Sound On Sound UK February 2021

“Like all love affairs, love of vintage gear isn’t entirely rational.” Like all love affairs, love of vintage gear isn’t entirely rational. Old equipment is often unreliable, noisy and limited. But we still pay inflated prices for classic synths and studio hardware, because... well, why? A depressing answer would be because it represents an investment. We’ve all seen things we bought new plummet in value like a Lexus being driven off the forecourt. The idea that some might actually appreciate while we own them is understandably attractive. But if this was the only thing holding up the prices of vintage gear, it would be the bubble to end all bubbles. If vintage equipment was only valued as an investment, it wouldn’t matter whether it was functional or not. But when people hand over…

Scope Labs’ Periscope looks like an eyeball lodged in a piece of Victorian plumbing, and comes in a replica treasure chest lined with shocking pink satin. If there was an SOS Award for Most Steampunk Studio Item, this would sweep the field. It also gets a special commendation for having the only spec sheet that’s ever made me laugh out loud. The metal hemisphere at the business end actually houses not an eyeball but an ear, in the shape of a miniature omnidirectional electret microphone capsule. Within the Periscope’s copper-coloured body, meanwhile, your 48V phantom supply doesn’t only feed the impedance converter. It also powers a built-in analogue compressor, hard-wired to nuke the signal into oblivion. The Periscope is undoubtedly novel, then, but is it merely a novelty? When we all have…

At the heart of Pope Audio’s first release is the famous Baxandall ‘tone control’ circuit. While Peter Baxandall’s classic design has long been popular with hi-fi manufacturers (if you’ve used a hi-fi with ‘bass’ and ‘treble’ controls, it’s likely a Baxandall EQ) it has also found its way into several audio production devices, and with good reason. It’s a simple, but highly effective concept involving very broad shelving EQs, whose slopes rise and fall gently. This makes possible broad, sweeping changes to your audio that won’t introduce unpleasant phase distortion. Not only does the new BAX2020 put this classic tone-shaping EQ into a 500-series module, but it also adds some ‘vintage’ character. In fact, Pope offer a few variations, each one featuring the same minimal Hi and Lo controls but differing…

When I first glimpsed the prototype of these speakers at the 2020 NAMM show in January last year, they were very much an unexpected addition to the Output range, as the company’s line-up otherwise consists of software and studio furniture. In designing these monitors, Output enlisted the help of Barefoot Sound, the US company behind a distinguished range of esoteric studio monitors. Essentially Barefoot looked after the speaker design while Output contributed the cosmetics. The resulting design was then put to manufacture in the Far East, a move that enabled Output to bring these monitors to market at a very competitive price. The monitors are two-way active speakers built around a 6.5-inch time-aligned, dual-concentric driver, newly developed for the Frontier with the aim of maintaining phase coherence across a wide range…

You’d have to have been living under a rock for the last few years to fail to notice Cranborne’s emergence on the pro audio scene. Their 500R8 and 500ADAT racks and Camden 500 preamp module have since taken the 500-series world by storm. More recently, their Camden EC2 rackmountable two-channel preamp improved on the already excellent Camden design. Both of those preamps offer outstanding technical performance for a very reasonable price but as well as ultra-clean gain, they also feature a Mojo circuit that allows you to dial in one of two different tonal characters to taste. As well as improving slightly on the Camden 500’s specifications, the EC2 added a number of helpful features, including a reference-quality stereo headphone amp and a couple of inputs for external line-level sources,…

PROS • The new Rev 4 Prophet-5 and Prophet-10 synths recreate the original instruments with the utmost authenticity. • The new versions add essential modern features such as velocity, aftertouch, USB and a full MIDI spec. • You can switch between Rev 1/2 and Rev 3 filters. • The instruments look and sound as great as ever, combining the classic Prophet design with rock-solid tuning. CONS • The price. • Patch archiving is done via MIDI SysEx data dumps, rather than a simple save onto a USB stick. SUMMARY This legendary keyboard created the template and set the standard for hundreds of imitators, few of which sounded as good. Now the Prophet is back, replicating the original classic design while offering a host of new features and vastly improved reliability. Great for lush PWM string pads, brass stabs, screaming…