Review

Reviews

By George Shilling and Russell Cottier

With many years experience working as recording engineers and producers, our review team of George Shilling and Russell Cottier know the good from the bad. In many cases it's a matter of taste, some prefer one EQ over another but we try to provide unbiased and objective reviews of the equipment tested.

ifi ZEN One Studio Digital to Analogue converter with Bluetooth
Apr 17 2024 Digital to Analogue converter with Bluetooth
ifi ZEN One Studio

ifi have been designing hifi products in Britain for over 20 years. I first came across the brand several years ago when I was alerted to the importance of using a good quality phono preamp to boost turntable cartridge gain and implement the required RIAA...

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Baby Audio Atoms Physical modeling synth plugin
Mar 23 2024 Physical modeling synth plugin
Baby Audio Atoms

Following on from their retro-inspired BA-1 synth plugin, Baby Audio sends me into some other worlds with their new Atoms plugin. The first of Baby Audio’s virtual instruments was a fun re-creation of a mini vintage synth.

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Audio Ease Altiverb 8 Convolution reverb plugin
Dec 7 2023 Convolution reverb plugin
Audio Ease Altiverb 8

It has been some years since I reviewed a new version of Altiverb. Audio Ease have however continued during all this time to quietly add new impulse responses. And these are available free to users of this grandaddy of convolution reverbs.

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Baby Audio Transit Multi-effects plugin
Nov 2 2023 Multi-effects plugin
Baby Audio Transit

Baby Audio are relatively new kids on the block, making some innovative and very groovy plugins that a number of influential producers have adopted and lauded.

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Accentize dxRevive Speech restoration plugin
Sep 16 2023 Speech restoration plugin
Accentize dxRevive

dxRevive is a speech restoration plugin, designed to correct audio problems such as background noise, clipping, overly-reverby recordings. It can also restore missing frequencies using AI. Although designed for dialogue restoration, we thought we would have a look at uses for this in music.

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Kalide Collage Creative effects plugin
Aug 31 2023 Creative effects plugin
Kalide Collage

Collage is a “modular effects system” bundled up as a single plugin. Its processor modules include all kinds of effects like modulation, dynamics, EQ, filters, reverb, delays, distortion, panning and width controls and more. But that doesn’t really tell the whole story.

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Eiosis e2deesser De-esser plugin
Aug 20 2023 De-esser plugin
Eiosis e2deesser

Eiosis was the brainchild of renowned plugin designer Fabrice Gabriel, who set up the company before teaming up with Steven Slate to co-found Slate Digital.

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Distortion In Music Production: The Soul Of Sonics
Jul 27 2023
Distortion In Music Production: The Soul Of Sonics

So it is with a slight scepticism that I come to education and training. While good practice and studio techniques are something to teach and learn, some of what makes great records is not necessarily teachable.

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Electrodyne Summing Station Console centre section
Jul 1 2023 Console centre section
Electrodyne Summing Station

Electrodyne has been in operation in several different incarnations over the past half century. In the late 1940s and early 1950s they manufactured valve broadcast gear. In the 1960s Electrodyne made consoles under the Quad-Eight brand.

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PSP FETpressor FET compressor plugin
Jun 22 2023 FET compressor plugin
PSP FETpressor

Polish plug-in designer PSP has been producing hardware inspired plug-ins for nearly 15 years. The plug-in solutions tend to be tools in their own right with a generic analogue feel to them, but not specific emulations.

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Warm Audio WA73-EQ Single channel mic-pre with EQ
Jun 8 2023 Single channel mic-pre with EQ
Warm Audio WA73-EQ

Warm Audio was founded in 2011 by Bryce Young and has come a long way, now offering accessible incarnations of classic studio pieces at reasonable prices. What’s more, you won’t have to expect huge repair costs with these all new ‘vintage’ racks.

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AMS Neve BCM10/2 MK2 10 channel mixing console
May 15 2023 10 channel mixing console
AMS Neve BCM10/2 MK2

Neve have been building high-end characterful consoles for decades, the BCM10 being one such desk.

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Eventide Tony Visconti Tverb Reverb plugin
May 2 2023 Reverb plugin
Eventide Tony Visconti Tverb

Berlin, 1977, in Hansa Tonstudio: Tony Visconti is recording Bowie's soon-to-be hit song Heroes, but he has run out of tracks. Hansa's studio 2 was the historic Meistersaal Hall constructed in 1910 for classical music performance.

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Antelope Audio Orion 32+ Gen 3 Thunderbolt and USB audio interface
Apr 20 2023 Thunderbolt and USB audio interface
Antelope Audio Orion 32+ Gen 3

Housed in a sleek 1U rack-mount, the Orion 32+ Gen 3 from Antelope Audio offers an amazing 64 simultaneous audio inputs and outputs. 32 analogue I/O is on the rear panel, with the remaining connectivity via various digital connections.

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Focusrite Red 8Pre Thunderbolt audio interface with Dante & Mini-DigiLink
Apr 2 2023 Thunderbolt audio interface with Dante & Mini-DigiLink
Focusrite Red 8Pre

Focusrite has long been in both the preamp and convertor games, the Red 8Pre combines the two.

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LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven Professional Convolution plugin Reverb
Mar 19 2023 Convolution plugin Reverb
LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven Professional

Seventh Heaven is a high-end reverb plug-in from LiquidSonics. LiquidSonics has been bringing advanced reverb plug-
ins to the market for the best
 part of a decade. Based on
 Fusion-IR technology these 
are more than just convolution
 reverbs.

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