Today's Top Stories:

  Really, you don't look a day over 118...
The inSync crew just returned from the 119th AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention, which combines two parallel events: The tradeshow, where manufacturers exhibit their latest products, and the "symposium," where technical papers, workshops, and seminars, and panel discussions take place. This year the convention returned to the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, and as usual, the booths were teeming with new products. Here's a taste of what caught our eye. (In the order we pulled them from our bulging bag of literature.)

  Royer R-122V
Royer has gained a reputation as one of the go-to sources for outstanding ribbon mics...the hallmark of these models are natural, smooth top end, detailed, expansive midrange, and full, punchy low end. With the "active" R-122, Royer took ribbon mics to another level by solving a major problem: the loading effects of the mic preamp's impedance on the performance of the mic. Now the company has stepped up another level with the R-122V, which brings a 6AU6 vacuum tube and a patent-pending toroidal ribbon-matching transformer to the active electronics. An external power supply drives the tube. Matched pairs will be available.

  TASCAM HD-P2
Several new portable field recorders were exhibited at AES; among the front-runners was the TASCAM HD-P2, which records Broadcast WAV files at up to 192kHz sample rate at 24-bit resolution to CompactFlash media. (No moving parts to make noise!) The HD-P2 is pro all the way. Its features include SMPTE timecode sync, video clock sync, a large, angled LCD, and FireWire connectivity for fast transfer of large files. A PS/2 can be plugged in and used to name files, as well as for transport control and setup functions. I/O includes dual XLR mic inputs with phantom power, unbalanced RCA inputs, as well as S/PDIF digital I/O. A headphone jack is provided, as is a built-in speaker for confidence monitoring. Best of all, the HD-P2 operates for 5-1/2 hours on standard AA alkaline batteries, and weighs less than 2 pounds (with batteries)!

  Audio-Technica AT2041 Studio Pack
A-T tells us that their acclaimed AT2020 side-address microphone is one of the most popular condenser mics ever, and for good reason; it sounds great and comes in at very low cost. Now the AT2020 has a little brother, the AT2021, which joins the AT2020 in the AT2041 Studio Pack. The AT2021 is a small-diaphragm condenser mic, optimized for guitars, overheads, pianos, and more. Specs include flat response from 30Hz to 20kHz, 126dB dynamic range, 145dB maximum SPL, and a special low-mass element for excellent transient response.

  Cakewalk SONAR 5
SONAR has really come on strong as the platform of choice for many composers, engineers, and producers. The program offers tons of tools and capability for creating music and manipulating audio. The latest version is overflowing with cool new features and additions, including five new synths, Pure Space Convolution Reverb, updated MIDI effects plug-ins, integrated audio and MIDI editing, arranging, and mixing, envelope automation drawing with tempo-sync and freehand, object-oriented effects, editing, and automation, BitBridge, which supports 32-bit effects and instruments in SONAR's 64-bit environment, advanced step editing, video output to FireWire devices, and much, much more.

  Cakewalk Dimension Pro
What?? A Cakewalk product that runs on both Windows and MAC? Is it a sign of the apocalypse? Not really; it's the Dimension Pro software synthesizer, which combines sampled real instruments with advanced synthesis. A 2-DVD sound library is included, along with 1,500 programs. You can mix and layer up to four stereo parts per program, plus there's easy editing of graphical envelope generators and LFOs, while multi-stage effects sections and filters deliver production-ready sound. A Vector Mixer provides real-time sound morphing and you can drag-and-drop MIDI into the host application for groove manipulation. Formats include Mac AU and VSTi, and Windows DXi and VSTi.

  MOTU Symphonic Instrument V1.1
The latest version of the "universal orchestra plug-in" for Mac and Windows adds disk-streaming and support for multiple independent outputs. Each instrument can be routed to its own output, and convolution reverb can be applied to any output pair.

  Summit Audio FeQ-50
The FeQ-50 is a single-channel 4-band parametric EQ with both vacuum tube and solid-state outputs. The FeQ-50 is a 1/2-rack unit with a transformerless signal path. Each of its four bands features six selectable frequencies, with +/- 14dB gain boost/cut. The high and low bands can operate as peaking or shelving filters. A passive 80Hz high-pass filter has a 6dB/octave rolloff. Both XLR-balanced and 1/4"-unbalanced inputs are provided, as are +4 and -10 balanced outputs for both the solid-state and tube signal paths. All outputs are buffered, and can be used simultaneously.