Sonnox Oxford Drum Gate
Engineers have been gating drums since the Kepex was introduced by Allison Research in 1970, and apart from the 1982 Drawmer DS201 adding useful key filters, not much new has happened in the world of noise gating, apart from the ‘look ahead’ function afforded by...
Read George Shilling's review
Thermionic Culture The Snow Petrel
Thermionic Culture have long developed products which include a valve-based microphone preamplifier section, like the Rooster, and dedicated mic preamps like the Earlybird.
Read George Shilling's review
Thermionic Culture The Kite
Thermionic Culture’s enormous (and expensive) Fat Bustard summing unit includes a smooth-sounding EQ specially geared to mix buss usage. Perhaps inevitably, founder and designer Vic Keary received requests for a unit that include the EQ and Attitude sections, but not the summing.
Read George Shilling's review
McDSP ML8000
Silicon Valley plug-in boffins McDSP cite ML8000 as the next generation in advanced limiting technology. The ML8000 plug-in features two discrete processors. The first being multistage, multi-band lookahead peak detection and limiting, followed by a broadband master limiter with some rather flexible controls.
Read Russell Cottier's review
Toneforge Guilty Pleasure by Joey Sturgis
Joey Sturgis is an American record producer with a studio in Indiana and a reputation as a leading expert working in the metalcore scene.
Read George Shilling's review
Empirical Labs Arouser
Dave Derr introduced his first hardware unit the Distressor in the mid-1990s and scored remarkable success with what was perceived to be a modern advance on classic knee compressor designs like the 1176 and LA-2A.
Read George Shilling's review
PreSonus Quantum
The new 26x32 channel Quantum is PreSonus’ fastest interface yet. Whilst it works with any DAW the design and integration aims to make usage ideal for Studio One users.
Read Russell Cottier's review
McDSP AE600
The AE600 is the latest in the line of active EQs from this Silicon Valley based plug-in company. Offering six bands of both active and fixed EQ this is more than just your average plug-in.
Read Russell Cottier's review
Antelope Audio Satori
You may know the work of Igor Levin from his Aardvark convertors that created a buzz in the early days of computer-based recording. His Antelope Audio company has likewise become known for its attention to minimising clock jitter with ‘atomic clock type’ technology.
Read Russell Cottier's review
Tim de Paravicini and his 1-inch stereo recorder
In the music industry, there are two types of people: those who cannot wait for every new software update and aspire to own every piece cutting edge technology, and those who prefer the tried and trusted, only accepting 'new' when it has really proved itself...
Read George Shilling's review
Audient Zen
It’s not often you get the chance to review equipment that is named after the editor of the magazine, so the email with the subject “Zen for review” initially led me to some mistaken assumptions.
Read George Shilling's review
AnaMod AM670
So, here we go again with yet another Fairchild 670 recreation. Only, hold on, this one really doesn’t feel quite right. Yes, they’ve made a good stab at the front panel, but this thing is almost as light as a feather.
Read George Shilling's review
AnaMod ATS-1
AnaMod was founded in 2006 by two industry veterans, Dave Amels (formerly of Bomb Factory, Voce and others) and Greg Gualtieri who is currently president of Pendulum Audio. The company has a unique ethos, with a fascinating approach to design.
Read George Shilling's review
API 1608
The 1608 is a small format recording console based on the 1604 which API produced in the 1970s and early 1980s. Although I have never encountered one in the UK, examples in the USA are still cherished and lovingly restored.
Read George Shilling's review
Cartec EQP-1A
Surely the audio industry’s most copied product, in hardware and latterly in software, is the Pultec EQP-1A Program Equalizer.
Read George Shilling's review
CharterOak SCL-1
CharterOak have been making boutique microphones since 2002. Endearingly, rather than boosting his ego, founder Michael Deming, (an engineer and producer of some note), named the company after a local Connecticut landmark.
Read George Shilling's review