Find the right gear for you.
It’s not as easy to feel the impact of products from 2018 given that they’ve only had a year or so to get into the hands of creative artists. But some of the gear that came out has a very deserving place in a Gear Of The Decade list, and no doubt will continue to […]
Whether it was the beginning of Behringer’s synth masterplan, a new way of managing loops and samples or a groundbreaking new plug-in for making your recordings better, we reviewed some intriguing, and influential music production gear in 2017. Novation Peak What we said: “Peak has excellent and varied sounds and effects and more than enough […]
This year we highlight the wonders of modular synthesis, new innovations in microphones, the emergence of subscription-based sample curation and the mastering process becoming achievable from your own home… iZotope Ozone 7 What we said: “iZotope has come back fighting with an extensive update that includes some excellent new features, modules and algorithms. Ozone 7 […]
As we reached the decade’s mid-point, we noticed a continuing trend of music-makers abandoning their screens and returning to the physical world, coupled with a retrospective, nostalgia-tinged desire to build their own Abbey Roads! Novation Circuit What we said: “Circuit excitingly blends groovebox features with a modern grid composition approach, all within a solid box […]
In 2014 we experienced more compact monitoring, gorgeous, ethereal sample collections, increasingly high-quality headphones and the continued integration of hardware and software… Genelec 8010A What we said: “A remarkable set of monitors that provide a professional quality reference at medium listening levels in an effortlessly portable format” Were we right? With the 8010A’s, Genelec sparked […]
WINNER: Steinberg Cubase Pro 10 Steinberg has certainly been around long enough to pack Cubase full of the kinds of features expected in a top-flight DAW, but the company is also wise enough to know it’s how these featured are implemented that counts. The latest incarnation of the software, Cubase 10 (available as Pro, Artist […]
2019 has been a near-perfect conclusion to a decade of remarkable innovations in music technology. There have been so many breathtakingly good products released this year that it’s been rather difficult to compile the shortlists for our Gear Of The Year 2019 awards. But somehow, we managed! We’ve seen more interesting uses of artificial intelligence […]
WINNER: Qu-Bit Electronix Scanned We’ve seen our fair share of interesting, unique modules over the years, but this one must take the crown. Scanned is a digital VCO with real ‘organic’ credentials. Yes, you see Scanned is an organic wavetable oscillator which uses a technique previously unexplored in hardware to animate wavetables that are created […]
WINNER: Arturia MicroFreak Arturia’s MicroFreak is cool, digital, sounds amazing and was developed along with Mutable Instruments, one of the most highly regarded Eurorack companies. It features no less than 11 Oscillator modes which gives it a sound – actually a lot of sound – of its own. These include subtractive-styled waves, a Wavetable mode […]
WINNER: Focusrite Scarlett 3rd Gen The Scarlett range is Focusrite’s main USB interface entry point, with models for everyone from the beginner onwards. We looked at several options in the range when we reviewed them six months ago and were mightily impressed. There are six interfaces with configurations going from the Solo, then up to […]