Welcome to week two of our AES coverage. This is the first time we’ve had a trade show report so big we just couldn’t fit it into one entire week of coverage. We’re going to pick right up where we left off today and should close out the formal report in tomorrow’s inSync. Then we’ll begin posting updates and additions to inSync over the course of the coming weeks.
AES – Part 6
ROLAND
Big things afoot! Powerful software programs are now being bundled with every VS-880EX and VS-1680 Digital Studio Workstation. Every VS-880EX and VS-1680 will come with Liquid Audio’s Liquifier Pro and Emagic’s Logic VS. The Liquifier Pro lets you encode a song and then publish it on the Internet on Roland’s VS Users Music Showcase at http://www.rms.liquidaudio.com. If you’ve already got a V-Studio, you can download Liquifier Pro from http://www.rms.liquidaudio.com/vsupgrade.html. Emagic’s Logic VS is a special version of Logic Audio, with the ability to edit VS audio tracks alongside MIDI sequences. Once again, if you’ve already got a V-Studio, you can obtain a copy of Logic VS for a nominal fee by calling Emagic at (530) 477-1051. There’s also VS-Pro software from Datasonics, a suite of software applications allowing V-Studio owners to record, mix and edit audio; sequence MIDI tracks with notation; and apply VS effects – all from your PC!
GLYPH
These guys just make great hard drive assemblies. They had their new DVD-RAM Player/Recorder on display. You get a healthy 5.2 gig of storage in a removable cartridge, and it also offers complete backward compatibility with media containing digital audio, including CD-R, CD-RW, and CD-ROM. Also looking very promising at the Glyph booth was Coba/SAN. This is a “workgroup” for digital audio production, providing a collaborative work environment for up to six people at a time on Mac or PC.
DIGITECH
More exciting guitar effects from another master of the genre. Digitech’s RP-14D is a floor-based guitar processor that packs a 12AX7 tube inside. The RP-14D’s repertoire includes 8 popular guitar amp tones, and the simulation is remarkably accurate.
STEINBERG
Boy, where does one start with these guys. They always have their hands into so many things it’s impossible to keep up with it. I don’t see how they do it. We’ve kept you fairly well on top of the latest VST and ASIO developments in inSync, but there were a couple of other interesting things we saw at AES. The Pro Five virtual synth is an exact software replica of the old Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 keyboard complete with a nearly identical user interface. The only thing that’s different is you don’t have to press the tune button all the time and it has a full 33 voices of polyphony. It can also handshake with a real MIDI equipped Prophet so you can use it as a remote for the keyboard, or use the keyboard as a controller for the software. It’s scheduled to ship in November at a price of $249.
Wavelab is about to ship version 3.0, which adds a ton of great looking new features. The Audio Montage feature allows the user to have many soundfiles open at once and provides an easy way to edit bits and pieces together. They have some very clever new ideas for how to display things on screen that make using this program extremely easy. Unfortunately they’d be rather hard to describe here so we’ll save that for when you call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer and can have a more interactive conversation.
Nuendo is a new software package that’s ideally suited for high-end surround sound applications. It has a very configurable user interface that lets you emulate any particular set up you may have to mix in. For example, if you are doing a mix for a museum or something that requires very specific and unusual speaker placement Nuendo lets you customize the program to that environment. It also incorporates a window view as well as a storyboard view of your video source. One of my favorite features is unlimited and nested undo history, which means that not only can you get back to any edit you’ve made, but also you can undo it without affecting subsequent edits. Obviously this is a feature that by definition can’t be completely bulletproof, but in action it worked very intuitively. Apparently there is going to be a special version of Apogee’s AD-8000 developed specifically for use with the unique capabilities of Nuendo. Retail price will be $1295 and it’s supposed to ship in November.
PANASONIC
The DA7 digital mixer is still going strong. They are now shipping the MAX’S software for it, which allows the incorporation of a Macintosh computer into a DA7 system, including the ability to work with cue lists and graphic editing of mixes.