PC Systems: What Do You Get For Your Money?
Just what can you expect in a PC system costing £600? Or over £1500? We round up the likely specs and the possible pitfalls.
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Just what can you expect in a PC system costing £600? Or over £1500? We round up the likely specs and the possible pitfalls.
You don't need a Pro Control to get some hands-on control of Pro Tools. You don't even need one of the 'supported' MIDI control surfaces: pretty much anything with knobs on will do. Read on...
Find out how to load REX files into Sonar, discover which digital audio editors work best with loops, and explore some useful envelope techniques.
The SOS team apply themselves to the task of mixing Chinese traditional instruments with mainstream Western sounds at reader Jiang Li's home studio.
Layering voices is one of the best ways to maximise the potential of your XG sound module, so here are a variety of ingenious ways you can use this technique — you can even turn your synth into a high-spec step sequencer!
Find out how to mike up a typical live band — and also discover when it's best to Direct Inject instead.
Effects can play just as important a role in sound creation as the elements in a synth's signal path — provided you have access to their constituent parts. We take a closer look at effects synthesis using simple delays.
If you've never investigated DP's Consoles feature, you may be missing out on interesting MIDI and Audio control possibilities. We explain, as well as introducing a couple of indispensable new utilities.
We take a look at the newest member of Apple's iLife suite and discover that youthful looks, adolescent attitude and long hair are not required to join this GarageBand.
In 1981, 'Start Me Up' became one of the Rolling Stones' biggest hit singles. Yet it was actually a reject from a previous session, and only saw the light of day because its infamous co-writers had fallen out...
As more musicians and audio engineers begin to explore the potential of surround sound in project studios, we take a look at Cubase SX 2's revised multi-channel architecture, which gives it advanced surround capabilities.
At a time when audio quality is supposedly getting better, compressed formats are dominating consumer digital devices and services. Cutting Edge takes issue with the trend away from full-resolution playback.
The tonewheel organ is back in vogue, aided by various recent 'virtual' renditions of the real thing, and Hammond's release of the New B3. But how faithful does the software sound? We look at two contenders...
This month we continue our advice on working to picture in Logic with tips on how to work around your visual hit points.
It's been possible to make music on Apple laptops for many years now, but creating a working mobile system is harder than it looks. Fortunately, one SOS contributor has years of experience to pass on...
Public service time in Pro Tools Notes this month as we respond to user queries on recording via plug-ins and Rewire, creating gated effects, and bouncing.
This month we not only compare the hard-drive speed performance of USB and Firewire, but also take a look at a MIDI latency-testing utility and see how a handful of MIDI interfaces measure up.
Extra DSP assistance to help your PC's processor cope with effects treatments used to be the province of the pro. Now there's a wide range of DSP-equipped cards to fit all budgets — but many people don't realise the latency issues that might be involved in using some of them.
The latest Sonar update optimises the software for multi-processor PCs, as well as adding new operational features. Read on to find out what they'll mean to you, and explore another crop of tips and techniques.
Chris Brockis had been having trouble mixing in his attic home studio, so he enlisted the help of the trusty SOS team.