Products first announced at this year\'s NAMM show are now showing up regularly at MTM headquarters, and of course we\'re going to be telling you exactly what we think of them in the next couple of issues.

In this month\'s MTM we review 24 products, including exclusive reviews of Focusrite\'s OctoPre LE and TrakMaster Pro, Universal Audio\'s superb LA-610 preamp/compressor, M-Audio\'s Ozonic keyboard/controller and the latest version of the sequencer you get with every new Mac, Apple\'s GarageBand 2.

Mixing is a vital part of the production process. It will absolutely determine how your work sounds, and is every bit as creative and exciting as the playing and recording. Mark Cousins is no stranger to getting the most from the mixing process and in this month\'s lead feature he explains how you can too.

Anyone who has ever been into a professional studio will have noticed that everything is built around the engineer\'s seat. This enables the engineer to be productive while enjoying the best acoustic experience possible. In a home or project studio, space is often at a premium, but this is no reason not to consider the layout. Grant Bridgeman\'s feature explains how best to design your studio to maximise your productivity.

This month\'s tutorials include a guide to WaveBurner, a new application that ships with Logic Pro 7, a guide to the new features in Reason 3.0, using external effects in Cubase SX3 and audio editing in Sonar 4. And this issue\'s Ten Minute Masters offer you the inside line on on Patchbays and Physical Modelling.

And last but not least, I\'m sure you\'ll be gagging to find out what\'s on the coverdisc. Well, Loopmasters has kindly provided us with over 180MB of samples from its latest Origin series for this month\'s CD-ROM. The samples include material from Downbeat & Leftfield, Drum & Bass Producer, Funky House Producer, Jazzworld, Lounge & Chillout, Percussionism, Producers Essentials and Raw Power. We\'ve also saved just enough space for Bizune, a funky VST synth, and demos of Virsyn Cantor 1.6 and Ultimate Sound Bank Ultra Focus.

Finally, we\'d just like to let you know that from next month, Music Tech will have an exciting new look. There\'ll be more interviews, more tutorials, more features, more technology and more music. It\'s on sale 21st April and it\'ll be a corker, so don\'t miss it!

Enjoy the issue.

Neil Worley
Editor

Subscribe and save cash! Visit http://www.musictechmag.co.uk for our latest subscription offers.