Roland showed the groundbreaking new Vari-Phrase technology at winter NAMM to a stunned audience. Their new VP-9000, which is their first dedicated Vari-Phrase device is now in stock. It’s extremely difficult to explain what this thing does. Basically you can now have sounds across a keyboard in which pitch, speed, and formants can all be manipulated completely independently of one another. What the heck does that mean? You should talk to your Sweetwater Sales Engineer on this one. It’s very cool, and you are going to be hearing a lot of stuff using this technology in the next few months.
Steinberg has announced Cubase 5.0, which adds LTB (Linear Time Base) technology for precision timing with select interfaces, InWire Studio, for real time Internet networking, custom window sets and track folders. The top of the line version, VST/32, will sport 32-bit floating-point technology and have Apogee’s UV 22 process built in. They’ve also announced the Midex 8, an 8-port USB MIDI interface that supports the LTB technology. LTB ups the ante on the resolution numbers game with precision down to 300 microseconds. Both products are scheduled to ship this summer.
Today we are putting the 700th Word for the Day into the archives. The WFTD archives (and Tech Tips) have become a bit of a worldwide phenomenon, with learning institutions and studios using them in all corners of the globe (There’s a new one – a globe with corners. Whatever, you know what I mean). Just for the record, since we haven’t gone over this for a while, we don’t mind if anyone uses these resources. All we ask is that you let us know you are doing it, give us credit in your materials, and if possible point to our Web site. And now, our 700th word…