Audient

113
november 2019 Guitarist
reviewAUDIENT SONO GUITAR RECORDING INTERFACE
AUDIENT SONO GUITAR
RECORDING INTERFACE
£419
What You Need To Know
An audio interface with a valve?
Surely not…
Yep, the USB-C connection to your
computer might be bang up to
date, but there’s some nice vintage
technology in the guitar signal path
to enhance your sound.
There are a lot of knobs for an
audio interface…
True, but those six black ones are
pretty much dedicated to guitar
tone: setting the input to the valve
stage, tweaking it with three-band
EQ, and setting the drive of a
simulated power amp.
So, who is Audient anyway?
You may not have heard of the
company before, but it is a respected
UK brand with over 20 years of
history and best known for mixing
consoles, audio interface and
microphone preamps.
A
s long as it’s got a Hi-Z input, you
can plug in and record a guitar
through any audio interface. Savvy
manufacturers, however, have realised
that guitar players might desire a few extra
features above and beyond the usual array,
so have been coming up with interfaces
designed specifically for guitar recording.
We recently took a look at the IK
Multimedia Axe I/O (in issue 448), which
features variable input impedance as
well as JFET circuitry in the preamp.
Now it’s the turn of the Audient Sono, a
system that actually puts a 12AX7 valve in
the guitar signal path and follows it with
three-band EQ and Torpedo power amp/
speaker cabinet simulation from specialists
Two Notes Engineering.
The Sono is no one-trick-pony – it has
all the facilities you’d expect in a decent
interface including the dedicated guitar
input, a pair of combi XLR/jack mic/line
sockets with individual 48-volt phantom
power switching for condenser mics,
stereo line and headphone outputs each
with their own volume control, plus a
Monitor Mix knob to let you listen to the
input, DAW output or a blend of the two.
You’ll also find a dedicated To Amp output
for reamping, and an optical input so you
can add an ADAT expander, such as the
Audient ASP880, with more mic preamps
to enable you to record up to 10 channels
of audio simultaneously.
In Use
Our first setup task was the easy
installation of the two associated software
apps that are available for free download.
One is the actual Sono app where you can
have remote control of Sono functions
via a GUI, access firmware updates and
more; the other is the Two Notes Remote
Software that offers a choice of cabinets
with various adjustable parameters.
Powering up the unit with the provided
wall-wart power supply and connecting
it by USB, we quickly got the unit set up
as the selected audio interface for our
Mac. We chose to start by recording some
clean guitar directly into Logic Audio.
The main signal you record comes from
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CONTACT Audient PHONE [phone] WEB https://audient.com
AUDIENT SONO GUITAR RECORDING INTERFACE
1. Not merely for cooling
purposes, you can
look through the holes
of the front panel grille
and see the reassuring
warm orange glow of
the 12AX7 valve
2. With the software
mixer you can set your
levels and much more
from your computer
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GIT452.rev_audient.indd 113 02/10/2019 23:30