Recording - December 2015 - 4

PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Brent Heintz

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: Mike Metlay
SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Lorenz Rychner
TECHNICAL CONSULTANT: Paul Vnuk Jr.
EDITOR AT LARGE: Beto Hale
COPY EDITOR: Diana Smethurst
MÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel

CONTRIBUTORS
Paul Vnuk Jr., Alex Hawley,
Paul J. Stamler, Michael Lauter,
Mike Rivers, Marty Peters, Mark Abell

Toys are for playing with
At this time of year, publishing magazines is a little bit like advertising for the holidays;
even though you still have quite a ways to go, you have to start telling people about what's
coming up. We're still a week shy of Halloween (and the AES Convention in New York)
as I write this, and yet I'm talking about the upcoming holiday season!
The December issue of Recording is a lot of work every year, but it's one of the most
consistently satisfying issues for me to prepare. We were gathering material for the
December 2008 issue when I had the idea of clearing off some reviews of cool products
we'd not found room for in the previous year, spicing up the Guide with some actual field
tests. It went over brilliantly with readers, and in 2009 we made it our policy to completely
replace press releases and marketing pieces with actual short reviews, only featuring items
that we'd tested and approved.
Seven years on, the Buyer's Guide is still challenging, nerve-wracking, and tons of fun.
What gets featured? What do we have room for? What will, inevitably, overflow into the
January issue (which is still in subscribers' hands before the end of December)? What just
plain won't fit? In the end, we have a selection of hardware, software, and soundware
that we're proud to tell our readers about. This issue is no exception-between the three
Buyer's Guides, we bring you 30 new products worthy of your consideration.
What made the cut? Just looking at the hardware and not even considering the great
plug-ins and virtual instrument content we feature later in the issue, we've got great new
microphones, affordable and reliable headphones, Internet-friendly mixers, effects, all
manner of handy studio tools, controllers, networking devices, and even a little D/A converter from Schiit Audio called the Fulla (I schiit you not).
But I'd like to call your attention for a moment to one particular product reviewed in
the Buyer's Guide: the new Circuit from Novation. Aside from being ideal for bizarre
selfies (see above), it's an inspiring little box for composers looking to create ideas
beyond the trusted standbys of "acoustic guitar and vocals" and "sit down at the
piano." There's nothing wrong with those time-honored ways to create beautiful music-
I've spent many an hour on a piano bench, pencil in hand, and I hope I'll spend many
more in years to come-but it's fun to see how technology can empower us to bring
notes and chords and rhythms together in new ways, providing new avenues for our
muses to make themselves heard.
We also have five in-depth reviews this month, of new monitors from MunroSonic, 500
Series modules from Great River and Empirical Labs, a beautiful mic from Advanced
Audio, and the terribly slick new FELiX from Grace Design. (What's a FELix? Read the
review, there's way too much to even hint at here.)
We also bring you more edification at the hands of Paul Stamler, whose First Steps this
issue looks at EQ, and Mike Rivers, who returns to Specs: Removing The Mystery with
clear language on a gritty subject-distortion. We also welcome Michael Lauter to our
writing staff with a fascinating article on getting your gear to sync properly. It's not always
simple, it's not always straightforward, and you can definitely hear when it isn't working...
but you'll learn lots of ways to get around these issues and get your tracks tight as a drum.
So, after all that, you may be wondering: what didn't fit? Next month, we'll bring you
a survey of cool iOS music apps, and for those of you who want a look in the crystal ball,
we'll bring you all the new gear being announced at AES. In the meantime, we at Music
Maker Publications wish you and yours a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season, no
matter how you choose to celebrate it. We hope that whatever tools you have at your disposal, already in hand or eagerly awaited after you read this issue, will help your head
and heart connect with your hands... and then with your fans.
Enjoy the issue!

SOCIAL MEDIA
Brent Heintz, Paul Vnuk Jr.
ART & PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin Courtney
WEB GOALIE: Colin Courtney

PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES
Lorenz Rychner

EDITOR/PRODUCER:

CIRCULATION
Tiffany Sepe

CIRCULATION MANAGER:

ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING
DIRECTOR: Brent Heintz
CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Colin Courtney
ADMINISTRATION
Thomas Hawley

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley
VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz

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ADVERTISING/CLASSIFIEDS/MAIN OFFICE:
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RECORDING MAGAZINE
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2015