ALESIS - They look about ready to ship their DG-8 ($2,499). Basically it is a QS-8 with active bi-amped speakers in a home cabinet. There are some new features, such as stretch and concert tuning modes. The TCR card announced many months ago has now become ADAT Edit with the price reduced to $399. They are billing it as a simple solution to people who want to edit ADAT tracks without a lot of fuss. The package comes with software (Emagic's Micrologic AV) and drivers for Mac and PC. It is scheduled to finally ship in March. They have a very nice looking powered sub. The S-1 has 250 watts into an 8" woofer for $499. Finally, they introduced the ADAT Studio Pack ($1,999). It consists of an LX-20, NanoVerb, NanoCompressor, a Studio 24 mixer and full set of cables. Their new AI3 ($499), 8 channel A/D converter with optical out, is supposed to ship in May. While Alesis hasn't said it, the writing is on the wall that this will become a front end for ADAT Edit, which will turn it into a stand alone hard disk recording platform.
ARBORETUM SYSTEMS - They showed a new pitch processor and harmonizer called Harmony. It uses a graphical interface to fix errant pitches and add harmony parts to audio tracks. The software is in public beta and will be priced at $349 when it ships later this spring.
BITHEADZ - Riding on the tail of their tremendously successful AS-1 and DS-1 software synth and sampler they announced Voodoo, a software drum machine for the Mac that plays samples and MIDI files "triggered from the keyboard, MIDI controller or MIDI application running on the same CPU."
CAKEWALK - Studio Mix ($899) is a new bundle from them that includes Cakewalk Pro, and a very cool new motorized control surface made by Peavey. The Peavey surface has audio inputs and outputs for handling basic studio routing and recording needs (you supply your own sound card). It is slated to ship in March. They also showed AFX-3, a plug-in for designing room ambience based on actual models of rooms. You design the shape, surfaces, and location of sound source(s) on screen, and it does the rest.
CODA MUSIC TECHNOLOGY - Debuted Print Music, a $99 entry-level notation package for Windows 95/98/NT. It is based on a subset of the same technology used in Finale and Finale Allegro.
DBX - showed their new Quantum ($1,999). A single rack space digital 24 bit 96k mastering processor. It includes programmable multi-band compressors, dithering with noise shaping, and 48 bit internal processing. It is due to ship in March.
DIGITECH - will be adding a digital output to the GSP 2120 guitar processor and will also make the foot controller an option since studio users don't always need it. The new price will be $899. A non-digital out floor version called the RP-21 ($849) will ship in late March or April.
DK AUDIO - In addition to their fantastic metering selections they have introduced an asynchronous 16 x 16 AES patch bay and router. It has an individual framing delay on every input and can clock multiple sources simultaneously.
EARTHWORKS - showed their new SR77 ($599), which is basically a Z-30X in the new, more durable, black casing.
EMAGIC - They introduced Waveburner, CD Mastering software for Macintosh, and Audiowerk 2 ($299), which is a two channel version of the Audiowerk8. It will come with Waveburner and Micrologic AV. Their first USB MIDI interface, the AMT8 ($499) will be an 8 x 8 configuration with no time code capabilities. It is due in April.
EMU/ENSONIQ - A rack mounted version of the popular Fizmo keyboard was shown ($999). The EMU E4XT Ultra samplers up the ante again on sampling instruments. These 128 voice polyphonic units feature extremely fast new processors that provide accurate triggering of a full 128 voices (most keyboards get pretty sloppy up there) and come with software to do SCSI transfers and control between your favorite PC or Mac. Depending upon configuration prices range from about $2,800 to about $3,600. The new Avista 8800 home piano has a brand new 88-note keyboard that feels great. It is available in a cherry or rosewood cabinet, has Ensoniq's normal complement of piano related sounds, and a disk drive. Paris 2.0 was shown in action. It will be out in February with new features such as interleaved file importing and exporting, a crossfade toolbar, and ASIO drivers. Interestingly, they swear they have tested it extensively on the newest blue G3 Macintosh computers with complete success. So if you need a good hard disk system now and can't wait for everyone else to get it together on these new machines Paris may be just the trick. The SMPTE and dual AES cards will be out in April, they promise.
EVENT - The first thing they did was hand us a floppy with the final gold version of the Layla drivers for Mac. They are also up on their Web page now. They have some new small monitors on the horizon, but it's too soon to talk about them in any detail.
FOCUSRITE - They added the Compounder ($899) to their platinum line. It is a full featured compressor limiter with a bass expander that adds downward 2nd harmonic distortion. It really does wonders for restoring squashed bass tracks.
