Gear Of The Year 2022

Hello, I'm Paul White and with me is Hugh Robjohns and we're going to look back over the gear that we've seen over the past year and pick out the more memorable bits. Now, being an expat Yorkshireman, I'm always on the lookout for good value and if something's easy to use as well, then so much the better. And because of the style of music that I make, I'm also interested in anything that creates new and interesting sounds, especially if those sounds can generate inspiration for new ideas. Thanks. But first of all, here what's impressed you over the past year. I hear that you bought yourself a Hydrasynth. A Hydrasynth deluxe, in fact. Yeah, I did. It's a long story, but going back into the 80s, mid 80s, I picked up a Yamaha CS80, the legendary CS80. And it's a really, really performance orientated synth. It has quite a characteristic sound of its own, which I'm sure everybody's familiar with, but it's just the performance aspects of it that make it such a joy to play. And yeah. Rather foolishly looking back, I sold it in the 90s probably when one of the filter chips had died and I couldn't be bothered to replace it again, and I've regretted it ever since, and I've been looking for something that would do the same sort of performance capabilities. And the Hydrasynth came out a year or two back and I thought, this is a fantastic machine, but it only had a four octave keyboard. And if you wanna perform, you need more than four octave keyboard. So when they brought the deluxe out I just couldn't hold back any longer and I rushed out with my credit card and bought this thing. And I have to say it is an absolute joy to play. It's fantastic. It is easy, very easy to program. It's incredibly versatile and flexible. It can make almost any kind of sound you want because it's filters and it's oscillators and the whole structure of the thing is so versatile and flexible. It is a digital synth at the end of the day, but it can sound extraordinarily analogue if you wanted to. And I just love it. It's absolutely brilliant. It's the best thing I've bought in years. That's good to hear you've got something that's made you happy, Hugh. Yep, absolutely. Now, I use a lot of effects pedals in the studio, and this year we've seen quite a number of very worthy effects. My personal favourites, taken from the ones I've reviewed myself are the Boss RE202 Space Echo, which I think really nails the sound of the original Roland RE201 Tape Echo. And then IK Multimedia came out with the X Space Reverb, which is also a glorious thing. And of course, Red Panda's Particle 2, which is a granular pedal, and that can come out with some effects that rival the sounds that you get out of some of these complicated granular effects plug ins. And also, going back to the Space Reverb from IK, it's one of the few units I've tried that bears comparison with Strymon's excellent reverb pedals. It offers all the expected reverb types, plus a number of speciality treatments that bring pitch shifting and modulation into the equation. And while I use these pedals mainly on guitar, of course they'd work just as well on synths, vocals, or on your modular system. I like pedals. I recently, it's not new, it's not new gear for the year, but I recently managed to pick up a Moogafoga 12 stage phaser. Which is a fantastically versatile thing. Before that, I picked up the 102, the the ring modulator. And the thing I like about them is that they're big chunky pedals that you can, it's got proper knobs on, you can, you know, you can play with it in a way that's not quite so easy with virtual on screen stuff. And they have a wealth of control voltage inputs on the back. So they're really easy to hook up to things like the hydro synth, or I've got a Moog sequential and you can hook it up to that and it becomes an integrated part of the synthesizer. And I really love that. That's been my thing. But of course, if we're looking at gear of the year, they've recently released them as virtual plugins, haven't they? Which I've not tried myself, but going by the hardware, they must be fun. I think they're so much the same, it's just the controllability aspect which appeals to you so much that, you know, if you can't get hold of the knobs, it's not quite the same thing. But when it comes to things like guitar amplifier emulation, sadly Sound On Sound's Dave Lockwood got his hands on the Universal Audio UAFX pedals before I did, and apparently now he makes regular use of one of those in his studio. There are lots of emulation pedals out there, but for Dave to like it, it's got to be something special. For those who want to recreate classic guitar sounds on their computer, then IK's Tonix software was actually big news. The concept of modelling specific amplifier and mic setups by analysing test signals passed through them is not a new one. Kemper, of course, have been doing this in hardware for a long time. But IK Multimedia have developed their own software approach to this that uses machine learning to capture the sound of any amp, cabinet or overdrive pedal. As well as allowing you to capture the sound and the response of your favourite amplifier and mic setup, you also get a library of classic gear that's been captured for you. Of the plugins I've tried, several stand out, and that includes the Arteria EFX Fragments, and that's another granular delay, and it's capable of creating both lush textural pads and some kind of glitchy rhythms. It also draws some parallels with Output's Portal, but has enough differences, I think, to give it its own character. The updated version of Eventide's Physion is also very impressive, and that adds a larger selection of different effects that can be added independently to the attack and sustain portions of the input. Of course, Huw, I know that you tend to gravitate towards anything that's quite expensive, so that's Of the high end kit you've looked at this year, what's impressed you the most? That's a very good question. I think, probably the thing that's impressed me the most this year is the new range of loudspeakers that PMC have brought out. I went over to PMC's headquarters over near Luton much earlier in the year, and Listened, sat in a room and listened to the six twos which is a, it's a fairly large, it's sort of a, a midfield speaker, I suppose, you'd describe it as, and it's got two six inch bass drivers, a midrange and a tweeter and I have to say, it's probably the single most impressive loudspeaker I've heard in the last decade. It's absolutely stunning how they get that performance out of what is a relatively modest box. I mean, it goes right down into the 30 hertz at the bottom end, enormous volume if you really want it, but it's still beautifully clean and transparent and balanced, even at low listening levels. It's the most stunning thing. And I'm very pleased to say that although I didn't review it, my friend and learned colleague Phil Ward reviewed it and he felt about it exactly the same way as I did, which is kind of reassuring really. It's also a smaller version with a single 16th speaker called the PMC6, logically enough. And that's just as good. It doesn't go as loud and it doesn't go quite as deep, but it still has all the other characters and all the other qualities. And the really good thing about these speakers is that they can be controlled over a network. You just plug them into a network and you can do all the sort of room setup, the room EQ, balancing them, controlling them, all that stuff very easily from a very simple app, it's beautifully elegant, really sophisticated. Well thought out, elegant design, and it's British, which makes it even better for me. Well that sounds all very sensible. Again, I've been gravitating towards the weirder things. One such plugin was Mimu's Jellyfish. It's another granular processing engine, but this time it's designed as an instrument. So you chuck in basically any piece of audio, and it chews it up, modulates it, scans up and down, and with a cursor that looks like a jellyfish, hence the name. I've no idea why. Any short sample of sustained sound can be turned into something weird and magical. And I'm all up for that. In fact, it seems that granular processing is being used in more and more hardware, which is good because at one time you needed all the power of a computer to make it work properly. And now we've seen it creeping into pedals. And I think that's a good thing. And we're going to see more of those over the coming year, I'm sure. Only if you can get the processing chips though. Ah, yes, the great chip shortage. What do you know about this, Hugh? About the same as everybody else, really. It's a mystery. Where have all these chips gone? Or if they are out there, why aren't they coming up to the people that need them? It is a serious problem. A lot of manufacturers are finding it really difficult to get the parts they need. Even simple parts, not just, you know, processors, but more Sort of run of the mill op amps and, you know, logic hardware and stuff that, that you wouldn't think would be a problem. But it's really difficult to get hold of. Didn't all this start with fires in some of the major manufacturing companies? There was a fire at the AKM factory who make a lot of converters, and a lot of people who make interfaces, which use a lot of converters, A to D's and D to A's, have really struggled. Some of Focusrite. Went off and did a complete redesign on one of their products to use a different brand of converter because they couldn't get the ones they originally started with. But it goes beyond that. I was talking to, at our SynthFest show up in Sheffield earlier in the year. I was speaking to somebody there who makes pianos and they can't get parts for their pianos, electric pianos. And it really has knocked the industry quite severely. And it's not just our industry, of course, people talk a lot about the car industry suffering, but it's widespread. I was trying to get a replacement controller for a, a, a. a kitchen oven and you can't get the parts for that either and it's all because of this ridiculous chip shortage which seems to fade everything. You didn't need chips in a Morris Minor. But it's there to keep you warm I suppose. Okay let's go back to looking at things that make interesting noises and of course Rob Papen's just come up with another big update to his Explorer package which I'm always happy to see but perhaps more conventional. And no less creative for that is a thing called Drop Pad, which was one of my choices for the year, partly due to the fact it's got a very low price and it's easy to use. It's a collaboration between Soundtracks, a German company, and Sub 51 in the UK. And it's a contact instrument that offers the dynamic blending of four samples. So you have a little cursor that kind of wanders around these square pads containing your samples and the balance changes accordingly. And it can then go further to add modulated filters, modulated effects. and the output continually mutates. It comes with a big library of samples, some of which are very imaginative, but the best part is that you can just drag and drop your samples in quite a lot of different formats onto any or all of the four sample cells, hence the name, and then you create your own sounds. The latest upgrade to Drop Pad allows for individual sample pads to be excluded from the level modulation engine, for example a basic drum groove that you want to keep constant, but you want all your toppers and layers on top of it to keep being modulated. Yeah, as I say, the price is very Yorkshireman friendly, so it gets my vote. Right now, Hugh, I know you're going to talk now about something that doesn't make an interesting noise, but perhaps diagnoses problems in something that does. Well, you know me, Paul, I like gadgets. And the more clever the gadget, the more I like it. And one I came across earlier in the year which is in our gear of the year review is the Sonect audio sound bullet. And it's just this little sort of pocket sized gadget with XLR connectors on each end. And it's a fabulous multi purpose tester. If you're working in live sound or even in a busy studio or just in a home studio for that matter, and you need something quick and easy to use to see whether something's making a noise or to make a noise itself, to test something like a guitar amp or an effects pedal or something like that. Or you want to check phantom power, this is the gadget. It's not cheap, I admit, but then, you know, me, I like expensive stuff. But if you use it every day, and it'll last you for 10, 20 years or more, it's going to cost you peanuts per day. And it's such a powerful, versatile little machine. It's rechargeable on its battery. You charge it up once, it'll last all day easily. Probably a couple of days if you only use it, you know, infrequently. You can plug a little set of earphones into it if you want and use it as a audio monitor. It's even got a little loudspeaker in the side so you don't even need earphones if you're in a quiet environment. And it's just, it's a really good, neat, nice, well designed, good little toy. Talking of the gear of the year review that we've done in the magazine. Some things, and I've just played with something that came in too late to be included. Is there anything that caught your eye that you would have liked to have included if it had come in a week or two earlier? Well the one that I'm sure will make it into next year's guide is the Eventide H90. Have you come across this? I've heard of it, I've not come across it. It's it's a dual channel effects pedal and it's styled rather like the old H9 but it's got about 10 times the processing power and it includes some new algorithms including polyphonic pitch tracking, polyphonic pitch shifting and emulations of quite a lot of the old school Eventide hardware. So I've been reviewing this and then my credit card has somehow been levitating out of my pocket rather like the magician's rising card trick, so I'm going to have to keep that I'm afraid. Sounds impressive. It's very impressive. Since I got hold of one for review, I've hardly been able to stop playing with the thing. They're also the Two Notes Revolt Guitar and Bass Amplifier Modeling Pedals. That's a strange name, you know. Somebody's going to come up with a revolting pun at some time. But these landed on my desk just before Christmas. And both of these things are completely analogue, each offering three different amp models triode tube. But also the the speaker emulation is analog, which is unusual because, of course, Two Notes made their name with IR based speaker emulation products. And there's something rather musical about the thing. In a big analog, there's no latency to worry about. The controls just work. And that high voltage valve that sits in the middle of the signal path really seems to do something to give it a good feel as well as a good sound. Acknowledging that some people still like the IR based approach, they give you a free copy of the Wall of Sound plug in if you buy either of these things. You can also load one of ten speaker impulse responses that come with it. Sounds very impressive. Another late arrival was the BB Tubes Saturator from Waves. And while there are loads of saturation plugins out there, there's something very musical about this one. And it's also very easy to use. It's got very few controls. The two main ones being two huge, huge distortion knobs. One for nice distortion and one for nasty distortion. And you can blend the two together. It's also got a switchable transformer emulation in it. It actually sounds really good, especially if you want to make something sound warmer and bigger, but without it actually sounding distorted. At the other end of the scale, you can take a very limp drum groove track and stick it through the nastier distortion, if you like. And it adds a lot of snap and presence to the kicks and the snares and the toms. It's a really good thing. I think that's going to do very well for them. So Hugh, after chatting to all these people at SynthFest and on the forum, are there any trends that you've discovered? I'm not sure I'd say I discovered them, but certainly on the forum recently, there's been A growing conversation from people who want to move away from the computer and use hardware recorders of some form, just for the immediacy and the fact that they don't get distracted. Obviously, if you've got a computer running in your office, there's going to be a tendency to want to check emails or do a bit of web surfing. You know, people seem to get distracted very easily, whereas a hardware recorder, you switch it on, you can only record music with it, and it seems to focus the mind and a surprising number of people seem to be moving back towards that kind of thing. And you know, looking back fondly at the days when we had things like, you know, the Yamaha hardware recorders and Tascam hardware recorders and things like that, which I find fascinating. Personally, I used hardware recorders for doing live recording. I had an HD 24 for many years and the old releases hard disk recorder. And that was really good, but of course I'd always transfer it into a computer before doing any editing and mixing. When it comes to actually producing music, I don't think I could ever go back to hardware. I just remember all these things where just to do some cut and paste, it was almost like filling in a tax return and you had to get, it came to sew by your mum before it would do it , you know, it was just dreadful. Whereas now you just grab hold of the Lego blocks and move them. So I couldn't ever go back to a hardware recorder. For those people who like them, then that's good luck. I guess it depends a lot on the kind of music you want to do. If you're the kind of person who likes to just perform a piece and then not mess around with it too much afterwards, it can be quite a fast way of working, I guess. Do any of those people still exist? I'm told they do. Yeah, I like to do the odd performance now and again. Yeah, we do, but because music is going to be heard many, many times, if it's been recorded, there is this tendency to want to take out little imperfections that if it was only going to be heard once, wouldn't matter, it would be ephemeral, as they say. Very true. Yeah, very, very true. And of course, the last couple of generations have become conditioned to very precise music because many were born after the invention of the quantization button. Yeah, this is true. And the pitch correction button. Yeah, so you go back to some of the classic songs of the 60s, and if you listen to them, the production sounds quite sloppy, the playing sounds a bit sloppy, they speed up on occasions, mentioning New Rolling Stones, but they still sound marvellous. But now, you know, everything's got to be polished so that you can see reflection in it. I suppose it's a fashion thing, isn't it? I mean, fashions evolve, and, you know, you go in one direction, and then all of a sudden people think, oh, we've gone too far this way, and jump back and go back to an old school approach, and then I think they've reinvented the wheel. So we need a kind of digital punk movement who turn off the click track. Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah. That would be the equivalent, wouldn't it, these days? A punk click track. That doesn't. That doesn't, yeah. And on a personal note, I'm always happy to find hardware or software that allows electric guitar to make new and interesting noises that compete with synths. I mean, we've got plenty of technology out there that makes new guitars sound like the old ones. But sometimes we want something different. And we've seen quite a lot of cool stuff this year that actually does that. So it's a trend I'm hoping will continue because as far as I can see, there is still a lot more guitarists out there than there are keyboard players. And quite a lot of those are looking for new sounds. I found them in my Hydrasynth. What, the guitarists? Yeah, no, I didn't find any guitarists in there. Yeah, I know what you mean. And on that happy note, it's goodbye from me and it's goodbye from Hugh. Happy New Year everyone. Thank you for listening and be sure to check out the show notes page for this episode where you'll find further information along with web links and details of all the other episodes. And just before you go, let me point you to the soundonsound.com/podcasts website page, where you can explore what's playing on our other channels.