Work With Us
Sound Tech Insider is an independent publication for people who make music. We review music software, AI audio tools and distribution services, and we judge them from inside a working studio rather than from a spec sheet.
Everything here is written and tested by one person, Dan Lopes, a sound designer and audio engineer. That is the point rather than a limitation: when we say a tool fell apart on a dense mix, somebody actually put it on a dense mix.
Three ways we work together
A tested review. We install it, use it on real work, and show what it did, with screenshots and notes from the session. The verdict stays ours.
A written Q&A with someone on your team, answered in your own time and edited only for length. Neither of us needs a calendar invite.
A sponsored article or feature, written by us from your material and labeled Sponsored at the top. We don’t publish brand-supplied copy.
Not sure which fits? Tell us what the product is, who it’s for and what you’re hoping to get out of it, and we’ll say which of the three we’d suggest, or that none of them fit.
What it costs
A tested review is commissioned work. It is a full day: recording our own material, running it through, listening properly, reading the terms and writing the thing. We charge for that unless it is a piece we were already planning to write, which happens and is the exception rather than the arrangement.
What any piece costs depends on what it needs, so we quote by email once we know the scope. A test that needs a new tool record, two alternatives and a day in the studio is a different job from a Q&A, and pretending otherwise with a price list would just mean quoting you for work you don’t want.
If you have a budget in mind, say so and we’ll tell you honestly whether it covers the thing you’re asking for. If you haven’t, say that too, and we’ll tell you what is possible without one.
If you want a review, we need the tool
A review means using the product properly, so we need an account on the plan the test actually needs, or the cost of it. A free tier is fine where it can genuinely produce something we can publish. Where it can’t, a three-upload preview is a demo rather than access, and there is no review to be made from it.
We say this plainly because we work independently too, and we wouldn’t point a publisher at the free version of something we’d put behind a paywall.
How we test
In a Windows bedroom studio, which is the room most of our readers are working in: a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, M-Audio BX5 monitors, Reaper, Pro Tools and Ableton Live, and real guitars, basses and MIDI controllers so a tool gets a performance rather than a loop. Browser-based services get used on real material rather than on your demo file.
The full method, including what we listen for and what we do when we haven’t tested something, is on how we test.
What the work looks like
Our DistroKid review follows a three-track EP we released ourselves, through nine stores and nine countries, with the royalty reports behind it.
Our interview with the developer of Guitar Wiz, an Apple Design Award winner for inclusivity, is the kind of piece a Q&A becomes when there is something real to say.
Two things that don’t change
Sponsored pieces are labeled at the top, and the sponsor doesn’t change the verdict. A check for factual accuracy before publication is welcome. Copy approval isn’t.
Sending us a product doesn’t buy a review, or a positive one. It buys an honest one, which is the only kind worth being in.
Our editorial standards spell out the rest.
Talk to us
Email info@soundtechinsider.com, or use the contact form and choose “Sponsorship or a partnership”. Tell us what the product is, who it’s for and what you have in mind.
We read everything and we answer like a person.