GET SMART

Feb 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Marty Cutler

ARTISTPRO.COM

The late Joe Meek is renowned as a producer and innovator in the realm of audio production. Although much has been written about Meek, Creative Music Production: Joe Meek's Bold Techniques ($34.95) by Barry Cleveland sets itself apart by delving more deeply into Meek's imaginative and unorthodox recording methods, as well as the environment of the recording industry he helped reinvent.

Cleveland provides an exhaustive look at the equipment Meek used and abused. The author offers detailed analysis of songs from Meek's album I Hear a New World, and the book includes a CD of the original, unaltered recording (which has been unavailable since 1960). The book is lavishly illustrated with photos of Meek's gear, correspondence, and other documents. The appendix features a complete Joe Meek discography.

Also from ArtistPro, Studio-in-a-Box: The New Era of Computer Recording Technology ($34.95), by EM contributor Erik Hawkins, is an up-to-date survey of the powerful audio-production tools provided by today's computers. The book offers a rundown of everything you need to produce professional-quality recordings with a minimum of external gear.

Hawkins' book begins with a list of applications and ten reasons for using a virtual studio. The author explains the components of a computer-based digital audio workstation (DAW), from digital audio sequencers, plug-ins, and software synthesizers to the computer and peripherals. He also covers hardware components, including controllers, audio and MIDI interfaces, and monitors. Hawkins provides examples for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. ArtistPro publishing/Hal Leonard Corporation (distributor); tel. (866) MIXBOOK; Web www.artistpro.com.

WIZOO

Paul Sellars's MP3 Music on the Internet ($32.95) discusses the technical, logistical, and legal aspects of the MP3 format. The book comes with a CD-ROM featuring a variety of applications, including MP3 players and encoders for Windows and Mac users.

The book explains how the MP3 format works, where you can download or publish music, system and software requirements to work with MP3s, and how to encode high-quality audio. The book also offers a number of tips and tricks for encoding, explanations of the legalities of sharing MP3 files, and links to a number of MP3 resources. Wizoo GmbH; tel. 49-421-701-870; e-mail info@wizoo.com; Web www.wizoo.com.

BACKBEAT BOOKS

Just when you thought you knew everything about the Beatles, Andy Babiuk gives you Beatles Gear ($40), which relates the history of musical instruments and recording tools used by the Fab Four and provides insight into the evolution of the Beatles' sound. The book traces the careers of all four musicians from their formative years in skiffle bands to the band's breakup.

Babiuk compiles information that was gathered from instrument makers, roadies, engineers, and firsthand interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Martin, among others. Beatles Gear provides a generous selection of photographs of the group's instruments, contemporary advertisements, and pictures of the Beatles in action. Backbeat Books; tel. (866) 222-5232; e-mail books@musicplayer.com; Web www.backbeatbooks.com.

DIGITECH VOCAL 300

The Vocal 300 ($249.95) is DigiTech's latest effects unit, featuring a built-in expression pedal that lets you control as many as three parameters at once. The device can be used for subtle vocal sweetening or for creating dramatic effects.

The Vocal 300 lets you use as many as seven effects at one time. The effects include EQ, vibrato, pitch change, an envelope follower, a variety of reverbs, and mic preamp models. The Vocal 300 also offers Voice Characters, which are voice modeling algorithms; Pixelator, for a ring-modulator-type sound; and Strobe, which produces staccato vocal effects. You get 40 factory presets and 40 user presets, which you can overwrite with your own patches. The Vocal 300 has 20-bit converters and a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz.

The Vocal 300 offers an unbalanced ¼-inch input, a balanced XLR input, and an ⅛-inch input. For outputs, the Vocal 300 provides a stereo ¼-inch TRS jack, an XLR jack, and an ⅛-inch headphone jack. DigiTech; tel. (801) 566-8800; e-mail customer@digitech.com; Web www.digitech.com.

MOTU 896

From Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) comes the 896 FireWire digital-audio interface ($1,295), a 2U device that supports 24-bit, 96 kHz recording on Macintosh and Windows systems. The 896 provides eight balanced Neutrik combo analog inputs, eight XLR outputs, eight channels of ADAT Lightpipe I/O, and two channels of AES/EBU I/O. Two analog XLR jacks let you connect the device to a pair of speakers. You can daisy-chain four 896 units together for a total of 72 channels of I/O.

Each of the 896's analog inputs features a microphone preamplifier with defeatable 48V phantom power. Eight trim knobs offer control over the analog input levels. The device also features a front-panel ¼-inch headphone jack and a footswitch jack for punching in and out of record.

The 896 includes a 9-pin jack for ADAT sync and a pair of BNC jacks for word-clock I/O. The AES/EBU I/O supports sampling rates up to 96 kHz. Sampling-rate conversion is provided at the input or the output, and the AES/EBU output can double or halve the clock rate depending on the incoming audio sampling rate.

The 896 comes packaged with MOTU's AudioDesk digital-audio recording software; the MOTU FireWire Audio Console application; WDM and ASIO 2.0 drivers for Windows ME, 2000, and XP; and drivers for ASIO 2.0 and Sound Manager for Mac OS 8.6 and 9.0. Mark of the Unicorn, Inc.; tel. (617) 576-2760; e-mail info@motu.com; Web www.motu.com.

VERMONA M.A.R.S.

Vermona's M.A.R.S. ($549) is a monophonic analog synthesizer in a 1U case. Because of the design, M.A.R.S. doesn't have much real estate for front-panel controls. However, the two rotary encoders let you select any available parameter and change its value in real time. You can also control the synth's parameters using MIDI.

M.A.R.S. includes a voltage-controlled filter, two analog voltage-controlled oscillators, and a voltage-controlled amplifier, all of which are under the control of two invertable ADSR envelope generators and two LFOs. The VCOs are identical and generate sawtooth and rectangle waves. You also get a pulse wave with a fixed pulse width of 12.5 percent, a pair of suboscillators, oscillator sync, white noise, and ring-modulation capabilities.

The LFO waveforms, which include rectangle, triangle, two types of sine waves, and sample and hold, have adjustable symmetry. In addition, the LFOs can either run freely or be triggered with a Note On message.

The synth's 24 dB-per-octave lowpass filter lets you modulate cutoff frequency and resonance. Available modulation sources include Pitch Bend, Modulation, and Aftertouch, which can be applied to other synth parameters, as well.

M.A.R.S. has an unbalanced ¼-inch output and a ¼-inch footswitch jack. Enport (distributor); tel. (402) 398-0198; e-mail info@vermona.com; Web www.vermona.com.