View Specs on Popular DAWs/Recorders

Playing the Field 

By Nick Peck

Thanks to the popularity of notebook computers and digital cameras, evolutionary technology has led to new, relatively low-cost products that are extremely...

LEXICON Omega 

By Rusty Cutchin

Lexicon, known for its studio-quality outboard delays and reverbs built to withstand the rigors of 24/7 session work, has made its technology available...

TASCAM DP-01FX 

By Rich Wells

Home recordists gravitate toward convenient and portable devices that let them get their ideas down quickly and easily. Although the glory days of the...

FOSTEX FR-2 

By Rudy Trubitt

I've found a replacement for my aging portable DAT recorder: the FR-2 from Fostex. The FR-2 is a little larger than the DAT, but it's lighter than it...

RMEFireface 800 

By Nick Peck

The Fireface 800 is the most recent audio I/O device to come from RME, a company known for its reliable, high-quality products. Striking a compromise...

HERCULES 

By Doug Eisengrein

Hercules, a company known mostly for manufacturing PC video cards, has gotten into the studio interface game. The 16/12 FW ($899) is a FireWire-based,...

CAKEWALK Sonar 4 (WIN) 

By Allan Metts

The developers at Cakewalk don't get much rest: just after I settled into Sonar 3, Sonar 4 arrived at my door. This time around we get comprehensive surround-sound...

E-MU Emulator X Studio 1.0.1 (WIN) 

By Dennis Miller

The new series of Windows-based digital audio workstations and sampling software from E-mu will turn more than a few heads. With their high-quality specs,...

MACKIE SPIKE (MAC/WIN) 

By Rusty Cutchin

Mackie's Spike powered recording system brings together all the essential add-ons for a basic computer-based recording environment: USB audio-MIDI interface...

ABLETON Live 4.0 (Mac/Win) 

By Len Sasso

Ableton has once again knocked the ball out of the park, this time with its Live 4.0 digital audio sequencer. The big news with Live 4.0 is the addition...

MOTU Introduces the Traveler 

MOTU has introduced the Traveler (Mac/Win; $895), a bus-powered FireWire audio interface featuring 20 inputs and 22 outputs, and support for 192 kHz recording....

CAKEWALK Guitar Tracks Pro 3 (Win) 

By Orren Merton

Cakewalk has updated its Guitar Tracks Pro software to version 3, creating a real contender in the audio-only multitrack wars. Version 3 boasts a new...

TASCAM2488 DIGITAL PORTASTUDIO 

By Bob O'Donnell

Twenty-five years after the introduction of its original Portastudio, Tascam has unveiled the 2488 Digital Portastudio, the latest and most complete incarnation...

Conquering the DAW 

By Kevin Smith

Choosing a digital audio workstation requires careful preparation. Electronic Musician walks you step-by-step through the process of choosing the right computer and software. ...

DIGIDESIGN Pro Tools 6.1 (MAC/WIN) 

By Nick Peck

Digidesign Pro Tools 6.1 is a significant upgrade that includes a redesigned GUI, new features such as the Digibase database system, and the migration to OS X on the Mac platform....

M-AUDIO Sonica Theater (MAC/WIN) 

By David Myles Huber

M-Audio's Sonica Theater ($119.95) offers a versatile and inexpensive solution for getting surround audio from your computer into your monitoring system....

ROLAND MC-909 

By Jim Aikin

The flagship of Roland’s line of Sampling Grooveboxes, the MC-909 is aimed straight at the dance/R&B/hip-hop market. Its mouth-watering array of features includes full-featured sampling, a 16-track pattern/song sequencer, a turntable emulation slider, twin D-Beam (infrared sensor) hands-free controllers, versatile effects, a USB port for archiving your sonic creations on a computer, and a whole lot more....

Too Much Good Stuff - Windows 

By Dennis Miller

We’ve scoured the Web for the past few months, checking out all sorts of freeware and shareware that creative programmers have made available for little or no money. We’ll focus primarily on newer software, though a few of our old favorites have received major facelifts recently, and we’ll include them as well....

Too Much Good Stuff - Mac 

By Gregory D. Moore

We’ve scoured the Web for the past few months, checking out all sorts of freeware and shareware that creative programmers have made available for little or no money. We’ll focus primarily on newer software, though a few of our old favorites have received major facelifts recently, and we’ll include them as well....

YAMAHA AW2816 digital audio workstation 

By Mark Nelson

The Yamaha AW2816 is a digital audio workstation that provides 16-track recording, automated mixing, 28 inputs, 9 motorized faders, two onboard effects processors, and a CD burner....