Sound On Sound UK May 2022

“The striking thing is that the more clones, tributes and lookalikes flood the market, the more desirable the originals become.” During his lifetime, Antonius Stradivarius made around 2000 instruments, but dying gave his productivity a real boost. Stradivarius’ name appeared posthumously on hundreds of thousands of violins, violas and cellos, most of which were frankly nasty. Did Americans buying five-dollar German-made fiddles really believe they were getting the real thing? Unlikely. What the label advertised — optimistically, in most cases — was that these instruments were built to the Stradivarius pattern, not that they were actually made in the master’s workshop. In a more subtle form, this sort of marketing still prevails. The aim is not to pass off one manufacturer’s product as another’s, because that would be illegal. But the intention…

In many ways, the ribbon microphone is the quintessential ‘boutique’ product. It’s a fundamentally simple design that is nevertherless amenable to endless modifications and improvements, and the all-important process of fitting and tensioning the ribbon can’t easily be done other than using skilled human hands. With the popularity of ribbon mics showing no sign of declining, it’s no surprise that manufacturers continue to innovate. The newest faces in this particular sphere are Alder Audio, an American manufacturer led by Tyler Campbell, and their launch product is a passive ribbon microphone called the H44. This uses a ribbon motor design that has several interesting features. Like most ribbon mics, its pickup pattern is natively figure-8, but it’s designed in such a way that the front and rear of the mic have intentionally…

U JAM made quite a splash with Striiiings, the first release in their Symphonic Elements series, bringing their user-friendly ‘virtual performer’ instrument format to the orchestral string section (see the review in the April 2021 issue of SOS). They have now added a second title to that series — Drums — and while the name only contains one vowel in the middle rather than four, in a neat bit of graphic design, the central ‘u’ is rather nicely stylised in the shape of a timpani. As with Striiiings, Drums is a collaboration with UJAM co-founder Hans Zimmer, featuring heavyweight drum samples from the Hollywood superhero’s own collection and presented within a similar phrase/pattern-based format. So, if you are looking to get a dose of Zimmeresque drums into your own productions, is…

Best known to older readers as the company that kick-started home recording with their open-reel four-track machines and the legendary Portastudio, Tascam now manufacture a wide range of audio products, many aimed at the pro audio market. However, they also make more affordable products for the live music and home recording markets. A good example of that is their TM-82 dynamic microphone, which is aimed at those on a tight budget who need a cardioid vocal or instrument microphone. Though Tascam are a Japanese company, the microphone is built in China, presumably to maintain a low selling price. It comes in a cardboard box with a US thread mic clip, but no storage pouch. There’s relatively little technical information available about the TM-82, though the instruction sheet does include a frequency…

Other World Computing computer peripherals are targeted at people working in the media industries, and although nearly all of their products are cross-platform, many are optimised to meet the needs of Apple users. None more so than the miniStack STX! As the name and form factor suggest, it’s designed to sit neatly below or above a Mac Mini, and the expansion options it offers particularly complement that model. U OK Hub? When connected using the supplied cable to a Thunderbolt 4 PC or an Apple computer running Mac OS 11.1 or later, the miniStack serves as a Thunderbolt 4 hub, adding three Type C Thunderbolt ports to whatever complement the host machine has, and supplying up to 60W of power for laptops. Unlike OWC’s Thunderbolt Dock, though, the miniStack doesn’t duplicate other…

This affordable electric piano from Sampleson is based on a rare student model Wurlitzer, the 106P, notable for its retro 1970s orange plastic case, cute 44-note keyboard, and lack of sustain pedal. The sound engine uses spectral modelling, making for a tiny installation size of about 45MB in any of its forms (32-/64-bit VSTs in Windows, a VST or Audio Unit in Mac OS, or standalone app). It also means there’s no nasty lurches in sound across the velocity and pitch ranges. Intriguingly, Reed 106 is said to be ‘ever-changing’, with continual small variations in sound quality mimicking the effect that temperature, humidity and power-supply fluctuations might have on a real Wurli. Wurli Burly In use, Reed106 is a self-effacing presence on your computer. The scalable high-DPI interface offers only a handful…