Alan Tubbs
Gear Review
Cakewalk Sonar DAW
Nov 15, 2024
The latest release of Cakewalk’s PC-only DAW is out, and what a long, strange road it’s been. Is it called Cakewalk now? Or SONAR? Before the 20th...
Gear Review
MT 48 USB-C Interface
Jan 15, 2024
The MT 48 isn’t just another desktop interface; it is Neumann’s redevelopment of Merging Technologies’ high end Anubis interface as Neumann and...
Gear Review
Newton Channel Preamp/EQ/Compressor
Sep 15, 2023
A new, affordable, single rack unit channel strip, Rupert Neve Designs' Newton Channel isn’t a stripped-down version of their Shelford Channel...
Gear Review
5057 Orbit Summing Mixer
Jul 15, 2021
From the requisite hand-wired boutique pieces of the ‘50s and early ‘60s, to the large format commercial consoles that followed, and then right into...
Gear Review
YC61 Stage Keyboard
Mar 15, 2021
The Yamaha YC61 Stage Keyboard is a 61-key waterfall keyboard, now also available with 73 and 88 keys. It has three separate sound engines: VCM for...
Gear Review
MODX Synthesizer
Sep 15, 2019
You might think that the new MODX synthesizer from Yamaha is just a compact version of their flagship MONTAGE keyboard , and on the...
Gear Review
iD44 Interface
Jul 15, 2019
Audient jumped headfirst into the premium class interface market with their release of the iD22 . The premium classification gives more...
Gear Review
Montage 6 Synthesizer
Sep 15, 2018
About 40 years ago I purchased monitors for a home studio before such things were common. I still use those Yamaha NS-500s and matching amp in my...
Gear Review
Cakewalk by Bandlab
Jul 15, 2018
The reports of the death of the PC/Windows DAW Cakewalk were greatly exaggerated. With tens of thousands of users, many willing to pony up a hundred...
Gear Review
Mixcraft 8 DAW
Mar 15, 2018
SONAR is dead, long live… which DAW? The shutdown of Gibson-owned Cakewalk sent thousands of users looking for a new DAW. It may be...
Gear Review
SONAR Platinum 2016.09
Nov 15, 2016
It has been well over a year since Cakewalk started offering SONAR , their flagship DAW, with rolling updates and an installment-based...
Gear Review
Celesoníc US-20x20 audio interface
Jan 21, 2016
Many, um, "experienced" readers have fond memories of their first TASCAM/TEAC analog reel-to-reel or Portastudio cassette decks, while...
Gear Review
SONAR Platinum
May 16, 2015
The new SONAR that replaces SONAR X3 will be the last one ever — no more numbered editions according to Cakewalk. But that doesn't mean...
Gear Review
UH-7000 mic preamp & USB interface
Sep 15, 2014
Instead of offering eight or more inputs loaded with mic preamps in a never-ending quest for bang-for-buck, some companies are designing two-channel...
Gear Review
Scratchpad for iPad
Mar 15, 2014
I have seen the future, and it is touch. And fun. Cakewalk's Scratchpad is their first foray into iOS apps and is exactly what it sounds like....
Gear Review
SONAR X3 Producer
Jan 10, 2014
Cakewalk has been in the news a lot lately. First, Gibson agreed to buy them from Roland. Having a guitar maker buy a DAW company is not as odd as it...
Gear Review
Portico II channel
Jun 3, 2013
Somebody likes the Portico II. I had to wait a week for RND to cook up a fresh batch when the review unit they were supposed to send was bought...
Gear Review
Sonar X2 Producer
Nov 15, 2012
SONAR X1 was a major change from the previous eight or so iterations of SONAR. X1 looked, operated, and felt very different from its...
Gear Review
SONAR X1 Producer Expanded PC4K S-Type Expander/Gate & Channel Compressor modules
Mar 15, 2012
While continuing to update SONAR X1 (Tape Op #82) for free, Cakewalk is adding functionality to their top-shelf version of SONAR X1 Producer with a...
Gear Review
RND Portico 5033 EQ & 5043 Compressor plug-ins
Nov 15, 2011
When Steinberg announced the plug-in versions of the Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5033 EQ (Tape Op #57) and 5043 Compressor (#59), I jumped at the...
Gear Review
SONAR X1
Mar 15, 2011
In the beginning, Twelve Tone Systems begat Cakewalk MIDI Sequencer for DOS, and Cakewalk begat Pro Audio, which begat SONAR, which begat SONAR X1....
Gear Review
Alchemy soft synth
Nov 15, 2010
There are many jobs for which hardware still rules the music roost. But there are some that software does better - synths, for example. Though...
Gear Review
V-Studio 100 portable music studio
Nov 15, 2009
One might think that Cakewalk's latest hardware collaboration with Roland is the little brother of the V-Studio 700 (Tape Op #72). After all, it...
Gear Review
SONAR V-Studio 700
Jul 15, 2009
V-Studio 700 is a complete and integrated digital recording system-just add computer-that's designed around SONAR 8 (Tape Op #69)...