Sound On Sound UK November 2021

When it comes to dynamics processing, we’ve never had it so good. Once upon a time, even the largest studios had only basic compressors, noise gates and perhaps de-essers. You were lucky if a hardware compressor offered fully variable attack and release times: luckier still if its actual behaviour bore any resemblance to the numbers printed on the front. Today, by contrast, our plug-in folders bristle with brickwall limiters, multiband compressors, dynamic EQs, resonance suppressors, transient shapers, parallel compressors, upwards compressors and countless other options. But how much better are our mixes? Now I’d be the last person to discourage readers from trying and buying new things. New equipment is the lifeblood of this magazine. It can inspire us, help us to get results faster, or just push us in different…

B Back in September 2010, we reviewed MXL’s original Revelation valve microphone, and more recently, in July 2021, we checked out the MkII version. Now those mics have an affordable solid-state sibling: the Revelation Mini FET. This new mic uses a 32mm capsule, with a centre-terminated, six-micron-thick, gold-sputtered Mylar diaphragm. Its preamp circuit is, we’re informed, designed to “provide a classic sound with modern flexibility” and low noise, though oddly no noise figure is included in the spec sheet. Unlike the tube models, which have switchable polar patterns, the Mini FET has a fixed cardioid pattern. Unscrewing the base and removing the body sleeve reveals a double-sided circuit board populated mainly with surface-mount parts. Supplied in a small camera-style case with an elastic-cradle shockmount included, the mic’s styling has a lot in…

The Kontakt instrument format seems to have become an ecosystem all of its own in recent years, with more and more developers seeking to provide content to keep musicians and producers stimulated. While many of these instruments adopt a relatively familiar form, there are occasions when developers seek to shake up the Kontakt norm. This could certainly be said of Simon Ashdown and Will Slater, who form the partnership Slate + Ash. Their latest Kontakt-based instrument, Landforms, draws upon their impressive output and credentials as composers and sound designers. Sampling From The Real World At the core of Landforms is a beautifully curated set of acoustic samples, with a little bit of source content in the guise of sound design. Sample capture was undertaken at Real World Studios, in the Wood Room.…

One effective way of establishing a new brand is to start at the top. Begin by launching a premium product range, and you entrench a perception that the brand stands for quality. With a bit of luck, this perception will then rub off on more affordable mass-market products further down the line. This seems to be a strategy that Austrian Audio have pursued, and with considerable success. Their OC-series microphones have won acclaim from professional engineers and have proved able to hold their own against strong competition from established names; likewise, until now, their Hi-X headphones have been targeted at the upper end of the project-studio market. With the new Hi-X15 model, however, Austrian Audio have made available their ‘high excursion’ driver at a much more affordable price. Designated Drivers Physically speaking, there’s…

Sample Logic have a well-established catalogue of sophisticated virtual instruments, and have just released their first plug-in. Animation Station delivers a combination of the pattern-and arpeggiation-creation tools found in many of their own instruments as a standalone plug-in, which can be employed with any of the user’s favourite virtual instruments. First Steps Animation Station is, in essence, a standalone step sequencer/arpeggiator. It allows you to create patterns of up to 64 steps in length and provides control over seven parameters for each step: step on/off, playback rate, arpeggio type, velocity, duration of note within step, pitch transpose of step above trigger note, and stutter rate. Hovering over any lane label produces a drop-down menu to access presets for just that lane. You can also ‘link’ steps using a button that appears as…

PROS • Powerful comping feature operating inside audio clips. • Expression spread adds randomness and variation to notes and audio events. • Operators for notes and audio act as algorithmic compositional tools. CONS • No comping of MIDI input. • Import of Ableton Live sets is partial at best. SUMMARY Bitwig Studio 4 strengthens the DAW’s position as part composition system, part modular music engine. Comping combines multiple takes with creative audio slicing at the clip level, while operators facilitate patterns and add randomness to notes and audio events. The result is a bigger box of creative tools for experimentation and production.…