Gear

More new studio tools have been announced by Warm Audio. Their new Direct Box Active and Direct Box Passive are designed to get guitars, keyboards and basses into recording systems at the right level to record properly.

Both feature Cinemag transformers, discrete electronic components and a tough, aluminium case.

The Active box takes power from your microphone pre-amp's phantom power and is best for passive instruments like guitars, whilst the Passive box needs no powering and is best for gear with active outputs- so basses with an active pick up or keyboards.

Both will be shipping mid January and we're taking pre-orders now!

Got a question? Feel free to contact us on phone (0121 270 5652) or email

Warm have just announced news of their new Bus Comp- their version of the classic SSL compressor. One of several different types of compressor, the original was found in SSL's G-Series desks and was one of the elements that gave these desks their original sound that propelled them into the history books.

Loved by engineers the world over, these classic compressors are often found strapped across the mix bus, so the last thing your music goes through. There, they have a tendency to make everything sounds more "together" and "finished".

This new box from Warm features Cinemag transformers,  plus a selectable high-pass filter, which lets you add more compression to the higher frequencies without the bass making the compressor "pump", for a cleaner overall mix.

Due to ship around the middle of January, we're taking pre-orders on them now!

Got a question? Feel free to contact us on phone (0121 270 5652) or email us now.

Focal's new flagship studio monitor, the Trio 11, is now part of our permanent demonstration stock.

These new monitors are suitable for larger studios and are aimed at mix engineers and mastering engineers. Featuring a three-way design that can be set up in both a horizontal and vertical orientation, these tri-amped monitors have an astonishingly high SPL but are even and balanced even at low levels thanks to the innovative design features.

If you're interested to hear these, drop us a line to arrange a demo either in store in in your studio.

A little while back we had in the new HEDD Audio Type 05s and Type 07 studio monitors. We were very impressed with what these were capable of.

Since then, we've had the flagship of the Type Series in to our demo stock. These are a three way, loaded with two 7" drivers handling the bass, a 4" mid range and the HEDD Air Motion Transformer, Klaus Heinz's latest take on the ribbon design. All the drive units are custom designs from HEDD. There are very few companies that actually make their own drivers. This puts HEDD at a bit of an advantage to most of the speaker manufacturers out there. They join a very select group of designers who are able to design the drivers around the performance of the whole monitor, rather than trying to adjust their amplifier, cabinet and cross over design to compensate for the performance of generic, off-the-shelf drive units. The cabinets are front-ported with a slot- design.

Designed as mid fields for decent sized rooms, they pack the kind of power you'd expect to see at this size with no less than four 300W ICEpower® amplifiers. This gives these monitors some serious welly.

On the back, there are balanced XLR inputs along with unbalanced RCA and the space for the HEDD Bridge cards- a series of digital expansion options that HEDD have developed, adding a very easy way to get their monitors working with digital gear or added to a Dante network. Along with that there are a couple of tuning trim controls for high and low shelf to adjust for any room discrepancies or personal taste.

In terms of performance, they're exactly what we'd expect for the money and fit exactly the aim that HEDD have set out for. Running some test tones through monitors can often reveal some of the characteristics of a monitor. Sweeping a sine wave across the cross over points shows a very balanced transition with no frequencies jumping out or ducking particularly. Similarly, getting down low, the design of the ports, HEDD seem to have fixed the port chuffing that some designs suffer from.

For mixing work, they produce a very well defined sound stage with instruments and vocal sounding very natural. Lows are very well represented and don't cloud mixes. The mids are clear and vocals project well but without the forced-feeling that some three way boxes give.  Tops are detailed and smooth with transients sounding very musical.

Overall, HEDD have created a very capable monitor. We'll be keeping these on demo for a while. If you're interested in hearing them, you can book a demo with us now.

Over the years, there are many products from the consumer audio world that have found their way into the studio and stuck there- the ubiquitous Yamaha NS10s are a great example. Even though Yamaha stopped making them over ten years ago, they still occupy space atop many mixers in studios throughout the world. Focal, who already make a very nice studio headphone in the form of the Spirit Pro may well have just created another.

Being well known in the world of high-end hifi, Focal released three new headphones last year for the consumer market - Listen, Elear and Utopia. whilst the Listen were very much audio on the move, both the Elear and Utopia are aimed far more at the discerning music lover. Utopia are a no-expense-spared affair using a combination of Focal's unique knowledge and production capability featuring beryllium drivers, carbon fibre trim, they also carry an eye-watering price at £3499, reflecting the R&D that have gone into them.

The Elear, however, feature many of the technical advancements seen in the Utopia but with slightly less exotic materials which give them a slightly more palatable price tag at £899.

For the money, you get a fantastic performing headphone. From a mixing point of view, they support the full frequency range with an impressively neutral tonal balance. No frequencies ever feel enhanced or hyped but rather that they're what was originally put into the recording. That feeling is also apparent in their reproduction of dynamics- if you're mixing and adjusting compression levels, the Elear are able to reveal and show what even subtle changes are doing to your mix and will let you know when you've gone too far. Similarly, instrument placement and panning is made very easy thanks to their incredibly spacious representation of the sound field. It's very easy to focus on what you need to in a mix and draw out what you need to.

If you have to mix on headphones and can't compromise on the sound, you would do well to take a test drive of the Elear. Similarly, if you've never mixed on headphones, you might find that there is finally a set that perform how you need them to for your work.

It's a good time for monitors at the moment. The market has come on in leaps and bounds lately, with manufacturers really pushing the technology and creating some amazing speakers at some amazing prices.

We've added a couple of very interesting new things to our demo stock.

HEDD Audio

This is a very interesting company with an amazing heritage and they've come to market with a range of incredible sounding monitors all based around new technology.

Their chief designer is better known as the guy who bought us Adam Audio. Famous for their ribbon tweeter tech seen in classic monitors like the A7. This was a favourite of Drum and Bass producers thanks to it's extended low end and incredible mid and top end clarity.

This new company was started and has introduced several advancements on the old designs, along with solving some of the issues seen in these old Adam models.

New tech

The HEDD Ribbon AMT tweeter is at the heart of the design with the highest resolution and detail found in any ribbon on the market producing a natural and uncoloured sound with a super-high resolution.

They're also designed for the way the modern broadcast audio world is developing, with the addition of the Hedd Bridge- a slot in card system to connect the speakers to the latest in network audio- be that Ravenna, Dante, AES67 or USB. It also leaves room for upgrading to future specifications that might come in the next few years.

With carefully matched woofers and amplifiers, superbly constructed with a rubberised finish, these new monitors are currently available in several versions

Type 05 - A two-way nearfield monitor with a 5" woofer, featuring two 50 watt amplifiers.

Type 07 - A two-way nearfield monitor with a 7" woofer and two 100 watt amplifiers

Type 20 - A three-way near/midfield monitor with a 7" bass cone, 4" midrange with three 300 watt amplifiers

Type 30 - A three-way midfield monitor, with twin 7" bass drivers, 4" midrange and four 300 watt amplifiers

We currently have the Type 05 and the Type 07 on demo at our Jewellery Quarter show room and they are available to listen to in our fully treated listening room.

The new Type 07 is on demo at Giraffe Audio

Getting your monitors in the right position is key to getting the best out of them. IsoAcoustics make a range of stands designed just for that. Used on top of desks or stands, they let you adjust the position and angle of the speakers, getting them into the sweet spot for listening, and by decoupling from the surface that you have them set up on. They're effective. Once set up, you'll notice that your monitors sound more consistent with better imaging.

The ISO-L8R stands are available in a range of sizes suitable for monitors with small 4" drivers all the way up to large 8" speakers. There are larger versions available for guitar cabs- great for recording and stage use too.

Aperta are the next level up. Manufactured from high-grade aluminium, these are stands with a bit of finesse.

MOD-AL are full aluminium and rubber- designed for the most demanding of tasks. These customised stands can be made to any size and dimensions and are available as soffit mounts for studio main monitors.

Not sure which stands are best for you? We have a handy configurator on our site so you can find the best stand for your needs- or you can email us for advice on any of the available stands.

Push 2 has been announced by Ableton. They've upgraded the hardware with better screens, and implemented the biggest feature that was missing on the original Push- the ability to edit audio.

If you own an original Push, Ableton are offering a trade-in scheme where by you can return your original Push and get £150 off the price of the new one.

Retailing at £499, we're expecting limited stock for the first run. You can pre-order with us now to get in the queue.

Antelope Audio's Orion was a revolutionary box when it first landed. Not only offering 32 channels of audio input and output in a single rack space and on USB, but coupled with both top quality conversion and clocking, they've quickly become a favourite of many studios and mastering houses across the world.

The Orion 32 has now been joined by Orion 32 +. Still housed in a single rack space, the Orion 32+ features the same 32 channels of input and output, 24bit 192KHz conversion and 64 channels of MADI, along with clock output and the ability to clock at 10MHz from Antelope Audios' 10M external clock, the Plus model will features Thunderbolt in addition to USB.

In addition to this, Antelope have released a multi-purpose Orion Studio. Designed more as a stand-alone studio box, the Studio has 12 built in microphone preamps, 8 analogue inputs and outputs on DSUB, two insert points, a couple of high impedance outputs for reamping signals, ADAT io, SPDIFF, two sets of monitor outputs and twin headphone outputs. Comprehensive to say the least! On top of that, there's a full mixer with 8 dynamics processors and eqs, and a high quality reverb unit, with both Thunderbolt and USB.

Both units are shipping over the next month or so. We're expecting a high demand for these so it's worth getting in early!

News today from Native Instruments- for anyone who'd liked the look of their Komplete Kontrol series but was missing a weighted, full 88 note option- from the 27th October, you'll have just that.

Fitted with a Fatar Supreme keyboard, along with the features such as the Light Guide, which should make these a players dream keyboard.

Along with the new hardware, Native Instruments have announced a major update to Komplete Kontrol which will see support extended to third party developers. Early adopters are named as Arturia, Softube and Output Audio, so anyone with any of their instruments or effects will have immediate, full integration within Komplete Kontrol, meaning no more faffing mapping controllers and you'll have the full light guide for visual feedback of where you are in the plugins.

We're taking pre-orders now on them!