There were a number of big things going on at the MOTU booth, but perhaps the biggest was their demo Version 3.1 of the award-winning Digital Performer software. We were amazed at some of the great new features we saw, including enhanced audio loop importing features that allow for “Acid-style” loop building, crossfade editing directly in the Sequence Editor window, and more. There is also support for Digidesign’s DigiTranslator 2.0 and Pro Tools 5.1.3 OMF import/export enhancements, letting you interchange 24-bit audio and complete volume automation between Digital Performer and Pro Tools. That doesn’t even begin to cover all that Digital Performer 3.1 is capable of. We’ll have the full details for you very soon. One other item of interest concerning Version 3.1: MOTU plans to make it available as a free update to all Version 3.0 users.
We also got the scoop on their new 896, a 96k FireWire audio interface for Mac and PC. We may have mentioned this one in InSync a short while ago, but this was the first time we had a chance to get the full scoop. Essentially, the 896 is a two rack-space 96 kHz FireWire audio interface with 8 channels of 24-bit analog I/O, 8 channels of ADAT optical digital I/O, 8 built-in mic pre-amps, AES/EBU digital I/O, word clock sync, and sample-accurate ADAT SYNC. Up to four 896s can be daisy-chained to a single computer for 72 channels of I/O.
There was also a lot of news that wasn’t strictly Mark of the Unicorn, but is of definite interest to anyone who uses MOTU gear to create their audio. Soundware designer Spectrasonics unleashed a new line of virtual instrument plug-ins for Digital Performer. Each virtual instrument opens as a native plug-in inside Digital Performer and instantly supplies you with thousands of sounds – and millions of variations. They launched the line with three brand new modules: Atmosphere Dream Pad Module (a range of fantastic pad sounds designed by award-winning producer Eric Persing); Trilogy Total Bass Module (thousands Electric, Acoustic and Synth Bass sounds, styles, etc.) and Stylus Vinyl Groove Module (over 700 new breakbeat remix loops with a vinyl attitude, from Eric Persing).
More virtual instrument plug-ins for MOTU, this time from Big Fish Audio, Inc. Based on the UVI (Universal Virtual Instrument) engine, Big Fish Audio’s soundware is essentially three products all rolled into one: a virtual sample player, a MAS plug-in and a sound library. They showed us nine titles: The Prosonus Orchestral Collection (Big Fish Audio), Prosonus Grand Piano (Big Fish Audio), London Orchestral Percussion (Big Fish Audio) and PlugSound Volumes 1-6.
Waves released Version 3.2 of their native MAS plug-ins, optimized for full support of Digital Performer’s state-of-the-art, sample-accurate, ramp-based mix automation features. See more Waves below.
Over at the Zoom booth they were showing off their MRT-3 RhythmTrac Micro Rhythm Machine. As you may have gathered from the adjective “Micro,” the MRT-3 is a compact drum/rhythm machine that works as a standalone drum and bass machine or as a good add-on to any digital audio recorder. The feature set is pretty sweet: 7 velocity sensitive drum pads, 50 preset and 20 user drum kits, 200 preset and 99 user patterns (you can create your own original kit), 99 song memory, and 20-note polyphony – a lot of stuff for a compact machine. There are plenty of connections, and the MRT-3 links to the new MRS-4 digital 4-track, which brings us to… the MRS-4 digital 4-track! This is a very simple recording solution for nailing down demos or song ideas or rough sketches, with controls that are extremely easy to operate. There are 8 virtual takes per track. You can record on up to 2 tracks simultaneously, and save your audio to smart media cards. Besides these basics, the MRS-4 boasts some other nifty capabilities you wouldn’t expect from a recorder this size.
Finally, they super-sized their MRS-1044 multitrack recording studio and created the MRS-1044CD, with built-in CD burner and a hee-yeeowwgh 40 GB hard drive.
midiman and M Audio. M Audio and midiman. Both companies were showing lots of cool new stuff at their booth. We’ll flip a coin and start with M Audio. Their Duo is a USB audio interface that gives you 2 mic/line inputs with M Audio’s acclaimed mic preamps. It can be switched to a “Standalone” mode that allows it to be used as a mic preamp and A/D converter independent of your computer. It has already garnered praise for both its quiet operation and its pro-performance-for-price ratio (i.e. lots for a little). Mac drivers for OS 9.1 to OS X and PC drivers for 98SE and higher are included.
We also got a look at their Axiom A/D, a 2-channel 24-bit A/D with selectable sample rates up to 96k, “noiseshaping” dither, wordclock I/O including SuperClock. Inputs are both balanced XLR and unbalanced on 1/4″ TRS, while outputs are AES/EBU, coaxial S/PDIF, and optical S/PDIF. A 20-step ladder LED shows input levels, with individual level controls per channel and balance knob.
Their TAMPA mic pre sounded pretty sweet. It’s a fantastic, single channel microphone/instrument pre with a dual servo optical compressor. The audio path is all harmonic phase shift corrected, solid state, discrete, Class-A circuitry. M Audio paid special attention to accurately recreating the warm sonic character of vacuum tube triodes, and it shows.
The SP-8B Nearfield and SP-8S Subwoofer are new additions to M Audio’s “Studiophile” Series of powered, bi-amped nearfield monitors. The SP-8B nearfield is an 8″ system with a magnetically-shielded mineral filled polypropylene curved cone with high temperature voice coil and damped rubber surround. The HF Driver is a 1″ magnetically-shield natural silk dome. The SP-8S Subwoofer includes a bass management system designed for stereo operation-the first subwoofer on the market with built-in bass management. The 100 watt powered SP-8S subwoofer uses an 8″ speaker with balanced XLR and balanced/unbalanced TRS inputs and balanced outputs.
Finally, their Delta ADAT 16 brings dual ADAT lightpipe channels-a total of 16 audio streams-to a PCI card, with ADAT sync in.
Now on to midiman, showing off their new MidAir Wireless MIDI system, which uses a frequency hopping spread spectrum system in 2.4 GHz license free band for glitch-free wireless interfacing at a distance of 50 feet and beyond. Simultaneous operation of up to 4 systems is possible using Midiman’s unique hopping codes. It can be powered either via an AC adaptor or internal AAA batteries.
M Audio had their Duo (and already has a Quattro), midiman has their MIDISport UNO. This is a convenient 1×1 MIDI interface that is totally portable, hot-swappable, and powered completely by your computer’s USB port. Drivers support all Windows operating systems 98SE and higher, as well as Macintosh OS 9 and Mac OS X.
Midiman also gave us a chance to check out their Surface One programmable touch-sensitive control surface for MIDI compatible software or hardware. Though Surface One doesn’t exactly rate as brand spankin’ new, it does rate as pretty darn cool, and we thought we’d give it a mention.
Marantz brought out their CDR300, a convenient compact CD recorder designed for live recording direct to inexpensive CD-R/W. CDs recorded with the CDR300 will play back on virtually any CD player.
Big waves were being made at the Waves booth. Their awesome new Restoration Bundle is a selection of powerful, easy-to-use plug-ins for software-based restoration and noise reduction. The Restoration bundle consists of four plug-ins: X-Noise, X-Click, X-Crackle and X-Hum. All four use the latest in psycho-acoustic research and multi-level decision algorithms.
They also showed us their new high-end mastering package, the Master Bundle. Comprising Liner Phase EQ, a Linear Multi-band, and L2, the Master Bundle delivers stunning transparency, control and sonic excellence from any software OR hardware piece currently available.
Synchro Arts Limited showed off their new VocALign Project – a more affordable version of the VocALign automatic audio alignment software for independent musicians, project studios and DJs.