Behringer

106
Mini Reviews
The latest musical bits and pieces racked and rated
Crunkzilla | £69
timespace.com
Are Hip Hop fans still
listening to Lil’ Jon-style
crunk? YEAH!!! I’m pretty
sure we’re all on hyphy now.
WHAT?!!! That’s over too,
apparently. OKAY!!! Now it’s
all about Lil’ Wayne’s futuristic snap or
something. LET’S GO!!! Either way, the 40
Elastik-format construction kits on this
2GB disc will have you sounding like
Atlanta circa 2002 in no time at all with
their 808 kicks and claps, pimp
cup-rattling basslines and skittering synths
reminiscent of the sorrowful clatter of a
platinum grill dropping from the slack jaw
of a misogynistic rapper onto the
tear-stained floor of an empty Georgia strip
club. I think you’re getting the idea now.
Chris Barker
6/10
Stanton Uberstand
Laptop Station | £69
stantondj.com
As laptop DJs reading will know, not every
club comes kitted-out for your forward-
thinking ways. Placing your precious
laptop on an unused 1210 while your
interface gets crammed in any space you
can find, with vital wires getting bent and
twisted all over the place is hardly an ideal
way to perform or protect your
investments. While there are countless
laptop stands on the market, Stanton have
stepped to the plate with the Uberstand,
aiming to provide the ultimate solution.
It’s reassuringly heavy and it’s
flat-folding ability is a great touch for
portability. Once you’ve got it up and
at’em, despite being a bit bouncy, it’s very
sturdy. The shelf is perfect for your audio
interface, and the whole thing feels
trustworthy and solid. A great solution to a
common problem and it does exactly what
it should, very well. Declan McGlynn
9/10
The Electronic Music
Manuscript | £50
scvlondon.co.uk
Like the Tony Franklin
package, this double-CD
Sony offering seems to be
aimed primarily at Acid
users (everything comes in
24-bit Acidized WAV only)
but also includes six readymade Battery
kits. The millions of didgeridoo sample
fans around the world will be delighted to
hear there’s even a didgeridoo kit. It’s
impossible to pin this collection down to a
single style as it comprises everything from
synth riffs, drum loops and string samples
to FX and warped drum kits. As a general
collection this is pretty good. Worth
checking out if you’re just starting to put
together a sample library. Greg Scarth
7/10
T
he Orbitsound T3 is a
‘personal stereo aura’, in
other words, a handheld,
USB-charged speaker for
any device that features a headphone
socket. Aesthetically, the T3 is
reasonably styled and built, if a bit
light and a touch on the large side.
Presumably targeting the ‘youth’
market, no longer wishing to irritate
the public with tinny mobile speakers,
Orbitsound promise personal music
delivered by its ‘airSound’ technology.
Unfortunately the T3 is cheap
sounding, distorting at higher levels,
lacking depth and is, anything but
personal. It’s ‘single-point-stereo’ also
fails to deliver, with even the most
heavily panned tracks sounding
distinctly mono. Dan Vickers
3/10
Orbitsound T3 | £79
orbitsound.co.uk
T
he hard drive market is
currently a crowded one
with plenty of options when
it comes to data storage.
The Avastor SDX 1000 Quad has
done a very good job of positioning its
self above the usual crowd. Its wide
range of connectivity options, USB,
Firewire 400, 800 and ESATA make
this a truly serious contender for the
musician. With a storage capacity of
500GB and a top data transfer speed
of 3GB/s and a 7200rpm as standard
it means that you can really rely on
this for large multi-track audio
productions without any fear of
bottlenecking or loss of bandwith.
This is not the cheapest option
when it comes to storage but as they
say, you do get what you pay for and
for those who are relying on efficient
and reliable data transfer on a large
scale then I would highly recommend
it. Will Seelig
9/10
Avastor SDX | £207
avastor.com
FMU207.rev_mini 106 14/10/08 3:47:50 pm