Winter NAMM 2001 Report
Part 4
Presenting day 4 of the NAMM show report, and as promised, there’s still plenty of new stuff to talk about. After three days of pounding the floor for 8 hours, let me tell you, this reporter’s dogs are barking. However, in the twin spirits of journalism and gear lust, I must press on.
Wherever you go on the floor of the show, everyone asks “So what’s hot – what have you seen?” Whatever else they had to say, almost everyone referred to a new piece from Alesis that attendees were given a first look at. After inventing the ADAT, which revolutionized project studio recording, and the Masterlink, which allowed Alesis to get their feet wet with hard disc recording and editing, speculation was that a hard disc multitrack recorder couldn’t be far behind. Well, the wait is over as Alesis showed the new HD24, a 24 track 24-bit recorder- the first such multitrack to carry the ADAT logo. Sporting a full 24 analog inputs and outputs (all on balanced 1/4″ TRS connectors) plus 24 channels of ADAT lightpipe all built in, the HD24 has twin removable drive bays in the front for storage, and full cut/paste/copy/move editing. In addition, ADAT sync ports will allow it to integrate easily into any existing ADAT system, even running off the same BRC as existing ADATs (and at the same time). Alesis is using a new proprietary method of writing data to the disk, which unlike traditional data formats, results in much lower fragmentation. What this means is that this “music friendly” format puts much lower demand on the drive, producing glitch free operation of 24 tracks of 24 bit material on standard IDE drives as slow as 5400 RPM. With drive costs constantly plummeting, such storage is now about the same cost per gigabyte as ADAT tape. The real revolution here just may be the price point, however. Fully loaded with all the native I/O list price is expected to be just $2499, meaning this 24-bit, 24 track machine should street at about half the cost of the initial ADAT when it was first released! The show consensus is that Alesis has hit yet another home run with this unit.
The Brian Moore booth was a tour de force in the modern luthier’s art. Incredible woods, eye-popping inlays, outrageous electronics and above all, top-notch craftsmanship reigned supreme as a number of one of a kind instruments from the custom shop were on display. Brian Moore is completely open to work with customers to design and realize the guitar of their dreams. In this writer’s opinion, these custom instruments offer a rare chance to invest in a top of the line guitar at a surprisingly reasonable price.
Another big attention grabber at the Roland display was the new Studio Pack. The Studio Pack combines a VM3100 Pro digital mixer with the cross platform RPCI card and a custom version of Logic Audio called Logic RPC. For a list price of only $1395, users will get a complete studio package for their Mac or PC which includes high quality mic and line inputs, a complete control surface, Roland’s COSM based effects and of course, a full-featured recording, editing and mixing software package.
DJ’s will be excited about the new KAOSS Mixer from Korg. Combining a full functioned DJ mixer with the KAOSS touch screen effects controller, the KAOSS Mixer can sync its 60 effects to an incoming BPM sensor, sample up to 23 seconds of audio which can be triggered from buttons even while using the touch pad to control effects, or even be used as a super crossfader.
Akai had its own entry into the all-in-one 24 track digital recorder field. The DPS24 has 12 mic/line inputs (4 with phantom power) and 12 100mm touch sensitive motorized faders. There are also 8 channels of ADAT lightpipe (expandable to 24 with an optional card), a 30 GB internal drive and a built in CDR. DSP includes a 56-bit, 4 bus effects processor with a real-time vocal pitch corrector, and dynamics on each channel. An ASCII keyboard port allows for track naming, and a USB port allows connection to a PC for software control and track view display via Ak.Sys software. Additional options include a SPMTE/word clock sync card and a 68 pin ultrawide SCSI port.
Steinberg was showing off a new VST sample playback software called HALion. This plug-in can play back samples in Akai, .AV, AIFF and REX file format, and can do so at resolutions of up to 32 bits. Using a technology that allows the first part of the sample to play from RAM and the rest of the sample to stream off the disc, huge sound files can be accommodated. How much of the file comes from RAM vs. the hard drive can be adjusted to make the best use of your computer’s resources. HALion also includes a great filter set, and the editing features are among the most intuitive you will find on a product like this. All in all, this should be a very cool addition to the arsenal of any VST user.
Summit Audio was displaying two new half-rack size units designed to bring some of the well-known audiophile sound of their more expensive pieces into the budget of the project studio. The TLA-50 tube leveling amp is the little brother to the top end TLA-100 compressor. This classy little powerhouse will fatten up any signal thrown at it, and at $695 list, won’t thin your wallet out too much. The D-100 is a tube direct box and instrument preamp. With the same sort of input impedance control as found on their MPC-100A (which this author owns and uses constantly), this $495 list unit will be perfect for warming up keys, bass, guitar, and anything else you care to run through it. Summit has always been synonymous with great sound, and at these prices, more engineers will be welcoming a bit of the Summit magic into their studios.
Kurzweil is working on a new, high end outboard effects processor called the KSP8. Based on the technology which led to KDFX, this new processor takes it quite a bit farther. Sporting super high-quality A/D and D/A converters, this multiple bus powerhouse will be great for surround and other applications, and for the folks who like to roll up their sleeves and do some serious tweaking, the KSP8 will let users actually get in and modify things at the algorithm level. The sounds we heard ranged from great reverbs to spectacular distortion programs, to new and unique effects that really twist and bend your signal. These units will shortly be given over to some top industry pros for custom programming before shipping out to the public. At a list price of $2895, the KSP8 will not be for the faint of heart (or wallet!) but it’s sure to find it’s way into many a high end rig.
On a more personal note, Sweetwater was presented with an award as “Dealer of the New Millennium” by Earthworks. Yes, you heard correctly, the entire New Millennium – hold all calls, we have a winner! Seriously though, it is truly an honor to be presented an award like this by such a classy company. Thanks Earthworks!
That does it for day 4 from the convention center in Anaheim. There’s a lot more great gear to report on in the coming days, but for now, It’s time to pack up the old laptop and head back for the frozen terrain of Sweetwater’s Northern Indiana home base. This is David Klausner, your man on the scene, signing off for now.