JBL
78 / COMPUTER MUSIC August 2020
> reviews / mini reviews
A rapid-ire round-up of ROMplers, music gear and more…
mini reviews
Web presonus.com
Gear Hardware/software bundle
This bundle from Presonus looks, on the face of
it, to be aimed primarily at beat makers, but
actually contains just about everything you
need for music production, and is especially
geared towards those new to this most glorious
of pastimes.
Starting with Atom, this compact and sturdy,
16-pad grid controller has been around for a
while, and has deep integration with Presonus’s
own Studio One DAW; you get a cut down
version of that (Artist) bundled with it. (Artist is
one of the most illed ‘lite’ versions of a DAW that
we have come across, giving you a very good
lavour of the full Studio One, a DAW that really
does deserve more praise and proile than it
gets). We should also mention the other
software thrown in at this point – Ableton Live
Lite and a library of samples – but really Atom’s
deeper integration understandably lies with
Presonus’s own DAW. And while you can control
other software with Atom – it will easily trigger
Live’s clips, scenes and Drum Rack, for example
– its pairing with One is so deep that you can
even use it for playing melodies (it has a Push-
style keyboard option) as well as the more
obvious beat-making options.
Next up we have the AudioBox USB 96 bus-
powered audio interface, which again impresses
with build quality, and will easily handle your
basic audio (and MIDI) connectivity with a
couple of combo mic/instrument inputs.
And talking of mics, the last bundled piece is
an M7 large-diaphragm condenser microphone,
which is a good all-rounder and will do a decent
job of capturing your vocals. OK, it’s no
Neumann, but when you add it to the other
hardware, it gives the Producer Pack another
level of lexibility, making it a great bundle for
using both in the studio and on the road. But
that’s not the best bit. The bundled price for all
three is just £175, which is impressive given that
Atom alone sells for well into three igures on its
own. If you’re starting out, then, this will do
everything you need, and some, for very little
outlay. Just add monitors or headphones.
n 8 /10n
P r e s o n u s
Atom Producer Lab
£175
J B L
104-BT £169
Web soundtech.co.uk
Gear Wireless monitors
The original JBL 104 monitors
are, to our ears, one of the
best compact – and cheap –
studio monitoring solutions
you can buy; hidden gems
that you can pick up for a
song and an ideal set of
secondary monitors for any
recording setup. The 104 BTs
then, should be even better, as
they are simply the original
sans wires. Yes the BTs are –
you guessed it – Bluetooth versions of the original 104s, so you
get the same lovely compact, oval design and largely the same
impressive sound. This is pretty accurate and vibey given the
size, and we’ve had the luxury of lining them up against many a
more expensive pair of studio monitors, only for them to
surprise us not just with that big sound, but one that is pretty
deep and accurate too.
There are negatives with the Bluetooth format, in that you’ll
get some latency between hitting a note while recording and
then hearing it back through your speaker system. So for real-
time recording, you’ll want the wired versions – and these still
come very highly recommended. If you simply need wireless
though, these are some of the best-sounding of that format.
n 8 /10n
A K G
Lyra £139
Web soundtech.co.uk
Gear USB microphone
With everyone and their dogs –
literally in some cases – thinking they
have something of value to podcast
these days, we’re catching up on
some of the best mic solutions out
there. And this AKG certainly boasts
the specs and the famous AKG name,
which should bring quality to your
‘casts and, we suspect, your music
recordings too.
First up this is a multi-mode
microphone so has four polar pattern
options to catch Wide Stereo, Narrow
Stereo, Front and Front/Back
recordings. Tight Stereo is best for instrument recordings while
Front will be best for vocal capture and Front/Back for the more
intended podcast interview.
It’s lexible then but, yes, that AKG name really does bring a
great tone, especially and perhaps obviously for the voice. There
are cheaper mic options out there, for sure, and not a lot more
will get you the mic, interface and controller bundle above, but
this mic is in another league and will stretch to many more
musical duties, as well as giving your podcasts a professional
sound. *Patronising comment alert*: just make sure you have
something worth talking about, OK?
n 8 /10n
CMU284.rev_minisaj.indd 78 22/05/2020 12:24