DECEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM DECEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM

ARTURIA ANALOG EXPERIENCE THE LABORATORY 61 SQUIER VINTAGE MODIFIED JAGUAR BASS SPECIAL Everyone loves vintage , both for recreating classic sounds and minting modern timbres—but maintaining a real, honest- Want thick, rich, punchy, fat bass sound—but don’t want to pay an to-goodness vintage synth can be challenging. So why not put your computer to work instead? Just add Arturia’s Analog Experience arm and a leg for it? Check out the Squier Vintage Modified Laboratory 61 controller keyboard and software to your laptop or desktop and you’ll have 3,500 sounds drawn from the full range Jaguar Bass Special. This affordable of Arturia’s amazing modeled vintage synthesizers. Moogs, Prophets, Jupiters and more are included, along with a full-featured bass features a variety of pickup 61-key keyboard with options for massive tones, lots of control options and enough control to dial for taking charge of your up whatever other bass performance onstage or guitar sounds you want, all in the studio. in an easy-to-play, solidly constructed instrument.

The latest gotta-have-it gear and instruments to help you make 2012 your best musical year ever

ZOOM R8 Back in the day, musicians VISUAL SOUND DUAL TAP and songwriters recorded Guitar players like U2’s the Edge use multiple delay pedals to cassette multitrack to create complex rhythmic echo effects. The problem—for machines—believe it FOSTEX AR-4i those of us who can’t afford a guitar tech like Mr. Edge to help or not, many a hit was us out—comes with attempting to sync more than one delay Apple’s much-vaunted iPhone recorded using one of pedal together so the rhythms sound accurate. Visual Sound can do plenty, including these primitive (by today’s has the solution with the Dual Tap Delay, which combines two capturing some pretty high- standards) devices. Today completely independent delays inside one housing. Using quality video—the problem there are many more a tap tempo button, is that the built-in mic just options, but there’s still a one can instantly sync doesn’t do the video quality certain elegance in using those delays together to justice. Enter Fostex: The AR-4i a single self-contained create amazing rhythmic offers two built-in high-quality condenser unit for your mixing and effects, ethereal washes for excellent stereo audio tracking needs. The of sound, compelling recordings with your videos, or you can Zoom R8 can record textures and more. plug in your own stereo mics for more flexibility. Either way, two tracks at a time and play back up to eight tracks at once. It’s loaded you get studio-grade analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog with inputs, outputs and built-in effects—including a loop-based sampler. conversion—plus there’s a stand mount and handle for mobile applications. ALESIS iO DOCK SAMSON METEOR MIC If you really want to get the most out of music creation with Apple’s iPad tablet, Sometimes you just need a mic you can grab quickly and set up before the muse you need a way to interface it with the rest of the audio world. The Alesis iO Dock escapes. But why not capture those ideas and tracks with the highest quality you offers a match made in musical heaven. The iPad slips right inside, and the can muster in a moment? Enter the Samson Meteor. This large-diaphragm USB iO Dock provides connections for guitars and mics (including phantom plugs straight into your computer, and even has a cool-looking power), monitor speakers, MIDI gear—even a composite video output to run three-legged tabletop stand built right in. Plus it has a headphone output a monitor. There’s a footswitch connection, a USB port and more. Suddenly with volume control so you can monitor clearly for great overdubs. the device you typically use to play Angry Birds is the center of your studio or live performance rig.

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ELECTRO-HARMONIX RAVISH SITAR Looking to add a touch of the exotic to your songs? You can’t go wrong dropping in a touch of sitar—but any Indian master from Ravi Shankar on down will tell you the instrument NATIVE INSTRUMENTS is even more difficult to learn than it is to haul around. With the Electro-Harmonix Ravish Sitar you can turn any into an MASCHINE MIKRO authentic-sounding sitar, Native Instruments MASCHINE took complete with tunable the recording world by storm in 2010 sympathetic drone strings with its combination of beat-making and all the other aspects power, song creation ability and of a real sitar. its capacity for hosting virtual instruments and plug-ins. But for those who don’t have space for its large dedicated hardware controller, or who simply want a more portable solution, Native Instruments WECHTER HALF-NASHVILLE offers a compact solution: Many songwriters and MASCHINE Mikro. Don’t assume have discovered the joys of this downsized MASCHINE is also downgraded, though. “Nashville tuning” for guitar, Full-on MASCHINE software is included with Mikro, and in which the four lowest- the compact hardware controller provides all you need for pitched strings are tuned up an looping, slicing, step sequencing, MPC-style recording and octave—sort of like a 12-string other groove-making techniques. SENNHEISER MK4 with the regular-tuned strings Capturing great sound starts at the beginning of the recording chain, with the removed. Wechter created the microphone. For many studio tasks, a large-diaphragm condenser mic is the first dedicated Nashville-tuned way to go—and the Sennheiser MK4 is a superior choice. This affordable guitar, and now they’ve followed large-diaphragm condenser provides a full rich tone, with exemplary detail up with a variation on that idea: and excellent dynamics. This mic will kick up your vocals, guitars, wind a half-Nashville-tuned guitar. or string instruments and drum sounds big time. With half-Nashville, only the D and G strings are tuned up an octave. This means you still get ORANGE DARK TERROR the guitar’s fullness and body The Orange Tiny Terror introduced the concept of a “lunchbox” from the regular-tuned E and A to guitar players—lightweight, compact, portable tube ROLAND GR-55 strings, while taking advantage amps that produce an amazing amount of tone. But those on Guitar synths can be incredibly useful, but never caught on with of the evocative chord the heavier side of the stylistic equation were feeling a bit left mainstream guitarists who struggled with limitations such as slow note voicings of the octave out. No more: The Dark Terror ups the gain and the tonal terror, tracking. But Roland has remained stalwart in its support of guitar synths, D and G strings. delivered through 15 tube-fired watts (switchable to 7 watts and now the company is seeing big payoffs with the GR-55. Roland when you don’t require your tonal terror quite so terrifying), and has applied its decades of guitar synth experience to create a unit adds an effects loop to the equation. From sparkling clean tone that’s easy to install, easy to use, fast-tracking and sonically powerful. to crushing chunk, the Dark Terror is aimed at metalheads but The GR-55 features 910 tones, 93 effect types, three foot pedals and sounds great for other styles as well. an onboard USB WAV/AIFF player for all the sound-creating power you need. KORG MONOTRON DUO The Korg Monotron introduced the ribbon-controlled analog micro- to the world, but the Monotron Duo takes it to another level with a second voltage-controlled oscillator. You get the same voltage- controlled filter as the classic MS-10 and MS-20 vintage analog synths, XMOD control for cross- modulating the oscillators for complex sounds, and a built-in speaker and headphone output so you’re completely self-contained. There’s even an auxiliary input to process external sounds using the Monotron’s filter. Best of all, no keyboard skills are required.

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M-AUDIO FAST TRACK C-SERIES The new M-Audio C400 and C600 USB audio interfaces are replete with features: multiple inputs and outputs, mic preamps, direct instrument inputs, digital I/O, assignable Multi button, monitor and headphone control, transport controls, LED metering, 24-bit/96kHz support and much more. The C400 offers four simultaneous inputs and six simultaneous outputs, while the C600 provides six simultaneous inputs and eight simultaneous outputs. Both models come with Pro Tools SE software to get you started right out of the box.

DW DRUMS COLLECTOR’S SERIES COCKTAIL KIT Playing on a small stage or in compact studios, but don’t want to sacrifice full, rich tone? Then check out the Collector’s Series Cocktail Kit from DW. This set features a unique “woofer-tom” design with an offset Sidekick pedal. Using DogBone clamps, you can set up the drums however you like. Stack ’em, spread ’em out, add cymbals, choose the shell sizes you want and pick from an array of colors. With the Cocktail Kit you can keep the beat in style under any space constraints, and move it all with ease when it’s time to pack up and go.

PRESONUS STUDIO ONE V2 The major players of the DAW ( Workstation) software field have been developing products for a number of years—but those feature-laden packages can be daunting if you just want to get down to creating music. PreSonus brought in an experienced DAW programmer to create an entirely new DAW, Studio One, with the aim of simplifying and streamlining. Now Studio One has stepped up with Version 2, offering some incredible features. The drag-and-drop simplicity is still there, but options including full-on mastering, quick and easy multitrack comping and Melodyne integration set the latest Studio One offering apart from the rest.

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