WHAT'S NEW

Nov 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Geary Yelton

Digidesign Strike

Following up on the successful launch of the synthesizer plug-ins Xpand and Hybrid, the Advanced Instrument Research group of Digidesign (www.digidesign.com) has begun shipping a virtual drummer for all versions of Pro Tools 7 and later. Strike (Mac/Win, $299) is an RTAS plug-in that lets you create and control realistic drum performances. By combining an intelligent, humanized virtual player with a selection of high-definition, multimiked drum kits recorded on an acoustically optimized stage, Strike delivers the sound and feel of a world-class studio drummer.

According to Digidesign, Strike's proprietary performance engine eradicates the mechanical artifacts often associated with sample-based drums. The plug-in gives you total real-time control of the drummer's complexity, intensity, timing, dynamics, and groove. Take advantage of Pro Tools' automation features and make adjustments on the fly with MIDI controllers. Use the onboard Style Editor to create custom variations of more than 1,500 preset patterns. Strike features five high-resolution drum kits — each assembled from a dozen drum sounds, and with 3-band EQ and two insert effects per channel.

CME Bitstream 3x

In cooperation with French audio-product designer Wave Idea, CME Professional (www.cme-pro.com) is now shipping a 3-axis control surface called the Bitstream 3x ($399). Featuring 35 knobs, 8 sliders, 16 buttons, a joystick, a crossfader, and an infrared controller — all user programmable — the Bitstream 3x is a multipurpose device that functions as a DAW controller, an arpeggiator, an 8-track motion sampler, and more. Why 3-axis? Because you can simultaneously control the x-axis and y-axis with the joystick and the z-axis with the infrared beam.

The Bitstream 3x comes with more than 13,000 presets that give you immediate hands-on control of popular synths, samplers, and software such as Propellerhead Reason, Ableton Live, and Steinberg Cubase. The included configuration software (Mac/Win/Linux) lets you graphically access the user-programmable mode. With 100 scene memories to instantly call up saved configurations, the Bitstream 3x's unique automation capabilities can enhance your work flow onstage or in the studio. Additional features include USB power, four MIDI ports, a 128 × 64 — pixel LCD, a Sync-24 output, and an assignable footswitch jack. And if you're among the first 999 people to register your Bitstream 3x, you'll receive a free aluminum road case.

Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1

Just to prove that Native Instruments (www.native-instruments.com) is deadly serious about building innovative hardware (and serious about its long-standing association with the letter k), the company has unveiled its first dedicated audio interface. The Audio Kontrol 1 ($299) is a compact, portable device that has Cirrus Logic A/D/A converters and supports 24-bit, 192 kHz sound. Its third-generation USB 2.0 driver technology ensures latency as low as 4 ms for Windows- and Mac-based audio applications. Housed in a solid aluminum enclosure, the 2-in, 4-out Audio Kontrol 1 is completely bus powered and designed for many types of studio and mobile recording scenarios.

On the unit's top panel are three assignable buttons and a controller knob that give you hands-on control of software parameters. The rear panel has four TRS outputs, MIDI In and Out ports, a button for 48V phantom power, and the USB 2.0 port. The front panel has a TRS/XLR combo input with a mic/line-level button, a TRS input with a button to enable high-impedance operation, a ¼-inch headphone output, and buttons and knobs for changing inputs, outputs, monitoring, and levels. Bundled with the Audio Kontrol 1 is a software suite that includes Xpress Keyboards, Guitar Combos, and Traktor 3 LE.

Sample Logic A.I.R.

Brooklyn-based startup company Sample Logic (www.samplelogic.com) has released A.I.R. (Mac/Win, $299) — one of the first virtual instruments to incorporate Native Instruments Kontakt Player 2. A.I.R., which stands for Ambience, Impacts, and Rhythms, draws on a 6 GB sample library. This outstanding collection furnishes more than 300 original ambient instruments, 300 rhythmic loops, and 100 percussion hits and kits. Most instruments feature a choice of key ranges and transposition, and the loops have adjustable tempos that automatically sync to your host application.

A.I.R. organizes its sounds by genre, timbre, and mood. Within each of the four main groups — Ambience, Impacts, Rhythms, and Combination Platters — are subcategories ranging from Blissful, Ethnic, and Sacred to Frightening, Metallic, and Piercing. A.I.R. is well suited to many styles of music, and its evocative atmospheres make it an excellent choice for soundtrack composition. Because it's built on Kontakt Player 2, it affords all the advantages that platform has to offer, including full MIDI automation, 64 simultaneous parts, standalone operation, and compatibility with AU, DXi, RTAS, and VST plug-in formats.

TC-Helicon Harmony4

Voice-modeling pioneer TC-Helicon (www.tc-helicon.com) has announced the availability of Harmony4 (Mac/Win; $745 for PowerCore, $995 for TDM), a plug-in that adds vocal harmonies to existing voice tracks. Borrowing algorithms from VoicePro, VoiceLive, and VoiceWorks hardware, Harmony4 can generate from one to four voices in a single pass, each with individual gender, vibrato, and other timbral characteristics that promise to breathe life into its virtual singers.

You can select a key and a scale for harmonies that use fast and accurate pitch recognition to automatically follow your melody, or you can enter MIDI chords in real time to complement a lead vocal. Harmony4's user interface makes it easy to create parts that sound like different singers or like overdubs of the same singer. A visualization area displays faces showing each voice's gender, pan position, volume level, and pitch-shift interval. The Humanize tab accesses controls for style, portamento, randomization, scoop, and other parameters.

Ableton Live 6

Just out from Ableton (www.ableton.com) is an upgrade that's sure to put smiles on the faces of real-time audio sequencing fans. Live 6 (Mac/Win; $599 boxed, $499 download) adds loads of new features, such as drag-and-drop QuickTime video support, customizable instrument and effects racks, and a comprehensive library of multisampled instruments. Live 6 also answers user requests with better MIDI control, multicore and multiprocessor support, and project-management tools to improve your work flow.

Organize your Live Sets, clips, samples, presets, and movie files and archive them into project folders with the updated project-management tools. Deep Freeze conserves your computer resources by allowing you to cut, copy, paste, duplicate, and consolidate clips without thawing and refreezing. New and improved devices such as EQ Eight, Dynamic Tube, and Saturator expand Live's creative capabilities. Operator has additional FM algorithms and 24 dB filter modes.

The boxed version of Live 6 ships with the Essential Instrument Collection, a sample library developed by SoniVox (formerly Sonic Implants) that includes keyboards, guitar and bass, mallet percussion, and orchestral instruments. Upgrades from full versions of Live 1 through 5 are priced from $99 to $279.

Sonicprojects OP-X

Introduced in 1979, the OB-X was a legendary analog synthesizer and the first of Oberheim's OB series of pre-MIDI polysynths. Although it was the electronic inspiration for dozens of hits, the OB-X has never been emulated in software — until now. OP-X, a VST plug-in (Win, $99) and a Reaktor 5 Ensemble (Mac/Win, $49), is the first software offering from Swiss developer Sonicprojects (www.sonicprojects.ch). Both versions duplicate every function and control of the Oberheim OB-X, rev. 2.

OP-X digitally re-creates the analog oscillator waveforms, SEM filters, ADSR generators, polymod, and every parameter of the original. It adds a second LFO, new modulation routings, a step sequencer, and an arpeggiator. To duplicate analog circuit behavior, OP-X introduces differences in the OB-X's six voice boards and provides four global buttons to detune the oscillators, envelopes, filters, and portamento times. All controls support sequencer automation and MIDI remote control. For demos and audio clips, visit Sonicprojects' site.

RME Fireface 400

Now shipping from Synthax Audio (www.synthax.com) is the RME Fireface 400 ($1,199), a FireWire audio interface with a software-controlled internal mixer. The half-rack device has two premium mic preamps, SteadyClock active jitter control, extensive I/O capabilities, and a 648-channel matrix router with 42bit internal resolution. Monitor as many as 9 independent submixes and route 18 input and playback channels to any of the 18 physical outputs, and then save your settings to internal flash memory. You'll have total control from your computer, from a MIDI controller, or from the unit's front panel.

The Fireface 400's small size belies its wealth of I/O options. It has two XLR/TRS combo inputs with 48V phantom power, four TRS line inputs, two switchable TRS line and instrument inputs, and six TRS outputs — all of them servo balanced. It also has Toslink ports with S/PDIF or ADAT Lightpipe I/O, coaxial AES/EBU-compatible S/PDIF I/O, 32-channel MIDI I/O, and a ¼-inch stereo headphone jack. A second FireWire port affords hub functionality, so you can connect additional Fireface 400s and 800s. The Fireface 400 is Mac and Windows compatible and supports 64-bit operation.

Get Smart

Author Daniel J. Levitin is an award-winning engineer and producer, an accomplished musician and composer, a former EM author, and an associate professor of psychology, neuroscience, and music at McGill University. His roster of achievements in cognitive science and the music industry make him uniquely qualified on the subject of musical perception. Is music instinctual? Is talent acquired, or are you born with it? Have portions of the human brain evolved with regard to creating and listening to music? Do successful composers exploit the way our brains are organized? Levitin's book This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession ($24.95) examines the latest research to present a comprehensive description of how humans experience music and its role in our lives. Beginning with pitch and rhythm and progressing to explanations of how the brain processes musical information, Levitin argues that music may be more fundamental than language. The 314-page hardbound book is published by Dutton, an imprint of the Penguin Group (www.penguin.com).

If you use Apple Logic Pro, you probably recognize the potential of Sculpture, a powerful synth plug-in that physically models strings and bars of nylon, wood, steel, and glass. To help you master its use, MacProVideo.com has published a 135-minute tutorial DVD entitled Logic 205: Synthesis with Sculpture ($39.50), which is also available as a direct download ($35.55). The disc supports standard video for DVD players, and either version supports high-resolution video for Windows and Mac OS X using the proprietary application Nonlinear Educating Device (NED). In 23 lessons presented by certified Apple instructor Steve Horelick, you'll advance from the basics to designing timbres from scratch. Topics range from modulation generators and control envelopes to customizing tools and morphing sounds. In addition, registering on the MacProVideo.com Web site authorizes you to download free tutorials.

In Acoustic Design for the Home Studio ($19.99), Mitch Gallagher plunges into a subject that concerns anyone who records audio at home. He identifies room acoustics as the weakest link in most home studios and offers simple and often inexpensive solutions for upgrading your recording environment. The 246-page book, published by Thomson Course Technology PTR (www.courseptr.com), begins by explaining essential acoustic principles and quickly progresses to problem solving: how to analyze a potential studio space, control reflections and standing waves, and maximize isolation. The book's Studio Gallery section gives detailed recommendations for treating four types of rooms: a bedroom, a basement, a detached home office, and a bonus room above a garage.