Sound On Sound UK April 2023

Research by the Music Producers Guild shows that studio booking rates are the same today as they were 15 years ago. High-end studios such as Liverpool’s Motor Museum and Kempston Street Studios are fully booked, but there’s constant downward pressure on these rates, as labels demand more for less. At the same time, the costs involved in running a studio have spiralled. The studio sector had barely found its feet after Covid before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a global energy crisis. An MPG poll has found that studios are paying between 250 and 400 percent more for their electricity now than they were in 2021. This has been a heavy blow, and it’s about to get a lot worse. If it wasn’t for government support, costs would have spiralled even…

While sE made their mark building capacitor studio mics, and later some notable ribbon models (including the Rupert Neve-designed RNR-1), they also have a range of moving-coil models, to which the DCM3 and DCM6 are the latest additions. Both employ the same capsule, with a frequency response voiced to capture a smooth and natural vocal sound, the key difference being them being that the DCM6 incorporates active circuitry derived from sE’s Dynamite inline preamp. Designed to be powered from a standard phantom power source, this adds a fixed 30dB of clean gain. The preamp in the DCM6 can be bypassed when loud sources are being recorded, but is a real help when dealing with quieter or more distant sounds. Both mics share the same all-metal housing with satin black finish, and…

Various companies have offered plug-in models of revered Ampeg bass amps, but this one is the first to come from Ampeg themselves, and as well as offering a selection of modelled amps and cabinets, it boasts a range of useful effects. Currently at version 1.1, the company’s SVT Suite supports AU, AAX and VST plug-in hosts on Mac/Windows operating systems; I tested the plug-in in Logic Pro running on a Mac. Overview The plug-in offers the user a choice of three classic Ampeg bass amp heads: the Heritage 50th Anniversary SVT, the Heritage SVT-CL, and the SVT-4PRO. Any of these heads can be paired with any of eight included Ampeg speaker cabinet models, and these include the classic Heritage SVT-810AV, complete with flexible miking options. Other cabinets include the SVT-610HLF, the SVT-15E,…

Available for Mac OS and Windows (AU/VST/AAX), the Tomofon plug-in might best be described as ‘a wavetable synth, Jim, but not as we know it’. Klevgrand say that the instrument employs a new ‘Audio Model’ format, containing thousands of waves based on real audio as its sound sources. It is not a sampler, though you can feed it with samples, and it isn’t your usual wavetable synth either. As I understand the process, Tomofon analyses a monophonic sample, which can contain different notes, and then spreads the pitches across the keyboard in keygroups populated by separate wavetables. Sounds are created by repeating single-cycle waveforms in a similar manner to the more familiar wavetable synthesis. It is possible to modulate the position (Depth) within the wavetable from which waves are taken, which…

Will Slater and Simon Ashdown, better known as the developer/composer and sound‑designer collective Slate + Ash, have always been known for extending the boundaries of Kontakt instruments. Their latest navigates a beautiful medium between steps and triggers, with multiple modulations. Upfront Collectives As a synth construct things appear relatively familiar, with three oscillators up front, feeding a low‑pass filter. The oscillator wave content is significant, with 427 sampled sources, ranging from the more common saws and squares generated by vintage synths, through to complex digital wave shapes generated by digital synths and modular sources. The 22GB download provides an idea of scale, but as Slate + Ash are in‑demand sound designers as well as composers the quality is as assured as it is substantial. There are also drum and sound effects sources,…

Almost every mainstream DAW now includes a plug-in bundle containing one or more reverb plug-ins, so pretty much every computer-based music producer already has access to a selection of spring, plate, hall or other standard reverb ‘spaces’. But if your music making features an experimental streak, you’ll probably enjoy reverb effects that offer a little more ‘creative inspiration’ — and, if you use a Windows-based machine you might find that G-Sonique’s RRTX24 Resonant Techno Reverb, described by the developers as an “algorithmic FX extraterrestrial reverb”, might appeal. G-Sonique are a small development team based in the Slovak Republic, and while the RRTX24 has been my first encounter with their plug-ins it seems they were founded back in 2007, and they already offer lots of modestly priced virtual instruments, effects plug-ins and…