The 107th AES show has turned out to be the most exciting trade show I’ve been to in years. The weather in New York City was truly Glorious and the vibe was … well, it’s NYC if you know what I mean. Nevertheless we were compelled to stay inside checking out all the cool new gear. In a time where too many products seem so predictable and evolutionary (as opposed to revolutionary) it’s nice to see some things that people actually need. Not that there were any big surprises at the show, but there were quite a few things that, to my way of thinking, really needed to be done. It’s an exciting time in the industry and there are some amazing tools for making music.
While it seems that everyone had a monitor with waveforms displayed on it in their booth, the trend towards computer based products seems to have leveled off somewhat in favor of dedicated hardware. This is an interesting sort of retro development that is no doubt driven by the sometimes questionable reliability and sliding scale of performance of computer systems as compared to the finite (yet now very powerful AND cost effective) new hardware alternatives. Yet there were still some very compelling new computer based products as well.
Debates over delivery formats are raging as intensely as ever, but one gets the feeling that market leaders are beginning to emerge. The attendees of the show can be almost cleanly broken into two categories: those that care, and those that don’t. Quite a few are willing to wait for the other shoe to drop and see how things shape up. They are more focused on making music now with what is available and makes sense now. Others are understandably wrapped up in the debate because they want to be on the cutting edge of whatever happens. The problem for both is that it’s unlikely a winner will ever be clear. These are not your father’s old format debates. It’s not as simple as the good versus evil of Beta and VHS. The issues are very complex and it’s clear that multiple formats are going to coexist. Plus, new developments are occurring with such regularity that the mix gets stirred back up before existing debates even begin to wind down.
The trend towards screens from recent years continues. More and more products have screens built in, many of which are starting to be touch screens. Euphonix gets this year’s award for most screens in a mixer. Their new digital console has enough that one could direct a Monday Night Football game on it if need be. Just about everyone is building mic preamps these days too. The trend towards tube gear has leveled off quite a bit, though it is still very popular, with several new pieces we’ll be talking about. The most consistently packed booth award goes once again to Digidesign, who also had by far the largest booth. It’s never more clear how dominant they are in the DAW world than at these shows. 24-bit, 96 kHz was the benchmark buzz-word of the weekend. I heard the phrase 24/96 more times than I heard “Lets Go Yankees” at the Friday night game. Interestingly, however, there’s a pretty big camp of people who don’t really care much about sampling rates beyond 48k. They suggest that the overall cost of using it isn’t rewarded by a corresponding improvement in sound quality. All agree, however, that is where we are going. It’s just a matter of time.
Before we get into the heart of the report I am compelled to remind you that some products and developments may not be included here. Further, many details about the specs, features, prices, and availability of these products are a moving target. I often heard conflicting information given by company representatives standing three feet from each other. The information is as good and complete as we can make it today, but rest assured there will be more news and updates in our inSync column in the coming weeks and months.
Two common questions/comments we get about our reports are below. In an attempt to minimize unnecessary e-mail we’ve gone ahead and posted the responses for everyone to enjoy.
Q. Why didn’t you cover _________ product?
A. Could be any of several possible reasons:
- They didn’t tell us about it.
- We missed it.
- We’ve already covered it in a past show report.
- We’ve already covered it on inSync.
- Too far from being a reality to worry about now.
- We don’t think it’s important to our readers.
Q. You got _______ fact wrong about product “X”. Are you going to print a correction?
A. We try to be as accurate as possible given the circumstances, but make no promise that any of the information is foolproof. Due to the temporal nature of these reports it is unlikely we will change information printed in the report unless we find the error in the first few days. We will do updates and fill in the blanks with our inSync column over time, but there is little sense in going back through the original report after most everyone has read it. As we say, all of this information is a moving target anyway. We could still be correcting prices in reports from three years ago if we wanted to.
And now we will dig in to the heart of the matter. We will post the report across several days of inSync, but should have the entire report on our Web site in the next day or two. The “official” on line version will include more in depth information and pictures so check it out.
AKG
AKG took the opportunity to introduce their new C3000B microphone. Picking up where their high-performance C3000 mic left off (if you could say that one of the finest mics around actually “left off” anywhere) the C3000B has lower noise, which they attained by removing the ability to switch between cardioid and hypercardioid patterns. It is now cardioid only and comes complete with the H100 spider suspension mount, optimally isolating the microphone from additional external mechanical and handling noises.
The C3000 actually has different circuitry too (plus a different body…the switches for bass roll-off and pad are on the side now).
Also, AKG introduced a waterproof version of the CK77 (C577) lavalier.
EMU/ENSONIQ
The exciting news at the Emu-Ensoniq booth was the E5000, a new member of their popular Ultra Series of sampler/synthesizers. It’s a stripped down version of the Ultras, with a lower price ($1695 retail) but the exact same processing power as its older siblings. An EOS based sampler/synthesizer, the E5000 also features 64-note Polyphony, 16MB of RAM, great effects and 4 balanced outputs. They also had a prototype of the new ESI2000 there, but it still looks to be a ways away from reality.
SENNHEISER
They showed their Evolution wireless series in the USA officially for the first time. Every system in the Evolution wireless line offers users the choice of 1,280 frequencies. We’ve been selling the Evolution Series at Sweetwater for a while now and they’ve been the object of very high praise.
AKAI
Akai showed the latest incarnation of the MPC2000, their powerful sampler/drum machine/MIDI sequencer. It has a tasty selection of new hardware and software features, like Next Sequence key, 4 bank keys, multi-track recording, time stretch, resampling, simultaneous playback of a second sequence, folder file management, and more. They also showed the DR16 Pro, which is now a 24-bit recorder.
TC ELECTRONIC
Some major new releases were being put through their paces at the TC Electronic booth. First and foremost was the System 6000, a multi-channel, multi-band dynamics processor that really deserves the term “cutting-edge.” Targeted specifically towards music, film/post-production, broadcast and mastering applications in surround environments, the System 6000 algorithms include the industry standard VSS reverb technology in a newly developed multi-channel version, called VSS-5.1. It’s a multi-source input to multi-channel output space simulator that incorporates advanced positioning generators and five totally uncorrelated reverb diffused fields, providing very realistic room simulation. It also has multi-channel, multi-band dynamics processing, with four-band processing of multi-channel audio including expander, compressor and final sample accurate Brickwall limiter. There’s also multi-channel pitch change processing, as well as classic TC algorithms: several Reverbs, Chorus, Delay, Phaser, EQ, etc. And 100 of the most famous M5000 factory presets are included. Sample rates of up to 96kHz are covered. The user interface is a very cool looking remote that includes six moving faders and a touch LCD screen. To say we were impressed is an understatement. You have to hear it to believe it. Prices will range between $7000 to $8000 for “typical” configurations. There is also going to be a very liberal upgrade path for M5000 users.
They also launched the M-One Dual Effects Processor, and the D-Two Multi-Tap Rhythm Delay – two new signal processors with a great price ($699 each retail). The M-One Dual Effects Processor is a general purpose dual engine processor offering some of TC Electronic‘s most coveted algorithms including enhanced reverbs, delay, dynamics, pitch and classic “golden ratio” chorus and tremolo. There are a total of 25 different algorithms in all, accessible via a great looking new display. The M-One hardware consists of full resolution 24-bit A/D and D/A converters with 24 bit internal processing driven by a powerful 100 million instruction per second DSP engine. The D-Two Multi-Tap Rhythm Delay offers a very musically oriented Rhythm Tap feature. With up to 10 seconds of delay, the D-Two provides six Direct-Access add on features, including Spatial, Ping-Pong, Reverse, Dynamic Delay, Chorus and Filter.
In the software world of TC Works Spark 1.5 is expected to be released in about six weeks. They are also producing a TDM plug-in of their phenomenal Intonator pitch correction box. Voice strip will be a TDM channel strip solution, basically handling all processing in one plug-in.
BEHRINGER
Continuing Behringer’s line of powerful and affordable processors was the Ultra-Dyne Pro, a digital six-band stereo compressor-gate-expander with a separate peak limiter section for live applications. It combines two 24-bit signal processing engines with 24-bit A/D and D/A converters. It’s a remarkable device, delivering very quiet compressors, precise gates, smooth expanders and a powerful multi-band exciter.
That’s all we have room for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with much, much more cool new stuff.