This is our third report in our continuing series from the floor of the AES 2000 convention and show in Los Angeles.
Another exciting pass through the exhibits at this year’s AES 2000 show has once again uncovered many new product announcements to pass along to you. I have picked up a couple of noticeable trends taking shape at this year’s convention. First and foremost, the explosion of new and upgraded software applications for Digital Audio Workstations has seriously taken over the “center stage.” This year’s continuing trend features more 24bit/96kHz applications and associated plug-ins, causing a reactive increase in the number of associated hardware devices that support digital output intended for use with those DAW’s. The new hardware releases include vintage and reissue products, as well as completely new preamps and processors that are designed to emulate the vintage sound prior to input into the mass of DAW’s now available. Tubes and tube emulation remain hot this year and physical modeling is becoming more and more popular.
I had the opportunity to share the unveiling of Mark of the Unicorn’s new and long awaited high end interface, the 1296. In a private listening test, I was amazed to hear the sonic purity and extended frequency response of their wonderful new 24bit/96kHz converters. Another feature of this front end to MOTU’s popular DAW system is the flexibility of the input and output configuration. As a 12 channel I/O, it can be configured as all analog, or as an 8 channel analog and 4 channel AES/EBU digital interface, or as a 10 channel analog and 2 channel AES/EBU digital interface simply by assigning a configuration to the all XLR I/O hardware. That makes this a wonderful addition to an already very successful DAW platform. The bottom line: This piece sounds great!
Here are some of the other new product releases that caught my interest:
WAVE DISTRIBUTION
Empirical Labs, known for their popular Distressor, is showing their new Fatso. Fatso is a two channel Full Analog Tape Simulator/Optimizer with Knee Compressor. It features some of Empirical Lab’s famous Distressor crunch, plus a new setting called Spank. The Empirical Labs people are calling Fatso an audio obesity generator, which dynamically fattens up audio in the most desirable frequency ranges, adding warmth and classic analog tape saturation to individual tracks, stereo mixes, even home theatre installations. They have set their retail pricing at $2495.
CLM Dynamics has re-engineered their Expounder especially for the US market. The Expounder is a unique dynamic EQ that has been extremely popular in the UK. Made in Scotland, the Expounder is a nice EQ with the added feature of dynamic filtering that can be used for problem solving or for special effects and dynamics enhancement. The folks at Wave Distribution have assisted in the redesign of the Expounder and are announcing a price reduction for the US market, as well. The new pricing is $1995 Suggested Retail.
GOLD LINE
Gold Line is demonstrating their new 5.1 Audio Toolkit DVD designed to facilitate surround sound system setup in recording studios, theaters, home theaters or in virtually any venue requiring room tuning. The Gold Line 5.1 Audio Toolkit DVD contains over eighty test signals and music tracks laid out in logical progression for quick calibration and debugging 5.1 channel systems with Dolby AC-3 and THX Surround EX. Contents include midrange, wideband and LF Pink Noise, 1/2 Point Check Signals, Imaging Tests, LF Headroom Tests, 1/3 Octave burst headroom test, noise leakage tests, sineware signals, swept sinewave signals, 5.1 Channel Music and low frequency response measurements. The 5.1 Toolkit DVD retails for $99.00
GLYPH TECHNOLOGIES
Glyph is showing several new approved solutions in the ever-changing world of drives. First, they have 2 new hard disk drive solutions in their X-Project series. They have a 15 gigabyte firewire drive and a 30 gigabyte firewire drive in their nice X-Project 1u rackmount enclosures. Both of these units are approved as suitable for Digi001 and MOTU DAW systems. Next, they are showing a new firewire 12x CD-RW drive for your DAW system. It is called the WildFire. Finally, Glyph has a new standalone 1:1 CD duplicator called the CDx2. This unit can operate as a standalone 1:1 duplicator using the highest quality CD reader and writer. It also can operate as an independent CDR writer when attached to your computer via SCSI. These units are all able to be shipped imminently.
MIDIMAN
M-Audio is showing a new low-cost, total solution for the record/playback front-end of your computer-based DAW. They are calling it the Omni I/O, Integrated Desktop Audio Station. It is a half-rack size unit designed to interface directly with their Delta Series digital audio cards. It offers 2 Mic/Instrument analog inputs on XLR/TRS combo jacks with phantom power, insert I/O jacks, individual gain controls, gain reduction pad switch and signal/clip LED indicators. It also has 2 line level balanced/unbalanced analog inputs. The Mic inputs offer 66db gain and the hi-Z inputs offer 46db of gain, perfect for electric and acoustic guitars. It also has a wonderful mixing/monitoring section with 4 direct outputs, 4 stereo aux inputs, 4 effects sends, a stereo mix output, stereo control room outputs with level control, 2 headphone outputs with individual level controls, and L/R output signal/clip LED display. The MSRP is set at $299.
M-Audio also has a new addition to the Delta family of 24bit/96kHz digital audio cards. It is being called the Audiophile 2496. It offers 2 channels of unbalanced analog 24/96 I/O along with s/pdif digital I/O and MIDI I/O. The Audiophile 2496 includes a software digital mixer/router along with software control over SCMS copy management. It is a cross-platform card for Mac and PC, including support for Windows 98 & NT. MSRP has been announced at $229.
ROLAND
Roland Corporation is showing 3 new and very exciting new products for their V-Series product line. The new V-Producer software is a complete editing and control software solution for the VP-9000 Vari-Phrase. This great new software allows you to completely eliminate the need to use the front panel controls on the VP-9000 for patch editing, sample control and even performance! This is a very easy user interface for the computer that makes the powerful functionality of the VP-9000 accessible to everyone.
Roland also is showing the RPC-1 R-bus Interface Card that will allow connection of many of the V-Series products to your computer. This is a cross-platform PCI card that will enable direct connection of a VM-Series Mixer, VSR-880 or XV-5080 to a Mac or Windows-based (95/98, NT, 2000) computer.
Speaking of the VM-Series Mixers, Roland has a new hardware controller that brings a knob, joystick or button to most every available control on a VM-7000 V-Mixing System. The unit is called the VE-7000 Channel Edit Controller and is designed to fit perfectly in the top left corner of a VM-C7200 or VM-C7100 Mixing Console. It connects easily via MIDI and allows for extremely fast and convenient hardware control over frequently used operations, including surround panning. When an edit button is pressed, the detailed pages for the respective sections are displayed on the Console Display for complete parameter control.
MICROBOARDS
Microboards is showing their new M.A.S.S. 5.1 Audio Surround System. M.A.S.S. 5.1 is a complete hardware and software solution for the creation of Surround Sound Audio DVD masters. This system is the first DVD-Audio authoring system that does not require a proprietary DAW system for operation. M.A.S.S. 5.1 has 5.1 Surround mixing software with a fully customizable surround mixer, automatic 5.1 bussing, automated surround panning for each channel, MTC generation, automatic 6 track master creation to harddisk, and a self-contained user defined per channel sub-bass crossover. This system creates and records DVD-Audio compliant discs using the Pioneer S201 DVD-R Recorder. This system will run on Windows95, 98, NT and 2000.
I‘ll have plenty of additional exiciting announcments and new product releases to give you tomorrow as this series of AES 2000 reports continues. For now, this is your AES 2000 reporter, Clay Stahlka, signing off.