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Author Archive
Apogee has built a super solid reputation as one of the best A/D D/A converter manufacturers (for those unaware, A stands for Analog and D for Digital, and converters are one of the main reasons why your home recordings will never sound very good). So this year at NAMM we were a little surprised to see Apogee staff showcasing a… pedal controller for guitarists! This baby is called GiO and it’s a complete guitar interface for Apple’s new Logic Studio 9, MainStage 2 and GarageBand ’09. Combining effects control, recording functions and the sound quality Apogee is renowned for, GiO allows guitar players to control recording functions, preset changes and plug-ins like Amp Designer and Pedalboard, along with new Playback and Loopback features in MainStage. A couple of details make this interface stand out from the pack: It features foot switches with led lights that change color according to the triggered plug in (which is a very useful way to visualize which virtual effects you are toying with in your chain), and it lets you access all the most important DAW functions without the need of touching the keyboard or the mouse at all – even record, loop, punch in, […]... Click on the title for more
BFD2 is the second edition of Fxpansion’s industry-leading full-featured acoustic drum simulation software. The package comes with over 55 gigabytes of lovingly recorded drum samples, but samples are just the beginning of what BFD2 has to offer musicians and producers. Immediately upon starting up BFD2, you’ll notice that the interface was designed from the ground up for creativity and ease of use. Anyone familiar with a drum kit will be at home putting together a custom set from BFD2’s fairly large number of custom drums. With flexible keymapping options and a robust groove editor, BFD2’s interface was clearly designed with the understanding that no two people are going to use the software in exactly the same way. Just to get it out of the way quickly: the drums that you can create with BFD2 sound absolutely incredible. The quality of the samples, velocity layers, and articulations are so high, actually, that if your performances aren’t up to par, your tracks are going to sound fake and amateurish. A good velocity-sensitive drum pad is almost necessary for entry, but still might not prove enough for all styles of music. You may need a full electronic kit for realistic rock drums, so […]... Click on the title for more
When you pay a lot for a brand name mic (that is, if you even have the money in the first place) you are paying for a quality design, build and components, right? For the most part that’s true. But it is frustrating to know that you are also paying more simply for the brand name and in some cases the vintage of the mic, which implies a certain quality. Conversely, you may save money on a cheap mic, but it’s even more frustrating to hear the poor sounding results. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just take your cheap mic to a mic guru and have him soup it up into a super high-quality, boutique mic? Well, that’s exactly what Michael Joly of OktavaMod in Springfield, MA does. This boutique service from OktavaMod is the biggest step forward for home recordists in a long time. In fact, this aftermarket modifying and upgrading service is part of a bigger trend in audio products that I believe will become a huge part of the market in the next few years. OktavaMod offers an array of awesome mods for Chinese and Russian-made condenser and ribbon microphones, as well as selling new […]... Click on the title for more
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The Diamond Memory Lane 2 is a lush and expressive 100% analog delay pedal capable of producing some very convincing tape-style delays, consistently rich tones, and crazy spaceship noises. Equipped with an easily accessible tap-tempo switch, quarter note delays and triplet/U2 rhythms can be tapped in on the fly.... Click on the title for more
One of the most interesting pieces of equipment showcased at this year's NAMM conference was the 
