Recording - December 2010 - 14

Since it does not have makeup gain, you may need to do some post-compression boosting in the mix, but I would contest that the RS 124’s job is not so much to push an element aggressively out of a mix like a Distressor or a UA 1176LN, but more to control dynamics and pin them in place. Like all previous Abbey Road Studios plug-ins, the RS 124 sounds incredible, is ultra CPU efficient, and allows you live out your fantasy of being a white-coated Abbey Road engineer from the ‘60s.—PV Apogee ONE $249; accessories $19.95 each; www.apogeedigital.com

Once you’ve set up ONE, all that’s left is to use it, and to enjoy the sound quality. This little box sounds stupid good! The headphone amplifier and D/A are exquisite; as good as the Mac’s built-in outputs sound (and they’re generally quite good), ONE makes prolonged listening a delight that’s hard to match. The guitar input and external mic inputs are clear, clean, and vibrant, but the real surprise here is the internal mic. Apogee makes a big deal of its Tuned Aperture technology, but marketspeak aside, this little capsule sounds really good and is much more than a cute add-on. It’s a wide cardioid capsule, and with experimentation you can angle ONE with respect to your source and use its off-axis response to subtly color the audio you’re recording. Gripes? Really only one, and that one is that ONE has, well, only one—the obvious limitation of one input signal at a time; people who need to record in stereo or who want to record a guitar and vocal simultaneously should consider Apogee’s Duet FireWire interface. I find myself wishing for a “TWO” that supports dual high-sample-rate signals over USB 2.0, and I’ll bet other musicians who can’t use the Duet will as well. ONE is a brilliant-sounding and elegant interface; if you want to record a single source at the best possible quality and have a headphone output on your Mac that’s a huge treat, this little box could be the ONE for you.—MM Peterson iStroboSoft $9.99; adapter cable, $12.99; mini mic, $11.99; www.petersontuners.com

Apogee is synonymous with worldclass audio conversion and interfacing, from its world-class Symphony system on down. Mac users with smaller budgets can still enjoy the Apogee sound on a smaller scale, and with ONE, Apogee has given us its most affordable interface to date. ONE offers one channel of input and two channels of output, 24 bits at 44.1 or 48 kHz. It’s housed in a sleek black enclosure just a bit larger than a cell phone, with a large silver push-click encoder knob on the front face. There’s a 1/8" TRS headphone output jack on the lower edge, and the upper edge has a mini-USB connector and a connector for a breakout cable that ends in a 1/4" TS jack and an XLR female jack so you can hook up a microphone and/or a guitar. The front panel has illuminated graphics to show what the encoder is controlling at the moment—clicking the encoder cycles you between input and output control—as well as a three-step LED level meter, and there’s a small aperture for the unit’s built-in microphone just below the knob. Accessories (each sold separately) include a clamp mount, a three-legged tabletop stand that connects to the mount, a long USB cable, and a carry pouch. You’ll want to budget for all of the above, especially the clamp mount, which is too handy not to have. ONE requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 or better, and my tests were done on 10.6.3. Download the latest driver installer from the company website. The installer gives you a copy of Apogee’s Maestro software, which provides a front panel for selecting the ONE’s audio input—external mic, with or without phantom power (ONE is a USB high-current device, so it pulls enough power from the bus to provide good phantom), internal mic, or guitar jack—and metering input and output signals. The software also allows you to set up low-latency monitoring within the hardware and adjust your mix of DAW audio and mic input.
14
RECORDING DECEMBER 2010

Peterson Tuners probably doesn’t need an introduction; many musicians and studios already use one of their growing range of products. Today we will be looking at the software version of the Peterson strobe tuner, which was conveniently adapted to the popular iPod touch / iPhone format. iStroboSoft has the same accuracy as its bigger brothers—both software and hardware versions, many of which have been reviewed in our pages. It was designed to be the most accurate pocket tuner for the iPhone and iPod touch, capable of measuring a note to within 1/10 of a cent, or 1/1000 of a semitone. Sure, there are various other companies offering highly accurate tuners, but iStroboSoft, like the other Peterson offerings, offer a high-resolution display that allows the user to make the best of the detailed accuracy of the tuner itself. They said it best at Peterson, “We like to equate it to having an HD television tuner but an old black and white CRT display. If you cannot see the accuracy, it is of little value.” So why buy any other tuner if this version has it all? Well, iStroboSoft does have some feature limitations compared to the StroboSoft computer program or Peterson’s hardware tuners; it does not offer preset tunings, support for Buzz Feiten tunings, or the exclusive Peterson Sweetened Tunings. Maybe in a future update? Pinching the screen with two fingers to zoom out of the interface will put the display in full screen mode, making it is easier to see the scrolling squares

http://www.apogeedigital.com http://www.petersontuners.com

Recording - December 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2010