Marantz showed the new PMD671 portable compact flash recorder at the NAB tradeshow last week. The amazing thing: the PMD671 can record at up to 24-bit/96kHz to Compact Flash cards. It has built-in XLR balanced mic inputs with phantom power, USB 2.0 for transfers to PC, and lots more – and no moving parts. We already have them in stock.
More Power
Digidesign has announced Producer Factory and Producer Factory Pro for Windows XP and OS-X Pro Tools and Pro Tools M-Powered systems. Producer Factory features moogerfooger Analog Delay, JOEMEEK Meequalizer VC-5, JOEMEEK SC-2 Photo Optical Compressor, Cosmonaut Voice, and Digidesign Maxim. Producer Factory Pro adds Bomb Factory BF-3A, Digidesign D-Fi, Tel-Ray Variable Delay, SansAmp PSA-1, moogerfooger Ring Modulator, Voce Spin, and Voce Chorus/Vibrato.
Glenn Gould and Alfred Cortot in Concert
If you’re in Raleigh, NC, on May 19, you’ll be able to hear renowned pianists Glenn Gould and Alfred Cortot perform live in concert, despite the fact that Cortot passed away in 1962 and Gould in 1982. A software company called Zenph Studios claims to have developed a method for extracting polyphonic sounds from audio recordings and converting them into high-resolution MIDI files, which are then played back on a Yamaha Disklavier Pro piano. Gould will be playing from a 1955 recording, while Cortot will be playing from a 1928 recording.
Top Honors
The Music Trades magazine has name M-Audio Company of the Year, citing the company’s R&D team and heavy investment in technical support. M-Audio has been delivering audio solutions to recording artists, audio pros, and consumers for more than 15 years. The company was recently acquired by Digidesign.
ASIO 2.1
Steinberg announced ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output) 2.1 at the Frankfurt Musikmesse earlier this month. ASIO is, of course, the protocol many audio interfaces use for communicating with computers. The new version adds support for DSD; good news for those who want to record audio for SACD.
Classic
Plug-in purveyors McDSP have announced the ClassicPack bundle, which will contain four full-featured plug-ins: Analog Channel, CompressorBank, FilterBank, and MC2000 in TDM, RTAS, and AudioSuite formats for OS X and Windows XP. The bundle will also include a 194-page manual and a pre-programmed green iLok.
New Compressor and Preamp
Vintech has announced two new products: The 609CA dual-channel compressor and the 273 dual mic preamp. The 609CA is based on the Neve 33609 compressor/limiter but features discrete, class A output amps as well as variable attack controls. The 273 has the same class A, discrete, transformer-balanced preamps as the X73, along with “essential EQ” on each channel.