These headphones are really great. After reading a lot of reviews around the place I bought two pairs of these for simple monitoring of instruments while recording in Sonar. For this they are perfect, cutting down external noise a bit and providing a really nice full sound with plenty of bass.

For attenuating noise they are not perfect and while using them to play Electronic drums the stick noises are still fairly audible, although better than normal iPod in-ear headphones or equivalent!

For listening to music or films they are great and are a real improvement on any other headphones I have had before. The bass is incredible and detail in the mid to highs is pretty good. They give music a pleasing sound but definitely don’t give a flat overall frequency response so couldn’t be used for mixing (not that this is really recommended!).

They are by far the best headphones I’ve owned (having only ever owned fairly cheap in-ear buds) and are great for listening to music, films and also monitoring instruments when recording. For the price I don’t think you’ll find headphones comparable to these.

I bought the Alesis io26 about 6 months ago and have been pleased with it. For the price there is no other 8 channel analogue audio interface available with very decent Mic Pre-amps, inserts and Phantom power on all inputs. It has two guitar instrument impedance switches on the first two channels for electric guitars and basses. I use it with Sonar 8.5 to record and also practice live with my band.

Mic Pre-amps are nice and transparent with a nice amount of gain. There is obviously increased noise if you turn the gain up very loud but this has never been a problem for me. The only main issue is the drivers which are not really up to scratch compared to more expensive models. The minimum latency I can get on a new custom Intel i7 DAW system running Windows 7 is 128 samples for small projects, increasing it to 256 for larger projects at 48Khz. This is fine for most purposes although with a system like this lower latency should be possible. On my older AMD Athlon II dual core machine I could only run at 512 lowest without dropouts.

It has two headphone outputs which is really useful for me. The first is only assignable to output channels 1-2 but the second can be assigned to any pair for a different monitor mix. There is also a live hardware monitor options, however the latency is low enough at 128 samples to not need to use this.

One thing to note is that other users have often said that stability can be a problem when it is powered via firewire, and that plugging in a power adapter can solve a lot of problems. I have only ever used it with an adapter so I can’t comment on this. With the adapter it has been pretty solid.

In conclusion this is a great interface for the quality of the preamps, and features but the driver problems/high-ish latency means I would only recommend it if you are on a tight budget. If you have a bit more cash to spare maybe look at a “Focusrite Saffire Pro 40”, a “Presonus Firestudio” or a “M-Audio Profire 2626”

Cubase 5 vs Sonar 8.5

I spent a huge amount of time deliberating between buying Cubase 5 or Sonar 8.5 for a 64bit Windows 7 installation (the two top end DAWs for Windows). In the end I saved up and bought both - the “Education Version” of Cubase 5 (most people are eligible – parents, teachers, students) which then makes you entitled to the cheaper “Competitive Crossgrade” for Sonar 8.5 Producer. In total this worked out only slightly more expensive than the full price of one of them! Both are very capable DAWs and as far as I am concerned they are both directly comparable with each other except for the following features where one excels above the other:

64bit OS
I’m using both on a Windows 7 Pro 64bit installation with a Core i7 machine. My audio interface is an Alesis io26 which unfortunately does not have the most efficient drivers. (***On an aside note Windows 7 works a dream, and audio performance is similar to if not slightly better than XP on the same machine, and a huge improvement on Vista, which I found unusable.***) For 64bit installations Sonar 8.5 is the winner by a mile. I initially installed Cubase 5 64bit but constant crashes while using the program, especially when using 32bit VSTs meant I had to resort to using the 32bit version, taking away any performance gains and the extra RAM addressing 64bit allows. This is a well known problem with Cubase 64bit with Steinberg actually recommending using the 3rd party JBridge software to use 32bit VSTs...which I still found gave mixed results. Sonar 8.5 works very well in 64bit, all 32bit plugins have worked well with their Bitbridge and they supply inbuilt support for JBridge as well if you require it. I only have the 64bit version installed, with no need for the 32bit version.

Verdict – Sonar 8.5 if 64bit (lots of RAM!) is what you need at the moment.

Program speed/efficiency
Sonar wins again here. Starting the program takes around 3 seconds compared to Cubase’s 14 seconds. At 48KHz Sampling Rate Sonar can work at 128 samples latency with my io26 for small to medium sized projects and 256 for large projects. Cubase has constant dropouts at 128 and the occasional dropout at 256 meaning I work with it at 512 samples. For me this is a crucial difference and incredibly frustrating for Cubase as 512 latency is too much for vocal and drums monitoring etc. where low latency is essential. With a better soundcard with more efficient drivers I’m sure the latency would be better, but I’m also sure Sonar would still perform the best.

Verdict – Sonar 8.5 if efficiency and low latency is required.

Bundled Plugins, Virtual Instruments
There is no question here that in terms of quality and quantity of instruments Sonar wins - bundled with Dimension Pro (sample library), Session Drummer 3, z3ta+, Rapture LE, Guitar Rig 3 LE, True Piano LE etc. It allows you to get creating music straight out the box without needing to buy any expensive VST instruments. It also has a huge selection of effects for realtime reverb, delay, vocal processing etc. to mastering options like Linear Phase EQs, Boost11 etc. Cubase has comparable effects plugins and a truly excellent real time convolution reverb (REVerence) which in my opinion is much better than Sonar’s equivalent (with lots of latency!). On the instrument side it is poor with Halion 1 containing only a few instruments.

Verdict – Sonar 8.5 if you don’t have many of your own plugins

MIDI editing/Scoring
Although I haven’t delved into the details my initial experimentations seem to show Cubase is ahead here with some really useful tools for efficiently editing MIDI data. If you work a lot with MIDI programming for instruments/beats then Cubase is definitely recommended here, although Sonar can achieve the same results, just in more time.

Verdict – Cubase 5 for much more efficient MIDI editing

Release/Update Cycle
Cubase 5 is very stable (unless you use the 64bit version!!) and has a long release cycle (Steinberg don’t update it very often!). Cakewalk on the other hand brings out yearly upgrades for Sonar (which cost) as well as intermittent bug fixes etc. The problem with this is that you may be tempted to shell out £90ish each year to upgrade to the newest version.

Verdict – Personal preference but for me Sonar for the faster updates.

Licence/Copy Protection
Cubase 5 uses a dongle for protection. On a laptop this may be quite annoying but for a desktop this is fine. The huge advantage of this type of protection is that it allows you to legally sell on the software second hand, whereas as Sonar uses a Serial and Registration Code, it cannot be legally sold on. Of course if you like Cubase you won’t be selling it anyway, but at least the option is there if you don’t like it.

Verdict – Cubase 5 for the flexibility.

Mac OS X
Cubase 5 supports Mac OS X natively whereas Sonar is Windows only and can therefore only be used on a Mac using Bootcamp. If you want to use PCs and Macs then Cubase is a good choice. If you are only using Macs then Logic may be the better choice. If you are Windows only then some suggest that the fact that Cakewalk only have to support Sonar on one platform means bugs will be found and updated easier, although whether this works in practice is debatable.

Verdict – Cubase 5 if you need dual platform compatability.

In conclusion both are highly capable DAWs and choice between them will depend on the features listed above which are important to you. For me, if I was to buy just one again I would buy Sonar 8.5 due to the higher efficiency (therefore lower latency performance), good 64bit support, and bundled plugins. Cubase has great 32bit stability, MIDI editing, licensing options, and dual platform support but for me these are not as important. However if you can afford both, they do complement each other well as one will make up for the other’s shortfalls.

This is my third guitar and it deserves fondling. I've named her Isis,and she plays and feels and looks like BUTTER.Malleable in my hands and it sounds better than my music teacher's Gibson.
Play plugged or unplugged. I'm headstock over heels. And the looks!!! Heidi Klum on the runway.
A must have and need I mention the price??
Listen up and don't wait any longer.Treat yourself. This guitar should be mandatory.

Came yesterday, been playing with it until now. What a pleasure. First purchase from dolphin, excellent service, excellent price, excellent shipping. Guitar in great condition and ready to play , just had to tune it a little bit. I haven´t found any problem until now. Action properly set, easy and fun to play. I don´t have a good amp yet, but i don´t think it will let me down when the time comes to plug it to a more serious thing. I love the maple neck, the guitar is just beautiful.

It's really a beauty with perfect neck and no visible joint of the 2 piece alder body and also lightweight (3,1kg).Sounds very good with stock pickups (classic rock and blues-I love it).Overall very good for the price, worth every euro.Don't hesitate to buy it.

I 've had it for one week now and I am really impressed.So small, yet perfect for the job (bedroom practice) with very good sounds and really loud for the 2 watts.Also versatile and flexible with in-outs,separate effects,amp sim and battery operation.I am still exploring sounds with my new Squier Classic Vibe 50's.What more for home practice?Definitely a winner!

Had this card for a few years now. Never had any problems with it. I do a lot of digital sequencing and have found it great for the price. I run it through my Mackie desk and have had few records released with tracks made using it. There really is not much else with the latency and sound quality of this card available for the same price.

Pro's:

Great sound quality
Very stable (xp32)
Excellent price

Cons:

Mic/line jumpers
No breakout box

As for the previous comments about the bundled software, I didn't buy this card for a stripped down version of Ableton, but I was quite happy to get something for free.

My first FX Box was bought about 30 yrs ago and cost £250, this cost £40 and does exactly as it says on the Box , to coin a phrase, a real little Gem, couldn,t be more pleased .

To my mind the best there is! Magnificent build quality, great sound and sustain.

Good value for the price - sturdy metal construction and nicely weighted. Adhesive padding for the speakers was a nice touch.

Only complaint is that the vice-grips are awkward to get really tight (for heavier speakers) and at full extension, the stands are not perfectly straight. Other than that, brilliant.

I bought this unit to chunk up my rythm guitar work and add a bit of texture. The unexpected bonus was the compression and warm quality the mole adds to lead work. If you take all the bass out of your amp and set the bass booster to 9, oclock some great creamy tones can be acheived. Really compliments a valve amp nicely. So in summary, a great EH Product and its NOT JUST FOR BASSISTS!!!!

i owned one of these last year but sold it and regreted it every since so decieded to buy another one,am a big fan of peter green and this is the closest you can get other than owning the real peter green model.i dont know if vintage have re designed this model but mine is less 'aged' than the photo suggests and the one i had previously its more yellow than orangey.it sounds great especailly the out of phase posistion.would recommend to anyone.

Well done Dolphin, I ordered at 3pm and the unit arrived at 2pm next day!.
Could not get it working with Windows XP multimedia edition on Toshiba satelite A100 496.
Works great however on above hardware with Linux 64 Studio v 2.0 comes with freebob driver, jack and Ardour

nice guitar. well made and arrived the very next day... so 10 stars.
this is the second time I have been asked to review it so I will. I wanted to change the strings so that it can be tuned like a conventional guitar rather than like a guitar at the 5th fret. I asked the good people at Dolphin if they had or could obtain a set of suitable strings. they said they would get back to me but didn't........ which is unfortunate. I also recieved the stunning advice of "use ordinary strings, but cut them shorter " ????. Anyway, I have found some LaBella FG114 strings from Germany and it sounds great.

I needed a portable and lightweight piano for use in a church, mainly to play worship songs written for piano. The 76 key Yamaha was the perfect choice for our needs as the lack of the additional bass notes is not required. I was impressed by how light the piano is to carry and move(which we do a lot of) and of the sounds available. limited but very good quality. One added bonus was the fact the piano will run very happily on 6 AA batteries.. useful, if like me, you forgot to order a power supply!