The Bus All three of the new models inherit the form factors of their 3rd Gen predecessors, but changes to the model numbers are significant in terms of I/O count. As before, the 1U rackmounting 18i20 features eight analogue inputs with mic preamps and 10 analogue line outputs, plus ADAT optical and coaxial S/ PDIF digital I/O. However, the desktop 3rd Gen 8i6 and 18i8 have now morphed into the 16i16 and 18i16 respectively, indicating that both now feature ADAT in and out as well as stereo S/PDIF in and out. The 18i20

is still distinguished by having a word clock output, and two sets of optical ports instead of one; but this is only so that the full eight-channel input and output quota is maintained at 88.2 and 96 kHz sample rates. If you’re working at 44.1 or 48 kHz, all three offer the same 10 channels of digital audio I/O in total.

From the hardware point of view, one of the biggest steps forward also relates to the 16i16 and 18i16: unlike the 3rd Gen 8i6 and 18i8, both can be bus powered.

In case your computer or tablet can’t supply the necessary juice, a second USB-C socket is provided along with a generic power supply. My MacBook Air was able to power the 16i16, but only just; simply plugging in another USB cable provoked an ‘insufficient power’ warning, even when no device was attached.

Elsewhere, all three incorporate the same hardware improvements that were apparent in the 4th Gen 2i2 and

4i4. Foremost among these are a new, digitally controlled mic preamp design with 69dB gain range, a redesigned Air Presence characteristic and an additional Air Harmonic Drive mode.

The digital control has allowed Focusrite to implement their Auto Gain function, which aims to establish appropriate gain settings automatically by analysing the input signal, and a Clip Safe option which turns the gain down automatically when clipping is detected. Like the 2i2 and 4i4, the larger models also boast improved technical specifications.

Dynamic range is now 116dB on the mic/line inputs and 122dB on the line outs, at the cost of a 1dB increase in EIN on the mic preamps.

All three models also feature a new headphone amp design; this too is digitally controlled, and is thus distinct from the headphone amp used in the smaller 4th Gen interfaces. In terms of specifications, there’s very little to distinguish the latest Scarletts from more ‘professional’ interfaces costing two or three times as much, with one possible exception: as on previous iterations, the line outputs are still calibrated such that 0dBFS produces an analogue level of +16dBu, and the line ins can accommodate a maximum input level of +22dBu. Focusrite explained that these are effectively dictated by the choice of components and power rail voltages; support for the more standard +18 and +24 dBu would require higher voltages, in turn generating more heat, requiring more expensive components and thus increasing cost. In practice, a 2dB difference is unlikely to be problematic in most scenarios.

looks very similar now to how it did a year ago. But, of course, there’s a lot more functionality for it to address on the larger models, which have speaker switching, digital I/O, digital headphone control and, in the case of the 18i20, talkback.

In terms of mixing and routing, Focusrite Control 2 and the Scarletts’ built-in DSP are largely unchanged since the third generation. With the 18i20, you get six simple mixer tabs, each delivering its own balance of the eight analogue ins, the 10 digital ins and four stereo DAW playback channels. You can thus create up to six different low-latency cue mixes, which can be assigned to separate physical outputs. Counting the stereo loopback output, there are a total of 13 stereo outputs that can be addressed on the 18i20: five analogue output pairs, the two headphone outs, plus S/PDIF and four ADAT pairs. There are no aux sends, built-in reverbs or other signal processing, while the 18i20’s talkback mic can be routed to any combination of the six cue mixes, but doesn’t have a fader within them, and can’t be recorded directly. For my money, that’s fine, and what was already a very slick user interface in the 3rd Gen Scarletts has gone up another couple of levels with

“The distinction between ‘professional’ and ‘semi-pro’ interfaces is now more about open-endedness of design and ergonomics than it is about raw sound quality or round-trip latency.”

Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 4th Gen £630 pros • Excellent specifications and sound quality, especially considering the price.

• Existing 4th Gen features like the new preamps and Auto Gain are arguably even more useful on these larger models.

• Highly streamlined setup and intuitive operation.

• New Focusrite Control 2 app for iOS and Android works well and closely mirrors its desktop counterpart.

• The 16i16 and 18i16 can be bus powered, and both have ADAT in and out unlike their 3rd Gen predecessors.

cons • Monitor control and other master section features are quite basic.

• Auto Gain timer can be awkward in some circumstances.

summary Somehow, Focusrite are still finding ways to make their best-selling interfaces better sounding and easier to use!

Gen 4. A large part of the reason for the Scarletts’ success is the attention that Focusrite have paid to making the learning curve as simple as possible to navigate, and they’ve managed to make things even less intimidating in this new version.

The Input tab offers access to all the same preamp controls that are accessible from the front panel, so you can switch each of the 18i20’s first eight inputs between mic/line and instrument modes, activate phantom power, choose an Air setting and engage Safe Mode. You can also trigger Auto Gain, which is arguably

Soft Power Given that most of the hardware improvements were ready to roll out on the smaller Scarletts in 2023, it’s logical to assume that the additional development time for the larger models relates to the software side of things.

The same Focusrite Control 2 utility is used across all Scarletts, including the 4i4 and optionally the 2i2, and

The Scarlett 16i16 and 18i16 now both feature ADAT optical in and out, greatly extending the possibilities when it comes to I/O expansion. Both can also be bus powered, unlike their 3rd Gen counterparts.

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F O C U S RI T E S C A R L E T T 18 I 20 4 T H GE N

ALTERNATIVES This is a highly competitive market, and several other manufacturers have broadly similar ranges. Perhaps the most direct rival is Audient’s EVO series, which also features digitally controlled preamps with auto-gain; elsewhere, Steinberg, ESI, PreSonus and MOTU all make comparable models.

On The App Focusrite’s Safe Mode should ensure that your first clipping episode is your last!

Perhaps the biggest development Focusrite have made with the software side of the larger 4th Gen Scarlett models is the introduction of a new remote control app called Focusrite Control 2. Available for iOS and Android, it allows hands-on control from a phone or tablet connected to the same WiFi network as your computer. Connection is initiated by scanning a QR code generated from the desktop Focusrite Control 2, and there is a very pleasing continuity in terms of both form and function between this and the app version, which looks and feels identical and works as well from a touchscreen as the desktop version does under mouse control.

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more useful when there are eight preamps to handle than it is on the smaller models.

Adjacent odd and even inputs can be linked for stereo recording, so that gain is matched across them regardless of whether they receive identical levels during the audition period, and it’s also possible to trigger Auto Gain for multiple inputs at once. The only slight fly in the ointment is that once you arm Auto Gain, the 10-second audition window begins immediately. If you are, for example, recording yourself playing drums, you need to hit the button and leg it over to the kit in order to start playing before the time is up. Having said that, as long as WiFi is available you can trigger Auto Gain from the app running on a phone, and Focusrite say they are looking at how a count-in timer could be implemented.

In the 3rd Gen Scarlett line-up, the top two models offered alternate speaker switching. In the 4th Gen, that has now been extended to the 16i16 as well as the 18i16 and 18i20, although the implementation is still pretty minimal.

Switching is enabled using a simple toggle within Focusrite Control 2, and if active, repurposes the second pair of line outputs to feed the alternate speakers.

Pressing the front-panel Alt button or its software equivalent then performs the actual switching. There’s no provision

for trim offsets between the two outputs.

The simplicity of this arrangement is of a piece with the Scarletts’ master section functionality more generally; monitor control is restricted to volume, mute and dim, with no mono button, and as previously mentioned, the 18i20’s talkback functionality is intentionally basic.

And although the 18i20’s 10 analogue outputs mean that it could, in principle, be used in an immersive or surround context, this certainly isn’t catered for by the built-in monitor control. Any calibration or level adjustment would need to be handled elsewhere in the chain.

Get Up & Go What all this shows, I think, is that the distinction between ‘professional’ and ‘semi-pro’ interfaces is now more about open-endedness of design and ergonomics than it is about raw sound quality or round-trip latency (which is the same here as it is with the smaller 4th Gen models reviewed back in 2023).

Can you achieve a few dB more dynamic range by spending three times as much?

Yes. But how often will the difference be noticeable in reality? Very rarely, I suspect, and then only if you are lucky enough to have epically good speakers in an acoustically perfect environment. The biggest thing that distinguishes the new

Scarletts from, say, Focusrite’s Red range is the extent to which they are streamlined to cater for particular use cases. In terms of versatility, they are at the other end of the spectrum from something like RME’s TotalMix FX — and for many people, I think the pros of that will far outweigh the cons. If you’re a drummer or a singer-songwriter and you want to

put up some mics, plug in a guitar and be ready to go right away, the 4th Gen Scarletts remove as many obstacles as possible from your path. Features like Auto Gain and the excellent Focusrite Control 2 app allow you to spend less time worrying about what’s going where, or why you can’t hear anything, and more time making music.

The SERIES SlatFusor

Auto Gain can be applied across multiple inputs at once, which is perfect for multi-miked drums and so on.

£ 16i16 £349.99; 18i16 £489.99;

18i20 £629.99. Prices include VAT.

T Focusrite +44 (0)1494 462246 E sales@focusrite.com W www.focusrite.com

Modern Elegance Superior Acous�c Panels & Bass Traps

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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INSIDE TRACK

Zach Crowell Although he grew up aspiring to be a hip-hop producer, Zach Crowell has made it big by leaning into his Nashville roots.

PAUL TINGEN

“

My career took off when I began combining urban music, which I loved and had been doing for a long time, with country, the music I grew up around in Nashville,” recalls Zach Crowell. “As soon as I started being honest and making the music that was naturally in me, my career officially started. It also felt very natural because this was right at the time when country music started going that way, with the group FGL, Florida Georgia Line, making country with hints of urban music, and R&B and rap rhythms in their flows and melodies.”

FGL broke through in 2012, as one of several acts that reshaped country with crossover hits. Two years later, Crowell enjoyed his first major success, and went on to become one of the leading country producers in Nashville.

To date he’s enjoyed more than 30 number one hit singles, and most recently a number one album with Jelly Roll. Crowell’s remarkable achievements are built on a unique set of skills and musical sensibilities that he developed as a teenager and while working as a hip-hop producer.

Coming Up “I grew up in Franklin, south of Nashville, which is where I live today. My family wasn’t in the music business, but I knew people who were, and I was aware that making a living from songwriting was an option. My dad is an amateur musician, who still plays guitar, bass and sings in the band he started at middle school with his buddies. He did not teach me to play, but we were constantly in record stores buying whatever new music had come out. Loving music seeped in my bones more than playing it.

“At high school I was the DJ with a big stack of CDs. In the ’90s I was in love with hip-hop and R&B. It was when Tupac and Babyface were huge, and Southern

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Zach Crowell works mainly from his own home studio in Franklin, near Nashville.

rap took off, with No Limit Records and Cash Money Records. When I graduated from high school, I wanted to make music, and bought an Akai MPC2000, had Cubase, and started making rap beats. I had no idea what I was doing.

I gradually bought more pieces of gear, and collaborated with people in Nashville.

We had a small record label and put out independent music. That got me into writing R&B as well. I wanted to be Mannie Fresh, who produced a lot of the Cash Money Records stuff! By that time I was selling beats to rappers around town for $50 or $100, and in 2008 I sold some beats to Jelly Roll.

“My cousin is a successful country songwriter named Josh Hoge. I was his tour manager when he was a pop artist around 2007-8, which led to me also writing pop music. He was collaborating with Ashley Gorley, one of the most

successful country songwriters of all time. I eventually started writing with Ashley as well, and he signed me to Combustion Music in Nashville. I was supposed to make urban pop, but there wasn’t much of an outlet for this in Nashville at the time, so someone at Combustion suggested I try and write some country songs, and put me in rooms with other writers.

“I had been producing for 15 years in the underground rap music world, and was able to quickly make professional-sounding demos in a normal room. I could make a song in 30 minutes or an hour that was fresh and innovative, and this led to me getting into rooms with more heavy hitters really quickly because I had skills that not many people had in the Nashville community. I would make beats on a drum machine and play guitar loops and edit

them in a computer and make it sound all weird, which stood out in Nashville. When I showed up in the country world, what I was doing was new.”

Urban Music Crowell’s first big placement was still in urban music, when he co-wrote and co-produced the song ‘Confe$$ions’ by Christian rapper Lecrae in 2012. The next year he was a writer and producer on the song ‘Strong’ by country singer Will Hoge, which was followed by what Crowell now describes as his big breakthrough.

“The song that changed my life wasn’t a number one song. It was a Keith Urban song called ‘Cop Car’ that died somewhere on the charts. I wrote that with a new artist at the time, Sam Hunt, and a buddy of ours named Matt Jenkins.

It was a very different song that really stood out. The whole of Nashville was

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INSIDE TRACK

Z A C H C R O W E L L • J E L LY R O L L

Zach Crowell has amassed an impressive collection of keyboards, including many ’90s and ’00s models that he remembers nostalgically from their first appearance!

talking about that song at the time. It had a cool vibe and a bunch of artists wanted to record it, including Sam. But I’ve always been a mega fan of Keith Urban, so when he called I was not going to say no. He wanted me to produce it as well. It was a huge opportunity, because I had no money and no big credits.”

‘Cop Car’ was released as part of Urban’s album Fuse in 2013, and as a single in January 2014, earning Urban a Best Country Solo Performance Grammy Award nomination. “That song put Sam, Matt, and I on the map in the Nashville songwriting community,” recalls Crowell.

“The other thing that changed my life was meeting Sam Hunt. His career started around 2014 and quickly became a big deal. He was making bizarre country music and sold a lot of tickets and a whole lot of records. I’m forever thankful to him.”

Crowell has been at the heart of Hunt’s “bizarre country”, having co-written and co-produced almost all of the singer’s 14 singles to date, many of which have been to number one, as well as most of Hunt’s two albums, Montevallo (2014)

and Southside (2020), and his mixtape Between The Pines (2015). As a writer and/or producer, Crowell has also been involved in many other high-profile country releases from artists such as Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Dustin Lynch. His work on Jelly Roll’s

is a great guitar player, and has a rock background. So he plays country riffs in a different, fresh way. I’m not a great guitar player, so I have to make up for this in some other way. We all try something that makes us stand out a little bit, and I’ve realised that for me it’s the fact that I come from the underground rap world and have a hip-hop record label background and did all the things associated with it, like pressing CDs, printing flyers and passing them out, and making our own music videos. I was also a tour manager. So I have a manager brain.

I also think a bit like an A&R. A lot of songwriters are just focused on the song, but I can step out and look a little more at the bigger picture.

“I also do my own engineering in my studio, and have mixed about half of the hit songs I’ve had. I like to do everything myself, and again this comes from the DIY mentality of the rap label. I play guitar and keyboards and sing just enough to get by. I probably play more than a typical hip-hop producer who relies on Splice. But I’m not a studio musician by any means. I can fumble my way, but

Zach Crowell: “I leave the TV on all the time. If you solo and zoom in, you can hear it on every guitar track I record!

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two most recent albums revived an old connection between the two of them, and helped the rapper become a star by crossing over into country singing.

Crossing Paths There’s been a common theme in several recent Inside Tracks, with producers like Andrew Watt, Charlie Handsome, Sean Cook and Nevin Sastry starting out as guitarists, becoming interested in production through hip-hop, and then crossing over into other genres. Crowell’s career has followed a similar path, except that he did not start out as a guitarist. “Charlie

I’m not shredding on guitar and I’m not shredding on keyboards. With digital you can play your parts and put them into place and add other bits and put pieces in and stuff. So, rather than be really good at one or two things, I can do a little bit of everything, and that is what makes me stand out.

“I’ve always had my own studio, starting with my very first apartment, when I had the MPC in the corner. I don’t like commercial recording studios with the big consoles, the booths, and the secretary out front in the hallway. I’m a bedroom studio guy. My dream in life was to be in the music business and be married and have kids and do music from home. I have that now and I couldn’t be more thankful. I have an awesome home studio. It’s cosy and I get a lot of compliments about it. Plus people like coming to your house. Nashville is very much a community, where everyone roots for each other, and people like seeing my wife and my kids when they come for sessions.

“I try to do everything at home. People come to my house for songwriting and recording sessions, though when I record a drummer or a whole band, I’ll go to a studio downtown, where someone else engineers. But I then immediately bring it back home, and work on it here in Pro Tools. I have a UA Apollo x8 and x16, so my interface is 24 channels in total.

“My main vocal mic is a Sony C800G, which is great, going into an API 512.

I have some other mics, including a Shure SM7 and an Audio-Technica AT4050, which is my main mic for recording acoustic guitars. I’ve used all the Royers and other mics on guitars, but I’m an Audio-Technica guy. For electrics I use the Fractal Audio amp simulator. I rarely mic up a cabinet. For the music that I make, I can’t tell the difference between a cabinet or a simulator. For bass I use the Avalon U5 DI. “I have a ton of mic pres that are all permanently plugged in. My Yamaha U1 piano is recorded using two Audio-Technica AT4033s, via Neve mic pres. I can press record in Pro Tools for any keyboard or sound module or mic at any time. I hate having to get cables out and plug them in. My bottom line is to have a professional mic going into a professional mic pre, and I leave it at that. I’m more concerned with the shape of the chord or the tone of the vocal going in, rather than the gear grabbing it.

“I have the C800G because once I started making money in the country world, I thought, ‘That’s the one all the rappers use.’ So I got it and I love it. But in the end it’s the vocal. I don’t care if it’s recorded with a Neumann or a C800.

I like having good stuff, and it makes me feel professional, like I’m competing at a real level. But I can’t really tell the difference, and envy people who can.

Many people think that Quincy Jones or Dr Dre had a magic button. But at the end

of the day, it’s about the artist. It’s about the writer. It’s about the music. It’s about the hands on the guitar.”

Too Many Keyboards Although he de-emphasises the importance of gear, there are things in Crowell’s studio that he feels passionate about, like his Yamaha NS10 monitors.

“Years ago I had big Alesis speakers that sounded terrible, so I went to a store called Nashville Used Music. The

The Yamaha upright piano in Zach Crowell’s studio is permanently miked up and ready to record.

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INSIDE TRACK

Z A C H C R O W E L L • J E L LY R O L L

Zach Crowell’s work with Jelly Roll on the albums Whitsitt Chapel and Beautifully Broken has helped to make the rapper a crossover country star.

employee there convinced me to buy a set of used NS10s, but for rap music they are no good without a subwoofer.

I thought I’d made a big mistake, but once I got my KRK subwoofer, I fell in love with the NS10s. I’ve been using them for 20 years now, with a Samson Servo 260 amp. I love them to death. I have some other monitors, like Mackies, and Yamaha HS8s, which I take with me on the road. But in my studio, it’s NS10s 100 percent of the time.

“I have a bunch of guitars and I’ve maxed out on keyboards and sound modules so much that I’m actually selling some on Reverb, like my Oberheim OB‑6. I just sold my Roland Jupiter-8. Being a 2000s R&B guy, I got a Roland Fantom X8, a Korg Triton, a Yamaha Motif, an E-mu Proteus 2000 and Planet Phatt, a Korg M1, and a Roland Juno‑60, which to me is the best synth ever made. It’s hard to beat. I’m a Roland fan, and the Fantom has been my main keyboard my entire life.

“I love all those ’90s, ’00s urban music sounds and try to squeeze them into country songs. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t, depending on the song or the artist. Those are the

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keyboards I dreamt of when coming up, so I’ve just been buying them. Of course, I have all the soft synths in the computer as well — reFX Nexus and all the Spectrasonics Omnisphere and Native Instrument stuff. I learned years ago to surround myself with instruments and sounds, because you never know when you touch the right one at the right time that is going to inspire you. I like to be surrounded by sounds.”

Roll Call Crowell’s studio was one of the places in which Jelly Roll’s last two albums were recorded. Whitsitt Chapel (2023) was a Billboard US album chart number three, while 2024’s Beautifully Broken reached number one. Crowell (co-)produced 11 of the 13 tracks on the former, and 11 tracks of the 14 tracks of the standard edition of the latter album. He also has co-writing credits on several of these songs.

“Jelly Roll started dabbling with country on Ballad Of The Broken [2021],” explains Crowell. “It really connected with people, so he then wanted to make a full country album, and as we knew each other, I was an obvious choice. During his entire career, Jelly had pieced albums

together from various different sources with many different producers, but in this case they needed one person at the heart of everything who could deliver the entire album in a month. We made it happen, and Whitsitt Chapel became a big record with some really big songs on it.

“The new record, Beautifully Broken, was written and recorded more all over the place. We helped put together some writing camps here in town, and Jelly had writers on his tour bus. Getting vocals from Jelly was much harder this time around because he’s so famous and often away. So I made a couple of trips to meet him when he was in LA and we cut vocals at a big studio there. He and I also cut vocals here in my house, in both places using a C800. I’d say half of the tracks I produced were built piece by piece in my studio, and the other half were recorded with a band at [drummer] Grady Saxman’s studio.

“I really enjoy working with Jelly again.

He’s a buddy. Of anyone in the music business I’m still working with he’s the one I’ve known the longest, ever since I sold beats to him for 50 bucks in 2008.

To now be flying on private jets with him to sold-out arena shows and doing Joe

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These three plug-ins form a key part of the vocal chain from Jelly Roll’s ‘Heart Of Stone’.

Rogan and all that stuff, he and I are just giggling the whole time going, ‘What’s happening?’ It’s unbelievable that his life has turned into that. Ten, 12 years ago, he watched my career take off, and he was still grinding in the underground, being a broke artist. So thank goodness he was able to then surpass all of us and turn into a superstar. It’s fun to see him do that!”

Stone Circles One of the standout tracks of the album is ‘Heart Of Stone’, which Crowell produced and co-wrote, and is a good example of his process. “This one came from a writing camp. I had about a dozen

writers and I rented an Airbnb outside of town. People were spread over different rooms, and Jelly would bounce from room to room. In Nashville, every producer has their own mobile rig and engineers their own session, and they cut the vocals and build the tracks on the spot. My mobile rig consists of a laptop, Apollo Twin interface, Shure SM7 mic and my Yamaha HS8 monitors. It’s all I need.

“I was in a room with two great songwriters called Blake Pendergrass and Shy Carter, and had the basic idea for the song. I had a chord progression and a couple of melodies and some mumble lyrics. Everyone liked the idea,

Music To Picture “I leave the TV on all the time,” says Zach Crowell. “If you solo and zoom in, you can hear it on every guitar track I record! If it bothered me, I would turn it off. But I like having all that stuff going at all times. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes I think I should try to sit in a room with nothing and only make music. But I like the distractions.

It goes back to being a bedroom producer in my first apartment. The guy upstairs was walking and dogs were barking in the background. It’s not that big a deal. You know what I mean?

We’re just trying to make some fun music. If the car honks are too loud, we’ll do another take.

And when I record gang vocals, there often are people yelling and laughing in the background,

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and it actually makes songs come alive. You can hear people having a good time, and you think, ‘Oh, this is a good song.’

“I’m very comfortable at home working by myself. I sit looking at my DAW monitor, and have a TV monitor up, and podcasts playing on my left. When I’m editing drums, I’ll sometimes be listening to a podcast at the same time. Meanwhile I also have the TV on with the sports centres. It makes me feel like I’m not in here alone when there’s life going on outside. I’ll edit for 20 minutes and then stop and click around on YouTube for 20 minutes or whatever. So I’m working, but it’s not very formal. I’m goofing around a good bit of the time. But I get it done somehow.”

so the three of us and Jelly wrote the verse and chorus that day. At the end of the writing camp we put all the songs in a pile to see which ones would rise to the top. ‘Heart Of Stone’ was one of them, so a month later Jelly, Shy, Blake and I finished the song at my house.

“I then completed the production.

Nathan Keeterle came in to replace my guitar parts. The next day I went to Aaron Sterling’s studio, Sound Of Sterloid, and had him play drums on a few songs.

‘Heart Of Stone’ was one of them. I then edited everything together at my studio and made it sound good. Jelly leaves the production process up to me. Every now and then he’ll chime in and say something. But for the most part, he trusts me to be me and I trust him to be him.”

Crowell produced, but was not involved in the writing of, the album’s lead single, ‘I Am Not Okay’ which went through a different process. “That song was written while Jelly was on tour, and the demo was just piano and vocal.

It was very soft and very lovely and enchanting. But the lyrics are painful. It’s not an enchanting song, it’s a heartache song. So I made the decision to turn it into a band song. I asked Nathan Keeterle to play one of those rubberneck guitars, and he played some cool licks, all of which gave it a bit of a different sound. It encouraged the band to play

in a different way. The band tracks were recorded at Saxman’s studio, in one day.

“I then took the recordings home, edited them and got Jelly to sing on them. I typically get him to do the verses, and the chorus, six, seven, eight times, and I’ll comp it from there. I get 90 percent of Jelly’s final vocal from that initial session, and then later we go in one more time for a final polish, like fix one note in the bridge, and so on. After we had laid down the vocals for ‘I Am Not Okay’, I thought that the track would be great with some strings, so I called David Davidson who wrote a cool string arrangement, and recorded it. He sent me a 150-track session with string overdubs,

with close mics and far mics and room mics and so on. I worked that into my session, and finished my rough mix.”

Mix Mode Tracing his entire process from a more technical perspective, Crowell explains that his perspective and focus gradually change. “There’s 100 percent a shift.

When I’m in the room with songwriters, I’m just trying to make sure that the vibe is good and we’re all having a good time.

When playing a guitar part into a mic, a lot of the time I leave the speakers on with a drum loop playing. When you solo the guitar, you can hear that, or you can hear people talking in the background.

I don’t like to put headphones on and tell everybody to be quiet. That’s a vibe killer. So I’ll record a good enough guitar part or a good enough piano part to write the song, and for a songwriter or artist to sing a demo vocal over. Then once they leave, I’ll fix things and I’ll have session musicians lay down final tracks and later the artist comes back in to sing the final vocal.

“I care less about the sonics at the beginning of the process, but by the end, that’s the only thing I care about. It’s a big evolution. At the same time, and this has been the case throughout my whole career, and it’s become the norm in the industry, I’m mixing 10 seconds after Zach Crowell is we’ve started a strong advocate of the a song. I try to use of templates, and his use effects and own Pro Tools template treatments that will has evolved through many years’ fine-tuning. be my final choice.

For me, mixing is

part of the songwriting process, and it’s part of the production process. I’m not going, ‘Oh, I’ll fix that EQ later.’ If I can, I’m fixing it in the moment, and I’m keeping it.

It’s part of working in Pro Tools.

“To make this possible, I’m a big template guy. My Pro Tools template has been an evolution of 15 years of doing ‘Save As...’ I now have one big, massive template that has tons of stuff to make tracks with synths and drums with Toontrack Superior Drummer and Native Instruments Maschine, and so on.

There’s also all sorts of guitar stuff with basic EQ and compression. Then it gets down to the vocal part of the song, which has several vocal chains and aux tracks, and three or four different busses for background vocals and gang vocals and stuff. I have a Master bus, and before that a Music bus, which all instruments go to, and a Vocal bus, which all vocals go to.

“My vocal chain evolves from artist to artist, but generally it starts with [Celemony] Melodyne, whether I’m tuning by hand or not tuning it at all, or Antares Auto-Tune. After that is the Waves Rvox and then the Eiosis E2 De-esser. Then I bus it out to a vocal bus, where I do a little EQ with the UAD SSL E Series channel strip, UAD LA-2A for compression, and the Waves PuigTech EQP-1A. Those six or seven plug-ins are my typical vocal chain. Then I have three busses that I send vocal to if needs be: reverb, delay, slap delay. The Valhalla Vintage is the main reverb I use. It’s so good, it’s really hard to mess that one up. For the Jelly song ‘Heart Of Stone’ I used the UA RealVerb ‘church’ preset.

For delays, I for the most part use the Soundtoys stuff.

“I mix a decent amount of the songs I produce, but other ones get sent out to mixers, most of all Jim Cooley, who is one of the top guys in Nashville. What I like in working with him is that he builds on top of what I have already done.

Typically, when I’ve finished my rough mix, I got it sounding pretty good and it’s pretty close to my vision. Jim enhances things and also makes sure the song has maximum impact. I guess we all have figured out how to do this since the loudness wars. Country used to have little low end, but we’ve also in country learned how to use computer processing to get our mix louder and really make use of the super low end. I think every genre is making use of the entire frequency spectrum now.”

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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ritish brand Cranborne Audio first caught our attention with the Camden 500, a preamp module that offered high-end technical performance at a remarkably affordable price. That was soon followed up by a rackmount version, plus two innovative 500-series chassis with digital I/O and a range of super-useful analogue-over-Ethernet interfacing boxes.

But perhaps Cranborne’s most impressive innovation to date is their proprietary HarmonicEQ® technology. Billed as “the first new analogue audio circuit in 40 years”, HarmonicEQ® might look like a normal equaliser, but rather than simply cutting or boosting at different frequencies, it generates musically tuned harmonics for each band, adding them to the original signal to create the

impression of a boost, without necessarily increasing the overall level. (When cutting, the HarmonicEQ® lowers the level of the fundamental frequency of each band, while keeping the harmonics.)

It’s an ingenious bit of tech, and one we were hugely impressed by when we reviewed both its debut

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per channel, in addition to variable high- and low-pass filtering. It can operate in stereo, dual-mono and Mid-Sides modes, with dedicated M-S insert points allowing you to patch your own hardware into the sum and difference signals.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the HE2 can be remotely controlled from within your DAW via a plug-in.

As well as taking care of presets, and instantly loading the right settings for each DAW project, the remote control is bidirectional and click‑free, so you can even use it for real-time automation.

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www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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Warm Audio WA76 Series

FET Compressors

Warm Audio pay tribute to two different revisions of the classic FET compressor, and throw in some helpful modern features to boot.

M AT T H O U G H TO N

R

eleased in 1968, UREI’s 1176 could act faster than most compressors and quickly gained a reputation for both its sound and versatility. Over the years, various ‘revisions’ introduced changes, with Rev C notably lowering the preamp noise and achieving a more linear response from the FET. Revs D and E were broadly similar, and it’s these popular low-noise versions on which Universal Audio base their current 1176LN. A number of other companies, though, have also created products based on these designs, including Warm Audio, who launched their affordable WA76 (which sounded decent but offered little by way of additional features) a decade ago.

To celebrate this anniversary, Warm have just launched four more feature-rich versions: single and dual-channel versions based on the Rev A and Rev D. Called the WA76-A, WA76-A2, WA76-D and WA76-D2, the letter in the suffix indicates the revision, while the ‘2’ denotes that it’s

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a dual-channel model. Each is housed in a 2U rackmountable chassis, with a front plate that’s consistent with the ‘blue stripe’ or ‘blackface’ styling of the originals. I was sent a WA76-D and WA76-A2, so that I could assess the sound of both revisions, and the features of both the single and dual-channel devices.

Controls & Features The single-channel WA76-D has the controls and layout you’d expect of any 1176-inspired processor, with large input and output pots turned by transparent‑skirted knobs, and smaller knobs to set the attack and release (clockwise for faster).

A column of four buttons selects the ratio (2, 8, 12 or 20:1), and multiple buttons can be engaged, including for the famously hard-hitting ‘all‑buttons-in trick’. A large, backlit, moving‑coil meter is switched by another four-button stack to display gain reduction or output level (with 0 aligned to your pick of +4dBu or +8dBu), or off. There’s also a recessed trim pot to calibrate the gain‑reduction meter.

Less-familiar features include an input impedance switch (600Ω or 10kΩ). The 1176’s 600Ω was conceived for a time when impedance-matching was the norm, but today most gear is designed with voltage-matching in mind, and expects a higher impedance load. A hard-bypass toggle passes the input straight to the output, but setting the attack to off (fully anti-clockwise) bypasses the gain reduction, while still routing the signal

through the device, making it a line amp that you can drive into saturation. Nice!

A Mix knob dials in parallel compression, while a side-chain high-pass filter (30-300 Hz) is set by an on/off switch and a pot.

On the rear, the analogue I/O are on both XLRs and quarter-inch TRS jacks, and are joined by two quarter-inch stereo-link jacks; these allow up to 10 WA76s to respond to a shared side-chain signal. A toggle on the front determines whether the compressor reacts to its own side-chain or the shared one. Another neat feature is the side-chain insert point: separate quarter-inch send and return jacks mean you can insert, say, an EQ to sculpt the side-chain, or use an external signal to trigger the gain reduction, such as when using a kick to duck a bass guitar.

Warm Audio WA76 Series From £629 pros • Classic FET compression.

• Two tonal options, and mono and dual-channel versions available.

• Great build quality, inside and out.

• A range of useful modern features, particularly on single-channel models.

cons • Dual-channel models have a single set of ratio controls.

summary For classic FET-based compression at a decent price you need look no further, but choosing between the four options on this menu may take more time!

Removing the top panel revealed the high-quality construction I’ve come to expect from Warm Audio’s gear, and other than for the additional features, the circuit appeared, as claimed, to be faithful to the Rev D. Through-hole components are used, so future repair and maintenance should be easy, and the custom Cinemag input and output transformers are reportedly made to the specifications of the Reichenbach ones in vintage 1176s.

Almost everything above also applies to the single-channel WA76-A: the layout of the two is identical, and other than their colour, the differences between the two are on the inside — as per the changes introduced in revisions C and D.

Two Cool?

The two dual-channel versions are likewise similar to each other, and I’m told that each channel’s circuitry and sound is the same as in their single-channel siblings. Yet there are significant functional differences between the one- and two-channel WA76s.

An obvious advantage to the WA76-A2 and D2 is that they fit two channels into the same amount of rack space as one single-channel model, while costing less than two of them. Most of the same front-panel controls, both ‘traditional’ and ‘additional’, are there too, although the skirted input and output knobs are replaced with larger versions of the attack/release ones, and each channel’s meter is smaller (but plenty large enough!).

On these two, there’s no side-chain insert or provision for side-chain sharing.

Instead, a front-panel switch determines

whether the compressor reacts to a left-plus-right summed control signal, to the left channel’s control signal only, or the loudest of the left- or right-channel signals, so there’s still useful flexibility there.

Worth noting is that both channels share a single set of ratio buttons (the same goes for the meter mode). In terms of their muses, this puts these WA76-x2 devices somewhere between the UREI 1178 and Universal Audio’s 2-1176. The 1178 has separate input and output controls for each channel, but they share the attack, release, ratio and meter controls. The 2-1176 has separate controls for each channel, so tweaking in stereo takes longer but you have greater flexibility when processing two mono signals.

Warm Audio’s implementations works very well for stereo, and you can use the left channel to process a mono signal. You can also use each channel to process a different mono signal, but only if you’re happy with the same ratio for both. That’s less restrictive in practice than it may seem: fine to treat two acoustic guitar or backing vocal parts, and 4:1 might work well on very different sources. But you can’t, say, use one channel to compress and the other to limit, so some might see an advantage in shelling out just a little more for two of the mono WA76s.

FET Accomplished?

Firing up a mix I know well, I used the review units on a range of sources, including vocals, electric and acoustic guitar, bass guitar, piano and drums. They both delivered precisely what I’d hoped

they would in terms of sound and attitude.

What’s more, when breaking a DAW mix out to my console, the higher input impedance option meant they played more nicely with the mixer’s inserts (which often seem to struggle with a 600Ω load).

So that’s a very welcome addition.

As you’d expect, the WA76-D sounds more elegant in terms of coloration and the gain reduction. Yet, it can go from smooth, gentle vocal or guitar control right up to the sort of grabby, assertive drum effects I associate with FET-based compressors. If you’re contemplating a WA76 as your go-to workhorse compressor, this is the flavour you want.

Just as billed, the WA76-2A delivers a dirtier, grittier sound and an in-your-face attitude: very vintage, very vibey. There’s more noise and distortion, of course, but I’d wager that most of us who bring signals out of the box these days do so in search of character more than cleanliness, and these have it in spades. I could coax wonderfully explosive drum sounds from this thing, with a forward focus and urgency that I found tough to recreate with plug-ins.

Other than the stereo version’s channels sharing one set of ratio buttons, I really can’t fault these compressors.

And if greater control of two channels is important, two mono versions won’t cost a whole lot more, and would give you more features to boot. Recommended. £ Single-channel WA76-D & WA76-A

£629 each. Dual-channel WA76-D2 & WA76-A2 £1159 each. Prices include VAT. W www.warmaudio.com

The single-channel versions (top) take advantage of the additional internal and rear-panel space to provide both side-chain linking of up to 10 devices, and an insert point. The insert has a separate send and return, so you can use external processing on the internal side-chain or use only the return for an external side-chain.

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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Audeze Maxwell

Planar Magnetic Headphones PHIL WARD

C

ompared to the long‑established headphone brands such as Sennheiser, beyerdynamic and AKG, Audeze are relatively new entrants to the pro headphone business. But the company have made a significant impression in their relatively short existence, and the Audeze products reviewed so far within these pages have invariably impressed with their combination of wide bandwidth, detail, clarity, neutral tonality and comfort.

The Audeze Maxwell reviewed here might appear slightly off-piste in Sound On Sound terms, though, because if you go to the Audeze website, you’ll see it listed as a gaming headset. It even ships with a plug-in boom mic attachment with which, presumably, you can gloat at your recently vanquished alien opponents.

The Maxwell is also relatively inexpensive compared to some of Audeze’s more ambitious mix headphones. So why, you might ask, are we reviewing a gaming headset? Well, apart from

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It might be marketed as a gaming headset, but Audeze’s Maxwell has serious studio potential, especially for Atmos. the likelihood, based on previous Audeze experience, that the Maxwell will offer a good level of cost-effective headphone performance, it happens to incorporate a feature that potentially has some significance in the world of Atmos mixing: head-tracking integration with the Dolby Atmos renderer.

Plane Saling Audeze’s USP in terms of headphone technology is the use of planar magnetic diaphragms, in which a conducting voice coil, etched onto a lightweight and flexible diaphragm, is suspended in a magnetic field. This type of headphone architecture (first introduced, I believe, in the early 1970s by UK hi-fi speaker company Wharfedale) is not dissimilar to that of a ribbon tweeter, and it offers the same fundamental advantage in that the diaphragm is driven across its entire area rather than just locally by a centrally positioned voice coil. This means the

diaphragm is less prone to breakup and structural resonance. The diaphragm of a planar magnetic headphone driver will also typically be significantly lighter than that of a conventional headphone driver, meaning it can offer extended high‑frequency bandwidth and have a greater radiating area, so it doesn’t have to move as far. I think there’s little question that, when implemented skilfully, the planar magnetic architecture can result in particularly fine‑sounding headphones, and Audeze’s track record would seem to confirm that.

Along with the gaming sector, the Maxwell also incorporates facilities that suit it to more general consumer applications. It offers Bluetooth wireless operation, along with wired and USB connectivity, and it provides optional active noise cancellation. This all means that the Maxwell is an active headphone that incorporates wireless, DSP and amplification hardware, as well as

batteries, and they all contribute to its notably increased weight compared to typical passive headphones. For example, in comparison to the Maxwell’s 490g, my Sennheiser HD650s are 260g and my AKG K371 are 255g. Even before wearing the Maxwells their weight was apparent, and although I found them reasonably comfortable on the head (something that I know other reviews have questioned), the weight was definitely noticeable and felt somewhat tiring after a while.

In design and build terms, the Maxwell felt somewhat of a mixed bag to me.

The substantially metallic construction feels well engineered and gives the impression that the Maxwell will laugh in the face of the everyday rough and tumble that headphones are invariably subject to. However, some of the details, such as the thumbwheel volume control, are a little awkward and less satisfactory.

And returning to the subject of comfort, the Maxwell is not blessed with much adjustment in terms of earcup height relative to the headband. Where many headphones incorporate some form of sliding mechanism that allows the earcups to move up and down, the Maxwell offers just three headband height positions — adjustable by removing four screws, moving the headband and replacing the screws. It’s a perfectly serviceable solution for a single user, but if you find yourself collaborating and passing the headphones to somebody else to use for a moment, you may find adjusting the fit to be a frustration.

Maxwell Measuring One of my regular checks when reviewing headphones is to take a frequency response measurement using a Neumann KU100 binaural head. Headphone response measurements using a KU100 don’t result in definitive, calibrated data, but they do enable some comparisons to be made. So the Diagram 1 frequency response curves illustrate the Maxwell overlaid with data for the Sennheiser HD650 and the AKG K371. The Maxwell was measured via its wired input, but I checked the USB input too, and found its frequency response to be all but identical.

The response curve of the Maxwell in comparison to the HD650 and K371 is highly satisfactory and I reckon it hits a good compromise between the slightly scooped (bass and high-mid emphasised) character of the K371 and the more gentle midrange‑emphasised HD650. The messy

character that headphone frequency response measurements show at the top end of the audio range is predominantly a function of how the headphone driver and earcup interact with the ear pinna, and it is not as disastrous as it looks. It will also vary from person to person. But back on the frequency response comparison, if I were asked blind which one of the three headphones was likely to demonstrate the most generally usable tonal balance, I’d probably say the Maxwell.

Majoring In Rendering Along with its internal DSP and amp electronics, the Maxwell contains an array of gyroscopes that enable it to derive its orientation in 3D space. By sending this information over USB to the Dolby Renderer, the Renderer’s real‑time binaural output can be informed by a user’s head position. The result of this is that a sound panned, for example, to front centre will move in the binaural headphone render so that it stays in a fixed position with respect to the listener’s head. So, say I turn my head 90 degrees to the right; the front-centre sound will appear now to be coming directly from the left. It mirrors what would happen if I were listening on speakers. But, say Audeze, the value of head‑tracking in an Atmos mix context is not really about its ability to mirror large head movements. It’s about the constant small, almost subconscious head movements we all make naturally to aid our identification of the location of sounds — especially those behind us. Tracking those movements results in a significant improvement in the overall binaural experience.

Setting up head-tracking requires first a download of the Audeze HQ app and its use to calibrate the Maxwell gyroscopes. This is done by connecting

Audeze Maxwell £349 pros • Very high‑quality headphone sound.

• Versatile if gaming or day‑to‑day headphone use is your thing.

• Head-tracking functions well with the Dolby Atmos Renderer.

cons • Noticeably heavy.

• Integration of head-tracking with the Atmos mix workflow is not ideal.

• Audeze HQ app feels a little undercooked.

summary The Audeze Maxwell head-tracking headline feature works well and adds a useful quality to binaural Atmos mix work, but it’s the headphone’s outstanding sound quality that really steals the show.

the headphones to the computer via USB, placing the headphones on a flat surface, pressing the Calibrate button and going away for half an hour to make a cuppa. A small headphone driver file that’s downloaded along with the Audeze HQ app also needs dropping in the appropriate Dolby Atmos Renderer library folder, so that the Renderer can understand the headphone orientation data. Once the headphones are calibrated, you’ve installed the driver file, and selected the Maxwell as the USB output of the Dolby Atmos Renderer, the headphones will become an option in the Renderer head-tracking setup window.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it.

I have to admit to a couple of false starts in understanding the setup process, and the slightly rough‑around‑the edges beta release level of the Audeze HQ app feels a little apparent, but once I’d made everything work, head-tracking definitely brings a worthwhile new quality to the

Frequency response measurements taken using a Neumann KU100 dummy head, of the Audeze Maxwell (red trace), Sennheiser HD650 (green) and AKG K371 (blue).

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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AUDEZE MAXWELL

ALTERNATIVES There are no other headphones I’m aware of that offer native head-tracking integration with the Dolby Atmos Renderer, although there are is an add-on solution that can add Dolby Renderer‑compatible head-tracking to any headphones: the Supperware Head Tracker. So conventional high‑performance headphones in the same kind of price bracket as the Audeze Maxwell, with a Supperware Head Tracker installed, would be an alternative. Such headphones might be the Sennheiser HD650, Austrian Audio Hi-X65, Neumann NDH 20 or even the Audeze MM-100.

The Maxwell incorporates gyroscopes, which must be calibrated in the Audeze HQ app.

Once this is done, the calibration file can be added to the Dolby Atmos Renderer library.

Atmos mix workflow and experience.

As promised, it seemed to help binaural renders feel more coherent and natural, and it definitely helps sounds placed behind the head become more explicitly apparent in the binaural field. But it raises a couple of questions also.

Enabling head-tracking in the Dolby Atmos Renderer.

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Firstly, with the Maxwell headphones in head-tracking mode being necessarily driven from the DAW computer USB output, their use in a mixed-format (speakers and binaural headphones) Atmos monitoring system becomes problematic. One of the delights of the Dolby Atmos Renderer with an interface such as the Audient ORIA is that alternative downmixes and monitoring setups are easily available so if, for example, I want to hear how an Atmos mix I’ve been monitoring on speakers works in binaural format, that’s available at the click of a switch (or even just by slipping on the headphones that are simultaneously playing a binaural render). But if using the Maxwell headphones, I’d have to stop and select an alternative output device, and change a few other preferences in the Dolby Atmos Renderer.

The second question head-tracking raises for me is to wonder how much value it really brings to Atmos mixing.

It does enhance the binaural experience, and I can absolutely appreciate that in gaming or in the world of immersive headphone‑based theatre, head-tracking is a hugely valuable and significant advance. But when I’m sitting at my DAW working on an Atmos mix, my head really doesn’t move much at all as I’m mostly staring intently at the display. Head-tracking is a nice-to-have functionality, but my experience of the Maxwell didn’t really make it a must-have.

Having said that, I have the benefit of an Atmos monitor setup — if I was working on Atmos mixes using headphones alone, I can imagine I’d be more won over by head-tracking. And of course if gaming

is just as much a thing for you as is audio production, the Maxwell may well be your perfect set of headphones.

To The Max The one aspect of the Maxwell headphones I’ve not covered so far is how they sound, and on that subject I’ve absolutely no complaints. In fact they are really extremely good. With the default EQ, they are perhaps a little wanting of high‑frequency detail, a touch too smoothsounding, but with the Immersive EQ preset in the Audeze HQ app, they really come into their own and deliver a level of performance that to my ears is significantly beyond their price. The way they separate and present different strands and elements of a mix, and their delivery of naturally recorded female vocals (listen to Athena Andreadis’ first album Athena) is worth the entry price alone. I found them a hugely seductive listen.

I came to the Audeze Maxwells genuinely intrigued by the concept of head-tracking and how it would integrate with Atmos mixing. It turned out that I wasn’t entirely blown away by head-tracking. It works, but I’m not sure in an Atmos mix context how much it changes the game. What I wasn’t expecting was such a high level of headphone sound quality. If they weren’t quite so heavy the Maxwells would probably be my new headphone reference. I’d even occasionally use them in head-tracking mode. £ Xbox/PC/Mac version (as reviewed

£349), PlayStation version (without Atmos compatibility) £319. Prices include VAT. T K&S Technology +44 (0)1903 768919 W www.audeze.co.uk W www.audeze.com

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TECHNIQUE

Go With The Grain Understanding Granular Delay

Clockwise from bottom left: Unfiltered Audio Silo, Output Portal and Arturia Efx Fragments.

Granular effects can be hugely powerful, but the chances of finding a preset that does exactly what you want are slim. So why not learn how to tame and tweak them?

PAUL WHITE

T

here are numerous granular effect pedals and plug-ins, but what exactly is granular delay? What can you expect from it, and how can you get it under control in your compositions and mixes? In this article, I’ll answer those questions, but since the scope of the sounds you can create with this type of effect is so broad, I’ve also created some audio examples to demonstrate the possibilities. You can find them on the SOS website at: https://sosm.ag/GranularEffects.

At its core, a granular delay stores audio into a temporary buffer, just as a conventional delay does, but then it breaks down the input signal into short sections that we call ‘grains’. These grains can be anything from a few milliseconds to several hundred milliseconds in length, but the real trick is that the individual grains can be processed in different ways before being sent to the output. Depending on the grain length and the types of processing applied to the individual grains (the most common

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are pitch‑shifting, reversal, time‑stretching and/or re-ordering, sometimes with a random element applied), the effect produced can be anything from glitchy chaos to rich, evolving soundscapes.

Key Parameters A typical granular delay will, of course, include the sort of controls you’d commonly find on a regular delay pedal or plug-in (specifically delay time and wet/dry mix, along with a feedback control to recirculate the repeats) but you’ll also find a Grain Size control that determines the length of each grain. Smaller grains can be stretched and overlapped to produce smooth, textural effects, or they can be used to create glitchy effects. Longer grains can also be stretched and overlapped to produce flowing soundscapes, but they can also be used more overtly to produce rhythmic effects.

A Grain Density control will adjust the number of grains that are generated per second: the higher the density, the more likely it is that result will sound smooth and flowing, whereas low grain densities

can create a variety of effects, from stutter repeats and glitches to crystalline jangles and sparkles if combined with pitch‑shifting.

There will usually be a pitch-shift control too, which adjusts the pitch of individual grains. The most musically pleasing intervals will be octaves, fourths and fifths, but modest pitch detuning can also be useful.

If applied using a randomiser, individual grains will appear at different pitches, which is an effect that can make for interesting ear candy if not pushed too high in the mix.

Such effects often benefit from a separate reverb being added after the granular processing — some granular plug-ins have this feature built in, but it’s easy enough to place a reverb plug-in or pedal directly after the granular delay.

Time-stretching is a similar process to pitch‑shifting, except that now the grains will play back at their original pitch while their length is adjusted by stretching or compressing them in time. Time-stretching is a good means of fine-tuning the grains’ overlaps, so that they produce a more continuous sound, but if you need to achieve something more glitchy, you can use it to shorten the grains.

Feedback usually works in the expected way: you set how much of the delayed signal is fed back into the input of the delay

TECHNIQUE

U N DE R S TA N DING GR A N U L A R DE L AY

line to generate repeating echoes. But in a granular delay the output has been subjected to granular processing, and when it goes back through the delay buffer a second time it is processed again, adding further to the complexity of the effect. The higher the feedback level, the more repeats are generated and the more texturally complex the delays become.

Most granular delay effects include the option to dial in an element of randomness.

This might be used, for example, to adjust the probability of a grain being played forwards or in reverse, or of it being subjected to a specific interval of pitch‑shifting. Randomisation might also be set to adjust the grain size or even to mix up the order in which grains are sent to the output. The inherent unpredictability just adds to the organic complexity of the effect while, at the same time, taking away any sense of repetition.

Given the number of parameters at play, it’s perhaps not surprising that granular delay pedals often don’t allow you to control all of them all of the time, but they can be powerful effects all the same.

For example, Red Panda’s Particle 2 has a rotary switch that lets you choose whether the effects will be based on pitch, reverse, detuning or LFO modulation, and also has a Freeze mode where the buffer loops indefinitely until an input is received that is loud enough to retrigger it and start the capture cycle all over again.

By contrast, plug-ins such as Output’s Portal, Arturia’s Efx Fragments or Unfiltered Audio’s Silo may have additional controls to add even more complexity to the end result, though the key parameters are the same in all of them. The types of extra you might see are modulation sources, controls to set the probability of random events occurring, additional reverb stages, filtering and sometimes grain shape. Using grain shapes that fade in and out rather than just starting and stopping where they were chopped helps smooth out the effect if that’s what you need. It is always worth exploring the presets and then looking at the control settings to see how those effects were achieved.

Granular Adventures Whether the source you start with is a guitar, a synth or even a voice — pretty much anything, in fact — If you need an ambient soundscape, granular processing can definitely deliver it. Long grain sizes combined with a high density and generous time-stretching will generate smooth,

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The Red Panda Particle 2: a granular delay pedal with some clever features and a web-based software editor.

evolving soundscapes that work very well when applied to pad and drone sounds, and such settings can also often turn ‘found sound’ recordings of random sources into musically useful effects.

If you lean more towards unsettling, glitchy sounds, you’ll find what you’re looking for by using short grains at lower densities. That way, each grain is heard as an individual event rather than being blurred into a continuous stream — then maybe add some random pitch-shifting for a spot of granular chaos as grains pop out at a different pitches. Alternatively, when combined with pitch‑shifting and feedback, but without any timing randomisation, the effect can be more solidly rhythmic; such glitchy, stuttery effects can sit very comfortably in some dance and electronica genres. I particularly like the effect of adding randomised pitch-shifting and grain reversal (but still sticking with octaves, fourths and fifths, so as to maintain some semblance of musicality!), as this can add harmonic complexity and a sense of movement to pads, melody lines or percussion parts.

Where parameter automation is available (it is in most plug-ins), you can use this to adjust the grain size and feedback in a way that syncs with the DAW project’s tempo — this can be a great way to spice up drum loops or other parts while still maintaining a sense of rhythm that works with your project.

Creative Excess?

Once you have your head around the basics of granular delays, you can get a bit

more experimental. For example, you can take things in a seriously crazy direction by feeding one granular pedal or plug-in into another. But an equally valid approach — and one that’s often more useful in practice — is to use these effects in parallel, building up a composition from simple layers and applying a different granular process to each one. For example, applying a textural granular delay to a vocal or guitar part can turn it into something that’s unrecognisable but still musical. Run this alongside a track carrying the same sound (or a related part) but treated with a more sparse granular effect, and you can create something that sounds absolutely huge.

You do need to give yourself plenty of time to experiment, because even with a pedal that has few physical controls, such as the aforementioned Particle 2 or the Walrus Audio Fable, the interaction between the different controls will cause the character of the effect to change in ways that may surprise you, even if you’re only making relatively small adjustments.

As I said above, with plug-ins there’s often more in the way of controllability, but it pays to start out with the basic parameters first to see how they interact before you take on the more esoteric features that a particular plug-in might offer.

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ON TE ST

Universal Audio Apollo X Gen 2 Thunderbolt Audio Interfaces

In the latest generation of the Apollo X range, UA have added a range of new features including Sonarworks SoundID integration for both speakers and headphones.

Universal Audio Apollo X Gen 2 From £1135 pros • The best-sounding Apollos yet, with very good audio specs.

• Highly effective and deep Sonarworks integration.

• Versatile Assistive Auto-Gain implementation.

• The new x16D and Plug-in Scenes represent a promising development for live‑sound engineers.

cons • No Thunderbolt cable included.

• Visual indication of status of Apollo Monitor Correction could be clearer.

• Not all Unison plug-ins support Auto-Gain yet, and it isn’t quite idiot-proof with the ones that do.

summary The latest generation of Apollo interfaces incorporate some very impressive developments, none more so than the comprehensive implementation of SoundID correction for both speakers and headphones.

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SAM INGLIS

I

t’s been a surprisingly long time since I last typed the phrase “Thunderbolt audio interface” at the head of an SOS review. When it superseded FireWire, the new standard seemed to promise everything you could possibly want for audio: high bandwidth, super-low latency, support for hot-plugging and daisy-chaining.

But after promising beginnings, the Thunderbolt tide has turned. Mid-priced interfaces that once boasted Thunderbolt connectivity, such as the Focusrite Clarett and PreSonus Quantum ranges, now employ USB instead.

There’s a long list of factors in play here.

Certification has always been problematic, especially for smaller manufacturers.

There are no Thunderbolt chipsets comparable to the ubiquitous XMOS range, which offer ready-made solutions for USB interface design. In the PC world, adoption by motherboard manufacturers has been half-hearted. And, above all, USB is good enough for most use cases.

So much so, in fact, that nearly all audio interfaces are still USB2 devices at heart, and don’t exploit the much greater bandwidth available in USB3 and 4.

Thankfully, though, it seems unlikely that Thunderbolt will suffer the same fate as Firewire. It now uses the same Type‑C connector as USB devices, and is being developed not as an alternative to USB but as a superset of it. In practical terms, Thunderbolt is becoming ‘USB plus’: not needed or implemented on every device, but a widely available and supported option in higher-end systems where its special powers make a difference.

One such system is Universal Audio’s Apollo range. UA adopted the new standard as soon as it was practical, and have stuck with it ever since. Late in 2024, they announced what is in effect the fourth generation of Apollos, and they’ve very much kept faith with Thunderbolt. And, more importantly, they’ve also developed a tempting raft of new features.

Bolt From The Grey Previous refreshes of the Apollo line have been staggered, with the rackmounting and desktop Apollos being updated separately.

This time around, UA have reinvented the entire range in one fell swoop, with the only exceptions being the baby Apollo Solo and the two legacy desktop models that cater to PC users without Thunderbolt. There’s also an intriguing new model aimed at the live sound market, which is described in the boxout.

Dubbed the Apollo X Gen 2, the new range is visually distinguished by what UA call a “new look and feel”. I didn’t detect

much change in the feel of anything, but the front panels of the rackmount models and the cases of the desktop units have reverted from black to a smart pale grey that recalls the brushed metal look of the very first Apollos, more than a decade ago.

There is a total of seven models in the Gen 2 line-up: the Twin X and Apollo x4 are desktop units, while the x6, x8, x8p, x16 and the new x16D are all 1U rackmounting devices. Like previous generations, all of the Gen 2 models come with external power supplies; the only Apollo that can be bus powered is the Solo, which has not yet been updated. Sadly, you still don’t get a Thunderbolt cable in the box, which would annoy me if I’d just shelled out four figures for a new audio interface!

The integration of UA’s UAD-2 Powered Plug-in platform has always been central to the Apollo range, and that’s still very much the case. All the rackmount Gen 2 Apollos are Hexa models, meaning they feature six processing cores, while the x4 has four and the Twin X is available in Duo and Quad configurations. As before, the DSP can host both conventional audio processors and UA’s Unison plug-ins, which have the ability to reconfigure the input-stage circuitry in the analogue domain, enabling the emulation of a huge selection of mic preamps, guitar amps and other such devices.

With the release of the Gen 2 models, this built-in DSP has gained new powers.

Thanks to a collaboration with Sonarworks, both Gen 1 and Gen 2 Apollo x interfaces can host corrective EQ and calibration for both loudspeakers and headphones. Other improvements include further refinement of the Apollo Xs’ already impressive audio specs, with even more dynamic range on most analogue I/O and a pretty staggering drop in THD, especially on the headphone amps. Bass management is now supported in both Gen 1 and Gen 2 Apollo X interfaces, live plug-in management in Console is made easier through a new Plug-in Scenes feature, and UA have implemented their own take on the auto-gain functionality that’s becoming widespread in studio interfaces with digitally controlled preamps.

In The ’Works Sonarworks integration in the Apollo X requires both a SoundID Reference licence and something called the Apollo Monitor Correction Add-on. The latter is currently free with the Gen 2 models on a time-limited offer, while Gen 1 owners can purchase it for $79. SoundID itself comes in five flavours, from basic headphone-only correction at

one end of the scale to the full Multichannel implementation for immersive monitoring at the other. The stereo and Multichannel versions are available both with and without the calibrated Sonarworks measurement mic, but you can When the Apollo Monitor Correction add-on is installed, SoundID use a generic sports a new button allowing profiles to be transferred to the Apollo. measurement mic if you prefer.

At present, calibration can be pop-up and click Open SoundID. This will applied to the Apollos’ headphone outputs launch Reference in a separate window, and to the main Monitor output, whether this whereupon you can use the Measure is set up for stereo or surround monitoring, utility to create a room profile or scroll but the Alt monitor paths are not yet through banks of headphone profiles. Once supported. Everything is handled from a pair you’ve created or selected a profile and of discreet boxes in the master section of optionally applied a SoundID Target curve, the UAD Console window. Clicking on one you can hit the button that says Apply of these brings up the Monitor Controller Profile To Apollo X. window, where you can apply the new Bass This is all impressively slick and Management feature, launch SoundID, idiot-proof, and absolutely delivers on the and enable or bypass correction for the logistical advantages described above. chosen output, with the relevant EQ traces Having speaker and headphone correction displayed in green. Bass Management baked into the audio interface eliminates designates an Apollo line output as many potential sources of confusion, a discrete LFE channel, with crossover ensuring that absolutely everything you filtering configured in UAD Console and hear is corrected and at the same time implemented in the Apollo’s DSP. And if you ensuring that the correction stays firmly buy and enable Apollo Monitor Correction, in its monitor-path lane. And it can handle your Bass Management settings will be immersive setups up to 9.1.6. DSP load transferred into any SoundID measurement depends on the number of channels, but profile, with corrective EQ applied in the Apollo Monitor Correction never uses more profile to the LFE output where needed, than one full SHARC chip in total. without requiring further complex setup.

Are there any down sides? A few, It should be noted that whether or not but they are fairly inconsequential. For you buy SoundID Reference separately, you me, the Console GUI does not make get a full licence, so you’re free to apply it obvious enough whether SoundID calibration through the Systemwide app or calibration is active, especially on the native plug-in. On paper, though, integration headphone outputs. The Monitor box at into the audio interface solves the main least has a bypass button that appears logistical problems with these approaches: when you hover the mouse over it, but there’s no additional routing or layers of the Headphones one is inscrutable complexity, calibration is applied to all sound until you click on it to open the Monitor output from the computer, not just the DAW, Controller pop-up. (Personally, I like to and there’s no risk of accidentally bouncing toggle headphone correction on and off mixes with corrective EQ baked into them. pretty regularly, so I’d find a bypass button very useful.) And whereas SoundID itself Profile Pictures allows settings to be changed instantly, it takes a couple of seconds to apply Only one SoundID profile can be stored for them to the Headphones and Monitor any given headphone or monitor output slots. If you want to swap to a different (and, as always, in a system with multiple set of headphones, or check translation Apollos, only one main monitor output can using one of SoundID’s target settings, be specified). To load or change a profile, there are extra mouse clicks and a small you need to open the Monitor Controller

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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pause compared with doing this in the standalone or plug-in version. But at least this is possible, which is very much not the case with many hardware calibration setups.

All in all, this is a great implementation, especially when you consider how little you’re paying for something that you’ll use nearly all of the time.

Elastic Bands When running natively on a Mac or PC, SoundID is free to use all the processing resources it needs to perform correction, and a typical SoundID profile will be implemented using hundreds or even thousands of separate EQ bands. In a hardware context, by contrast, there will be a fixed quotient of DSP resources available, which in turn means that the hugely complex SoundID profile is approximated using a limited number of EQ bands. In some devices, this

number can be as low as eight. Apollo Monitor Correction deploys 24 bands for headphones, main speakers and satellites, plus a further five bands for the LFE if used, which makes it one of the most faithful attempts to integrate SoundID into a hardware platform. I certainly couldn’t detect any noticeable differences between the same profile running natively and on the Apollo.

Another potential issue with DSP speaker or room correction is latency.

The software version of SoundID gives the option to apply correction using either linear‑phase or minimum‑phase equalisation. Apollo Monitor Correction uses minimum‑phase equalisation, and this helps to keep latency extremely low: below 2ms at base sample rates and under 1ms at 88.2 or 96 kHz. (That is, of course, assuming that the calibration profile isn’t also applying delays in order to compensate

for speakers being different distances from the listening position.) Being a Thunderbolt audio interface, the Apollo has good low-latency performance, and is designed to encourage users to monitor live inputs through Console rather than their DAW in any case, so in the vast majority of cases it will be possible to leave Apollo Monitor Correction active at all times without latency becoming a problem.

I should point out, incidentally, that Apollo Monitor Correction is a walled garden, in that it’s not possible to use it other than by creating and applying SoundID profiles. There’s no way to use EQ settings created using other tools, even if you’re willing to set them up manually.

Gaining Ground The other big selling point of the Gen 2 Apollo X interfaces, or at least those of them with Unison preamps built in, is

Making Scenes In high-end live sound circles, it’s common to augment the capabilities of a digital console with additional third-party processing boxes. There are well-established digital offerings from the likes of Waves, while the new SEPIA system from Karno aims to integrate analogue outboard using live-friendly connection and control protocols.

Universal Audio’s UAD-2 Powered Plug-ins have long had their own following among live-sound engineers, and back in 2018, the company launched a DSP platform specially for live use.

The UAD-2 Live Rack offered 16 channels of audio I/O over MADI, with a dedicated Live Rack App used for plug-in management.

The Live Rack has now been discontinued, and in its place we have a new member of the Gen 2 Apollo X family. The x16D still offers 16 channels of audio I/O, but these are now delivered over Dante rather than MADI. And whereas the Live Rack had its own plug-in management app, the x16D uses UAD Console running on a Mac or Windows computer, just like the other Apollos. This means it can also be integrated into a studio or broadcast-based Apollo setup. In such a context, you’d typically use UA’s Satellite co-processors if you simply wanted more DSP power, but the x16D also has the same monitor control features you find on the other rack models, including SoundID integration, so could be used for example as a monitor controller for a Dante-based immersive audio rig. It has two Ethernet ports, allowing for redundant network connection, but uses a single external PSU rather than the Live Rack’s dual redundant internal power supplies.

To help adapt UAD Console for live use, UA have integrated one of the major features of Live Rack App: Plug-in Scenes. The point of this is to allow plug-in settings to be recalled en masse across the entire UAD Console mixer, either manually or by sending MIDI messages. Or to put it another way, a Plug-in Scene is a subset of a UAD Console

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Pink bars appear in UAD Console to identify plug-ins that are part of an active Plug-in Scene. preset that deliberately doesn’t store things like plug-in assignments, routings, preamp parameters, fader and pan settings and so on. The assumption is that you won’t be attempting to instantiate or remove UAD plug-ins during a live set, but that you may well want to bypass and re-engage them, load presets, change the song tempo or modify parameters — and moreover that you might want to perform many such changes at once, typically in the gaps between songs.

Up to 128 Plug-in Scenes can be stored within UAD Console, and recalled either from the GUI or using MIDI Program Change or Note On messages. Plug-ins that are part of an active Scene are clearly indicated with a pink bar underneath them. There’s nothing to stop you opening extra plug-ins once a Scene is loaded; these will simply remain unchanged when you

load another Scene. Transitions between Scenes are pleasingly clean and glitch-free.

Although Plug-in Scenes are clearly a live-oriented feature, they do have some potential uses in the studio. In the same way as composers and producers like to work with DAW templates containing multiple virtual instruments, for example, you could set up a UAD Console template with multiple UAD plug-ins loaded in soft bypass, and use Scenes to activate different ones in search of the most appropriate processors for whatever you’re tracking at the moment. Most importantly, if you do both studio and live work, the new system provides an easy way to translate your studio settings into a live context. The flip side of this is that UAD Console has a lot of features that won’t be relevant to pure live-sound users, who might prefer a more streamlined, dedicated app.

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ON TE ST

UNIVERSAL AUDIO APOLLO X GEN 2

In UAD Console, the SoundID profile can be found in the Monitor Controller pop-up.

something called Assistive Auto-Gain. The idea of auto-gain is a simple one: you tell the interface which inputs you’re going to use and instruct the musicians to play their instruments, whereupon the algorithm analyses the incoming signal level and sets the preamp gain appropriately. It’s most often found on entry-level interfaces targeted at people who might not have extensive recording experience, and on models like the new Focusrite 4th Gen Scarletts and Audient’s EVO series, it’s pretty much a one-button function.

The Apollos occupy a slightly different sector of the market, and consequently, UA’s implementation of auto-gain is rather more flexible.

That’s not to say you can’t use it as a one-button function if you want to.

Click the Auto-Gain button on an input channel in Console, and a small pop-up will appear, populated with some sensible default settings. Assuming you’re happy with these, you can just click Start, play your instrument and enjoy an appropriate level coming into your DAW. To perform auto-gain across multiple inputs, you simply click more Auto-Gain buttons, although the pop-up has an annoying way of obscuring

the one you want to get to.

The controls in the Auto-Gain pop-up are mostly self-explanatory, and include the ability to vary the duration of the audition period — useful in cases where you are recording yourself and need time to move from computer to drum kit or piano. A Show More button reveals additional parameters, of which the most significant is Peak Target. By default, this is set to -8dBFS, which seems to me a bit on the high side, given the universal tendency of musicians to be much louder during takes than during soundchecks.

It’s straightforward to reduce this at the point of use, in order to give yourself more headroom, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to set a different value as default.

Part Of The Unison

It’s one thing to implement auto-gain on a conventional digitally controlled preamp that has only one gain control; quite another to do so on UA’s Unison modelling preamps, most of which have multiple parameters affecting signal level. Consequently, it’s not yet available for all of the emulated mic pres, nor any of the Unison guitar amps. At present, the list of Unison plug-ins for which Auto-Gain is supported comprises four Neve emulations, three APIs and the SSL 4000E Channel Strip.

Plug-ins such as the Neve 1073 and API Preamp have, in addition to a main gain control, an optional input pad and an output fader or trim control.

The Apollo X Gen 2 interfaces are available in Essentials+ and Auto-Gain does not itself Studio+ editions, Studio+ giving you more UA plug-ins than adjust the output trim Essentials+. Check out the UA website for a full list of what’s included controls, but does take with each edition. It’s quite a list, even for the Essentials+ Edition. their settings into account, Model Essentials+ Edition Studio+ Edition so if for example you pull Apollo Twin X Duo Gen 2 £1135 £1420 the output fader down Apollo Twin X Quad Gen 2 £1420 £1705 in Neve 1073, Auto-Gain Apollo x4 Gen 2 £1895 £2180 will apply more gain Apollo x6 Gen 2 £2370 £2655 on the way in. Where Apollo x8 Gen 2 £2750 £3035 a preamp has a pad Apollo x8p Gen 2 £3320 £3605 switch, Auto-Gain will Apollo x16 Gen 2 £3790 £4740 automatically engage Prices include VAT. this for very hot signals.

Pricing

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However, there’s a small trap waiting here for the unwary, because if the pad is already engaged when you start the Auto-Gain process, it will remain engaged even when you feed it a very quiet signal, leading to a rather suboptimal gain structure.

I encountered a few other quirks when starting Auto-Gain from an existing extreme setting, so it seems to be good practice to ‘zero’ any Unison preamps before beginning the process. But as long as you remember to do this, it’s very effective.

Moon Shots The Apollo programme has been a hugely successful one for Universal Audio, and it’s hardly surprising that they haven’t made any radical changes to the basic form factor and I/O count of their interfaces — or moved away from the Thunderbolt platform that has served them so well. Even so, I think this refresh over-delivers.

On the specifications front, I suspect that the previous generation was already well past the level where any flaws would be audible over typical studio monitoring systems, but the improvements place the Gen 2 models right at the head of the field, and I can certainly report that they sound great. I used the review system on a recording session with a very powerful drummer, and the built-in headphone amps didn’t quite have enough power to deliver the levels he wanted, but I think the same would have been true of practically every audio interface headphone output. For everything I wanted to hear while tracking or mixing, they performed admirably. And it’s always reassuring to know that if you do hear any distortion, it definitely doesn’t originate with the converters or headphone amps!

The obvious and biggest Gen 2 highlight is the Sonarworks integration, and UA’s implementation is extremely impressive — probably the deepest we’ve yet seen. I’m not aware of any other interfaces that can load SoundID headphone profiles as well as speaker profiles, and the availability of up to 24 bands of EQ per channel means that Apollo Monitor Correction is more faithful to the original SoundID profile than most alternatives. Add that to the handy Assistive Auto-Gain, the class-leading audio performance and the new Plug-in Scenes functionality, and you have a very meaty upgrade. £ See ‘Pricing’ box.

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ON TE ST

Melbourne Polyphonic Instruments Synthesizer Delia

Melbourne continue to push the (motorised) envelope with their latest polysynth.

WILLIAM STOKES

‘T

he Synthesizer Revolution Begins Here’ declared Melbourne instruments upon the release of their maiden instrument, the Nina.

I reviewed that synth almost exactly a year ago, a formidable desktop unit sporting myriad statement features that, generally speaking, did not disappoint. I suppose, by that rubric, we’re more or less a year into that aforementioned revolution; not a bad time to take stock, and what better way to do that than with a successor? Enter Delia.

A six-voice keyboarded synth blending

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digital and analogue with a distinctly less populous panel than its elder, the Delia (named, one assumes, after the great Delia Derbyshire) doesn’t so much take Melbourne Instruments’ grand designs further afield as it does substantiate them.

But that’s by no means to say it doesn’t have more than a few tricks of its own.

The aforementioned ‘revolution’ of course refers to the Nina’s marvellous motorised knobs, which (spoiler alert) are present and correct on the Delia — improved, even. In fairness, and with pun-based marketing aside, the design is a huge breakthrough and should

absolutely be chalked up as such. For the unfamiliar: with the Nina, Melbourne Instruments managed to come up with a way to incorporate brushless motors into their synth design, meaning that the synth’s knobs could be programmed to move by themselves and thus end the plight that is unrepresentative physical values when switching presets. It’s a brilliant way to return a healthy dose of knob-per-function playability to a synth, no matter how deep it goes under the hood, and best of all, it really works.

Motorhead That’s only the beginning, though.

Melbourne are using motors with lightning‑fast responsiveness and incredible torque that can perform a handful of useful little computer-driven tricks. They accurately assume any position on the clock face at the push of a button, for instance, and they can also move at different speeds, very slowly indeed if desired, to handle certain types of automation. I’ll explain that in more detail anon. Most fun to discover of all, they can also take on steps or detents to suit particular functions. It was an ambitious design decision, but in the Nina review I concluded that in the end it paid off. By the looks of things it has positioned both the Nina and its developer on a highly

Nina, but it’s a clear improvement in the tactility of what is still a nascent feature, and I commend that attention to detail.

Twenty-first Century Architecture

respectable stratum of the industry, and in record time.

One immediate stumbling block in all of this, of course, is the price. At £3650, I’m pretty sure the Nina is the most expensive desktop synth I’ve played to date. For perspective, it’s got almost a £1000 on the desktop version of Oberheim’s OB-X8 and £2000 on the powerful UDO Super 6 Desktop. (Best tack on a few pounds for electricity, too: the Nina requires 8A!) I should point out, though, that the Nina’s price is not simply due to its motorised knobs. By any metric it’s a powerful instrument with an array of top-spec functions; for one thing its circuitry is fully discrete, designed in-house. Its 12 voices combine analogue oscillators with wavetable synthesis and Moog-style ladder filtering; it has onboard drive, beyond-stereo imaging for days, effects, and the rest.

Melbourne Instruments, to their credit, went into that situation with both eyes open: “We’ve started at the top” they said at the time, and they weren’t wrong.

Trimming Down So you can see why, on this occasion, for the developer to expand upwards would be unwise. And happily, they haven’t. For starters, the Delia lops a good £1300 or so off the price tag of the Nina, and as you might therefore expect, shortcuts a few things where acceptable. Its panel has 22 knobs in total, 11 fewer than the Nina, and many of these have here become multifunctional.

Even the inclusion of a velocity sensitive,

aftertouch-endowed keyboard seems to have done little to compromise the savings incurred, presumably, by things like including fewer motors.

But this isn’t to say that the Delia looks or feels any less impressive than the Nina, at least on a physical level. Its acrobatic knob-turning startup procedure is just as satisfying, its build quality feels just as weighty. I personally am a big fan of its somewhat retro-futuristic aesthetic, with shining metal side panels and big soft‑key buttons, whose key caps can also be switched out for those of different colours, sold separately. That might in fact come in very useful, since you need not switch out colours wholesale: you could colour-code your buttons in any combination to suit your workflow.

Now, I’ll do my best not to spend this entire piece listing all the ways that the Delia is different to the Nina. It’s a natural temptation, the Delia being a follow‑up to the Nina and all; but its motorised knobs, while a headline function, are really one of only a handful of true commonalities between these two distinct instruments.

Even these have been given an apparent tweak from what I can see — or rather, feel.

Attention seems to have gone into adjusting the motors’ response to knobs reaching their extremities: with the Nina, it would feel like you were in danger of breaking something if you accidentally turned a knob too far into the brushless motor’s field of magnetic resistance. With the Delia, turn a knob beyond its highest setting and it will allow you to continue turning, it’ll just be a little more resistant. In many cases, for instance with the filters, it will jump all the way around and back to zero. Not that this was a deal‑breaker in the case of the

A major distinguishing factor from the outset is Delia’s digital front‑end, with two DCOs per voice. These were undoubtedly another money-saver but sonically, denote little compromise. At the most basic level, the oscillators do a good job of emulating their analogue counterparts (in this respect the Delia’s onboard digital oscilloscope is something of a flex, if nothing else), interpolating triangle, saw, square and pulse waves across the travel distance of the Shape knob.

Beyond this, the Delia leans further into the digital side of things. Oscillator 3, as with the Nina, is allocated to wavetable synthesis, a job it does very well indeed and at high resolution to boot. Each wavetable can constitute up to 256 waveforms of 2048 samples, and atop a host of factory wavetables to choose from it’s possible to load up to 127 custom wavetables in WAV format. It’s also possible to switch the interpolation of waveforms on or off for smoother or coarser motion, and through all of this the Delia’s screen provides a useful graphical readout of the wavetable motion (as well as a preview when scrolling through wavetables).

Oscillator 4 offers a choice of colour-editable noise, external signal processing via the Ext L and R inputs and XOR; a widely accepted substitute for analogue ring modulation, often named the latter but here unashamedly labelled exactly what it is, which is in short a way to ring

Melbourne Instruments Delia £2229 pros • Motorised knobs, and improved ones at that.

• Phenomenal flexibility and depth.

• Excellent design, with attention to detail and user workflow.

cons • I found myself wishing the HPF was analogue.

• Some functions contribute little to the workflow.

summary In the wake of the Nina, Melbourne Instruments have made all the right moves with the Delia. A streamlined, user‑friendly, brilliant-sounding polysynth.

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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MELBOURNE INSTRUMENTS DELIA

modulate the pulse outputs of oscillators 1 and 2 by sending them through a modelled XOR gate — that is, a gate which goes high only when the pulse outputs of oscillators 1 and 2 differ. Once again, no complaints here: it sounds great, and fans of the Korg MS20’s XOR circuit will recognise its distinctively fuzzy texture.

A Loop feature purportedly creates a simple feedback loop by routing the total analog output of the synth back into start of the voice, but I have to say I struggled to discern its role amid the other oscillators I had in the mix. Perhaps my expectations were heightened by my love for the wild feedback function found on many Sequential synths.

Perhaps Sequential were on my mind because Delia’s Vintage Level control for modelling analogue unreliability appears to take its cue from the Dave Smith-championed Vintage knob. I digress.

Add to all of this a sub‑oscillator and hard sync (a function I’ve always felt truly comes alive in the context of polyphony), and it amounts to one very powerful sound-sculpting engine.

The layout of the oscillator section is nicely thought out, with buttons on hand to switch between oscillators and knobs therefore doubling up to handle, for instance, both wave shape and wavetable position. Similar to the Nina, the Tune knobs can be fine, with smooth motion, or magically become stepped to switch octaves with a hit of the Course button. Wonderful. The oscillator section is something of a microcosm of the Delia’s design: how, in a litany of instances, it does a fantastic job of saving space with multifunctional controls, but with no compromise whatsoever when it comes to workflow or functionality.

a digital high-pass filter, before being fed into an analogue overdrive circuit and then into an analogue low-pass filter.

If there’s one component of the Delia that feels a touch compromised by its digital-ness, it’s the high-pass filter, which just feels ever so slightly lifeless to my ear.

It’s a comparison the Delia really brings upon itself by having such a nice‑sounding low-pass filter, which I suppose is a good problem to have. That’s by no means to say I wasn’t happy to see the high-pass filter, though, and it’s certainly useful. I’m reminded once again of the Korg MS20, a synth I’m beginning to suspect was somewhere in the vicinity during the

‘bus’ as it moves through the high-pass filter and hits the low-pass filter. Not hugely useful to someone like me, who would be more likely to manage the oscillator levels at source, but I can see how it might provide another useful layer of gain‑staging alongside tone shaping for those who like to really get into the nitty-gritty.

Polyphony, Doubled As mentioned, the Delia is a six-voice synth, with six discrete filters and VCAs. That’s half the voice count of the Nina, but I find in practice that six voices generally have me covered for most two-handed playing; at least, they do for a 49-key keyboard. But that doesn’t stop it from adding one or two other interesting applications of this architecture.

The 12 Note Mode is a function that effectively doubles the number of voices, and in the process mitigates note-stealing.

Of course, the Delia only has six filters, so these are shared across those 12 notes. Each voice’s two oscillators, wavetable and fourth oscillator, along with sync, sub and applied modulation, are doubled and then sent in pairs to the six filters. I recently reviewed the PWM Mantis, which has a similar ‘quasi-polyphonic-paraphonic’ feature, only scaled down in that it can send four voices through its two analogue filters. Here, as with the Mantis, if you want to get the most from this function it’s really just a case of not using the filters too much. If your filter envelope is all but disengaged, it’ll more or less feel like playing a full 12-voice synth.

As for how notes are paired, with Delia there are various options to pair notes based on proximity on the keyboard or how closely in time they’re played.

Further to this, each of the Delia’s presets in fact consists of two layers, which can either be stacked multitimbral-style, or split across the keyboard. Then, on the other ‘axis’, there’s Morph, a feature I sang the praises of when using it on the Nina and one I’m glad to see included here. This allows each preset to have

“The Delia performs excellently as a simple, robust and flexible six-voice synth, and if that’s the extent of your need then don’t be ashamed of that fact.”

Filter Fun Things become distinctly more hybrid in the Delia’s filter section, which presents some rather interesting voice architecture.

The mix of Delia’s four oscillators flows into

Delia’s R&D phase, whose sound-sculpting capabilities are expanded enormously by the (oft-eschewed, for some reason) presence of dedicated knobs for both high- and low-pass resonant filters. These of course gave way to the well-known ‘rubber band-pass’ filter, consisting of a literal elastic band stretched round both filter knobs so they could be linked. The Delia, as it would happen, has a button for this, and as you might expect makes good use of its motors to have one filter knob self-turn as you adjust the other, depending on the relative values of the two.

The analogue low-pass ladder filter offers switchable 12 or 24 dB/octave slopes, something the Nina’s 4-pole ladder filter does not, and I must say steps in at a good moment to provide some punishable analogue warmth and grit. Punishable, that is, by the Drive knob, although fair to say it’s more of a scalding than outright sonic damnation. The Nina’s Drive knob is in fact more or less at unity at 12 o’clock, so values lower than this render it more like an attenuator for managing the oscillator

Round the back we find quarter-inch jack sockets for audio in and out, and expression and sustain pedals; full‑size MIDI in, out and thru ports; a USB‑C port and two USB‑A ports; and an input for the external power supply.

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ON TE ST

MELBOURNE INSTRUMENTS DELIA

The Delia measures 810 x 320 x 140mm and weighs a hefty 8.7kg. Lift with your knees, people!

two ‘poles’, so to speak, labelled A and B. Set parameters across the board with the Morph knob at A, then press the Morph button to enter B and set them entirely differently. Then, using the Morph knob, it’s possible to ‘fade’ between these two extremes and find new sounds in the space between them. Some parameters prove exceptions to this rule, for instance overdrive or effects settings won’t morph with everything else, but such limitations feel offset by the fact that even morphing has various modes to suit different workflows; including DJ Mode, where you can morph between sounds but with no accompanying knob movement, or Dance Mode (that’s right), where knobs will all move physically to represent their position in the morph, and the morphed sound can be edited as you go. You can also quickly assign any transient morph setting to the A or B slots on the fly, meaning that those two poles can also constantly evolve as you go. If by now it wasn’t obvious, a rather astonishing amount of attention to detail has clearly gone into the Delia, whose bi-timbrality and morph combine to mean that any of its legion presets can in fact operate freely between more like four distinct sounds.

Marvellous Modulation Further to my satisfaction upon seeing a dedicated high-pass filter, I was very pleased to see an auxiliary envelope alongside the VCF and VCA ones; another function often overlooked in hardware synths, where envelopes can be just as useful and creative for controlling an array of parameters as they

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are for filters and VCAs. In this instance, the aux envelope also has a Slow mode, which slows its response down by a factor of 10 for much more gradual time-based evolutions. A favourite auxiliary envelope application of mine is to have the depth and rate of an LFO — perhaps patched to control pitch — increase over the course of a note for truly lyrical moments of expression. This the Delia did with no problem.

On the subject of modulation, this is an area in which the Delia, like its elder sister, excels. The workflow is excellent: simply hit the Mod button and all parameters will snap to 12 o’clock. From here you simply select a modulator from the row of buttons below and turn any knob in either direction to modulate that parameter positively or negatively. Hit the Mod button again and things will snap back to their base values. The Delia in fact expands upon the Nina’s modulation capabilities by adding a third LFO into the mix, which is a welcome addition.

Happily, it’s now possible to set Morph as a modulation destination. This function wasn’t available with the Nina at first, though I’m aware subsequent firmware updates have made it possible. In any case, it’s part of the Delia’s furniture and that can only be a good thing.

Beyond the features I’ve listed are the Delia’s many additional features, available via its lower‑most row of buttons, which I could go on listing but suffice to say they tie off what is a very well thought‑out instrument indeed. Its onboard arpeggiator and step sequencer are simple but both perform well and

are accessible in a button push. Its two digital effects processors are flexible (both in themselves and in their ordering) and of substantial quality, with multi‑mode chorus, delay and reverb. Its screen menu system does very well to offer additional layers of options without requiring too much menu-diving, and the choice to have an X/Y goniometer display or the oscilloscope hovering in the background of most (if not all) screens is both aesthetically pleasing and very useful.

Conclusion Bi-timbrality, Morph, 12 Note Mode: these features aren’t mandatory. The Delia performs excellently as a simple, robust and flexible six-voice synth, and if that’s the extent of your need then don’t be ashamed of that fact. More, such functions are ready and waiting if needed; they make brilliant and generous use of what is really a fairly economical design when compared the Nina. Where that synth threw it all at the wall, the Delia feels choice, more restrained and more streamlined. Not better, necessarily, but different.

Where the Delia does certainly pip its elder, I will say, is in its price. The Nina felt hugely powerful and therefore very expensive; the Delia announces itself as efficient, replete with features and good value for money. Far be it from wanting Melbourne Instruments to get more ambitious — I’m looking forward to the next synth being even smaller. £ £2229 including VAT. W www.signalsounds.com W www.melbourneinstruments.com

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ON TE ST

Heritage Audio Tubesessor Valve Optical Compressor

Based on a famous Danish design, Heritage’s versatile homage includes some useful additional features NEIL ROGERS

M

adrid-based Heritage Audio have been busily expanding their product range in recent years, and having reviewed a few of their outboard devices for SOS I’ve been impressed enough to make my studio the permanent home to some of their EQs. For review here is Heritage Audio’s Tubesessor, an analogue compressor that doffs its cap to the legendary Tube-Tech CL‑1B optical tube

Heritage Audio Tubesessor £1638 pros • The variable controls work very nicely in use.

• Can be both clean and colourful as needed.

• Excellent for vocals and bass.

• Excellent on drums.

• Stylish and substantial looking!

• Half the price of its inspiration.

cons • Care is needed when looking for cleaner vocal compression when tracking.

summary A substantial and full-featured optical/ valve compressor that sounds great as the ‘main course’ for vocal processing and all-round studio duties. The extra features helpfully augment this already versatile studio tool.

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compressor. The CL‑1B is still technically in production but there’s a very long waiting list, and it was almost inevitable that other companies would look to cater for the demand. More than one company seems to have had the idea around the same time, so the Tubesessor is jostling for attention alongside a few other options for those looking for that CL‑1B sound.

Overview The Tubesessor is a stylish, substantial-looking device that fills 3U of rack space and sports chunky dials and a vintage-looking VU meter on the front. While you can tell from the aesthetics what its inspiration was, I was pleased to see that Heritage haven’t tried to mimic every aspect of the Tubesessor’s muse. Also commendable is that, while Heritage do intend this device to deliver the characteristics that made the CL‑1B so appealing, they’ve taken the opportunity to add a few extra features that might help their version stand out from the crowd.

One of the desirable traits of this style of compressor, compared to some other vintage ‘tube opto’ designs such as the LA-2A, is that it gives the user greater scope to fine-tune their compression settings and, in keeping with its inspiration, the Tubesessor features fully variable ratio, threshold, attack and release controls. Expanding further on the theme

of controllability, Heritage have included a Tube Saturation control and five different side-chain filter options. The latter allow you to focus the compression towards or away from certain parts of the frequency spectrum. The options on offer here are high-pass filters (80Hz, 160Hz or 5kHz) and peak boosts (1 or 3 kHz).

On the rear, you’ll find the expected balanced audio I/O on XLRs, as well as a quarter-inch jack link socket that allows two units to works in stereo. Two dual‑triode valves protrude through the rear panel, one a CK5755 and the other a 12BH7A — these are exposed to allow for both cooling and ease of swapping out. There are also chunky input and output transformers, including an AMI UT10, and at the other end of the device, a larger power transformer. As with all their valve-based designs, Heritage are keen to point out that they have secured large quantities of key NOS (‘new old stock’) components so that customers can feel reassured their unit is suitably future-proof.

Into Action The Tubesessor arrived at my studio when I was deep in a mixing project that involved me breaking things out of the box to use certain hardware pieces. Needing little invitation to go down a rabbit hole with a new piece of gear, I immediately patched in the Tubesessor and experimented with it on the lead vocal and bass guitar parts — two key elements in a mix that I still often enjoy using hardware on.

Cutting to the chase, the Tubesessor really is an excellent compressor for bass guitar. Using a higher ratio it felt ridiculously easy to dial in a vintage-sounding direct bass sound, and I found myself liking a fast attack and release with a generous amount (around 6-10 dB) of gain reduction.

For the bass parts, I also enjoyed playing with the low-pass options in the side-chain filter section as well as the Tube Saturation facility, which proved as valuable an option for a touch of gentle tone‑shaping as for more obvious saturation effects. Having started with the relative safety of mixing, I soon felt at ease putting the Tubesessor to use compressing bass guitars while tracking, and as it proved such a forgiving and reliable option I used it in that context on several sessions. A device you can pretty much ‘set and forget’ like this can be a real asset in a busy session.

The original CL‑1B is arguably best known as a vocal compressor for rap and R&B vocals. These aren’t genres I typically work on, but when I played around with this style of compression on vocals it was easy to understand why it has garnered such a strong reputation. It can add all the colour, sheen and character of simpler vintage designs but, as I mentioned earlier, the variable nature of the main controls means you have the flexibility to dial in transparent dynamic control much more easily. While the gain reduction can seem transparent, though, there’s definitely a more obvious analogue ‘vibe’ to be found if you want that, and on vocal tracking sessions I was sometimes surprised at just how ‘colourful’ the review unit was — the saturation seemed to kick in quite quickly when using anything other than moderate settings.

Sometimes, therefore, I found myself having to be careful to not overdo it when tracking, but in the more controlled environment

of a mix session, I was able to get much more stuck in, discovering different styles of compression and colour with this device: fast and transparent or slow and ‘gooey’, it all seemed to be there once I’d become accustomed to the controls.

Transient Delight I’ve reviewed plenty of nice compressors for SOS in recent years, and have learnt not to typecast tools as being good for specific things — whatever their reputation, I always try them out on a range of material to see what they can do. Yet, in this case, I was still surprised at just how much I liked using the Tubessesor on drums.

It worked superbly on one session in particular, in which I used it aggressively on a mono drum overhead channel.

Encouraged by an excellent drummer who was in control of their own dynamics, I was able to get heavy-handed with some ‘smacky’ sounding compression, and we liked the result so much that this channel ended up being a central part of the drum sound for that project. It also performed admirably on close kick and snare mics on different tracking sessions, and when used moderately it worked very well indeed for combining dynamic control with a little tube coloration. In short, this seems to be a compressor that can make a positive contribution to pretty much any aspect of live drum recording and mixing, and it would no doubt work just as well for shaping and adding vibe to programmed drums.

Depending on how hard you hit the input stage, the Tube Saturation section can be quite subtle on sources with plenty of sustain in the sound, like guitar and vocals, but on more transient-dominated or bass-heavy sources things get a bit more interesting. It’s hard to put this sort

of character into words but whether it was the subtle tube saturation or more obvious distortion, it always sounded tasteful to my ears. It’s worth noting that while the side-chain filter is there to fine-tune the response of the compressor to different frequencies, the balance that results from the compression also has an impact on the results from the saturation stage, so there’s some indirect interplay between these controls. I found that the last three side-chain filter settings often worked well when I was dialling in more character.

Final Thoughts For the most part, I’ve considered the Tubesessor as a studio tool in its own right, rather than attempt a direct comparison with its inspiration. I have fairly limited experience with the Danish original in its hardware form, but I recall it as being a touch cleaner and more transparent-sounding than the Tubesessor.

This isn’t a criticism because, for mixing in particular, I really did tend to find the coloration was desirable. The most impressive aspect by far for me, though, was just how versatile this compressor is — it performed a number of different roles in my studio without breaking a sweat.

There’s plenty of competition in this price range for an all-around studio compressor but, at around half the price of an original CL‑1B and with some excellent extra features, I’d suggest that the Tubesessor would be a strong contender if you’re looking for a hardware compressor in this style, and well worth putting on your list of gear to audition. £ £1638 including VAT. T Heritage Audio +34 917 266 189 E support@heritageaudio.com W www.heritageaudio.com

On the rear, along with the analogue audio I/O, you’ll find two valves and the input, output and power transformers.

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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Iconic recreates a collection of instantly recognisable classic synth sounds but places them in a modern UI that gives the user plenty of ways to make the underlying sounds their own.

JOHN WALDEN

S

ongs reach ‘hit’ status for all sorts of reasons, but one ingredient that is more common than most is the presence of a hook. Heck, if you are really good at this stuff, your song will contain multiple hooks. These ear-worm elements are often supplied via a vocal/ lyric line, but instrumental hooks — a drum groove, bass line or guitar riff, for example — can be just as effective.

However, if you listen to music from the ’80s, the hooks were just as likely to be supplied by a synth; hear just a snippet of the synth hook, and you instantly know what the song is. In short, many of the iconic hits from that period feature equally iconic synth-based hooks.

While every student of contemporary music will undoubtedly appreciate this concept, EastWest have had the very neat idea of turning that concept into a virtual instrument. Designed for their Opus platform, and available as either a one-off purchase or as part of EW’s ComposerCloud+ subscription service, Iconic attempts to deliver the sounds found in some of the most classic synth

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EastWest Iconic Sample Library

EastWest take all the famous synth sounds from the hits of the ’80s and put them in one virtual instrument. hooks ever recorded, while also giving the user sound‑design tools to make them their own for a modern production context. So, are the sounds of Iconic deserving if its title? Let’s find out...

Make It Iconic EastWest’s team is, of course, hugely experienced when it comes to creating top-tier virtual instruments. However, they did draft some rather special additional expertise into the Iconic project. This included musician and synth programmer Anthony Marinelli. If you ever wondered who created all those classic (yes, iconic) synth sounds on Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, now you know. Anthony’s list of credits includes work with Lionel Ritchie, Supertramp, Van Halen, Giorgio

Moroder, Quincy Jones and a whole host of others. If you want to recreate iconic synth sounds from the history of hits, bringing on board someone who actually created the originals seems like a pretty smart move, especially as he also brought his collection of classic synths along with him. Keyboard legend Greg Phillinganes — who played on the Thriller sessions and has credits with Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Toto, Lionel Ritchie, John Mayer, Donna Summer and Bruno Mars — was also involved in ensuring the authenticity of the sounds being created.

Iconic uses EastWest’s impressive Opus playback engine and, as with other Opus-based instruments, Iconic is delivered with its own custom (and very

stylish) front-end. This includes some excellent sound‑design options featuring dual filters, amplitude and modulation envelopes, an LFO, arpeggiator, ring modulation and a range of creative effects options. Many of these are, of course, elements you would find within a synth engine but, as a synth, Iconic is a hybrid design as the role of the oscillators — and the base element of each of Iconic’s core sounds — is taken from detailed sample-based sounds designed using a range of classic hardware synths. It’s a tried and tested approach (for example, IK Multimedia’s Syntronik adopts a similar strategy) and capable of providing all the depth of the original sounds but perhaps without all the CPU demands that a physical model of the original oscillators might entail.

In designing the sounds to be sampled, Anthony Marinelli had an impressive array of synth hardware at his disposal. These included the ARP 2600, the Synclavier II, a Jupiter-8, a Phrophet-5, a CS-80, a Minimoog Model D, an Oberheim OB-X and a Fender Rhodes. The instruments were sampled directly but also using a re-amping process and recorded back to analogue tape. This was pushed hard to provide tape saturation and harmonic distortion. Rather wonderfully, you can blend between the cleaner and saturated versions of every sound via the mod wheel, adding an interesting way of changing the character of a sound.

The core sample base runs to nearly 140GB and, from this collection of sounds, the design team have then generated over 500 presets inspired by some of the most recognisable synth hooks in the history of pop and rock. The presets have been organized into three main categories — Classic, Classic Elements and Beyond Iconic — with sub-categories in each case for arps, basses, pads, leads, keys, poly and effects.

found. Many of the original sounds were actually designed by layering multiple synths and that’s reflected here, as many of these presets use multiple layers within Opus. If you want to access individual layers created with a specific synth, then these can be found in the Classic Elements preset category.

I’m not trying to dodge my responsibility as a reviewer here but, if Iconic is on your radar, then I do recommend you watch EastWest’s own walkthrough video about the product.

The background material on how the project was put together is interesting in its own right, but the star of the show is the demonstration of some of these Classic presets. If you need convincing as to just how accurate these recreations are, the video contains plenty of evidence.

For what it’s worth, I’ll happily share my own opinion; wherever you look within this preset category, if you know anything about pop and rock music from the ’80s and ’90s, there are sounds you are going to instantly recognise.

Indeed, browsing these presets was an absolute joy and induced many a smile. EastWest have supplied names for the presets that provide very obvious clues to each sound’s original inspiration.

For example, there are no prizes for guessing where you might have heard Billie Stack 1, Thrilling Lead 1, In The

“As virtual recreations of classic hardware synth sounds go, this is truly impressive.”

EastWest Iconic $199 pros • Incredibly accurate recreations of some truly iconic synth sounds.

• Plenty of scope for DIY sound design.

• Also great for modern styles such as EDM, hip-hop or pop.

• Just another reason why ComposerCloud+ is a seriously good deal.

cons • May not suit some hardcore synth programmers.

• Price of entry, if you are not a fan of subscriptions.

summary EastWest’s Iconic sounds fabulous and delivers on its name with a collection of incredibly accurate recreations of some of the most famous synth sounds of the last 40+ years. It is, however, also a very capable instrument for use in almost any modern music production context.

Groove Lead, Colder Than Ice Lead 1, Take On You Lead, The Final Touchdown Pad 1, Love Is A Battle, Don’t You Want Me Pad 1, The Air Tonight, Living Prayer Poly, Jumping OBX Chords, We Built A City Poly or Sweeter Dreams. There are lots of other examples and, while it’s not a limitless list of presets, pretty much every sonic target here is well worthy of the ‘iconic’ tag and hits the sound right on the head.

Sensibly, if you want a starting point that is based on a specific synth, the Classic Elements preset category has you

Name That Tune The Classic preset category is where all those instantly recognisable sounds are to be

Browsing Iconic’s Classic preset categories makes for an excellent session of ‘name that tune’ in your studio.

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Opus provides plenty of ways to customise your own sound‑design efforts within Iconic, including MIDI note mapping for each of your sound layers.

covered. These are also helpfully named so you can easily find your way around.

Accuracy of the recreated sounds aside, what’s worth noting about both of these main preset categories is the actual quality of the sounds. They add a very convincing sense of the real thing, with all the richness and detail of the original synth hardware. Iconic or otherwise, these are just great virtual synth sounds to work with.

One Step Beyond That last point is emphasised by the contents of the Beyond Iconic presets category. These presets — of which there are plenty — ably demonstrate how easily the underlying sample-based sounds can be customised within the Iconic engine to bring them right up to date for modern styles of pop, EDM and hip-hop. Clearly,

EastWest are keen to emphasise that Iconic is not just about classic sounds; in a contemporary music production context, it’s also a capable tool for the creation of some potentially iconic synth hooks of your own.

There has obviously been a lot of effort put into these presets and there are some great sounds to be found across all the sub-categories. Some are built on single patches, while others layer multiple patches into a composite sound. However, I particularly enjoyed the arp and bass categories. What’s particularly impressive is how the essence of the hardware synth sources comes across in a really satisfying fashion. If, like me, you have neither the budget nor the physical space to fill your studio with some of these actual synths, Iconic is a heck of a way to get a genuine representation of their sounds into your own production process.

Iconic Sound Design

As well as LFO- and envelope‑based modulation, there is also a step-based modulator.

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As mentioned earlier, Iconic can be thought of as something of a hybrid virtual instrument, combining sample-based sound sources with synth engine elements. While the UI doesn’t let you put your sound programming skills up against those of Anthony Marinelli by getting hands-on with the actual control sets of the original hardware (even if only in a virtual format), the instrument’s front-end does provide plenty of sound‑design opportunities if you want to roll your own.

The UI provides a range of conventional effects options including Auto-Pan, Ring Modulation, Drive, Chorus, Phaser, Delay and Reverb. Each of these

effects modules can be toggled on/off individually and offer enough controls to let you customise your sound in all the usual creative fashions. There are also more ‘synth-like’ elements provided. For example, top-left are options to engage portamento, legato and polyphonic options, pitch transpose and to adjust the MIDI velocity response. Top-right you can configure full amp and mod ADSR envelopes, while just below these you get the option to choose between LFO or step-based modulation settings.

Bottom-centre of the UI is home to independent low-pass and high-pass resonant filters. Each of these offers a choice of filter types and each also includes controls to configure how the filter cutoff is modulated via MIDI velocity, the mod Envelope or the LFO/step modulator (or some combination of all three). Similar controls appear in a number of the effects modules, providing further sound modulation options.

The centre of the UI contains an X/Y pad with a choice between four more creative-style sound modulation options.

Each of these essentially provides X/Y control over a pair of parameters from elsewhere in the UI. For example, Stutter controls the LP filter’s cutoff (Y axis) and LFO rate (X axis), letting you generate some very cool filter gating or filter sweeps. Dream provides a combination of modulation of the Auto-Pan/Stereo Double and Reverb effects for some interesting spatial modulation. Space combines Chorus and Delay modulation while, finally, Grit modulates the Phaser and Drive effects. The Automation page provides further possibilities for

modulation, and right-clicking on any parameter within the UI pops open a MIDI Learn menu so you can easily link Iconic’s controls to a suitable MIDI hardware controller.

As demonstrated by many of the presets, the instrument provides plenty of possibilities for stacking sound layers and, of course, each layer gets its own instance of all these sound modulating possibilities. If you want to make your own ‘iconic’ presets, you will not be short of creative sound‑design options.

Classic Sound Meets Modern Design OK, so Iconic might not be for everyone.

For example, some will prefer dedicated emulations of the individual synths represented here. I can see that argument if you are a hardcore synth programmer.

If that’s your preference, then there are suitable software emulations of each of the individual synths used for Iconic that are available from a number of different developers. Equally, as a one-off purchase, Iconic represents a sizeable

investment, although its inclusion within EastWest’s ComposerCloud+ is yet another reason why that represents exceptional value for money if you are comfortable with a subscription model for your virtual instrument sounds.

However, if you do crave the sounds of these classic synths, but are less concerned about the ‘virtual reality’ of the control surface, Iconic could be an ideal choice. It’s difficult to imagine anyone finding much to fault with the sound of Iconic. As virtual recreations of classic hardware synth sounds go, this is truly impressive and, to demonstrate that, you get a collection of incredibly accurate recreations of some of the most iconic synth sounds from the last 40+ years, faithfully reproduced by a team that includes some of their original creators.

And, almost as a cherry on top, the instrument provides an underlying sound set, and a sound‑design engine, to let you bring those impressive sounds right up to date for your own productions.

EastWest’s Iconic is aptly named given the collection of instantly

For further modulation options, pretty much every control within Iconic’s UI has a MIDI Learn capability.

recognisable synth sounds its presets include. For some, that may be justification enough to take the plunge.

However, there is more on offer than just some synth sound nostalgia.

Whether it’s retro or modern, Iconic provides an excellent collection of top-quality synth sounds in a very accessible format. Top-notch stuff and a lot of fun to use. £ $199 including VAT, or with

ComposerCloud+ subscription.

W www.soundsonline.com

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Eight channel Gain Control for Audio or CV

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Project SAM Lineage Percussion Sample Library

A striking new sample collection brings SAM’s orchestral percussion bang up to date.

DAV E ST E WA RT

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talwarts of the cinematic sampling scene since 2001, Project SAM enjoy a well-deserved reputation among orchestral sample users. The Utrecht company’s enduring popularity stems from its brass and big band libraries, the long-running Symphobia series and two powerful True Strike percussion collections released in 2003 and 2006 respectively, both of which were successfully moved to the Kontakt platform in 2021.

While True Strike 1’s musical content is still highly rated, its creators felt it was time to move on. Company co-founder Vincent Beijer explains: “We wanted to redo True Strike for a long time. True Strike 1 was recorded after our SAM Horns, Trombones, Trumpets and Solo Sessions back in 2003. After our endeavours recording orchestras and big bands in the Symphobia and Swing! Series, we felt like going back to orchestral percussion and applying our knowledge and experience to

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a new take on True Strike. Lineage Percussion marks the start of a new era of instruments from Project SAM.” SAM’s new baby was recorded at the Broadcasting Music Centre, Hilversum, the same concert hall used to record the Symphobia libraries. Though adopting a broadly similar approach to True Strike 1, Lineage Percussion (henceforth LP for short) is a much larger, all-new library with an expanded instrumentation consisting of 70 individual instruments, 10 sets (combinations of instruments from the same family) and 14 kits that combine a variety of instruments. Also included are two kit builders you can use to build your own instrument ensembles.

Rather than clogging up users’ hard drives with dozens of listening perspectives, the samples were captured from conventional close, stage and far microphone positions with an additional stereo mix created by the production team. When selected, this ‘premixed’ channel temporarily deactivates the other mikings, enabling you to conserve RAM — a sensible compromise would be to use

the premixed audio while programming, then switch to the three live mic positions to fine-tune your final mix.

The library is available in two versions: Lineage Percussion Pro (51GB installed) contains 70 instruments, while the 8.3GB Lineage Percussion Core offers 45 essential instruments, fewer articulations and a single premixed mic position. It also omits the kit builders, but it costs a lot less and the sound quality is identical!

Both versions run exclusively on Kontakt and Kontakt Player version 6.6 and up.

Presentation It’s funny (and mildly horrifying) to recall that the original version of True Strike 1 ran on Nemesys Gigastudio, a ghastly piece of software which nevertheless heralded a new age of unlimited sample disk streaming. Today’s sample players offer facilities undreamt of in the Giga era, and SAM have taken full advantage with LP’s newly designed Kontakt engine.

Owners of the Pro version can set up mixes on the XY Stage grid, a 360-degree virtual performance space which allows

you to alter the instruments’ panning and miking perspective: move an instrument horizontally to pan it left or right, or vertically to make it sound closer or more distant. The Kit Builder patch accommodates up to 15 instruments, each with its own mix settings. The premixed mic position is used by default, but if you prefer you can select the ‘Custom Mix’ tab and adjust the close, stage and far microphone balance. You can also use the built-in convolution reverb to add an epic, cathedral-like ambience to the global instrument mix.

First introduced in Symphobia 4: Pandora (reviewed in SOS in June 2020), SAM’s Adaptive Sync feature intelligently time-stretches crescendo rolls and swells so that their climax occurs on an upcoming hit point (surprisingly difficult to do manually). It has four sync modes: Sync to Downbeat calculates the amount of time left until the next bar, Sync to Beats stretches the crescendo over a specific number of beats, while Sync to Seconds sets the crescendo length in milliseconds and is not tempo-dependent.

Sync Off bypasses the time-stretching and lets you choose one of the five original recorded crescendo lengths.

Last but not least in this parade of technological wonders is the Note Stacker, a thoroughly entertaining pitched-instrument tool which allows you to play custom chords with a single key press. You stack up notes by clicking on intervals above the root note of C in an on-screen display, thus creating a chord which can be played with one finger at any pitch you desire. I found playing the chorus melody of Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ on parallel atonal chords to be a gratifying musical experience, but SOS readers will no doubt dream up saner uses.

Running the gamut from walloping fortissimo hits to ominous quiet strokes, LP’s timpani epitomise epic orchestral drama. Their dramatic crescendo rolls work like a dream with the Adaptive Sync feature, while their distinctly non-classical effects comprise scary low groans, comedy pitch‑bends and spooktacular metallic noises made by (I think) playing an upside-down cymbal laid on the timpani skin. The set of four Adams timps were played in a choice of hard and soft mallets and collectively span two octaves.

Turning to the melodic instruments, the marimba is a star turn. Played with medium mallets and chromatically sampled over a F2‑C7 range, its straight hits and mod‑wheel-controlled rolls sound great from all three mic positions, and its sweetly incisive attack and rich, resonant sustain are a delight. Joining the marimba in my favourites folder is the xylophone, whose timbre ranges from delicately melodious to bright and piercing without ever sounding brittle.

The celeste is similarly ear-catching — I found it helpful to shorten its release trails and turn up the close mic, which helps to bring out this ethereal, sparkling keyboard’s bell-like attack.

For further heavenly high-pitched chimes I can recommend LP’s excellent glockenspiel (which contributes some lovely silvery glissandos) and two sets of crotales, tuned mini-cymbals which offer an unearthly, practically supersonic bowed variant. On a more ritualistic note, the resonant peal of tubular bells adds a touch of solemn ceremony or joyful celebration, depending on the occasion.

Project SAM Lineage Percussion €399 pros • A highly dynamic, musically detailed orchestral percussion collection containing some stellar instruments.

• Features 70 instruments performing hits, flams, tremolos and rolls in a splendid concert hall acoustic.

• You can position individual instruments anywhere on a virtual soundstage.

• The Adaptive Sync feature sorts out the timing of crescendos and swells.

cons • Though covering a wide range of classic and contemporary orchestral percussion, it lacks the large ethnic drums now commonly heard in cinematic productions.

summary Following in the footsteps of Project SAM’s True Strike, Lineage Percussion is an all-new orchestral percussion library containing 70 instruments recorded from multiple mic positions in a famous concert hall. Featuring deep dynamics, kit-building facilities and customisable stage positioning, the library offers a wealth of creative options while remaining easy to use for beginners. A Core version with fewer instruments and articulations and a single premixed mic position is also available at a reduced price.

LP’s three-octave Musser vibraphone is another great instrument. SAM did a good job simulating its characteristic wafting vibrato effect, but as in True Strike 1, you have to choose between short

Tuned Percussion All instruments in LP were performed

by Eddy Koopman, percussionist of the brilliant Metropole Orchestra. Bowing to Mr Koopman’s experience, SAM’s recording team closely followed his advice on how many dynamic layers to incorporate in the instruments: the snares have 10, the timpani seven and the marimba’s straight hits use six. The same instruments have respectively 10, six and eight round robin variations. This depth of sampling gives the library a vastly more dynamic and organic sonic character than its True Strike predecessor.

Lineage Percussion’s Performance view shows the instrument’s microphone mix, articulation/mallet switches, sample mapping keyboard, amplitude envelope and effects controls.

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The Mapping view shows the mapping table, keyswitch positions and round robin controls.

damped notes and a ‘let ring’ mode where all samples ring on after key‑off, making regular pianistic playing impossible. While this mirrors the instrument’s real-life behaviour, I’m sure keyboardists would welcome the option of a standard, playable long-note vibraphone patch, as found on every keyboard workstation under the sun.

identical artic menu of straight hits, flams, rim clicks, open and closed rolls, crescendo rolls, side hits and stick

Two classic 32-inch ‘gran cassa’ bass drums deliver hefty resonant thumps, dampened hits, tension-building mod‑wheel-controlled tremolos and great rumbling crescendo rolls. Gran Cassa 1 is the more grandiose-sounding and powerful of the pair, while its partner offers a choice of hard and wooden mallets. There are no taikos, surdos or djembes in this library, but a set of four Tama toms in 10‑, 12‑, 14‑ and 16‑inch sizes sound suitably thunderous when you play them loud.

Played with sticks and soft mallets, the toms were sampled at seven dynamics.

When the banging and crashing dies away you might fancy LP’s four rototoms for lighter, more detailed passages.

Though not classed as tuned percussion, two of the drums have an attractive clear pitch which adds a dash of melody to fills.

Completing the drums collection are pairs of bongos, congas and timbales, each offering a range of lively artics guaranteed to get you in touch with your inner Brazilian.

Buyers of LP’s Pro version will find themselves the proud owner of two pairs of Meinl Symphonic piatti crash cymbals and suspended cymbals, all made in Turkey from bronze alloy in 18‑ and 20‑inch sizes. Piatti 1 (which I assume

“Described by Project SAM as ‘our most ambitious library yet’, Lineage Percussion hits all its targets.”

Drums, Cymbals & Gongs For this project percussionist Eddy Koopman brought in three snare drums of different sizes, two played with sticks and the third with brushes. All were recorded with their snares on and off following an

hits. I liked the deep, open sound of Snare 2 for orchestral work, and for any piece requiring quiet brushed drums I’d choose Snare 3’s close miking for maximum intimacy. If you’re engaged in scoring epic film music, I’d recommend the big, combative sound of the three-player Snare Ensemble 1.

Rainbow Warrior Kontakt 7’s funereal dark grey and black interface is about as much fun as a wet weekend in Blackpool, but this library dispels the gloom by erupting into dazzling technicolour each time you load an instrument. The interface’s built-in mapping keyboard (confusingly referred to in the manual as ‘the piano’) shows a brightly colour-coded map of the sample layout.

Unlike Kontakt’s on-screen keyboard, the mapping keyboard does not trigger samples — it’s merely a visual guide.

Brighten your day with Lineage Percussion’s colour-coded sample mapping system (top). Unlike the When you click on an articulation name larger Kontakt keyboard below, the mapping keyboard does not trigger samples — it’s merely a visual guide. displayed in LP’s Performance page ‘sounds bar’, To layer multiple LP instruments within one instance of Kontakt, load the the mapping keyboard highlights its playing zone in a dashing shade of bright Kit Builder patch, untick the ‘Auto-spread instruments’ box in the settings page purple. On this page you can quickly shift the entire instrument in octave steps and click on the big ‘+’ sign to stack up your selected instruments. Unpitched by dragging it up or down the keyboard. Switch to the Mapping view and you instruments use an identical mapping layout for their artics, so you’ll now hear can edit both the key zone and keyswitch note positions (the latter depicted in a giant layered hit when you press the note of C3, a mighty ensemble flam on shocking pink) of individual articulations — an essential facility if you want to E3, massed rolls on A3, and so on. match LP’s mapping scheme to your pre-existing percussion templates.

You can artificially extend pitched instruments’ range by up to an octave While the mapping keyboard’s colour coding makes it easy to identify in both directions, either by using the mapping keyboard’s range sliders or by instruments in a simple bass drum, snare and cymbal setup, doing so in entering note values into the mapping table. When you expand LP’s unpitched a densely packed 15-instrument kit like ‘Lots o Drums’ can be difficult. percussion’s ranges in this way, it doesn’t stretch or change their pitch: the In such situations you can increase the visibility of selected instruments tuning remains the same regardless of register, but now you have more keys by choosing brighter or more contrasting colours — your interface may end available for triggering it. The idea takes a bit of getting used to, but offers more up resembling a paint catalogue or Elton John fancy dress costume, but at flexibility when creating complex layerings within a single Kontakt instance. least it’ll be clear which instrument you’re editing!

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THE MASTER BUS PLUGIN COLLECTION

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The first ever USB-C Audio Interfaces with 73 style Class A preamps

ON TE ST

PROJECT SAM LINEAGE PERCUSSION

Instrumentation Lineage Percussion’s Pro version contains 70 instruments, while the Core version’s 45 instruments cover all the essentials.

Pitched • Timpani • Glockenspiel • Vibraphone • Xylophone • Marimba • Tubular bells • Crotales 1 • Crotales 2* • Celeste The XY Stage, a 360-degree virtual performance space which allows you to quickly alter the panning and miking perspective of up to 15 instruments.

is the 20-inch model) gets my vote for a jubilant handheld cymbal crash to accompany a massive bass drum hit, while the seven-dynamic suspended cymbal performances cover everything from jazzy brush ride cymbal parts to loud rock-style crashes played with drumsticks or mallets. Adding exotic drama, a large 28-inch tam tam gong and a smaller 18-inch model perform rousing hits, tempo-sync’ed crescendo rolls and eerie bowed effects.

Wood, Metals & Sundries A large assortment of small instruments cover most orchestral percussion needs.

Granted there are no Japanese singing bowls nor Peking Opera gongs, but then this isn’t that kind of library. Commonplace items like temple blocks, wood blocks and castanets sound very pleasant in the reverberant hall acoustic; the ambience also suits the cricket, an odd little handheld item which emits a high-pitched resonant click reminiscent of claves.

If you want More Cowbell (Google it) there are four of them, but LP’s triangle would seem a better bet for light Latin grooves, with shimmering mark tree glissandos available for adding a bit of ear candy. The cabasa, egg shaker and small kashishi (aka caxixi) basket shaker also work well for programming quiet rhythm parts, and if you want to up the volume and rock out with some tambourine loops, the jingling ‘beatring’ headless tambourine will do the business.

Those who buy the LP Core version won’t get the library’s pair of anvils, but that’s no biggie: instead of the explosive industrial clangs you might expect, these two give out a rather unprepossessing clink. The Core version also omits

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the finger snaps and ensemble hand claps, which would be more of a miss.

On a seasonal note, though I write in midsummer, I feel duty bound to mention LP’s two sleigh bells, the second of which is the more jingly and reindeer-friendly.

Kits LP’s mixed-instrument kits are a quick and easy way of auditioning its contents.

‘Basic Orchestral Kit’ combines gran cassas, snare drums, cymbals and a low tom with a sprinkling of lighter sounds, each instrument providing a selection of essential artics for traditional orchestrations. For more epic arrangements, ‘Big Drum Ensemble Kit’ does what it says on the tin, loading a battering ensemble of bass drums, toms and snare ensembles.

In a similar cinematic vein, ‘Independence Kit’ conveniently maps a combative combo of bass drums, snares and piatti into a playable whole, while ‘Sync Strike’ layers the crescendo rolls of tam tams, suspended cymbals and a gran cassa into a great rushing avalanche of sound. For melodic writing, the celestial tuned percussion chimes of ‘Melodic Shimmer’ are a ray of light, and ‘Melodic Dream’ is a beautiful mix of slow-attack vibraphone, celeste and glockenspiel guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing.

Conclusion Described by Project SAM as “our most ambitious library yet”, Lineage Percussion hits all its targets. I was initially surprised that it lacks the large ethnic drums that are de rigueur in the modern hybrid orchestra, but that was also true of True Strike 1. We had

Drums • Gran cassa 1 • Gran cassa 2* • Snare drum 1 • Snare drum 2* • Snare drum 3 (brushes)* • Snare drum ensemble 1 • Snare drum ensemble 2* • Bongo 1 • Bongo 2 • Conga 1 • Conga 2 • Timbale 1 • Timbale 2 • Toms • Tom 1-3 • Tom 4* • Rototom 1-2 • Rototom 3* • Rototom 4* Cymbals & Gongs • Suspended cymbal 1 • Suspended cymbal 2* • Piatti 1 • Piatti 2* • Tam tam 1 • Tam tam 2*

Metals • Cowbell 1 • Cowbell 2* • Cowbell 3* • Cowbell 4* • Triangle • Bell Tree • Mark Tree • Anvil 1* • Anvil 2* • Wood blocks • Wood block 1-3 • Temple block 1-5 Hand & Body Percussion • Claves • Castanets* • Rattle* • Cabasa • Cricket* • Kashishi* • Egg shaker • Hand claps* • Finger snaps* Misc • Tambourine • Beat ring tambourine • Sleigh bells 1 • Sleigh bells 2* • Whip* • Guiro • Vibraslap 1 • Vibraslap 2* (* Not included in Lineage Percussion Core.)

to wait two years for them to show up in True Strike 2, which in theory might also prove to be the case with the new library (please note, this is pure speculation on my part). In any case, Lineage Percussion is a worthy modern successor to Project SAM’s esteemed True Strike 1, and if this impressive library is the start of a new era of instruments, I’ll be very interested to hear what comes next! £ Pro Version €478.80, Core Version €188.80. Prices include VAT.

W www.projectsam.com

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November 2024 Period : 01-30 November 2024 [source: Google Analytics 4] Stats updated 02 December 2024

monthly page views total page views : 1,593,319 this month North America : 465,395 Europe (excluding UK) : 486,911 UK : 413,673 Rest of World : 227,340

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ON TE ST

Sebsongs Bread & Butter Eurorack Module

D

id two words ever conjure simultaneous feelings of dread and nostalgia better than ‘General MIDI’? That familiar bank of 128 patches created in the name of standardising instrument responses to the MIDI protocol, the term technically covers far more than just those patches but has become the de facto descriptor for sounds synonymous with barely working school keyboards and quickly eschewed default settings in all manner of DAWs and other software.

And, if you’re of a generation, Ross Geller’s immortal keyboard performance in Friends. When I consider General MIDI, one of two sounds enters my head: first is that strange sliding ‘honk’ in the percussion patch, almost like some kind of synthetic dog bark (I still to this day do not know what that sound is), and second is the iconic ‘orchestra hit’ sound. And there it is in your head as well.

At just 6HP, the Bread & Butter is modestly sized. Its interface consists of just three knobs and

“While General MIDI might still fall into the ‘too soon’ category for many, I have no doubt that the Bread & Butter will age nicely in years to come.”

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two buttons, along with a MIDI input, stereo outputs and several CV inputs. Now, let’s be honest: while perfectly possible, it’s unlikely you’re going to simply plug a MIDI keyboard into the Bread & Butter, choose a sound and play it dry. Of course, if that is you, I wish you well. But Sebsongs clearly have more in mind than that, and much of it begins with modulation.

Even with the simplest pulse triggering notes at one pitch as a starting point and a clutch of asynchronous LFOs and gates sent to various jacks, I was basking in astonishingly instant experimental composition glory, at times so interesting that I simply stood back from my system and enjoyed listening.

A hit of piano here, a drum there. A bendy-sounding guitar followed by a snappy percussion passage. Pushing things a bit harder, for instance triggering notes faster and faster, the Bread & Butter responded very nicely, even at very fast trigger speeds.

The Bread & Butter’s controls and CV inputs are choice and well deployed.

Beyond gate and pitch inputs, there’s Hold, which latches notes when a gate is high and can bring out a very different side of many sounds. Bend and Velocity make for some much needed expression (and rather nostalgic pitch-wheel-style note bending, in the case of Bend), which, believe it or not, does lead to some genuine musicality when used as part of a wider network of modulation. The most interesting input for me is the instrument selector, which can cycle through patches with the help of some CV. This is where the Bread & Butter really comes alive, bursting with variety and sonic interest. Random voltages, LFOs: you name it, each brings out something different. Beneath the main Instrument knob are smaller knobs for tuning and panning. The Pan knob is a lovely touch, since it allows for some interesting placement

of sounds all across the stereo image — excellent when united with almost any spatial effect.

Turn clockwise for random panning and anti-clockwise for alternate panning.

Yes: aside from effects and filtering and the like, I don’t think there’s anything I would want from a General MIDI module that isn’t on offer here.

What the Bread & Butter offers is a bank of sometimes awful, sometimes kitsch, sometimes passable, sometimes lovely sounds, that beckon all sorts of creative applications with a streamlined and effective set of controls. Because in fairness — like a litany of sounds we work with in the modular environment — with the right processing, all these have every bit the potential to sound genuinely beautiful. The almost-FM-esque Crystal, for example, or even the grim but harmonically rich Distortion Guitar. The once near‑unusable Dulcimer takes on a very different, wholly unironic appeal if you sequence it with ratcheting patterns and send it to cascade in stereo through a granular delay.

The famous designer Raymond Loewy once said: “To sell something surprising, make it familiar; and to sell something familiar, make it surprising.” With the Bread & Butter, Sebsongs have toed that line very well. After all, if the history of art and music has taught us anything, it’s that many once-rudimentary artefacts get revisited and reappropriated down the line in some way — often to great creative effect.

The Super-8 camera is a good example of this, as is the Farfisa organ. While General MIDI might still fall into the ‘too soon’ category for many, I have no doubt that the Bread & Butter will age nicely in years to come; surely something of a forerunner in Eurorack’s rediscovery of these horrible, brilliant sounds.

William Stokes £

£166.80

W

modular.sebsongs.com

Knobula Echo Cinematic Eurorack Module

K

nobula create modules around interesting ideas that are not always immediately apparent. The Echo Cinematic is a great example of this — you think you’re playing around with a delay running through a reverb when actually that’s not the half of it.

Knobula founder Jason Mayo drew on his experience working in studios in the 1980s. They would often route analogue tape delays through channel strips, where they were EQ’ed and fed back to themselves via the effects send. The engineer would then filter and overdub the delayed sound to the edge of destruction, giving us that signature ‘dub’ vibe.

Those elements form the basis of what we have to play with in the Echo Cinematic.

So, you get a nice, grungy tape-style delay (up to two seconds), sync’able to a clock.

The reverb is deep and lovely and good to have, but it is not the main character here. It’s the EQ that takes centre stage, with a nice big knob and an unexpected impact.

It feels different because you’re filtering the echoes rather than the input signal, which gives it a sense that the signal is disappearing and degrading after each repeat. But then you’ve also got the feedback system, which has a habit of smearing your audio into surprising textures as it builds into something more sinister. And that build can be slow so that your attention gets pulled back to the Echo Cinematic to grab something to bring it under control, just every now and then.

Manipulation is critical, which is again a bit unusual because I often leave delays to do their thing. So in here, you have two LFOs, one for the delay time and one for the EQ frequency, and the ability to record up to 30 seconds of movement from any and every knob and the CV inputs. You can assign the CV inputs to any control simply

by plugging in a cable and then twisting the thing you want to send it to — it seems all too easy.

The EQ section has three filter response curves; a low- or high-pass shelf, a peak with notch or band-pass, and a comb with four notches or four bands.

A resonance knob piles on the emphasis. You can switch it into the traditional dub path of the feedback loop, or just into the delay output, or over the whole lot including the dry input.

The edginess of the filtered feedback loop is such that I don’t feel like it’s safe to leave it alone.

Maybe that’s why the knob record function is so useful, because you can push it to the brink, reel it back in and then let it keep doing that on its own. But for me, I like to interact and react to it, give the EQ some movement through the LFO and then dance around the feedback knob. The Echo Cinematic can make a weedy melody line sound huge, reanimate percussion lines and weaponise chords in fabulously groovy ways.

Robin Vincent

Modular Plug Detroit Pink 87 Eurorack Module

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£

£379

hen many modules have over-laden themselves with too many features, it’s pretty refreshing to see something that just does one thing. The strangely named Detroit Pink 87 from Modular Plug does eight lots of one thing in a beautifully mechanical and satisfyingly simple way.

It’s an eight-track trigger sequencer where you tap in the steps using a clacky mechanical keyboard key. You select a track on the knob, set it to 16, 32 or 64 steps, give it a clock source, and jam away at the button to build up your patterns. That’s it. Whatever you play is quantised to the steps; you switch to Jam mode and play over the top without adding triggers to the sequence, and you can clear a pattern with a tap. It’s also great for triggering envelopes and synth voices or controlling other sequences.

Its simplicity also means it might need some help to make it work in a live situation. There’s no way to mute an output or swap between rhythms without repatching, and there’s no pattern saving. In fact, when you turn it off, you lose everything you’ve created. This encourages an improvised approach or a quick bit of programming before you start your set.

Overall, the Detroit Pink 87 is fresh, inviting, fun and lets you feel like you’re contributing to the rhythm of your patch rather than expecting a machine to conjure it all up for you. Robin Vincent

W

www.knobula.com

£

$149

W

www.modularplug.com

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ON TE ST MODULAR

It was Steven Grimley-Taylor, and that group buy became Thonk over the next year or so. Twelve years later, Steve is like my record label boss — he tells me which ideas are good, where to focus, and gives me a sensible way forward when I’ve got decision paralysis.

Modular Profile: Tom Whitwell

A

ll things considered, Music Thing Modular founder Tom Whitwell can be considered part of the vanguard of Eurorack DIY as it stands today, one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the now-ubiquitous Thonk. With a catalogue of excellent designs to his name, his most recent innovation comes in the form of the gorgeous Workshop System, a compact modular ‘field kit’ with formidable functionality, which even ships in a bespoke flightcase.

On his entry into modular I was at school, some time in the 1980s, and spent my paper‑round money on a Korg MS10 for £75, which was my first modular. I really didn’t understand it. This was pre-acid house, and I didn’t really have any way to connect it with music that I liked, I just wanted it because it was cool. I sold it to a friend for £50; presumably it’s still out there somewhere.

Much later, after ReBirth and running the Music Thing blog in the 2000s, I got into DIY at a Tom Bugs workshop on Brick Lane. He taught me how to turn a handful of components into a living, bleeping, chaotic thing. I was hooked, slowly.

Then, in 2010, three friends took me to a Post Modular event in Vauxhall. It was the first time I’d seen the new wave of Eurorack: Make Noise, Harvestman, Flight Of Harmony... That year, SchneidersLaden had a demo system at Rough Trade. I’d go after work and try to make sense of it all.

On his go-to modules (aside from his own!)

I’m very comfortable with the Make Noise DPO [oscillator] / Maths [funtion generator] / QMMG [Quad Multi-Mode Gate] setup that I’ve had for years.

James Blake said that learning Maths is pivotal to understanding Eurorack, and I do think it rewires your brain a little bit. Maths teaches you a patching mindset. I learned to build devices from simple elements, rather than just connecting blocks together. Over lockdown I built and learned the Buchla Music Easel inside out — it’s such a quirky personal device, one man’s very

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eccentric ideas about interfaces and sound and what these devices are for.

On the story of Music Thing Modular The real magic of designing musical instruments is the moment when someone does something unexpected with something you’ve made. For me that came when I released Mikrophonie.

It’s a really simple module, just a contact microphone built into a panel. It was designed as a joke! A way to hear all the switches and sockets in a system that I thought would be funny. Then I saw people using Mikrophonie to trigger sounds and short delays. I saw someone playing a Mikrophonie panel with the rubber on the end of a pencil, someone strumming the panel with a plectrum.

When I put an object out into the world, it’s only half-finished until someone uses it — that’s when most of the creativity is added. My job is to make something that’s useful or interesting, but in a way that leaves as much as possible open to the musician using it.

So far everything I’ve designed has been DIY — built by the musicians themselves. This started with my first public project, the Turing Machine, which is a random looping sequencer.

I published the project on ModWiggler with open source PCB plans, details of the parts and where to get them. Within a few hours, someone appeared on the forum and offered to do a group buy so people could buy kits.

On the Workshop System I was invited to host a week-long retreat by Dyski, an arts organisation in Cornwall. During the planning process, we realised it would be nice if the attendees all had the same little portable modular, so I designed and built 14 little all-in-one systems over a period of about six months. It’s a complete modular synth that’s slightly smaller than a hardback book, the first standalone thing I’ve designed, and it really condenses all the ideas I’ve had about interfaces and sound since buying that MS10 in the ’80s.

It was designed to be as small, cheap, portable, flexible and open as possible.

There are lots of opportunities to connect outwards — to other devices, guitar pedals, computers. It has 13 modules, 58 sockets, 28 pots and eight switches. The system has its own computer module on the left that can become anything when you swap the little program cards; a reverb, a MIDI interface, a Turing Machine sequencer. There’s already a little community of developers writing cards that I’m really excited about.

It’s completely modular — it won’t make any sound without a patch cable, and it somehow quickly soaks up as many patch cables as you have. It’s good at the sounds I like. FM’ed sine waves, ring modulation, clean-but-also-gritty filters, and weird computer-generated oscillators and sequencers. Hopefully the openness of the system can lead to community and longevity, so in five years’ time people are still extending it, finding more interesting things to do with it. My ideas are the small limited seeds that hopefully grow into something more unexpected.

On the culture of modular I think there’s a fundamental openness that people who enjoy modular share, a sense that there isn’t a ‘right’ way, and that experimentation is open and fun. I’m sad when I see people trapped in ‘composition by shopping’ — buying new things in the search for a perfect system rather than experimenting with what they have. William Stokes

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TALKBACK

Tusks WILLIAM STOKES

P

roducer and artist Emily Underhill, aka Tusks, has released three critically acclaimed studio albums in which dark pop is combined with reverb-washed electronica, stadium guitars and ethereal vocals. Her signature sound was originally developed in spite or perhaps because of a very lo-fi setup.

“I think all the vocals for my first EP were done on a MacBook mic!” she laughs. “I had such a crappy MacBook that I couldn’t get through a bounce of the track without it crashing. So each track is, like, four bounces glued together.”

Underhill also works with Spitfire Audio creating virtual instruments. “As an artist, it really opens your mind to what you can do creatively,” she reflects, “especially using samplers. If I’m working on some kind of weird synth, for instance, making the loop points and playing around with them, suddenly you can get taken into this world that you wouldn’t necessarily find yourself in if you were just working as an artist.”

At the moment I can’t stop listening to Within the last week, it is a band called Full Body 2. They’re a shoegaze band from the US. I don’t know what it is, I just love them. It’s proper, euphoric shoegaze with synth, and now I want to start a shoegaze band! I mean, I love shoegaze. My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless album has been a firm favourite of mine for years and years. It definitely informs and influences what I do as an artist. My natural process when I open up a DAW, for pretty much any instrument, is to reach for a Soundtoys’ Decapitator and Valhalla VintageVerb. Just that distortion-into-reverb kind of chain. A lot of that comes from shoegaze. I’ve never properly gone into the actual shoegaze realm, but I think I would really like to experiment with that on the next album.

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The artist I’d most like to collaborate with I’d like to collaborate with someone like Leon Vynehall. I like his spectrum of music, you know; everything from classical to much more hard-hitting electronic stuff. To anyone who doesn’t know his music, I would recommend listening to his earlier stuff. He’s got an album called Nothing Is Still which is absolutely brilliant.

Another artist in that realm who I would absolutely say is Oneohtrix Point Never.

His latest album, Again, I’ve probably listened to it more than anything else this year. He’s got some elements in there which are almost like emo rock, and then he’s got a string section, and then it’ll become really hard‑hitting, almost techno... I find people who weave those worlds together incredibly interesting.

There’s a lot of emotion in it, and for me, it’s just pure creativity. It’s so easy to make the same music that other people have made. But I don’t know anyone who has made an album like Oneohtrix Point Never’s last album.

The first thing I look for in a studio If we’re talking about gear, anywhere that has a Flea 47 microphone is always great!

I do love places that just have something weird or interesting; I went to SS2 in Southend, which is great. Everything’s in the same room, the desk is in the middle of the room with just a little bit of outboard gear, and sometimes you have to stop recording because there’s a fox on the roof! It’s full of things you’ve never seen before, like a Philips Philicorda, for example. You turn it on and play with it, and straight away you’re like, “Oh my God! This is so fresh and exciting!”

It completely depends what I’m doing in the studio. For me, it absolutely has to have a nice vibe to it. If it feels really clinical, like there’s not much emotion or history in there, then it’s going to be hard to make an emotive

or rich piece of music. I’m someone who really vibes off the feeling of a place.

The person I would consider my mentor I feel like I’m always looking for a mentor!

In terms of production, I would say Tom Andrews, who I did the last record with.

I never really thought of him as a mentor, but he has probably done more for me in the ‘mentor space’ than anyone else has for a long while. The way that he views production really gave me my confidence back. I engineered and produced this EP myself, I mixed it myself, and I’m going to do the next album by myself, and it’s given me back that confidence. I don’t have to know every single microphone in the world. I don’t have to know exactly what ratio to set a compressor to be a good producer.

I can just rely on what makes me feel good and the creativity that gives me.

You know, being a woman in a very heavily male-dominated space, I think you feel the pressure a little bit more when you’re going into spaces and you’re like, “Oh, I actually don’t know what this mic is,” or “I actually don’t know what’s wrong with this patchbay.” So, I’ve always been very conscious of the pressure to do some things a specific way, because maybe otherwise people won’t think I know what I’m doing. Tom helped me to completely shift that and be like: that doesn’t really matter. If I think it sounds good, it sounds good. Record it!

Tom has really helped me reconnect with what made me fall in love with production in the first place, which is just to get out there, record something, do it on your iPhone, do it wrong... if it sounds good, that’s all that matters.

My go-to reference track or album This is something I’ve always struggled with, because I feel like the kind of music I’m trying to produce sits in between a lot of records, to the point where we’ll

Lowe record Son, about her taking the mix out into naturally reverberant spaces and re-amping everything... Stuff like that just shows that extra level of creativity in what could be a more clinical role. I think if you’ve got that creativity at every single stage, you really are bringing as much to the record as you can.

be trying to find a reference track for mastering, for instance, and we can’t find one! I’m actually going to say a song by Oneohtrix Point Never, ‘Plastic Antique’.

I often bring that in as a reference for speakers. It seems to cover everything in one track! So many different kinds of textures and timbres. It’s quite chill, but then gets super huge. It feels like the most ‘3D’ track possible, if that makes sense. I’m not overly technical in the sense that some people can sit down and can say, “This is dipping at 3kHz,” or whatever. I’m not so much like that.

I’m more like, “OK. These speakers aren’t giving me the emotion that I normally get.” Because that track is so expansive and has so much in it, it quickly becomes quite clear what might be missing.

My secret weapon in the studio is It might be a bit of a simple thing, but Decapitator by Soundtoys is just so great on so many different things. If I’m thinking of something versatile that I would use on almost anything — from vocals to the master bus — I just think Decapitator is great. It elevates so much in so many different recordings. And it’s actually quite

a versatile tool, if you’re able to use it in the right ways.

The studio session I wish I’d witnessed It’s not so much the studio. But you know how Prince recorded his soundchecks?

I don’t know if you’ve heard those. There are quite a few tracks by Prince, which are out, and they’re just him fucking around in soundcheck! It is unreal. He’s just playing around and doing the most complex things. Then he’ll say, “Yeah, I need, like, three more dB on the vocal,” and then go straight into something else... I feel like you don’t get that any more. You just don’t really get people like Prince. Being from the generation I’m from, that’s an amazing thing to listen to. So, yeah, I’ll say I wish I could have seen the recording of a Prince soundcheck. I feel like you get yourself to a point, playing live, where you’re like, “Yeah, I’m getting quite good at this!” And then you listen to Prince and you’re like, “Ah, fuck.”

The producer I’d most like to work with Marta Salogni. She mixes, she produces, she engineers... I was reading about her mixing the Duval Timothy and Rosie

The studio experience that taught me the most It was definitely working with Tom on my third album. I’d asked him to teach me engineering bits and pieces as we were making the album; we had minimal assistant engineers. We had assistants for some things we were doing, but most of it we did ourselves, with me helping him. I was getting him to teach me everything as we were doing it. So he was overseeing things like my learning about the three-to-one rule when it comes to avoiding phase cancellation with mics. He taught me to walk around the studio and hit the drum.

Where do you think the drum sounds best? I was like, “I think the drum sounds best here.” And he’d say, “Cool. Put the drum there.” And then, “Where do you think it sounds the best, in the room?

Put the mic there.” And I just thought, “Oh, my God. This now feels really, really creative.” Before, it almost felt more like a maths exam! I was never really taught engineering, but the minimal amount I was taught said, you know, “If you want to mic up this drum kit, you have to use this mic and you have to put it here,” and to me, that just isn’t interesting. But learning engineering with Tom meant that engineering could become creative for me. And that really stuck with me.

The advice I’d give myself of 10 years ago Don’t be afraid to be completely creative.

I think I’d go back and just spend at least two or three hours a day just being completely creative. And believing in what sounds and feels good to me.

I’d say, don’t worry if something seems too simple or isn’t recorded or mixed ‘correctly’. The only thing that matters is: if it sounds good to you, if you’re moving, if it makes you feel good, if you’re excited to make it, if it’s cathartic to write, then do it. You can get voice memos on someone’s iPhone which are more moving than a finished track that cost thousands of pounds to record in a top‑end studio. To me, that’s what it’s all about: how it makes you feel.

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ON TE ST

a spreadsheet where each cell is populated by a note which can play one of up to 48 different ‘instruments’ and up to two ‘FX’. An instrument is usually a sample, but the Tracker+ has added three synthesizer slots, which can each load one of five different synth types. Rather than covering much of the same ground as the original Tracker review, I will focus on what the Tracker+ offers over the original.

Plus Size

Polyend Tracker+ Sampler, Synthesizer & Sequencer

Polyend’s hardware tracker continues to evolve and improve.

RORY DOW

F

ive years ago, you would have been forgiven for scoffing at the idea of a hardware tracker.

And yet here we are, amid what looks like a hardware tracker revolution.

As I finished the Dirtywave M8 review (see SOS September 2024), Polyend’s Tracker+ landed on the doormat. Less than a year before, I reviewed the Polyend Tracker Mini, which improved upon the original Tracker released in 2020. It is fair to say that trackers are officially popular again.

Polyend could be credited with igniting the current explosion. The Tracker+ is the latest revision of their initial desktop tracker device.

Improvements include support for stereo samples, eight more tracks (bringing the total to 16), six new synthesizers, audio over USB and extra memory.

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The Tracker Mini, Polyend’s smaller, more portable version, recently had a version 2.0 software update to align it with the Tracker+. So, if you enjoy the Tracker experience, you can have a Tracker+ in the studio and a Mini for travel and easily swap projects between them. Sadly, the original Tracker does not have the CPU or RAM capable of offering these new features, so you’ll have to upgrade to take full advantage.

Trackwhatnow?

If you need a tracking primer, refer to my review of the original Polyend Tracker from November 2021 (www. soundonsound.com/reviews/ polyend-tracker). In short, trackers are sample-based sequencers. The sequencing is a different paradigm from the MIDI piano rolls we’ve become accustomed to in modern DAWs. Tracks scroll downwards and resemble

Polyend’s marketing tagline for the Tracker+ is “Not new, but better”. At a glance, you might not see any difference between this and the original. The Tracker+ has the same physical size and layout as the earlier version, but Polyend have improved the build quality. The original buttons, which were hard plastic, have been replaced with a more tactile rubberised feel. The jog wheel, which caused problems for some users on the original, has also been upgraded and feels much more sturdy.

The inputs and outputs on the back are identical, with a micro-SD card slot, USB Type‑C port, and 3.5mm jack sockets for stereo line in/out, mic input and MIDI in/ out. The USB cable supplies power and class-compliant MIDI but now works as an audio interface with 12 stereo outputs.

Inside the box is where the real improvements lie. A more powerful microcontroller brings the Tracker+ in line with the Tracker Mini. And there’s more RAM available for samples: around 720 seconds of mono or 360 seconds of stereo sampling (at 44.1kHz), a sizable improvement on the original 130 seconds of mono sampling. If required, you can stretch this out using lower sample rates.

The increased CPU power also allows for more tracks in each pattern.

The original Tracker was limited to eight tracks, but the Tracker+ doubles this to 16, although it has some limitations

that we’ll focus on shortly. A Song can contain up to 255 patterns, and a pattern can contain up to 128 steps.

Synthesis The original Tracker was focused on sample playback. Samples can be one-shot, looping, sliced, converted to wavetables, and there’s even a granular mode. However, the most significant addition to the Tracker+ is the five synthesizer engines that can be used instead of samples.

In addition to the 48 sample instruments and 16 MIDI tracks available to each project, there are now three synthesizer slots. The three slots can be allocated to one of five synthesizer engines, and each synthesizer can play up to six voices: • A CD is a 303-inspired synthesizer with sawtooth and square oscillators, a sub-oscillator, noise, and three low-pass filter types.

• FAT is Minimoog-inspired, with three oscillators and three filter types.

• VAP is designed for polyphony and has two variable‑waveform oscillators and a multi-mode filter with 15 filter types.

• WTFM is a 2-operator FM engine with feedback, variable waveforms, and the same multi-mode filter as VAP. Lastly, PERC is a drum synthesizer with six engines for kick, tom, snare, hi-hat, cymbal and percussion, which can be played as a complete kit.

The name PERC is perhaps a nod to Polyend’s first-ever product, a mechanical MIDI-powered drum trigger. There are a lot of algorithms and tweakable parameters. You can achieve classic TR-style kicks and snares, FM percussion, classic analogue disco toms and more. The tom algorithm can even be played chromatically, producing more than just tom sounds.

Most of the synths have the kind of modulation you would expect: one or two envelopes and LFOs. In the simpler ACD and FAT synths, modulation is hardwired to pitch or amplitude, but in the more complex VAP and WTFM

synths, you can use a modulation matrix to assign them. Each synth patch can also have up to seven macros assigned.

These can be named and assigned to modulate up to five parameters in varying amounts and then sequenced later to add movement to your sounds.

I am very impressed with the new synthesis options in the Tracker+.

When judged on sound alone, there is a simple charm to all the synths.

They sound great, although you might call them retro in character. When you start sequencing them and automating the macros, magic can — and often does — happen.

Track Count Although Polyend market the Tracker+ as having 16 tracks, there are some restrictions. Tracks 1-8 can be used for anything. They can sequence samples, external MIDI, the new synths, or all three simultaneously. Tracks 9-16, however, can only be used for MIDI or the internal synths. If you are only interested in using the Tracker in a strictly old-school sense — to sequence samples – then tracks 9-16 will not be much use.

Audio Interface The other headline new feature for the Tracker+ is the addition of a USB audio interface. Once you plug the Tracker+ into your computer using the included USB‑C cable, your computer will have access to 14 stereo inputs and one stereo output. The 14 outputs are reserved for the master stereo output, the first eight tracks, the reverb and delay outputs and the three synth slots. The interface is locked to 16-bit/44.1kHz. As I noted in my review of the Tracker Mini, the single stereo output is unused.

I had hoped it would be used to allow sampling from the computer, but this hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps there is a technical reason why it can’t be done, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

Conclusion In all other aspects, the Polyend Tracker+ is identical to its predecessor.

It has the same robust software,

Polyend Tracker+ £699 pros • An even better Tracker.

• Improved build quality.

• Stereo sampling.

• The new synths are fantastic.

• 16 tracks...

cons • ... but still only eight sample tracks.

• Still no use for that USB audio input.

summary Polyend continue to improve the Tracker system with updated hardware, and some welcome software improvements like stereo sampling, 16 tracks, USB audio interfacing and five new synthesizer engines.

the built-in FM radio for random sampling, the performance page for live remixing your song, the offline sample editor, stem export... and even the bonkers Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator.

It remains a highly enjoyable way to make electronic music.

Over the last three years, Polyend’s incremental improvements to the Tracker concept have culminated in a mature product that feels well built and fun to use. For me, the synthesizers are the best new improvements. They sound great, and there’s enough variety to find the sound you’re looking for.

It’s a shame that you only get three synthesizer slots. The Tracker’s main competitor — the Dirtywave M8 — allows all 128 instrument slots to load a different synthesizer if you want to. But Polyend’s approach does have advantages. Any of the synths can have up to six‑voice polyphony, which only one of the M8’s four synthesizers can do.

Ultimately, tracking is, and always was, about limitations. Some are good, and some are not. Polyend are slowly weeding out the bad limitations (like mono samples) and adding more cool stuff. It’s good to see the platform evolving. £ £699 including VAT. W www.polyend.com

Round the back we find 3.5mm sockets for audio out, line in, mic in and MIDI I/O, a micro‑SD card slot and a USB‑C port.

www.soundonsound.com / January 2025

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SPOTLIGHT

Sontronics Drumpack

Drum Mic Sets

A dedicated set of drum mics can be a useful addition to anyone’s live or recording setup.

LUKE WOOD

C

apturing a good drum sound can be a challenge, and with the high SPLs and potentially awkward mic positions involved, a set of dedicated mics can make a lot of sense. So, in this month’s Spotlight, we round up a variety of all-in-one mic bundles designed to capture a whole drum kit in all its glory.

A bonus to investing in such a set is that in addition to their obvious use, the models included often come in handy for other sources, too — kick mics tend to work well on bass amps, for example, and a good pair of small-diapragm capacitors can do far more than simply sitting above a drum kit!

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AKG Drum Sets

The AKG line-up includes three Drum Set packages: Session, Concert and Premium. Session combines a P2 kick mic with four P4s designed for snare and tom duties, while overheads are taken care of by a pair of P17s. Concert then relies on a D112 MkII and four D40s for kick, snare and toms respectively, and includes a pair of C430s for overheads.

The flagship Premium set includes a D12 VR kick-drum mic along with four D40s, but adds a C451 B that can be used as a dedicated hi-hat mic, plus a matched stereo pair of C214 overheads. All three kits come supplied in a hard carry case with an assortment of mounting hardware. £ £375 to £1895 including VAT.

W www.akg.com AKG Drum Set

Audix DP7

Audix

Audix cater to a wide range of applications and budgets, with no fewer than 10 dedicated drum sets on offer! The cost-effective FP5 is a five-piece kit that comprises a selection of the company’s Fusion series mics designed for kick, snare and toms (f6, f5 and f2), while the FP7 adds a pair of f9 overheads. The DP4 then combines a D6 kick mic with a trio of i5s intended for snare and toms, while the DPQUAD includes a D6, an i5 and a pair of ADX51 overheads, and the DP5A

bundles together a D6, i5, D4 and two D2s. Opting for the larger DP7 will gain you a pair of SCX1C overheads, and the DP8 also includes an SCX1HC for hi-hats, while the flagship DP Elite 8 kit includes a pair of SCX25-As for overheads. If that’s still not enough choice, there are MICRO variants of the DP5 and DP7 that feature the company’s MicroD capacitor mics.

All of the kits are supplied in a hard case with the appropriate clips and mounts. £ £315 to £2250 including VAT. W www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ audix-dp7

W https://audixusa.com

Avantone CDMK

Behringer BC1500

CAD Audio Stage7

can be used to mic up snares and toms, and a pair of CM1200 small-diaphragm capacitors designed for overhead use.

The latter places a C112 on kick duties and includes four TM1500s for snare and toms, while overheads are taken care of by a pair of CM1500s that provide a little more flexibility than their lower-cost counterparts thanks to onboard high‑pass filter and -10dB pad switches. Both sets are supplied in a hard case, and come complete with a set of clips. £ BC1200 £99, BC1500 £165.

D10 and D19 both feature an integrated clip that allows them to be mounted directly onto a stand, while the D29s sport a built-in rim-mount clip. Opting for the Stage7 will gain you a third D29 and a pair of C9 small-diaphragm capacitors that can be used as overheads. Both kits come packaged in a padded carry case. £ Stage4 £229, Stage7 £269.

Prices include VAT. W www.behringer.com

Prices include VAT.

W www.cadaudio.com

DPA DDK4000

beyerdynamic TG Drum Set Pro

Avantone CDMK-8

Avantone’s CDMK (Complete Drum Microphone Kit) series comprises five sets that bring together second-generation versions of the company’s dedicated drum mics. All five employ the Mondo and ADM for kick and snare duties, combining them with a range of different choices for the rest of the kit. The CDMK-4 and CDMK-5 add two and three ATOM tom mics respectively, while the CDMK-6 includes a pair of ATOMs and two CK-1 cardioid capacitor mics intended for overheads. The CDMK-7 retains the overheads but adds a third ATOM, and finally, the flagship CDMK-8 benefits from a hypercardioid version of the CK-1 that can be used as a hi-hat mic. All five kits are housed in a vintage-style tweed case that also comes loaded with all of the necessary clips and shockmounts. £ £554 to £993 including VAT. W https://avantonepro.com

Behringer BC1200 / BC1500

There are two all-in-one sets in the Behringer line-up: the BC1200 and BC1500. The former includes a KM1200 kick mic along with four TM1200s that

Available in Medium and Large variants, beyerdynamic’s TG Drum Set Pro kits bring together a selection of mics optimised for use on drums.

Despite their names, both are seven‑piece kits that include a TG D71 boundary microphone beyerdynamic TG Drum Set Pro L and a pair of TG I53s that can be used for kick drums and overheads respectively. As for snare and toms, the Medium set relies on a set of four TG D35s, whereas the Large kit includes two TG D57s and a pair of TG D58s. Both sets are supplied in a padded carry case and come complete with mounting clips. £ Medium £614, Large £1009.

Prices include VAT.

W https://europe.beyerdynamic.com

CAD Audio Stage

CAD Audio’s Stage4 is a four-piece kit that includes their D10 and D19 kick and snare mics, along with a pair of D29s that have been designed for use on toms. The

DPA DDK4000

Supplied in a durable Pelican hard case, the DDK4000 brings together a selection of DPA’s renowned high-end instrument mics and promises to capture a natural and precise drum sound. A 4055 kick drum microphone is joined by a 2012 cardioid microphone and a trio of 4099 Core instrument microphones — models that boast high SPL handling figures and are recommended for use on snares and toms — while overhead duties are taken care of by a pair of 2015 wide cardioid microphones. The kit includes a full complement of accessories, including three drum microphone clips, a set of MicroDot to XLR cables, and adaptors for the 4099s. £ £4140 including VAT. W www.dpamicrophones.com

Earthworks DK Series

Earthworks are renowned for their accurate, neutral-sounding mics, and their range currently includes two sets designed specifically for drums.

First up is the DK6, a six-piece kit that includes the company’s DM6 kick drum

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Lewitt BeatKit / BeatKit Pro

that have been designed with snare and toms in mind, plus a matched pair of OH-2 small-diaphragm capacitor mics aimed at overhead use. The kit comes complete with clips and windscreens for the OH-2s and a set of rim mounts for the ST-4s, with everything tucked neatly into a hard carry case. £ £239 including VAT. W www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ presonus-dm-7

W https://presonus.comh

Earthworks DK7 Gen 2

mic, three DM17s designed for use on snare and toms, and a pair of SR20 Gen 2 overheads. The set is supplied in a premium hard case along with mounting hardware. The company’s flagship offering is the DK7 Gen 2, which takes a no-compromise approach to drum miking, combining the DM6 with four of Earthworks’ miniature DM20 Gen 2 mics and a pair of SR25 Gen 2s. The latest iteration of the kit benefits from optimised internal electronics, a newly designed rim-mounting system for the DM20 Gen 2s, and a smaller, more durable carry case. £ DK6 £1798.80, DK7 Gen 2 £2998.99.

Prices include VAT.

W https://earthworksaudio.com

Gear4Music / SubZero

Providing everything you need to record a drum kit on a budget, Gear4Music’s own seven-piece kit includes a set of mics capable of capturing a kick, snare and three toms, and includes a pair of small-diaphragm capacitors for overheads. A more recent introduction to the company’s range falls under their SubZero brand, and once again brings together seven mics designed to capture kick, snare, toms and overheads.

Both packages are supplied in a hard carry case with a full complement of mounting hardware. £ Gear4Music £99.99, SubZero £129.99.

Prices include VAT. W www.gear4music.com

sE Electronics V Pack

sE Electronics’ V Pack line-up includes three drum sets that cater to a range Lewitt BeatKit Pro of different requirements. The flagship model, the V Pack Arena, combines the Lewitt’s BeatKit range offers four- and company’s popular V Kick seven-piece sets designed specifically mic with a set of three for capturing drums live and in V Beats that can be the studio. The entry‑level fixed to toms using the BeatKit places the included V Clamps, a V7 innovative dual-capsule X snare mic and a pair DTP 640 REX on kick of sE8 small‑diaphragm duty alongside an MTP capacitors for 440 DM snare mic, while overheads. The V a pair of LCT 040 Match Pack Club Standard small-diaphragm capacitors scales things tackle the overheads. back slightly Stepping up to the BeatKit with two Pro supplements the kick and V Beats/V snare mics with a trio of DTP Clamps and 240 TTs designed specifically a pair of sE7 for toms, swaps out the LCT 040 overheads, Match for a pair of LCT 140 AIRs while the V Pack — which come equipped with pads, sE Electronics V Pack Arena Venue Standard high-pass filters and two switchable — which is aimed at those looking to voicing options — and packages the mics supplement their existing mics — loses and their assorted hardware into a sturdy the overheads entirely. All three sets are carry case. £ BeatKit £429, BeatKit Pro £945. supplied in the same hard carry case with Prices include VAT. the appropriate mounting hardware.

W www.lewitt-audio.com £ £599 to £869 including VAT. W www.soundonsound.com/reviews/

PreSonus DM-7

PreSonus say that their DM-7 kit provides everything you need to capture an authentic drum sound, as well as being versatile enough for use on guitar amps, percussion, pianos and more. It includes a BD-1, which boasts a frequency response tailored for kick drums, along with a set of four ST-4s PreSonus DM-7

SubZero 7 Piece Drum Microphone Set

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se-electronics-v-pack-arena

W https://seelectronics.com

Sennheiser e 600

Designed to provide everything you need to capture a powerful drum sound, Sennheiser’s e 600 kit houses a selection of the company’s Evolution-series instrument mics in a heavy-duty case.

There’s an e 602-II — a large dynamic mic designed specifically kick drums — along with a set of four e 604 clip-on mics designed to handle snares and toms, and a pair of e 614 supercardioid capacitors that can be used as overheads. £ £1102.80 including VAT. W www.sennheiser.com

Sontronics Drumpack Plus

Sennheiser e 600

Shure PGA / DMK

small‑diaphragm capacitors that can be used as overheads. Both sets are supplied in a rugged ABS flightcase, and offer a significant saving compared to purchasing the included mics individually. £ Drumpack £629, Drumpack Plus £799.

Available in four-, six- and sevenpiece variants, Shure’s PGA range offers a selection of drum-miking solutions that each feature a selection Prices include VAT. of their cost‑effective mic models. The W https://sontronics.com/ PGADrumKit4 includes a PGA52 for kick, a PGA57 for snare and a pair of PGA56s for toms, while the PGAStudioKit4 swaps out the PGA56s for a pair of There are five possible choices in PGA181 side‑address capacitors. The Thomann’s the t-bone range. First up is PGADrumKit6 the DC 1000, and 7 then which retain the includes same kick and a BD 200 snare mics, but kick mic include either and a set of two or three four clip-on PGA56s and CD 55s a pair of PGA81 designed capacitor mics for snare for overheads. and toms. The DC There’s also the 1200 then features DMK57-52, which a DM1 for kick, four includes Shure’s DM2s for snare and toms and Shure DMK57-52 flagship Beta 52A kick a pair of DM3 overheads, all housed mic and a trio of the ever-popular SM57s. in a carry case complete with mounts.

All the company’s kits are supplied Next, the DC 1500 places in a padded carry case with all the a BD 300 on kick duty, necessary mounting hardware, and the while four CD65s handle PGA sets all include a set of XLR cables. snare and toms, and a pair £ £309 to £659. Prices include VAT. of EM500s tackle the W www.shure.com overheads. The DC 4000 includes a BD 25 Beta and four CD 65 Betas (for kick and snares/toms respectively), as well as a pair The Sontronics range includes two of EM 81 bundles dedicated to drums: the overheads.

Drumpack and Drumpack Plus.

Finally, The former is a five-piece set that the DC includes the DM-1B kick mic, a DM-1S 4000 Set snare mic, and a set of three DMcombines 1Ts complete with mounting clips for toms. The latter then introduces a pair of the company’s popular STC-10 the t-bone DC 4000

the previous offering with a set of four beyerdynamic MKV 87 snare and tom mounts. £ £75 to £431. Prices include VAT. W www.thomannmusic.com

the t-bone

Sontronics Drumpack / Drumpack Plus

Telefunken Drum Package DD5

Telefunken Drum Package

Telefunken currently offer four sets of mics designed to capture a drum kit, all of which feature their high-quality M82 and M80-SH kick and snare mics.

The four-piece DD4 and five-piece DD5 include two and three M81-SH tom mics respectively, while the DC6 and DC7 are six- and seven‑piece sets that, once again, each come equipped either two or three M81-SHs, but also add a pair of M60 FETs that can be put to work as overheads. All four kits are supplied in a hard-shell case complete with a full complement of mounting hardware and a set of XLR cables. £ £1149 to £2655 including VAT. W www.telefunken-elektroakustik.com

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Boss CP-1X Multiband Compressor Pedal The CP-1X is a multiband compressor designed to avoid the obvious pumping and tonal change effects of conventional compressors — the idea being that it can add sustain to your guitar signal in a more transparent way. According to Boss, their intelligent digital MDP (Multi-Dimensional Processing) analyses the input signal in multiple dimensions as you play, and that enables it to control dynamics without encroaching on your core tone. We’re informed that MDP, which is also used in some other Boss pedals, takes into account various factors including frequency, overtones, dynamics, pickup response and playing characteristics, such as note register, single notes versus chords, note bends and vibrato amount.

We’re also told that the pedal’s seemingly straightforward controls adjust numerous interrelated parameters at the same time, and interact with each other to some extent.

While the goings on inside the box may be somewhat arcane, the control

Soundevice Digital Biverb Reverb Plug-in Biverb is a dual reverb plug-in that supports all the usual plug-in formats on macOS and Windows platforms, and is authorised by a personalised security key allowing for installation on multiple computers.

There’s a selection of factory presets but in reality setting up your own effects is very straightforward as there are no deep-dive parameters to slow you down.

Each reverb has its own setting for type, size, pre-delay, colour, pan and damping (high and low). Each reverb also has its own modulation section, with adjustable depth, rate and dispersion. In the centre of the GUI you get wet and dry level controls, which can be linked, as well as adjustment over the output level, but Biverb’s secret weapon lies in the large circle just below the large logo. This controls how the input signal will be sent to the two reverbs: you could just go for the straightforward stereo option, with a different reverb panned to each side, or you can choose to split the input by frequency or level, or opt for Mid-Sides processing. In Low/High frequency mode, the circle acts as a frequency adjustment dial for setting the crossover point. In Level mode its sets the threshold level at which

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set feels pleasingly familiar, with just four knobs to adjust Level, Attack, Ratio and Compression.

The knobs themselves have a shiny chrome finish, but while they might look lovely, I didn’t find their position quite as easy to read as the regular Boss plastic knobs.

For more studio-minded users, a horizontal 16-LED bar-graph meter shows how much gain reduction is taking place.

Inside the pedal, the 9V power is doubled to 18V to provide greater headroom. As the circuitry is digital, the pedal draws a little more current than your typical analogue compressor, so although battery use is supported, using an external PSU is highly recommended.

As far as the user is concerned, then, while the CP-1X works on multiple bands internally, it’s adjusted in the same way as pretty much any other compressor. It doesn’t have a separate release control, but that doesn’t seem to affects its performance on guitar in any way and I suspect that it

automatically adapts in some way. I normally use a Boss CS-3 analogue compressor and that, at higher settings, does sound a little obvious — although, that said, I still like the way it sounds, so I’m not going to say anything bad about it! By comparison, the CP-1X can add a huge amount of sustain without any noticeable gain pumping or change in tonality, even at its maximum Compression setting. Its digital circuitry is also very quiet, which is particularly important if putting it before a drive pedal or ‘dirty’ amplifier.

The transparent sustain makes the CP-1X well-suited to slide guitar but it also works well for country style playing, acoustic guitar or any musical style where you just need a more even level or more sustain without incurring obvious side‑effects. It also has enough range to cope with down-tuned guitars or baritones, and works well placed before a drive pedal, allowing long sustain to be achieved at lower drive settings. If you need the benefits of compression without the give-away side‑effects, then the CP-1X is definitely worth a closer look. Paul White

the changeover occurs. Large vertical meters on each side of the GUI monitor the input and output levels.

And there’s more... The spectral displays in each reverb section include controls that allow the user to set up reverb ducking, with adjustable response time so that the reverb can be kept from overwhelming the dry signal, and then be allowed to bloom during pauses. There’s also a filter in this section with adjustable high and low points to define the region where ducking occurs.

As a straightforward algorithmic reverb, Biverb offers plenty of range, from small spaces to huge halls, and the pre-delay can be up to 250ms. There’s a choice of algorithms comprising Spring, Room, Plate, Chamber, Hall and Shimmer. In stereo mode, setting a long pre-delay on one side and choosing two different reverb types creates an endearingly spacious sound, while switching to Quiet/Loud mode also makes for interesting results if, for example, you

allow the louder notes to trigger a reverb that has a very different length from the one triggered by the short notes. Similarly the Mid-Sides option allows for a different reverb on each of the Mid and Sides channels. Low/High frequency mode also yields some interesting results. For example, I tried a piano with frequencies below 500Hz feeding a long hall reverb with maximum pre-delay and the higher frequencies feeding a chamber. The outcome sounded very much like a cathedral‑type reverb, in which the sound returning from a great distance has a lot of top filtered out due to air absorption while the reflections from closer walls are brighter. With a maximum decay time of 10 seconds, Biverb should keep ambient music creators happy while the more conventional reverbs and the ways in which they can be deployed make this plug-in very versatile. Paul White

£ £149 including VAT. W www.boss.info

£ £66 (discounted to £12 when going to press).

W https://unitedplugins.com

Vega-Trem

PSP Datamix a567

Guitar Vibrato System Build a better mousetrap, they say, and the world will beat a path to your door. In the same vein, the fully floating Vega-Trem system, available for both Strat and Tele type guitars, aims to be a better guitar tremolo. (What we call a trem is, of course, technically a vibrato unit, but thanks to Leo Fender, the misnomer tremolo is wedged firmly in the vernacular!) It can be fitted without making any permanent alterations to the instrument, which is particularly important if you’re dealing with something very valuable or vintage. There are different finishes available, including black, gold, glossy or plain.

A replacement trem system has to offer improvements over the original, and I can confirm that this one does. Trems were originally designed to add a few tasteful pitch wobbles and the existing designs do that well enough if properly set up and adjusted. However, players such as Jeff Beck took those vintage systems well beyond their original design intentions and, without the constant attention of a skilled guitar tech, tuning problems often occur.

Made from stainless steel, the Vega-Trem devices reduce friction by employing a knife-edge pivot. Traditional folded-metal saddles can shift from side to side and there’s also no slot for the string to locate in, so the Vega-Trem uses smoothly-shaped blocks with integral string guides that can be locked in place individually using an Allen key, once the height and intonation adjustments have been made. A full‑size trem block often fouls the body cavity if you need a very wide pitch range, but here the block is surprisingly slim — yet that doesn’t appear to compromise the tone in any way.

The strings pass through holes that start around half way up the block rather than through the bottom as is more usual.

Creaking springs are another bane of conventional trems but here the springs (only two are needed) are locked into the block using grub screws. Four sets of springs of different strengths are included so that you can find the ones best suited to your string gauge. The arm has a screw collet that can be adjusted by hand to vary its stiffness, so that’s another common problem overcome.

For review, I was sent the version designed to fit a Strat with a six-screw bridge, and installation was very straightforward. The Vega-Trem’s stationery block, which has a couple of shallow slots

EQ Plug-in

machined into it to locate the knife-edge of the moving part, is screwed down solidly into four of the existing screw holes via slotted holes that allow for different bridge spacings, and which also provide some lateral adjustment so that you can get the strings centred on the neck. Another important point is that the top plate of the Vega-Trem doesn’t hang over the edge of the body cavity like a conventional Strat trem does, so when you pull up the trem can actually rock backwards into the body, leaving more than enough range for even the most extreme Beckisms.

I’ve tried a few alternate trem systems over the years, including some that depart radically from the standard design.

While they kept the guitar in tune, they had a very different response with which I didn’t feel entirely comfortable. The Vega-Trem does have a slightly lighter feel than the regular design but not enough to be at all off-putting, and it operates delightfully smoothly with no squeaks or groans — which is particularly important when recording, of course. Its ability to return to pitch is excellent, with the caveat that you do need a well-sorted nut, ideally lubricated, and your strings need to be properly fitted to the tuning machine posts and stretched in.

In summary, then, the Vega-Trem works extremely well, it looks classy, and if you come to sell your guitar you can remove it easily to refit the old unit. Paul White £ From £229 to £299 depending on model and finish. Prices include VAT.

E sales@sourcedistribution.co.uk W www.sourcedistribution.co.uk W https://vegatrem.com

If you’ve never heard of the Datamix console, that wouldn’t surprise me — relatively few were made — but at least one of them earned its place in history. The one installed at The Record Plant studio in New York was used on many classic recordings, including tracks made by Jimi Hendrix working with engineer Eddie Kramer. For example, check out our SOS November 2005 Classic Tracks article on the making of ‘All Along The Watchtower’ (https://sosm. ag/jimi-hendrix-all-along-the-watchtow er), which was recorded on that console.

PSP’s Datamix a567 plug-in models the three-band EQ of the original console, and adds a variable drive control that affects the amount of saturation at both the input and the transformer-based output stages of the mixer.

As was common with consoles of that era, the EQ section wasn’t nearly as elaborate as you might find on some of today’s desks, but it did have a distinctive sonic character — that’s what you’re buying into here. Set out with three dual-concentric controls, the inner knobs set the degree of cut or boost, while the outer ring switches between frequency settings. The low control covers 15 to 480 Hz, with the mid covering 310Hz to 3.08kHz, and the high 1.5 to 14 kHz. A Sharp button changes the Q of the high band for a tighter response, and all three bands are switchable in 11 steps with ±16dB of cut or boost available for each section. The filter Q changes depending on the selected frequency but there’s an Alt button (not present on the original) that fixes the Q setting independently of frequency.

Each band has an on/off switch, and the drive control, which has a ±30dB range, has an LED that glows according to how much saturation is being applied. A separate output control sets the overall output level.

Along the bottom of the GUI is a row of 10 buttons, and the first selects an average filter response. Analogue EQs are notoriously ‘approximate’ when it comes to dealing in frequencies, so the final button provides EQ tuning that corresponds to the

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control settings. The eight number buttons in between allow the user to emulate the filter variations (due to component tolerances) of eight different console channels, with a centre-detented slider to adjust how much variation should occur between the left and right channels when used in stereo.

Eddie Kramer has endorsed this plug-in as behaving like the hardware. He says of the original that the input could easily be overloaded, which he found useful for some sounds, and that the EQ also had a fairly ‘forward’ sound to it. He’s also mentioned

TC Electronic Plethora X1 Multi-effects Pedal TC’s Plethora range has a chameleon-like ability to access many different effects.

These can be drawn from the included factory presets, or you can choose and edit your own using the free-to-download TC TonePrint software (for macOS, Windows and both Apple and Android mobile devices). The new Plethora X1 joins TC’s existing X5 and X3, which are both exceptionally versatile pedals but are fairly wide and take up a fair amount of space on a pedalboard. The Plethora X1, on the other hand, comes in TC’s standard compact pedal format and, unlike its larger siblings, it can only deliver one effect at a time. Still, it has a lot of useful functionality that isn’t immediately obvious, such as tap tempo, and a Mash feature, whereby the footswitch doubles as a pressure sensor that mimics an expression pedal for parameter control.

The ability to populate the Plethora X1 with effects of your own choosing makes it an ideal ‘wildcard’ addition to a pedalboard.

For example, you might have one song that needs a Uni-Vibe style effect, while another one or two songs might require a tremolo or chorus.

Each of the selector switch positions has two slots, making it possible to store and recall up to 14 different TonePrints (derived from any TonePrint pedal), and the footswitch can be used to switch between the A and B slots.

Alternatively, the footswitch function for each slot can be set to Latching, Mash, Momentary or Momentary plus Mash. The parameters controlled by Mash can be set up in the TonePrint app.

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“The EQ section wasn’t nearly as elaborate as you might find on some of today’s desks, but it did have a distinctive sonic character.”

and a useful presence that works well with pianos and horns as well as guitars.

I’d say that description is pretty much spot-on: while the Datamix a567 may not always be the first choice when you need some general-purpose EQ, it does have an endearing character that can be utilised when you need something a bit special.

And in today’s musical landscape that could be anything from hip-hop to guitar bands.

Paul White

that some settings have to be used carefully, but the reward is a great guitar sound, a glossy high end that flatters cymbals,

£ $149 (discounted to $99 when going

Configured for mono or stereo inputs and outputs and with a 9V power connector on the rear, the Plethora X1 also has a USB‑C port with a recessed Connect button for its onboard Bluetooth, which is what enables connection to a computer or mobile device. Three of the four knobs control key parameters for the selected effect, while a small spring-loaded toggle switch scrolls through the effect variations or other parameters. For example, if you select Delay, you get a choice of delay types that includes TC’s 2290 and a reverse delay. The fourth knob is a seven-way rotary switch that selects between TonePrint slots.

A one-inch colour display shows the effect name and, when editing, can show the effect variation and the parameter values for the three knobs, as well as tempo information and so on. An illuminated bar shows the stored position for each knob, and to adjust it the knob first needs to be turned so that it passes through the current value, whereupon the adjustment is stored automatically.

As supplied, the pedal comes with a selection of reverbs drawn from TC’s Hall Of Fame, Flashback delay, Pipeline tap tremolo, Corona chorus, vibe and pitch‑shift, with several variations on each theme. If you’ve tried any of TC’s TonePrint pedals before, such as the Hall Of Fame reverb or Flashback delay, then you’ll already know that the quality of the effects themselves is excellent, both subjectively and in terms of the low-noise signal path. In fact, I’d say that the only effect that doesn’t sound ‘top shelf’ to my ears is the pitch‑shifter, which can

to press).

W www.pspaudioware.com

work OK but can also get a bit grainy on octaves if you play polyphonically — still, that’s hardly surprising, given that more sophisticated pitch‑shifting usually comes with a high-end price. However, the real strength of this pedal is that by using the TonePrint app on a computer or mobile device, you can access TC’s TonePrint library and load effects to your pedal to meet your own requirements, as well as reassigning the knobs, setting the Mash pedal (which lets you to do things like add dub-style feedback to delays and so on, in other words giving you the functionality of an expression pedal without losing valuable pedalboard space), naming patches and more. If you want several different delays in different slots, you can do that too.

The extensive TonePrint library allows you to take your pick of the many flavours of modulation effects, pitch‑shifters, compressors, reverbs and delays, with numerous presets contributed by name artists. And when it comes to customising effects, the TonePrint editor lets you access effects parameters that aren’t directly available from the hardware controls. Almost all bases are covered, and although there’s not (yet) a dedicated Leslie speaker emulator here, there are still some rotary-style presets taken from the Viscous Vibe pedal that ramp between speeds at the press of a footswitch, and they can sound quite effective in a Leslie role.

To sum up then, the Plethora X1 offers a compact, versatile and impressive-sounding solution to adding wildcard effects to your pedalboard or studio setup. If you don’t need the additional features of their X3 or X5 it looks like being well worth the money.

Paul White £ UK pricing to be confirmed, but expected to be around £79 including VAT.

W www.tcelectronic.com

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www.gracedesign.com

ON TE ST

The Crow Hill Company Nocturnal Gestures Plug-in Instrument

HHHH Composer and producer Christian Henson’s new enterprise, The Crow Hill Company, has certainly hit the ground running with a spate of compelling efforts, including their evocative String Murmurations and their distinctly warm Imperial Electric Piano, as well as the beginnings of a compelling collection of free instruments, which are worth exploring.

Their sixth entry into the virtual instrument realm is the cheekily named Nocturnal Gestures. This library is Henson’s attempt to combine the Yorkshire brass tradition with the sound of his favourite film noir soundtracks. The result is an instrument which allows users to pick tonally centred patterns — though more recognisable melodic fragments do occur — to layer together into compelling new structures.

Users hoping to find the same quality of recording and musicality made famous by Henson’s previous Spitfire Audio efforts will not be disappointed: it’s all here. The tool also boasts a straightforward and no-fuss interface which will disappoint tweakers while bringing joy to those who just want to dial in and get straight to composing.

The mod wheel defaults to controlling the Timbre setting, which allows composers to seamlessly move between darker and brighter performances of the very same patterns with only the slightest discernible change in volume. The Expression knob handles the volume layers in each performance. A bare-bones mic treatment — which includes close, wide and ambient faders — actually reveals a surprising amount of character variation between settings. The simple interface is rounded out with a two-setting reverb control in the top‑left corner, allowing users to change the size of the hall and the percentage of reverb in the mix, along with instrument release, for everything from close dry effects to wide evolving pad-like textures. That being said, even the driest setting has a fair amount of lovely hall bloom, so those seeking a bone-dry studio sound will not find it here.

One concern that users may have — and it has certainly been stated by users about other recent Crow Hill releases — is that you are essentially dealing with linear progressions and repeated recordings, leading to an identifiable similarity between

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performances. One easy answer to this objection is that at this price, you are not getting a full-fledged orchestral program, but rather a very compelling seasoning to put into your mixes. Used creatively, I found Nocturnal Gestures to serve as a great starting point or unifying element in several active projects. For instance, in one piece where I was working with repeating sharp‑attack patterns, I found that layering in a Nocturnal Gestures patch with the close mics off and the ambient mics up provided a great deal of timbral character to the track without interfering with the rhythmic clarity already being expressed. In another track, I used Nocturnal Gestures to create an undulating warm bed upon which to build melodic lines. Certainly, one way the instrument can be used is as ‘character sauce’.

Christian Henson and company are in good shape if their young brand is already putting forth such efforts. In the final analysis, Nocturnal Gestures is a useful tool packed with character, and an encouraging portent of things to come from Crow Hill.

Mark Nowakowski £59 www.thecrowhillcompany.com

Soundpaint Disco Studio Strings UDS

Plug-in Instrument

HHHHH Soundpaint’s Disco Studio Strings offers a lush and authentic recreation of ’70s disco and funk string sections, capturing the signature sound that defined artists like Barry White and the Bee Gees, up to more modern acts like Jamiroquai and Dua Lipa.

By concentrating on the specific timbres, articulations and playing styles essential to disco and pop, this library caters to a niche often overlooked by traditional string libraries, which typically focus on orchestral or cinematic aesthetics.

At 26GB, Disco Studio Strings runs on the free Soundpaint player and features 33,000 samples recorded by seven violinists through premium microphones (Neumann U47s, AKG C414s, and Royer

R‑121s). The result is an amazing dry, intimate ‘studio sound’ that feels remarkably authentic and true to the essence of the genre. Users can expect lush sustain pads with realistic portamento legato, as well as more rhythmic stabs and staccato notes, along with vibrant string falls that are especially common in disco string arrangements. The round-robin and velocity variations create a very humanised feel.

The library features 171 presets, providing a wide array of articulations that encompass every nuance of disco string writing. Notable articulations include polyphonic legato, pizzicato, marcato, and the classic disco falls. The polyphonic legato, in particular, is impressive. Note that some of the patches could easily be used in other genres like film music or Middle Eastern music. A useful addition are ornamental elements like minor and major second trills, as well as minor third trills typical of the disco genre. The Soundpaint team have made a strong effort to capture the idiomatic performance details and nuanced playing styles that defined disco string sections.

How does Disco Strings compare to classic alternatives used for disco, such as Spitfire Chamber Strings or Native Instruments Session Strings?

Session Strings, known for its punchy articulations — especially the classic drop-down technique — can sometimes sound unrealistic for long pads. In contrast, Spitfire Chamber Strings offers a lush and elegant chamber ensemble character, but its long attack can make it less suitable for rhythmic, energetic movements. On the other hand, Disco Strings excels in both areas, making it easy to program both pads and shorter rhythmic phrases.

Additionally, its raw, dry sound creates a distinct ‘in-the-room’ experience, resulting in a particularly realistic sound.

There’s little to criticise here, however, although the interface is powerful, it could use a more streamlined design, as the layout can sometimes feel cluttered. Additionally, some articulations display latency, which may affect real-time playability.

Disco Studio Strings is priced at $99, making it great value for producers looking

to incorporate classic disco and pop string textures into their music. Benjamin Boukris $99 www.soundpaint.com

MusicLab RealGMS

Plug-in Instrument

HHHHH This latest addition to MusicLab’s well-respected series of virtual guitar instruments is one few people might have expected. It’s neither a conventional acoustic nor electric, although it could be said to fit somewhere in between — the Godin Multiac Spectrum SA, a semi-solid‑bodied hybrid that shares the qualities of both. The Godin is unique in having not only a piezo bridge pickup and a magnetic neck pickup, each with their own outputs, but also a 13-pin output to drive guitar synths. Clearly the latter makes no sense in the context of RealGMS, although a nod to that feature is included as we’ll see.

RealGMS follows the same principles as others in the series, with modes for freestyle picking, soloing and various strumming methods, and customisable keyswitch menus to invoke numerous articulations, gestures and guitaristic noises. If you’re au fait with performing or programming with other MusicLab guitars, you’ll be in familiar territory here.

RealGMS outputs a stereo signal; by default the two pickups are active, panned hard left and right and at equal volume.

Either pickup (labelled M and P) can be soloed; on opening their edit panel there are sliders to adjust the relative volumes and panning. A third slider (labelled synth) is that nod towards the Godin’s guitar synth output mentioned earlier. It controls the volume of an additional 12-string guitar layer, intended to blend with the pickups for a fuller sound. This was “recorded through the Roland SY-1000” guitar synth, though it’s not clear whether the sound was generated by that synth, or an actual 12-string that was simply processed through it. Either way, it adds a pleasant sheen to the pickups’ output, although it could do with a bit of extra volume headroom relative to the pickups. The ‘S’ button turns it on and off.

Although RealGMS’s primary output is stereo, it also offers separate mono left and right outputs. This brings obvious benefits: finer control of pickup volumes and panning, and the opportunity to EQ and otherwise process each pickup individually.

The 12-string layer has no separate output, appearing across both left and right outputs.

The real-life Godin is known for its versatility, adapting to both acoustic and electric styles, and likewise RealGMS delivers tones suitable for jazz, folk and rock, the latter aided in no small way by the excellent built-in Guitarix amp simulator. The unprocessed sound is clear and focused — smooth and shiny when played softly, with plenty of ‘snap’ at higher velocities.

The piezo pickup has more emphasis in the upper midrange, the magnetic pickup being warmer and well suited to a more jazzy, semi-acoustic sound. In contrast to the precise tuning of other MusicLab instruments, RealGMS feels a little less well-tempered — more ‘organic’ if you will.

The most apparent tuning discrepancies occur with high‑velocity round robins in the lower registers, so care should taken when strumming full chords at lower fret positions, as it could get a bit messy. Overall, RealGMS brings a fascinating and unusual addition to the MusicLab family. Nick Magnus $149 www.musiclab.com

Keepforest Evolution: Devastator Breakout Pro

Kontakt Instrument

HHHHH Occupying similar sonic territory to the recently reviewed Heavyocity Oblivion, Devastator Breakout is the latest and largest library in Keepforest’s cinematic Evolution series. Its 11GB Core and 14.7GB Pro versions share the same set of over 2300 samples and 900+ loops, while the higher-priced Pro collection contains 1300+ additional sound‑design samples, 63 extra cinematic kit presets and a sophisticated X/Y morphing engine. Both versions run on Kontakt and the free Kontakt Player version 6.6.1 or newer, with samples also presented as raw WAVs. Evolution: Devastator Breakout is a collaboration between Keepforest founder Arseni Khodzin and UK producer and sound designer Joe Ford. This international accord has generated a stupendous trove of material: massive hits, booms, impacts and slams, percussive bass downers, iconic ‘signature’ tuned effects, electronic beeps and signals, hair-raising alarms, sci-fi ‘resonances’ and drones, slowed-down gurgles and whizzes suggestive of a mad professor’s laboratory, tension-building

risers, whooshy reversed effects and a miscellany of noises and glitches.

Adding incendiary power to the usual trailer-friendly low taikos and ‘whooshbangs’ is a large collection of terrifying braams and benders which fuse distorted low brass, ferocious, splintering, bone-crunching impacts, aggressively mangled basses and what sounds like the enraged bellowing of a gigantic Godzilla-like screen monster. This is violent stuff: Messrs Khodzin and Ford come across as polite, mild-mannered guys, but on hearing these samples you’d be forgiven for assuming they’re a pair of maniacs.

Playable instruments include hard-hitting distorted bass synths, 40 classic analogue leads, plucks, swells and a set of ‘cinematic grains’ leads which include lighter synth textures. The 32 drum kits are presented as 12 playable pads, which you can customise with your favourite drum and percussion factory sounds. You can also import single samples using the ‘Drag & Drop’ patch. All of these sources can be automated by the built-in step sequencer, a quick and easy way of generating rhythmic grooves.

For further rhythmic gratification there’s a selection of pre-programmed, tempo-sync’ed pulses and ‘tick‑tocks’.

The pulses include low, throbbing heartbeats, single‑note synth patterns, percussive thump rhythms and some great hybrid pulses combining kick grooves with raucous synth outbursts and glitchy effects, while the urgent-sounding tick-tock patterns work well as top loops layered over the thunderous low-pitched pulses.

A fabulous set of 83 Kontakt ‘loop stems’ multis weave these excellent samples together into motoring grooves incorporating drum parts and synth pulses, a great way of understanding how Devastator Breakout’s various components fit together. The coup de grace is the ‘Breakout Pro’ instrument, featuring eight sound slots and an automated X/Y pad; a great source of cinematic intros and atmospheres.

The creative possibilities are endless.

Given the quality, power and astonishing variety of this library, I wish I’d caught up with Keepforest sooner, and will certainly be keeping a close eye on them in future!

Dave Stewart Pro $399, Core $299. www.keep-forest.com Audio examples of this month’s libraries are available at www.soundonsound.com.

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Studio One

TECHNIQUE

The Launcher, with the Playlist shown to the right.

size, although the number of bars We put Studio One’s new clip launcher through its paces. same within a scene can vary from scene to ROBIN VINCENT

W

ith the release of Studio One 7, PreSonus introduced an entire clip-launching engine. It has more of a Logic Pro vibe than an Ableton Live vibe, and brings an enormous amount of versatility to your timeline. It’s early days, and the functions are relatively simple, so I thought before it gets too complex, we should break it apart and have a look at what makes it tick.

Let’s start by getting an overview of what it can and can’t do using the ‘DJ Jazzy Jeff — Get Some Air’ demo song that is freely available to download and mess about with in Studio One. When you open up the project, you are faced with the tracks and clips spread around the existing timeline that we all recognise. The Arranger track is active and populated with intro, verse, chorus and so

on. It’s all ready to go and sounds fantastic.

A version of the song is also available in the new Launcher. To open the Launcher, click on the Launcher button in the toolbar; it looks like a 3x3 drum pad. It’s also bound to the B key on your keyboard, and you can find it under the View menu.

Basic Overview The Launcher appears in a very similar way to a Scratch Pad, and overlays itself across half the timeline. What you’re looking at is a grid-based representation of the same project. Each column is called a Scene, and you’ll notice that the Scenes are taken directly from the Arranger track.

You can replicate a project in the Launcher by dragging your verse/chorus Arranger sections directly onto it. This action brings all the clips with it ready to play.

Another thing to notice is that all the scenes in the Launcher are visually the

scene and clip to clip. It’s just that the Launcher is not following the timeline.

The Launcher and the timeline are sort of connected, but not always, while absolutely being so... In that you can use them independently or in combination, but the timeline ultimately has control (most of the time). This will make more sense in a minute, but let’s look at the interaction between the two.

When you first turn the Launcher on, the arrangement still has the focus, and if you hit Play on the transport, it’s the arrangement that plays. To flip it over to the Launcher you need to engage the Toggle Cell Playback Active button, which is the little grey sideways arrowhead just to the left of the Intro scene header at the top of the Launcher. When you click it, the focus is thrown across to the Launcher, but nothing actually plays back because we haven’t yet launched a Scene. Click the toggle again,

When you first open the Launcher, the arrangement will still be in focus, and it’ll be the arrangement you hear when you hit Play. To activate the Launcher, hit the Toggle Cell Playback Active button.

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and the arrangement will resume playback.

However, it doesn’t resume from where it was; rather, it resumes from where it’s got to, because the timeline continues to play regardless of what’s in focus.

So, in the Launcher, click on the Play button in the Chorus scene header, and the Chorus will play and loop around.

Back in the arrangement, the Timeline is still moving. If you click the toggle button now the arrangement will resume playback from wherever it currently is.

It’s an interesting way of auditioning part of a song during playback.

Now, so far, we’ve flipped from Launcher to Arranger and back again, but each track has its own toggle, which is where things get really interesting. In the Arranger, set up a loop around the verse section, enable Looped Playback, and set it playing. Over in the Launcher, set the chorus playing, and it will steal the entire focus so that the arrangement is greyed out, but the song pointer is still travelling.

You should be able to see the track toggle arrows to the left of the cells in the Launcher. Assuming you’re at the top of the project, try hitting the toggle button on the kick and snare tracks. The playback for those tracks flips to the arrangement, and you are now hearing the kick and snare from the verse. Hit the toggle again, and it’s back to the chorus. If you scroll down to the vocal tracks you can drop the verse rap track into the looped Launcher chorus.

The interaction between the Launcher and timeline throws up all sorts of interesting ideas and ways of working on your music that simply weren’t there before. However, it’s not without its quirks.

Try this: turn off the looped playback on the transport and let the song play.

Toggle over to the Launcher and spend a couple of minutes launching different

You can mix and match Launcher and arrangement playback on a per-track basis. Here, the kick and snare are playing according to their content on the timeline, while the other tracks are being triggered by the Launcher.

scenes. What happens? You’ll find that after about two minutes, everything very smoothly fades to silence. That’s because in the arrangement, the main volume control has some automation to fade out the song, and as the Timeline is still playing, the fade still happens. That’s just something to be aware of.

Getting Into The Clips Let’s now put the arrangement/Launcher relationship to one side and focus on using clips, loops and samples in the Launcher. I should note that the Launcher can also handle MIDI and patterns, but for this workshop we’re going to focus on samples. Start with a nice, fresh, empty project.

Open the Browser, click on Loops and down the bottom you should find a folder called Construction Kits. Inside there is a whole bunch of audio loop files designed for the Launcher: Let’s dig in.

In our empty project, hit the Launcher button to open what will be an unimpressively blank Launcher. In this instance, we want to work only with the Launcher, so click on the little Launcher Exclusive haystack icon next to the side arrowhead toggle button, and the Launcher will fill the whole space. By default, you get eight empty scenes to fill, but you can add as many as you like.

I’m going to start in the ‘Disco 112BPM Bm’ folder and drag the ‘drums full DISCO’ loop into the first scene. Studio One generates an audio track and a row of cells to accommodate it, and, as we’d expect, the loop conforms to the project tempo.

Hit Play on the Scene, or on the cell, and you get two bars of looping disco drums — fabulous. Let’s drag in ‘bass 1 DISCO’

underneath. Click the Scene’s Play button and they play together perfectly.

The two loops are different lengths, and so are looping at different points. There’s no overall setting for the length of a scene; each cell’s length and loop points are independent. The looping is dealt with in the Editor for that cell. So, for instance, we could remove the ‘pew pew pew’ disco tom sound from the end of the drum loop by making the loop smaller, without any effect on the bass loop. Double-click the cell to open the audio editor, move the loop point, and it’s done.

Now, underneath, drop in the ‘guitar’, ‘synth chords’, ‘synth seq’ and ‘fx riser’ loops, and you’ll have a nice disco thing going on. Note that by default, the cells are quantised to one bar, so if you click on their Play button, they will start on the next bar. Or if you click the Scene Play button they will all restart on the next bar.

We can quickly create variations or arrangements using the scenes. There are a number of ways you can do this.

You can drag the loops in from the browser, you can copy/paste from cell to cell, you can select one or more cells and press D to duplicate to the next Scene, or you can click in the header of a new Scene and select ‘Add Scene from playing (or selected) Scenes’. You can also hold Ctrl and drag the Scene header next to itself to insert a Scene, but then

If you want to work only using the Launcher, hit the Launcher Exclusive button to the right of the time ruler.

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TECHNIQUE

THE LAUNCHER

Studio One

Dragging content into the Launcher automatically creates a row of cells and an audio track for it.

it names it ‘Scene 9’, which is a bit weird, but they all get us to the same place.

As an example of what Scenes can do, duplicate your cells into six Scenes and then do the following: Scene 1: Delete all except the bass.

Scene 2: Delete all except the bass and guitar.

Scene 3: Do the same but leave the riser.

Scene 4: Delete the riser but add drums and synth chords.

Scene 5: Keep everything but the riser.

Scene 6: Keep just the drums, bass and guitar.

As you move from scene to scene in order, you get a nice little build-up, a chorus and a drop. You can rename the scenes to match what they are if you wish. Let’s do a few tweaks.

Drag the ‘drums fill’ loop into the first cell of Scene 3. It could go on its own track, but it doesn’t need to. If you play the scene you’ll hear the fill come in far too early. Double-click the cell to open the Editor and move the audio so it starts at bar 2. That’s better, but it doesn’t line up with the riser. So, in the Editor, increase the loop to four bars and move the sample to start at bar 4. Do a similar thing with the ‘drums crash rev’. Drop it into Scene 4 on the riser track. Open the Editor, expand the loop to eight bars, and drag the sample to start on bar 7. For Scene 5, let’s put the ‘pew pew’ back in, so double-click the drum bar and expand the loop back to two bars. One more: double-click the ‘synth seq’ cell and expand the loop to eight bars. Copy/paste the sample to fill all the bars. Right-click the cell and set Play Mode to One Shot. Now, when you play Scene 5, the sequenced synth will drop out after eight bars. You can then click its Play button to bring it back in.

function, which essentially chains scenes together into a song.

In the top right-hand corner of the Launcher is a little Playlist icon that looks like a tiny block on a spring. This opens a panel to the side that lists our Scenes and a few global settings. If you’ve ever used the Arranger track list in the main Studio One window to launch different Arranger sections, then this is very similar. You can double-click a Scene in the list to launch playback, but we’re here to make a Playlist. So, in the Scenes list, select Scenes 1‑6 and click the up arrow to send them into the Playlist. Each scene in the Playlist has a number to the right; this is how many times it plays, so you can repeat Scenes and arrange the list however you want. Hit the little power

button next to the Playlist header to launch the list and play through your whole song.

You can make as many Playlists as you like.

Now, how do we capture our Launcher playlist song for distribution?

There are two ways: directly using the Export function, or indirectly via the arrangement window. With the Playlist active, click on the Song menu and select Export Mixdown just like you would normally. You’ll find that there is now a Launcher Playlist option under Export Range. The more indirect route is to insert the Playlist into a song on the Arrange page. You can do this from the little drop-down menu from the Playlist header, and it’s all there for you to export a mixdown or develop further as you would with any Studio One song.

Playlists Now that we have some scenes, we can create an arrangement using a Playlist

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Each cell’s loop in/out points can be set independently. Double-clicking a cell opens its Editor, where you can change the loop’s length and start/end points.

THE WORLD’S BEST RECORDING TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

“I love the magazine. There are certain magazines you read where you take everything with a grain of salt and you’re not quite sure if you believe it. And Sound On Sound, when I read it, I believe it. It feels as though its only agenda is people reporting on stuff they’re interested in.”

Andrew Scheps Engineer, producer, mixer, Grammy Award winner (Lana Del Rey, Hozier, Jay-Z).

W W W.S OUNDONS OUND.COM

Pro Tools

TECHNIQUE

Access to other apps in Pro Tools is a game changer.

Tools. Well, Pro Tools now finally has ARA2, and there’s a slew of software titles that have received the ARA integration treatment. Some of these are ready to go if you own the software, while some have ‘lite’ versions which you may have access to as part of your Pro Tools subscription plan.

Although there has been a bundled version of Melodyne offered with Pro Tools for some time, round‑tripping audio out to another application is a complete flow-killer.

ARA fixes this, and alongside Melodyne, you can now use Synchro Arts’ RePitch within Pro Tools via ARA2. As many Pro Tools users (including me) discovered, there simply is no comparison between tuning in ARA and round-tripping.

Stem Separation JULIAN RODGERS

W

hen Avid release a new version of Pro Tools, they are always careful to make sure it continues to be able to do the things it has done in the past, and not to disrupt existing users and workflows. For example, the 2024.10 release added a huge amount of extra functionality to the Import Session Data window, to allow selections of tracks to be matched with tracks in the open session.

But rather than change the window’s existing behaviour and disrupt users’ muscle memory, they chose to introduce a new mode to facilitate this new feature.

This kind of retrospective compatibility has long been a strength of Pro Tools: I just opened a Pro Tools session created in Pro Tools 6 on a PC in 2003, on an Apple Silicon Mac running a current version of Pro Tools, without incident!

Occasionally though, features do disappear. A good example is the ability to drag and drop clips from the timeline to virtual samplers. This was possible back in the days of Pro Tools 8: editing samples on the timeline and dropping them into AIR’s Structure sampler was a fantastic workflow.

This was broken with a subsequent update, but after a long wait it was finally reintroduced in Pro Tools 2024.10, which I was very pleased to see.

In this article we’ll explore some things which you can now do directly within Pro Tools, which you couldn’t until very recently.

Now that Avid have integrated the Dolby Atmos Renderer into Playback Engine, you no longer have to leave Pro Tools to mix in Atmos.

using Pro Tools to mix Atmos right from the beginning, it used to be necessary to route multiple audio channels out to another computer running the Atmos Renderer. When Avid introduced the Dolby Atmos Bridge to the Playback Engine, it became possible route audio out of Pro Tools and into the Renderer application running on the same computer, but this still required a lot of setting up. It’s only for the last year that Pro Tools has had an Atmos renderer integrated into Pro Tools itself (other DAWs have had this feature rather longer).

This makes it significantly easier to mix Atmos in Pro Tools.

Vocal Tuning Vocal tuning was probably the most frequent reason in music production for round-tripping audio out to an external application and back into Pro

Only a few years ago, the idea of un-mixing audio or ‘stem separation’ was little more than an audio dream, but it’s now a standard feature in many DAWs. While Logic Pro and Studio One have integrated these features into the DAW itself, Pro Tools offers a bundled ‘lite’ version of Steinberg’s SpectraLayers. The applications for such technology include DJs playing live, removing spill from live recordings, and making it easier for musicians to analyse performances when trying to learn. These legitimate uses of the technology sometimes get mired in questions around legality and audio quality, but surely everyone who has tried this technology would rather have it than be without it, even if the results can be frustrating. SpectraLayers Go, the version bundled with Pro Tools, is limited to separating vocals from the rest of a track, but the results are best in class, and while the a cappellas it can create don’t yet sound great in isolation, it is

Dolby Atmos Pro Tools has been central to the development of Atmos mixing, but while big post‑production mixers have been

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Alongside Melodyne, you can now use Synchro Arts’ RePitch directly within Pro Tools, using ARA2.

waveform. This is one of many features which can be found in the second of Steinberg’s ARA integrations, WaveLab. The bundled WaveLab Go includes this feature among many others.

Good Loudness Workflow

Another feature in WaveLab is a far more complete loudness workflow than that offered by using the Momentary, Short Term and Integrated loudness meters found in Avid Pro Limiter, and the included offline Loudness Analyser.

Mixing to loudness targets using these tools is actually pretty efficient once you have enough practice, but it can take multiple attempts to get things bang on, with a repeating cycle of tweaks sometimes taking much longer than is welcome.

WaveLab Go offers both analysis and processing options, including loudness normalisation presets for the main streaming platforms.

Sometimes it’s only when a better way of completing tasks comes along that we really appreciate just how clunky the previous method of achieving the same thing really was. I can remember printing hardware reverbs back onto audio tracks in Pro Tools and having to laboriously print them again with each mix revision.

At the time it felt like a sensible way to have the advantages of both Pro Tools and my Lexicon WaveLab Go includes a number of very powerful features, such as loudness reverbs... With Pro normalisation and waveform resynthesis.

SpectraLayers Go lets you extract the vocal from a complete mix.

great for the reverse: creating instrumentals by muting the vocals.

Spectral Repair Another task that used to require round-tripping to another application is spectral editing and repair. iZotope RX made this process as painless as possible with RX Connect, but with ARA integration it’s all much easier and more immediate.

We take for granted the detailed editing we’ve become used to carrying out in the amplitude domain ever since we’ve been able to display a waveform on a computer screen, but the ease with which previously tricky frequency-based issues can be fixed by directly editing a spectrogram is addictive. Post‑production users have long valued this technique, and all it took to convince me was a particularly obnoxious guitar string squeak, which would previously have required some precision EQ work to address. Spectral editing from the timeline is available in Pro Tools these days, with a choice of ARA plug‑ins offering it, and I wouldn’t be without it.

Fix Corrupted Audio Unlike most DAWs Pro Tools, has never had a dedicated sample editor. Instead, if you zoom into an audio waveform far enough the waveform can be edited directly on the timeline using the pencil tool. In theory this is great for fixing clicks and pops, but in practice this isn’t as useful as it sounds. Unless the glitch in the waveform is little more than an instantaneous spike, the usefulness of drawing in waveforms by hand is limited.

Of course, issues of longer duration are best fixed using conventional edits, patching the offending glitch with audio from elsewhere with suitable crossfades, but there is a more sophisticated alternative: resynthesizing a suitable replacement

Tools only offering real‑time bounces in those days, a bounce that would take moments today using offline bounce and fantastic quality reverb plug-ins could easily take half an hour for a four-minute song.

In exactly the same way, working entirely within your DAW and being able to address issues and complete tasks without relying on external software is something from which there’s little temptation to return. We’re very used to third‑party plug-ins bringing specific processing options into our DAWs. We rarely think of the meaning of the word ‘plug-in’ but the more advanced features made possible by ARA means that features equivalent to an entire alternative DAW can be made available from within our DAW of choice.

With sufficient ARA cross‑compatibility, entire workflows are able to be plugged into our DAWs.

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Logic

TECHNIQUE

Track Stacks are your shortcut to quick and easy stem bouncing.

SAM BOYDELL

L

et’s start with the basics. You’ve created a piece of music and you want to convert that into an audio file that’s playable outside of your DAW. Logic Pro calls this ‘bouncing’ a mix — a term taken from the days of tape, when it was common to send audio from a group of tape tracks to another tape track in order to free up the others, ping-ponging audio around the tape machine before finalising to a stereo master. It describes what is essentially the same process today: taking multiple tracks and squeezing them into a single stereo file.

The other option is to ‘export’ audio.

Many DAWs (and certainly Logic Pro) tend to see this in terms of exporting a single track or clip from a session.

In fact, we can easily use the export process as a faster and better way to get full mixes and stems out of our project — with a little bit of setting up.

Bouncing Back If you go to File / Bounce / Project or Section, the default settings here will bounce everything that currently plays and is active in that session within the boundary you’ve created on your timeline — that’s the yellow (or grey, if inactive) bar that runs along your timeline (Screen 1). For those starting out, PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation. The file types

The Bounce option is fine if you want to export a stereo mix of your entire project, but choosing the Export option can be much more flexible.

categorised as PCM are the ones that involve no lossy data compression, the WAV file format being the most common.

The other options are data-compressed, producing smaller files of lesser quality.

Now, for some of you this will be all you ever really need, but if you work in a professional environment, your sessions may have to be exported multiple ways, for example as stems. Stems are groups of tracks that are exported together, which combine to recreate your stereo mix. This allows for increased flexibility for other people working with your audio (a video editor, for example, might want to rebalance your vocals in a dubbing session). Commonly, you might export separate stems for drums, vocals, music, and so on. This can take a lot of time if

you do it individually. In days gone by, I had to solo all the drum tracks, then perform a bounce, and then repeat the process for the next stem. On big sessions, this took up hours of my day.

Thankfully, since the introduction of Track Stacks, we can set up sessions to export everything we need with just one click. This is also incredibly useful when you have plug‑ins on your master bus that you don’t want to be active during a particular bounce. For example, I use Sonarworks SoundID for monitoring, but I don’t want its room-correction EQ processing my final mix, and I used to have to bypass it each time I bounced (which, painfully, I often forgot to do). If we set up a template that allows us to flexibly export audio at any stage of the

Nested Stack Tracks: the ‘±INDOOR INTERVIEWS’ Summing Track Stack includes subsidiary Track Stacks for each interviewee, and feeds another Mix Bus Track Stack.

Because Summing Track Stacks include audio bussing, each one can easily be exported individually, and you can export multiple Track Stacks at once.

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mix, then we can use the Track Export function instead and do all our exporting in one go without changing anything within the project.

Summing In The Way The first step is creating a template that uses Track Stacks. In my example, I’m mixing a documentary, but the same applies to any use case. Within my session, I’ve used Track Stack folders to group together audio tracks. To do this yourself, highlight all the tracks you want to group and right‑click a track.

Go to Create Track Stack and choose to create a Summing Stack. Summing Stacks are essentially busses that are organised into folders. In contrast, a simple Folder operates as a VCA (volume control only) that doesn’t actually mix audio, and so does not have additional routing options like applying processing to all the tracks in the group.

They therefore cannot be exported in the same way Summing Stacks can.

Screen 2 shows some of the routing in my documentary project. I have a Track Stack named ‘±INDOOR INTERVIEWS’, within which are further Track Stacks — one for each interviewee. Each track stack feeds its own bus, allowing for total control over each element. You can get as creative as you like, but it’s best

to keep it simple so that your session is most functional for your needs and relative to what you are exporting. In my session, I’ve also set up an auxiliary track called ‘Mix Bus’. Everything in the session eventually ends up there, and from there is routed to Logic’s default Stereo Out.

“Since the introduction of Track Stacks, we can set up sessions to export everything we need with just one click.”

Now, I can place Sonarworks on the Stereo Out for monitoring, but when I export ‘Mix Bus’, it won’t process the final master because the export is taking place beforehand.

Feel The Flow This routing does have the potential to trip you up, in that you have to remember that anything after the Track Stack you’re exporting won’t be included — including any bus processing on the Stereo Out, and possibly send effects too, depending on where they return.

This is why it’s best to set up Track Stacks for all effects that relate to each

group. For instance, I have a Stack for all sound design, as well as a separate one dedicated to sound design send/return effects (only), knowing that if my client wants to, they can turn down the reverb on the sound design, say.

When I compose musical scores, I have a Track Stack dedicated to orchestral elements, another for effects, one for vocals only, and so on. Creating templates with these already in place will dramatically improve your workflow later on in the project.

Final Steps So, we’ve got our session laid out, all we need to do now is export. Select all the Track Stacks you want to export and go to File / Export / # Tracks as Audio Files. Choose your options and click Export. Voila!

We’ve created a scenario where we can export all tracks, all stems and a final stereo mix in one fell swoop. No more sitting at the computer waiting to bounce again! You could even go one step further and create multiple mix busses that have different limiters on them, set to produce the loudness values required by different streaming services. People often ask me how I produce work on such tight deadlines — this is how!

Sonarworks SoundID is inserted on the Stereo Out bus, but because everything in the mix goes to a Full Mix bus, I can export that without having to remember to deactivate Sonarworks. Everything I’ve highlighted here can be exported in one go (the ‘Dead VCA’ track allows me to mute any alternate mix busses I’ve set up).

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Q

How loud is a concert grand piano?

What is the approximate sound pressure level of a concert grand piano, about 12 inches above the hammers during a triple forte passage — or, in other words, as loud as it could get?

I’d like to make sure that if I’m getting any distortion it’s not at the microphone (I have the maximum SPL ratings of all of my mics). I’ve been getting decent results with mics about 18 inches above the hammers, but I’d like to bring them even closer in. I can experiment with this, but is there a general Goldilocks zone, for a worst-case scenario fortississimo passage?

SOS Forum post Hugh Robjohns, Technical Editor It’s difficult to be definitive, as every piano and pianist will be different, but there’s some published research into this question so ball-park figures are available. Microphone company DPA state that “the sound pressure level inside a concert grand piano can exceed 130dB SPL peak at less than eight inches (20cm) over the strings...” and I’ve read other papers that claim peak levels of 136dB SPL immediately above the hammers.

The initial impact of hammer on string

Q

How should I ‘correct’ an inconsistent snare?

I have a recording of a drummer where the sound is decent, but there are some issues with the performance. In particular, there are quite a few snare hits that are too quiet, where he didn’t quite hit it right. EQ and compression is getting me nowhere, and it seems a shame to just replace the snare entirely, because the sound generally is pretty good. Is there a right way to tackle this?

Jim Barnes via email Matt Houghton, Reviews Editor There are plenty of tools you can use to even out the levels, and on drums I often like to use Sound Radix Drum Leveler rather than a compressor as it doesn’t impose a ‘curve’ that changes the sound.

But a mis-hit drum isn’t just quieter: if it sounds bad you won’t get a good result however loud it is, and that means you

144

January 2025 / www.soundonsound.com

is effectively a point source, so the level of that first transient will reduce by around 6dB for each doubling of distance: if it was 136dB SPL at eight inches, it would be close to 142dB at four inches, and 148dB at two inches — in theory! In practice, I doubt many pianos, let alone most pianists, are capable of generating that kind of SPL, and I suspect there would be tuning and other mechanical issues to resolve.

I’ve used Sennheiser MKH20s close to the hammers in a grand piano on several occasions and not had distortion problems. Without the pad, these are rated for a maximum SPL of 134dB. I’ve also used AKG C414B-ULS mics (rated at 140dB SPL) without the pad. To be confident, I would suggest using a mic rated for something in excess of 130dB SPL where possible. However, in practice there are probably very few occasions that get anywhere near that level. Also, remember that the maximum SPL rating of a mic is not its clipping level, but rather

the level where the output generates 0.5% Total Harmonic Distortion (some manufacturers use the 1% THD figure because it will be higher!). On transient peaks it’s pretty hard to hear even 3% distortion (which defined the standard maximum operating level for open-reel tape machines), so I suggest you don’t get too bogged down with the numbers.

The vast majority of mics will cope perfectly well, even with a gorilla at the keyboard!

do really need to replace the offending hits somehow. One approach would be to use, as you imply, a drum replacement plug-in, and for the replacement sample I’d use a good hit (or load a sampler with multiple good hits) from elsewhere in the recording. But there are a few reasons why that might not be my first choice...

First, as you say, you’re replacing the many good hits, not just the problem ones. Second, if the hits are too quiet and there’s lots of bleed, it can sometimes be fiddly setting up the trigger plug-in so that it works consistently well throughout the track. Third, the bad hits will be present in all the other mic recordings, including the overheads and room, and they can be really important to the snare sound. While you could bounce down a stereo mix of the drum mics to create your replacement sample, you still have to devise a way of turning down the other mics without causing collateral damage.

Not impossible, but it takes care and time.

So... If you’re going to spend all that time and effort, why not just opt for simple edits and crossfades? Just copy a good, solid hit (or several) from elsewhere in the recording, and paste it in place of the offending hits. Most DAWs have tools to make this sort of thing quick and easy: with a tab to transient function, a paste command and suitable crossfades, manually replacing dodgy hits in a typical rock track won’t take forever, and there needn’t be any phasing or other artefacts, as you listen carefully to the result. What I really like about this approach is that most DAWs make it really easy to cut/ paste all the drum multitracks in one go, so the ‘new’ snare is heard in all the drum mics, just as if it were the real performance. Do listen carefully to each edit: make sure the timing is right, adjust the fades if needed, and check that you haven’t truncated any sustained sounds such as cymbals or open hi-hats that are still playing when the snare is struck.

A pair of DPA mics designed for close-miking inside a piano.

“The vast majority of mics will cope perfectly well, even with a gorilla at the keyboard!”

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w w w . s o u n d o n s o u n d . c o m / November 2016

145

METERS NEIL ELKINS

M

ix with your ears not your eyes, goes the old saying. While a non-professional like myself is in no position to disagree with such sage advice, my ears need all the help they can get, and the modern DAW provides help by the bucket load.

Let’s start with the raw material of music production — the sounds. Maybe a motley selection of sampled snippets or (shock horror) the output of a real instrument. Tradition dictates that these elements should be in tune, so we grab our first trusty tool: the aptly named tuner plug‑in.

This usually shows a ‘big dial’ visualisation, which makes it easy to hit the correct pitch.

Sometimes the sound source is so ‘organic’ that the poor tuner goes on strike. Or it could be you’ve

forgotten which key your epic modular synth drone was played in (if there even was a key). Here we first meet our friend the spectrum analyser. This will show you the peaks and troughs in your sound as a moving graph of frequency versus level — and with any luck, the peaks will coincide with musical notes, which are easy to read from the pitch scale.

Skipping past the terrifying process of actually writing some music, we get to mixing.

Opinions vary, but to save a multi-month YouTube tutorial wormhole, let’s just agree that nothing should clash and nothing should poke out too harshly. But how on Earth are we going to check all that on a pair of headphones, or on speakers without upsetting the neighbours? Hello again, Mr Spectrum Analyser. We can easily check the vital low octave for bass/kick clashes

“My ears need all the help they can get and the modern DAW provides help by the bucket load.”

146

January 2025 / www.soundonsound.com

and ensure they’re both peaking at the correct level.

Usefully, most equaliser devices now also include an analyser display behind the EQ curve, so it’s easy to locate and tame those horrible sticky-out frequencies in the midrange. If anything needs further cajoling into the mix we can add a compressor or 10. Even these humble devices have visual readouts showing signal level and gain reduction, thus ending the age old ‘is it actually doing anything?’ conundrum.

Now comes the harsh reality of comparing our mix to a favourite song. It’s an easy task to drag that song into the DAW timeline and flick between the two comparing by ear. It’s only slightly more difficult to use our old pal the spectrum analyser to compare the songs’ frequency distributions.

Some analyser plug‑ins even allow you to do this on the same display simultaneously.

More mixing and matching ensues and our song is almost there, but it needs

to be louder. But it won’t go louder without bumping its head on the inviolable 0dBFS line. Impatience and lack of funds mean sending the track to a real mastering engineer is out of the question and besides, setting up a chain of multiband compression, clipping and limiting is easy enough. But how far should we push it? Too much would be as bad as too little. This is where we grab a loudness meter to ensure the mix is hitting that sweet, sweet -9 LUFS spot (please don’t judge me).

So finally we’re done, the song sounds great at home, it thumps in the car and it doesn’t take anyone’s head off when played on a PA system. Friends may even make sceptical comments about it sounding ‘quite professional’ — but we know the secret. Oh and did I forget to mention, all these metering tools are either included in your DAW of choice, or available as freeware? What a time to be an amateur!

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These articles were originally published in Sound On Sound magazine, January 2025 edition THE WORLD’S BEST RECORDING TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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THE WORLD’S BEST RECORDING TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

THE WORLD’S BEST RECORDING TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

1985 — 2024

1985 — 2024

THE WORLD’S BEST RECORDING TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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