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WHAT'S NEW

May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Geary Yelton

Tascam DM-3200

Tascam (www.tascam.com) recently rolled out the high end of its digital mixer line: the 48-channel DM-3200 ($3,799). Compared with the DM-24, it has more of everything, including 32 channel inputs, 16 return inputs, 16 mix buses, 8 aux buses, and support for 6.1 surround panning. Nineteen touch-sensitive motorized faders and 16 rotary encoders with LED rings allow you to see mixer settings at a glance. The DM-3200 has two stereo effects processors, and each of the 32 channels has 4-band parametric EQ and dynamics processing. In addition to 16 balanced analog ¼-inch and XLR inputs with phantom power, the DM-3200 offers extensive digital I/O that has 4-channel AES/EBU, 4-channel S/PDIF, 8-channel Lightpipe, and 24-channel TDIF.

The DM-3200 comes with Mixer Companion software (Mac/Win) that handles project management and displays timecode and meter values. USB 1.1 connectivity is standard. An optional FireWire card ($499) facilitates exchanging 24-channel audio data with your computer. Other options include the MU-1000 meter bridge ($999) and the IF-SM/DM surround monitoring interface card ($699).

Korg OASYS

Korg (www.korg.com) has unveiled the OASYS (Open Architecture Synthesis Studio), an all-new instrument that encompasses and builds on numerous Korg technologies. The OASYS features multiple sound engines, user sampling, 16-track audio recording, 16-track MIDI sequencing, second-generation KARMA functionality, and maximum 172-note polyphony. It has a 10.4-inch color touchscreen display, eight drum pads, a user-configurable control surface, a CD burner, and four USB 2.0 ports. Performance controllers include an x-y joystick, a vector joystick, and a ribbon controller. The 76-key model sells for $7,999, and the 88-key, hammer-action model is $8,499.

The OASYS ships with three types of synthesis, and additional types will be available in the future. HD-1 PCM synthesis boasts a 627 MB waveform ROM (more than any previous hardware instrument), as well as enhanced wave sequencing and advanced vector synthesis capabilities. AL-1 virtual-analog synthesis uses physical modeling to emulate an 84-voice analog synthesizer. CX-3 tonewheel modeling gives you a virtual organ with dual drawbar sets, EX mode, and rotary-speaker simulation. The OASYS has 1,664 Program, 1,792 Combi, and 152 Drumkit locations, all of them user-programmable. It also lets you use 12 insert, 2 master, and 2 output effects from a selection of 185 algorithms.

Waves Q-Clone

Waves (www.waves.com) has introduced Q-Clone (Mac/Win, $1,000), a plug-in that captures the sound of your favorite outboard equalizer and turns that sound into a matching software preset. You can sample EQ curves from even the most expensive hardware device to create a preset that you can insert on multiple channels. To change EQ settings, simply change the settings on your hardware, capture the new settings, and apply the plug-in to your track.

Q-Clone consists of two plug-ins, Q-Capture and Q-Clone. After Q-Capture sends a test signal to and from your equalizer, Q-Clone creates an impulse response from that signal, applies the captured curve to your track, and graphically displays the curve. Apply additional instances of Q-Clone to chain together as many EQs as you like. You can use the Add feature to equalize a track that's already been equalized, effectively turning a 2-band EQ into a 4-band EQ. The Q-Clone system captures the linear sound of any system to which it's connected, reproducing a filter's phase responses, but not its distortion or noise. Although Q-Clone captures only mono devices, it can be applied as a stereo plug-in.

Q-Clone has a library of more than 200 EQ curves from well-known, top-shelf analog equalizers. It supports RTAS, HTDM, AudioSuite, VST, DirectX, MAS, and Audio Units plug-in formats. Q-Clone is available only as a standalone product and is not included in any Waves bundle.

Quantum Leap Colossus

If you've been waiting for an excuse to buy a new hard drive, EastWest (www.soundsonline.com) is doing all it can to end your procrastination. Quantum Leap Colossus (Mac/Win, $995), produced by Nick Phoenix and based on Native Instruments' Kompakt sound engine, is a 256-note polyphonic virtual instrument with 32 GB of sampled content that encompasses a wide variety of musical genres and instruments. Sound categories include orchestra, choir, ethnic, drums and percussion, guitars, and keyboards — 160 instruments in all. About half the content provides all-new sounds, and the other half comes from previous EastWest and Quantum Leap sample libraries. Colossus even supports General MIDI.

Cycling '74 Hipno

Nobody challenges your preconceptions about music software like Cycling '74 (www.cycling74.com). The San Francisco-based company has announced Hipno (Mac, $199), a new suite of effects and instrument plug-ins designed by Electrotap. (A Windows version is expected later this year.) The collection features granular, spectral, and delay-based plug-ins, each with the unique Hipnoscope user interface, which lets you create, control, explore, and morph between complex presets and interpolations.

Hipno has more than 40 plug-ins. Morphulescence, for example, is a cascaded bank of LFO-modulated filters. Deluge delivers four granular processors, and Shypht is a pitch shifter with filtering, pitch quantization, and feedback looping. VcolorTrack and Modulator Vmotion are modulator plug-ins for controlling other Hipno, Pluggo, or Mode plug-ins using real-time video input. Hipno supports VST, Audio Units, and RTAS formats.

Get Smart

Frequent EM contributor David Battino collaborated with veteran music- and computer-industry executive Kelli Richards to write The Art of Digital Music: 56 Visionary Artists & Insiders Reveal Their Creative Secrets ($27.95), published by Backbeat Books (www.backbeatbooks.com). In the course of 260 pages, the authors weave together insights and anecdotes from performers, producers, programmers, and provocateurs ranging from Herbie Hancock and Mark Isham to Dave Smith and David Zicarelli. The virtual roundtable offers expert advice on studio setup, sequencing, sound design, and other topics of interest to electronic musicians, followed by appraisals of the current and future state of music distribution. Bundled with the book is a DVD filled with audio excerpts from interviews, music and video clips, samples, essays, and recommended Web links. If you're interested in music technology, The Art of Digital Music is an absolute must-read.

Assistant Engineer Handbook ($19.95) is a unique and invaluable resource for anyone who aspires to break into the recording business. Written by Mix features editor Sarah Jones and published by Schirmer Trade Books (www.musicsales.com), the 176-page text is packed with practical advice on how to acquire skills, develop a career strategy, get your foot in the door, and find and keep a paying job. The author explains the assistant engineer's responsibilities, reveals networking opportunities, and discusses career options. She even tells you how to deal with rejection and set realistic goals. Following several chapters are case histories, in which industry insiders disclose how they got started. The appendix lists dozens of useful resources such as trade organizations and schools, and provides sample cover letters and résumés.

In The Recording Engineer's Handbook ($34.95) from Course Technology (www.courseptr.com), author Bobby Owsinski covers many technical aspects of recording-studio work. The book focuses on tracking instruments and vocals rather than on mixing or mastering. Subjects include mic selection and placement, stereo- and surround-miking techniques, drum-booth preparation, and the role of the studio engineer. Owsinski discusses specific equipment and offers detailed information on many individual microphones. A third of the 384-page softbound book is devoted to interviews with accomplished engineers, who divulge the secrets of their recording success.

e-Lab Foundation

Foundation (Mac/Win, $299.95) is the newest instrument plug-in from e-Lab (distributed by Big Fish Audio, www.bigfishaudio.com). Built on the same Ignition Virtual Instrument (IVI) sample-playback engine as e-Lab Obsession, Foundation's specialty is hip-hop loops with an emphasis on multitrack drums, as well as bass and other instruments. Its 3.7 GB sample library features more than 3,000 loops and 5,000 individual drum samples. All the loops were recorded live at 90-, 100-, or 110 bpm, and they play at any tempo in sync with your sequencing program. Each instrument appears on one of eight separate tracks, with individual level and panning controls. You can load one track at a time to build your own grooves. Foundation also loads REX2 files into any of its eight tracks, as well as content from other IVI plug-ins.

Foundation's sound-processing capabilities expand its versatility by giving you hands-on control of tuning, overdrive, and other parameters. Its modulation matrix lets you assign six sources to control any of a dozen destinations. Other features include a resonant multimode filter, two ADSR generators, a multiwaveform LFO with delay, MIDI-assignable controls, and full-host automation. Foundation is compatible with VST, RTAS, and Audio Units hosts.

Dave Smith Instruments Poly Evolver Keyboard

The Poly Evolver Keyboard ($2,699) is the third product from Dave Smith Instruments (www.davesmithinstruments.com). It is also the first new keyboard instrument introduced by pioneering synth designer Smith in several years. Alongside DSI's tabletop Evolver and rackmount Poly Evolver, the Poly Evolver Keyboard offers many features that make it exceptional among 21st century synthesizers.

Like the Poly Evolver, the keyboard model is 4-note polyphonic and 4-part multitimbral. It has analog oscillators that are based on the ones for Sequential Circuit Prophet 5, and its digital oscillators are based on the ones for Prophet VS. Each voice has its own 16-step-by-4-event sequencer and individual stereo outputs. The Poly Evolver Keyboard adds a hands-on user interface for real-time performance control, incorporating 78 knobs, 59 buttons, and a 61-note keyboard with Velocity and Aftertouch response. If you want more polyphony, an overflow mode lets you link together additional Evolvers or Poly Evolvers.

Universal Audio UAD-1 Ultra Pak

Studio hardware and software manufacturer Universal Audio (www.uaudio.com) is shipping the mother of all hardware-hosted plug-in bundles, UAD-1 Ultra Pak (Mac/Win, $1,495). In addition to the UAD-1 DSP expansion card, Ultra Pak features Universal Audio's entire collection of 24 dynamics and effects plug-ins, representing a significant savings compared with buying each plug-in separately.

Ultra Pak's processors range from standbys such as the CS-1 channel strip and the Nigel guitar-amp simulator to the new Plate 140 reverb and the Precision EQ mastering equalizer. Several plug-ins use proprietary modeling techniques to emulate vintage analog units such as the Pultec EQP-1A, Fairchild 670, UA 1176LN, and UA LA-2A.

Ultra Pak supports sampling rates as high as 192 kHz and as many as four UAD-1 cards per system. The plug-ins run in software hosts that support VST, RTAS, MAS, DirectX, and Audio Units formats.

GForce Minimonsta

The virtual Minimoog wars rage on: the most popular analog synthesizer of all time has spawned the greatest number of software emulations. The newest is the GForce Minimonsta (Mac/Win, $199.95), developed by GMedia and distributed by M-Audio (www.m-audio.com). Like the original Minimoog, Minimonsta has three virtual VCOs, a 4-pole filter, a noise generator, and an external input. It also has an additional LFO, an extra ADSR, a delay effect, and more than 2,500 factory patches. It offers monophonic or polyphonic operation and has legato and unison trigger modes.

Minimonsta lets you map any dozen presets to an octave on the keyboard, and then morph between them by playing notes in that octave. You can assign all parameters to MIDI Control Changes, allowing you to use assignable knobs and buttons for real-time control or to automate changes by recording them into your sequencer. Minimonsta runs either standalone or as a plug-in for hosts that support VST 2.0, RTAS, or Audio Units.

Sound Advice

UK-based Homegrown Sounds (www.hgsounds.com) recently added two new titles to its impressive stable of unique sample discs. For those occasions when you want that authentic '60s psychedelic sound, Homegrown Electric Sitar ($49) is a DVD-ROM containing samples of the Jerry Jones reissue of the classic Coral electric sitar. In addition to 1 GB of loops in WAV and REX formats, the disc supplies individual samples and preset instruments for Kontakt, HALion, EXS24, and Reason NN-XT.

Also new from Homegrown Sounds is Radiance ($39), a CD-ROM of ambient pads and textures. Radiance contains 200 evolving WAV files that you can import directly into your audio program. Dozens of presets support all the same software instruments as Electric Sitar.

Discovery Sound (www.discoverysound.com) has introduced two updated titles in its Sound Effects CD series. Life ($23) features the sounds of everyday events and activities. The 40-minute audio disc comprises six sections: The Body, Emotion, Kitchen, Household, Sports, and Festivals. Industry ($23) provides 56 sounds divided into two categories. Science includes rockets, motors, robot voices, and space music, and Works is an assortment of factory and construction sounds.

Discovery Sound's CD-ROM This Is Vietnam ($55) contains 277 Acidized WAV and 122 REX2 files. It provides six instrument programs each for MachFive and Kontakt and two for Battery. Recorded in Ho Chi Minh City, the disc supplies samples of traditional and modern music, instruments, speech, and sound effects — even Vietnamese rap.

Rev Up

CAKEWALK PROJECT5 2
Cakewalk (www.cakewalk.com) has upgraded its virtual synth studio workstation Project5 (Win, $429) to version 2. Featuring a revised user interface and an enhanced audio engine, Project5 now offers audio recording and editing tools that provide track automation, track freeze, tap tempo, and a track-inspector view. New loop features let you control the pitch, pan, and gain of individual beat slices, and Project5 can now export loops in Acid format. A performance-oriented arpeggiator includes hundreds of patterns and classic algorithms. Version 2 also has MIDI-assignable pads to trigger MIDI and audio patterns in real time.

A new sampling synthesizer called Dimension (a product of Cakewalk's recent acquisition of software developer rgc:audio) features waveguide and virtual analog synthesis. It also has four multilayer elements, graphic modulation, a variety of effects processing algorithms, and more than 2 GB of samples. The analog-modeling PSYN II soft synth has new delay, overdrive, and modulation effects. Project5 supports DirectX and VST, and it operates as a ReWire host and client. Current owners of Project5 1.0 or 1.5 can upgrade to the new version for $79.