This is the second in a series of Sweetwater’s reports direct from the floor of the AES 2000 convention and show in Los Angeles.
Thus far, AES 2000 has exceeded our expectations with so many announcements of new products, technology and improvements to existing products and systems! It is difficult to express just how exciting it is to see the wonderful advancements in technologies within the field that we all love so very much. It seems like the speed of the technological advancements in pro audio just keeps getting faster and faster from year to year.
The Surround Sound theme is everywhere. There’s almost no booth or product that doesn’t in some way involve or relate to surround sound production. This truly is the wave of the now!
EARTHWORKS
- Earthworks is showing a great addition to their wonderful line of precision microphones. It’s called the M30BX, and it delivers the same calibrated 30kHz performance as their M30 reference mic without the need for phantom power. It is powered by a single AA battery which will last 1,500 hours of time plugged in. An internal switch allows 14dB of gain. It is a wonderfully practical addition to either a field recording rig or a precision measurement or calibration package. Earthworks has built enough gain into the M30BX that if your recording device has any gain at all, and the sound level is even moderately loud, the output of the M30BX will be enough that you don’t need an external preamp. The M30BX, like all of the Earthworks mics, is equally at home as an accurate measurement tool for the laboratory, or as a fine mic that sounds great for recording.
Earthworks also has a great new preamp to add to their line. The 1024 doesn’t have any bells and whistles, but it has no hum or distortion either. The 1024 utilizes Earthworks Zero Distortion Technology and provides exceptionally accurate gain. The frequency response is flatter and more wideband than most of us dream of. In the real world, with what you can hear with your ears, the 1024 is perceptually perfect. The primary gain path (XLR input -> stepped gain -> XLR output) is entirely differential. It also has a TRS output with continuously variable output gain. The total distortion is immeasureable by normal measurement equipment, and the noise level is nearly nil. The 1024 offers a signal path cleaner than most wire, but it has plenty of gain as well.
DIGIDESIGN
- Back at the Digidesign exhibit, they’re showing the newly announced ProControl Edit Pack. The new Edit Pack will allows users to quickly access all of the major editing functions of Pro Tools, including Surround panning, directly from ProControl. Highlights of Edit Pack include 2 touch-sensitive, motorized joysticks, a QWERTY keyboard and trackball and high-resolution metering.
Digidesign has also announced that their ADATBridge interface for ProTools is now 24-bit compatible. Now, any device supporting the ADAT optical standard and supporting 24-bit digital audio can interface directly with ProTools|24, ProTools|24 Mix and MixPlus systems. The newly improved ADATBridge allows 16 channels of digital input and output, via 2 ADAT lightpipe ports, plus independent AES/EBU and S/PDIF I/O for direct connection to 2-track digital devices.
Topping the list of new software releases is ProTools FREE. This software application is a fully functioning version of ProTools 5.0.1 LE that does not require any special hardware to run (aside from a computer, of course). ProTools FREE will provide 8 tracks of audio and 48 tracks of MIDI on either MacOS or Windows98. While ProTools FREE is hardware independent, drivers are included for Windows98 Wave and Apple Sound Manager hardware. ProTools FREE will come with Digidesign’s DigiRack Plug-ins and will support RTAS and AudioSuite plug-ins. The best part of this story is that ProTools FREE is just that… FREE on Digidesign’s website!
Digidesign has also updated MasterList CD, its popular CD mastering software program, to version 2.3. MasterList CD, which produces Red Book standard CD-DA masters, adds support for two new CD recorders, the Yamaha CRW8424SZ, and Plextor PlexWriter 12/4/32. MasterList CD version 2.3 implements 12x write speed with the Plextor PlexWriter, allowing a full 650 MB CD-ROM to be written in just over six minutes. The 74-minute record limit has now been removed and support for popular 80-minute media has now been added. Professional quality discs with up to 74-minutes of data per CD-R will be supported.
Digidesign and many of their development partners are showing many new plug-ins for their entire ProTools TDM and RTAS product line. Line 6 is announcing the release of Echo Farm, the new vintage echo effects processing plug-in for Pro Tools|24 MIX and MIXplus systems. The revolutionary patented modeling technology used for Line 6’s Amp Farm is once again used to capture the sound of vintage hardware. The Echo Farm brings to life the stunning sound quality of timeless echo effects units. Combined with Pro Tools TDM processing, Line 6’s Echo Farm delivers the flexibility and automation that’s difficult or impossible to achieve with hardware. Classic tape echo, old school analog delays or filter swept echo-phonic modulations are available with Echo Farm. These vintage effects have all the advantages of modern TDM processing, including extended delay time, BPM/note value delay time setting, tap tempo, and complete automation. As fun and easy to use as a classic stomp box, Echo Farm allows for control of tape wow and flutter, bit resolution and more. Used in front of Line 6’s Amp Farm for guitars or to process any other type of audio signal, Echo Farm adds the classic sound of vintage echo to your mix.
Prosoniq is announcing their new release for ProTools RTAS, Orange Vocoder. Orange Vocoder offers an all-digital simulation of a realistic analog vocoder with effects that are fully customizable within the ProTools environment. Orange Vocoder uses either the source/audio track or the built-in oscillator as carrier signal, and any audio track as modulator. Other features include integrated 8-voice virtual analog synthesizer with 2 oscillators per voice including 10 basic waveforms and 7 sampled sounds, voice detune, pitch LFO, 4-pole Lowpass filter with cutoff and resonance, oscillator hard sync and ring modulator. It has fully customizable Graphical Breakpoint EQ with maximum 12 nodes, ranging from 20Hz to 20kHz and resolving from +30 to -30 dB. Input Channel flip to instantly exchange carrier and modulator signals without re-routing tracks. Post-Vocoder Filterbank Reverb Effect with Mix, Decay and Density. Support for sidechain routing and Pro Tools automation. Integrated preset program switch for easy parameter adjustment, and lots of great, included presets! Orange Vocoder requires a Mac-based ProTools or ProToolsLE system and lists at $245.
Finally, Digidesign is announcing the release of their new world-class reverb, Reverb One for ProTools TDM. Reverb One is the first reverb plug-in to match the sonic qualities of today’s most expensive hardware units. Making use of ProTools MIX DSP power and the familiar controls found on reverb hardware units, this new plug-in allows users to create a wide and rich range of new reverb sounds. Reverb One is dedicated to a single MIX chip and makes full use of the DSP processing cycles of ProTools. With fully automated real-time processing of all parameters, multiple use on ProTools|24 MIX systems, and inexpensive pricing, Reverb One elevates beyond the limitations of traditional hardware reverb units. Reverb One requires ProTools 5.0 or higher and is listed at $995.
Please stay with us for more of the latest news on new product releases and technology announcements from the floor of AES 2000. We’ll have another report tomorrow, or as news warrants. This is your roving inSync reporter, Clay Stahlka, signing off for now.