EM Editors Choice 2009

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By the EM Staff

           
 

2009 EDITORS' CHOICE AWARDS

BONUS MATERIAL
Reviews and Such for This Year's Winners

Sample Player (Software)

Heavyocity Evolve (Mac/Win, $399)

Sonic Reality Ocean Way Drums Gold (Mac/Win, $895)

These two groundbreaking products were so good that we decided to declare a tie and award an Editors' Choice to both. Though different in many ways, they have some interesting similarities: both are built on Native Instruments' Kontakt Player 2 platform, and both were the brainchild of a pair of working pros who sensed a need in their respective markets.

Ocean Way Drums (OWD) was developed by producer-engineers Steven Miller and Allen Sides, who frequently use high-quality drum samples in their record-production work. The product, which was brought to market in collaboration with sound developer Sonic Reality, is an incredibly realistic-sounding 40 GB collection of multisampled drum kits recorded by Miller and Sides at the renowned Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood. (A Platinum version is also available, offering 120 GB of samples and its own hard drive, for $1,795.) OWD provides superb sounds and unparalleled sonic control over the samples, allowing you to choose from or mix the signal of a number of mics (including close, overhead, and room) on each element. For those not into tweaking, a selection of Sides's mix presets can be accessed for each of the 19 kits.

Heavyocity Evolve was the creation of New York-based TV and video-game producers Dave Fraser and Neil Goldberg. It's designed for composers and sound designers and is intended to streamline work flow by offering the kinds of textures that are most in demand for game and TV production. You get a range of sounds, including drums and percussion, rhythmic and tonal loops, strings, stings, basses, and sound effects. You can call up individual sounds or work from one of 25 8-channel Multi setups that cover a variety of specific project types.

Signal-Processing Software (Bundle)

McDSP Emerald Pack 3.0 (Mac/Win; $2,599 TDM, $1,399 native)

McDSP has a well-earned reputation for producing quality signal-processing plug-ins for the Digidesign Pro Tools platform. A 10-year veteran of the DSP market, the company has built a legion of loyal users, including many high-profile engineers and producers. Starting with its classic FilterBank and CompressorBank products, and subsequently adding a multiband compressor, a limiter, a convolution reverb, an analog-tape emulator, a channel strip, and even a software synth, McDSP has developed a 12-deep roster of plug-ins, all of which are more than competitive in their respective categories.

Emerald Pack 3.0 gives you McDSP's entire collection of plug-ins (including its newest products, like the lo-fi-effects processor FutzBox) and is available in either TDM or native configurations. If you're looking for a complete signal-processing solution, Emerald Pack 3.0 is a stellar choice. For that, we bestow upon it an Editors' Choice Award.

Signal-Processing Software (Individual)

iZotope RX (Mac/Win, $279)

Audio-restoration software is not generally thought of as sexy in the way that sequencing software or a synth plug-in is. It's considered more of a utilitarian tool that's necessary for ridding recordings of hiss, hum, clicks, crackle, and broadband noise. But with the introduction of RX, which is both a standalone application and a suite of plug-ins for all major formats, iZotope has put the gee-whiz factor into audio restoration.

RX is slickly designed, intuitive, and extremely effective. Its Denoiser, Declicker, and Hum Removal modules are all above average. Its Declipper tool can fix clipped waveforms, and its Spectral Repair module is like nothing else in its price range. If you've got a finger squeak on a guitar track, a stray noise that's intruding on a spoken or sung word, or almost any sonic anomaly, Spectral Repair — which, like the Declipper, uses interpolation technology — seems to always find a way to get rid of the offending noise or reduce it to an acceptable level. In addition, RX offers both waveform and spectral editing. This product is much more than just a tool for fixing recordings transferred from vinyl. From music production to video to Podcasting — any area where audio recording is involved — it's a must-have piece of software and was a hands-down winner in this category.