If you haven’t already noticed, most of the recording/electronic music/keyboard/etc. magazines have withered away during the economic, uh, drought. Advertisers are abandoning, or cutting back on, print media, which leaves publishers with a starvation budget that’s reflected in a noticeable dropoff in editorial content. So we see recycled articles, content that’s traded back and forth between sister publications, and attempts to steer readers to websites.

But Sound on Sound has stuck to its guns, offering loads of practical information, how-to guides, dissections of classic tracks, and more, all wrapped up in a good-natured Brit-speak package. The current issue includes technique-rich articles on Cubase, Digital Performer, Logic, Pro Tools, and SONAR – which by themselves are worth the hefty $60 USD subscription – plus regular features like Studio SOS (the editors actually visit readers’ home studios and help whip them into shape!), Mix Rescue (equally informative treatment of readers’ tracks), and a pile of other good stuff. In my day job I see all the trade publications; SOS is the one I take home to read and re-read.