2007 EDITORS' CHOICE AWARDS

Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By the EM Staff

Field Recorder

Sony
PCM-D1 ($1,999)
Picking a winner in the Field Recorder category was easy; our two reviewers lavished unequivocal praise on the Sony PCM-D1, and the choice was unanimous. One look at this recorder and you know you want it, though a glance at your line of credit may provide a reality check.

The PCM-D1's beauty is more than skin-deep: it sets up fast, is easy to use, and has some of the clearest metering on the planet. We tested it in the wilds of Alaska as well as in the studio and concert hall. Our reviewers used it for gathering sound effects, narrating travelogues, and recording music. We used its built-in mics and attached high-quality external mics. In all cases, it produced a bright, clear, detailed sound and matched or exceeded Sony's published specs. Aside from some qualms about the implementation of the PCM-D1's novel approach to peak limiting, and a few quibbles, such as wishing for a prerecord buffer and phantom or plug-in power for external mics, the deck excelled.

The PCM-D1 design team included performing musicians, and Sony clearly paid attention to their views. The result is a product of clever design and uncompromised quality.

Instrument Controller

Novation
ReMote 25 SL ($599)
When you're shopping for a compact USB MIDI keyboard with a built-in control surface, you have seemingly endless choices. Nevertheless, selecting this year's award winner was easy. The Novation ReMote 25 SL has everything you need to control software instruments and sequencers. You get 25 Aftertouch- and Velocity-sensitive keys, 8 Velocity-sensitive trigger pads, and 56 assignable controls that include 32 buttons, 8 knobs, 8 sliders, and 8 rotary encoders. The 25 SL also has dedicated transport and octave-transpose buttons, two backlit 144-character displays, a pitch-bend and modulation joystick, and an assignable x-y touch pad.

Like all controllers in the ReMote series, the 25 SL features Novation's exclusive Automap system, which automatically reconfigures the assignable controls to conform to the software or MIDI hardware you want to control. Whenever you switch from sampling in Native Instruments Kontakt 2 to sequencing with Ableton Live, for example, Automap recognizes your software and swaps templates accordingly. After that, pressing a button or clicking your mouse instantly switches ReMote control between applications and instruments. The 25 SL gives you dozens of preinstalled Automap templates and makes it easy to program your own.

The ReMote series offers several models to suit your setup. If you need more keys, you can choose from the 37 SL ($749) or the 61 SL ($899). And if you want the control surface alone, the ReMote Zero SL ($499) forgoes the keyboard, touch pad, and joystick but supplies everything else.

Microphone

M-Audio
Sputnik ($699.95)
This year M-Audio surprised us with the Sputnik, a tube microphone that is voiced with two classic mics in mind: the Neumann U 47 and the AKG C 12. The Sputnik's price is good for a multipattern large-diaphragm mic, even without the tube circuitry, and it is aimed squarely at the personal studio. Throw in the power supply, cable, shockmount, and flight case, and you've got a package that perks up an editor's ears.

Offering cardioid, figure-8, and omni patterns, as well as a -10 dB pad and an 80 Hz highpass filter, the heavy-duty Sputnik is designed to cover a wide variety of recording tasks. Our reviewer, Babz, found that it excelled on vocals, noting that the Sputnik was clean, quiet, and capable of a smooth sound, rich in harmonic detail. It fared quite favorably when going head-to-head against one of its expensive vintage counterparts.

Multipattern large-diaphragm mics are always a welcome addition to the personal studio, and there are plenty to choose from. But the Sputnik captured the 2007 award for offering vintage tube-mic sound in a multipurpose mic for well under a grand.

Miscellaneous Hardware

sE Electronics
Reflexion Filter ($399)
Every once in a while a product comes out that makes you ask, “Why didn't I think of that?” The Reflexion Filter is just such an item. Clamped to any mic stand, this portable baffling system surrounds your microphone with a 7-layer absorptive and diffusive panel that reduces the amount of room ambience reaching the mic while minimizing coloration artifacts. The Reflexion Filter can fit big microphones, with plenty of space left for large shockmounts. A movable mounting post that can support heavy mics allows you to horizontally position the mic within the baffle to fit your needs.

Monitor Speaker

JBL Professional
LSR4326P ($1,399 per pair)
Although it is designed for use as a mobile vocal booth, the Reflexion Filter can also be used for instrumental recording when mic bleed or the acoustics of the tracking room are an issue. We tip our cap to sE Electronics for delivering a unique and welcome solution to the age-old problem of dodgy acoustics in personal studios.

The JBL LSR4326P won its Editors' Choice going away because it offers an innovative solution to a problem that vexes many personal-studio recordists: working in an inadequately treated acoustic environment. The LSR4326P's Room Mode Correction (RMC) feature measures a room's acoustics and calculates an EQ curve designed to give the monitors a flat response in that space.

JBL debuted this technology in 2003 with its LSR6300 monitor series, but that series was a bit pricey for the personal-studio market. The LSR4326P is a lot more affordable. It features a 6-inch woofer and a 1-inch tweeter housed in an active biamplified enclosure with both digital and analog inputs. (The LSR4328P, which features an 8-inch woofer, is also available, as is the LSR4312SP subwoofer.)

When you buy a pair of LSR4326Ps, they come with an accessory kit that includes, among other items, a measurement mic. To activate the RMC feature, you simply plug that mic into one of the speakers (which are networked together with a CAT5 cable, using Harman's HiQnet protocol) and press the RMC button. The LSR4326Ps then emit tones that are picked up by the mic and fed back into the monitors' electronics, where a custom EQ curve is generated.

You also get JBL's Control Center software (Mac/Win), which lets you store presets, mute monitors, change EQ frequencies, and more. The LSR4326Ps connect to your computer using USB.

Cool features would be meaningless if the speakers didn't sound good, but they sound great. Not only was our reviewer quite impressed with their sonic characteristics, but he found that the RMC EQ helped make his mixes more accurate.

Most Innovative Product

JazzMutant
Lemur ($2,695)
Few people like to mix with a mouse, and there are a lot of nice control surfaces around. But the JazzMutant Lemur is easily the most unusual and versatile control surface we've seen. The Lemur uses a multitouch screen, which means you can configure it to recognize ten or more points along its surface simultaneously. Not only can it send and receive MIDI data, but it also supports the faster and higher-resolution OSC protocol, which is becoming the communication format of choice for applications that need a high level of real-time control.

It's easy to create your own custom interfaces on the Lemur's large 12-inch LCD. Using the flexible JazzEditor software (Mac/Win), you combine objects — faders, pads, switches, buttons, monitoring elements, and more — to create the layout and look that best suit the task at hand. You can even program objects to respond as if they possessed real physical properties; for example, they can have friction — that is, resistance to your movements. You can also switch between layouts during a session or live performance with the push of a button.

Objects can use mathematical expressions to process data, so single notes could become complex arpeggios or automatic harmonizations, and you can route multiple objects to the same destination, creating very elaborate data streams. The Lemur comes with a number of software templates and can also emulate popular control surfaces such as the Mackie Control, which means you'll be up and running in no time.

Automated stereo and surround mixing, complex and powerful synth-parameter automation, lighting control, and real-time sequencer tempo adjustment are just a few of the Lemur's many applications.