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1 week ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
New Soundtoys plug‑ins don’t come around that often, but when they do, they’re usually well worth checking out. SpaceBlender is no exception... Both the algorithmic and convolution approaches to artificial reverb are now capable of incredibly convincing emulations of real spaces. But ‘real’ isn’t always what we want, is it?
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1 week ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
With four stages to play with, Articulate offers a little more control over the attack and sustain of a sound than most other transient shapers. Newfangled Audio’s Articulate, which is available through Eventide, is authorised using an iLok account, either to your computer or to a physical iLok key, whichever you prefer. It supports the usual plug‑in formats for Mac and Windows DAWs.So What Is It?
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1 week ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
Teletone Audio’s Tone Architect might, at first glance, look like just another take on the old channel‑strip idea. But in reality it is quite different, and its main focus is on tonal shaping. Tone Architect, which supports all the mainstream plug‑in formats for macOS and Windows, offers a sensible balance between flexibility and ease of use, and combines three key processing sections called Saturator, Tone Shaping and Compressor.
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1 week ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
The first pedal offered for sale by Electro‑Harmonix (or EHX, as they’re often called), some 57 years ago, was the LPB‑1, a simple gain boost pedal. They’ve now revisited the concept to create the LPB‑3 Linear Power Booster, which incorporates an active EQ, complete with a parametric mid control, and I find it can be incredibly useful in tailoring the sound before it hits a drive pedal or amp.
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1 week ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
The Utopia reverb from ADPTR Audio is marketed under the Plugin Alliance umbrella and supports all the mainstream plug‑in formats for macOS and Windows. While most reverb devices and plug‑ins take either an algorithmic or convolution approach, Utopia uses a similar spectral manipulation technique to Zynaptiq’s Adaptiverb so, like Adaptiverb, Utopia can dynamically reshape the spectrum of the reverb to remove any elements that might clash harmonically with the input signal.
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1 week ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
This trio of stage mics might look the same, but they’re each suited to different roles. Audix have a long‑standing reputation for building good‑sounding, reliable mics both for live sound and studio applications. The new OMX‑T, OMX‑M and OMX‑E models are dynamic microphones, each designed to meet specific use cases, differing in their frequency responses and the precise shape of their polar patterns.
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1 month ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
There can be advantages in permanently installing the pickup for your Roland/Boss guitar synth or modeller. Usually, it’s a job for a luthier, but with some basic woodworking skills you can go the DIY route... Over the past few decades, Roland (more recently under the Boss name) have released a number of GK‑series ‘divided pickups’ for driving their guitar synths and guitar modellers, with the GK pickups delivering the separate signal from each string that these devices need in order to function.
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1 month ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 4/5 StarsFeaturing Emma May Price — the same soprano heard in the Sonora Cinematic Aria libraries — Emma Legato is a very simple and inexpensive vocal instrument that runs on the free version of Kontakt (version 8 or higher). The instrument has three main sound voice options: Humming, Poco Vib and Aah. The Aah voice has a very expressive vibrato that creeps in as the note evolves.
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1 month ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 StarsElpiano is an electric piano plug‑in from Klevgrand that offers 10 different piano models. All the familiar plug‑in platforms are supported, including AAX, and the coding includes optimisation for Apple Silicon. Elpiano covers a range of mechanical and electronic piano models that may then be processed via a choice of five different speaker cabinets.
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1 month ago | 
soundonsound.com | Paul White
TC Electronic’s diminutive one‑knob, one‑switch Ditto looper has proven very popular, but TC still wanted to improve it — and indeed they have. The Ditto 2 has the same form factor and control layout, but the pedal now has a larger, redesigned footswitch for more positive control, as well as a new toggle switch that changes the operational mode from that in the original Ditto to a Ditto 2 user profile, as set up using a free smartphone/tablet app.
