Sound On Sound UK March 2022

“For the first time ever, it’s possible to compose for the orchestra entirely by ear.” Ask anyone in the know about trends in music technology, and the reply will probably contain the word ‘democratised’. DAW software has democratised music recording. Affordable analogue synths have democratised electronic music. Streaming has democratised music distribution. And so on. Dig deeper and things become more complicated — if the music industry is so democratic, why are so many successful artists privately educated? — but the general pattern is clear, and clearest of all in the world of orchestral music. Thirty years ago, the idea that anyone with a computer would be able to create plausible recordings of symphonic music would have seemed laughable. Today, schools up and down the land make the tools available to their…

While USB mics tend to be aimed at podcasters, there’s no reason not to use them for music recording, and if you are on the move, they save the hassle of having to take an audio interface with you. The inexpensive AKG Ara is an elegantly styled, dual-pattern microphone supplied in its own desktop swivel stand. The Ara comes with a thread adaptor just in case you want to unscrew the yoke from the base to mount it on a mic stand, and there’s a USB-C to USB-A cable two metres in length. Users can also download a free copy of Ableton’s Live 11 Lite if they complete a registration card. The two patterns are labelled as Front (cardioid) and Front and Back (figure-8), the latter being useful in a podcast…

Baby Audio may be relatively young in plug-in developer terms but over the last couple of years they’ve grown an impressive collection of modestly priced plug-ins that have earned some very positive reviews. The latest addition to the catalogue is TAIP, pronounced ‘tape’. Yes, it’s another tape emulation plug-in — but the twist in the spelling denotes the involvement of some AI in the underlying algorithm, so there’s a little more going on here than with most. Is TAIP worth the price of entry? Let’s find out... “With an intuitive, streamlined control set, it really doesn’t take long to dial things in yourself.” The UI follows the modern, minimalist styling of Baby Audio’s other plug-ins: TAIP is built around a single screen with a simple preset browser system, a handful of controls,…

KRK’s studio monitors are a familiar sight, with their distinctive woven yellow cones, but the their new KNS 8402 closed-back headphones have a much more sober look. These are circumaural, which means they are designed to fit around the average ear rather than on it. Designed in California and made in Taiwan, the KNS 8402s employ 40mm-diameter neodymium drivers. The 2.5m connecting cable is made using 99.99% oxygen-free copper wire, and to ensure a long life, parts such as the cable and the head and ear cushions are replaceable. A soft carrying case is included for storage when not in use. The frequency response is quoted as ranging from 5Hz to 23kHz, and the distortion specified at less than 0.1% (which is much better than most loudspeaker systems manage!). The…

Austrian Audio are by now a familiar name in studio circles, thanks to their impressive OC-series microphones and Hi-X headphones, and their next target is the world of live sound, with two new microphones designed for stage vocal use. The OC707 and OD505 share a similar physical housing, which incorporates an interesting innovation called Open Acoustics Design, but whereas the former employs the same small-diaphragm capacitor capsule used in the CC8 studio mic, the OD505 uses a newly developed and rather unusual moving-coil dynamic element. Several things mark this out as being out of the ordinary. One is that the OD505 is an active microphone, requiring 48V phantom power and delivering a somewhat hotter output than most passive mics; at 4.4mV/Pa, its sensitivity falls somewhere between what’s typical of moving-coil and…

I reviewed the original Jones-Scanlon monitors back in SOS August 2019. Since that time, the company’s monitor line has expanded, and the long-anticipated integration of Sonarworks’ Reference 4 room analysis and loudspeaker calibration software — since rebranded SoundID Reference —has been delivered. Other than a revised DSP board (which can be retrofitted to previously purchased J-S monitors), the updated Jones-Scanlon monitors remain unchanged in both construction and electro-acoustic performance. You’ll find those latter two aspects discussed in detail not only in my original review, but also in Phil Ward’s SOS August 2020 review of the Jones-Scanlon Baby Reds. John Walden, meanwhile, wrote an in-depth review of SoundID Reference in SOS July 2021, which I would recommend reading in order to understand its capabilities. The integration of room analysis and loudspeaker calibration software…