Monthly Archives: August 2015

Antelope Audio are doing some fine pieces of audio hardware right now. We've just had land in a Satori for demonstration. This is their new mastering-grade fully analogue monitor controller.

With many of today's modern work taking place more and more inside the computer, the Satori brings back many of the useful features that a mixing console would have traditionally handled.

We've done a short unboxing video with a run down of the hardware for you

With several other competitors on the market, what have Antelope done to make the Satori attractive? Firstly, the audio quality- firing it up and feeding it signals from our RME FireFace UFX into our PMC Twotwo.6, you're immediately treated to the full sound you'd expect from the combo with the imaging precision and sonic balance that should be there. Then, they've loaded it with all the extra inputs and outputs that you'd ever need on a controller. Added to this, there's both a hardware remote available and a software panel that lets you change settings sat back in your monitors sweet-spot.

If you're currently using another monitor controller as you need to be able to control your main volume, run several sets of monitors, need talkback and headphone monitoring, but find you've had to compromise your sound quality too much, you will definitely get on well with the Satori.

Antelope's Isochrone 10M is designed to give all your digital gear the tightest reference clock available. Using atomic technology, rather than quartz as found in the majority of other devices, the 10m is marketed as being 100,000 more accurate than traditional clocks.

This is a box for high-end digital studios who don't want to compromise any part of their production chain and need to remove any doubt that their gear isn't on, 100%.

Arturia's original Beatstep was a great little box. When it was released, it arrived as (yet) a (nother) midi controller with pads and knobs- but it had one really, really cool trick up its sleeve- the built in sequencer. The controls were a bit weird and it didn't really give you much feedback about what notes were going on, but it was great for experimenting and having a different way to get ideas for riffs and hooks very quickly.

Arturia realised pretty quickly that they were onto something and have listened to peoples feedback on what they wanted on it. Introducing the Beatstep Pro!

Featuring not one, but three sequencers, there are two for melodic lines and then one dedicated for drums. You can program lines in either in realtime, with the pads that are lit, playing it like a keyboard and step sequencing, using the knobs to dial in the note or use the middle row of buttons to select step, the pads for notes.

Unlike the original, the screen gives you nice, clear feedback on what the note you're programming or editing is, which is a major help when trying to dial in changes to your sequences.

You have velocity and gate length control for each of the notes, and the drum sequencer also lets you dial in shift amounts for each note, for a more organic feel to your drums.

Outputs are very well specified, with both midi in and out, there's clock sync in and out, and a whole plethora of CV and Gate outputs for your drums and synths. It will also fire sequences over USB to control software synths if you want to run it that way. 

Integrating it into a set up is also easy- as well as running its clock internally, it will sync to USB, Midi or the clock inputs.

On top of that there are a whole load of extra programming features to help you build up tracks and then perform them live- too much to cover here!

For anyone using any electronic gear, these things could add another dimension to your music thanks to the different ways you can run it. We recommend them  either for inspiration when you're just jamming or for your live performance.

We're very proud to announce a major update to our site. We've done some major upgrades on our servers which are now running faster than ever and the new design now scales for mobile and tablet browsing. We've made quite a few other changes here and there which should make everything a bit easier to find and we've plenty more planned over the up and coming months.

We hope you all like the new site as much as we do!

RME have made their name creating some of the finest audio interfaces on the market. Known for their sound quality and the incredible driver reliability, they're the benchmark standard for audio interfaces.

The latest addition to their range is the Babyface Pro.

The new interface replaces the older Babyface and adds a few new features.

The Babyface Pro features two microphone inputs, two line inputs, headphone outputs on both 1/4" and 1/8" jacks, plus ADAT i/o and MIDI.

Presented in a hard-shell cary case, these interfaces are aimed at the mobile Audio Professional who doesn't want to compromise sound quality and reliability for their portable set up.

We've now got ours on demo. Feel free to add any comments or questions!