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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 […]
WINNER: iZotope Ozone 9 It’s not a huge surprise to once again find ourselves handing this gong to iZotope, the company has have been picking up our Best Software awards for many years so it’s no surprise that it heads to the podium once more this year with mastering package Ozone 9. It is available […]
WINNER: Nektar Panorama T4 We were surprised at just how revolutionary this controller turned out to be. Nektar’s T-range includes both a 61-note and 49-note controller keyboard, and we looked at the latter T4. It includes its own software shell called Nektarine – not unlike NI’s Komplete Kontrol and Akai’s VIP software – but adds […]
WINNER: Spitfire Audio Orbis Orbis is an innovative departure for Spitfire Audio, a company so well regarded for its orchestral instruments. This collection has more of a world-class feel because its core is a set of sounds recorded and collected by composer David Fanshawe over many years of traveling across the globe. It was a […]
WINNER: Spitfire Audio LCO Textures Spitfire Audio’s second collaboration with the London Contemporary Orchestra was recorded in a decommissioned aircraft hangar in Suffolk, a location with an extraordinary reverberation tail that extends to 10 seconds! This obviously gives LCO Textures a very unique character and it comprises four textures that are formed into four sections: […]
WINNER: Black Lion Audio Seventeen When it comes to classic studio outboard like 1176, there have been plenty of remakes and clones over recent years. This versatile solid-state compressor/limiters can be used for everything from unobtrusive levelling of vocals and bass to dramatic dynamic compression. Black Lion Audio’s Seventeen is in no way a clone […]